Chapter 54

Titan had 99.9% of its body covered in Activity. Only a few tiny connectors of some electrical circuits were fully Alloyed.

Shen Cong had finished repairing all the electrical systems that he could repair in the truck. He either lacked materials for the ones that remained broken or did not know how to repair them. Among them were the automatic driving system, which meant that Shen Cong would need to drive the truck manually for a while.

As of then, the conditions were not fitting for the situation, but if they ever became such, Shen Cong intended to remodify Titan so that it would be more suited for the current post-apocalyptic world.

He wanted to add some heavy weapons and military-grade electrical devices, and other stuff like this.

Then, he could turn Titan into a war truck that would be able to roam through the post-apocalyptic world fearlessly.

Shen Cong’s level was 0.836 because of Titan continuously giving him Activity to strengthen him. His physical strength had already surpassed the strength of four bulls.

Shen Cong was not quite able to get used to the feeling of being full of power. He constantly had the misconception that he could kill a dog crocodile with just one punch.

Titan’s Activity was about to reach 100%, which would mean Level 1. Shen Cong sat in the driver cab and suppressed the excitement in his heart. Despite him forcing his mind to focus, it began to wander through Titan’s Activity, and he sensed it filling up the last small parts.

Finally, when the last small connector of an electrical circuit was filled with Activity and the Alloying process was completed, Titan was filled with Activity.

It reached Level 1, but the mysterious change Shen Cong predicted did not arrive.

Titan was as it usually was. It continued to absorb the wandering Activity from the tornado, and it started accumulating in Titan to strengthen every part of its body.

‘This is…’

Shen Cong was surprised. He immediately squashed down his excitement and started focusing his mind on everything within Titan. Soon, he noticed what the complication was. After Activity filled the entire truck, it was fixed in place, and the union with metal became even stronger.

Shen Cong had formed a theory before after some deductions that were born from his overactive imagination. It could explain all of what happened.

When he researched the resonance of Activity cores, he came up with the inference that the Activity in Titan was like liquid, and the Activity in Activity cores was like a solid.

Now, what was happening tied in to his theory.

The Activity that wandered with the air could be described as being in a gaseous state. The evolved plants and animals turned this gaseous Activity into solid Activity and stored it in their bodies, especially their Activity cores. Since it was very difficult to digest solids, even if evolved plants and animals died, their Activity remained within them for a very long time.

Titan turned the gaseous Activity into liquid Activity. That was why it could continuously increase or be used. The volume of Activity in it rose and fell.

It was because of the different qualities of liquids and solids that Titan’s Activity possessed great continuity and its total volume of Activity could fall while its level decreased.

This would not happen to mutated plants and animals.

Now, Titan’s Activity started to accumulate and turn into a solid, just like if it was completing the process of a liquid turning into a solid.

‘Could it be that the mutation evolved beasts and mutants went through is the only one that can be considered a true mutation, while the form of mutation I went through is actually an imperfect mutation?’

Shen Cong immediately thought of this. If his theory that Activity could be in a gaseous, liquid, and solid state was true, then evolved beasts and mutants were the ones who were perfect, because their Activity was solid. Since the Activity in ironfolk and iron beasts was in liquid form, it was imperfect.

It had to go through the process of turning the liquid Activity into solid Activity.

‘So I didn’t go through the most successful evolution path?’

Shen Cong frowned. But if he were to choose between becoming a mutant and an ironfolk, he would still choose to become an ironfolk.

After all, Chengnan’s ironfolk, Wang Gen, was stronger than Zhang Yianshen and the leader of the Secret Organization. And Shen Cong was even stronger than him.

He had a living metal vehicle as his backup, and none of his human physical characteristics changed. This sort of mutation was much better than the mutants’ mutation.

Yet by the looks of it, Titan needed to go through the process of its Activity turning into a solid, which was something the evolved beasts had. It had to take an extra path, but it was still stronger than the average evolved beast and mutants.

Only the strong could survive in the post-apocalyptic world, and only those who lived could truly complete their metamorphosis.

Besides, all of this was just Shen Cong’s imagination doing its magic. There was not a single bit of scientific argument that could back up his claim.

It was difficult to say just which sort of mutation was considered a successful mutation.

Shen Cong shook his head and stopped thinking about whether the ironfolk or mutants were better. He started making preparations to carefully sense how Titan’s Activity turned from liquid to solid.

Once it completed the process of changing into a solid, could it still retain its ability to perform Alloying?

If Titan lost its Alloying ability, while Shen Cong could still use his bonemetal weapons, his Drastically Modified Battle Armor would be reduced to a pile of useless metal. Without Titan’s Alloying, he could not inject Activity directly into the metal, and without Activity filling the metal, his defense would not be outstanding.

But he did not have time to think about this problem.

Just when Shen Cong was going to start sensing how the Activity in Titan was going to turn from a liquid state to a solid state, he noticed that after Titan reached Level 1, it absorbed another 0.01 worth of Activity, and that Activity accumulated in various parts of its body.

However, before the Activity could completely settle down, it started recoiling.

And the next instant, Shen Cong felt Titan pouring all of that 0.01 worth of Activity into him.

The wave of Activity came into Shen Cong with a greater intensity than when he ate the Activity-laced nectarine.

Usually, when Titan gave him Activity, it would give it to him in a continuous way to improve his body, but this time, it violently poured the Activity into him.

In that instant, Shen Cong felt a heat that could burn his organs gush out from his body. His brain buzzed loudly, like an explosion had gone off in it. He did not have the time to think or react and just fell against the driver’s seat.

Blood started pouring out of his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears.

Different parts of his arms, elbows, neck, and face started bleeding internally, and gradually, bruises covered those parts of his skin.

*****

“Urgh… argh…”

Shen Cong had no idea how much time passed when he woke up with a moan. Intense pain filled every part of his body. Practically all of his body hurt as if there were needles stabbing him, especially his head.

His mind felt heavy and dull, like someone forcefully stuffed balls of cotton into him. It felt so full that he could not stand it. Even when he moved his finger slightly, he felt sharp pain.

Sweat had drenched his body.

He endured the sharp pain and opened his eyes. His eyelids felt as if they weighed tons. Everything before his eyes was blood red, and his vision was so blurry that he could not see anything.

“What… happened to me?”

Shen Cong wanted to think about what his current state was, but when he used his mind, he immediately experienced a pain so great it was as if his mind exploded. He gasped for breath, but it just made pain flare in his body, ripping him apart.

He did not stop sweating, and drops the size of soybeans fell down on the floor.

“Urgh… Ah… Urk…”

Shen Cong did not know how long he had been moaning for, but when he managed to suppress the pain a little, some degree of clarity returned to his mind. He endured the pain in his entire body and finally remembered just what had happened to him.

After Titan leveled up to Level 1, it continued to absorb Activity. But the liquid Activity that was originally supposed to gather together to turn into a solid had recoiled.

That Activity was fully delivered to Shen Cong in a very brutal manner, making him faint. The pain in his body was clearly the result from the Activity running on a rampage in him. He could sense that right now, the intensity of the Activity in him was much greater than what it was in the past. The intensity was at the borders of going out of control.

How could this be?