Chapter 718.2: The Crab and The Fish

Flesh and steel collided violently!

One Emperor Crab rapidly extended a folded mechanical leg and kicked away a mutant charging forward with a thermite bomb.

Immediately afterward, the massive machine surged forward and slammed one front leg downward with crushing force, stomping directly onto another diving mutant’s back and pinning it to the uneven reef like crushing an ant.

One mutant managed to circle behind the armor unit and attempted to pry open the heavy shell with a harpoon, yet failed to scratch even the paint.

Before it could try anything else, a real Harpoon round blasted through its chest, vaporizing half its body into blood mist and shredded flesh.

The Mutant Humans resembled garlic cloves tossed into an industrial grinder, reduced to mangled paste within moments.

Harpoons flew from their powerful arms again and again, yet only left scratches across the steel armor.

They tried everything from harpoons, to underwater rifles. They even pulled out their daggers at the end, and they even activated all their depth mines and explosives...

Yet against armor several times thicker than that of Crackleclaw Crabs, all their efforts were completely futile.

The blinding searchlights prevented them from opening their eyes, while the chainsaws needed only the slightest touch to cut them clean in half.

And not just chainsaws either. There were also the net-launching rounds fired from those thick gun barrels!

One durable net after another spread through the water, entangling Mutant Humans against reefs, or tangling them together with each other.

And the more they struggled, the tighter the nets became.

In merely five minutes, more than 200 aquatic Mutant Humans had died beneath the roaring chainsaws.

Continuous casualties and the utter hopelessness of the battle filled every Mutant Human’s face with terror. Even their leader instinctively began retreating in fear.

They had never encountered enemies like that before!

Yet their opponents, the players hiding inside the Emperor Crabs, were intimately familiar with these scaled monsters.

Ever since French Fry Harbor captured several aquatic Mutant Humans two months ago, the New Alliance Biological Research Institution’s local research station had thoroughly dissected and studied them, quickly uncovering all of their habits and weaknesses.

Those creatures were not nearly as invincible underwater as they appeared. They too were preyed upon by larger marine mutant creatures, just like cargo ships lacking black ironwood or psychic interference devices.

To avoid attracting giant sea creatures, they typically traveled close to coastlines or shallow seabeds around islands.

Such regions generally remained 400 meters deep at most, and massive sea monsters usually avoided them to prevent beaching themselves. Furthermore, during long-distance travel, they alternated in singing strange songs, deliberately generating noise to disguise themselves as gigantic super sea creatures and intimidate medium-sized predators lurking in shallow waters.

Taking those traits into account, French Fry Harbor only needed to place a few sonar buoys near the undersea freshwater pipeline to track the Mutant Humans’ movements and prepare interception plans.

Technically, it wasn’t difficult at all. Even without satellites, the sensors installed along the undersea pipeline could still relay signals back to French Fry Harbor or nearby players.

The Mutant Humans never realized that the moment they left the Death Coast and entered the eastern coastal region of Baiyue Province, they had already been tracked by the military base at French Fry Harbor.

Watching his tribesmen continue dying in droves, the mutant leader finally panicked and shouted toward his followers. “Retreat!, go to the surface!”

The Mutant Humans entangled with the Emperor Crabs kicked desperately toward the ocean surface.

Although the Emperor Crabs possessed ballast systems and compressed-air tanks similar to fish bladders, their tremendous weight and limited internal volume prevented rapid ascent, making it difficult to continue firing while rising.

Thus, the Emperor Crabs did not pursue upward. Instead, they raised their Harpoon launchers and continued firing relentlessly.

Thin trails of bubbles chased the retreating Mutant Humans toward the surface.

Mutant Humans exploded into clouds of blood one after another, but more successfully escaped through the relatively sparse barrage.

Finally, when only 50 meters remained between them and the surface, the pursuing Harpoons began slowing down. Apparently, the weapons could not travel much farther.

