The adventurers' exploration was anything but smooth.
One squad after another was wiped out in increasingly creative ways under relentless zombie assaults.
Despite being beaten down again and again—
They only grew more determined.
The thrill of exploration and combat was simply too addictive.
More importantly, the sacrifices were meaningful. As adventurers worked together to gather intelligence, gradually mapping the city with increasing accuracy and marking monster locations and supply points, they could feel tangible progress being made.
They discovered over a dozen types of firearms and nearly a hundred ammunition caches. Their overall combat capability rose dramatically—so much so that a few people started feeling a little too confident.
The outcome was predictable.
Anyone who rushed off to challenge the boss was instantly taught a brutal lesson by the Tracker.
After suffering multiple crushing defeats, adventurers finally confirmed a terrifying fact: the Tracker's flamethrower had unlimited ammunition.
Although there was a five-to-eight-second cooldown between bursts, each blast reached over ten meters, covered a wide area, lasted more than five seconds, and carried devastating lethality.
Even with significantly improved equipment, light firearms alone were clearly insufficient to pose a real threat.
Eventually, as everyone's stamina ran dry, the day's attempts came to an end.
Clearing the stage was simply impossible—for now.
"What a shame."
"Still couldn't beat it."
"It's fine. We've made progress. If we push a little harder, we'll definitely find a way to defeat that thing."
"This stage has only been unlocked for a day or two. Not clearing it yet is normal. Honestly, the second stage is way richer than the first—I feel like Apocalypse Frenzy just keeps getting more fun."
Despite the repeated failures—
Despite being utterly brutalized—
The adventurers were still having a great time.
At that moment—
Kanzaki Ren finally woke up.
The past few days had been hectic. Today was the first time he'd managed to get proper rest. Feeling refreshed and energized, he glanced at the data panel and was greeted by a flood of scrolling notifications.
[Adventurer "White Crane Adept" generated 1 Spirit Power!][Adventurer "White Crane Adept" has died. Soul Crystals +1, Spirit Power +1!][Adventurer "Raging Chick" generated 1 Spirit Power!][Adventurer "Lone Wolf" generated 1 Spirit Power!][…]
Today's haul—
Was predictably impressive.
Kanzaki Ren skimmed through the logs and jumped straight to the summary.
A total of 440 adventurers were hosted today.Soul Crystal income: 2230Net Spirit Power income: 4062
Soul Core gains and recovery:
Tier 1: 143 / 261
Tier 2: 18 / 33
Tier 3: 4 / 14
Tier 5: 1 / 2
Notably—
Two Tier 5 soul cores dropped today.
One of them came from a newcomer adventurer named Nan Mountain Wanderer, who lucked out and obtained a Tank soul core from the first Apocalypse Frenzy stage. Instead of keeping it, he chose to turn it in for contribution points and priority contract rights, which surprised Kanzaki Ren a little.
This recovery wave was extremely strong.
Just yesterday, Miracle City had only ten ordinary zombie units left—barely enough to form a squad in an emergency.
Today alone, 143 ordinary zombies were recovered, bringing the Tier 1 inventory back up to 153, restoring Miracle City's current military reserves.
As for income—
The net Spirit Power gain of 4062 already accounted for all expenses.
Adventurers burned through over 500 Spirit Power today just in consumption.
If Miracle City didn't have such an absurdly high Spirit Power generation rate, even many dual-city territories wouldn't survive daily operational costs like this.
If Spirit Power recovery couldn't offset losses, a lord's only option would be to reform, redesign, or overhaul their mystic realms to prevent being drained dry.
Of course—
Modifying a dungeon carried risks.
Frequent changes made adventurers think the lord couldn't take a loss. That would instantly destroy the dungeon's reputation and might even lead to blacklisting by adventurer rights organizations.
Fortunately, everything looked healthy.
While expenses weren't low, Spirit Power income was far stronger.
Even with Kanzaki Ren taking a relaxed, hands-off approach, soul core recovery remained excellent—more than enough to generate massive long-term profits.
There was no need to fuss over minor costs.
The territory's financial flow was robust.
What Miracle City truly needed now was more soul cores to build its army.
