Chapter 21

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

‘Survivor!’

Shen Cong felt his heart jump. He instantly remembered that the headquarters of Eastern Theater Command were located in Nanjing, and military zones were a force that was most likely to survive an apocalyptic storm.

1The message from the radio was definitely sent from Eastern Theater Command to the world outside.

Shen Cong quickly adjusted his frequency modulation and searched for the radio station the other party used to send the message, but even after looking for a long while, he did not discover any orderly messages.

In the end, Shen Cong gave up on continuing his search. The message he heard had to have been an accident.

But this still moved Shen Cong’s heart.

He was not the only person who had survived through the apocalypse!

Shen Cong leaned against his seat, and his eyes shone a little. A storm raged in his heart.

He had made a guess a long time ago that there would be plenty of people who managed to survive. After all, he had lived just by relying on Titan. The people who hid in the bunkers would definitely be able to survive as well. But his guess, at the end of the day, was just a guess. When news that there were truly survivors appeared right in front of his face, the shock he went through was incredibly great.

He experienced the joy of discovering others of his kind, but he was also filled with anxiety toward the unknown.

The world after the apocalypse was no longer ruled by law, which was how the world before the apocalypse operated. It was inevitable for people to use all methods at their disposal to survive. The changes brought by Activity would also exacerbate this danger. And Shen Cong knew this was especially true, because he had just realized that Activity could be devoured.

Shen Cong, who had no one with him, was undoubtedly a big catch. There was a high chance that he would turn into a target for others’ greed.

If he stayed with other survivors, it would definitely turn into a major problem that would bother him in the future.

‘But if anyone harbors any sinister thoughts toward me, I will definitely kill them first!’

Before Shen Cong even came into contact with other survivors, he came up with a plan as to how he should handle the situation should he be persecuted.

Those with persecution complexes always felt that others harbored malicious thoughts and were plotting against them.

1But regardless of whether they had sinister plots or not, those were all things in the future.

Right then, Shen Cong just cast his gaze on the map while he mumbled, “Nanjing… Hefei…”

The short nouns from the message revealed that there was a survivor’s base at Nanjing, which was known as the provincial capital of Anhui (Nanjing was actually the provincial capital of Jiangsu, but since most of its areas were in Anhui, it was also known as the provincial capital of Anhui). It was not too far away from Wuwei, and Shen Cong could reach Nanjing with the remaining diesel fuel in Titan, but only barely.

1Once it was clear that there were survivors in Nanjing, Nanjing became another path Shen Cong could choose to take, aside from one to Hefei.

But he did not go to Nanjing, because he had not done a lot of homework when it came to Nanjing. His knowledge of the distribution of the resource points, gas stations, and firearms locations there was not as great as his knowledge of these spots in Hefei.

However, there was an advantage in him heading to Nanjing—it was clear that Nanjing had survivors. With Eastern Theater Command serving as a pillar of strength, they would have order even after the disaster, and places with military protection would be completely different compared to places without the military.

All of a sudden, Shen Cong shut his laptop. He decided that he would no longer be troubled by wondering about which provincial capital he should go to. Regardless of everything, he would still have to go to Chaohu first.

He would make his decision after he reached it.

*****

Clang! Bang! Clatter…

Shen Cong put on his Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0 once more and searched through a pile of car scraps, hoping that he could find some useful spare parts.

He gave himself three days to search for a sufficient amount of spare parts in the area, which was filled with metal. He wanted enough metal parts to create a batch of traps and arrows. Then, he would head to Chaohu.

2The fresh water in the truck was not enough for him to stay outside a city for a long period of time. After the flood brought by the rain went away, it was difficult for him to find any sources for water on the ground.

The weather changes were too extreme!

Clang!

Shen Cong violently disassembled the trunk of an off-road vehicle.

“Huh?”

Shen Cong gasped softly. He noticed a rotten wooden box in the trunk, which had four holes in it. The wooden box was about the size of two luggage boxes stacked together. A large portion of the wooden box turned to powder because of Shen Cong’s actions, and the items inside were revealed before his eyes.

