Furthermore, the air in the Jungle Area might also have issues. The Stone Forest and the city side are far from vegetation, with dry soil, so it's not strange for there to be differences between the two.

However, Jin Dong's change is even more peculiar. There must be a trigger for him losing his sanity.

For safety's sake, Xu Huo still wore the "Oxygen Supply" when he came out of the bathroom.

Zhuo Wangsun stared at him, his mouth twitching, but ultimately said nothing.

Not long after, Cen Lu came to call them to the dining room to eat. "There's still some time until dawn. Have something to eat before resting."

The two of them readily agreed. Entering the dining room, they discovered a rather plentiful spread of prepared food: bread, vegetables, roasted meat, and even desserts.

"We set up a few small farms downstairs. We can usually grow some food ourselves," Gao Peng explained. "There aren't many of us, so it's just enough to be self-sufficient."

Zhuo Wangsun swallowed hard, unable to resist picking up a piece of bread.

"Why aren't you eating?" Cen Lu looked at Xu Huo, then glanced at the item on his head. "It's very safe here. There's absolutely no need to wear that face shield."

"Purely a personal preference," Xu Huo smiled slightly. "I'm a very shy person and don't really like eating in front of others. If possible, I'd like to take some back to my room to eat."

Cen Lu looked at Gao Peng. Before Gao Peng could speak, the shaven-headed man beside him slammed down his knife and fork. "You're given face but don't want it! Still acting like you're some big shot!"

Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun successively put down the food in their hands. Seeing this, Gao Peng spoke up to smooth things over. "Everyone has their own peculiarities. We just need to understand each other."

The shaven-headed man didn't say more, shooting Xu Huo a fierce glare before leaving.

"Don't mind him. My brother just has that kind of temper," Gao Peng apologized on his behalf, also gifting them half a bottle of wine as an apology.

Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun had no reason to refuse. They took the food and wine back to their room.

Zhuo Wangsun followed behind Xu Huo. The moment they entered the room, he couldn't wait to ask, "You think the food is problematic? What about them seems off?"

"Nothing obvious for now," Xu Huo stood by the door, gesturing for him to return to his own room.

Zhuo Wangsun, however, didn't want to leave. "It's a special time. Staying together is safer."

Xu Huo didn't force the issue. He didn't touch the food or wine, turned off the light, and sat in the darkness, listening to the movements upstairs and downstairs.

By dawn, there was finally movement from the direction of the elevator.

Xu Huo stood by the window looking down. Gao Peng and Cen Lu led those few young men out of the building, heading towards the city center.

"Should we follow and take a look?" Zhuo Wangsun said from behind him.

Xu Huo nodded. He leaped out from the window at the end of the corridor and, using the building for cover, flew away by grabbing onto the piano wire, completely leaving behind the person who had hurriedly followed him. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Zhuo Wangsun had no choice but to turn back. Xu Huo took a slightly roundabout route, finding a medical laboratory within the city.

The equipment inside was fairly complete. He carried a glove isolation box, selected a sealed laboratory room, entered, set down the box, and then tossed Hugo's severed hand from his luggage compartment into it.

Hugo's severed hand had completely turned black. Eroded by the pathogens, the skin surface had begun to fester, developing pustules and bloody fluid. At the same time, the entire hand had shrunk slightly. The item sewn under the skin became more apparent—it was roughly a crude spherical surface.

Putting on the diamond gloves on both hands and reaching into the isolation box, Xu Huo gently squeezed out the item inside.

A thumb-sized black spherical object fell into the isolation box, its ring-like patterns coated with black adhesive mucus.

This small sphere was what Hugo had specifically sewn under his skin. Its grade definitely wouldn't be low. However, it was now covered in pathogens.

The severed hand had only been in the isolation box for a short while, yet the bottom of the box was already stained black. These pathogens maintained a certain level of activity even after leaving the host. Given the current situation, even if he obtained the item, it would be unusable.

Nevertheless, he still stored the item in his item slot. A "Highly Toxic" prompt appeared on it, along with relevant information about the item.

[Life Core: A-Grade. When used, the player can crush and destroy metal objects and items below A-Grade that are primarily composed of metal through touch.]

[Its maximum coverage range is a city. When the player touches the ground, the entire city falls within the item's destruction range. The total amount destroyed is one-third of the total volume of objects within the single coverage range.]

[The volume size of objects destroyed each time is limited by the duration of contact. Note: If the metal composition of a city does not exceed one-third of its total volume, the entire city could potentially be destroyed. Please use with caution.]

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow upon reading this. This item could truly be considered a weapon of mass destruction, far exceeding his expectations.

Many items have cooldown times, but the "Life Core" does not. Its destruction of objects depends on the total volume. In other words, as long as he appears somewhere with this item, with the maximum limit being a city, he could reduce one-third of that place to powder using it alone.

Of course, this effect is targeted at metal objects. But a city's structure cannot be entirely metal. Yet the "Life Core's" effect is calculated based on the proportion of the city's buildings' total volume. Therefore, it's entirely possible to cause an entire city to collapse within a limited time!

If he were to equip the "Life Core" now, he could completely cause this abandoned city to collapse or even be destroyed.

This effect alone is astonishing enough, not to mention it can also destroy items below A-Grade!

With such astonishing power, there are naturally usage requirements.

The size of the area that can be destroyed with each use depends on the duration of contact. That is, the longer the contact time, the larger the volume destroyed; the shorter, the smaller.

In actual combat, securing a sufficiently long time might not be easy. However, it would be more than enough to deal with items during a confrontation.

This was the first A-Grade item he had obtained. The absence of a forced cooldown time suited him perfectly. So, even though it was contaminated with pathogens, Xu Huo found the small sphere in his item slot more and more pleasing to the eye.

After a while, he switched panels, posting a bounty for a method to clean the item.

The moment the bounty was posted, a message popped up on the game panel:

[Detection confirms that player Extra's item is contaminated with A-Grade pollutants. System cleaning can be applied for. Single item, single cleaning: 100,000 White Bills. Luggage compartment cleaning, single session: 300,000 White Bills. Note: Purchasing an A-Grade pollutant cleaning solution kit separately also costs 100,000 White Bills. Incomplete cleaning may leave pollutant residues.]

Extortion is everywhere.

Xu Huo paid the money and also bought a kit to deal with the severed hand.

The hand was different from the item; both inside and out were contaminated with pathogens. A little cleaning solution wouldn't clean it thoroughly. He had no choice but to use the isolation box included in the kit to seal the hand before placing it back in the luggage compartment. He then cleaned the pathogens from the glove isolation box. Only after confirming no traces were left did he leave the laboratory.

Outside, the sky was already bright. This time, Xu Huo didn't pick a specific route, simply walking on foot towards the crack in the city center.