“Tomorrow morning.” Old Newton said, “It’s already too late to go to the base mutation now, so we must carefully scrutinize every detail and make absolutely no mistakes.”

Henry Lincoln brought Old Newton inside the house, and the two of them repeatedly went over all the possible details that could arise.

Everything else was manageable, but the excuse for wearing a mask was hard not to arouse suspicion, though it could barely pass.

There was another important issue: at the recruitment conference, there was a segment where representatives from the Lin, Qi, and Wang families were each supposed to demonstrate their skills by killing a mutated creature, to showcase the Lin family’s strength and attract more mutants to join them.

Edward Lincoln was the public face of the Lin family, like a celebrity spokesperson in the past. If Edward Lincoln were present, this wouldn’t be a problem, but now only Henry Lincoln could attend the recruitment conference, which made things very troublesome.

“Little Fifth Brother, you haven’t mutated yet, so you absolutely can’t participate in the segment where you kill a mutated creature. We’ll have to find a way to get through it. But the Qi and Wang families have already grown suspicious lately, suspecting that Fourth Master isn’t in the base, so it won’t be easy to bluff our way through.”

After a pause, Old Newton added, “Fortunately, Fourth Master has always acted arrogant and dismissive, so when the time comes, you just need to show disdain for the representatives of the Qi and Wang families and let me act on your behalf. Fourth Master has the right to be that arrogant.”

“Old Newton, what grade will the mutated creature be when it’s time to kill it?” Henry Lincoln asked thoughtfully.

Old Newton’s solution was really just a last resort. If they couldn’t bluff their way through, he couldn’t let himself be exposed.

In the past, Henry Lincoln really had no way out, but now that he had Acupoint Striking and Seven Steps of Warfare, he might just be able to pull it off.

“Just an ordinary alloy creature. With my abilities, I can kill it in one blow,” Old Newton said confidently.

Chapter 003: The Easter Egg Shop

Alloy creatures are even more terrifying than steel creatures. Not only do they surpass steel creatures in strength and speed, but the hardness and toughness of their metallic bodies are also much greater.

The hardness and toughness of steel creatures generally range from 5 to 10, while alloy creatures range from 5 to 20. Once the hardness and toughness exceed 10, even handgun bullets can barely damage them.

That means that even a steel-level mutant would have a hard time breaking through an alloy creature’s defenses, let alone someone like Henry Lincoln, who hasn’t even mutated and isn’t even at the steel level.

Above steel and alloy creatures, there are even more terrifying crystal-based creatures, which rarely appear near the Xuan Bird Base. Henry Lincoln had only seen them in some video materials, and occasionally saw crystal-based creature materials or crystal eggs in shops, most of which were high-end goods that had flowed out from large bases.

“Old Newton, we’ve pretty much covered all the key details. Let’s call it a day.” Seeing that it was getting dark, Henry Lincoln stood up and said.

“Little Fifth Brother, let’s go over it again. We can’t afford any mistakes,” Old Newton said with a slight frown.

“We’ve thought of everything we can. You know my memory isn’t great—I can’t remember too much. I have something to take care of outside, so let’s leave it at that for today.” Henry Lincoln knew Old Newton was looking out for him and the Lin family, but for Henry Lincoln, there was something even more important he needed to do.

“Little Fifth Brother, if there’s anything, I can find someone to arrange it,” Old Newton said.

“Don’t worry, Old Newton, I know what I’m doing.” Henry Lincoln understood Old Newton’s concern, but this was something he had to do himself. While the shops selling mutant eggs were still open, he needed to check them all to see if he could find any more fire-seed mutant eggs. Even finding just one would be a huge help to him.

“I’ll wait here for you to come back. I’ll think over if there’s anything we missed, and we’ll talk when you return.” Old Newton felt helpless inside.

Henry Lincoln couldn’t explain, so he could only apologize in his heart, then pushed the door open and left.

“Little Fifth Brother has been taken care of too well by Third and Fourth Masters. He’s never faced any real hardship, and now such a huge responsibility is on his shoulders—it’s really tough for him.” Watching Henry Lincoln’s figure disappear outside the door, Old Newton couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. “I hope Third and Fourth Masters can come back soon.”

After leaving home, Henry Lincoln went straight to the market inside the base, where there was a whole street selling mutant eggs. According to Henry Lincoln’s thinking, if even a claw machine shop like his could find two fire-seed mutant eggs, then after searching this whole street, he should at least be able to find a few more.

But after he actually walked around the whole street, his mood gradually sank.

He had almost checked every shop on the street, but hadn’t found even a single mutant egg with a mosaic.

“Could it really be such a coincidence? The only two fire-seed mutant eggs just happened to be in my shop? That’s way too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?” The more Henry Lincoln thought about it, the more wrong it seemed.

Of the two fire-seed mutant eggs discovered so far, one was a recent arrival—he’d seen it for the first time. The other had been sitting in the claw machine for a long time, and he’d never noticed anything unusual about it before. That was very strange.

After thinking it over, Henry Lincoln could only come up with two possibilities.