Watching the Harpoons beneath them gradually lose momentum, and seeing the super crabs left behind below, the surviving Mutant Humans finally breathed sighs of relief.

But before they could finish that breath, long cylindrical objects suddenly plunged into the water from above, descending directly toward them.

Their nightmare had only just begun.

Staring at the slowly descending cylinders, every scaled face filled simultaneously with confusion and horror. As though sensing death itself approaching, an instinctive terror spread through their heart.

They had no time to react. Anyway, even if they had, there was no opportunity left to run.

Explosions and violent shockwaves erupted instantly, swallowing those sinful lives whole.

Watching the sea of flames bloom near the surface overhead, voices of admiration echoed from beneath the armored shells of the Emperor Crabs.

“Damn... now that’s some firepower...”

“Anti-submarine warfare really is our Air Force’s job after all.”

“Fuck... those green-skinned guys really are tougher. These scale-covered freaks are slippery as loaches but way too fragile!”

“So who gets the MVP here?”

“If we edit the explosion footage, it should count as ours.”

“Damn, good idea.”

While everyone was noisily arguing back and forth, Prone Model suddenly heard Mosquito’s voice through their communication channel. “Bombing run complete! How’s it going down there?”

Hearing that familiar duck-like voice, Prone Model immediately replied, “Oh! We’re all good! No casualties here...”

“Who the fuck cares about that? I’m asking whether you recorded it or not?!”

Prone Model eyes widened in surprise. “... Fuck. Why are you such a heartless fool?”

Mosquito’s grunt continued. “Hold on, quit screwing around for a second... I’m detecting signals from a psychic interference device! The source is roughly 300 meters from the explosion zone, depth between 50 and 100 meters. Keep an eye out nearby, there might be something else down there.”

Something else?!

Prone Model froze slightly.

Almost the instant Mosquito finished speaking, a long, resonant cry suddenly echoed through the water.

“WOOOOOO!”

The sound resembled a cargo ship’s horn, and the surrounding ocean itself trembled alongside it. Everyone instinctively looked upward, shining their searchlights toward the source just in time to see a colossal shadow dozens of meters long looming above them.

“... What the hell is that?!”

They looked like they had just seen a ghost, and even Prone Model involuntarily swallowed hard.

A teammate’s voice came through their communication channel. “Mother of god... there’s an even bigger one.”

The psychic interference device had begun emitting unstable disturbance waves and the giant creature wailing above them seemed to have suffered some injuries.

The entire ocean churned violently, the raging currents scattering floating corpses and frightening away aquatic Mutant Humans that had cautiously approached.

Even the Emperor Crabs standing on the seabed were continuously pushed backward by the chaotic underwater currents.

“Mosquito, you guys still got ammo?!” Fighting desperately to steady the violently shaking control handles, Prone Model roared into the headset.

Static crackled through the comms, followed by a rather embarrassing answer. “Nope... only had one reserve bombs. I already removed the autocannon just to carry that thing for you guys. Good luck.”

“Son of a...” After a furious round of cursing, Prone Model switched to their internal communication channel and shouted loudly at his teammates. “Prepare for the boss fight!”

Unlike his own heart-pounding tension, the squad channel immediately exploded into excited howls.

“WOOHOO!”

...

Meanwhile, around 100 kilometers away from the explosion site, a destroyer belonging to the South Archipelago Federation floated upon the sea.

At that moment, chaos filled the bridge.

“An underwater explosion has occurred 100 kilometers west! Location is near the underwater volcanic belt! It appears to be inside our minefield!”

“The minefield?!”

“Damn it... were those aircraft responsible?”

“What’s going on with those planes?”

“Could they be from Shelter 70?!”

The reason the sailors panicked was not merely the sudden underwater explosion, but also the 50 aircraft that had abruptly appeared on radar. The planes seemed to materialize out of nowhere over the endless ocean without the slightest warning.

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