Chapter 56

Shen Cong spent the entire night nursing himself back to health. He also thought about the reason behind why this accident occurred, along with the problems that were involved in it.

Imperfect evolution… Titan’s max capacity of Activity… His own position in the path of evolution… And the theory of Activity changing between the three states of matter: gas, liquid, and solid… Whether the other evolved beings had gone through what he went through… How the mutants, evolved beasts, half-orcs, evolved plants would move from Level 0 to Level 1… And was he really on the correct and logical path by dividing them into Level 0 and Level 1?

Spending an entire night without sleeping had given him enough time to think, and he was able to come up with a lot of things that seemed like the truth.

Shen Cong was very good at connecting the dots together. If a person mentioned just one extra sentence, he could imagine an entire scenario of how the person would go back to plan to harm him and come up with a plan to handle the situation as well as implement it.

He usually thought too much.

Shen Cong had run into plenty of mutated forms in the post-apocalyptic world.

Mutated plants generally had their bark turn into metal, while those who managed to survive were mostly tall trees. No shrubs or grass were still around. Or at least, he had not managed to discover any as of right then. Some of the evolved trees bore fruit. The murderous peach tree was one such example. It managed to bear Activity-laced nectarines, and it could even eat carcasses.

The mutation in animals was much more complicated. Usually, evolved beasts became stronger. Their physical attributes changed, and they obtained Activity cores that gradually changed into metal.

Some of the evolved beasts did not have Activity cores, as if their evolution had failed; the fugly cat was one such example. There were also iron beasts who fused together with their vehicles, and the plastic rabbit was one of those.

Shen Cong did not run into a lot of creatures from the sea. The crocodile was probably one of them though. The triangular bumps on its tail looked like Activity cores. The evolved fish were also considered evolved beasts. Most of them evolved from normal carp, grass carp, and black carp. Practically all of them were failures, because they did not have Activity cores.

Insects were also living beings and belonged to the category of evolved beings. Shen Cong did not run into a lot of insects, but the ones that he ran into were all unique. Earth-digging insects knew how to dig underground. Their bodies were incredibly large, and they had Activity cores.

Brachyponera ants were huge, and the queen ant could give birth to mutated ants. All of them had Activity cores. Green-headed flies were not evolved beasts, but due to Shen Cong cultivating them, the first generation transformed, and the second generation mutated.

As for humans? Shen Cong did not run into a lot of them. Based on the categorizations from the survivors, there were three types of mutations for humans—mutants, half-orcs, and ironfolk. But Shen Cong thought that there were generally only two mutations. Mutants and irolfolk had both mutated, while half-orcs were mutants who had failed their mutation.

Shen Cong had seen two half-orcs, and their Activity cores were very obvious, but their animal instincts suppressed their human instincts.

He had not run into mutants or ironfolk yet. But he was an ironfolk himself.

In truth, aside from humans possessing higher intelligence, the way they mutated was not that different from the animals. In general, there was a clear difference between the external mutation in trees and animals. What remained unknown was the difference between the internal mutation between plants and animals.

There was no need to think about plants for now. He should focus on the mutation of living beings.

Shen Cong had previously thought that the ironfolk were the best. Compared to having a certain body part gradually turn into metal and into an Activity core, becoming an ironfolk was a gentle way of getting stronger, and it was much safer and effective. His imagination had managed to come up with the theory of Activity existing in the form of gas, liquid, and solid, but the danger shook his belief.

Perhaps being a mutant was actually the safest and most effective way to mutate

Shen Cong could already imagine it. If he had not met the delays a few times, he would have been killed by the out-of-control Activity when Titan reached Level 1 a long time ago. Then, did that mean that other ironfolk were in grave danger, especially those who had a smoother time in absorbing Activity?

Did any ironfolk die because of this? If they did not, how did they manage to solve this problem?

He had to come into contact with ironfolk before he could answer this question.

At the very least, Shen Cong himself could sense the huge obstacle standing before him. The path forward for mutation or evolution seemed to be covered by a layer of fog, and he could not see the direction ahead. It was constantly filled with danger.

*****

At the time when he was high in spirit, Activity decided to give him a warning call.

Shen Cong felt that he needed to obtain more information related to Activity now.

There was no way he could obtain it within a short period of time unless he ran to Hefei and met with the army to obtain information from there. Titan had already reached Level 1, but he did not know anything more, and there was no way for him to continue leveling up unless he wanted to experience his Activity going out of control again.

But Shen Cong was even more nervous about the prospect of his strength not improving.

He was worried that if he was one step behind others, he would fall behind for all time. The evolved humans in Chengnan did not possess any value to serve as reference. His goal was the evolved humans in big cities and military zones.