He tapped the wooden box lightly, and it shattered into pieces.

The items inside were wrapped in oil paper. Shen Cong picked one up in passing and found that it was really heavy, just like a dumbbell. The oil paper was already breaking apart, and it fell apart to reveal the items it contained. They were flat, cylindrical pieces of metal, and there was a small hole in the middle of each of them.

Shen Cong had seen them before. They were known as drawing dice.

1When metal threads were drawn, metal would be drawn from the center of the drawing dice. The hole was fixed. There were round holes, square holes, octagonal holes, and holes of other shapes. Different models allowed the manufacturers to form metal threads of different shapes.

And the box contained drawing dice of all shapes and sizes. They probably were all the models produced by a certain factory. The largest model was placed at the bottom of the box, and it was the size of a washbasin. The smallest was just the size of a child’s fist. There was an abundance of models though. If one was to count, there were over fifty of them.

Shen Cong grabbed one and observed it closely. The set of drawing dice should be CVD coated drawing dice. The materials used to create them were different based on the different requirements during metal drawing. Some of them were alloy steel molds, carbide drawing dice, diamond drawing dice, ceramic wire drawing dice, and CVD coated drawing dice.

1CVD coated drawing dice were drawing dice that had diamond painted over the holes in carbide molds. This reduced the cost required to make a diamond drawing dice and increased the hardness of the carbide mold. It was a rather actively sought after drawing dice in the market.

Shen Cong was very happy that he could find such a huge box of drawing dice.

Even if drawing dice did not provide a lot of benefits to him, the molds were all made of carbide, and carbide was considered as one of the WC-CO hard alloys. It was even sturdier and more resilient than normal metal.

If he gave it to Titan and had it perform Alloying it, then through Extension, he could move the drawing dice to the materials used to create the external armor, and it would definitely increase the defense in the armor.

Shen Cong had planned four paths for Titan’s evolution.

First, to continuously absorb Activity and complete the overall distribution of Activity on Titan. Second, switch its parts and perfect Titan’s functions. Third, search for better materials and switch them with various parts of the truck so that he could improve on their functions. Fourth, turn Titan into a platform that could carry vehicles of all sorts of models in it.

All of that was why he had begun searching for metals of better quality. In Shen Cong’s mind, WC-CO hard alloy and titanium alloy were extremely important.

WC-CO hard alloy was extremely hard, and its hardness was comparable to that of a diamond. Its heat endurance was also the highest.

As for titanium alloy, it was lighter, but of the same quality as WC-CO hard alloy, and it could increase the attributes of whatever it was used for. It was suitable for items that were to remain airborne.

If Titan could only travel on land, it was natural that WC-CO hard alloy would be the most suitable alloy for it, but if Titan had to travel in the air, titanium alloy would definitely become of utmost importance.

As of then, traveling in the air was just a dream that remained far away. But if Shen Cong did not dare to dream about it, Titan’s potential would not be high.

2Shen Cong happily brought all the drawing dice into Titan.

Then, he continued searching through the wrecked cars. He tapped them in search of small but useful parts. Most of the cars were already heavily rusted, but Shen Cong was still able to find some gears and other materials that were in perfect shape.

Collecting scraps was something fun.

When he got tired, he sometimes climbed on top of Titan, removed Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0, unfolded a canvas and used it as a beach umbrella so that he could enjoy the slightly warm but natural breeze blowing at him.

He ate a fried strip of meat and drank a drink that was almost past its expiry date so that he could relax his tense nerves.

Suddenly, while Shen Cong was still relaxing, he saw something move in the distance out of the corner of his eye. His relaxed mind immediately became wary. He grabbed the binoculars he had placed by his side and directed them in the direction where he saw the movement.

A black ant the size of a plastic bottle was on a broken car in the distance. Shen Cong wondered where it came from when another black ant climbed onto the car.

One, two…

A group of mutated ants appeared.

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