Chapter 58: Drive Into Chengnan

After he typed in the experiment records, Shen Cong stretched and leisurely schooled his expression into a stern one.

Now, there was an incredibly problematic situation before his eyes.

Titan was about to absorb 0.01 worth of Activity, and that meant that it was not far away from losing control of its Activity and producing the siphon effect. Shen Cong had to make preparations and get rid of some of its Activity before the siphon effect happened as well as test Titan’s limit in Alloying.

He intended to use bonemetal weapons and Activity equipment to get rid of the Activity.

This was also why he had been making so much equipment over the past few days. He wanted to Alloy them with Titan to test whether Titan could turn them into a part of itself.

There was practically no difficulty whatsoever in the experiment, but Shen Cong was not confident. He was worried that a slightest mistake could cause the siphon effect.

Hence, he carefully used his mind to guide Titan to perform Alloying with the bonemetal weapons. He first had it Alloy with a worker maxilla arrow. The arrow had its shaft made from carbon steel, because of which, in practically just a blink, Titan’s Activity filled up the worker maxilla arrow and completed the Alloying process. Then, Shen Cong saw the results he wanted.

The additional Activity from Titan quickly slipped out of its solid form and returned to its liquid form to gather in the worker maxilla arrow. It became one with Titan.

The concept regarding Titan’s entire being could be changed.

“Whew.”

Even though Shen Cong had been expecting this since a long time ago and was certain of it in his heart, when he truly verified it, he still released a long breath of relief. Now, he had a way to push back Titan’s Activity from going out of control for a short period of time.

This meant he should next focus on searching for a method to solve the problem of leveling up before Titan’s entire being reached its limit.

The experiment was headed to a good start. What remained was to guide Titan to continue performing Alloying and expanding Titan’s entire being. Shen Cong had an entire truck’s worth of resources that could be used to perform Alloying and plenty of time.

Of course, contacting the military zone was still something that needed to be done soon.

He had to begin his journey as quickly as possible and learn more about Activity. He could not continue staying in Yinpingzhen anymore.

*****

It was the 17th of August and the fourth day since the accident. Shen Cong had recovered from his wounds by then and had the strength of five bulls, making him very strong.

It was morning.

The temperature in the world had not risen. Titan roared and drove into Yinpingzhen, which it had not visited for a long time.

Titan was at Level 1 (based on the level system Shen Cong decided to continue using for the time being) and it had sufficient defense. Shen Cong could also protect himself, considering the fact that he had the strength of five bulls.

He had previously tried to have Zhang Youhai trigger his plan, but it was a complete failure. The survivors did not continue to scavenge for items in Yinpingzhen. This caused his chance to observe evolved humans to be ruined. To achieve that, he had to take the initiative to attack and deal another card by facing the evolved humans straightaway.

The road Shen Cong drove on was covered in shattered stones, and it was a little bumpy. Titan’s absorbers were not really good, but that was to be expected. Shen Cong had manually modified Titan, but the houses he sold did not earn him a lot of money, yet he had come up with a lot of designs to upgrade Titan, and all of them were necessary.

When he had the chance and more time, he would continue modifying Titan. He would turn it into a true mobile fortress.

If Shen Cong drove along Provincial Highway 208 from Yinpingzhen, he would reach Zhoujia Village half an hour later. Zhoujia Village was already a part of Chengnan, and Shen Cong could see some ruins of factories by the road.

He made cross references to his map and made detailed comparisons for a while before he turned Titan around and headed northeast.

Based on what was illustrated on the map, if he traveled along Provincial Highway 208, Gongjia Village would be north of Zhoujia Village. Provincial Highway 208 would changed its direction when it was at Gongjia Village.

It turned east to Sansheng Village. Hence, Zhoujia Village, Gongjia Village, and Sansheng Village formed a right-angled triangle. Shen Cong wanted to head to the spot in between Zhoujia Village and Sansheng Village along the hypotenuse.

There was a small lake at that spot, and quite a number of scavengers set up camp there.

Shen Cong did not just listen to the information given to him by the survivors, but also marked the main spot where the survivors of Chengnan gathered on his map.

Wang Gen and his group were stationed at the port of Yuxi River. Practically the entire Yuxi River was under their control, and that included Mudan Road Bridge and Yuxi Bridge, which connected to the main city area.

Zhang Tianshen’s Dragon Slayers were located at Sanhe Village, which was in the rural area. They guarded Provincial Highway 208 and Provincial Highway 316. The survivors who went out of the city had to pay scavenging tax to Dragon Slayers.

Dragon Slayers’ enemy, the Secret Organization, was stationed in the area consisting of Wangcheng District and Lida Village. It was very close to Sanhe Village, so they would occasionally go and cause problems for Dragon Slayers.

This meant that when Shen Cong reached Gongjia Village, he would reach the suburbs and come into direct contact with Dragon Slayers.

Shen Cong did not intend to directly meet Zhang Tianshen. He wanted to park his truck at the pond between Zhoujia Village and Sansheng Village, since this was the main place for scavengers who went out of the city to set up camp, according to Zhang Youhai. Often, more than one hundred survivors would be gathered there. Shen Cong planned to search for a few agents among them to run his errands.

