The night wind carried a trace of abnormal heat.

An elusive warm current gently enveloped Cheng Ye’s body, reminiscent of the orphanage’s winter stove from his childhood.

Every snowy day, the children would gather around the stove, either humming softly or digging out hidden potatoes and sweet potatoes, stuffing them into the gaps under the stove to roast them to a fragrant aroma.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t expect our first official meeting would be under such circumstances."

Liu Kun slightly nodded, his tone somewhat softer than before, "The situation in Dapo Town is still being analyzed. Please stand here for now without any drastic actions."

He paused and continued, "Next, we will conduct a detailed inspection on you to ensure there’s no infection risk, and..."

Before he finished, he suddenly breathed lightly forward.

Boom!

Like a volcanic eruption, a column of fire suddenly shot up from the ground, rushing into the night sky over ten meters high. The scorching heat wave instinctively made the people around retreat.

Soon after, the center of the fire column spread outward, sparks quickly interwoven and assembled in the air.

With a "boom," it transformed into a fiery red cage about ten square meters inside, the flame-coagulated bars shimmering with transparent red light, exuding an unreal magical vibe.

"No reaction?"

Seeing Cheng Ye’s slightly calm expression, a trace of surprise flashed in Liu Kun’s eyes, yet he did not immediately remove the cage, just stepped back, signaling for the people behind him to come forward.

Among the twenty-plus people standing with Ding Yishan, aside from the head and deputy head of the inspection station, there were several Fourth-phase Inspectors Cheng Ye had seen in recent days, Bai Wei, the emergency chief from the command center he met when the Fog Cave opened, and even a senior researcher from the institute.

Cheng Ye calmly glanced over the crowd, a trace of emotion emerging in his heart.

Apart from Ding Yishan, Harlem, Jiang Chuan, Bai Wei, everyone else’s gaze held a complexity, upon careful discernment you’d find that underneath the complexity, there was an almost imperceptible trace of fear.

Afraid of me?

Or afraid of the potential infection source on me?

Or the thing affecting Dapo Town?

The people exchanged glances, and surprisingly, it was Deputy Head Harlem who first stepped forward.

As a rare high-achiever within the inspector team, he stepped forward, his tone steady, "Cheng Ye, since you’re an inspector I certified through the assessment, naturally I should be responsible for your inspection."

Harlem signaled the soldiers behind to move a table and chair forward, pushed back his voice after sitting down, "You don’t need to be nervous. Although we have detected Destruction Level energy fluctuations in Dapo Town, and based on past data calculations, only one survivor could survive every 127,100 Destruction Level disasters, but no matter how slight the possibility, we will treat you as a normal person rather than a potential infected body, understand?"

Being "inspected" so formally for the first time, Cheng Ye was slightly stunned, then gently nodded.

"Very well. You yourself are an inspector, familiar with the inspection process, so we won’t beat around the bush."

Harlem sat up straight, his gaze turning serious, "Please start from when you entered the assessment in Dapo Town, recount the entire day’s experiences and discoveries. Don’t intentionally modify the wording, even if there’s a mistake or omission, continue saying it until you finish up to the current situation."

"Hold on."

Cheng Ye gently shook his head, his tone calm yet persistently assertive, "Before answering, may I ask a question?"

Harlem was momentarily stunned, his fingertips paused, still nodded, "Alright, ask."

"The people in Dapo Town... are they still salvageable?"

"..."

Harlem fell silent, not saying a word for four or five seconds, his gaze flickering, as if hesitating whether to speak the truth or stabilize his emotions with a lie first.

Until their eyes repeatedly met in the air, he finally sighed softly, filled with regret in his tone, "I’m sorry, as I said earlier, the survival rate for Destruction Level disasters is as low as 0.000787%, only one survivor in 127,100 Destruction Level disasters, this conclusion derived from data compiled by the Fire Alliance from over ten thousand Destruction Level catastrophes, with virtually no exceptions."

At this point, his voice suddenly pressed lower, as if he couldn’t accept it himself, "From now on, we have completely sealed off the entire area of Dapo Town, no one is allowed to enter for the next fifty years, this... this place has already been erased permanently from the Stone Province map."

Thud!

Like a heavy hammer ringing in the mind.

Previously, when reading about infection source classifications in books, Cheng Ye couldn’t truly understand why humans needed to classify like this, what exactly Plague and above classes, Disaster, Destruction, and Extinction these words represented.

But now, having experienced several disasters firsthand, he finally began to grasp the weight of these words.

What is a disaster?

It’s sudden natural calamities and pandemics, like a ruthless giant hand, abruptly extinguishing vibrant life.

It might be strange natural phenomena like Void Mist, or lethal infection sources like Stand-In Starfish.

It never cares about the aftermath, only knows to brutally harvest, leaving widespread sorrow and fragments, making the living face the chilling death in fear.

What is destruction?

It comes more determinedly, not only to take lives but crush all... hope!

It’s the instant disaster strikes, an entire land and everything on it ground to lifeless wasteland.

No time to struggle, no room to escape, the possibility of merely surviving is completely severed.

Even though Dapo Town possessed significant potential, even though in his plan it might become one of the top-ranked Satellite Cities after Happiness City, possibly even the first.