Metal Evolution - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Burying the Monster, Swallowing Metal

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Early in the morning, the sun rose, dew that sprinkled the grass was sparkling, and a cool breeze blew through the mountains which carried a hint of the sea.

On the grassland somewhere near the pool, a barebacked young man held onto a wooden stick as he laboriously dug a pit. Next to him laid a monster’s corpse of two meters long!

This young man was naturally Xue Yue. Right now, he was planning on digging a large pit to bury that seemingly prehistoric creature, the half-shell turtle on the spot.

In fact, he had no other choice but to do so. He would not wish to care about it if possible, but the problem was that the corpse would rot if he left it under such hot weather. It would then lead to an overwhelming stench in the vicinity and even pollute the pool.

If that happened, how was he supposed to stay here?

He had thoughts about moving it somewhere else, but he could not lift it. The monster was too heavy and he had exerted great effort before he managed to pull it out of the pool this morning. If he wanted to drag it further, it was simply an impossible feat!

In comparison, he felt that it was better to dig a hole and bury it, and he only had to dig a bit deeper to fit the corpse. Of course, he had to tear off a few catties of meat before he buried it as his meal for the day. Otherwise, he would go hungry.

After he tore off some meat and set it aside, Xue Yue started to dig!

However, when he officially executed his idea, Xue Yue discovered that he made a mistake: an extremely great mistake. The deserted island appeared woody and overgrown with weeds, seemingly as the ground was soft. However, when he dug out the surface layer of the soil not more than 20 cm deep, a layer of hard rock appeared.

The rock was unusually hard and how could he possibly dig through it with the wooden stick in his hand?

Out of helplessness, Xue Yue could only change locations to dig. But not long after he started digging, another layer of hard rock appeared!

Xue Yue had a sudden impulse to curse someone. He could not dig through here nor there, so what was he supposed to do?

Out of fury, Xue Yue smashed his fist against the ground and something unexpected happened. Upon hearing a crisp cracking sound, the hard stone broke into pieces and a cavity could be seen!

“This…”

Xue Yue was momentarily stunned as he dazedly looked at his right hand and at the cavity that appeared. He was at a loss. His right fist was completely normal and even the skin of his knuckles were intact. However, the hard stone had broken down into pieces.

“I have unexpectedly created a cavity with a single punch? Oh my dear, since when has rock become so brittle?”

Xue Yue was in disbelief. He found a stone and smashed it towards the layer of stone. This time, even though there was also a small cavity, it was not as big as the hole his fist had created.

This test showed that the rock was not brittle!

“But it can’t be so…”

After a long period of confusion until the sun was hanging high up above, Xue Yue finally realized a surprising fact. For some unknown reason, not only was his fist incomparably hard, his strength also seemed to have mysteriously increased!

“That’s strange!”

In addition, he also discovered that the wound on his right leg caused by the half-shell turtle had also unexpectedly disappeared! The surface of his skin was clean and new, as if it was never injured. There were only faint traces of blood on his pants which seemed to prove the fact that he had been injured previously.

“What strange mutation has happened to my body, for it to have the ability of self-healing? Recalling back to when I arrived at the deserted island yesterday, I already found it weird. After experiencing a plane crash and drifting in the sea before arriving here, how could it be possible that I was unscathed…. This must be the explanation!”

Right now, no matter how stupid it sounded, Xue Yue had also discovered something amiss. Some strange and unknown changes happened to his body and…

“Was this half-shell turtle also killed by me?”

Xue Yue suddenly turned around and stared unwaveringly at the corpse. His eyes became uncertain as he questioned, “How did I manage to kill it?”

Xue Yue wanted to find out the secret behind his body and carefully checked himself upside down. However, there was not the slightest trace of abnormality from the surface of his skin.

“Urgh, forget it!”

He had no progress after thinking for a long time and could only give up. No matter what, nothing bad had appeared on his body up until now and the most important thing now was to bury this corpse as soon as possible.

Since he knew the strength of his fist, obviously he would not foolishly use a wooden stick to dig. His right fist heavily struck down and with a bang, another cavity appeared in the hard stone.

“Haha, this power… is simply going against the heavens!”

Even though it was inexplicable, he had to admit that the feeling of smashing stone with his fist was great, extremely refreshing!

“Haha, again…”

Punches rained down one after another and just like that, around half an hour later, Xue Yue had broken the layer of stone to pieces. After he took out the pieces of stone, another layer of soil was revealed underneath.

The soil was easy to dig through and Xue Yue used both his hands to dig, similar to a knife cutting through tofu. Inserting his hand into the soil then flinging it up with force, large chunks of soil were dug out.

His speed of digging was unexpectedly faster than a mouse!

After two and a half hours, a pit with a depth and length of three meters, two meters wide had appeared. Xue Yue was very satisfied with the results and he pushed the half-shell turtle corpse down soon after.

“Gosh, it sure is heavy. It’s even heavier than a pig!”