At this stage, the territory already had the capacity to assemble a force numbering in the hundreds. Even though Darkshade City possessed over a thousand combat units, it no longer held an overwhelming advantage. If another second-tier monster appeared, things would tilt even further.
With just one second-tier unit—
Miracle City would already possess the preliminary ability to attack Darkshade City.
At the current pace, that was only a matter of days.
Kanzaki Ren had started today with 1459 Spirit Power. After adding today's income, the total reached 5521.
Advancing from a Tier 2 to a Tier 3 lord required only 5000 Spirit Power.
In other words, he could break through at any moment.
Each breakthrough activated the Sea of Inspiration, generating new Inspiration Crystals and allowing one to be awakened.
Based on past experience—
Each activation produced three crystals.
That was undeniably tempting.
Still, after a brief consideration, Kanzaki Ren postponed the breakthrough.
Rapid advancement offered limited benefits right now. While it would expand available materials, the existing "Biohazard" framework alone was enough to sustain Apocalypse Frenzy for a long time.
He still had excellent crystals like Sekiro waiting to be activated.
Materials weren't the bottleneck.
The core was.
Rather than rushing levels, it made more sense to strengthen the dungeon, expand infrastructure, build forces, and rapidly scale territory income.
"Spirit Power is plentiful now."
"Time to build the third stage—and roll out story mode."
Kanzaki Ren had already planned the third stage and narrative content.
He immediately spent 1250 Spirit Power to create the third stage, then another 1432 Spirit Power to build two story chapters for Apocalypse Frenzy.
These chapters were based on Biohazard 0 and Biohazard 1.
Without altering the main storyline or characters, he trimmed slower puzzle segments and amplified combat-focused content, tightening the pacing and enhancing exhilaration.
He deliberately chose Biohazard's world over Left 4 Dead because, at its core, Left 4 Dead was pure action.
Biohazard offered far superior imagination, narrative density, lore depth, world-building, and character development.
Its status as a timeless classic was well-earned.
Take Biohazard 0, for example.
The story followed Rebecca investigating a series of brutal murders in the Arklay Mountains, encountering terrifying events alongside Team Bravo, eventually cooperating with death-row convict Billy Coen, and stopping antagonist James Marcus's revenge plot in a research facility.
It revealed the origin of the Progenitor Virus, precursor to the T-virus.
It introduced iconic characters and villains.
The final boss—the Leech Queen, born from Marcus's obsession—was an elite Tier 2 monster. Not overwhelmingly strong, but far from easy to defeat within a narrative context.
Kanzaki Ren was confident.
Biohazard's worldview—
And the novel-like protagonist experience—
Were unmatched by any dungeon in Blackstone Town.
This would deliver an unprecedented shock and freshness to adventurers.
After completing development, Kanzaki Ren left the lord's residence and entered the mystic realm hall to meet the adventurers.
"Lord!"
"You finally showed up!"
Like sharks scenting blood, adventurers swarmed him.
They had too many questions. Nancy Liya, the junior administrator, had no answers, and now that the real authority was here, they weren't letting him escape.
"You want information on the second-stage boss?"
There really needed to be a bestiary system so adventurers could unlock information themselves instead of buzzing around him nonstop.
Kanzaki Ren announced openly,"This creature is a modified model among the Tyrant zombies. Codename: Nemesis. Also known as the Tracker."
Tyrant zombies?
Nemesis?
Tracker?
That was a lot to take in.
Blackstone Hammer King exclaimed,"Does that mean Apocalypse Frenzy has more monsters like this?"
"Of course. What you've seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg."
Everyone was stunned.
Kanzaki Ren continued,"The story and background of the Apocalypse world will be revealed through Story Mode. Once you reach the third stage and attempt it at least three times, you'll unlock the story gameplay."
Originally, story mode was meant to unlock only after clearing the third stage.
But considering its difficulty, Kanzaki Ren lowered the requirement and released content earlier.
The revelation sent adventurers into a frenzy.
Miracle City never failed to surprise.
This was beyond generous.
The dungeon's depth far exceeded expectations—
And the lord's potential was clearly even greater.