Lin Dong took a deep breath, suppressing the worry in his heart.
He then turned his attention to handling the fish.
As the kitchen knife scraped against the scales, the grating sound made his expression change again.
This fish's scales also possessed remarkable defensive capabilities.
Fortunately, they hadn't reached the point where the knife couldn't scrape them off, though it was quite laborious.
Once the scales were removed, Lin Dong cut open the fish's belly—this time, the process went surprisingly smoothly.
While the sardine's scales were hard, its flesh was tender and smooth.
During the gutting, no further abnormalities were discovered.
After cleaning the fish, Lin Dong looked at Ding Yan and Cai Zhi.
Both wore different expressions, clearly deep in thought.
Lin Dong said, "You've both seen it. This fish is clearly different from sardines before the Great Flood."
"Its teeth are sharp, its scales are tough, it's incredibly strong, and its vitality is robust. Most importantly, it has a certain level of intelligence—it actually knew to play dead to trick me."
Cai Zhi's face paled slightly. "How could this happen?"
Ding Yan also looked grim. "Is this still a sardine?"
Lin Dong nodded. "Definitely a sardine. Its appearance hasn't changed much, but its size has clearly grown significantly, and it's evolved teeth."
"The key point is—it now eats meat!"
At these words, their expressions darkened further.
Ding Yan couldn't help but glance at Cai Zhi and ask, "Are there many of these fish in the water outside?"
Cai Zhi swallowed hard and nodded. "Probably quite a few. The people fishing sometimes catch them even without bait."
Lin Dong cut straight to the point. "No need to ask further. Sardines are schooling migratory fish. During the day, they usually stay at depths of 25-100 meters, rising to 5-10 meters at night."
"However, their habits have likely undergone unknown changes now. But given how easily they're being caught, their schooling behavior probably remains the same."
He finally understood why the sardine had mistakenly swallowed his iron nail.
Chances were, the bodies of those who'd been struck by his nails would be devoured clean by countless sardines the moment they hit the water.
These were practically ocean piranhas.
Cai Zhi and Ding Yan clearly realized this too, and both shuddered.
Ding Yan was the first to react. "So does this mean we're trapped in this building forever?"
Lin Dong glanced at her. "With a boat, we might be able to paddle around nearby. But if you're thinking of going into the water directly, abandon that idea now."
Cai Zhi fell silent. At this moment, Lao Ma arrived unnoticed.
Having listened to their entire analysis, Ma Guocai's expression was also uneasy. He couldn't help saying, "We'd originally thought that after dealing with Liu Erlong, we could organize everyone to go out and search for food. What do we do now?"
Cai Zhi added, "The food in the building will run out eventually. Does this mean we'll have to rely on eating these fish from now on?"
Lin Dong had no answer to this. He could only say, "After we deal with Liu Erlong, we'll all brainstorm solutions together. Maybe we can use wooden boards from wardrobes or other furniture to build a boat. Short-distance paddling isn't entirely impossible."
"Right, the top priority now is to figure out how to deal with Liu Erlong, that malignant tumor. If we don't eliminate this group, there'll be no peace in our building," Cai Zhi immediately added.
Ding Yan and Lao Ma both nodded, no longer dwelling on the mutated fish.
But deep down, each of them was quietly worried.
Lin Dong crouched down and swiftly dealt with the other two sea bass.
These sea bass were different from the sardines—their bite force was stronger, and their teeth were sharper.
Their fish scales were denser, and they had greater strength, but their intelligence was clearly inferior to the sardines, making them more clumsy.
After slaughtering the two sea bass, Lin Dong gained another 12 Points.
A single sea bass actually contributed 6 Points.
That was even higher than killing a Mutated human.
For a moment, Lin Dong couldn't figure out the mechanism behind the Point evaluations.
"Lifeforce?"
"No, that can't be. Human lifeforce should be much higher than these fish."
"Even if they're Mutated Fish, they still can't compare to human vitality."
"Then what's it related to?" Lin Dong pondered briefly and came up with a guess.
"Degree of mutation?"
"Looking at all the creatures I've killed, the ones that gave me Points all had the word 'mutated' in them."
"Whether it's Mutated Fish or Mutated humans, it seems to be tied to mutation."
"Perhaps the higher the degree of mutation, the more Points you get for killing them."
The more Lin Dong thought about it, the more it made sense.
Suddenly remembering something, he handed the cleaned fish to Cai Zhi and instructed, "From now on, if we trade for fish, let me be the one to kill them."
Cai Zhi was taken aback and quickly said, "That won't do. Dirty work like this should be left to Sister Mei and the others."
Lin Dong had no choice but to explain, "I want to study the mutations in these sea creatures and gather firsthand information."
"Oh… I see. Alright, I'll call you whenever we have fish to kill from now on."
Lin Dong sighed in relief. Since killing fish earned Points, he couldn't afford to miss out.
After washing his hands, Lin Dong found Yang Mei, who was chatting with Aunt Li.
"Sister Mei, I need to ask you something."
Yang Mei quickly stood up and followed him aside. "What is it, little brother?"
"Did you and Li Zhiqiang ever eat these fish before?"
"No." Yang Mei shook her head. "We didn't dare go outside. On the 32nd floor, fishing wasn't even an option."
Lin Dong frowned. Then how did Li Zhiqiang become a Mutated human?
His gaze shifted, and he suddenly asked another question. "How did you two usually get water?"
"We just collected rainwater."
"Rainwater?"
Lin Dong's heart skipped a beat. "You drank it directly?"
Yang Mei nodded and sighed. "At first, when we still had gas, we'd boil it for drinking."
"But after the gas ran out, and we didn't have much left to start fires with—we had to save it for cooking—we had no choice but to drink it raw."
"Luckily, the rainwater seemed clean enough. We didn't get sick or anything from it."
Lin Dong instantly understood how Li Zhiqiang had mutated.
It was the water.
He drank rainwater directly.
That rainwater might be what caused humans to mutate!
And the Mutated Fish in the ocean—once eaten—could also trigger mutations.
Lin Dong couldn't yet tell whether mutation was good or bad.
But it was enough to make him cautious.
"Should we still eat the fish tonight?"
He pondered—what exactly did mutation mean?
His mind involuntarily flashed back to Liu Erlong slamming his bare hands against the security door, denting it slightly.
Could it be that after mutation, humans gain increased strength?
He thought back to the sardines and bass he had just killed.
It seemed these mutated sardines and bass had undergone varying degrees of enhancement.
Is mutation simply evolution?
He couldn't be certain in his heart. So what choice should he make?
Should he remain a pure human as before, or embrace this new era and join the path of evolutionary mutation?
The most crucial point was determining whether mutation carried any risks!
If it was merely about individual enhancement, that would be acceptable.
But beyond mutation, could there be unknown dangers lurking?
This was Lin Dong's true concern.