Once, Brian Sullivan stuck the Geiger counter out of the car window and found that the radiation level was as high as 5 millisieverts, which is 5000 microsieverts. This value, while brief exposure wouldn’t cause significant harm to the human body, would be extremely dangerous if one were to remain in such radiation levels for a long time.

The doomsday storm had already raged for half a month, and those unprotected survivors had likely already suffered from radiation-induced illnesses.

However, there was gradually some good news.

In the past few days, Brian Sullivan noticed that the radiation levels inside and outside the vehicle were dropping, and the intensity of the storm seemed much weaker than before.

“Just hold on a little longer, and the storm should stop, right?” Brian Sullivan said to himself.

That wait lasted another half a month.

After a full month of storms, on what should have been June 17, 2022, the storm suddenly stopped. When the crackling sound outside the car disappeared, Brian Sullivan, sitting in the driver’s seat and focusing on the mysterious connection between himself and the King Kong, felt a bit unaccustomed for a moment.

He took out the Geiger counter and reached it outside the vehicle. Although the radiation level was still several times higher than normal, it was no longer enough to pose a threat to the human body.

Taking a deep breath, Brian Sullivan carefully opened the armor, preparing to step out of the King Kong.

Chapter 3: The Living King Kong

The sky was still somewhat overcast, with no sun in sight.

After a month, Brian Sullivan once again set foot on the ground. However, the once vibrant land had been replaced by endless yellow sand, rubble, and dust—there was not a trace of green in sight.

It seemed as if he had arrived in a boundless desert.

“Home... Wuwei County... The provincial capital Hefei is probably gone too...”

Brian Sullivan frowned, searching all around, hoping to find any sign of life. This massive disaster storm had wiped out all traces of living things. The only evidence that this was still Earth and not some alien world were a few steel columns from the warehouse’s load-bearing structure not far away.

One of them was bent at a ninety-degree angle.

Suppressing his pessimism, Brian Sullivan walked step by step to where the warehouse had been, looked around for a moment, then used his hands to dig through the yellow sand and stones on the ground, but found it too difficult. He ran back to the King Kong, took out an entrenching shovel, and returned to continue digging.

At this point, Brian Sullivan’s body was even stronger than an ox, and with the entrenching shovel, he dug at an incredible speed.

In no time, a large pit had been excavated.

“Activity really does strengthen my body. In the past, digging such a big pit would have left me gasping for breath, but now I don’t feel tired at all.”

Activity—this was the name Brian Sullivan gave to his mysterious ability, the very reason he could form a strange connection with the King Kong.

A month ago, when Brian Sullivan woke up from a coma, he discovered that he had developed a sensory link with the King Kong. Over the following month, he explored this sensation. Through repeated exploration, experimentation, and deduction, he roughly understood the origin and function of this ability.

That world-ending meteor shower—one of the meteors struck the warehouse. Given the power of a meteor, the shockwave should have destroyed everything nearby, but it didn’t. In fact, aside from demolishing the warehouse, it didn’t even leave a large crater. Brian Sullivan had no idea what that meteor was made of.

But now, it seemed certain that it contained some mysterious energy.

Because it had given the King Kong’s metal a kind of “coming to life” transformation. Brian Sullivan didn’t know if the King Kong was truly alive, but it definitely had a kind of sentience, slowly repairing its own damage—Brian Sullivan named this awakened sentience “activity.”

At first, most of the King Kong’s armor had been melted, and many internal circuits were burned out.

But when Brian Sullivan calmed his mind and communicated with the King Kong, he could guide this activity to slowly absorb free-floating activity from the outside world to repair itself, and could even make some changes in form according to Brian Sullivan’s will.

Out of boredom, Brian Sullivan named this ability of activity—Extension.

At the same time, activity had two other abilities. One was assimilation—Alloy. Originally, only the King Kong’s metal frame had been given activity by the meteor, but under Brian Sullivan’s guidance, it could now devour various components attached to the frame, granting them activity and forming a unified whole.

Conversely, if a component was removed from the King Kong, it would lose its activity after a while.

The other ability was the feedback that activity gave to its guide, Brian Sullivan—Exchange.

When Brian Sullivan guided the King Kong’s activity, he gradually strengthened his own willpower in every part of the King Kong. In this way, Brian Sullivan could use his brainwaves to control the King Kong. Then, the King Kong’s activity would also feed back into Brian Sullivan, strengthening his body.

Active metal, with three attributes: Extension, Alloy, and Exchange.

This was the result of Brian Sullivan’s month of research.

Of course, there might be abilities yet to be discovered, and many unknown reasons remained a mystery. For example, Brian Sullivan still didn’t know what his true relationship with the King Kong was. Logically, after being given activity, the King Kong should either evolve into a Transformer or become a giant slug.