In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

"sure!"

The three arrived at the live sample laboratory attached to the computer room.

Inside the glass wall, several captured Tier 1 zombies and mutated creatures were wandering around unconsciously.

Lu Yuan took the identification device and skillfully turned it on.

"Sizzle!"

A pale blue halo appeared around the lens at the front of the device, and the waveform on the side screen jumped wildly.

He aimed the instrument at the inside of the glass wall.

"drop!"

A soft sound.

The numbers on the screen froze instantly.

Number of first-order targets: 4

A radar dot map was simultaneously generated at the bottom of the screen, with four bright red dots flashing in the center.

"good!"

Li Guodong exclaimed, "It's very intuitive. With this, frontline troops can greatly reduce casualties caused by miscalculations!"

But he quickly got to the most crucial point: "First-order is fine, but what about second-order? We don't have any second-order live samples for you to calibrate at this stage."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan did not answer immediately, but instead jogged to the other end of the laboratory and pushed open a separate low-temperature storage cabinet.

A chill emanated from the air.

He carefully lifted a translucent gel container from it.

In the center of the container, a crystal core lay quietly, its color deep and rich.

"This is..." Li Guodong's eyes narrowed.

Su Ran recognized it at a glance: "A second-tier crystal core."

"Yes, Commander Su."

Lu Yuan placed the crystal core on one side of the zombie horde. "This is a second-tier crystal core that I applied for from the Strategic Reserves Department."

Lu Yuan recalibrated the instrument.

"drop!"

A soft sound.

The screen data is fluctuating.

Number of first-order targets: 4

Number of second-order objectives: 1

On the dot matrix, a striking blue dot has appeared next to the original four red dots.

"The core logic of the identification device is to capture specific energy wavebands inside the crystal nucleus."

Lu Yuan pointed at the screen, his tone becoming confident, "Although there's no living organism, we can directly use a second-order crystal core for identification. Through 30,000 frequency simulations conducted on the computer, this instrument's identification accuracy can reach over 99.97%!"

"Great! That's wonderful!"

Li Guodong, beaming with excitement, exclaimed, "With this, we can finally reduce the burden on our logistics department!"

However, Su Ran, who had been silently observing from the side, suddenly frowned.

He didn't look at the screen, but stared at Lu Yuan's feet, then looked at the glass wall.

"Lu Yuan."

Su Ran suddenly spoke.

"Huh? Yes!"

Lu Yuan was startled by Su Ran's serious tone and subconsciously shrank his neck.

"When you tested it just now, you were only about three meters away from the target."

Su Ran's question hit the nail on the head: "What is the maximum effective detection range of this instrument?"

Lu Yuan paused for a moment, then gestured honestly, "The current prototype, in order to ensure accuracy, has an effective radius of only ten meters."

"Only ten meters?!"

Su Ran said, "An agile second-tier mutated beast can cover dozens of meters in just half a second with a single sprint."

Li Guodong also suppressed his excitement.

What does ten meters mean?

For a second-tier agile mutant beast, ten meters is a matter of 0.3 seconds.

Once the machine beeps, the mutated creature will immediately close in and unleash its ultimate attack.

"No, no, no, Commander Su, please let me explain!"

Lu Yuan's face turned red with anxiety, and he waved his hands repeatedly, "This is just a prototype! It's mainly for verifying the core algorithm! It will definitely need to be modified later..."

"No matter how it's changed,"

Su Ran interrupted him, her tone leaving no room for argument, "Start with a thousand meters! On the battlefield, detection means destruction; we must give heavy firepower enough reaction time."

"One kilometer..."

Lu Yuan bit his nails, his mind racing. "The current sensors aren't sensitive enough, so we need to add a signal amplification module, rewrite the filtering algorithm, and install a signal gain array, like that. Yes! A signal amplifier! Like putting a giant dish antenna on a radio!"

He looked up abruptly, his eyes gleaming. "I can do it! Give me three days, no, just two!"

"Just tell me what you need!"

Li Guodong waved his hand grandly, exuding confidence, "Don't worry about the materials! Whatever you need, if the Strategic Reserves Department doesn't have it, I'll procure it from the entire army! As long as it passes the tests, we'll start mass production! Let's get a thousand pieces first, enough for all our frontline companies!"

One thousand pieces!

Upon hearing this number, Lu Yuan was not happy at all; instead, his face turned deathly pale, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Director Li..."

Lu Yuan's voice trembled, "Well, mass production might be a bit difficult."

"difficulty?"

Li Guodong frowned. "What difficulties? Is it a shortage of manpower or equipment?"

"Lack of crystal nuclei".

Lu Yuan swallowed hard and said in a low voice, "The core sensing element of this identification device requires a crystal core of the same order to be used to create a resonant cavity. To make one unit, it requires one complete first-order crystal core and one second-order crystal core as the core sensing source."

"If you want to mass-produce a thousand units..."

Lu Yuan spoke quickly, "Then we'll need a thousand second-tier crystal cores."

The air fell silent instantly.

Li Guodong's smug smile froze instantly, and his lips twitched violently twice.

"One machine, and it's going to devour a second-tier crystal core?"

Li Guodong felt a sharp pain in his heart.

It should be noted that the entire Great Xia Strategic Reserve Department only has 498 second-order crystal cores in its warehouse!

Less than five hundred!

It also needs to be used by the Academy of Sciences for experiments, and by the Awakened to enhance their strength...

Building these thousand machines will not only empty our coffers, but also leave us in debt for five hundred more.

Lu Yuan shrank to one side, not daring to speak.

Beside her, Su Ran smiled.

"Old Li, broaden your perspective."

Su Ran patted Li Guodong on the back to help him catch his breath, "There are a few second-tier crystal cores now, but think about it, as time goes by, there will be more and more second-tier mutated creatures. It's a snowball effect. For the safety of the warriors, this investment is worthwhile."

Li Guodong took a deep breath and gritted his teeth.

"Okay! Let's build it!"

He was a ruthless man, and he knew how to calculate the cost in this matter. "The lives of our Great Xia soldiers are more precious than crystal cores! With this, we can also cure the fear of insufficient firepower among those guys on the front line. They won't have to call in high-explosive bombs to bombard the ground right away."

"Lu Yuan, you go and modify that signal amplification module first. As long as you can produce the finished product, I'll take care of the crystal core!"

"The first batch will consist of one hundred units!"

Li Guodong raised a finger and gritted his teeth, saying, "Prioritize allocation to heavy-armored brigades and special operations teams."

Hearing Li Guodong's approval, Lu Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As if remembering something, Su Ran added, "Lu Yuan, regarding the design architecture of this machine, if it encounters third-tier or even higher-tier mutants later on, can it be directly upgraded?"

"Absolutely no problem!"

Once back to the technical realm, Lu Yuan immediately perked up, "The principle is universal. As long as you have a third-order crystal core, embedding it into the core sensing source creates a third-order bio-radar!"

Li Guodong said thankfully, "It's a good thing we can upgrade, otherwise we really couldn't afford to maintain this kind of full-army configuration."

Su Ran smiled, a glint of shrewdness flashing in her eyes.

"Lu Yuan, please organize your design principles regarding 'frequency capture' and send me a copy tonight."

"Yes, Commander Su, what do you need this for?"

"Academician Wei Jianguo and Chief Engineer Wu Jiayong are developing the 'Crystal Core Radar,' and your principle may be applicable to large-scale air defense radar."

Su Ran said, "I'll send it to them for reference."