Apocalypse: Hero of Potato Fields

In front of the checkpoint room door.

A hissing sound emerged.

The smell of barbecue permeated the air.

Lin Yi managed to dash into the room, but his back and the back of his neck were severely burned.

Lin Yi howled in pain.

But he suddenly realized where he was.

This was an office, with desks and many "employees".

The kind of "employees" that don't waste time, don't sleep, or take smoke breaks.

They all watched with interest, eyeing this "medium-rare steak" that just entered their workplace.

[Welcome to the reward checkpoint, good luck!]

"Warning! Disinfection procedure will commence in..."

A voice came from several speakers as a panel in the ceiling opened,

then another, and another.

Things were heading in the wrong direction...

"Gotta run..."

Lin Yi thought, then started sprinting, not looking back but feeling intense heat.

As soon as the countdown ended, flames shot out from the holes in the ceiling.

The power of these flames was immense, making that mutant's flamethrower look like a toy in comparison.

Furniture, flooring, drywall—everything was incinerated.

Lin Yi desperately fled the flames, while those "office employees" ran toward him.

Swearing and dodging, he broke through the first hurdle, only to face a more tricky challenge.

Open office layout!

Directly ahead was a set of four cubicles. Trying to go around them would likely cook him, as flames licked at his heels.

Lin Yi slammed through the wall of the first cubicle, jumped onto a desk, and began leaping between cubicles.

It was dangerous; he almost slipped on a used coffee mug, but his 20 points of agility saved him from an embarrassing death.

The flames engulfed everything behind him. The zombies hissed and roared,

but the fire showed no mercy!

He saw a door ahead, but a group of fearless "office zombies" blocked his path.

Going around would be suicidal, so Lin Yi pushed straight through the zombie horde, opened the door, and immediately closed it behind him.

[Congratulations! You have completed the reward checkpoint!]

[Reward Obtained: Burn Ointment!]

[You have half an hour to leave the area!]

"Burn ointment? Damn… seems the checkpoint really targeted my fears; I was afraid of that mutant's flamethrower, and it immediately threw me into a flame checkpoint..."

Lin Yi's entire back and neck were covered in massive blisters, and the rest of his body was roasted to a golden brown.

Recovering from the initial pain, Lin Yi started applying the ointment to his wounds.

Luckily, this room had a mirror, like some sort of lounge with a water cooler, coffee machine, snacks, television, a few sofas, and tables.

"Shit!"

Lin Yi couldn't help but cry out when the ice-cold burn ointment touched his back.

He gritted his teeth and continued applying it, but doing it one-handed was difficult.

Where there's a will, there's a way...

[You have five minutes left to exit this room!]

Seeing the latest system prompt, Lin Yi began to speed up the ointment application.

He was about to start snacking but decided against it, instead opening the door.

The corridor was empty!

So he quickly pushed the water cooler, snacks, and tables into the hallway without leaving the room.

[You have ten seconds to leave the room!]

"Those ten seconds are yours, I don't need them..."

Lin Yi said tiredly, sitting by the table, sipping coffee with sugar.

He normally took his coffee without sugar, but his body was screaming for a massive sugar boost at the moment.

The snack options weren't bad, with pre-packed sandwiches, cookies, gingerbread, candies, and even syrupy pancakes...

Half an hour later.

The man stood in front of the merchant, mumbling, "Kid, you finally showed up!"

The faceless merchant, as usual, was wandering a dim corridor by a street lamp.

But unlike when they first met, if looked at closely, there seemed to be a hint of a smile outlined beneath the skin covering his face.

"Welcome! Take your pick, stranger!"

"Got anything to fix my arm?"

"No."

"Then skills? Magic? Powerful guns?"

"No."

Lin Yi almost cursed but held back, knowing how tough it was for merchants these days; he could relate.

Thinking this, he showed the merchant what was left of his left arm and asked.

"Got any weapons I can attach to my stump?"

"Of course, mate."

"Really?"

"I happen to have something..."

The merchant, with a faint, barely-there smile, then from his cloak, like performing magic, produced a massive device.

It looked like... a Swiss Army knife crafted by a cyberpunk-obsessed mad scientist!

After receiving thirty coins, the merchant helped Lin Yi install the device.

It weighed about twenty pounds, nearly 0.7 meters long, with a sword, a saw, a grappling hook, and...

Lin Yi doubted he could ever use all the other various gadgets on it.

