Chapter 10

2

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The cry of the beast caused Shen Cong to snap out of his daze. He was living in the post-apocalyptic world, so there were bound to be mutated monsters lurking all around him.

Shen Cong quickly returned to Titan and shut the sunroof. Then, no longer caring about ventilation, he quickly used tape to seal off the air vent to the side so that he could prevent water from continuing to leak into the truck. He only kept the air vent on the roof unsealed and hoped that the water would not completely submerge Titan.

With the tape sealing off the air vent, water no longer entered Titan, but this did not solve the problem at its core. As long as the storm did not stop, the water level would continue rising, and Titan would still be in danger.

Shen Cong could only pray that the sky would clear soon.

But since his awareness toward danger was higher than that of a normal person, he did not remain idle to wait for his death. He intended to completely seal off the resource cubicle before Titan was submerged. Food, water, and electrical appliances were all highly delicate objects, and once they were soaked in water, they would definitely be spoiled.

2This was especially true for the USB drives and harddisks. They contained the culmination of humankind’s knowledge and had been created during the age of civilization.

2Before the apocalypse, Shen Cong had stored it all up in case something bad happened. He did not expect that he would truly be able to use it. But Titan’s evolution had allowed him to understand that knowledge was extremely important for survival purposes. He was starting to expand his understanding bit by bit with the hope that he could evolve Titan into something even more perfect.

Hence, he could not have any errors in his knowledge pool.

Shen Cong spent half an hour using ziplock bags to wrap up all the resources that could not survive water. Then, he put them into a pile and fixed them with tape and welding rods so that they would not crash into other things and break if Titan started tumbling about.

At that moment, Titan was swaying even more than before, and the water level was still rising higher. Titan could be flushed away at any moment.

*****

The rain did not stop falling.

It continued to pour for another hour and a half, and Titan was completely submerged. Tape could no longer hold the places where there were leaks. Thin water pillars gushed into the truck, and in just a moment, the water inside reached up to Shen Cong’s thigh.

At that moment, some sparks shot off Titan’s walls, and immediately after, all the lights died out.

The circuits had short-circuited.

The inside and outside of the truck were completely dark.

Only a line of words painted using fluorescent paint shone dimly on the truck’s walls.

[If a person knows why he lives, he can endure any kind of life.]

Shen Cong read the fluorescent words, and his anxious heart instantly became calm. He tightened his hold over the oxygen tube in his arms and became as calm as water again. ‘Thank goodness I stored two 40 liters oxygen tanks…’

One 40 liters oxygen tank could be used continuously from forty-eight to ninety-six hours, which was up to four days. With two tanks, he could last for at least six days, give or take.

With Shen Cong’s body constitution, even if his entire body was submerged in water, he could survive for six days.

But he did not believe that the rain would last for six days. The clouds had to be really thick for it to rain for six continuous days.

1But if the clouds truly decided to defy logic and rain for six days, Shen Cong could only choose to give up on Titan and escape alone. Even if he were eaten by the monsters outside, it was still better than drowning in water together with Titan.

*****

Shen Cong’s thoughts were correct. When the inside of the truck compartment was about to be submerged, it stopped raining outside. The pitter pattering sounds of rain falling could no longer be heard.

At that moment, Shen Cong’s mechanical watch showed that it was the tenth, and it was currently 22:57.

He remembered that the storm had arrived on the ninth, and it had been 14:18 at that time.

The storm had lasted for thirty-two hours and thirty-nine minutes.

‘This rain sure came down as much as it wanted… As expected of a storm in the post-apocalyptic world,’ Shen Cong thought and consoled himself despite the difficulty he faced. Once the rain stopped, he sighed in relief.

1However, the danger had not disappeared completely, because the water had not subsided. He looked at the pressure gauge stuck on the wall of the truck. With it, he could tell that the water level was so high that it was more than 1 m above Titan.

He did not know how long it would take before it would subside.

Shen Cong had been submerged in water for a few hours, and he was a little tired. He was thinking about how he should sleep at night, along with how he should relieve himself.

He could hold back from emptying his bowels, but there was no way he could hold in the urge to pee.

After having a mental conflict for ten minutes… Shen Cong’s frown disappeared.

He was trapped in a bad situation, so why should he care so much about other things?

