Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The process of fully repairing Titan was long.
However, this was not the first time Shen Cong repaired Titan. During the apocalyptic storm, Titan was partially damaged by the wind and stones, and Shen Cong had repaired it bit by bit until it was in perfect condition.
The first thing he had to repair was the electrical power system. It was incredibly difficult living through a world without electricity. He could not cook his food and could not play with his laptop. Shen Cong also wanted to learn about radios so that he could modify his 15A radar and radio.
On the 13th of July, Shen Cong finished repairing the power supply system. He lifted the solar power electricity generator. Now, he could charge electricity again.
He lit up the lights, ready to provide electricity to his computer.
When he was tired from guiding the Activity around, he sat with his laptop and learned about radios seriously. He occasionally climbed to the roof, opened up a drink that was almost past its expiration date, and crushed a roasted walnut he got from Carrefour with one hand. While he ate it, he drank a mouthful of Nutri Express as wind laced with wandering Activity blew against his face.
Perhaps a person was supposed to live life by finding pleasure in the midst of suffering.
Night arrived, and Shen Cong raised his head to observe the starry sky. After the storm, the sky looked as if it had been baptized. Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Ophiuchus, Hercules, Corona Australis, Capricornus, Delphinus, and Equuleus—Shen Cong was able to identify all of them.
Once he found the brightest triangle above his head formed by Vega, Altair, and Deneb, it was very easy for him to use them as markers to locate the other constellations.
One, two, three… Shen Cong counted the stars.
It was something that he had done when he was in kindergarten, and at that time, he was at an age when he was still filled with childish innocence. Aside from that time, he had never counted the stars. But now, at twenty years old, Shen Cong did it once more. Society moved at a fast rhythm before the apocalypse, so everyone was busy either studying or working. No one had the time to look up at the sky.
But now, he was in a barren post-apocalyptic world that made him feel lost.
No matter what he busied himself with, it was all very meaningless, and counting the stars turned into a form of entertainment in his life.
Whoosh!
A shooting star quickly flashed past the sky, at the spot where Ophiuchus was. Then, it disappeared in the boundless dark sky.
Shen Cong’s lips curled up a little. If anyone saw a shooting star in the post-apocalyptic world, they might not be busy making a wish toward it, but would instead be reminded of their trauma.
Just where did the meteor shower that destroyed the world come from?
Shen Cong stared at the starry sky, which was still as brilliant as ever, and he began thinking in befuddlement. But as cold wind blew against his face, no one provided him with the answer.
‘If I didn’t shave my head, my hair would be in a mess because of the wind.’
*****
Thud!
A stone was flung from a slingshot. It traveled like lightning to hit an empty Nutri-Express bottle 30 m away, and the bottle was pushed 5 m to 6 m back.
Shen Cong picked up a small stone by his side, pulled the eight rubber bands back, and hit the bottle again.
Thud!
The empty bottle was sent flying 7 m to 8 m back. Now, it was 40 m to 50 m away from Shen Cong.
When it came to short distances, Shen Cong’s level with the slingshot was definitely top-class. He could choose to shoot through the empty bottle from a high altitude or hit its bottom at a slow speed to make the bottle bound away.
He had practically reached a level where he could hit any spot he wanted at will.
He had watched an American drama called Z Nation before. It was a story about a group of survivors who protected a person named Murphy because he had antibodies toward the zombie virus while they headed to the only virus laboratory that still retained normal operations in Canada. There was a person in their team known as 10K, because his goal was to kill ten thousand zombies. His skills with the slingshot had reached the pinnacle of perfection.
The force of a slingshot stone in regards to making a zombie’s head explode was even greater than that of a gun.
Shen Cong intended to practice until he reached 10K’s level. He had Activity strengthening his body, so logically speaking, it should not be difficult for him to surpass 10K.
But he believed that he was a little more like Murphy, who managed to survive even after he was infected by the zombie virus. After all, he was already beginning to evolve into another life form.
Of course, Shen Cong thought he was a little like Citizen Z too. Citizen Z had a large NSA listening outpost in the Arctic, and he used the communication system to lead the survivors. As for Shen Cong, he had Titan, and he was also trying to use his radio to contact other survivors so that he could exchange information, resources, and other things with them.
What made Shen Cong even more envious of Citizen Z was that he was the same as Will Smith in I am Legend. He also had a dog as his companion.
‘Why does everyone have a dog?’
Perhaps it was just like what Madame Roland had mentioned before: “The more I see of men, the more I like dogs.”
Shen Cong cast aside those chaotic thoughts, and while he mumbled more of Madame Roland’s famous words, he continued practicing with his slingshot.
“Oh, freedom! What crimes are committed in your name!”
Thud!
The empty bottle had its bottom struck by a small pebble, and it was sent flying several meters into the distance again.
Shen Cong picked up a pile of pebbles from the water channel with the intention of spending an hour to send the empty bottle flying until it was 200 m away.
He pulled the slingshot again.
Before he could fling off the pebble, the empty bottle that was 50 m away was suddenly bitten by a shadow that had shot out swiftly. The creature clamped down on the bottle and jumped on a huge rock before it started to bite and tear it apart.
Shen Cong reacted instinctively to this suspicious situation. He jumped up, and through the sunroof, he lowered himself into Titan.
