Chapter 34

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Dagu Village was surrounded by “snow mountains”, but it was different from the mountain range surrounding Shijianzhen. Dagu Village was a small basin, and it was a wide, flat surface. It was also the reason why Shen Cong did not run into any problems with slopes on Provincial Highway 208.

When he was trying to get an understanding of his strength (two and a half bulls’ worth!), he opened the sunroof and climbed to the roof.

1In an instant, he was filled with great joy.

More than 100 m away from the spot where he parked his truck was a sparkling lake, and it was right next to Provincial Highway 208, which was partially covered by rocks.

The dark green lake took his breath away.

‘This is Dagu’s reservoir!’

Shen Cong had seen the reservoir on his map before. At that time, he had ignored it, because the surface of the earth had changed drastically after the apocalypse. He had thought that the reservoir and other such areas had long since been filled with shattered stones and sand.

He did not expect that Dagu’s reservoir would remain intact.

What filled him with even more delight was that there were green plants around Dagu’s reservoir. They were three huge trees. One of them was a willow, and the other two were balsam poplars.

A few single-storey houses were built by the road near the lake. They had halfway collapsed, but the fallen parts were not completely shattered.

Shen Cong could make out some of the words on the shattered signboards. One of them read “Something Shun something Restaurant”.

It was Dongshun Local Restaurant. Shen Cong had seen that name on the map before.

The map he downloaded was an online map of the world from Google Maps. It was so clear that he could even see the roof of a building. Almost all small restaurants could be found there. In 2022, it could be said that the geographical information of the entire world could be found on Google Maps. It even provided two versions—a satellite map and a normal map.

1This meant that Shen Cong could see the terrain, landscape, cities, houses, lakes, and everything else.

The map was supposed to be used with the satellite positioning system so that Titan could navigate on its own. But unfortunately, the GPS and BDS were both gone, so Shen Cong had to rely on himself to figure out his geographical location.

Now, before him was a lake, a willow tree, two balsam poplars, and houses that had not completely collapsed.

He wondered whether the basin had limited the strength of the apocalyptic storm, which was why the area had been preserved.

At that moment, Shen Cong was incredibly excited. Based on how Dagu Village looked, the apocalyptic storm had not managed to truly destroy the world. There were places that managed to survive the storm.

‘Whew… I was lacking freshwater. Let’s go over!’

Shen Cong returned to the driver cab and drove Titan over before he parked the truck on the road by the lake.

Based on usual practice, he first checked the area to make sure that there was no danger. Even though he was really happy to see a lake, there might be dangers lurking inside the water. Due to his persecution complex, Shen Cong was extremely wary of a lake with a lakebed he could not see.

The willow swayed with the wind, and the balsam poplars rustled. The area was so quiet that it gave off a lonely air.

Ten minutes later, Shen Cong verified his initial conclusion about the place being safe. He put on Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0, equipped himself head to toe with weapons, and left Titan.

While standing on the road, he stared at Dagu’s reservoir sparkling before his eyes. The lakewater was green, and he could not see far from a distance. However, when he drew closer, he saw the stones at the bottom of the lake.

‘It’s pretty clear. I wonder if there are any mutated fish or other types of monsters in the reservoir.’

With this worry in mind, Shen Cong did not dare to approach the lake casually. Instead, he picked up a stone by the road and tossed it into the reservoir to test for a reaction.

Plop!

The stone landed with a huge splash.

Shen Cong waited for a while, but there was no reaction from the lake. He then picked up a big rock and threw it into the center of the reservoir. Since he had the strength of two and a half bulls, even when he threw a large rock, he looked incredibly mighty and heroic.

Just when the stone was about to fall into the reservoir, a loud splash suddenly rose. Then, from the bottom of the quiet reservoir, a huge creature slapped the lake with a force that could split a huge wave and rushed out to bite the rock.

Crack!

The stone, which had been the size of a washbasin, shattered to pieces from a single bite.

Once the stone shattered, a huge figure landed heavily in the water and caused a huge splash. The droplets landed on Shen Cong like rain.

‘It’s the prehistoric crocodile!’

Shen Cong’s eyes went wide. He turned around and rushed into Titan. Before the armor even managed to slide completely shut, he turned on the ignition and stepped on the accelerator. The engines rumbled and began activating slowly.

