Speculation About the Crystal

In the past, facing the mutated soldier ants, Tom could be said to be helpless. But now, clad in the Old Street Zero Armor and armed with ample combat experience, scattered soldier ants were simply child's play to him. Last night, all the way here, he was familiar with the level of threats around him, which is why he dared to transport six people back to the shelter in a tank wrapped in iron.

Along the way, the four women and two men in the car arrived safely at the Redemption Shelter without much danger. The fountain pool they were once familiar with now seemed mysterious.

Tom broke off a few branches on the way back and the first thing he did upon returning to the shelter was to replenish the wood for the wood beetle's food. This simple insect had been alone in the shelter all night, and upon seeing Tom return, it immediately wagged its long antennae in delight.

The five people were startled, and Feng Hanjun almost threw herself onto Tom. After hearing Tom say it was harmless and obedient, they relaxed slightly.

Tom briefly explained the situation of the shelter to them, letting them know that it was safe here, at least for the time being.

It was now 9:16 in the morning, just after the shelter had finished deploying. There was still almost 24 hours left.

As Tom went alone to the small room to get the food released by the shelter, a reminder popped up on his watch, and he successfully earned 6 shelter points. However, he was still 14 points short of the minimum standard for redemption, a considerable gap. But Tom noticed a prompt: for every 20 registered survivors rescued, additional points would be rewarded.

He didn't know how much the reward would be, but Tom didn't care. The rules of the system were there, and everyone was treated equally. Not to mention that being able to save one more person was also a good thing.

He reiterated the arrangements to the six people, indicating that he would do his best to rescue people in the neighborhood. Before the shelter folded, he would bring everyone back to Uncle Wei's medical camp.

This arrangement could not only replenish the camp with fresh blood but also earn a batch of points, and even exchange them for new technology. With this experience, he could also try to bring other people from the camp to the shelter in batches to exchange points for more technology in the future.

This plan was good, but among the six people involved in the plan, there were different opinions.

Lu Qiuman was fine, but Feng Hanjun directly asked Tom why he didn't send them back to the camp now. Tom was too lazy to argue with her about this matter, so he gave her a choice: either stay obediently and wait for him to rescue everyone else before evacuating together, or go find another place to stay on her own.

He wasn't here to serve just Feng Hanjun alone, thinking the world revolved around her.

Faced with Tom's rude and unreasonable behavior, all Feng Hanjun could do was sulk to the side.

Another opinion came from Lin Meiqi, who requested Tom to take her with him to search for survivors.

This was definitely not possible, as one more person would be one more burden.

However, Lin Meiqi had a set of theories: "Since you can bring so many people, why can't you bring me along? I've only seen a few ants, I want to experience more exciting things."

For the first time, Tom felt how troublesome it was to bring a group of women, especially unreasonable ones. They had no combat power but kept posing challenges for him. One wanted to be his princess, queen, and the other simply wanted to be his burden.

Naturally, he refused, saying directly, "I don't care about you, anyway, you're not allowed to come."

Seeing Tom about to explode, Lin Meiqi cunningly pulled out a new argument: "I discovered a huge secret last night. If you take me out, I'll tell you."

Tom was somewhat interested, but considering the risk of taking her out, he still insisted on keeping her behind.

"The big crystal in your armor is very pale, right?"

The crystal energy backpack had a small window, which could indeed be used to judge how much energy was left in the crystal by the light coming through it. The paler it was, the less energy remained. Tom didn't explain, but this Lin Meiqi, who claimed to have an IQ of over 180, surprisingly figured out the pattern so quickly.

"So what?" Tom opened the metal box and took out the pale red crystal with only a little energy left, replacing it with a new one. This was the last large red crystal he had on this trip. There were six smaller ones left, but the output power of the armor would be reduced to 4.5. The amplification effect of the gold conductor on the small crystal was very poor. Installed in the armor, it was not much different from being tied to Tom's hand.

"Hehe!" Lin Meiqi winked at Lu Qiuman, who hesitated to speak, but due to Lin Meiqi's instructions beforehand, could only lower her head and not dare to look at Tom.

This little girl must have conducted some kind of experiment with Lu Qiuman last night and made some special discovery. Now she was using it to blackmail Tom, feeling justified, while Lu Qiuman felt guilty.

"This method can give you more red crystals, the large ones."

If that were true, it would solve the problem of obtaining large crystals. Tom naturally realized the importance of this secret and, after considering the outside threats of taking her out, sighed.

"Alright, I'll take you out. But there are two conditions: first, you must obey all my commands outside. Second, you must not run around on your own. If you can't do it, I'd rather not have this discovery and not take you out."

Lin Meiqi, seeing Tom relent, immediately jumped for joy and ran over to clap hands with Lu Qiuman in celebration. "Great! The stubborn old dog finally gives in. Hahaha! Qiuman sister, since you feel so guilty, why don't you tell him?"

