Zerra realized she had gotten it wrong from the conversation between the woman and the two men earlier. The crystal cores they were referring to weren’t the ones taken from mutated animals and zombies, but... "They aren’t talking about ordinary crystal cores..." she trailed off and then paused briefly, hesitating. "They hunted ability users and took their crystal cores from inside their brains." Everyone was stunned when they heard that. "Outrageous! H-how can these animals..." Laziel took a deep breath, trying to calm down his anger after her words registered in his mind. At first, people had some resistance when they used crystal cores, because they were taken from corpses. Gradually, they get used to it. Between survival and conscience, they still preferred the former. However... now there were some people who used crystal cores from living ability users to enhance their power? "There is no lack of zombies and mutated animals." Sean knitted his eyebrows. "Why don’t they hunt those things instead?" The woman lowered her head. "What is your name?" Zerra suddenly asked. Only then did they realize they hadn’t asked the woman’s name. "My name is Ida." She bit her lip, nodding in acknowledgement at Zerra before turning to Sean. "Before you explain, let’s go inside." Nerith offered, taking Ida’s hand. They sat a bit far from the door, which needed some fixing if they wanted to sleep at the restaurant tonight. Ida sat down, a little flattered by their kind welcome. Her fingers fiddled with each other. On the contrary, their kindness actually made her feel uneasy instead of relieved. "Are you all not from this city?" Ida started. "That’s right," Alaric answered. "We are from somewhere else." They didn’t provide many details, only explaining the necessary things. Besides, Ida must have realized they were from another place when she saw their cars and how clueless they were to the current situation. "Alright." Ida gripped her own hands tighter. "I will tell you something. It’s better to leave this place as soon as possible while this city’s human base leaders haven’t found out about what you have done." "These men were the human base leaders’ people. They liked taking people’s crystal cores because human crystal cores differ from zombies or mutated animals. The latter had impurities in them." "Impurities?" Zerra suddenly asked. "How do you know this information?" Ida fell silent for a moment. She hesitated before she answered, "I happened to hear one of their men talking about it. When we use zombies and mutated animals’ crystal cores, we need to draw their energy, and the process can take a long time." She paused briefly before continuing. "Human crystal cores are more effective in increasing power compared to zombie crystal cores because they are from humans. As such, the crystal cores are much more compatible for us and take less time to absorb." It was such an unbelievable thing they had heard today. When Darren was called back by his brother to return to the Moon Cloud City, they didn’t expect it was because of this. If each individual targeted other humans’ crystal cores, it was unimaginable how chaotic the base would be. Nyra’s face hardened. "The human base leaders you are talking about... who are they?" Below the table, she was clenching her fists. A look of irritation appeared on her face, followed by flashes of anxiety. She was secretly dreading Ida’s answers. Googlᴇ search 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝘯𝘦𝘵 In a solemn tone, Ida told them. "Henry Brown." As expected, it was that man who had been making trouble at the base. After not seeing him for half a year, it was unimaginable how many dirty deeds he had done in secret before the current agenda was revealed. "How about the Valez family?" She pressed again. Ida had a surprised look on her face. "You know the Valez family?" She thought about it before telling them. "Their current condition isn’t very good. They kept on losing more ability users because people from the Brown family’s side always hunted them." Ida also admitted she only recently arrived at the base and joined the Valez family. She had seen how malicious people from the Brown family can be, so she wasn’t interested in mingling with them. Unexpectedly, this place was a nightmare. An even worse nightmare than zombies. At least she knew these zombies didn’t hide their intentions behind kind smiles and coaxing words. The worst were people from the Brown family. They often lure, trap, and kill newcomers. "I am new, so I don’t know much." Ida shook her head. She pointed at the bound men. "You should ask these people." They dragged the two, circling them. The two men stared at the people in front of them in terror. Ida had exposed what kind of things they had done. They also didn’t miss the looks of disapproval and even hatred in these people’s eyes. "What do you want to do with us? Release us or Mr. Brown will come to deal with you!" The tall man, who was once so arrogant, now was shivering like a chicken. His words carried a hint of threat, but the tremble in his voice betrayed him. "Right, you have heard what he can do to you, haven’t you?" The other one followed, threatening them as soon as the gags in their mouths were removed. They continued to utter all sorts of threats, some even aimed at Ida, who lowered her eyes. She was obviously a little traumatized. Her original intention was to try to find a shelter to survive in the apocalypse, but she nearly lost her life. "Shut up!" Nyra yelled ferociously. Her eyes were full of glare as she stared at the two men. She turned to Nerith and saw the knife in her hand. "Let me borrow it... Mom." Nerith blinked, her lips slowly curved into a smile. "Here, I have the bigger one.". She handed over a large knife that butchers usually used. After coating it with thin salt, she handed it over to Nyra. Zerra watched the whole thing with slightly wide eyes. Her gaze moved back and forth between her mom and Nyra. Maybe because their parents had followed her despite the danger, their relationship had improved tremendously. The minor exchange was a warm sight, but the following scene wasn’t. Especially when they witnessed what Nyra did to the two men.