Shen Cong pushed the accelerator to the very bottom to make Titan speed up and push away the stones on Provincial Highway 208. He fled in a straight line forward.

The moment Titan started leaving, the monster Shen Cong called the prehistoric crocodile broke through the waves again and rushed into Provincial Highway 208.

Its thick and powerful limbs moved on the ground with enough force to make it tremble.

“GROWL!”

The monster opened its huge mouth, which was the same as a crocodile’s, and started growling as it chased after Titan. It was truly a creature resembling a prehistoric crocodile. Its body was more than 10 m long, and its limbs were slightly longer than what a normal crocodile possessed. It allowed it to run around like a dog.

At the tip of its tail were huge bone spikes in the shape of a triangle. When the prehistoric crocodile flung its tail around, it looked like it had a battering ram attached to it.

With just a few strides, the prehistoric crocodile caught up to Titan, which had yet to accelerate.The creature opened its mouth wide and bit Titan.

Crack!

It managed to damage Titan! Luckily, the teeth didn’t get a good grip on the truck, so Titan slipped out of the prehistoric crocodile’s mouth. Still, the powerful bite sent Titan off its original path. It nearly slipped and rushed off the road.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shen Cong was so terrified that he broke out in cold sweat. He kept his foot firmly on the accelerator and made sure his hands were fixed on the steering wheel.

1The bulldozer blade rammed against the rocks. Mighty tremors accompanied by loud thumps rose, which meant great damage to the truck. But Shen Cong could not be bothered by it. Right then, he only cared about fleeing his life. After all, he had Activity protecting the truck, so the rocks could not harm Titan.

He fled madly for around 1 km before he gradually calmed down. After adjusting the rear view mirror, he saw the prehistoric crocodile behind him, but the distance between them was widening.

When the prehistoric crocodile saw that it could not catch up to Titan, it opened its mouth and growled, refusing to accept its defeat. Then, it slowly turned around and went back.

Shen Cong continued driving for around one minute more before he stopped Titan.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and climbed up to the roof to use his binoculars and observe the prehistoric crocodile leaving into the distance.

The prehistoric crocodile swung its tail and went into Dagu’s reservoir, where it disappeared from Shen Cong’s sight.

‘This is definitely the prehistoric crocodile I saw during the night of the storm!’

Shen Cong lowered his binoculars and exhaled. What happened earlier had truly terrified him.

During the storm, he could not see the area outside clearly because of the flood, and he did not know just how mighty the prehistoric crocodile was. This time, he was finally able to see it clearly.

And it was far bigger than he had imagined.

That creature had definitely gone through atavism and become something at the level of a dinosaur. It was 10 m long, but it was still able to run on the road like a dog.

The triangular bone spikes at the tip of its tail were especially terrifying. If they hit Titan, they would definitely leave a dent. Fortunately, Shen Cong’s awareness toward crises was very great. At the moment he saw the prehistoric crocodile, he started fleeing for his life.

It was the main reason why he was lucky enough to shake off the prehistoric crocodile. Titan, too, only had a few teeth marks at its back. while the bulldozer blade had slightly changed shape.

The damages suffered were minimal.

Unfortunately, Shen Cong could not replenish his water supply.

He could well understand the reason why the prehistoric crocodile chose to stay at Dagu’s reservoir. After the flood from the storm went away, the prehistoric crocodile was unlucky enough to be stranded in the mountains.

In the end, it swam with the flow of water and reached Dagu’s reservoir, where it decided to stay. It was also highly likely that it had been surviving on animals who went to Dagu’s reservoir to drink.

‘Since you run like a dog, I’ll call you the dog crocodile!’

2The dog crocodile was a mutated crocodile-like animal. It was huge and at least 10 m long. It could move fast, and the bone spikes on its tail looked like Activity cores. As for its other specific details, they required further textual research.

Shen Cong returned to Titan to record the dog crocodile’s information, and since he was unable to accept his defeat, he came to a decision. ‘You bit me twice. Once I replenish my resources and finish modifying Titan, I’ll definitely turn you into dog crocodile soup!’

In truth, he could also toss it an Activity-laced nectarine and kill it after it fell asleep.

But the Activity-laced nectarines were treasures he wanted for himself. He might not be able to make the dog crocodile sleep with just one or two nectarines due to its size, anyway, so it was not worth the effort.