Shen Cong did not want to get into any sort of conflict with the evolved human factions. He just wanted to buy some diesel without ever leaving his truck. Then, he would use Yuxi Bridge to head to the main city.

Even though he had Titan protecting him and the power of five bulls, which meant that there was no need for him to be afraid of the evolved humans in Chengnan, why should he be averse to the idea of reducing all possible trouble?

Trouble only brought along fights and losses and held him back from becoming stronger.

Soon, he reached the small pond on the map.

However, what disappointed Shen Cong was that the small pond Zhang Youhai mentioned had already disappeared, and only a shallow, hollow pit filled with cracks was left. A few signs of human beings living there once could still be detected, but it was just garbage produced from everyday life. There were survivors living in the area once, but once the drought arrived, the small pond dried up, and the survivors moved away.

‘This is troublesome. The survivors have actually moved away. Looks like I’ll have to head straight to Gongjia Village.’

If he went to Gongjia Village, it meant that he might have to face Dragon Slayers.

Shen Cong thought about this for a while and drove straight into Gongjia Village.

The cards he originally wanted to deal were thrown into a mess, so he might as well just end the fight quickly. He stepped on the accelerator, and Titan circled around the area to turn around. The head and end of the truck were enveloped by folding armor, but that did not prevent it from turning around or changing directions. It was just that it was rather troublesome to do so sometimes.

*****

Not far away from Gongjia Village was a big roundabout at the center of a cross junction. By the side of the roundabout was Lishui Bay Housing Estate. It originally consisted of buildings with more than twenty floors. During the apocalyptic storm, most of them collapsed, but there were a few buildings that retained two or three floors in a rather good condition.

Of course, those two-three floors no longer had no doors or windows left. Multiple large cracks could be spotted on the walls, and if anyone stayed inside, it would be rather dangerous.

The place was supposed to be abandoned, but at that moment, there was quite a disturbance over there.

A group of people with machetes, guns, sticks, staffs, and other weapons were walking among the ruins of the housing estate. Every time they passed the building, lean and emaciated survivors would come out and hand over some junk to them.

There was a leader among them. He had a toothpick between his teeth, and it was clear he was a mutant. Two large bone spikes at his shoulders moved around as he swung his arms.

He took a look at the junk a mother and son pair handed to him before he casually tossed it to someone behind him and reached out to touch the woman’s face.

She quickly moved away from him and went to hold her son, who was just ten years old.

The mutant cackled, but did not continue teasing her. He turned to receive junk from the next survivor. That man was no stranger. He was from Zhang Youhai’s group.

It seemed like the mutant was not pleased with the junk the survivor gave him. He slapped the man so hard that he staggered. “Ma Laoshan, do you think I’m a fool? How dare you give me a gas lighter refill can without any gas inside as tax?”

Ma Laoshan covered his cheek, but did not dare fly into a rage. He smiled apologetically and said, “Boss Wang, it’s been really difficult to pick up anything good over these days, so please be lenient. I’ll go to Wanguang Village tomorrow, and I’ll definitely pick up something to make up for the tax I owe!”

“Go to hell. This is this, and that is that. I don’t care what junk you’ll be picking up tomorrow. If you don’t pay your tax today, I’ll make you suffer today!” Boss Wang shouted loudly.

Ma Laoshan pleaded, “But I really didn’t pick up anything good.”

Boss Wang glared at him. “You’re not showing me respect, are you?”

“I wouldn’t dare to. But I really didn’t pick up anything good. I went to Sansheng Village yesterday, and the place has been completely searched through. Despite searching till seven in the evening, I didn’t find anything good. I only came back at that time.”

“Enough with the crap. You’re not handing over your tax, right? Hit him!” Boss Wang lost his patience and gave an order to his subordinates.

The subordinates holding weapons immediately pushed Ma Laoshan down and started beating him up.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man ran over from a place not too far away from the distance. While he ran, he shouted. “Boss Wang, stop! We’ll help Laoshan pay for his tax!”

The middle-aged man who ran over was Old Lee, the leader of the scavenger group. He held a bag of junk in his hands and, as he gasped for breath, handed it to Boss Wang.

When Boss Wang saw this, he smiled in satisfaction. “Not bad, Old Lee, you still have some resources left, I see. Alright, I’ll let this slide. Next time, don’t try to trick me with garbage, understand?”

“Got it. Ma Laoshan truly didn’t manage to get anything good. He wasn’t thinking about tricking you.”

Old Lee helped Ma Laoshan to his feet with a smile on his face. By then, Ma Laoshan’s face was already bruised.

When Boss Wang received Ma Laoshan’s tax, his group had received all the tax in the area. Boss Wang gathered his people and prepared to leave Lishui Bay Housing Estate on three motorcycles painted with vibrant colors.

But before they left, they heard the rumbles of an engine.

The group turned their heads around at the same time to look in the direction of the roundabout. They saw a large, silvery-white object wrapped in spiked armor. There was a bulldozer blade in front of it, and it forcefully removed all the shattered stones on the way. It rushed into the roundabout like an ancient monster.

“What the heck?! Boss, please bring me along!”

Boss Wang screeched, and the toothpick he had in his mouth nearly fell off because of his shock.