Freeze the entire population, activate my Superman system?

"One more is needed," he said in a low voice.

Zhang Mu was cleaning a scalpel when he heard this and looked up: "What's missing?"

"A complete white crystal. That's enough for me to advance to the first tier."

Zhang Mu glanced at the remaining mutated animals on the control panel—a carp, an eel, a turtle, and the black cat.

"These haven't been done yet; who knows, maybe one of them will be."

"That's not enough," Ling Shuang shook her head. "You can tell just by looking at their shapes."

"Never mind that for now." Ling Shuang turned her attention back to the control panel. "When you were dissecting it, did you notice the mutated animal's claws and bones?"

Zhang Mu was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

Ling Shuang picked up the stray dog's front paw that had been discarded beside the workbench and tapped it with the back of her knife.

The sound of metal colliding was crisp and clear.

If humans didn't have tools

In a hand-to-hand combat, I would definitely be torn open by this mutated canine.

"Look at its hardness."

He handed his paw to Zhang Mu,

It's much harder than ordinary bone, even harder than my alloy rod.

Moreover, the cross-section has a glazed layer!

Zhang Mu took it and examined it carefully, then made a cut with the scalpel—the blade slipped, leaving only a shallow mark.

"This thing..." His eyes lit up, "...can it be used as a knife?"

"Not just the claws."

Ling Shuang rummaged through the pile of waste nearby and pulled out the stray dog's skull. Pointing to the thickest bone plate on the top of the skull, she said, "If we knock this off and grind it down, we can make a breastplate or a small shield."

And those teeth, with their natural serrated edges.

Zhang Mu picked up a canine tooth and weighed it in his hand.

The cone-shaped teeth are about two centimeters long, with barbed serrations on the inside and sharp tips that can pierce a rubber glove.

"Make a handle and attach it, and you'll have a dagger."

Ling Shuang wrote this down in her notebook:

Weaponization of mutant animal skeletons:

Claws/fangs → Cutting and piercing weapons (daggers, arrowheads)

Long bones → clubs, spear shafts (high density, toughness to be tested)

Skull/Carapace → Armor (Breastplate, Armguards)

"Remember these things, and tell Guo Yueshan about them later."

Ling Shuang pushed the notebook to Zhang Mu, "The management office is counting the carcasses of mutated animals. Instead of burning or burying them, we should keep the useful parts."

---

After dealing with the last few mutated animals, as expected, none of them produced a complete crystal.

After absorption, the feeling of fullness in my left hand became even stronger, but I still didn't break through.

Ling Shuang stopped dwelling on it and turned her attention to another issue.

"What should we do with the meat?" he asked Zhang Mu.

"Is the meat of these mutated animals edible?"

Zhang Mu paused for a moment.

"Theoretically..." he carefully chose his words, "high-temperature cooking can kill most pathogens."

But the mutations in these things are not caused by bacteria or viruses, but by energy deposition.

Whether energy is transferred through the food chain is currently impossible to assess due to limited equipment and the inability to conduct human trials.

"Then it's still uncertain."

Ling Shuang remained silent for a moment.

There are currently five people in the territory, and the daily expenses are not small.

Rice, flour, and cooking oil can last for a while, but meat shortages are a real problem.

They ate two of the fish that Wang Can caught, and so far there have been no adverse reactions.

But even if those two fish were mutated, the degree was very low, not on the same level as those in the containment center.

"Do you have any food-related features on your lord's panel?" he asked.

Zhang Mu opened the panel and flipped through it.

There is a "Resource Appraisal Room" icon, which is grayed out and indicates that it is not unlocked.

He pointed to that area, "It may require more achievement points to activate."

"In other words, once unlocked, we'll know whether or not the meat is edible."

"It should be."

"Then we'll have to tell Brother Wang and Sister-in-law that we should prioritize eating meat at home as usual."

The meat of these mutated animals is dried and stored, and left untouched until food supplies run out.

---

By the time the two finished cleaning up the shelter, it was already past four in the afternoon.

When they returned to the row house, Jiang Xiaobei was squatting on the living room floor, with a pile of electronic components and several disassembled walkie-talkies spread out in front of him.