He shut the sunroof and slid open the armor covering the window to the side. Then, through the glass, he observed just what the creature was.
It resembled a rabbit.
It was not large, just about the same size as a rabbit reared in the house as a pet. But Shen Cong knew that this was definitely a mutated rabbit, because it was currently holding the empty bottle and eating it while making crunching sounds. In less than a minute, the plastic bottle was gone inside its stomach.
Even though Shen Cong did not understand why the rabbit did not become bigger after its mutation, why its incisor did not grow to exaggerated proportions like those of the large-toothed rat and fanged wolf, and why it had about the same appearance as a house rabbit, a thought appeared in his mind once he was sure that the rabbit had mutated.
He wanted to study a living mutated monster.
The earth-digging insect, fanged wolf, and large-toothed rat were too big, and it was not easy to capture them. Besides, they were already dead.
Unlike them, the rabbit was alive and very easy to capture.
Shen Cong was a decisive person. Since he thought about capturing it, he immediately took action. He fixed a strip of fanged wolf meat to a rope and threw it out the window, which successfully attracted the attention of the rabbit that was about to leave.
Just as Shen Cong expected, the rabbit had indeed mutated. It no longer ate grass but had switched to eating plastic. It also ate meat.
The rabbit began munching on the fanged wolf meat while making squelching sounds. During that time, Shen Cong quickly used a metal fork and steel wire to make a simple trap. He pushed it out of the window. While the rabbit continued eating the meat, it was completely unaware of its surroundings, and Shen Cong was able to loop the wire around its neck.
“Grr… Grr…”
Once the rabbit was bound tightly, it immediately turned its body to growl angrily at Shen Cong, but after a while, it turned back and continued nibbling on the fanged wolf meat.
‘It… sure is stupid.’
Shen Cong fastened the trap, and after he was certain the rabbit could not fling it off, he lifted the metal fork and hoisted the mutated rabbit into the air while it was still munching on the fanged wolf meat. He brought it into Titan.
Then, he got himself a metal bucket to temporarily trap the mutated rabbit. After that, he went to look for his electrical welding tool to make a metal cage.
Half an hour later, the metal cage was ready.
The mutated rabbit turned into Shen Cong’s first lab animal for his research work.
*****
The earth-digging insect, large-toothed rat, and fanged wolves had all experienced huge changes to their size. But when Shen Cong obtained their carcasses, he did not discover anything that was of much value.
He only knew three things.
First, their meat quality had been improved, and it was full of Activity that could be absorbed. Second, they had an Activity core that would slowly turn their bones into something similar to metal. Third, their intellect was low, they were fierce and violent, and their desire to attack others was incredibly strong.
These things were far from enough to answer Shen Cong’s questions, and he could not satisfy his desire to figure out the connection between Activity and mutation.
Shen Cong himself had been modified by Activity, so he needed to quickly understand whether all those changes were good or bad. Even though he had been investigating Activity through trial and error, with a lab rat for observation and research purposes, he could understand many of the mutations brought by Activity much better. It would also allow him to conduct some rather dangerous experiments.
Shen Cong bound the rabbit’s limbs.
The rabbit kept growling, and it looked incredibly agitated, but Shen Cong saw it as just a lab rat that he could toy with at will. Even if it died, it was just a ball of flesh he could eat.
‘Its teeth haven’t turned into Activity cores. I don’t see any sign of its bones turning into metal.’
Shen Cong opened the rabbit’s mouth and started checking the rabbit’s teeth carefully. Its incisors were somewhat big, but the incisors of normal rabbits were also just as big. The color was also on the yellowish side. It did not have the dark, silvery, metallic feeling the fanged wolf and large-toothed rat teeth had. Clearly, its Activity core was not in its incisors.
‘Its limbs aren’t its Activity Core either.’
Shen Cong also inspected the rabbit’s paws. The small claws were a little sharper than a normal rabbit’s, but they did not have the metallic feel that belonged to Activity cores.
Its fur and skin also did not show a lot of mutation signs.
But Shen Cong could sense that there was the aura of Activity flowing around the animal.
Previously, Shen Cong had deduced that Activity might be a special type of radiation, because each storm brought forth a large amount of Activity, and the radiation levels shown on the Geiger counter would shoot way past the acceptable levels of radiation. Once the storms left, Activity soon returned to normal levels, and the numbers shown on the Geiger counter also decreased.
There was definitely a connection between the two, but Shen Cong had not been able to come up with reliable evidence because he had limited conditions.
But even though he did not have reliable proof, he had cumulative evidence—He could sense the existence of Activity, regardless of whether it was sensing the Activity in Titan, sensing the Activity wandering in the world outside, or the Activity in living objects. From what Shen Cong could perceive, Activity existed in the form of electromagnetic radiation. In fact, it might be radioactive.
For example, he could sense the electromagnetic radiation formed by the rabbit’s body, but he could not seize that activity. He could only absorb the wandering Activity the rabbit released or absorb its Activity by eating it.
Even he could not release the wandering Activity constantly to the world outside. He could only release a small amount of it.
[Metal… Electromagnetic radiation…]
Shen Cong typed these words with the keyboard of his laptop before he frowned. No one knew what he thought of.