Chu Guang never could have imagined that the second non-combat casualty of Shelter 404 would be caused by a crab from the lake.
"A split-claw crab."
Looking toward the lakeshore at the massive crab crouched over a player's head and feasting heartily, Chu Guang recognized the creature in a single second.
This kind of crab was likely a mutant form of some freshwater lake crab. As for the exact species, no one knew, nor did it matter; once a crab grew to a height of one meter, claiming kin with any normal crustacean was entirely out of the question.
Its body was perpetually coated in mud and algae that never seemed to wash clean, making it look like a lump of rotting muck from a distance. Its high, arched carapace was natural armor, packed with massive deposits of calcium and magnesium minerals, chitin, keratinized fibers, and other biopolymers. It could effectively disperse and cushion kinetic impact; standard light firearms hitting it were no different from a light scratch.
Its pair of enormous pincers packed astonishing explosive force, rumored to be capable of shearing through tree trunks as thick as a man's thigh... But why had something like this shown up here?
Could there be a split-claw crab nest at the bottom of the lake or somewhere on the opposite shore?
Chu Guang's brows knit tightly.
"What's a split-claw crab?" Fang Chang asked hurriedly from beside him, completely bewildered.
"A mutant."
There was no time to explain.
The split-claw crab had already devoured half the head. If they waited any longer, everything below that unfortunate little player's neck would be eaten clean too.
Chu Guang switched his KV-1 exoskeleton from "cruise mode" to "mobility mode," boosting the power output to the knee and elbow joints. Striding with heavy steps toward the split-claw crab, he calmly drew the hammer from his back.
The split-claw crab's shell was exceptionally broad, leaving it with virtually no vision directly behind it.
Although their close-range hearing was sharp, as long as one approached facing it dead-on, it could not accurately determine whether a target was in front or behind.
If he moved fast enough, he could flatten it with a single hammer strike in two seconds!
Yet Chu Guang had only taken two steps out of the woods, still twenty to thirty meters away, when Brother Mosquito suddenly burst out of the nearby brush carrying a wooden tube on his shoulder.
"A giant crab?! Where is it?! Fuck, it's huge! Lord Administrator, it's too dangerous over there, please don't go forward! Let me finish it off!"
With that, Brother Mosquito excitedly lit the fuse at the rear of the wooden tube, propped it onto his shoulder, and aimed the dark muzzle straight at the crab.
"Holy shit!"
"It's Mosquito!"
"Run!"
The players gathered nearby to watch the commotion were terrified by his actions and scattered in all directions as if fleeing the plague.
Before Chu Guang could stop him, a tongue of flame burst from the wooden tube. Carrying a fist-sized firecracker, it shot toward the split-claw crab with a loud whoosh.
The split-claw crab seemed to hear the noise, but before it could even turn around, the forearm-length firecracker plummeted into the mud right behind its rear.
Clearly, this RPG lacked any semblance of accuracy.
Not that it mattered anymore.
With a deafening boom, a column of mud surged four to five meters into the air. The flash of the explosion shook the carapace twice, and billowing thick smoke instantly swallowed its massive frame.
Nearly a kilogram of black powder had detonated in an instant. Had a human stood that close, even if the shrapnel didn't tear them apart, their internal organs would have been pulverized by the shockwave.
Yet a split-claw crab was not human.
The shockwave failed entirely to penetrate its carapace, let alone damage the sparse internal organs it possessed.
A shrill, raspy screech pierced the air.
Having suffered pain, the smoke-engulfed split-claw crab charged out, quickly locking onto the nearest target—Chu Guang—and brandished its giant pincers as it rampaged forward.
However, likely because a leg had been fractured by the blast, its speed was only slightly faster than a walking human.
Nearby players hastily raised their guns and opened fire, but after taking several rounds, the split-claw crab acted as though nothing had happened, completely unfazed.
"Cease fire!"
Chu Guang raised his right fist, signaling the players to stop wasting ammunition. He then hefted the warhammer in his hand, sighed, and stepped forward.
"You guys really love making extra work for me."
...
In the face of the Nitrogen Power Hammer, a limping split-claw crab was no different from an out-of-ammo marauder.
Chu Guang wasted no time on it. Switching to Mode B, he swung an armor-piercing heavy blow. The nitrogen armor detonated instantly, blasting apart half of its face.
The battle was over.
The dozen or so little players who had followed him out of the base had essentially contributed nothing more than cosmetic scratches; aside from wasting a few rounds of ammunition, they hadn't dealt a shred of real damage.
