The ground appeared somewhat distorted under the sustained high temperature. Several corpses lay on the ground, their eyes wide open in death. Xu Huo went over, cut off Gao Peng's head, casually tore off his protective suit to wrap it up, and then turned back to find the two children.

Fish Ball peeked out, his eyes shining brightly, while Ice Cream stood behind him, not daring to lift his head.

Seeing him approach, Fish Ball opened his mouth, babbling something. Xu Huo read his lips and caught the words "You're really amazing." He smiled slightly and gestured for him to go strip the protective suits.

Fish Ball was quite clever. Knowing his strength was insufficient, he simply picked up Cen Lu's knife, slashed the protective suits open, and tore them off. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Xu Huo had them use the protective suits to wrap their own heads and shoulders, then gave each of them a lollipop. Only then did he pick up Gao Peng's head and walk towards the stronghold in the commercial building.

The lookout stationed in the distance had long since gone back to report. So when he led the children over, the main gate was tightly shut. Forget about anyone coming out to avenge Gao Peng and the others; not a single person even showed their face.

Xu Huo roughly sensed the positions of the people inside. Not wanting to waste time, and as the Life Core had just finished its cooldown, he slipped it into his pocket. He walked to the main entrance, placed his hand on the side of the door. Not fully understanding the item's specific parameters, he only held it there for two seconds before withdrawing it. The moment his hand left, the metal framework welded to the door and the reinforced metal door behind it all turned to dust and drifted down, bringing down part of the floor slab on the other side with it!

The sudden collapse from above crushed several people to death. The other stronghold personnel standing behind the door instinctively raised their guns and fired a barrage into empty air.

Standing to the side, Xu Huo marveled at the usefulness of the Life Core. If he wanted, he could make this entire building collapse very quickly. Because the volume of metal absolutely could not account for one-third of the building's total volume. So, while this one-third limit was an upper bound for the item, in practice it was enough to destroy everything within the item's range, along with any subsequent reinforcements.

Of course, firearms held in people's hands didn't count towards this volume. But in large-scale warfare, this was an excellent item, as any large weapon that landed would be within its destruction range.

Furthermore, this one-third volume limit wasn't its daily cap. It would reset and start calculating volume again as soon as he moved to a different location.

Like when Hugo used it on the vessel—the total volume of metal it destroyed was one-third of the entire vessel's volume. In general, the larger the holder's location, the greater the Life Core's volume limit, though it capped out at the size of a city.

It wasn't a Super Item, but its power approached that of one.

Even now, Xu Huo couldn't help but praise that trip to the vessel as being well worth it.

The gunfire inside the building stopped. Someone spoke, "Are they dead?"

"We didn't even see anyone, how could they be dead?"

"He can even make the building collapse, maybe he can turn invisible. What if he's standing right at the door!"

"You idiots, invisible my ass! I think he's probably feinting to the east and attacking from the west, using another entrance to get upstairs!"

The last speaker was the man with the shaved head from yesterday. He immediately wanted to lead people upstairs. Only then did Xu Huo step out. With a click of the lighter, the pile of daily necessities stacked on one side of the lobby burst into flames. He warned everyone, "Better not make any rash moves. Gao Peng and the others died precisely because they didn't listen."

He raised his hand, and Gao Peng's head rolled along the floor into the building.

"Big Brother!" The man with the shaved head immediately raised his gun, but the next second, his body was engulfed in flames. He screamed and roared, rolling on the ground.

Xu Huo didn't stop the others from helping him put out the fire, merely saying, "I won't repeat what I just said. If you want to live, call the others down here."

The protective suits weren't fireproof. On the contrary, being form-fitting made them hard to take off. Looking at the shaved-head man who was burned beyond recognition, the remaining people didn't dare to be the first to stick their neck out. Pretending not to hear their companions buried under the concrete rubble, they used communication devices to contact the people upstairs.

Actually, after receiving the message, Master Tu had already brought the people from upstairs down to the second floor. Vehicles were ready, prepared to flee at any moment. There was no other way; the ones who died accounted for about half of the stronghold's combat power. The root cause was that two of them were players. Now, the vast majority of people staying at the stronghold were warriors with little combat experience, and firearms and ammunition were limited. Xu Huo had killed Gao Peng and the others in less than five minutes, and upon meeting them again, nearly collapsed the second floor. Dealing with them was simply too easy.

"What do you want?" Master Tu came down with his people, glanced at the wreckage nearby, and asked back, his confidence lacking.

Aside from the few young people seen upstairs earlier, there was also the unlucky Zhuo Wangsun, who was already being held by them.

"Old Wu! These bastards are cannibals! They brought us here to be reserve food!" Zhuo Wangsun loudly warned.

"I know," Xu Huo signaled for him to calm down, then said to Master Tu, "I have no intention of wiping you all out. Whether you eat people or not is none of my business. I want to borrow this place for a while."

Master Tu's expression changed slightly. "Then we'll leave right away."

"No need," Xu Huo said. "You can all stay. I still have some matters that require manpower."

A young man behind Master Tu glared at him hatefully. "You killed Big Brother Gao and the others. Would you really be so kind as to not settle accounts with us? You probably want to treat all of us as food rations!"

Seeing that this group had little reaction to the matter of "eating people," Xu Huo knew they had completely accepted this fact. They knew what they were doing, felt no remorse, guilt, or self-loathing, and were only worried about whether they themselves would end up as someone else's meal, just like the Mutants under the crack.

"I have no interest in you," Xu Huo said with a hint of sarcasm. "You rely on Mutants to sustain your lives. How do I know you haven't been infected?"

Hearing him say this, Master Tu and the others actually felt more at ease, though they hesitated about releasing Zhuo Wangsun.

"Whatever. When I decide to take action, you can use him as a human shield," Xu Huo said indifferently.

This caused Zhuo Wangsun, who had just shown joy and gratitude, to quickly deflate. Fortunately, Master Tu and the others had their own calculations and still released him, showing Xu Huo their full sincerity.

Most people remained on the first floor. Xu Huo took Fish Ball and Ice Cream to the second floor.

The second floor was piled with many boxes that had clearly been hastily packed. He noticed some were specially made and asked Master Tu what they were.

Master Tu opened the boxes one by one. Inside were all test tubes containing water, blood, and some plants preserved by special means, with dates marked on them.

"As you can see, the root of the cleanup area lies in the mutation that occurred in this land. If the source cannot be resolved, this place will never disappear. Even if all the Mutants are killed, the city still cannot be rebuilt. That's why I collected this data, intending to take it out."

Xu Huo handed the two children to Zhuo Wangsun to watch, then took a tube of Mutant blood from the boxes. "There's experimental equipment here, right? What's the difference between Mutant blood and normal human blood?"

"The blood shows signs of infection," Master Tu said. "But the equipment here isn't complete, and it's an old model. My knowledge in this area isn't solid, so I can't determine what kind of pathogen it is."