Getting Water and Resting

Titan stopped moving at eleven o'clock at night. It should have been near Xiaowei Village, which meant that Shen Cong had gotten even closer to Yinpingzhen. 

The fugly cat was tossed outside once more. Mutated Green-headed Fly 1 ate a lot of Activity-laced pork, and it was twice as large as before. Right now, it was the size of a child's fist. 

The second-generation mutated larvae grew very quickly as well. There were twelve of them in total, and each of them was slightly larger than a USB drive. Titan's Activity had also recovered to 25.5%.

Shen Cong ate more than twenty ant legs, cradled an Activity-laced nectarine, and laid down in bed. 

The shock of meeting a survivor was incredibly great. Even though he had regained his calm, his thoughts were still very chaotic. 

He did not choose to save the female survivor but instead let her live on her own until the day she died. 

It was clear she was a mutated human. The four fangs were proof of that. Besides, Shen Cong could sense that while she retained a bit of rationality, due to the influence of her mutation, her personality was not that different from that of a mutated monster. In fact, her intellect had also been affected. 

Compared to Shen Cong's form of mutation, the female survivor was an incredibly pitiful soul. She was no longer a human, but neither was she a complete monster. 

Shen Cong felt pity for her, but he would never lend her a hand. Even if she were still fully human, he would not help her easily. He was in a post-apocalyptic world filled with dangers everywhere. It was difficult enough for him to survive on his own, so how could he save others from their fate?

He was not the government, and neither was he part of the army. He was only a normal person struggling to survive. 

If he had enough resources, he did not mind being kind, but only within his capabilities. Giving the survivor a bit of food, water, and clothes was already him doing everything he could for her. 

Besides, his form of mutation allowed him to devour other beings with Activity. 

If he saved someone today, tomorrow, he might end up as someone else's nutrients, just like how he devoured the Activity from the plastic rabbit's motorcycle. Shen Cong did not have a single ounce of doubt in him that others would definitely attack him once he revealed a weakness. 

There were plenty of people in the world who wanted to harm him!

That was the case in the past, present, and the future!

This was not him suggesting and convincing himself that the world was out to harm him. They were his true thoughts. He had been troubled from the start about how he should mingle with other survivors. Instinctively, he was against coming into contact with them, but humans were social creatures, and as a member of the human species, he still needed to exchange resources with other human beings. 

The female survivor he ran into tonight caused the gloom in his heart to grow even deeper 

Humans and mutation.

Shen Cong did not know how the next survivor he ran into would look like. Would they be a mutated human in the form of a beast? Would they be as lucky as he was? Or would they just be normal survivors? Of course, there was also a possibility that he would run into an organization. 

Would the army, government, or some civil organization… continue to maintain the societal order before the apocalypse, or would they use every means at their disposal to survive in the apocalypse?

Everything was uncertainty. 

Shen Cong thought of many things before he shook his head and squashed down his disorderly thoughts. 

"At least I'm still alive and living like a normal person," he mumbled under his breath.

Then, his resolve was reflected once more in his eyes. 

He raised the huge Activity-laced nectarine and finished it in a few bites. 

Soon…

Boom!

Heat spread out from his stomach, and Shen Cong instantly fell into deep sleep. 

*****

'It's 26.9% now. In just one night, Titan's Activity increased by 1.4%. The Activity-laced nectarine is seriously good stuff!' 

When Shen Cong woke up the next morning, the first thing he did was check his and Titan's Activity. 

Titan had its Activity increased by 1.4%. It was slightly lower compared to the 1.8% the day before yesterday, but in general, this figure was still very impressive. 

As for Shen Cong, his strength did not increase. Instead, his other physical qualities improved slightly. By now, he should have the power of 2.7 bulls. 

It seemed like he was beginning to build resistance toward the Activity-laced nectarine and it did not increase his physical constitution anymore. But there was another possibility as well. Titan might not have enough Activity, which was a limit to his growth. 

'My physical constitution isn't going through great improvements anymore. I'll try eating two of them tonight. I don't have a cold storage system, so I have to finish eating the nectarines as soon as possible. It'll be a waste if they end up going bad.'

Since he would fall unconscious after he ate an Activity-laced nectarine due to the shock brought by the large amount of Activity suddenly appearing in his body, he only ate it before he slept at night. 

If Shen Cong ate one in the morning, he would end up sleeping for a few hours, and he would be wasting a lot of time. 

Right now, Titan lacked water and fuel. If he used them sparingly, he could last for a while, but he would never have enough time to spare. Absorbing Activity, repairing the electrical appliances, modifying equipment, learning new knowledge, and training his body were all activities that required a lot of time. And since he did not have a self-driving system, Shen Cong could only spend most of his day driving. 

He only stopped driving because it was not easy traveling at night and spent the free time between the evening and midnight to do his work. 

