War Truck in the Apocalypse

Chapter 26: Dry-fried Ant Leg

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Shen Cong’s battle against the ant colony ended with the tragic death of the queen ant. 

Once the mutated ant colony lost their queen ant, they allowed Shen Cong to witness an exciting “epilogue” to the fight. The mutated ants first surrounded and circled the carcass as if wanting to make the queen ant wake up. But after a while, when they saw no reaction from the queen ant, some of the bolder mutated ants began eating the queen ant’s carcass. Then, more mutated ants joined those eating the carcass. 

This action was opposed by another group of mutated ants. The two sides fought, and in the end, the ground was filled with ant carcasses. Less than half of the original colony remained, and they dug out a few white objects that resembled ant eggs from the queen ant’s carcass. Then, they split up into a few smaller groups before they left. 

After the mutated ants left, Shen Cong immediately drove his truck to the queen ant’s side. Once he found the way to deal with the mutated ants, he felt safe once more. 

He quickly put on Sky Lifting Pillar 1.0, got out of the truck, and dragged the queen ant’s carcass into the bulldozer blade before he went to pick up more than one hundred mutated ant carcases. 

It was only then that he decided to drive his truck up north to leave the field filled with wrecked cars. 

But he did not drive the truck too far away. When he was approximately three kilometers away from the field, the sky started to slowly turn dark. Since it was not easy traveling in the dark, Shen Cong decided that it would be more suitable for him to park his truck where he currently was. 

He had the armor slide shut and lit up the lights in the truck compartment. 

Shen Cong exercised his sore body and decided to perform some research before dinner. He wanted to examine the plastic rabbit and the mutated ants. The queen ant’s carcass was in the bulldozer blade, which was raised above the head of the truck, and it would not be too late to investigate it the day after. 

Shen Cong dissected the plastic rabbit first and categorized its bones, organs, muscles, and pelt. But the results were incredibly disappointing. The rabbit possessed no Activity core, which verified Shen Cong’s previous assumption. Either the plastic rabbit or the motorcycle was the Activity core. Perhaps they were even each other’s core. 

[Since Titan’s entire mind is centered around me, I will temporarily maintain the stance that I am the Activity core.] 

Shen Cong typed in his dissection record in the document file of his laptop. 

At the same time, he took a picture. Right then, there were already a lot of pictures contained in the album which was an illustrated guide and contained all his research information. Most of the photos were of dead mutated monsters. 

It was not convenient for Shen Cong to take pictures of living mutated monsters. But if he had the chance in the future, he would add the pictures of living creatures as well. 

The results of the dissection were disappointing, so the plastic rabbit lost its final research value. It was cast aside by Shen Cong. Later on, he would cook it, and that would be his dinner for the day. 

Next, Shen Cong began examining the mutated ants. 

First, he opened a document known as Insect Encyclopedia and found the related information about ants so that he could investigate them while making cross references. 

There were two types of mutated ants. One of them was the mutated ant the size of a plastic bottle. The other was the mutated ant the size of a large bottle of Coke. Their entire bodies were dark and shiny, with only their legs having a bit of yellow. 

Shen Cong made cross references to the pictures in his laptop carefully, and he came to a conclusion, though he was not very certain whether he was correct. It seemed though that the mutated ants were the same brachyponera luteipes.

‘There’s no mistaking it thought that they’re mutated lifeforms.’ 

Shen Cong picked up a slightly smaller mutated ant’s carcass. He found an Activity core at the ant’s maxilla. 

In truth, even if he did not perform any deliberate investigations on the ant and just looked at the abnormally huge maxilla, he would be able to guess that this was its Activity core. 

However, not every mutated ant had an abnormally gigantic maxilla. A handful of them were within the normal range of mutation and did not stand out. 

But those ants were still mutated ants, because some of them had unnaturally large antennae, which were their Activity cores. Other ants had unnaturally large petioles, or there was one who had an abnormally huge stinger. 

‘Activity cores don’t have a set location. As long as a body part possesses bones, it has a certain chance of turning into an Activity core.’

After Shen Cong discovered the Activity cores, he casually dissected a mutated ant. Its overall structure was not that much different compared to that of a normal ant. The strength of their muscles and hardness of their exoskeleton were very high.

There was a crop inside the end of its abdomen. It had an unknown liquid inside. Shen Cong accidentally crushed the crop, and the liquid instantly spilled on his hand. 

In an instant, stinging pain filled his fingertips.

Shen Cong felt his heart lurch. He sensed that the Activity at his fingers was corroded and destroyed by the liquid. 

“Is this the substance secreted by the ants to whittle down Titan’s Activity? The one that is like formic acid?” Shen Cong muttered to himself. 

Ants could secrete formic acid, which was venomous. But the liquid before Shen Cong might no longer be formic acid. Pure formic acid was not able to corrode Activity. 

Shen Cong casually gave it a new name. “Let’s just call it powerful formic acid.”