"Brother Ling! Dr. Zhang!" He looked up, his face beaming with excitement, "I've got it done!"

"Done what?" Ling Shuang walked over.

Jiang Xiaobei picked up a walkie-talkie and pressed the call button.

"...Test, test. Longmao Mansion Building 90 is calling the management office. Please reply upon receipt."

There was a two-second silence on the walkie-talkie, then Guo Yueshan's voice came through, clear as if they were speaking face-to-face:

"Received, this is the management office."

"Xiao Bei? The voice is very clear."

Jiang Xiaobei turned off the walkie-talkie and grinned: "I fixed both pairs of walkie-talkies, tuned the frequency to the property management broadcast band, and modified the antenna. The communication range can now cover at least the entire community."

Ling Shuang picked up a walkie-talkie and flipped through it in her hand.

Wang Can's equipment isn't professional-grade, but it's durable.

After Jiang Xiaobei disassembled and reassembled it, the outer shell was a bit rough, but the internal circuit board was re-soldered and the battery was modified to be connected in parallel, so the range should be much longer than before.

Accepting Jiang Xiaobei was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, but he never expected it to bring him such a pleasant surprise.

"Can I talk to the management office at the same time?" Ling Shuang asked curiously.

"Sure." Jiang Xiaobei pointed to one of them. "I modified this one. Pressing this button will broadcast to all walkie-talkies, making it a simple command center. The others are only point-to-point."

Ling Shuang clipped the walkie-talkie to her belt and nodded in satisfaction.

"Well done."

Now at least basic communication is guaranteed.

"There's one more thing."

Jiang Xiaobei took out something even smaller from the side.

About the size of a thumb, wrapped in heat shrink tubing, with a section of copper wire antenna sticking out, "This is a miniature transmitter that I made using the leftover parts."

The battery is small; it can only send signals, not make calls.

But you can put it somewhere and use it to send a location signal.

"A tracker?"

"More or less." Jiang Xiaobei scratched his head. "But the distance is limited, just within the neighborhood."

Ling Shuang took the small object and glanced thoughtfully at the direction of the artificial lake outside the window.

"Keep it for now, you might need it later."

---

In the evening, Wang Can and Liu Yun returned from outside.

Wang Can was carrying two frozen ribbonfish issued by the management office, while Liu Yun was holding a bag of potatoes and a bundle of green onions.

"Director Guo said there might be more supplies distributed in the next couple of days, but it's uncertain after that."

Wang Can put the things in the kitchen. "By the way, the news that a homeowner was dragged into the artificial lake has spread, and now no one dares to go to the lakeside."

"Observe first," Ling Shuang said without elaborating.

Dinner was prepared by Liu Yun—scallion oil ribbonfish, stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, and scrambled eggs with scallions, served with white rice.

Five people sat around the heating stove, eating and chatting.

Jiang Xiaobei talked about the details of modifying the walkie-talkie, Wang Can talked about the various rumors he had heard in the neighborhood that day, and Zhang Mu told Wang Can about his idea of ​​weaponizing the mutated animal skeletons.

"Grinding bones?" Wang Can put down his chopsticks, his eyes lighting up. "I'm good at this."

I used to make my own bone knives when I was doing outdoor activities. They weren't as hard as you guys are saying, but the principle was similar.

"I'll pick out a few bones for you to try tomorrow," Zhang Mu said.

Liu Yun, who was listening nearby, suddenly asked, "Is it safe to eat the meat of those mutated animals?"

I heard from the lady in the next building today that someone cooked a strange fish they caught into soup, and after drinking it, they felt hot all over and couldn't sleep all night.

There was a moment of silence on the table.

"Don't try things you're unsure about," Ling Shuang said. "Until Zhang Mu unlocks that new building, no animal meat with mutated body shapes is allowed on the table."

Liu Yun wholeheartedly agreed.

She was a little frightened by her neighbor.

My husband's mandarin fish was also caught by fishing in an artificial lake.

If everyone gets an upset stomach

They have truly committed a grave sin.