Fortunately, with the protection of the Heart-Protecting Fire, he was temporarily unaffected by the distorted cognition.

But just thinking about the traits discovered earlier, they were unprecedentedly golden.

Even with a Horned Starfish on him, facing such completely unknown existence, he had no confidence at all.

At this moment, he could only treat a dead horse as if it’s alive.

If the checkpoint didn’t receive his plea for help, he wouldn’t want to stay in the same place with thousands of Crab-men, even if he had to break the rules to escape Dapo Town!

"Go find the dark line, contact the checkpoint, quickly!"

Cheng Ye turned around and quickly ran towards the central government building of Dapo Town.

Soon, he arrived at the government building.

Part of the dark line was on guard on the rooftop, another part stayed on the third floor. Seeing more than twenty people hurriedly running over, the flashlights on the rooftop lit up first, and after exchanging the code, the dark line captain immediately came down to meet them.

"Inspector Cheng, what’s going on?" The captain noticed his unusual expression and quickly asked.

Cheng Ye paused, didn’t explain first, but took out the wireless radio from his waist, pointing to the flashing circle in the middle, "What color is the light in the middle of this radio I’m holding?"

The dark line captain was stunned for a moment, leaned closer to take a look, and immediately replied, "It’s... red!"

"What should be done on red?"

Thud!

The dark line captain’s reaction was almost identical to Luokuke’s earlier, suddenly clutching his head, kneeling on one knee, trembling violently like a sieve, his teeth chattering loudly.

Whoosh.

An invisible wave suddenly swept by, and Cheng Ye only felt a blackout in front of his eyes, a strong sense of vertigo rushed to the top of his head, almost making him fall backward.

It was so suffocating.

At this moment, it was as if he had been thrown into an ice cellar, he felt like all his blood had frozen solid, goosebumps crawling from his arms up to the back of his neck.

At the same time, a panel suddenly popped up in his view, with prompts madly flashing like a screen refresh:

[Detected that the Collector is under the influence of range spiritual contamination... Heart-Protecting Fire buff triggered, exempt from the infection effect!]

[Detected that the Collector is under the range spiritual... Heart-Protecting Fire buff remains active!]

[Detecting...]

Countless sharp streams of information pierced into his mind like needles, Cheng Ye’s vision went black with pain, almost instinctively he shouted:

"It’s green! My radio is green!"

As soon as the words fell, the dark line captain trembling on the ground suddenly shivered and straightened up instantly, his eyes regaining some clarity:

"Is it, is it green? Then it’s fine, if you need..."

Before he could finish speaking.

Cheng Ye had already put away the radio, bending over to lift the battle armor visor, taking deep breaths.

Plop.

Plop.

Bead-like sweat dripped onto the ground, creating small patches of wet marks.

After four or five seconds, a strong sense of nausea surged up his throat...

Ugh!

Cheng Ye knelt on one knee, clutching his chest, retching until the dizziness in his head slightly subsided, only then did he weakly look around.

The scene before him made his heart sink, all members of the dark line included, everyone was frozen in place, eyes vacant as if their souls had been taken, responding to none of his actions.

Only Luokuke was still struggling, his face twisted as if he was fighting against something.

Under Cheng Ye’s astonished gaze, Luokuke painfully raised his hand, took out the metal pendant hanging around his neck, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Sizzle.

A sound similar to an electrical short-circuit crackled, Luokuke’s originally slightly curly golden hair stood up all at once, like a fully electrified curl, with muscles on his face twitching uncontrollably.

The intense pain brought a hint of clarity to his eyes, and he stared over, his voice broken: "Help... help me... my waist... my waist..."

"What?" Cheng Ye took two steps forward, looking towards his waist as indicated by his gaze.

There hung a metal sphere the size of a fist.

"Open it, stuff it in, in my... my mouth."

With each word he uttered, Luokuke’s clarity brought by electric shock immediately faded a bit, replaced by dense chaos.

Following his instructions, Cheng Ye didn’t dare delay, yanked down the metal sphere, and twisted open the top latch.

Upon seeing what was inside, his face slightly stiffened:

The sphere contained not some tool, but a piece of ’Rusted Iron’, yet at that moment, the ’Rusted Iron’ was slightly writhing, like a piece of living flesh.

This is... an infection source?

There was no time to think, he quickly reached out, pried open Luokuke’s mouth, and ruthlessly stuffed the writhing ’Rusted Iron’ into it, while clamping his jaw shut to force him to swallow harshly!

A strong taste of rust instantly permeated the air, and a strange rusty red color flashed through Luokuke’s eyes.

He hesitated, then with a "thud" sat down on the ground, frantically scratching his own hair with both hands.

With each scratch, large clumps of golden hair mixed with black iron scraps fell out, scattered on the ground.

Four or five seconds later, his golden hair was scratched clean, leaving only a rust-stained shiny scalp, with a faint red seeping from the scalp.

Ugh...

He turned over again, retching violently.

But what he spat out was not water, not Nutrient Paste, much less blood, but tangles of rusty iron wires, falling to the ground with a "ding-dong" sound.

"Don’t, don’t be afraid, it’s a benevolent infection source, Source Heart Meat Iron!" Luokuke coughed, hurriedly explained, with iron scraps still hanging from the corners of his mouth.

What is it?

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, then quickly took out the Firewood Communication from his waist, and typed the words Source Heart Meat Iron with his fingers.

The entry popped up.

He scanned the content in one go, finally feeling a bit relieved.