Chapter 535: A-Grade Item Life Core
The air in the jungle area might also be problematic. The stone forest and the city area are far from vegetation, with dry soil, so the difference between them isn't surprising.
However, Jin Dong's change was even stranger. There must have been a trigger for him to lose his mind.
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 in the end, he didn't say anything.
Before long, Cen Lu came to call them to the dining room to eat. "There's still some time until dawn. Eat something and then rest."
The two followed her lead. Upon entering the dining room, they found quite a bit of food prepared—bread, vegetables, grilled meat, and even desserts.
"We set up a few small farms downstairs. We can grow our own food usually," Gao Peng said. "There aren't many of us, so it's just enough to be self-sufficient."
Zhuo Wangsun swallowed hard and couldn't help but pick 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 no need to wear that mask at all."
"Just a personal preference." Xu Huo gave a slight smile. "I get embarrassed easily. I don't really like eating in front of others. If possible, I'd like to take some food back to my room."
Cen Lu looked at Gao Peng. Before Gao Peng could speak, the bald-headed man beside him slammed his knife and fork down. "You're being ungrateful! Who do you think you are, some big shot?!"
Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun both put down the food in their hands. Seeing this, Gao Peng stepped in to smooth things over. "Everyone has their quirks. Let's just understand each other."
The bald-headed man didn't say anything more, but he shot Xu Huo a fierce glare before leaving.
"Don't mind him. That brother of mine has always had that temper." Gao Peng apologized on his behalf and even gave them half a bottle of wine to make amends.
Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun had no reason to refuse, so they took the food and wine back to their room.
Zhuo Wangsun followed Xu Huo inside and immediately asked, "Do you think the food is tainted? What's off about them?"
"I can't tell for now." Xu Huo stood by the door and gestured for him to go back to his own room.
But Zhuo Wangsun didn't want to leave. "These are special times. It's safer to stick together."
Xu Huo didn't insist. He didn't touch the food or the wine, turned off the light, and sat in the darkness, listening to the sounds from upstairs and downstairs.
By dawn, there was finally movement from the elevator.
Xu Huo stood by the window and looked down. Gao Peng and Cen Lu led those young people out of the building, heading toward the city center.
"Should we follow and take a look?" Zhuo Wangsun asked from behind him.
Xu Huo nodded. He leaped out of the window at the end of the hallway, using the cover of the building to grab his strings and fly away, completely leaving the person who had followed him behind.
Zhuo Wangsun had no choice but to turn back. Xu Huo, on the other hand, took a slight detour and found a medical laboratory in the city.
The equipment inside was fairly complete. He picked up a glove-sealed box, chose a closed experimental room, went inside, set down the box, and then took out Yu Guo's severed hand from his luggage compartment.
Yu Guo's severed hand had completely turned black. Eroded by the bacteria, the skin surface began to fester, forming pustules and bloody fluid. At the same time, the entire hand had shrunk slightly, making the item sewn under the skin more visible—roughly a crude spherical shape.
Wearing diamond gloves on both hands, Xu Huo reached into the sealed box and gently squeezed out the item inside.
A thumb-sized black sphere fell into the sealed box, its ring-shaped patterns covered in black mucus.
This small sphere was the item Yu Guo had deliberately sewn under his skin. Its grade definitely wouldn't be low, but now it was covered in bacteria.
The severed hand had only been in the sealed box for a short while, but the bottom of the box was already stained black. This bacteria remained somewhat active even after leaving its host. Given the current situation, even if he obtained the item, he couldn't use it.
Still, he put the item into his item slot. A "Highly Toxic" warning appeared, along with the item's related information.
[Life Core: A-Grade. When used, the player can destroy metal objects and A-grade and below items primarily made of metal through touch and crushing.]
[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 a single coverage range.]
[The volume of objects destroyed each time is limited by the duration of contact. Note: If a city's metal composition does not exceed one-third of its total volume, the entire city could potentially be destroyed. Please use this item with caution.]
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow as he read. This item was truly a killing weapon, far exceeding his expectations.
Many items have cooldown periods, but "Life Core" does not. Its destruction is based on total volume. In other words, as long as he appears anywhere with this item, with a maximum limit of one city, he could use it alone to turn one-third of that place into powder.
Of course, this effect targets metal objects, but a city's structure can't be entirely metal. However, "Life Core's" effect is calculated based on the total volume ratio of the city's buildings, so it's entirely possible to cause an entire city to collapse within a limited time!
If he were to equip "Life Core" now, he could completely collapse or even destroy this abandoned city.
Just this effect alone is astonishing enough, not to mention that it can also destroy items below A-Grade!
With such devastating power, it naturally comes with usage requirements.
The size of the area destroyed each time depends on the duration of contact. In other words, the longer the contact time, the larger the volume destroyed; the shorter, the smaller.
In actual combat, it might not be easy to secure enough time, but it's more than sufficient for dealing with items during an exchange.
This was the first A-Grade item he had obtained. The absence of a forced cooldown period suited him perfectly. So, even with the bacteria, Xu Huo found the small sphere in his item slot increasingly pleasing to the eye.
After a while, he switched to his panel and posted a bounty for a method to clean the item.
As soon as the bounty was sent out, a message popped up on the game panel:
[Upon inspection, the item belonging to player Passerby A carries an A-Grade contaminant. System cleaning can be applied for. Single item, single use: one hundred thousand white notes. Luggage compartment cleaning: three hundred thousand white notes per use. Note: Purchasing the A-Grade contaminant cleaning kit separately also costs one hundred thousand white notes. Incomplete cleaning may leave residual contaminants.]
Extortion is everywhere.
Xu Huo paid the fee and also bought a kit to handle the severed hand.
The hand was different from the item. Both inside and out, it was contaminated by the bacteria. A little cleaning agent wouldn't be enough, so he used the sealed box included in the kit to seal the hand and store it in the luggage compartment. Then he cleaned the bacteria from the glove-sealed box, confirming no residue remained before leaving the laboratory.
Outside, it was already broad daylight. This time, Xu Huo didn't pick a specific spot. He simply walked on foot toward the crack in the city center.
(Chapter End)