Once he was done servicing the truck, Titan went on its way to Yinpingzhen once more. After Shen Cong calculated the distance, he decided to spend his night at Yinpingzhen and reorganize as well as get ready for combat. Then, he could choose an appropriate time to head to Chaohu.

*****

The last day of July was a clear day, which was something Shen Cong had not seen for a long time. He placed the solar power electricity generator that he had not set up for several days on the roof. 

Now, he could save up on the usage of diesel fuel and generate electricity. It helped him alleviate the pressure on using up all the fuel. 

The sun set when Shen Cong was about to reach Yinpingzhen. 

On the way there, he finally sensed something else aside from loneliness—life that belonged to the post-apocalyptic world. It was clear that the amount of sand and shattered stones around him had begun dwindling, and soon, there was only a thin layer of sand and stones on the road. He did not even need to use his bulldozer blade to push them away. Titan could just move over them. 

Mutated trees started appearing here and there. Most of them were poplar trees, and only a few were sycamores. Shen Cong had gotten out of his truck to investigate them. Their bark was the same as that of the murderous peach tree; they showed signs of turning into metal, but they did not have Activity cores nor bore any fruit. 

Shen Cong did not show any mercy toward this sort of mutated tree. He dug one of them out and cut it into segments to search for its Activity core. 

He did not find it. 

In the end, he made a simple record in his illustrated guide and gave up on conducting further and deeper research into the trees. 

The appearance of the female survivor had brought him a great sense of urgency. He was not in the mood to conduct research on the trees slowly. Only when he had his survival guaranteed would he spend time researching them. 

At 5:10 P.M., Titan drove onto the road of Yinpingzhen. 

It was a town that was quite close to Chaohu. Since Chaohu's government had been disbanded and because Wuwei was originally under Chaohu's governance, Wuwei was given to Wuhu. As for Chaohu's city—Juchao District—it was given to Hefei. The spot Shen Cong had always wanted to go to restock before he went elsewhere was also Juchao District. 

If he headed north from Yinpingzhen, he would reach the southern part of Juchao District. If he went over Yuxi River, he would reach the main city area of Juchao District. And if he went further north, he would reach Chao Lake, one of the five freshwater lakes in China. 

Shen Cong climbed up to Titan's roof and brought out his binoculars to observe the area around him. 

Perhaps due to the terrain, the houses in Dagu Village had not collapsed completely. To Shen Cong's surprise, however, the buildings in Yinpingzhen had not collapsed either. He did not know the reason behind it, but many of the houses had only lost one wall. The majority still had the three others standing. 

"Hmm?"

Shen Cong noticed something through the binoculars—there was a lake in the northeast reflecting the light of the setting sun. A few trees stood tall by it. 

'Water!'

After thinking for ten seconds, Shen Cong resolutely turned on the ignition again to head to the lake. He had run into the dog crocodile at Dagu's reservoir, which allowed him to understand that great dangers could also exist in water, but now, Titan was severely lacking water. 

There was another reason that caused him to come to the decision to get water—the mutated survivor he met last night. Shen Cong did not know how many of such mutated survivors existed in Juchao District. That was why recklessly entering the city was not the best plan. 

Many of Titan's functions had not recovered just yet. Its Activity was also barely over 27%, and it was still far away from reaching its peak—85%.

Reorganizing in Yinpingzhen and using the Activity-laced nectarine to restore Titan's Activity was the task that had to be done with utmost urgency. 

These thoughts had flashed in Shen Cong's mind, and he came to the decision to reorganize after he obtained more water. He drove Titan to the lake before turning around. He had Titan's end face the lake and did not turn off the ignition. It was all so that he could retreat at any moment. 

Then, he put on Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0 and surveyed the area before he brought out a water pump. Once he connected the hose to the pump, he threw the hose into the lake. 

The lake was very small and not round. Instead, it had two thick ends and was like a groundnut. Shen Cong could see the bottom of the lake with just one glance, which meant that it was impossible for a huge creature like the dog crocodile to hide inside. 

But Shen Cong remained on guard. He did not study the trees by the lake but sat in the driver cab and used his binoculars to observe the water pump as it extracted water from the lake. He was prepared to step on the accelerator at any moment to flee. 

Getting ready to flee in the danger-filled post-apocalyptic world was a necessary method for survival. 

Aside from the main characters, many of the side characters in movies and novels died when they tried to play the hero. 

But this time, Shen Cong managed to extract the water smoothly. He waited for Titan's water tank to fill up then even filled up the empty barrels. 

Shen Cong brought the water pump back and cast a glance at the sky. It was getting darker. He then returned to the road and parked the truck in a wide area. 

He always chose wide areas to set up camp. First, it made it easy for him to drive away and escape, and second, he could observe his surroundings easier. 

Soon, the sky turned completely dark. 

The stars that filled the sky shone like they had done since ancient times, but the ground that welcomed the light no longer possessed the civilizations that inhabited it when humans ruled over the land.