He released the breath he had been holding and took in the small bit of oxygen remaining in the air inside Titan and completely used it up. It was about time for him to put on his respirator and submerge himself in water.

Almost at the moment he did so, something rammed into Titan, and it started tumbling around in the water.

Bang!

Due to Shen Cong’s negligence, he was flung against the roof. Fortunately, the drag in water was rather great, and he was not injured. But when Titan was knocked over, Shen Cong’s heart sank.

‘This doesn’t seem to be caused by water crashing into Titan. Something seems to have attacked it.’

Before Shen Cong could adjust his orientation, that “something” outside crashed against Titan again, and Titan was flipped over.

It tumbled around a few times.

The wrenches and other related tools, which Shen Cong had fixed to the wall of the truck, were flung out. They knocked into Shen Cong, and his head swam.

‘I’ll definitely have to use Alloying and fix all the tools in Titan!’

Shen Cong only managed to regain his footing after some time had passed. At that moment, the knocking had ceased, and Titan was lying sideways on the ground.

Shen Cong grabbed a handrail, moved to the sunroof, turned a wrench, and slid open the armor covering the sunroof.

Then, he used his flashlight to illuminate the area outside to search for the cause of the crashes.

But the water was incredibly murky at that moment. The light from his flashlight could not reach far. He could not see what was happening outside clearly. All he could see was that there was a huge shadow moving in the water outside. Clearly, there was something in the water, and there was a high possibility that it was a mutated monster.

1It seemed to be filled with curiosity toward Titan, and it kept circulating around the truck. Shen Cong saw the shadow move past the sunroof a few times.

The creature was accompanied by faint chafing sounds.

‘I have to know what’s outside!’

The unknown was far more terrifying than a monster.

An idea bloomed in Shen Cong’s mind, and he thought of going to investigate what was going on outside. There was an infrared thermal image scanner installed at Titan’s end, but since the electrical wiring in the truck had short-circuited, it was impossible for it to form any scans.

1The driver cab was filled with water, so Shen Cong reckoned that the circuit boards there were also pretty much destroyed. But even if the infrared thermal image scanners no longer worked, there was one instrument that still worked.

The portable X-ray unit.

It was a medical device Shen Cong had prepared for himself. It was a new equipment that was produced in 2021, and it was an all-in-one machine that was about the size of an iPad. He had wrapped it up in a waterproof ziplock bag and placed it in the truck compartment.

3The replacement power source he brought allowed him to use the X-ray machine ten times.

Soon, Shen Cong brought out the portable X-ray machine, and through the ziplock bag, he turned it on. It began functioning right away.

The only regrettable thing was that the X-ray machine was supposed to be used with a light shield, but instead, Shen Cong used it like a camera, which meant that the picture that came out was incredibly blurry.

But he only needed it to give him a general outline of whatever was outside.

He slid open the glass of the sunroof and directed the X-ray machine outside. Then, he waited quietly.

In less than half a minute, the huge shadow moved past the window again.

Shen Cong immediately clicked the button to capture an image.

Click.

Powerful X-rays shone forward, and in the next moment, a blurry skeletal structure was shown on the screen of the X-ray machine. Before Shen Cong could take a good look at the skeletal structure, the monster outside crashed into Titan once more and made it roll around like a rubber ball. The creature seemed to have been angered by the X-ray machine.

2Shen Cong protected the X-ray machine with one hand while he held onto a handrail with the other. He was flung around with Titan.

A few minutes later, the monster calmed down, and Titan finally stopped tumbling around. Shen Cong grimaced while he rubbed where he had hit the handrail and other objects. Then, he brought out the X-ray machine.

This time, he was finally able to see the monster’s X-ray picture. The scan had half of the monster’s body, but he did not manage to get its head. He only got the lower half of the body. But the blurry bones and outline of the body were very familiar to Shen Cong. He could easily tell just what sort of creature this was based on its wide and long tail, short and thick legs, and flat body.

‘A crocodile?

‘What sort of crocodile can make a thirty ton truck roll around like a rubber ball? Is it a prehistoric crocodile?’

2Shen Cong thought about this quietly. But no matter what was outside, it was definitely not a good thing for him to have such a large crocodile bothering him.