Chapter 25

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The plastic rabbit’s death served as a warning that mutations of its kind meant that a living creature would become one with the metal object it was bound. This also caused Shen Cong to become even more determined in his stance toward evolving Titan.

However, once he got through his fear and anger, he thought of another question.

When he ran into the monster that resembled a prehistoric crocodile, Titan had nearly died, but Shen Cong had not felt that he was tied to its life and death. Based on the theory of how things acted once they became one with another lifeform, then when Titan was nearly dead, it was impossible for Shen Cong to not be affected.

His connection with Titan was the same as the connection shared between the plastic rabbit and the motorcycle in terms of nature.

But now, this difference between them popped up.

‘What’s the reason behind this?’ Shen Cong thought about the difference between him and the plastic rabbit.

‘Our intellect? Our physical constitution? Or our control over Activity?

‘…There’s a high possibility that the difference lies in our control over Activity.’

The plastic rabbit was a creature of low intelligence, and it had not mastered how to use Activity, or else, the motorcycle would not have remained as a wrecked frame.

Unlike it, Shen Cong guided Titan in absorbing Activity and gave some of it to himself so that Activity would strengthen his body. This was the fundamental difference in terms of Activity between him and the plastic rabbit.

‘Is this the case?’

Shen Cong could not be certain about it. His knowledge regarding Activity was just too superficial.

But this assumption was able to somewhat explain why he was not affected by Titan when it was nearly dead. This made Shen Cong feel much better, but he still felt that his theory about him being one with Titan was correct.

When Titan was nearly dead, it had not truly died, and Shen Cong was not affected because he had Activity strengthening his body. But if Titan truly died, would the small bit of Activity within him be able to support him and keep him alive?

It was difficult to find an answer to this question.

But Shen Cong would definitely not allow Titan to die!

He had to continuously make himself and Titan stronger until there was nothing that could endanger their life.

Shen Cong released a breath and made a decision. ‘Tonight, I’ll have the plastic rabbit for dinner.’

Since Titan could devour the motorcycle to ingest its Activity, he could also eat the plastic rabbit to obtain its Activity. Even though the possibility of getting any Activity from the plastic rabbit was rather low, because its Activity radiation was not high, Shen Cong would not let it go. As long as the possibility of him getting some Activity from the plastic rabbit existed, he would make use of it.

But before roasting the plastic rabbit, Shen Cong intended to dissect it, because he wanted to see whether there was any Activity core in the plastic rabbit.

Yet just when Shen Cong prepared to dissect the plastic rabbit, Titan released a signal, warning him of danger.

Shen Cong immediately opened the window with great caution and observed the area outside.

Then, he saw the mutated ants who had originally left Titan in search for food in the area. As if they had made an agreement with each other, they turned around and started making their way back to Titan.

This series of twists and turns immediately caused Shen Cong to feel his heart shudder with fear.

The mutated ants had seen through Titan’s disguise!

Something was seriously strange about them!

How could there be such a large colony of mutated ants? And why were all of them mutated? Shen Cong had never lowered his guard in interfering with Titan’s frequency so that it could continue disguising itself as a mutated ant even after he successfully tricked them into leaving.

Then how did they manage to see through Titan’s disguise and returned? Was there a mutated ant with increased intelligence?

The situation was taking a rapid slide for the worse, and before Shen Cong could even think about how he should solve the problem, the mutated ants returned to the scene of their previous failure. They climbed up Titan, secreted formic acid, and whittled down its Activity.

31.7%… 30.4%… 29.6%… 28.3%…

As Shen Cong sensed how the Activity on the trunk was reduced bit by bit, he felt his eyelids twitch.

At that moment, he was at a loss as to what he should do. There was nothing wrong with the frequency he used as a disguise, but he was no longer able to use it to deceive the ant colony.

Suddenly, Shen Cong came to a ruthless decision. He rushed into the resource compartment and found a bucket containing 100 L of diesel.

‘I can only use fire now.’

