Chapter 17

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Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Titan stood in the middle of a square filled with the remains of cars, and it looked like the only living person among a pile of corpses.

In the driver cab, Shen Cong observed the plastic rabbit which had become quiet. Then, he cast a glance at the monitor screen of the 15A radar, which was the only screen that was lit. It showed that its scan had found no moving objects.

Shen Cong had not finished fixing the infrared thermal image scanner yet, so he did not know whether there were any living creatures in hiding.

The environment around Shen Cong presented to him a depressing atmosphere. He had not seen even a single scrapped car over two months, but this time, it was as if something wanted him to have his fill of looking at the car scraps. They were even gathered in one place.

Shen Cong could not observe the overall situation from the sunroof at the truck head, so he picked an Activity handgun and his binoculars, opened the sunroof at the roof, and climbed out.

When he stood on the roof that was 4 m tall, Shen Cong was finally able to see everything around him.

He should be in a highland. There were more than ten cars entangled with each other at the center, while the further away from the center, the fewer car scraps could be seen. The entire place was presented in a radial picture. The closer to the center it was, the more concentrated were the car scraps. This did not seem like a normal phenomenon created by nature but a man-made formation.

Perhaps it was something akin to a crop circle.

‘Is this the work of an alien because it was bored?’ Shen Cong frowned. He did not believe what he had just thought. If this were really done by an alien, why would it be so bored as to draw?

‘Then, is it related to Activity? The car scraps here are all metal, and if I try to explain what happened using Activity, I can come up with a reason that I can somewhat accept.’

Shen Cong could not obtain any answers from his observations. But just when he was going to put down his binoculars, two strange creatures appeared within sight while he was still looking around. One of them had curly fur and looked like a poodle, while the other was a pig-like creature that had tumors growing all over its body. They shot out of a spot blocked by a pile of scraps and bit and tore at each other fiercely.

Shen Cong could easily see the two mutated monsters through the binoculars. The poodle monster had dark silver fangs, and the pig monster covered in tumors had dark silver tusks that could best those found on elephants.

The cautious Shen Cong quickly hid himself in Titan. He observed the creatures for a moment, and when he saw no other movement, he decided to hunt down the two mutated creatures.

The large-toothed rat’s meat had rotted away, and he no longer had any food that could provide him with Activity. At that moment, he was also rearing the plastic rabbit and green-headed flies, so he could not be lacking in mutated flesh with Activity.

‘It’s impossible for the poodle and the pig to break Titan’s armor.

‘If the poodle and the pig are fighting, it means that there should be no greater threat in the area.

‘I’ll get closer first to hunt them down.’

Once Shen Cong made his decision, he immediately turned on the ignition. Titan roared and rushed to the center. When it ran into car scraps that blocked its way, Shen Cong used the bulldozer blade to push them away.

This move no doubt caused a huge ruckus, but when Shen Cong thought about the intellect of the mutated monsters, he knew that he would not only not scare them away, he might even end up angering them.

But to his surprise, when the poodle and tumor-covered pig faced Titan charging toward them, they stopped fighting against each other and directed their aggression at it by starting to roar.

When Shen Cong was less than 50 m away from the creatures, he stepped down on the brakes and turned off the ignition. The roaring Titan instantly turned as quiet as a metal lump.

But just when Shen Cong thought that the two mutated monsters would rush over to attack Titan, the two monsters roared a few times at Titan before they turned around to continue fighting against each other. They did not treat Titan as any threat.

Titan was underestimated.

Shen Cong did not feel anything about it. He had long since had a taste of how “bright” the mutated monsters were.

‘The damage of my slingshot is too weak when my target is 50 m away. I can’t replenish my bullets after I use my handgun, so each bullet I use is a loss for me. The power of my crossbow bolts might not be enough to kill a pig, and I haven’t gotten the time to make the fang arrowheads from the fanged wolves… Let’s try the power of the fang javelins now.’

Over the past two days, Shen Cong had managed to sand down four fang javelins. Of course, they were all done with the concept of rough machining. He did not grind them down meticulously.

When Shen Cong appeared on the roof once more, he did not attract the attention of the two mutated monsters. They threw themselves into tearing each other apart.

Shen Cong lifted a fang javelin and infused Activity into it. Then, with the standard style for throwing something, he aimed carefully before he swiftly stretched out his elbow and threw the javelin.

Shick!

With the addition of the strength of one and a half bull added to the fang javelin, it shot to the tumor-covered pig at the speed of lightning, and it was accompanied by the piercing sound of air being sliced, which appeared due to the friction it created.

The tumor-covered pig was much larger than the poodle, so it was easy for Shen Cong to aim at it, and it was suitable for him to use it to test the power of the fang javelin.

After all, Shen Cong did not have a lot of experience in throwing javelins.

Clang!

