Ice Age Apocalypse: I've Stockpiled Billions of Resources

"That is not a product of natural evolution."

Natasha walked up to Lin Luo.

"You noticed too?" Lin Luo flicked away the cigarette ash, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“Hmm.” Natasha crouched down, pointing to the shattered black carapace on the corpse in the distance. “If it were natural evolution, the bones would become hollow and lightweight to adapt to the low gravity of Mars. But these things have frighteningly high bone density, and there are obvious traces of biological neural interfaces beneath that carapace. Add to that their relentless aggression, fighting to the death no matter how badly they're wounded…”

She took a deep breath, her tone grave: "This is human intervention. These black tigers are likely biological weapons left behind by Martians back then, or some kind of genetically modified watchdogs."

“Watchdogs…” Lin Luo chewed on the word, his gaze fixed on the faint outline of a small city in the distance. “Since they are watchdogs, it means that the place we are going to has something they have to protect.”

“But it also means that if we don’t completely get rid of these beasts, entering that small city is just a pipe dream.” Natasha stood up and pointed out the current predicament incisively. “Those three were probably just scouts patrolling the perimeter. Once we get close to the city’s core area, we may face packs of black tigers.”

Lin Luo nodded, turned around and got into the car, bringing up the weapons inventory interface.

The red numbers displayed on the screen made him frown.

“That last wave used up three ‘Reaper’ missiles. I don’t have many of those left in stock. The research institute uses a lot of materials to manufacture them.” Lin Luo tapped his fingers on the control panel. “If there are hundreds of monsters of this level, even if I had mountains of gold and silver, I couldn’t afford to bombard them. A direct confrontation won’t work; our firepower and endurance can’t keep up.”

The atmosphere inside the carriage suddenly became somewhat oppressive. Everyone had just experienced the joy of surviving a disaster, only to be immediately doused with cold water by the reality of the ammunition crisis.

"Then what should we do? Take a detour?" Zhang Min asked cautiously.

"We can't go around it." Lin Luo refused decisively. "This city is located at a transportation hub, and we need its energy supplies. More importantly, if we can't even take down a small city, what will we do when we encounter a metropolis?"

Just when everyone was at a loss, Karina, who had been silently organizing supplies, suddenly spoke up.

"Since it's a wild beast, even if it's been modified, it can't escape its animal instincts, right?"

Karina pointed to the freezer in the living quarters: "I just checked the supplies and found that we still have a lot of frozen meat that we brought from Earth, especially the synthetic beef. The taste is so-so, and nobody likes to eat it, so we stockpiled a lot."

Lin Luo's eyes lit up as he looked at Karina: "You mean..."

“Lure and kill.” Karina made a cutting gesture. “They’re so big, their energy consumption must be staggering. On this barren Mars, food is an absolute scarce resource. If we could prepare some meat…”

"Then set up the artillery over there?" Chen Shuang interjected, "and bombard them together?"

“No, that would still be a waste of ammunition.” Lin Luo interrupted Chen Shuang, a cruel smile curving his lips as a crazy plan instantly took shape in his mind. “If we’re going to feed them, let’s feed them something ‘explosive’.”

He quickly turned around and dragged two heavy metal crates from the bottom of the armory.

"If we don't have enough shells, we'll use explosives. They're cheap and plentiful."

Lin Luo opened the box, inside which were neatly stacked dozens of high-energy C4 plastic explosives and remote-controlled detonators. These were spoils of war from his plundering of armories on Earth, which he had never been willing to use.

"Stuffing explosives into meat?" Zhang Min's eyes widened. "That's too...despicable!"

“This is called tactics,” Lin Luo said, already getting to work. “In the apocalypse, any method that saves bullets is a good method. Karina, take out all the synthetic beef and defrost it! We need to prepare a last supper for these Martian big cats.”

For the next hour, the amphibious vehicle was transformed into a makeshift "black workshop."

Lin Luo moved with lightning speed, his skill so practiced it was chilling. He cut open pieces of two-pound synthetic beef, hollowed out the center, stuffed in compacted high-energy explosives, and then inserted a miniature remote-controlled fuse.

To prevent the smell of explosives from being detected, he even had Karina apply a layer of concentrated blood plasma inducer to the surface of the meat.

This was a useless item I got from a lottery in the system before, but I didn't expect it to come in so useful now.

“This smell…” Chen Shuang covered her nose, looking at the bloody lump in Lin Luo’s hand, “It would probably drive zombies several kilometers away crazy.”

"This is the effect I wanted." Lin Luo looked with satisfaction at the mountain of "added meat chunks" piled up in front of him. There were fifty portions in total, and each portion contained enough drugs to destroy a light armored vehicle.

“Once they swallow it, the explosives will detonate inside their bodies. No matter how thick their skin or how hard their bones are, their internal organs will be soft.” Lin Luo wiped the blood off his hands, his eyes flashing with cold light. “This move is called ‘Center Bloom’.”

The bombs were ready, but Lin Luo didn't rush to give the order to set off.

He glanced at the time outside the car. It was two o'clock in the afternoon on Mars, and the sun was still scorching.

“The preparations are complete, but there’s still one crucial issue.” Lin Luo looked at Natasha, “We know nothing about the habits of these black tigers.”

"You mean the daily schedule?" Natasha immediately understood what he meant.

“Yes.” Lin Luo pointed outside. “Humans instinctively feel that it is safer to move around at night, with the cover of darkness. But for these apex predators, the night may be their home ground.”

He drew a circle on the tactical tablet: "Felines are usually nocturnal and have excellent night vision. If we set traps to lure them at night, we might not even know when they get close."

“But if it’s during the day…” Karina frowned, “would they come out?”

"This is what we need to confirm."

Lin Luo had fully entered commander mode, calm and meticulous, without any superfluous emotions.

“We can’t gamble with luck. Zhang Min, launch the highest-precision reconnaissance drone. Fly it high this time, and make sure it’s not detected. I need the surveillance data for the entire night.”

"Understood!" Zhang Min immediately sat back down at the control panel, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

A buzzing sound arose, and a miniature drone painted in the color of Martian red rocks silently took off, flying towards the desolate little city in the distance.

“We’ll wait here.” Lin Luo leaned back in his chair, took a bottle of water from the freezer and took a sip. “Let’s see if these beasts prefer sunbathing or killing people under that red moon.”

On the screen, the drone's feed began to be transmitted back.

The small city was lifeless, its streets filled with red dust and collapsed buildings. In the shadows of those dark corners and abandoned buildings, one could vaguely see huge black figures lurking.

When they lie still, they look like black rocks.

“There are quite a few…” Natasha gasped as she looked at the dense red spots on the thermal imager. “At least thirty.”

“And they’re all sleeping.” Lin Luo pointed at the screen. “It’s daytime now, so their thermodynamic response is very low, and they’re in a dormant state. It seems my guess was right; they are nocturnal creatures.”

"So that means..." Chen Shuang was a little nervous.

“In other words, we have to do the opposite.” A glint flashed in Lin Luo’s eyes. “When the sun sets, that’s when they are most active, and that’s when we are in the most danger. We must set the traps before their biological clock’s ‘excitement period’ arrives.”

Lin Luo glanced at the sun, which was beginning to tilt on the horizon, and spoke in a deep and powerful voice.

"We'll take turns resting tonight and remain on high alert. Tomorrow morning, when the sun rises and they go back to their nests to sleep... that will be the best time for us to 'feed' them."