Chapter 51: Hunting Dogs

Shen Cong checked the Demonic Bull King Totem. After working for an entire night, the Demonic Bull King Totem still remained performing stably. It did not show any signs of wanting to explode.

Titan had also leveled up to Level 0.618 in the field strength that took the form of a tornado, and was filled with Activity. It was practically leveling up at rocket speed.

Shen Cong himself benefitted from this when Titan gave him Activity. He, too, had leveled up to Level 0.761. His physical constitution improved a little, and if he were to define his strength, then he should have already gained 3.4 bulls’ worth of strength. Just a little more, and he would gain 3.5 bulls’ strength.

But the field strength was not fixed.

After extracting Activity for an entire night, the Activity density in the area around the field strength had been drastically reduced, and it became difficult for the tornado to extract any more Activity. This caused the power of the field strength to fall by one whole level. Last time, Titan was able to get Level 0.001’s worth of Activity from it, but now, it needed fifteen minutes before it could get Level 0.001’s worth of Activity.

‘I’ll need to set up camp elsewhere.’ Shen Cong picked up a few more vegetable willow leaves and drove the truck away from the small lake.

He chose to set up camp at the river bend that was 1 km away from the fork of Yuxi River.

There was still plenty of wandering Activity in this place. Over the past few days, Shen Cong had managed to get a few fish in succession in this place. The water at this river bend was shallow, and the width of the river was narrow. It was impossible for large evolved fish or monsters like them to swim over. His safety was still ensured.

But there were no evolved trees here. The place was barren, and only a few stones scattered here and there as well as sand could be found.

The terrain was rather wide and open, which was good for him to observe any possible dangers around him.

When they came to a new place, the field strength stirred up by the Demonic Bull King Totem could now extract a rich amount of wandering Activity. It now returned to the standard where it allowed Titan to extract Level 0.001’s worth of Activity every ten minutes.

While he was by the river, Shen Cong used the demonic bull king’s rotten flesh as bait and placed the steel fishing rod by the river bend to quietly wait for evolved fish to fall into his trap.

Then, he put on his Drastically Modified Battle Armor and began his daily task of observing Yinpingzhen.

He had practically searched through the entire ruins together with the scavengers, and there was practically nothing good left. While Shen Cong observed the scavengers’ movements, he mainly focused on removing some of the parts from wrecked cars so that he could bring them back to weld them into bear traps. He intended to place some around Titan as a defensive measure and to hunt other creatures.

The Demonic Bull King Totem caused a huge ruckus, and Shen Cong believed that if there were evolved beasts around the area, they would definitely be lured over by the tornado formed by the field strength.

This was still fine during the day. Shen Cong could use bonemetal weapons to deal with them at any minute he wanted.

But if it were night, then he would have to largely rely on those bear traps to show their might. If he managed to capture a living evolved beast, he could keep it around and rear it.

Clang, clang.

Shen Cong forcefully removed the bumper of a small car.

He was not joking when he defined himself to possess the strength of 3.4 bulls. He did indeed possess the strength equivalent to a few bulls.

Once he yanked it off, he packed it up.

Shen Cong straightened his back and used his binoculars to survey the area around him.

Today, the scavenging team did not come. They might have already given up on contacting Shen Cong again.

Just when Shen Cong put down his binoculars, a cloud of smoke and dust suddenly rose in the distance. Shen Cong immediately hid behind a broken wall and trained his binoculars in the direction where the smoke and dust came from.

Hidden in the smoke and dust were a person and a dog, and they were fighting in the pile of scattered rocks!

Shen Cong subconsciously narrowed his eyes and observed the battle closely. The dog and man were fighting fiercely, and they were practically rolling around nonstop. It was very clear that the dog had a pair of huge fangs, making it an evolved beast. Judging by its physical characteristics, it should be the same as the fanged wolves, so this was also a mutated mutt.

He should be able to call it a fanged wolf.

One of the fanged wolf’s fangs was broken, and the half that was broken was stuck in the person’s arm.

Shen Cong could not quite see how the person looked, but he could somewhat tell that he was a man through his messy hair and tattered clothes. Also, based on how he could fight head on against the evolved beast, he could basically tell that this was a half-orc.

It was very difficult for a normal person to fight against an evolved beast empty-handed. As long as the evolved beast was not deformed, then every single aspect of its body would far surpass a normal animal’s.

The fight was incredibly violent. Blood gushed everywhere.

Shen Cong did not intend to go forward to help. Half-orcs were no longer considered as humans by the survivors, anyway.

He only observed carefully.

A head-on fight between a half-orc and evolved beast was a great chance for him to ascertain their strength. Shen Cong had won all his fights through the use of weapons, and he was in an urgent need to gain the figures for their basic fighting strength to judge his own strength and the strength of the other evolved humans. For example, he needed to judge just how much timing advance was needed before an arrow that was fired would hit an evolved human.