He had 100 L of diesel in store, and there was another 100 L stored in the fuel tank. Even though this amount was not enough to create a huge fire, it was still enough to create a ring of fire around Titan. As long as he did that, he could stop the ants from advancing on Titan for a time being. During that time, Shen Cong could use his slingshot to slaughter his way out.

Shen Cong was able to fire one hundred and thirty-four effective shots in twenty minutes in the past. That meant that he would be able to fire more than one thousand and three hundred shots in two hundred minutes. Even if he had to use all his strength for this, Shen Cong could continue firing steel balls for three hours without any problem. Besides, he did not believe that there was a gargantuan number of ants in front of him, considering their huge size.

If he remembered the description from National Geography correctly, ant colonies varied in number, and they could go from hundreds to tens of thousands. But an ant colony would only number to more than ten thousand when its living conditions were especially good. Most of the ants in China were the monomorium pharaonis, tetramorium rothneyi, tetramorium, aphaenogaster, brachyponera luteipes, pheidole, and others. The number of ants in their colonies fit into the number mentioned by National Geography.

Shen Cong did not know how to differentiate between the types of ants. He only knew one of them, and they were the brachyponera luteipes. This sort of ant was very big, ran fast, and was very fierce. He had seen plenty of these ants around the warehouse, and every month, Shen Cong had to scatter pesticide to deal with them.

Shen Cong did not know whether the mutated ants in front of him were the mutated forms of the brachyponera luteipes.

However, he only had one way to deal with them now.

He hoped that he could kill all of them before his strength ran out and Titan was on the verge of death, or else, he would die.

Bang!

Shen Cong pushed open the window and carried out the plastic bucket containing diesel, intending to pour it outside. But before he opened the lid, he stopped moving.

A huge monster that was a mix of black and yellow and was crawling toward him attracted his attention.

This monster was incredibly huge, but it had the appearance of an ant. It was hundreds of times larger than a mutated ant, and its abdomen was a swollen ball. It shone with a strange light.

‘Queen ant!’

Shen Cong was able to identify the monster’s identity. Only the queen of ants could have this appearance and not be attacked by the other mutated ants. In an instant, Shen Cong was able to link the queen ant’s appearance to the reason behind why the mutated ants were able to see through Titan’s disguise.

The mutated queen ant was definitely the one who saw through Titan’s disguise and commanded the mutated ants to continue eating it.

In truth, Shen Cong should have long since been able to guess that the entire colony of ants had gone through a mutation. He had been faced with a large number of worker ants along with a small number of soldier ants.

Clearly, it was a complete community, and it was only par for the course for a complete community to have a queen ant. In fact, there was a high possibility that the mutated queen ant was the one who produced so many mutated ants from the scratch.

However, Shen Cong remembered that the queen ant in an ant colony was really just a reproductive tool. It did not possess any authoritative status nor intelligence that was greater than of the other ants.

Why was this queen ant then able to see through Titan’s disguise and command the mutated ants to attack it?

Shen Cong could not figure out the answer nor had the time to spend on it.

The appearance of the queen ant allowed Shen Cong to quickly figure out a way that did not require him to fight to the death and struggle to live—he just had to kill the queen ant!

Once he killed the queen ant, Titan could put on its disguise once more, and the rest of the dumb ants would not even be worth a mention in history books.

Shen Cong exhaled, ran back inside, where he put the diesel bucket and shut the window and armor, then ran into the driver cab. He turned on the ignition, stepped on the accelerator, and Titan roared especially loudly, as if it was responding to Shen Cong’s idea of attacking the commander straightaway.

Titan’s Activity was still falling, and it had dropped to 25.9%.

Shen Cong did not pay attention to that. Right then, he had to kill the queen ant.

1Clang, clang.

The bulldozer blade was brought down, and it crushed a few mutated ants. Titan started speeding up slowly. The friction produced by the twenty-two special tyres was great, and they propelled Titan forward over the ground, which was covered by an endless mass of shattered stones.

Shen Cong pushed the accelerator to the very bottom.

All obstacles—stones, wrecked cars, and mutated ants—turned into a mere backdrop for Titan. Even though Titan’s Activity continued decreasing, as long as it did not drop to 10%, which was the warning line, its momentum remained as mighty as ever.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The distance between Titan and the queen ant was not great, but it came from behind. Hence, Shen Cong turned Titan around and charged at the queen ant in a straight line.

