When Lucien clicked on the Crystal Bomb recipe, he saw the same warning as before, which stated that the explosives’ power and range would be equivalent to those of the crystals used. After clicking "Create," he saw that the recipe was much more complex... There were several sub-recipes for many types of explosives, and their power would vary depending on the crystal level used.
[Create Crystal Bomb:]
-Fragment Bomb - Details + 1
-Light Bomb - Details + 1
-Acid Bomb - Details + 1
-Poison Bomb - Details + 1
-Concussion Bomb - Details + 1
-Flame Bomb - Details + 1
-Freeze Bomb - Details + 1
Lucien was immediately interested in the last two types. He clicked on them first, only to discover he didn’t have the necessary ingredients...
For the Flame and Freeze bombs, level 3 or higher cores with this type of Universal Force were required. Without understanding what that meant, and after receiving no response from the system. Lucien focused on the first one on his list, the cluster bomb.
When Lucien finished creating it, something very similar to a hand grenade appeared in his hands. It fit in the palm of his hand and was red, with a texture reminiscent of reinforced leather. Lucien swallowed hard and began to tremble at the thought of holding a real grenade in his palm...
He had never even held a firearm in real life, but now he was holding something that must have been even more lethal...
Looking more carefully, he saw two pins: a smaller one and a larger one. Knowing what he was going to ask, the system stepped in:
[It is currently deactivated; it will not explode under any circumstances. Simply press the smaller pin and it activates the grenade, allowing you to detonate it remotely through the system, or through a pre-programmed order from me. The second, larger pin transforms it into something similar to a modern sensor mine. Anyone approaching within 2 meters will cause it to explode.]
"Does the range of this sensor increase for bombs made with higher-level crystals?"
[It does, but you can also control the range by pushing the larger pin in. If you just push it in a little, you can ensure the explosion is closer and more lethal. But I don’t recommend this, as it would cause the loss of a lot of biological material. So always keep the detonation detection level as high as possible for each grenade.]
Lucien reflected on the last piece of information before the system added another piece of extremely important information.
[Remember that the grenade created by the system’s ability doesn’t recognize you as a target, so it won’t activate the range-based detonation when you’re nearby. But the grenade will still recognize your pet. In this case, if you’re close, you could still be seriously injured...]
"I’ll remember this..."
After spending most of the afternoon testing his skill, night fell. Lucien decided to test the grenade’s power tomorrow. Repeating his daily routine, he went to sleep with the onset of darkness, even though it was now light...
The next morning, Lucien received the same notifications from the previous night, informing him that all the survivors in the building were alive and well, with no new fatalities having occurred the previous day.
Taking advantage of the fact that day had barely dawned, Lucien left the building accompanied by Mr. Mustache. He knew that the moment this giant cat was spotted, he would have to explain a lot. This time, he wanted to let the feline go hunting in the streets to see if he would be more effective. The system also warned him that now that the animals were evolving so rapidly, it was even more important to eliminate them all from the area to prevent future disasters...
After descending to the ground floor, Lucien followed the path to the building’s recreation area. He did this because he wanted to avoid the people from the convenience store and the doorman by going through the main entrance. To do this, he would use a back door used by employees. Of course, it was locked, but Lucien now had the key to this place after "borrowing" all the keys from the building’s administrator’s office.
Unlocking the door that led directly to the street, Lucien carefully looked through a small crack to make sure there were no zombies or monsters near the door, and only then did he let Mr. Mustache out.
The cat wasted no time, starting to sniff and peeking under cars, then ducking into dark alleys in search of prey. Lucien didn’t stay on the street for long; he approached a vehicle and placed one of the alarm clocks he’d saved in his inventory before the apocalypse began, leaving it under the vehicle, programming it to go off at 2 p.m. Only then did he place the cluster bomb on the hood of the car and hide it with an old food container.
Returning to the building less than 30 minutes later, Mr. Mustache returned carrying a red-eyed seagull, which Lucien quickly stored in the materials inventory, afraid of being seen...
He looked and observed through the system that this time, in addition to the dead animal his cat had brought, he had killed five others.
When he returned to his apartment, Lucien came face to face with Mr. Razdan at his door. The doorman was also surprised to see Lucien returning from somewhere, but screamed and dropped the box he was holding when he saw the giant cat behind him.
"Wh--what is this? How did this monster get into the building?"
"Don’t worry, Mr. Razdan, this is Mr. Mustache. My cat, don’t you remember him?"
"Your house cat? Impossible! How did it get so big?" he asked, still scared and keeping well away from Lucien.
Lucien crouched down, looking at the box the doorman had thrown on the floor. It was filled with supplies, which Lucien assumed were his share of the loot from the empty apartments. But he still suspected the doorman must have already taken many things from it...
"Don’t worry, despite his appearance, he won’t bite anyone, and he’s still the same as always. In fact, it’s good that you know he’s there. I always take him to hunt the infected rats that are invading the building through the underground parking lot..."
Still worried that the cat might attack him, the Doorman remained silent and kept his distance until Lucien picked up the box and re-entered the apartment. Only then did he wipe the sweat from his forehead and run down the stairs back to the ground floor...
Lucien waited until almost two in the afternoon before using his binoculars to check the bomb planted in the street behind the building. When the alarm went off, three zombies were attracted by the sound and approached the vehicle where the bomb was...
With the order received, the system detonated the bomb, creating a red mist of blood, causing several bone fragments to hit the three zombies near the car head-on.
[Eliminated a level 0 zombie!]
[Obtained 2 Creation Points!]
One of the zombies was hit squarely in the head and fell dead; the other was wounded in the chest and walked away as if nothing had happened. The last one lost only an arm, and perhaps suffered some facial wounds? Lucien couldn’t see from so far away.
The car’s windows were blown out by the impact, and its front hood was dented and pierced by numerous bone fragments where the bomb had been.
"The firepower isn’t bad... If I can get more ingredients at a faster rate, I can test all the others to—"
[Host to the AM and FM signal frequencies are active again, but only within the city of Kaelor!]
"Seriously? Is it the military?" Lucien asked excitedly.
[I can’t identify the source; whoever did this is using various devices around the city and even outside the city to scramble the signal.]
"Well, it doesn’t matter who activated it, right? I was able to save materials and didn’t need to create the Biological Antenna..."
[I still recommend creating it when possible, as the Biological Antenna will guarantee greater security for your communications, in addition to allowing me to listen in on all communications from anyone using your signal...]
"Wow! I’m going to look like a real spy with this tool..."
Lucien pulled his radio from his inventory, anxiously awaiting the clock to strike 3 p.m. Since he had agreed to communicate with his friends every day at this specific time...
And without delay, at 3 p.m. sharp, a childish female voice came from the radio. Followed by a childish male voice trying to sound gruff.
"Lucien and Will, are you listening?"
"Lucien and Nina, are you listening?"
"Yes, I hear you... It’s good to hear your voices..."
AN:Once again, this Chapter has the author’s notes at the end, and paragraph comments. I recommend reading the work on the original website (NovelHub) for a better reading experience with more system details.
I know some pirated websites can copy and paste the comments at the end of the Chapter. But you still won’t understand some of them, because they’re only at the end of the Chapter, completely out of place, creating an excess of meaningless information.
I make extensive use of this tool in my system novels, so that extra information about systems and statuses doesn’t add extra words to the book or become an unnecessary information dump for those who don’t want to read them.
Requires Level 3 Crystals from holders of the Flame Universal Force.
Requires Level 3 Crystals from holders of the Water Universal Force.