War Truck in the Apocalypse

Chapter 2: A Storm that Raged for a Month

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Breaking news today: A mysterious comet approached Earth, and it brought the greatest meteor shower in the history of Earth. Experts are currently calculating the trajectory of the comet…”

“Where did the comet come from? Why have we never heard of it before? Just what truth is the government hiding from us?”

“Oh heavens! Help me! The shooting star is flying in my direction!”

“As of current, the meteor shower has already swept across most of the regions in the eastern part of the world. It is reported that Russia, Australia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and most areas in the east are suffering from a communication breakdown…”

“This is a destructive catastrophe. God, Saint Mary, the satellites that are in sync with Earth’s geostationary orbit have all been destroyed, and we have lost contact with the world outside. The mayor of George Town is currently thinking of a way to solve this problem. Everyone, please stay home. You are absolutely not to go out.”

“Mom! I want my mommy! Boo hoo!”

“This is the judgment from the One True Lord on nonbelievers! Hahahaha! Evil heretics, tremble in the depths of hell!” 

“Control center, control center, this is Iron Falcon. Please restore communications. I repeat, this is Iron Falcon. Please— Ah!”

Boom!

“Grandma, what’s that in the sky?”

“It’s a meteor shower, Nan Nan. If you make a wish, it can help you fulfill it.”

“Oh, then I wish that your body can recover soon, grandma!”

“Stop playing League of Legends and come out to look at that meteor shower! Whew, it’s really gorgeous…”

“The ancient Mayans predicted that the world would end in 2012. Even though the end of the world was postponed by ten years, the Mayans’ prediction still came true. The apocalypse is here! Human civilization is going to be destroyed! God, please guide us to our future path!”

“HEY! Is there anyone around?! Is there anyone alive?!”

“Commander, wind speed is over 67 m/s, and the tsunami amplitude is at 47 m. We’re tilting!”

“No! We’ll never sink—” 

Boom! 

“No—”

*****

As Shen Cong watched the comet fall toward him, his eyes went wide. One thought quickly occupied his mind.

‘The apocalypse.’

Perhaps it was because he was prepared for it since a long time ago that his body responded to the situation automatically. He had the protective armor on Titan slid open and jumped into the driver cab. Then, he fired up the ignition and was fully prepared to flee from the comet that seemed to be hurtling itself at him. 

But fully starting up the engines of Titan took quite some time, and when the wheels finally began to start moving, the comet, with large, crackling flames behind it, crashed into the warehouse (which looked like a steel can no matter how Shen Cong looked at it). The great flames instantly devoured everything. 

Shen Cong sat in the driver cab, but he did not have any thoughts about his warehouse. That was because he had already fainted due to the great shock wave brought by the comet. 

If anyone looked from space at earth right then, they would be able to see a comet grazing Earth’s atmosphere, and countless shooting stars enveloping Earth like fireworks. They struck the Earth’s surface, and energy storms were scattered everywhere, rising and falling as they traveled through Earth. The entire planet was like a painting drawn by an abstract artist who decided to slather paint all over the canvas. 

The thread had predicted that the end of the world would arrive in 2022. 

And it came. 

*****

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Numerous pebbles struck the area, and the sounds of them hitting something could be heard nonstop. 

Shen Cong felt as if his head was filled with lead. It was heavy, and he could not think clearly. There was also an unfamiliar, swollen feeling in his head. He felt like he had become much bigger than before, a giant. 

Shen Cong tried to move his body, but he got no response. 

It was like his body had become paralyzed. 

‘Paralyzed?

‘…Paralyzed!’

When this thought appeared, it alarmed Shen Cong so much that the haze in his mind retreated in a flash, and he started gasping for breath. He had trained nonstop for six years, and he could do push ups with just one finger. He also enjoyed a 100% accuracy when it came to hitting targets with a slingshot within 20 m. His body constitution was his greatest pillar in the apocalypse, so how could he become paralyzed?!

Once he was fully awake, he went to sense his body carefully. 

Then, Shen Cong released a long sigh of relief. He was not paralyzed. His limbs were in good condition, and his body was fine as well. He was unharmed. 

He was in the driver cab of Titan, which was completely dark, even though it had been filled with light from monitor screens earlier. It seemed like the electric circuit was damaged when the comet struck. 

“A large part of the armor on the outside has melted and is damaged. Some parts of the circuits in the truck are burnt and damaged. Both are in need of urgent repair.”

For some reason, this information appeared in Shen Cong’s mind, and it had been delivered to him by Titan. It was an experience he could not put to words. It was as if Titan had become an extension of his body, and he could sense everything within it. But he could not control it. 

‘What’s going on?’ Shen Cong frowned. He was amazed, but he could not understand the logic behind it. 

At that moment, thudding sounds came from outside the truck, and they were accompanied by the moans of the howling wind. No matter how Shen Cong listened to them, they were hostile forces. He did not dare to get out of the truck to investigate the situation outside, but because of it, he could not investigate just what had changed between him and Titan, and it made him incredibly gloomy. 

However, he needed to understand just what was going on outside. When he fainted after he ran into Titan, he only saw countless comets flying through the horizon. Then, a huge comet struck the steel covered warehouse. 

‘If such a huge comet struck Titan directly, I would have died without even my corpse remaining, right?’ Shen Cong felt fear thunder in his heart, despite the fact that the event had already passed. 

He groped around and got himself a small flashlight from behind the driver’s seat. When he turned it on, the driver cab instantly turned brighter. Everything within the truck was fine; it was just that it did not have any power source. 