"Check it out..."

Whoosh!

Clank!

"Coin! Come to Daddy!"

Lin Yi, wearing headphones and singing, was immersed in a pool of blood.

At this moment, he was far more terrifying than the zombies he was massacring.

His weapon switched between a scythe and a giant axe, leaving a trail of blood behind him...

The dozen zombies in front of him weren't ordinary zombies but upgraded zombies.

They had long, more powerful limbs.

But in front of Lin Yi, they were just about to drop four Trial Coins.

Kill, kill, kill!

Over the past two days, after countless battles, his level had increased significantly.

His current attributes were: Power 25, Agility 25, Endurance 25, Vitality 30...

Gathering all the coins, Lin Yi pushed forward with his cart full of food.

"The last floor, huh? Alright, let's see what goodies they have prepared for me this time..."

Lin Yi said as he opened a large door.

Unfortunately, he saw a blue-haired girl with a shocked face.

"Lin Yi? Is that really you?"

Tatiana?

Lin Yi ignored her and turned to look at the other people in the room, asking.

"What is this place?"

"This is the waiting room before the final BOSS fight."

A man about 25 years old said, sitting on a couch next to someone who looked exactly like him. They were probably twins.

[The team is assembled!]

[You have one hour to prepare for the final battle, good luck!]

The final battle?

Lin Yi frowned, so soon?

He was just getting into the groove!

Thinking about it, he pushed the food-filled cart to the side and sat on the ground.

At this moment, the other twin, who hadn't spoken, cautiously asked.

"Can you share some of the food? We've been without for quite a while..."

"Oh?"

Lin Yi looked up, seeing several people staring at the food in the cart, drooling.

Thinking that there was a big fight coming and these people might be helpful, he left a few bottles of water.

Then pushed the food he was sick of eating in front of them.

"Help yourselves!"

No sooner had he spoken than the twins pounced on the food, the cart was full of food: salads, meats, soups...

They couldn't believe their eyes, never expecting to eat normal human food again.

Tatiana was also among them, stuffing meat into her mouth, after a while, she took a few cans of meat and walked over to Lin Yi.

"Lin Yi... I'm sorry, I..."

"You can keep your apology, don't try to disturb my thoughts again."

Lin Yi waved her away.

After the three had eaten and drank their fill.

One of the twins noticed Lin Yi's weapon hand and widened his eyes.

"Brother, you've been through a lot, huh!?"

"On the first day, I entered a bonus level with a giant venomous snake, it scratched my arm, I had to either die or cut off my hand, hey!"

Lin Yi sat in a comfortable massage chair, calmly responding, enjoying the last few minutes of peace.

The other twin also asked.

"What about your back?"

"A zombie with a flamethrower got to me. I had terrible luck and ended up with only melee weapons."

"We've seen a few of those, it's impossible to kill them barehanded, but I suspect someone single-handedly took down several. I saw their corpses, they sometimes drop Flame Gemstones."

The twins suddenly noticed the green runes flickering on Lin Yi's axe, somewhat shocked.

"Looks like you have a gemstone too?"

"No!"

Lin Yi laughed, taking a few red gemstones from his pocket and placing them casually on the ground.

"It's you! You're the one who killed... Well, you're really strong, it took us killing seven flamethrower guys to get one, I can't imagine how many you killed..."

[The final battle is about to begin!]

[Please proceed to the BOSS arena!]

A door opened.

Revealing an elevator without buttons.

"It's time to end this farce."

Lin Yi stood up and entered, the other three following closely behind.

The door closed, and the elevator began to rise.

One twin holding a large machete asked his brother: "What kind of big BOSS do you think it will be?"

"We'd better not discuss or guess blindly, you know the way this place works."

The other twin replied, holding an assault rifle, its side flickering with flame runes.

The door opened and the four of them discovered they were standing on the rooftop of a massive skyscraper.

This place looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb...

"Where is the BOSS?" Tatiana asked.

She held a shotgun, with a sword strapped to her back, and just as she spoke, something started crawling up the side of the building.

A few seconds later, four tentacles appeared on the rooftop.

The twin with the assault rifle said, "We've never encountered a creature like this before."

"Lin Yi, we need to be careful, the claws on its tentacles look sharp."

Lin Yi ignored Tatiana's words.

He was carefully observing those tentacles all along.

Each tentacle was 10 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, with claws two inches long at the end...