[Mutated Green-headed Fly 1 has grown to the size of a fist and seems to have stopped growing. The radiation levels from its proboscis (its Activity core) is very low. In fact, it is even lower than from brachyponera worker ants. It seems like manual mutation suffer from congenital inadequacies.

 [The twelve second generation mutated larvae have already grown to 10 cm in length and 4 cm in breadth. However, the amount of rotten flesh they require every day is too much, so I am almost at the point where I cannot provide for them anymore. I’ve decided to get rid of half of them.]

 Six larvae were brought out. Shen Cong dissected one of them, but he saw no signs of an Activity core.

 But when he thought about how fly larvae needed to undergo the pupal stage before they could turn into insects, he theorized that he might need to wait until they turned into green-headed flies before he could discover their Activity cores.

 Also, he heard that the nutrient value of larvae was very high.

 When he cast a glance at the remaining five larvae squirming around, he felt his stomach churn in disgust. Unless he was seriously famished, he would not eat those things!

 1Shen Cong’s quick mind swiftly came up with an idea.

 ‘But it’ll be a waste if I throw them away… Perhaps I can use them as bait. The lake where I took water from cannot hide giants like the dog crocodile, but it might house small mutated fish. They can’t pose a threat to me, and if I manage to catch them, they’ll serve as good sources of meat.’

 After Shen Cong came up with the idea of using the larvae as bait for fishing, he thought of how to realize it, since he had always belonged to the category of people who took action once they had a plan.

 He immediately ran a simulation of how it could work in his head, and he found that it was not impossible. He would need a fishing pole made of metal, and the fishing line should be made of steel, or else, he might not be able to pull out a mutated fish.

 ‘It’ll be easy to get steel wire. I have some. But I don’t have a steel pipe that can be made into a fishing pole. I’ll have to search for one in the ruins. But it’s dark now. I’ll look for one tomorrow.’

 Shen Cong suppressed his urge to fish and began sorting out the Activity cores he had gathered.

 He had two pairs of scythe-like chelicerae from the earth-digging insects, one pair of incisors the size of watermelon cutters from the large-toothed rat, three fangs from the fanged wolves, four fangs from the unspayed poodle, one pair of crescent moon shaped husks from the tumor pig, one scale from the queen ant, and the weak Activity cores from the brachyponera ants. The number of Activity cores he obtained from the ants was the highest. He also had fourteen bone spikes from the fugly cat.

 There were also three Activity-laced nectarines, but he did not know whether they could be considered as Activity cores.

 It was a waste to have a large number of Activity cores. Shen Cong did not know why he had gathered so many of them in the first place; after all, he could not devour them.

 Perhaps he could use them to feed the green-headed fly. Shen Cong tossed a maxilla of a brachyponera worker into Mutated Green-headed Fly 1’s container, and it instantly laid on it. It used its proboscis to poke at it and started eating it bit by bit.

 Shen Cong kept an eye on the mutated fly in the glass bottle from the corner of his eye. He did not expect that the fly could really eat an Activity core, but using Activity cores to feed a green-headed fly was an act of those who spent their money lavishly. Shen Cong did not intend to feed it the other Activity cores. Besides, his research on Mutated Green-headed 1 had come to an end.

 Once the second generation mutated larvae turned into flies and he finished comparing them, Shen Cong would kill all the insects.

 Feeding flies that just kept eating and pooping in his truck compartment tested Shen Cong’s patience in regards to hygiene.

 ‘Then, I will use the queen ant’s scale to modify Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0.’

 Shen Cong made this decision after some brief thought.

 The dog crocodile and the mutated survivor told him that there were plenty of dangers in the post-apocalyptic world. Even if he drew close to a city, it was impossible for him to stay in Titan forever. An Activity-infused armor that could guarantee his safety for a short period of time was incredibly important.

 He brought out some paper and began sketching the blueprint for his modification plan.

 Shen Cong’s pencil illustration was very realistic. This was a talent he had cultivated over the years while he built his gadgets. Right then, he could perfectly draw whatever plan he had in his mind.

 ‘I’ll need to modify the joints at the elbow. Just connecting the steel boards with steel wire limits my agility. If I grind the petioles to the shape of the bottom of a bowl and modify them into three sections, I should gain more agility. How many petioles do I have? Nine from the worker ants, and four from the soldier ants…

 ‘I’ll use the petioles from the soldier ants to protect my knees and shoulders. Coincidentally, I have four of them. I can protect the elbow, wrists, and ankles using an assembly of worker ant petioles. They’ll be perfect for having more freedom in the joints. I’ll also need to modify the waist, neck, and hipbone. Can I use steel wires to make chainmail?’

 The procedure to make chainmail was actually quite simple. Shen Cong learned how to make it before the apocalypse, but since the creation of bulletproof vests, chainmail has not been useful.

 Now, Shen Cong remembered this skill.

 Chainmail was made by linking multiple hoops together. It could be made using the washers from screws and key rings. If neither of the two were available, he could also bend steel or metal wires to make the hoops.

 Shen Cong found a metal stick that was the breadth of a finger and began binding it with a steel wire. The loops were close to each other.

 With his strength, it was very easy for him to wrap the steel wire around the metal rod and secure it in place. Then, he removed the metal rob before using pliers to cut the steel wire along a straight line, and the steel hoops the size of rings were formed.