Then, he thought of the uses for powerful formic acid. If he gathered a lot of it, could he use it as a way to destroy Activity?

He could already see how the future would look like. Activity would be used by humans and mutated monsters for both offense and defense. 

Destroying the defenses laid out by Activity would undoubtedly become a problem that had to be faced first and foremost. Shen Cong should use the chance to gather more of the liquid and store it. There might be a place where he could use it in the future. 

‘If that’s the case, I’ll have to go back tomorrow and gather all the crops from the mutated ants’ carcasses.’

Humans were willing to cast aside their lives for the sake of wealth, and animals, too, were willing to cast aside their lives for the sake of food. Shen Cong lived by this principle as well. Once he knew how amazing powerful formic acid was, he temporarily forgot the danger of the field of wrecked cars. 

The queen ant was dead, and the large colony of mutated ants had left after splitting up. Titan’s disguise would not be seen through, so it should not run into major threats. 

Once Shen Cong finished investigating a normal mutated ant’s carcass, he went to investigate a large mutated ant’s carcass. There were fewer large carcasses in his collection. He had collected only thirty of them. 

The maxillae served as the Activity core of most of them. Only one ant had its petiole as the Activity core, and another one its antennae. Shen Cong found a crop in their abdomens as well, and the formic acid in it contained even stronger corrosive properties. Shen Cong named it super powerful formic acid. 

His research came to an end at this point. 

Shen Cong keyed in the information for the illustrated guide in his laptop. 

[Brachyponera worker ants are a mutated insect. They seem to be the mutated form of the brachyponera luteipes. Their combat strength is negligible. They listen to the commands of the mutated queen ant, and they contain powerful formic acid in their crops, which can corrode Activity. They will temporarily be classified as a mutated ant belonging to the brachyponera genus.

[Brachyponera soldier ants are a mutated insect. They belong to the same category as the brachyponera soldier ants, and they seem to be the mutated form of soldier ants. Their combat strength is negligible, and they contain super powerful formic acid in their crops. Its corrosive abilities are stronger than those of the powerful formic acid.]

After recording the results of the examination, Shen Cong began to organize the mutated ants’ carcasses. He collected their Activity cores and the formic acid from their crops, as well as put away a portion of ant meat. Half an hour later, he was done tidying up the place. 

Shen Cong did not want the remaining ant carcasses. He still had quite a lot of meat from the unspayed poodle and the tumor pig. The weather was beginning to become hotter, and it was impossible for him to keep meat for a long time. Even if he put it in an airtight environment and kept fresh by using cold water, it was impossible for him to keep it fresh for a long period of time.

He could only eat what he managed to hunt, and whatever he could not eat, he threw away. 

*****

That night, Shen Cong decided to make two dishes. One of them was braised plastic rabbit, and the other was dry-fried ant leg. He added oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasoning to the meat and began cooking properly. 

Shen Cong had seasoning, but he usually could not muster the energy to cook anything properly. His desire for good food was not high, and he was content with just frying or roasting his meat. As long as it was not disgusting, he was completely fine with it. 

This time, however, Shen Cong wanted to celebrate his success in winning against the mutated colony of brachyponera ants, so he did not consider it troublesome to cook his food. He had the urge to reward himself with food and treat his stomach well. 

The taste of the plastic rabbit was incredibly good. It tasted like rabbit, but was as chewy as beef. Once he added seasoning to it, the taste of the dish increased by leaps and bounds, and Shen Cong loved it so much that he nearly ate the bones as well. 

The other dish was dry-fried ant leg. It was crispy and fragrant, just like a piece of fried chicken. He picked one up, bit down on it, and started making crunching sounds. 

‘Yes… this taste is good. I should fry more of them as junk food.’

While chewing on the ant leg, Shen Cong brought out a bottle of Wuliangye [1] and poured two taels worth of liquor for himself before he took a few sips of it. He still had some roasted groundnuts from the pile of roasted goods he had looted from Carrefour. He bit down on the ant leg, drank a little of that Wuliangye, ate two groundnuts, and looked incredibly valiant while he did so. 

There was a saying that went: “If you eat groundnuts while drinking, the taste of groundnuts will become more prominent with each new sip.”

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The feeling of being a petite bourgeoisie and the atmosphere born after surviving a dangerous situation made Shen Cong incredibly comfortable. The anxiety and gloominess that had pressed down on his heart disappeared, and the pressure of being in the barren and dangerous post-apocalyptic world faded a little. 

He enjoyed his dinner so much that his stomach felt bloated. 

The Activity that came from the mutated meat started scattering through his body, making Shen Cong feel hot all over. He climbed to the roof so the wind would blow at him. 

Some of the heat faded away, but a lot of it was still accumulating in him. 

It caused Shen Cong to bring out his “girlfriend”… He had dozens of “girlfriends”, and they could help him get through the lonely and long nights.