"Too strong..."
"Boss Shuguang is awesome!"
"I finally know how that marauder lost his head..."
The surrounding players whispered among themselves in excitement.
Mosquito stood holding his wooden tube with a blank stare, only regaining his senses long after the battle had concluded.
"Holy shit... It took that and was fine?"
"You're shooting HE at a crew compartment, man. At least switch to AP rounds," Ye Shi teased with a grin, patting Mosquito's shoulder. "Though jokes aside, bro, this craft of yours looks positively criminal."
Mosquito flushed red and argued back defensively, "It was definitely a cutscene... A scripted kill! The cutscene wasn't over, so its HP was locked! How could I kill it? One kilogram of gunpowder—if its HP wasn't locked, it would've died for sure!"
"Hahahaha, plausible! How come my brain didn't think of HP lock? Hahaha!"
"..."
Fang Chang sighed, choosing not to mock him alongside Ye Shi. He simply patted the big brother's shoulder, offered an encouraging look, and went forward to help the Administrator collect the spoils.
A split-claw crab this large had to weigh at least three hundred jin, perhaps even four to five hundred.
Midnight Chicken Slaughter swung his axe and brought it down hard against the crab's back. The recoil left the webbing between his thumb and forefinger throbbing with pain, yet the filthy, thick shell bore only a single muddy scuff mark.
"What the fuck? Is this shell made of iron?" His eyes bugged out, questioning his axe's lethality for the first time.
"It'd probably make good armor," Mole on the Run from the Canyon muttered, squatting nearby and rasping at the crab's pincers with a woodchopping knife. "The pincers are damn hard too. Is this thing really a radiation mutation?"
"Ghost knows."
Watching the group of players crowding around the split-claw crab, poking and prodding it from all sides, Chu Guang stowed his hammer away.
"Find a handcart and haul it back."
"Yes, sir!"
"Understood, Lord Administrator!"
Watching the players get to work, Chu Guang then found two idle players and instructed them to carry back the headless corpse on the ground.
Fortunately, they had arrived in time; the little player had only had his brain eaten, while his clothing was largely intact. The shrapnel from the earlier blast and the burning wood tar had mostly been shielded by the crab's shell.
Chu Guang wasn't worried about players getting themselves killed anymore; rather, he was more worried about them ruining their clothes.
People could respawn after dying, but only two sets of bluecoats were issued in total. If those were ruined, he had no idea where he could find replacements that fit so well.
...
On the way back, the snow fell heavier, already dusting the treetops and grass leaves. If it didn't stop by nightfall, there wouldn't even be a need to wait for the next shower—a layer of snow would blanket the ground by tomorrow.
Chu Guang tentatively surmised that the dropping temperatures had shifted the activity range of these split-claw crabs. He just didn't know which direction they had migrated from.
They had better not make a nest right at his doorstep.
To prevent similar incidents from happening again, Chu Guang issued an order designating the surrounding area as a danger zone.
Until the source of these split-claw crabs was determined, approaching the area was strictly forbidden.
At the same time, he instructed two Perception-type players to scout along the lakeshore—one heading northeast and the other southwest—and report back immediately upon discovering any anomalies.
The giant crab, which stood a meter tall even when prone, was hoisted onto the handcart by two Strength-type players.
Belting out ragged victory songs along the way, the players who had "marched out" with the Lord Administrator wheeled their trophy back to the outpost.
Their flashy display drew the attention of many onlookers.
"Holy shit, such a huge crab?!"
"What's going on?!"
Curious players who didn't know what had happened stepped forward and grabbed one of the returning team members to ask.
"Brother, where did you guys catch a crab that big?"
"Reeled it in, obviously."
"What the hell?! You can reel in something that big?!"
"Heh, chum the water with an angler first, and wouldn't you know it, it bites right on!"
Stunned spectators included not only the nearby players, but also Yu Hu, who had just arrived from Bet Street to trade.
Beside him stood a sturdy man. Between them, balanced on their shoulders, was a wooden pole tied with a burly mutant wild boar. Standing before the west gate, the two stared at the crab, utterly dumbfounded.
Chu Guang spotted Yu Hu, walked over, and smiled.
"Here to trade?"
Yu Hu opened his mouth. His eyes had barely pulled away from the giant crab when they glued themselves onto the massive hammer strapped to Chu Guang's back.
The man beside him was the first to react, nodding nervously and speaking with simple honesty.
