Reborn in the Apocalypse :The son In-law's revenge

Chapter 8:The Secret of the keycard

The Tier 4 dungeon was a nightmare made flesh.

It had once been a shopping mall—four floors of retail stores and food courts. Now it was a nest. The walls were coated in organic resin, pulsing with a sickly green light. The air was hot and humid, thick with the smell of rot and ammonia.

Leo stood at the entrance with his core team. Behind them, the Iron Fist survivors—now branded with Leo's own symbol, a black blade on a blue field—formed a perimeter.

"We clear this in stages," Leo said. "Natasha, you're with me on point. Mia, scout ahead. Lily, stay behind Bruiser. Elara, monitor the system map and call out enemy movements."

"What about the rest of us?" one of the Iron Fist lieutenants asked. His name was Marcus, a former soldier with a shaved head and a no-nonsense attitude.

"You hold the entrance," Leo said. "Nothing gets in or out unless I say so. If we're not back in two hours, seal the tunnel and retreat to the safe zone."

Marcus nodded. "Understood."

Leo turned to his team. "Let's move."

---

The first floor was a slaughterhouse.

The dungeon's inhabitants were a new breed—insectoid creatures the system called Razor Wasps. They were fast, aggressive, and attacked in swarms. Their stingers carried a paralytic venom that could drop a grown man in seconds.

Natasha learned that the hard way.

"Shit!" she cursed, stumbling back as a wasp's stinger grazed her shoulder. Her arm went numb instantly.

"Lily!" Leo shouted.

Golden light flared. The paralysis receded. Natasha gritted her teeth and swung her warhammer, crushing three wasps in a single arc.

"Keep moving!" Leo ordered. "Don't let them surround us!"

He activated Rally. A golden aura spread from him, touching every member of his team. Strength surged through their veins. Vitality hardened their skin.

[Rally Activated: All allies gain +15 Strength and +15 Vitality for 90 seconds.]

They pushed forward. Leo's blade carved through the swarm. Mia appeared and disappeared, her blade flashing in the darkness. Lily's healing light kept everyone on their feet.

They reached the escalator to the second floor.

That was when the Queen appeared.

She was massive—twelve feet tall, with a bloated abdomen and wings that hummed with a deafening buzz. Her stinger was as long as Leo's arm. The system identified her as Hive Queen. Level 20.

[System Alert: Tier 4 Dungeon Boss – Hive Queen. Level 20. Recommended Party Size: 10+.]

"We don't have ten," Natasha said.

"We have me," Leo replied.

He charged.

The Hive Queen screeched and launched a volley of stingers. Leo dodged left, right, then rolled under a third. He activated Power Strike and drove his blade into her abdomen.

The blade barely penetrated. Her carapace was too thick.

[System Alert: Hive Queen has activated Skill: Hardened Shell. Physical damage reduced by 70% for 60 seconds.]

Leo cursed. He needed something stronger. Something that could bypass her defenses.

His eyes fell on three Tier 3 weapons he had looted from the mall's sporting goods store—a spear, a shield, and a set of throwing knives. All Tier 3. All useless against the Queen.

He activated Synthesize.

[Synthesize: 3x Tier 3 Items → 1x Tier 4 Item?]

[Confirm? Y/N]

Leo pressed Y.

The three items dissolved into light and reformed into a single object. A glaive. Long, curved, with a blade that hummed with blue energy.

[Synthesize Successful!]

[Obtained: Tier 4 Weapon – Hive Reaper. Effect: +25 Strength. 25% armor penetration. 15% chance to cause bleeding.]

Leo grabbed the glaive and charged again.

The Hive Queen lunged. Leo ducked under her stinger, spun, and drove the Hive Reaper into her thorax. This time, the blade pierced through. Green ichor sprayed. The Queen screamed.

He activated Power Strike. The blade went deeper. He twisted it.

The Hive Queen collapsed.

[Devour Successful. +15 Strength, +10 Agility, +10 Vitality.]

[Level Up! You are now Level 13.]

[Level Up! You are now Level 14.]

Leo pulled the glaive free. His arms were shaking. His HP was at 30%. But he was alive.

Lily rushed to his side, her hands glowing. "Hold still."

"I'm fine," Leo said. "Check the others."

Natasha had a deep gash on her leg. Mia was clutching a broken rib. Even Lily herself was pale from overusing her healing. But no one was dead.

"We need to rest," Natasha said.

"No time," Leo said. He pointed at the Queen's corpse. "Look."

Embedded in the Queen's abdomen was a small, metallic hatch. It was identical to the keycard slot on the Meridian Institute's front door. Leo pulled out the two keycards from his pocket. They were glowing.

"They're resonating," Elara said, her eyes wide. "The keycards are reacting to something inside the Queen."

Leo drove the Hive Reaper into the hatch and pried it open. Inside was a small, dark tunnel leading downward.

"A basement," Mia said. "Beneath the mall."

Leo looked at Elara. "The Institute. It's connected."

Elara nodded. "The Meridian Institute was built on top of an older facility. A research bunker. If the mall is connected to the bunker, we can bypass the Institute's outer defenses."

"Then we go down," Leo said.

---

The tunnel led to a reinforced steel door with the Meridian logo—a stylized 'M' inside a circle.

Leo inserted both keycards. The door hissed open.

Beyond it was a laboratory.

It was pristine. White walls. Fluorescent lights that still worked. Computer terminals that flickered with data. And in the center of the room, a massive cylindrical tank filled with a glowing blue liquid.

Inside the tank was a body.

A woman. Suspended in stasis. Tubes and wires connected her to the tank. Her eyes were closed. Her hair floated around her face like seaweed. She was beautiful, in a cold, clinical way.

Elara gasped.

"Helena," she whispered.

[System Alert: NPC detected – Dr. Helena Vance. Class: Unknown (Restricted). Level: ???. Status: Stasis.]

Leo approached the tank. A terminal beside it displayed a single word, repeated over and over.

PROJECT APEX

"What is this?" Leo asked.

Elara's hands were shaking. "Project Apex. It was the name of my sister's research. She was trying to... to create a system. An artificial system that could compete with the ones from the signals. But something went wrong."

"Wrong how?"

Elara pointed at the terminal. "She succeeded. But the system she created—the Apex Plunder System—it bonded with a host. A test subject. Someone who was compatible."

Leo's blood ran cold. "Me."

Elara nodded slowly. "You weren't random, Leo. You weren't chosen by the system. You were designed. My sister designed you."

The room fell silent.

Leo stared at the woman in the tank. The woman who had created him. The woman who had turned him into a weapon.

"Why?" he asked. "Why me?"

Elara didn't answer. But a new voice did.

"Because you were expendable."

Leo spun around. A holographic screen flickered to life on the central terminal. A face appeared. A man. Middle-aged. Cold eyes. A thin smile.

The Architect.

"You've done well, Leo," the Architect said. "Better than we expected. The Apex Plunder System has exceeded all projections. You've reached Level 14 in less than a week. Impressive."

"Who are you?" Leo demanded.

"I am the one who designed the game," the Architect said. "The one who built the system. The one who is watching you right now."

The screen flickered. The face changed. A woman. Then a child. Then a man again.

"I am not one," the Architect said. "We are many. And we are testing you."

Leo's hands clenched. "Testing me for what?"

"For survival," the Architect said. "The First Wave is in 24 hours. If you survive, you will be given a choice. Join us. Or die."

The screen went dark.