Lu Qiuman nodded heavily. She took the pale red crystal Tom had just replaced and then took out a yellow gemstone.

Tom quickly stopped her, "No, the yellow gemstone will explode when it comes into contact with the red crystal! I've tried it, it can kill an adult dog!"

Lin Meiqi grabbed Tom's hand, preventing him from taking back the yellow gemstone. "It's okay, the instability is because there's no medium, just like high-voltage electricity that kills people and household appliances. You have to provide a stable medium as a conductor for it to work. I've conducted hundreds of 3A-level threat experiments. I understand such simple principles."

"What is a 3A-level threat experiment?" Tom asked, bewildered.

Lin Meiqi waved her hand, saying easily, "It's nothing serious. Those kinds of professional things, ordinary people like you will never come into contact with in your lifetime. Do you think my family, Lao Ma, is easygoing? Relax, relax, just watch Qiuman sister's performance."

Lu Qiuman closed her eyes slowly, holding the yellow gemstone in one hand. Soon, her body was enveloped in a yellow glow, turning into a human-shaped light bulb.

Since all five of them were only wrapped in a cloth, Lu Qiuman's body contours were reflected through the fabric, causing Tom to quickly turn his head away.

"Haha, why are you shy? Sister Qiuman doesn't mind, just look at her hand."

Tom turned back to see Lu Qiuman's other hand placed on the almost depleted large red crystal. Soon, the light on her body went out, but the large red crystal began to emit a faint red light.

"What's this?" 

Lin Meiqi sat on the sofa with her hands clasped, looking smug. "Based on the manifestations of the various abilities you've obtained and the resonance with different colored crystals, I've discovered some patterns. For example, different abilities are associated with different colored crystals! But before we continue... they don't need to listen anymore. Trust me, it's better if they don't know about these things."

Feng Hanjun immediately stood up to protest, but after thinking it over, Tom agreed with Lin Meiqi's suggestion. "Sorry, everyone, for your own good, it's better if you don't know what's going to happen next." Feng Hanjun was the least trustworthy, but to avoid singling her out, Tom excluded all five of them, taking Lin Meiqi to a secluded small room.

Regardless of what the five people thought, he did need to clarify things with Lin Meiqi first. And about his several abilities, it was not convenient to reveal them all to these five people.

Last night, curious Lin Meiqi had pried into all the abilities Tom knew. At that time, he only wanted to satisfy this little girl's curiosity, but he didn't expect her to conduct such comprehensive analysis of these abilities.

"According to the information you obtained, the green crystal is called the energy control crystal. What about the red one? It can make you stronger, faster, and make that fat guy hear more clearly. It can be said to enhance your existing abilities. So, according to their naming rules, why can't this red crystal be called the power enhancement crystal? A crystal that enhances energy."

Tom suddenly realized that this was indeed the case. Their abilities were all enhanced effects, so this could indeed be called a power enhancement crystal.

"Then you also have the ability to enhance skin defense. Why can't the power enhancement crystal directly enhance your skin? Why does it need to be used with the blue crystal? Let's analyze your other ability, mimicry. Yes, it can't be called invisibility, it's just the simplest mimicry. This ability requires the blue crystal."

"Then let's put the blue crystal aside for now and look at the energy control crystal, the green crystal. The most direct thing you can do is communicate with animals, like that gecko. Like that mutated orange cat, like that wood beetle. Combined with the fire control ability of Rong Uncle in your camp, considering the name of the energy control crystal, its energy naturally controls various things. Such as psychic power, material energy, metal deformation."

Tom had already figured this out. The energy control crystal did indeed control things.

"That's simple, then. Enhancement crystal, control crystal. And with this, the yellow crystal that can charge your ruby, don't dwell on the concept of gemstones and crystals. In my opinion, those small, worthless gemstones in your hand are actually unformed or fragmented crystal fragments. To avoid trouble, let's just call them crystals. What does the yellow one belong to? It's a storage energy crystal. It not only charges the red one but also the green one, and I believe it can charge the blue one too. So, the yellow one can be called a storage energy crystal, or an accumulator crystal."

"Storage energy crystal?" Tom played with the small yellow gemstone he had just taken out. "This explains why people who resonate with it will glow. Because the energy inside can be released directly?"

"More or less that principle!" Lin Meiqi nodded and handed him a piece of paper. "The uses of the three crystals are clear now. It's not difficult to deduce the blue one. Let me use elimination to list the mimicry ability and the enhanced defense ability as equations."

Tom unfolded it and saw the paper covered with dense derivation formulas. Although his knowledge was limited, he could still understand some of it.

"I found that the blue crystal involves a special concept: transformation, or rather, conversion!"

"Conversion?"