“It seems like its body has gotten bigger, and there’s more meat on it. I wonder if it’s edible.” Brian Sullivan cut off a piece of snow-white muscle from the leg of the burrowing insect. After testing it for acid and alkali reactions and finding no issues, he prepared to wash it and fry it in oil to see if it could be eaten.

If it was edible, then there was a chance of survival in the apocalypse—at least there would be no shortage of food.

While the insect meat was frying on the induction cooker, Brian Sullivan began to examine the two pincers of the burrowing insect. These two pincers were about the length of a palm, highly degenerated into a sickle-shaped bony structure. However, Brian Sullivan always felt that these two pincers, compared to bone, seemed more like they were made of metal.

“Metal?”

“Activity?”

“What’s the connection here?”

Brian Sullivan frowned, unable to figure it out.

Everything about this apocalypse hinted at bewildering changes.

There was too little information to make sense of it, so Brian Sullivan gave up on the fruitless research and began to taste the insect meat, which was now fully cooked. He cut off a piece about the size of a pinky nail, chewed it carefully, and after a moment, Brian Sullivan came to a conclusion.

“Not sure if it’s poisonous, but as for the taste... it’s a bit like chicken, but not crispy, rather dry—like eating firewood. Next time I should use more oil when frying it.”

After taking a small bite, Brian Sullivan stopped eating and decided to wait a while to see if it was poisonous.

He already had several fast-acting antidotes and injections at hand, ready to deal with any symptoms of poisoning.

With that done.

He started up the King Kong and hit the road again.

Chapter 5: The Explosive Fang Wolf

The steel war vehicle sped through the yellow sands, but the driver, Brian Sullivan, felt increasingly hot and restless all over.

It wasn’t that the temperature had risen—the thermometer inside the vehicle showed it was currently 26 degrees Celsius. Instead, the heat was coming from within Brian Sullivan’s own body, spreading from his stomach. It seemed to be a chemical reaction between the activity the King Kong fed back to him and his own body, strengthening this activity and enhancing Brian Sullivan’s physique.

The heat came quickly and faded just as fast. In less than five minutes, it was gone.

Brian Sullivan could feel that his strength had increased just a little.

“Was this caused by the burrowing insect meat?”

Obviously, yes.

This was a major discovery for Brian Sullivan—the burrowing insect meat could actually boost his activity, making it a real treasure. So, on the journey ahead, Brian Sullivan was hoping for more reckless burrowing insects to attack him.

But none came, and he arrived smoothly at the ruins of Wuwei County.

He knew this was the county ruins because up ahead was a collapsed iron tower, a landmark built by the county government the year before last, once hailed as the number one tower in Anhui. Now, Anhui’s number one tower lay quietly on the ground, its broken body silently telling the story of disaster.

Not far from the iron tower, a few ruined buildings stood in remembrance of the county’s former prosperity.

The King Kong slowed down and drove carefully among the crumbling walls and debris, its battlefield detection radar on the roof spinning constantly, scanning the surroundings. With each sweep, a few flickering dots occasionally appeared on the radar screen.

There were living creatures rapidly approaching the King Kong.

Judging by their speed on the radar, they were clearly faster than the King Kong—there was no way to avoid them.

“Then I won’t bother dodging.” With the King Kong as his support, Brian Sullivan wasn’t too worried. He doubted anything could really harm him, and he was actually hoping for more burrowing insects.

He pressed a few buttons, and eight telescopic support legs extended from the sides of the King Kong’s chassis, clanking into the yellow sand and rubble, firmly anchoring the vehicle. With these eight legs, it would be hard for any creature like the burrowing insect to shake the King Kong.

A dozen seconds later, the creatures drew near.

Brian Sullivan thought it would be burrowing insects, but it wasn’t.

It was a pack of wolves!

Or rather, mutated dogs, bigger than Tibetan mastiffs, growling menacingly. Judging by their appearance, they had mutated from docile dogs into fierce wolves.

Especially those teeth—more exaggerated than a saber-toothed tiger’s, glinting with the same dark silvery sheen as the burrowing insect.

“With teeth like that, I’ll call you Fang Wolves.” Watching the mutated dogs snarling around the King Kong through the cameras, Brian Sullivan silently gave them a name.

It seemed the disaster brought by the meteor shower had not only given Brian Sullivan extraordinary abilities, but also affected these animals.

But no matter how fierce they were, in Brian Sullivan’s eyes, they were just piles of meat. Having tasted the benefits of burrowing insect meat, Brian Sullivan naturally became interested in Fang Wolf meat.

The hunt began.

The skylight at the rear of the container opened. Brian Sullivan continued using the whistle to lure the creatures. When a Fang Wolf lunged at the skylight to bite, Brian Sullivan aimed his hand crossbow directly at its mouth.

Thwack!

At such close range, the hand crossbow was extremely powerful—a direct headshot.

The Fang Wolf didn’t even have time to struggle before it collapsed, motionless. Its death didn’t attract the attention of the other wolves; it seemed that after mutating, they were completely ruled by animal instinct and had forgotten their intelligence.

Thwack!

Another headshot.

Thunk!

This shot went astray, hitting a Fang Wolf in the neck. The wolf struggled for quite a while before finally dying.