Iron Old Man Doesn't Need to Forge Iron

After discussing the mystery of the black-clothed men, once Boss Bo confirmed that Tom was okay, he crawled out. He had to inform Uncle Wei that they didn't need to escape anymore, that it was safe, and also to bring people over to collect supplies.

By the time Boss Bo brought Skinny and the others running in, Tom had already found the supplies hidden by the black-clothed men in the inner room.

There were large crystals: 5 red, 3 green, 8 yellow, and 1 blue; crystals: 8 red, 6 green, 10 yellow, and 6 blue; large gems: 23 red, 25 green, 36 yellow, and 49 blue; and even smaller gems: 56 red, 43 green, and 62 yellow. There were also over 20 blank gems and 9 blank crystals.

This was a huge haul, completely surpassing all the loot Tom had ever gathered before.

Uncle Wei also came to inspect. When he saw the mutated Haba dog, he was astonished. The people with him recognized this Haba dog as the one they encountered when Thirteen took them out that day.

Although it was dark now, these gemstones were very valuable. They decided to transport everything back that very night.

To facilitate transportation, Tom directly threw Skinny onto the door lock, letting him lower a rope. Boss Bo climbed up and, with enhanced strength, turned the door handle and opened the door.

In addition to gemstones, there were also some food supplies in the black-clothed men's hiding place, seemingly scavenged from nearby, and even vacuum-packed inflated food.

With enhanced strength now, Tom and Boss Bo naturally became the main force for transportation. Carrying large bundles of items, the two of them shuttled between the first and second floors with ease.

After moving for more than three hours, even Boss Bo, with his abundant physical strength, was exhausted and panting heavily.

Uncle Wei had Tom bring his key-locked wooden box and lock all the gemstones and crystals inside. Uncle Wei kept the key, to be dealt with the next day.

After a night's rest, Tom and Boss Bo recovered their strength. After breakfast, they sat down with Uncle Wei to discuss the next steps for the camp.

Currently, Tom's broken ribs had not healed, and his combat effectiveness had not fully recovered. The surrounding area was still filled with mutated creatures that had not been killed yet, so it was not realistic to escape hastily.

After Thirteen's turmoil, everyone in the camp was filled with fear of the outside world. They would rather stay in Uncle Wei's clinic than venture out.

Not to mention those two strangely motivated, exceptionally powerful, black-clothed men who killed the dog with such ease, just like high-level players slaughtering beginner bosses in an online game.

Anyway, the supplies in the clinic were enough for over a hundred people to last for three months. Uncle Wei proposed to continue staying in the clinic, recuperating and researching the secrets of these gemstones and crystals.

Tom and Boss Bo agreed with Uncle Wei's suggestion. Tom also felt that it was better to stay low-key for now.

The camp urgently needed to enhance its combat power. In addition to the ten-member group led by Boss Bo, there were also 26 gangsters locked in glass bottles, with the rest being middle-aged and elderly men and women, as well as a few children.

Tom followed the rules he had used at the supermarket before, taking out four gemstones of each color and size from the box and putting them in a large glass jar kept by Uncle Wei. Sixteen people would enter at a time, changing colors every 10 minutes for testing to see how many awakened individuals could be found.

Someone supervised and instructed inside. After they came out, they had to return the gemstones, and only then could they leave.

Before this, Tom explained to everyone that swallowing gemstones would turn them into zombies, dispelling any thoughts they might have had about awakening by eating gemstones.

No one wanted to become the rotten zombies seen in movies and TV shows. Their demand for awakening was also not very urgent, so Tom estimated that they were unlikely to have such thoughts.

The twenty-six gangsters were left to Boss Bo to select. Those who showed remorse could be released first and assigned to do some physical work for observation.

As for Thirteen, he was originally a problem, but after one night, Uncle Wei's medicine failed to save him, and he died in the middle of the night.

No one in the camp felt sorry for such a villain.

The middle-aged and elderly men and women wished to skin him, tear him apart, and dismember him, while the gangsters hoped to clear their names and return to the group as soon as possible. After all, it was very uncomfortable to stay inside glass bottles, and the food they were given was poor leftovers.

The dead bodies had to be burned to prevent them from being eaten by other insects and animals. It didn't have to be thoroughly burned; wrapping them in paper and wood chips, tossing them into a dug pit, igniting them, and covering them with soil was sufficient. Boss Bo had long discovered that insects wouldn't eat the burnt corpses.

Once they finished handling Thirteen's body, Tom and Uncle Wei met an old man on their way back.

Iron Shavings, the Iron Old Man, the strange old man in Uncle Wei's words.

"Iron Old Man, why did you come out as soon as you were better?" Uncle Wei asked.

"I'm about to rust, I need to move a bit, Wei Old Man. Let's make a deal. Let me try that stone of yours," the old man replied.

Uncle Wei waved his hand. "The tests for you patients are scheduled last, to allow you to recover as much as possible and be in the best condition for testing."

"I'm in great shape, old man! I want to do it now, I urgently need to!" the old man insisted.

"No, rules are rules, they can't be changed," Uncle Wei insisted.

Since they had to work, Tom had been carrying a ruby with him. Seeing the old man's eagerness and recalling the strange feeling he had when facing him, Tom immediately took the ruby off his ring and handed it to him. "Uncle Wei, mine doesn't count as breaking the rules. Let him try it."

