Liu Yiwu showing up in person had dissolved a significant portion of Shen Cong's misgivings.

His persecution complex ran deeper than most people's, but he wasn't unintelligent — far from it. He could see clearly that cultivating a working relationship with Liu Yiwu would be enormously useful for everything he planned to do in the Eastern Theater Command's territory. So he didn't see much point in concealment. He told the man what needed to be told.

"I'm a lone operator. Great Vajra started as a modified truck — the apocalyptic storm turned me into an iron person. The outside world is dangerous, and my personality runs toward caution. A lot of people showed their worst selves when everything fell apart, and enough of them came after me that wariness became a habit I couldn't afford to drop."

"I spent a long time out there on my own. Things I witnessed that no one would have believed before the Great Calamity. I watched torrential rain follow black clouds, floodwaters rising over everything. I saw a golden snake winding between mountain valleys, swallowing a ten-meter crocodile whole. Every moment like that replaced something that used to be ordinary."

"I organized a new settlement in Juchao District, then made my way to Hefei City. I arrived around the time the nuclear detonation hit Nanjing — the mushroom cloud was visible from where I was. I joined the Mingfa Camp that the Anhui Provincial Military District had established. I was strong enough to repel several jin beast attacks, and the District promoted me to the rank of Colonel, with the title 'Vanguard of Evolution' — the camp's fastest-advancing evolved individual, shield of the settlement and spear against enemies."

"I helped the District defend against jin beast attacks, gather resources, rescue survivors. When New Hefei's walls were finished and standing tall, I decided it was time to leave. I wanted to find the cause of the Great Calamity, to understand Activity — New Hefei's term for metal radiation — and unlock its secrets."

"I came through Chuzhou, ran into ratmen. Made it to Pukou District,…