The dangers in the post-apocalyptic world could also serve as fortuitous encounters. He had to make sure that he remained as the hunter at the top of the food chain and not the prey at the bottom of it.

‘So, did something happen between me and Titan? How is Titan going to improve next? How am I going to improve?’

Since his body was damaged badly, Shen Cong did not leave Titan. He was currently very weak, and even a normal person could kill him. He did not have any sense of safety at all, and he did not dare take even half a step out of Titan.

The Demonic Bull King Totem was already dismantled. Without the field strength, Titan’s speed in absorbing Activity fell to a very slow rate.

But slowing down did not mean it stopped. It was just like breathing. Shen Cong could not stop Titan from continuing to absorb Activity. Once it accumulated to a certain degree, it would still pass him the out-of-control Activity.

This was a problem that Shen Cong needed to solve immediately.

Fortunately, he calculated that Titan would only lose control and shove Activity at him when it had accumulated 0.01’s worth of Activity, and it would be three to four days before it managed to accumulate that amount.

So, for three to four days, he was safe.

In truth, he could recover from most of his injuries within three to four days. With his current level at 0.954, his corresponding physical constitution meant that even if the out-of-control Activity came at him again, it would no longer be able to pose too much danger to him. Instead, the out-of-control Activity could improve his physical constitution.

But if he did not solve the problem of the out-of-control Activity, Titan would not be able to improve, and the mere thought of it was terrifying. It would make Shen Cong feel unsafe.

If he did not feel safe, it was the same as asking him to die.

Suddenly, Shen Cong thought of a possibility. ‘Perhaps it’s because my level is not high enough and I’m holding Titan back from improving.’

He might be Titan’s core, but Titan might also be his core. However, that did not matter. They were one and the same. In other words, they were one entity.

Titan was already at Level 1, while Shen Cong was just at Level 0.954, and only when Titan became Level 1 that he showed that out-of-control Activity at him to improve.

The two of them were not in sync.

‘Siphon effect!

‘Water at a high place will flow continuously to a lower spot through a siphon.

‘There’s a huge possibility that this IS the explanation behind this entire thing, and it might be the key. Titan and I must be at the same level before we can improve. I’ve only been paying attention to Titan’s level, thinking that if Titan leveled up, it would be reflected on me, and I would become stronger because of it. This is an error in my thought process. Titan and I are two sides of the same being. When I eat Activity-laced nectarines, I also benefit Titan!’

The more Shen Cong thought about it, the more he believed that it was true.

Since Titan and he were one being, they far surpassed the limits matter. The difference of Activity between them might cause a siphon effect, just like earlier.

This also fit with the theory of Activity existing in three states of matter. It was because Activity was like water that the siphon effect could occur.

Shen Cong organized his thoughts and continued delving deeper into his idea. ‘Perhaps I still overlooked certain things, like just what exactly Titan is!’

Titan was a modified heavy war truck. In the beginning, the only thing that became alive was its frame. Then, as Shen Cong guided it, the entire truck became alive through Alloying.

But what if he went back to the very beginning? What if Titan was still just an unmodified small truck?

Did that mean that if the small truck were filled with Activity, it would have reached Level 1? Then how was he supposed to calculate Activity if he added a trailer to the back of the truck? Was it considered a part of the small truck, or was it not a part of it?

Shen Cong had added a lot of parts to Titan, such as the vehicle-mounted radio, 15A radar, CCTV (the display screens), the FLIR System, the external armor, the caravan, living structures, other systems, the periscope, solar power electricity generator, small fridge, water tank, the Demonic Bull King Totem, and other external components.

These were all things that he considered as part of Titan.

He did not consider the other resources in the truck, like the laptops, handphones, USB drives, X-ray machines, DJI Phantom 8 Pro, remote cars, sex dolls and others, as part of Titan’s overall structure. The Drastically Modified Battle Armor was not considered as a part of Titan as well because it used up Titan’s Activity. The equipment that was produced after Titan performed Alloying on them were also not considered as part of Titan.

How were they to be categorized then?

Shen Cong suddenly realized that he had overlooked many problems.

He had never given Titan an overall definition! He used the volume of the parts in Titan that were supposed to be filled with Activity as a scale of measurement to define Level 1. But when it came to Titan, his concept about it was very blurry. It could even change.

Today, if he had a steel board, after Alloying, it would become a part of Titan. Tomorrow, if that steel plate was removed, it would no longer be part of its overall structure.

The scale of measurement was not accurate, so how was it supposed to be used to measure the level system?

How was he supposed to define Titan?

Shen Cong immediately thought about Alloying. Would Titan have a limit for Alloying? If it performed Alloying to a sufficient number of materials, would it not be able to perform Alloying anymore?

‘Should I test Titan’s limits?’ Shen Cong’s eyes sparkled.