"I want to trade for some salt. I heard you can trade for salt here."
Yu Hu finally came to his senses and hurriedly introduced him to Chu Guang.
"This is my cousin. His family name is Li, called Li Niu."
Li Niu, literally "Li the Ox." Not bad.
Chu Guang wore an odd expression, wondering what people would do once all twelve zodiac signs and common animals were used up as names.
"It's snowing hard outside. Come inside with me."
Led by Chu Guang, the two passed unimpeded through the outpost, though curious gazes followed them the entire way.
Yu Hu was used to it after several visits, but the cousin he brought along was here for the first time and felt ill at ease all over.
"Please don't mind them. They've stayed underground for a long time and haven't seen people from outside the shelter, so they're curious when visitors arrive."
Seeing this important figure in a bluecoat speak to him, Li Niu waved his hands repeatedly. "No problem, no problem, I don't mind at all."
Chu Guang nodded, led the two to the warehouse, and handed them directly to Luka, the warehouse manager on duty.
The old serf recognized Yu Hu, instantly understood his duty, and expertly guided the man named Li Niu toward the butchering station.
Yu Hu handed all the game over to his cousin and didn't follow. Instead, he sidled up beside Chu Guang, staring curiously at the great hammer.
"Brother Chu, is this your weapon?"
"You could say that."
"One that big? Can it really be used?"
"Of course."
"Then... that split-claw crab just now, you took it down with this hammer?"
"I did."
Receiving confirmation, the youth's eyes widened in disbelief. Only after taking a long moment to digest the shock did he manage to squeeze out a sentence.
"Incredible!"
A split-claw crab!
A monster no scavenger ever wanted to run into.
The creature had terrifying burst speed in narrow terrain, immense explosive power, and a simple mind; once it locked onto a target, it pursued them to the bitter end.
Unless one could climb somewhere high, escape was nearly impossible.
Virtually nothing could take on such a monster in a direct frontal clash; even mutant brown bears avoided picking fights with them.
Chu Guang smiled without offering an explanation.
Whether he was strong or not was beside the point; the power of technology was what mattered.
A nuclear-powered hammer combined with a chemically powered exoskeleton could smash through a solid wall with a single blow, let alone the face of a beast.
"It was alright. Speaking of which, how are things on your end? Looks like this snow won't let up anytime soon."
"How else could it be? It's roughly the same every year around this time; we just scrape by," Yu Hu said with an easygoing, careless shrug. "Still, winter came too early this year, and our preparations were rushed. Normally caravans still come through in October, but who would've thought late September would be the last wave this year... Sigh."
Chu Guang offered a comforting word. "Look on the bright side: colder weather means meat keeps longer."
Yu Hu shook his head.
"Game is hard to find, though. If we want more prey, we have to push deeper into the city and seek out mutant nests."
Chu Guang took an interest. "Oh? Do you have experience with that?"
Yu Hu nodded and explained.
"Can't really call it experience, more like half intuition! Those half-collapsed buildings, especially the ones with trees busting through them—lots of small critters like to burrow into them, even nesting inside. Hyenas, jackals, all kinds of carnivores follow them in. You can find prey in places like that year-round... but it's risky."
Chu Guang said, "Gnawers."
"Yeah, Gnawers love hiding in buildings, though they don't climb very high. Whenever we sweep a building, we start from the fourth floor up. Even so, it's hard to say what you'll run into. It might be a nest of tens of thousands of rats, or a resting Crawler. Without guns, we don't dare venture too deep, reaching the edge of the Fifth Ring at most."
Chu Guang sighed. "Now that it's snowing, heading deeper will be even harder."
Yu Hu gave a bitter smile.
"Harder? It's miserable even without snow! The roads are like a maze, forcing you up and down, and some streets stay flooded from the beginning of the year to the end, never once drying out!"
The straight-line distance on a map from Bet Street to Boulder City was over ten kilometers—stretching from outside Qingquan City's Fifth Ring to the edge of the Third Ring—and the Wetland Park lay even farther out.
Qingquan City couldn't be found in Chu Guang's parallel world, but drawing an analogy to Jiangcheng where he once lived, drawing a random ten-kilometer line on a map could stretch from the riverbank straight out into the distant outer districts.
What did that distance mean?
Without traffic, a decent drive might take half an hour, or perhaps an hour if there were many intersections.
As for walking?
Chu Guang had never tried walking that far, but even without generalizing, it would surely mean crossing at least twenty footbridges or pedestrian tunnels.