Shen Cong believed that sooner or later, he would fight against evolved humans. There were plenty of people in the world who wanted to hurt him!

It was only when he gained a full understanding of evolved humans that he could increase his chances of survival.

*****

The fight between the half-orc and the fanged wolf lasted for two and a half minutes. In the end, the half-orc wrapped his hands around the fanged wolf’s neck and pushed it down violently on the ground before the fight ended.

Everything became quiet. The smoke and dust scattered with the wind as well.

Shen Cong could see the half-orc’s face clearly. He had a monstrous face, and his Activity core should be the nails on his hands. Each of them were like knives that were embedded deeply into the fanged wolf’s neck.

Then, he buried his head at the fanged wolf’s neck and started to drink its blood.

After a few minutes, the half-orc drank the fanged wolf’s blood to its fill before it dragged the fanged wolf’s carcass into the distance. Then, he pulled out the fang still stuck in his arm in passing, put it under his nose to sniff it, and threw it into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

He chewed.

Shen Cong only watched all this and did not steal the prey. Neither did he have the thought of killing the half-orc.

Perhaps half-orcs could no longer be called as humans, but the female survivor he might that night retained some semblance of human intelligence and had not become a complete monster. That was why if the half-orc did not cause him trouble, Shen Cong did not intend to kill him as well.

When the half-orc disappeared into the ends of the earth while hot waves rolled off the ground, Shen Cong stood up and went back with a bunch of scraps with him.

Shen Cong was still very pleased with his rewards during his trip to the ruins.

He had basically managed to analyze the level of evolution between all of them through the half-orc and fanged wolf’s fight. The half-orc’s physical characteristics had indeed increased by a large margin. If he possessed this strength before the apocalypse, he might even be stronger than a vanguard in the special forces. His agility, speed, strength, and physical constitution was already not something a human could hope to compare to.

But he was still a far shot from Shen Cong’s level.

If he thought about this from another angle, Shen Cong predicted that he could kill the fanged wolf barehanded with just three moves. If the evolved humans were generally at this level, Shen Cong would definitely be an existence who stood out among the crowd.

Having six years to modify Titan, fumbling about and investigating Activity, being strengthened by Activity-laced nectarines, and being armed with the Drastically Modified Battle Armor were all the basis that built his confidence, allowing him to look down on the other evolved humans.

Of course, Shen Cong would not think that he was safe just because of this. If he were lucky enough to get some fortunate encounters, how was he supposed to know that others did not run into fortunate encounters of their own?

‘Forget about the fact that I didn’t come into contact with a lot of mutants. Let’s just focus on the ironfolk. If I can become one and share my life with Titan, then what about the cab drivers, tank drivers, pilots, and even the sailors on aircraft carriers during the meteor shower?’

He had a bold thought. The cars, planes, pleasure boats, and submarines operated by men during that time were all like Titan—they had become alive.

Then, there were those who died during the apocalyptic storm because they starved to death due to the lack of food reserves, or were killed by the meteors when they hit their vehicles because their shells were too weak, or drowned because they could not make it in time on shore when they were trapped in the ocean, or just died because they failed to evolve. With this, most of them died, and the ones who remained were all evolved humans.

The chances of survival for the evolved humans who were tank drivers in the military bases, the sailors of the warships that did not sink, and the helmsmen who went out on a mission in a submarine (which could last for months) were not at all lower than Shen Cong’s. Speaking of which, their vehicles were even stronger than Shen Cong’s Titan, and they also had the army to serve as their foundation.

It was said that Chengnan’s Wang Gen drove a Hummer around to kill half-orcs and evolved beasts. Clearly, his vehicle was a Hummer.

If Wang Gen, whose vehicle was an off-road vehicle, managed to survive, just how many other ironfolk survived? And how many ironfolk in the military survived?

He spread his scope. What if vehicles could be computers, shavers, or even an iron pillar? If that were the case, just how many ironfolk were there?

Besides, humans were not the only ones who could become ironfolk. There were also ironfolk among animals. Or rather, he should call them iron beasts. The plastic rabbit was one of the iron beasts.

When he thought of this, Shen Cong did not think that there was anything worthy of his current self to be proud of.

He might think that he was safe in a remote area in Chengnan, but once he left this place and went to Juchao District, Hefei, or Nanjing, what was he supposed to gain a place for himself?

That was why…

“I have to evolve and become stronger!” Shen Cong sensed that Titan’s level was increasing bit by bit through the tornado created by the field strength, and his gaze was incredibly firm.

He still had his suspicions about Activity, but even if Activity were a poison, he had to eat it. He could only survive if he were strong, and only when he managed to survive was he able to truly understand just what Activity was.