After going through its mutation, the queen ant’s abdomen alone was the size of a van, while its legs looked incredibly slim. It had some difficulty in lifting its own body. There were quite a number of mutated ants around it to lift the abdomen so that it would not drag against the ground.

An ant could lift an object that was four hundred times its weight. Since a mutated ant was the size of a plastic bottle, its weight might be around 0.5 kg to 1 kg. If based on that, the mutated ants could lift heavy objects that weighed hundreds of kilograms.

2The queen ant should weigh around one ton, but it required a large group of mutated ants under its abdomen to push it forward. Even so, it still had trouble moving around.

Perhaps the increase in size caused the ratio of a mutated ant’s load bearing capacity to its weight to be drastically reduced.

But this was good news for Shen Cong. A slow queen ant was practically a sitting duck to him.

The distance between them was around 200 m to 300 m, and Shen Cong was practically making Titan fly. He no longer cared about anything else, and in an instant, he arrived in front of the queen ant. The bulldozer had been lifted to the height of 70 cm, and it was perfectly aimed at the queen ant’s abdomen.

Squelch!

The truck did not slow down, and the bulldozer blade stabbed into the queen ant’s body. The huge impact sliced across the black and yellow stripes criss-crossing over the queen ant’s abdomen. White liquid spilled everywhere.

Ants did not have any vocal chords, so they could not scream in pain, but when Shen Cong saw the queen ant’s twitching body, he knew just how vicious the blow he had struck it.

He managed to land a fatal blow in just one strike.

Shen Cong did not hesitate after that. He reversed the truck before making it charge forward again to deliver another blow with the bulldozer blade. It stabbed straight into the queen ant’s huge abdomen.

The white liquid splattered all over the ground like limewater.

The mutated ants in the area sensed the pheromones the queen ant released. They instantly became incredibly agitated and started charging at Titan with desperation. In just a short period of time, they enveloped Titan into a black ball.

Bang!

One of Titan’s wheels used up too much Activity, and it was unable to retain its hardness. It burst because of the mutated ants’ bite.

But it was a rear wheel, and there were twelve wheels at the rear, so having one wheel punctured did not mean much. Shen Cong reversed the truck a second time and charged forward, speeding up rapidly. Then, Titan delivered the third blow on the queen ant with the bulldozer blade.

The pittiful queen ant had just appeared in the area, and it was stabbed viciously by Titan. Its originally swollen abdomen wilted because it lost too much white liquid too quickly.

The queen ant was also at its last breath because of the heavy damage to its abdomen.

To make sure that the queen ant did not make it, Shen Cong lifted the bulldozer blade and smacked it viciously a few more times, turning the queen ant into a pile of mashed flesh.

Then, he drove his truck back until he was one hundred meters away from the queen ant and was certain that he had left the area enveloped by the queen ant’s pheromones.

Then, he turned off the ignition and scattered the remaining half a sack of lindane around the truck. He used his mind to interfere with Titan’s Activity frequency, and a few minutes later, when Titan’s Activity was reduced to 21.8%, its frequency finally became the same as that of the mutated ants.

At that moment, the mutated ants who were biting into Titan stopped biting the truck. They were dazed and lost for a moment before they left Titan to dash to the dead queen ant.

One, two, three…

The colony of ants surrounded the queen ant’s carcass and started circling it.

“Whew.”

Shen Cong sat down in his seat limply. His entire body was drenched in sweat. Only a short ten minutes had passed since Titan’s disguise was seen through, which led to the queen ant’s appearance and Shen Cong realizing he had to kill it. He had used up a large amount of Titan’s Activity and a lot of his own energy to achieve it.

He had been nervous, anxious, and excited… In the end, after the twists and turns delivered to him by the ant colony, the fight ended well.

He exhaled and wiped away his sweat.

Then, Shen Cong opened the window, brought out his binoculars, and cast his gaze on the queen ant’s carcass as well as the ant colony.