The power of the fang javelin was very great. It managed to pierce the undercarriage of a scrapped truck. It stabbed deep into it, and only a portion of the steel bar at the end of the javelin remained outside.

But the problem was that Shen Cong did not manage to hit his target.

The tumor-covered pig and poodle 10 m away were frightened for a moment. They stopped fighting and turned their heads around to look around before they went back to fighting each other.

The poodle was smaller than the tumor-covered pig, but it was much more agile. There were plenty of times when it was able to bite the tumor-covered pig, but the tumor-covered pig was not able to attack it at all.

‘This accuracy…’

In the distance, Shen Cong’s face turned red. He shook his head and lifted another fang javelin. Then, based on the 10 m error earlier, he began adjusting his posture for the throw.

Shick!

Another fang javelin shot out at lightning speed, and it dragged out a long screech of the air being sliced. It stabbed into the ground 1 m away from the tumor-covered pig and almost completely sank into the exposed dirt.

‘Again.’

Shen Cong made himself relax. After all, the two dumb monsters would not flee, so he could attack them at a leisurely pace.

When another fang javelin roared in the face of the wind for the third time, Shen Cong was finally able to show just how mighty and grand a weapon created with an Activity core was for the first time in his life.

Shick!

Schunk!

The fang javelin that was 1 m long stabbed into the tumor-covered pig’s shoulder blade. The sharp javelin tip—made from an Activity core—had a powerful impact that instantly shattered the pig’s bone. The tumor-covered pig got pinned to the ground even though it was about two times or three times larger than a regular domestic pig.

“Screech! Screech! SCREEEEECH!”

The tumor-covered pig screeched at an intensity that was several times more miserable than a pig being led to slaughter, which showed just how great was the damage in Shen Cong’s attack.

When Shen Cong saw the results of his own work, he could not help but gape. He had witnessed the power of the fang dagger before. It had managed to cut through the large-toothed rat’s skull with just one slash, so he knew just how amazing Activity was from it. However, the damage from the fang javelin was even more magnificent. After all, it went up against a mutated pig that was not at all smaller than a buffalo.

‘If I threw it at close distance, even that prehistoric crocodile wouldn’t be able to come out unschated.” Shen Cong felt a fire burn in his heart.

Finally, he had a weapon that could help him fight against powerful enemies.

But despite his shock, Shen Cong did not stop moving his hands, because there was still a mutated poodle that was slightly smaller than the fanged wolves, and he had to deal with it as well.

The poodle was not affected by the fang javelin. When it saw that its opponent had suddenly fallen down, it immediately pounced forward. It bit down and tore at the tumor-covered pig, which continued struggling. The poodle tore out a piece of flesh and swallowed it without even bothering to chew.

“That’s my food!” Shen Cong barked.

He recalled the trajectory of the third fang javelin, infused Activity into the fourth fang javelin, twisted his waist, lifted his arm, and threw the javelin. The final fang javelin charged at the poodle with wind howling behind it.

Unfortunately, it missed.

The javelin grazed past the poodle’s scalp and killed the tumor-covered pig, which was already on its way to Death’s door.

But making mistakes was not a problem for Shen Cong. He grabbed the crossbow and its bolts from his back and began shooting. The poodle was smaller than fanged wolves, anyway. There was no need for him to use fang javelins. He could kill it with just crossbow bolts.

Shen Cong had a few crossbows with him. This time, he had brought out the crossbow with the greatest power—the PSE TAC-24 limited edition crossbow. Before the apocalypse, this crossbow model was known as the strongest handheld crossbow in the world, and the initial speed of its crossbow bolt was 500 fps, which was 152.4 m/s. This crossbow alone cost Shen Cong 360,000 RMB.

Because it was smuggled goods.

The draw weight of the PSE TAC-24 was very high. Shen Cong was unable to draw it multiple times before, but now, he could draw the crossbow in succession.

1He took aim and fired.

The sound the crossbow bolt made when it shot forward was very soft, and it traveled at an astonishing speed. Right after Shen Cong pulled the trigger, the poodle was shot and fell to the ground. Shen Cong would rarely miss when it came to shooting a target at a distance of 50 m.

In a moment, the two mutated monsters died in Shen Cong’s hands. No matter how big a mutated monster grew, when it faced a human using weapons to fight against it, it could only be a fish waiting for slaughter on the cutting board.

In just an instant, the two mutated monsters were dead.

Shen Cong put away his weapons and returned to Titan. He then drove it forward to park in front of his prey.

Once he was certain that the area was safe, he equipped Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0 and dragged his prey into Titan’s bulldozer blade. Shen Cong did not immediately research the two mutated monsters. Hunting them was just something he decided to do in passing. His true goal for coming was to investigate the field of scrapped car parts.

The plastic rabbit had been adamant in coming here. Then, Shen Cong ran into the poodle and tumor-covered pig, which made it clear that there was something that attracted monsters to this place.

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