The half-shell turtle was outrageously heavy and it weighed about half a ton. Xue Yue speculated that if not for the mutation of his body where his strength greatly increased, he might not have been able to drag it to shore this morning.

After he spent another round of effort to bury the corpse, the sun was already hanging up high in the sky. This small island was similar to a stream, as it was wet and hot.

Xue Yue took a short rest before he started busying himself again.

First and foremost, he decided to pick up more dry wood as he must create a fire before the night arrived. Otherwise, it would be very unpleasant to be blind in the pitch-black night.

Secondly, to bring some fish or seafood back if possible and have some cooked food, as it was not good to consume bananas every single day. After all, the meat from the half-shell turture could only be eaten today, so he had to find sustainable food.

Lastly, it was to make several large campfires near the beach and the cave. In the event where a boat approached, he could immediately light it up and the large amount of smoke could be released as a distress signal. This was most likely the best method with the highest possibility of being rescued!

Xue Yue guessed that the plane crash would have caused a big stir. After all, it was a Sino US flight and no such tragedy had happened before. Therefore, a search and rescue team would most probably be dispatched in this area.

He had to be prepared for it!

After he made plans, Xue Yue began to take action. He did not dare to stop for a moment. It was only by making himself busy would he temporarily forget his longing for his father and not let his imagination run wild.

There were no traces of human activity in the woods, so there were plenty of dry branches. He had managed to gather several bundles of dry branches by making his way to the beach, including sticks that were as thick as his arms and twigs as thin as his fingers. Basically branches of all sizes were covered.

Waves undulated in the vast ocean, the sky and sea were of the same color, and no silhouette of boats could be seen on the sea’s surface. Xue Yue looked afar for a long time before he ultimately checked out the garbage on the shore with great disappointment. After a night passed, there was some new garbage pushed to shore by the waves. Xue Yue picked them up and looked at them one by one.

The majority of them were bottles, wine bottles and so on. Xue Yue collected them and pressed them under the coconut tree altogether as he might have use for them in the future.

In addition, he had found a tray of wire. When he expanded it out, it was at least twenty to thirty meters long and Xue Yue was rather joyous as the wire could be used as rope.

At the very least, it could be used to bundle up the branches!

He was more or less done with checking the parcels at that time, with only a few bottles and plastic styrofoam left, and one last express package. Xue Yue directly opened it up and was overjoyed.

What was packed inside it was a thirty centimeter long watermelon knife.

“Haha, fantastic! What’s more useful than a knife on a deserted island like this?” It was obvious that he would be happy as he could do many things with this knife.

For example, eat coconuts!

He was not anxious about taking the knife out of the package. Instead, he first climbed up a coconut tree and plucked a couple of coconuts before sitting down and began to enjoy the delicious coconut juice.

There was a slight difference in coconuts and ordinary fruits and there was a special way to eat them. The thick shell had to be cut along it’s fibre using a large knife, and three small holes would then appear.

Two of them would look identical and one would be different. For the one that looked different, one should use a knife to scrape the surface and insert a straw to suck out the tender juice inside.

Naturally he would not have a straw whilst stuck on a deserted island, but that was not a problem as he could directly use his mouth to suck out the juice. After he sucked it clean, Xue Yue positioned it on a piece of stone before using the back of the knife to hammer at the hard shell, causing it to crack. He then used the knife to scrape out the meat.

The coconut flesh was somewhat old and not exactly delicious. Xue Yue threw it aside after having two bites and drank the juice of another coconut. However, he kept the coconut shell. On this deserted island, coconut shells could be used as bowls.

After he was finished, he took the knife and walked to the seaside. His right hand scooped up the seawater as he intended to clean the knife, as the knife would play a big role in his future daily life. He had to cherish it.

However, the moment his right hand touched the knife, it was glued together and he could not pry it apart.

“What happened?”

Xue Yue was surprised that his right hand was stuck on the knife as there was no glue. Despite the strange scene, he hastily tried to use force and separate his hand but to no avail.

“This… is too strange!” Xue Yue found it inconceivable. His right hand pulled with great force but he could not separate it from the knife. Even though he had used so much force that the knife was distorted, it was just like his hand had been glued tightly and could not separate no matter what.

“Don’t tell me it would stay stuck to my hand forever?”

Just as Xue Yue was feeling appalled, a slight itch rose from his right hand and slowly spread along his wrist to his arm before finally passing through his chest which extended to his heart. In the end, it stopped at the location of his heart.

“Sii–”

All of a sudden, Xue Yue felt as if his heart had been stabbed by something and an indescribable sensation seemed to dance on his nerves. He could not help but gasp for air.

It was not pain, itchiness, or even numbness. It was a very uncomfortable yet indescribable feeling.

Moreover, with the passage of time, the itch on his wrist became more severe as it spread all the way up, gathering at his heart. It was just like tens of thousands of ants were crawling around. Xue Yue slumped to the ground with his left hand covering his chest. He felt so uncomfortable that even his breathing became difficult.

“Gosh, it’s so uncomfortable! What’s wrong with me?”