Shen Cong did not have the emergency replacement power source with him. Even so, the condition of his truck was not his main concern. He was much more concerned about what was going on outside. 

He found a lever below the steering wheel and yanked it down with force. 

Puff!

A gap suddenly revealed itself on the steel armor in front of the windshield. Then, a sunroof the size of a shoe box opened. When Shen Cong designed and modified Titan, he took into consideration the possibility of him not having an energy source, which was why he left behind a sunroof he could manually open. 

He could finally see what was going on outside through this window. 

The world was dark. 

Sand and stones flew everywhere. The empty space outside the warehouse was once surrounded by tall walls, but they had been reduced to nothing, and the area around the warehouse was a true wasteland. When the stones that flew up struck the ground again, dust and smoke rose and hit Titan, which created loud cracking sounds. 

This was truly how the end of the world should look like. 

Shen Cong closed the gap on the armor covering the windshield before he groped around behind the driver’s seat again. He opened the door connecting the driver cab to the compartment and went straight to the container at the back. He had modified the truck into a fusion of a war truck and a caravan. The container at the back of the truck had its breadth, height, and thickness increased. Aside from the space necessary for Shen Cong to live, every other space was filled with resources. 

There was food which could be stored for decades, such as canned meat, hardtack, flour, honey, and chocolate. He also had the medicine necessary for survival, an electric generator, tools for surviving in the wild, and other necessary items that were a must to survive during the apocalypse. 

As a high ranking member in the outdoor survival forum, Shen Cong often discussed with others just what he should bring during the apocalypse, and that was why his preparations were very thorough. 

The sides and end of the compartment also had sunroofs which he could manually open. 

And so he opened them. 

Shen Cong was shocked once more. The sunroof at the end of the truck was directed at the steel-covered warehouse, but there was no longer any warehouse to be seen. Only a few support pillars stood on their lonesome. The warehouse had disappeared without a trace. One of the support pillars which were as thick as an adult man’s thigh had been bent until it formed a perfect ninety degree angle. 

Shooting stars could still be seen occasionally flying through the dark sky in the distance. They provided some light to the world. 

As Shen Cong stared at the destruction raging during the apocalypse, he suddenly felt helpless. He had imagined various scenarios regarding the end of the world—zombies surrounding the city, electricity disappearing, mutated monsters popping up, aliens invading, the North and South Poles melting, and the volcanoes at Yellowstone National Park erupting—but he had never imagined that the apocalypse would be brought by a meteor shower. 

However, Shen Cong did not know whether the meteor shower affected just a region or actually engulfed the entire world. 

He could only place his hopes on Titan and trust that it would carry him through the disaster. 

He did not need to worry about food and drink in Titan. Even though his living space was a little narrow, the truck compartment had been modified after Shen Cong designed it carefully. Even though resources occupied most of the space, he still had enough to stretch his limbs freely. There was even a treadmill inside, since jogging might be the easiest way to stay fit. 

When Shen Cong saw that the sandstorm would not stop, he became absent-minded, and it took him awhile to calm down. 

Compared to the apocalypse, which he could not make heads or tails of, he was much more concerned about the strange connection between him and Titan. It made him a little anxious, but he also looked forward to figuring out the answer. 

*****

A narrow and confined space could drive an active man insane, but to Shen Cong, who had been a shut-in for six years, it was completely normal. 

He just ate, slept, trained, watched the storm, and thought about his connection with Titan. 

While the apocalyptic storm raged day and night, his mechanical watch kept track of time with its constant beeping. Half a month passed like that. 

It was as if the world had disappeared in the storm, and the only things that remained of it were the shattered stones hitting the armor on Titan, creating a piece of music that was piercing to the ears. 

Shen Cong sat at the edge of his bed while holding a Geiger counter in his hands to check the radiation levels in the truck.

When the apocalypse arrived half a month ago, he noticed that the radiation levels in the truck had reached 320 μSv. The alpha particles, beta particles, gamma particles, and X-rays all exceeded the acceptable limits. The figures practically reached the radiation content in Japan’s Fukushima during the nuclear leak. Of course, those figures did not pose much of a threat to the human body. 

Once Shen Cong positioned the Geiger counter outside the window, he noticed that the radiation concentration outside was higher by 5 mSv, which meant that it was higher by 5,000 μSv outside. This might not pose a threat to the human body if someone came into contact with it for a short period of time, but if someone was exposed to this level of radiation for a long period of time, the damage to their body would be rather great. 

The apocalyptic storm had already been raging for half a month, and those who survived but did not have any means to protect themselves might already be facing the dangers of their cells and tissues changing or mutating because of the radiation. 

But good news started to appear, albeit slowly. 

Over the past few days, Shen Cong noticed that the radiation concentration inside and outside his truck was reducing. The intensity of the storm seemed to have reduced by a large degree as well. 

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“If I endure this a little longer, the storm should stop, right?” Shen Cong said to himself. 

And as he continued enduring it, another half a month went by. 

Once the storm had raged for an entire month, on a day that should be the 17th of August, 2022, the storm stopped. The thudding and cracking sounds outside the truck vanished, and Shen Cong, who sat in the driver cab so that he could communicate with Titan with his mind since it had now formed a mysterious connection with him, found it a little difficult to adapt to the sudden disappearance of the storm. 

He found his Geiger counter and pushed it out of the truck. The radiation intensity might be much higher than the average level, but it was no longer enough to cause any damage to the human body. 

Shen Cong sucked in a deep breath and carefully slid open the armor. He was now prepared to get out of Titan.