And that was under normal traffic conditions.
Traversing the ruins was an entirely different matter.
In the pre-war era, even the shortest buildings inside the Fourth Ring were generally over six hundred meters tall. The magnetic tracks and magnetic nodes mounted along highways and building exteriors were the bedrock of a three-dimensional transportation network supporting 120 vertical traffic lanes.
In an age where maglev technology had become widespread even for private vehicles, skyscrapers were no longer merely "dwellings"; they had become part of the "roadways" themselves. Buildings adjacent to main arteries faced strict height requirements.
Of course, these were merely Chu Guang's deductions based on Old Charlie's stories and limited intelligence, not necessarily gospel.
Yet just imagining those closely packed rows of dominoes gave him a palpable sense of the oppressive weight of this concrete-and-steel cemetery.
Humans harbored an instinctive reverence, even dread, toward creations hundreds of times larger than themselves. Hunting for prey across such ruins was truly no easy feat...
Chu Guang proposed, "Why don't your whole family move over to my place instead? I happen to be short on hands."
Though tempted, Yu Hu shook his head like a rattle drum.
"No, no, we can't trouble you like that."
Chu Guang smiled. "How is that trouble? I wouldn't be feeding you for free; at most, it's helping each other out."
Yu Hu shook his head even faster.
"Coming over to help out is fine, and staying a few days is no problem, but moving over permanently is a no-go! We live quite comfortably over there. Living underground... just feels strange. Besides, except for you, I can't understand a word anyone else here says. Over time, getting along would definitely be tough."
Seeing his reluctance, Chu Guang didn't press the matter.
Although Chu Guang wanted to point out that they were different from traditional "bluecoats" and didn't spend all their time living underground, that clearly wasn't the root of the issue.
When someone refused based on a multitude of factors, the reason they gave was often the least consequential one.
A classic example was "My mom won't let me."
So Chu Guang never bothered listening to excuses; even if he heard them, he treated them as air.
Trust took time to build; it could not be forced.
Besides, they weren't without a home of their own.
He couldn't very well go tear down their house, could he?
Yu Hu changed the subject, asking with an honest grin, "Speaking of which, Brother Chu, is the meat on that giant crab edible? It's my first time seeing anyone actually catch one of those."
Chu Guang chuckled. "I don't know. I was planning to ask you."
"Me? How would I know? I've only heard that the roe of female crabs can be eaten, but nobody ever mentioned if the meat is safe... If it is, man, a crab that huge must have an insane amount of meat."
As he spoke, Yu Hu began to drool.
Chu Guang laughed and waved a hand.
"Wait until next time you come! I'll investigate whether it's toxic first. If it's safe, I'll treat you to all you can eat!"
Yu Hu nodded vigorously with a broad grin. "Awesome! When the time comes, I'll bring Big Brother, Dad, and Xiaoyu along too!"
"Haha, I'll just pack a portion for you to take back!"
The two chatted for a while until the butchering on the other side was complete.
Perhaps because winter had just set in, the 250-kilogram wild boar had an impressive meat yield of sixty percent, producing 150 kilograms of meat.
Twenty percent, or 30 kilograms, served as compensation to the shelter. The remaining 120 kilograms went to the Li family man and Yu Hu.
The wild boar hide was also high-quality leather, particularly well-suited for armor. While not as rare as deer hide, its value was considerably higher than hyena pelt.
After consulting Chu Guang, Luka still priced it equivalent to deer hide, crediting the man with 300 grams of coarse salt.
Having obtained his salt, the man beamed with joy, showering Chu Guang and Luka with gratitude before leaving alongside Yu Hu.
"Luka."
Seeing his master address him, Luka bowed his head respectfully. "What are your orders, Master?"
Chu Guang asked, "Is the meat of a split-claw crab edible?"
Luka was taken aback. Frowning in thought for a moment, he said cautiously, "Master, this old slave has worked in the fields all his life and has truly never seen such a creature... But if you are uncertain, I can test it for poison for you."
"That won't be necessary."
If anyone were to test for poison, it would be the players. If they weren't poisoned to death, lying in an incubation pod with its additional 100% recovery rate bonus would heal them right up regardless.
Besides, dying wasn't a big deal either; three days of spectating on the official website, and they'd be back as good as new.
Just then, Chu Guang suddenly thought of someone, and his eyes lit up.
Right.
How could he have forgotten about that girl?
Did he even need a human to test it?
Just show it to Yaya and see whether she eats it, and that would settle it!
Chapter 84