 In theory, the smaller the hoops were on a chainmail and the closer they were laced together, the higher the defense of the chainmail. After creating a pile of steel hoops, all that was left to do was to weave them together.

 Shen Cong hooked the hoops together, which required quite some time, and made a few chainmail based on the blueprint.

 Next, Shen Cong started grinding the petioles and the queen ant’s scale armor.

 Since he had an electrical grinder, he could do so very quickly. Hence, when midnight passed, Shen Cong had already modified all the materials and could start assembling his armor.

 But he did not begin to work immediately. It was very late, so he should eat two Activity-laced nectarines and go to sleep.

 *****

 It was the 1st of August, and the celebration of the formation of the People’s Liberation Army.

 But that had nothing to do with Shen Cong. After he got up, he immediately went to sense how much he and Titan had improved.

 The effect from two nectarines was great. Shen Cong came to the judgment that he needed just one more step to obtain the strength of three bulls. Titan’s Activity had also increased from 27.1% to 30%. That was a total of 2.9% Activity. And it was when Shen Cong did not use his full strength to guide Titan into absorbing Activity.

 With the Activity-laced nectarines around, Shen Cong could spare the energy and time needed for guiding Titan into absorbing other Activity for other stuff.

 In truth, even if he used his full strength to guide Titan right now, it was impossible for him to make it improve by leaps and bounds. The wandering Activity in the world had returned to its standard amount, which meant that there wasn’t as much of it as during a storm or during cloudy days, so the amount Titan could absorb had been drastically reduced.

 If another apocalyptic storm started or another thunderstorm arrived, with Shen Cong guiding Titan into absorbing the large amount of wandering Activity, it would not be a problem for him to increase Titan’s Activity by 5%.

 Of course, Shen Cong did not wish for that sort of super disastrous weather to appear again.

 Living a peaceful life was pretty good.

 *****

 Shen Cong picked up his electrical welding tool and continued with the work he had not finished at night—assembling his Activity armor.

 The steel plates on the new battle armor were cut into even smaller pieces. The joints were connected together using the petioles and chainmail, and the welded parts were done with even greater attention to detail.

 Due to that, the entire process lasted an entire morning.

 Once Shen Cong assembled the Activity armor, it satisfied the concept of human kinetics much more than the previous version. The chest area and joints were mainly made of Activity cores, and their defense was much greater.

 The Activity armor had always used the fangs from the fanged wolves as the key to using Activity. Now, the fangs from the fanged wolves had been embedded into the sides of the helmet. The queen ant’s chest plate was treated as the main key for Activity at the chest area.

 2This was not a decision Shen Cong had made. It was an ability spontaneously activated by the Activity core. When the Activity armor went through Alloying with Titan, the Activity had naturally become one with the queen ant’s scale.

 When its connection with Titan was cut off, the rate at which the Activity in the battle armor was lost was also drastically reduced because of the support from the key Activity cores.

 Shen Cong’s ability to fight for a continuous amount of time had been increased in all aspects.

 Crunch!

 Shen Cong crushed a fried ant leg and put on his Activity armor. Since the links in the chainmail served as buttons too, wearing his battle armor became much easier than before.

 With the battle armor on him, he began trying out all sorts of moves.

 ‘Hmm, very good. It almost doesn’t limit my movements. I’ll change some of the details, and it’ll be perfect!’

 Shen Cong imitated the move of a boxer and punched forward. It worked as he expected.

 Clack.

 He lowered the cover of his helmet.

 Shen Cong opened Titan’s external armor and walked out. The morning sun landed on him, and the surface of the newly polished battle armor shone with a white, silver light.

 ‘It still had the frame of version 1.0, but many of the details have changed. Compared to version 1.0, the comfort level, agility, and defense have all increased distinctly. I’ll call it Drastically Modified Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0… Eh, the name is too long. I’ll shorten it to Drastically Modified Battle Armor.’

 2Half an hour later, new changes were added to Drastically Modified Battle Armor.

 The newly repaired infrared thermal image scanner was installed at the left side of the helmet, where the left eye should be. Shen Cong could push it up and pull it down. On his left shoulder, there was a stud where he could fix a handheld crossbow, while his right shoulder had a stud for the quiver. There were three studs on his waist as well, and he could hang his fang dagger, slingshot, and steel ball sack on them.

 2His right and left thighs had studs too, and the Sanleng thorn as well as entrenching tool were both fixed there. Another stud could be found at the chest, and it was meant for his binoculars. The final addition was a pocket in the chainmail covering his stomach. That pocket stored the handgun.

 The true appearance of Drastically Modified Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0 was a battle armor filled with weapons.

 *****

 When Drastically Modified Battle Armor was born, Shen Cong’s sense of safety increased by leaps and bounds.

 He bathed and shaved his head. The leaves he picked during his travels were used to wrap the ant legs, and he ate them as snacks. Then, he equipped all his weapons and armor.

By then, Shen Cong had already used Alloying on all the equipment that could be Alloyed to Titan, be it his javelin, fang arrows, Activity-laced steel balls, or Activity-laced bullets.

 It was all done so that he could maximize his power.

 Shen Cong then began searching through the ruins of Yinpingzhen.