CH 84.1

Chapter 84: Crackleclaw Crab! A Dangerous Species Appears

Chu Guang never expected that the second case of non-combat attrition that appeared in shelter No. 404 would arise... because of the crabs in the lake?

“Crackleclaw Crab.”

Looking to the shore of the lake, a big crab lay on the player's head, feasting. Chu Guang recognized the identity of this thing in just a second.

This was probably a mutant of a certain lake crab. As for its specific species, no one knew, but it didn't matter. After all, a crab that grew to a height of one meter was not suitable to be related to normal crabs in the past.

Mud and algae always hung all over its body, making it look like a mass of mud from a distance. The high bulging arc-shaped carapace was its natural armor, layered with a large amount of calcium and magnesium minerals, chitin, keratinized fiber, and other biopolymers, which could effectively disperse and buffer kinetic energy damage. Damage dealt by normal weapons was no different than tickling to it.

And those two huge claws were even more powerful. It was said that they could cut the tree in half easily... But why would this thing appear here?

Is there a Crackleclaw Crab nest at the bottom of the lake or somewhere on the other side of the lake?

Chu Guang's brows tightened.

"What is a Crackleclaw Crab?" Ample Time, who was following him, was confused and quickly asked.

“Mutant.”

There was no time to explain.

The Crackleclaw Crab had already gnawed off half of the player's head, and the part below the neck of the hapless little player would be gnawed away if he didn't do anything.

Chu Guang adjusted the KV-1 exoskeleton from "cruise mode" to "maneuver mode"—which increased the output power of the knee and elbow joints, walked towards the crab with a heavy step, and pulled out his hammer from his back calmly.

The shell of the Crackleclaw Crab was very wide, causing it to have almost no view of anything behind it.

Although they had a keen sense of hearing at close range, as long as one walked directly toward them, they would not be able to accurately distinguish one's location.

If there was no accident, in 2 seconds, Chu Guang would be able to take out that thing with his hammer!

However, just when Chu Guang had walked out of the forest two steps, still twenty or thirty meters away from the crab, Brother Mosquito suddenly carried a wooden tube and got out of the bush nearby.

"Big crab? Where is it?? Holy shit! So big! Administrator, it's too dangerous to get closer to it, please don't go over! Let me deal with it!"

After saying that, Brother Mosquito excitedly lit the fuse behind the wooden tube and carried it on his shoulders, aiming the tube at the crab.

"Fuck!"

"It's Mosquito!"

"Run!"

The players who were rubbernecking on the side were all startled by his action, and as if they had seen a plague god, all of them fled in the next second.

Without waiting for Chu Guang to stop, the wooden tube burst out with a tongue of fire, shooting a forearm-long firecracker out of the tube, and swishing toward the Crackleclaw Crab.

The Crackleclaw Crab probably heard the movement, but before it could turn its head back, the forearm-long firecracker fell into the muddy ground behind its ass.

Obviously.

This RPG's accuracy is very bad.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

With a "boom", a pillar of mud four or five meters tall rose from the ground. The explosion shook the crab's carapace twice, and the billowing smoke swallowed its huge body directly.

Nearly one kilogram of gunpowder exploded instantly. If a human stood so close, even if they weren't scraped to death by shrapnel, their internal organs would be shattered.

However, the Crackleclaw Crab was not human after all.

The shock wave of the explosion could not penetrate its carapace at all, let alone shatter its inherently few internal organs.

Then a shrill and hoarse howl sounded.

The Crackleclaw Crab, engulfed in heavy smoke, rushed out painfully and quickly locked onto the nearby Chu Guang, brandishing its large claws and ramming over to him.

But because its leg was "broken" by the blast, its speed was only a little faster than that of human walking.

Nearby players hurriedly raised their guns and opened fire, but the Crackleclaw Crab, which had been shot a few times, was unaffected.

"Ceasefire!"

Chu Guang raised his right fist and signaled the players to stop wasting bullets, then he grabbed the hammer in his hand and walked forward with a sigh.

"That dumb player, he really knows how to create trouble for me."

……

In front of the Nitrogen-powered hammer, the lame Crackleclaw Crab was no different from the marauder who ran out of ammunition.

Chu Guang didn't waste time with it at all. He switched the hammer to B mode and swung it. In an instant, the hammer directly shattered half of its face.

Then the battle was over.

A dozen players who came out of the base with him were basically not helpful. Aside from wasting a few bullets, they didn’t cause any damage to the crab.

