Freeze the entire population, activate my Superman system?

The fire crystal rose from his palm and hovered in mid-air.

The dark red light veins inside began to surge violently, as if something was about to burst out of its shell.

A crimson halo exploded from the fire crystal, spreading outwards in all directions from the row house as the center.

Where the aperture passed, the bluestone slabs on the ground trembled slightly.

Dark red light patterns grew from the cracks, like some ancient patterns being relit.

The aperture passed over the courtyard wall of the row houses, over the central garden, over the artificial lake, and finally crashed into the boundary of the community.

hum-

A deep, resonant sound came from the depths of the ground.

Then, the system notification sounded simultaneously in the minds of all the lords.

The territory has automatically become a subordinate territory of Lord Zhang Mu.

[The coverage area of ​​heating boilers has been expanded by 300%, and existing heating boilers will be automatically upgraded to primary level (radius of 200 meters)]

Zhang Mu, on the other hand, was bombarded with system notifications.

Town-level management authority has been unlocked.

A lord can expel lord units that threaten their territory.

[New building modules unlocked: Iron Wall (Intermediate), Ballista Turret (Intermediate), Smelting Furnace (Basic), Armory (Basic)]

[Civilization milestone unlocked!]

[A lord has already activated a town-level core.]

[Triggering the second stage civilization achievement - A Spark Ignites a Prairie Fire]

[Achievement Reward: All subordinate lords gain an additional 1000 achievement points]

[Building Enhancement – ​​Central Heating Networks: All heating boilers within a town can share resources, and heat can be automatically distributed from high-load areas to low-load areas]

The entire Longmaofu residential community has become Zhang Mu's territory!

All lords automatically became his subordinate units.

Moreover, it can expel any lord.

Guo Yueshan stood outside the courtyard gate, looking up at the dark red light patterns flowing in the air.

His lips trembled for a long time before he could utter only one sentence.

"...Dr. Zhang, you've become a landlord."

However, it's not over yet.

The next second, the entire territory suddenly emitted an even sharper buzzing sound.

It's an alarm!

Suddenly, a patch of white mist, visible to the naked eye, burst open on the south side of the back mountain, standing out starkly against the crimson halo of the territory.

In the white mist, a semi-transparent, indistinct human figure was twisting wildly.

It was about a meter tall and kept changing shape in the air, as if it was looking for a way to escape.

Whenever the crimson light patterns on the ground touched its body, it would let out a sharp screech.

"This is...that thing? It's what froze so many people to death," Guo Yueshan's voice tightened.

Ling Shuang was also shocked.

There was an unexpected bonus.

That guy has been hiding in the hills behind the neighborhood!

The ice energy entity spun wildly in the air, changing direction as it tried to escape the territory from the other side of the mountain.

But the crimson light patterns that were spreading in all directions were much faster. Those light patterns wove a huge, invisible net beneath it, pulling it down little by little from the sky.

A new notification suddenly appeared in Zhang Mu's system.

[Free ice element energy body detected within territory; has been forcibly captured]

[Can be assigned to a designated building for fusion; after fusion, the building will gain an ice attribute effect.]

[Currently available fusion target: Arrow Tower (Intermediate)]

Ling Shuang could also see Zhang Mu's panel notification and clicked her tongue.

"That saves us the trouble of arresting them."

There is only one option.

Let's melt the arrow tower then!

The ice energy body let out a final hiss, its entire body forcibly compressed into a fist-sized sphere of ice-blue light.

Then it transformed into a blue-white streak like a shooting star, crashing straight into the base of the remaining arrow tower on the east bank of the artificial lake.

The half-destroyed arrow tower trembled violently the moment the light sphere merged into it, and a new layer of frost covered the tower's tattered protective wooden railings.

The ballistae on top of the tower began to deform on their own.

The entire crossbow arm extended outwards, and the crossbow string transformed into a solid blue-white light string.

The patterns on the crossbow arm transformed into intricate ice crystal veins.

Beside the arrow tower, an arrow made entirely of ice crystals automatically condensed on the groove of the deformed ballista.

They noticed the following line of text attached to the arrow tower attributes on the lord's panel.

[Ice Crystal Arrow: Automatically captures ice elemental energy]

Zhang Mu suddenly turned to look at Ling Shuang, a look of surprise on his face.

The two exchanged a glance and spoke simultaneously: "Unlimited ammo."

The implications of this are self-evident.

