Living Towards Death, the Madman's Surgery.

Jiangnan reached out and pulled away the black cloth.

Liu Yuqing hurriedly leaned in, shining her flashlight.

The beam pierced through the turbid preservative fluid, illuminating the interior of the jar.

It was a dark gold eyeball.

It floated silently within the liquid.

But the moment the light touched it...

The previously dilated pupil contracted violently.

It was like a living creature, staring directly at Liu Yuqing outside the glass.

"Hiss!"

Liu Yuqing instinctively gasped, inhaling the scent of blood.

Her stomach churned, and she nearly vomited again.

Forcing down her discomfort, she activated [Appraisal].

A few seconds later, she looked up with a pale face.

She wrote the appraisal information on a piece of paper and handed it to Jiangnan.

[Item]: Eye of Calamity

[Level]: A-class

[Type]: Weird artifact

[Information]: A weird eyeball refined by a powerful superhuman while in a state of extreme madness.

[Function]: Possesses the ability to see through others' weaknesses, health bars, energy flow, and features an auto combat function.

[Side Effect]: Only those with an extremely strong will can control it.

After implantation, a willpower check is required. Failure results in being consumed by the grudge within the eyeball, falling into a weird entity that knows only slaughter.

Jiangnan looked at the information and nodded slightly.

An A-class weird artifact that could see through weaknesses and perform auto combat.

It was indeed a good item, but the side effects were equally obvious.

This is a double-edged sword; either you master it, or you become its slave.

He put away the note and turned around.

He looked toward Guo Shuai, who was standing in the corner.

And at his charred, blinded left eye.

Jiangnan took out his memo pad and wrote two words.

[Name?]

Guo Shuai was stunned for a moment.

Although they were in the same class, he was an invisible person.

Jiangnan was even more of a loner; the two had almost never spoken.

"I... my name is Guo Shuai."

Guo Shuai felt a bit flattered, his voice raspy as he answered.

Jiangnan continued writing: [Supernatural ability?]

Seeing these two words, Wang Meng, who was standing to the side, hurriedly nudged Guo Shuai with his elbow, winking and gesturing.

"Hey! Why are you just standing there like a fool! The big boss is checking your background; he's getting ready to take you with him!"

Hope instantly ignited in Guo Shuai's previously dim eyes.

Take me with him...

If he could follow Jiangnan, the chances of surviving in this apocalypse would increase infinitely.

He recalled the scene of Old Yang pushing him away before death, and remembered those words: "Live on."

"Yes... I want to live on... I want to carry Old Yang's share and go see the end of the world."

Guo Shuai took a deep breath, straightened his back, and his gaze became resolute.

"My supernatural ability is [danger sense], D-class."

"It can sense everything within a twenty-meter radius..."

However.

Before he could finish, the pen in Jiangnan's hand stopped.

He did not show any interest; on the contrary, he revealed an expression of disappointment, or even disdain.

He scribbled a line on his memo pad, tore it off, and tossed it directly onto the table in front of Guo Shuai.

Guo Shuai looked down, and the entire person felt as if struck by lightning.

[Too weak.]

[My team has no need for trash.]

The simple words were like a basin of ice water, instantly extinguishing the fire of hope that had just ignited within Guo Shuai.

"Tr... trash?"

Guo Shuai's lips were trembling, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

The atmosphere turned cold in an instant.

Wang Meng and Liu Yuqing were both stunned; they had not expected that the big boss who had just saved Guo Shuai would be so heartless now.

"B... big boss, although Guo Shuai's supernatural ability level is low, he is quite clever, and just now outside he also..."

Wang Meng tried to plead for him.

But Jiangnan did not pay him any mind.

He turned and walked toward the ladder at the cellar exit.

As he passed the table, he did not take the jar containing the eye of calamity, leaving it there instead.

Before climbing the ladder, Jiangnan paused, back facing Guo Shuai, and dropped one last note.

The note fluttered down onto the dust-covered floor.

[Prove your value to me.]

[Otherwise, rot here.]

Having said that, Jiangnan climbed up without looking back.

Chen Tong, Liu Yuqing, and Yu Shishi exchanged glances.

Though they felt pity, they dared not defy Jiangnan's will and could only hurry to follow.

Wang Meng walked at the very end.

He looked at Guo Shuai, who was standing there in a daze, sighed, and gave Guo Shuai's shoulder a heavy pat.

"Brother... take care."

"The big boss's words were harsh, but he left that jar for you... figure it out yourself."

After saying this, Wang Meng climbed up the ladder and pulled the metal cover of the cellar shut behind him.

"Clang!"

With a dull thud, Guo Shuai was cut off from the outside.

The cellar plunged back into deathly stillness.

Only a sliver of pale moonlight filtered through the gap above, illuminating the dilapidated table.

Guo Shuai stood alone in the shadows.

"Trash..."

These two words felt like a sharp knife, frantically twisting inside his heart.

He recalled when Wu Hao had pointed at his nose and cursed him.

"I have eyes and ears, what use is your trash ability?"

At the time, he had appeared angry on the surface, wanting to retort.

But deep down...

He actually agreed.

Yeah, twenty meters of perception, what was the point?

He hadn't even been able to save Old Yang, nor could he provide any warning of danger.

I am just trash.

Trash who only holds others back and gets his brothers killed.

"Heh..."

Guo Shuai looked at the jar on the table and let out a desolate laugh.

"Prove my value..."

"I'm already like this... what value could I possibly have left?"

He touched the half of his face that had been burned, his fingers brushing against the socket of his dead left eye.

Agony flared.

But this pain made his muddled brain instantly clear up a little.

The eye of calamity inside the jar seemed to be rotating slowly at this moment, its pupil staring tightly at him.

It was as if it were silently tempting him:

"Do you want power?"

"Do you want to see through everything?"

"Do you want... revenge?"

Guo Shuai's body began trembling.

It was fear, but also excitement.

"I have already died once..."

"Old Yang is dead, and my face is ruined."

"What else is there for me to fear now, besides this worthless life?!"

"Jiangnan was right! I will prove my own value!"

Guo Shuai abruptly raised his head, a near-maniacal fierce light erupting from his only remaining right eye.

Gritting his teeth, he walked step by step toward the jar.

"I am not trash!!"

"Ahhhhhhh!!"

Guo Shuai let out a roar to bolster his courage and to vent the repression in his heart.

He lunged forward, grabbing the glass jar from the table.

Bang!

The glass shattered, and preservative fluid splashed everywhere.

The dark gold eyeball rolled into his blood-stained palm—slimy and cold, yet brimming with power.

By the light of a pale sliver of moonlight.

A crazed shadow was cast upon the cellar wall.

The shadow raised its hand, slowly reaching toward its own left eye.

"Urgh... ah!!"

Guo Shuai had no anesthetic, nor did he have a scalpel.

He used his fingers to forcefully hook into his own necrotic, charred left eyeball.

Squelch.

In this moment, he was his own butcher.

The agony caused his entire body to spasm, cold sweat pouring down like rain, but he did not stop.

With a tearing sound, the useless eyeball was ripped out and casually tossed onto the ground.

Black blood flowed from the empty cavity.

"Come on... let me see... what exactly are you!!"

Guo Shuai gasped for air, his hand tightly gripping the eye of calamity.

No hesitation.

No way back.

He pressed it fiercely into the bloody, mangled socket!

"Ngh!!!"

A scream echoed through the cellar.

The next second.

A terrifying black qi instantly erupted from his left eye, enveloping Guo Shuai's entire body!