"Damn, so strong……"

"Boss Dawn is awesome!"

"I finally know why that marauder's head was missing..."

The surrounding players were whispering excitedly.

Mosquito, who was carrying the wooden tube, still had a stunned expression even after the battle was over. It took a long time before he finally came back to his senses.

"Are you fucking serious... Even my RPG did not kill it?"

"Did you use HE round? You should use the AP round next time." Night Ten patted Mosquito's shoulder with a joking smile, "But then again, brother, your tech is pretty rad."

Mosquito argued with a red face.

"It must be the plot... the plot kills! The plot is not over, so no matter how powerful my RPG was, it would not be able to kill it! That’s one kilogram of gunpowder, if its HP is not locked by the plot, it would definitely be dead!"

"Hahahaha, it's possible! Why didn’t I think of that…"

“……”

Ample Time sighed. He didn't laugh at Mosquito with Night Ten. He just patted the big brother on the shoulder, gave him an encouraging look, and then went up to help the administrator pack the spoils.

Such a large Crackleclaw Crab weighed three hundred kilograms at least. 

[Midnight_pubg] swung his axe and hacked the back of the crustacean, but the attack only left a muddy mark on the back of the crab’s dirty shell.

"Fuck? Is this shell made of iron?" Shaking his aching hands, his eyes widened in shock. He even began to doubt the power of his axe for the first time.

"It should be good to use this to make armor," [The_Escaping_Mole] squatted beside him, and filed the claws of the big crab with his hatchet. "The claws are so hard, is this thing really caused by a radiation mutation?"

"Who knows."

Looking at the group of players curiously examining around the Crackleclaw Crab, Chu Guang put away the hammer.

"Find a cart and carry it back."

"Okay!"

"Okay, Administrator!"

Looking at the players who were starting to work, Chu Guang went on to find two players who had nothing to do and asked them to move the headless corpse on the ground back to the shelter.

Fortunately, they arrived in a timely manner. The player only lost his head and his clothes were basically intact. The previously exploded shrapnel and burning wood tar was basically blocked by the shell of the Crackleclaw Crab.

Chu Guang was not worried that the players would die, but rather worried that they would ruin the clothes.

Players would come back after they died. But there were only two sets of blue coats for each player. If both got damaged, he really didn’t know where to get more of them that would fit players.

……

On the way back, the snow fell heavier, beginning to pile up on the treetops and grass. If it continued to snow, there would probably be a layer of snow tomorrow.

Chu Guang preliminarily speculated that the temperature drop caused the range of activities of these Crackleclaw Crabs to change, but it was not known from which direction they migrated.

He only hoped that they would not make a home in front of his base.

In order to prevent similar things from happening again, Chu Guang issued an order to mark the area as dangerous.

Before finding out the source of these Crackleclaw Crabs, it was forbidden to approach this area.

At the same time, he also ordered two perception-type players, one to head northeast and one southwest, to investigate along the shore of the lake and report any abnormalities immediately.

The big crab that was one meter high when it was just lying on its stomach was carried on the cart by two strength-type players.

Singing a messy triumph song along the way, these players who followed the Administrator carried the trophy back to the outpost.

That high-profile parade attracted the attention of many people.

"Holy shit, such a big crab?"

"What's going on?!"

Curious, the player who didn’t know what was going on stepped forward to stop one player and asked.

"Brother, where did you catch such a big crab?"

"From the lake."

"What the hell?! How?!"

"Hey, hey, it’s easy. Just level up your fishing skill."

It was not just the nearby players who were watching, but Yu Hu who happened to come to trade from Bett Street.

Next to him stood another man. Each of them held one side of a wooden stick on one shoulder, with a strong mutant wild boar tied to the stick. They stood in front of the west gate and looked at the crab, completely shocked.

Chu Guang soon noticed him, and after walking towards him, spoke with a smile.

"Come to exchange goods?"

Yu Hu opened his mouth, his eyes having just moved away from the big crab before being stuck to the big hammer behind Chu Guang.

The man next to him reacted first, nodded nervously, and said frankly.

"I want to change some salt. I heard that we can exchange salt here."

Yu Hu finally recovered and hurriedly introduced the man to Chu Guang.

"This is my cousin, his surname is Li, and his name is Li Niu."

"It's snowy outside, come in with me."

Under the guidance of Chu Guang, the two of them were unimpeded at the outpost. However, someone would always look at them curiously.