The old man closed his eyes as soon as he grabbed the ruby and meditated for a few seconds. "This doesn't feel right, it's not this one!" He immediately threw the ruby back to Tom.

"Feeling?" Thinking about it, when he initially held the emerald, he didn't experience anything unusual, not even when activating the ability to communicate with lizards. "There are other colors too, but I think green is the best!" Tom always carried several small gemstones in his pocket, so when the old man mentioned it, he immediately remembered the "crystal energy transferred to material manufacturing technology" mentioned earlier, which likely referred to control crystals. When he was on the rooftop, he roughly tried it out and found that when holding the emerald, he indeed vibrated a blank crystal into four pieces using light energy. So, the green gemstone was likely a control crystal. Now, with the iron old man pinpointing the control crystal based on intuition, Tom couldn't help but speculate further. "Uncle Wei, I think he might be an awakened individual. Give me the key, I'll get some crystals for him to test, and I also want to conduct an experiment myself." Uncle Wei took off the large key hanging from his chest and handed it to Tom. "Take it, from now on, you'll be in charge of this key!" he said, waving his hand and walking towards the kitchen. Tom quickly brought Iron Shavings to the makeshift platform, guarded by two of Bo's men with guns. Seeing Tom approach, they naturally let him pass. Opening the large box, Tom took out a piece of emerald and two blank gemstones, and then hesitated before also taking out a piece of sapphire. "You give it a try!" Tom felt a bit excited. The old man closed his eyes as soon as he touched the emerald, and Tom indeed saw the emerald light up. "It worked!" "Hmm... not really, find me a piece of iron." The old man didn't beat around the bush and gave a direct command. Tom immediately asked one of the guards to fetch something made of iron from a nearby platform, and in no time, the guard brought back a piece of iron and an iron nail. Tom handed them to the old man, who touched the emerald with one hand and pressed the iron with the other. Soon, Tom and the two guards were amazed to see the piece of iron slowly curling up. "Control crystal! Control, manipulation!" Tom was ecstatic. It seemed that this green control crystal indeed had a controlling effect, just as its name suggested. Communicating with animals, wasn't it related to control? Wasn't it about controlling the vibration frequency with blank crystals? Now, the old man was even controlling the curling of the iron... Tom wasn't entirely sure about this. The iron piece curled up like a piece of heated plastic, slowly forming a cylinder. The old man let out a sigh of relief and then examined it. "Hmm..." What was wrong? Tom immediately asked, "What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted?" "It's a bit off, it curled too thickly." "What? You intentionally curled it into this shape?" "Yes, but it's a bit different from what I envisioned, the size is off by a few millimeters." Tom was speechless. One millimeter equaled ten micrometers. So, the old man wasn't dissatisfied because he messed up but because the size of the curl was slightly different from what he wanted... by a few micrometers... Was he kidding? "Uncle Iron... can you extend this iron nail?" "Sure!" Iron Shavings closed his eyes and held the iron nail. Soon, both ends of the iron nail began to slowly elongate. Tom watched with joy as the iron nail became sharper and flatter as it was stretched. "Enough, can you cut off the end? Make it into a dagger!" The iron nail gradually flattened and sharpened, its tip becoming thinner and sharper. Then, with a snap, the end smoothly fell off. Tom picked it up, not feeling any heat. Traditional iron forging required heating the iron red-hot and then hammering it into the desired shape. Yet, this iron old man could directly flatten and cut the iron nail into a dagger... a dagger without a handle. Its edges became sharp due to stretching, forming a blade directly. Tom found a small piece of wood. "Can you extend the end of the dagger and insert it into the wood to make a handle?" The old man complied, and soon, a dagger with a wooden handle was complete. "Now Chef Rong won't have to complain about not having a handy knife!" Tom laughed. He wasn't just happy about getting a knife but also about discovering another use for the emerald. Although this superpower of the iron old man couldn't be used in combat yet, it was very suitable for forging iron tools, almost like a human forging machine. "How did you do it?" Tom asked eagerly. With this ability, his envisioned set of equipment would be much easier to make. "When I was sick, I felt a vague urge to turn everything I held into various shapes of parts. When I heard you talking about gemstones, I thought it might be related to realizing that urge," the old man explained. An urge, just changing things at will... Tom suddenly felt enlightened. Wasn't it similar to how he suddenly gained triple strength? These gemstone crystals made using abilities seemed simple and straightforward. If they could do it, it would be as simple as breathing, as if it were innate. After Tom allowed the two guards to try, they each gave it a shot and then gave up in frustration. Tom had an idea. He also held the emerald, took the other end of the iron nail, closed his eyes, and imagined the iron nail in his hand gradually elongating. After a while, he still didn't feel anything different. It seemed like he couldn't do it. At that moment, the iron old man suddenly grabbed his hand. "You can't be hasty, don't think of it as an iron nail. Remember, it's like wood or dough, something that can be shaped at will, just processed differently. The more you think of it as solid, the harder it will be to change its structure, and the harder it will be to change it into the shape you want." Don't think, don't think... Tom immediately changed his perspective, imagining the iron nail in his hand as a piece of dough, stretching into a long strip. Soon, the two guards exclaimed in amazement, and Tom opened his eyes to see that the iron nail had indeed been stretched longer.