On the icy plains, this arrow tower is a perpetually firing frost cannon.

Guo Yueshan stared blankly at the direction of the back mountain for a long time before turning around to look at Ling Shuang.

The moment this young man appeared,

All the difficulties seemed to have disappeared.

He asked instinctively,

"Manager Ling... Also, what are your thoughts on handling the Freemasonry matter?"

"You decide on the management matters."

Guo Yueshan's expression immediately turned serious.

"Understood, I will integrate the information and inform the public."

Also, we need to tell the military this good news.

Tell Commander Gu that we will hold out until rescue arrives.

......

Late that night, the indicator light on the signal base station lit up again.

There was static on the radio at first, then a familiar, deep male voice came through.

"Longmao Prefecture Management Office, this is the Nantianmen Operations Command Post, Gu Linzhou."

Please reply upon receipt.

Jiang Xiaobei pressed the call button, his voice tense: "Commander Gu, this is Longmao Prefecture, we have important intelligence to report."

There was a two-second silence on the other end. "Please speak."

Ling Shuang took the microphone from Guo Yueshan.

"Commander Gu. My name is Ling Shuang. I just returned from outside the safe zone."

The intelligence is divided into three parts; please have the national think tank analyze it for us.

The first part is intelligence about the outside world.

The second part is the assessment of the threat.

The Night Demon Mother, now at level three, is out of control and wandering the ice plains. Having tasted its sweetness, it may very well return.

The ghouls' gathering teams are migrating towards the underground river, and at the most conservative estimate, they will reach the boundary of the safe zone in no more than twenty days.

Once the ghouls discover the existence of humans, and the news reaches the ears of the so-called "great rancher," the consequences are unpredictable.

Ling Shuang then remained silent for a moment.

"The third part," he said, "is about a flawed way of evolving."

Then he relayed all the Freemasons' interrogation results to the South Heavenly Gate command post across the street.

Mutant animal crystals can be embedded in specific parts of the human body, triggering varying degrees of physical enhancement.

The most extreme and fastest solution is to embed the source crystal into the flesh of the heart, so that the blood pressure from the heartbeat can directly melt the crystal.

Ling Shuang continued speaking,

"The Freemason who carried out this experiment is named Liu Yu, and he completely lost control this afternoon."

When he attempted to kill civilians, I dealt with him on the spot.

There was a silence on the radio for nearly ten seconds.

Then Gu Linzhou's voice rang out again, his tone completely unchanged.

"Comrade Ling Shuang, thank you for your intelligence. The think tank will get back to you tomorrow after completing the analysis."

Nantianmen Command Post. Underground bunker.

Gu Linzhou took off his headset and stood up.

His gaze swept over the communications area and the control panel.

The six staff officers sat at their respective workstations, having all listened to Ling Shuang's report.

The fluorescent tubes on the top of the bunker emitted a faint hum of electricity, and the two standby primary heating furnaces in the corner were still running.

But outside the bunker, above the three-meter-thick layer of permafrost, half of the dome had already collapsed.

Those were the marks left by a swarm of mutated ice bats at the peak of the first tier breaking through the outer defense line twelve hours ago.

The fuel in the heating furnace can last for three more days.

The food will last for another week.

Most importantly, we're running out of ammunition.

They were trapped inside the damaged safety zone.

If we can't get out, we'll really run out of energy.

When Gu Linzhou walked to the front of the stage,

He paused.

"The last one is referred to by the provider as 'the wrong way of evolution'."

The price is irreversible physical alienation, increased aggression, and altered appetite.

The riskiest option is the implantation of a white crystal directly above the heart, which melts with the heartbeat.

It may cause the implantee's mind to be completely replaced by energy instincts, ultimately turning them into a wild beast that only knows how to hunt.

But in return, it will bring tremendous evolutionary power.

His gaze slowly swept across the venue.

"Comrades, I am very pleased to have obtained such intelligence before losing hope."

We have a chance to turn the tide!

Even if the price is falling into the abyss.

He took a grayish-white crystal from the inside pocket of his tactical vest.

It is a product of the ice bat's brain.

He slowly pressed the white crystal directly above his heart.

"I, Gu Linzhou, am the first test subject."

"If all goes well, all soldiers except civilian and technical personnel will undergo alienation and transformation."

"Keep a last grenade for yourself."

His gaze sharpened, and he solemnly saluted everyone.

"Comrades, let's all become monsters!"