104: No matter how hard a crab's shell is, it can't withstand a level-five powerhouse's dimensional attack.

The black bow of the blazing flame sliced through the murky water, like a red-hot butter knife cutting into solidified beef tallow.

The morning light was like a spotlight, yet it couldn't pierce through this stretch of seawater.

Inside the main control room, the air felt somewhat stifling.

"Major Lu, something is wrong with this place."

Zhao Ze stared at the radar screen, his brows knitted together in a knot.

The waveforms on the screen were as chaotic as a ball of yarn that had been clawed by a cat, fluctuating high and low without any pattern.

"This area was the Hongze Lake water system before the Apocalypse; the average water depth is fifty meters, and below it lies the ruins of a submerged county town." Zhao Ze's fingers tapped rapidly on the console. "The sonar just picked up a large-scale metal reaction—it's not a mineral vein, it's a jungle of reinforced concrete."

The once prosperous water town, now, had become this ghostly sight.

Floating on the water were bloated sofas, broken billboards, and several remains of Floating Corpses that had been soaking for who knows how long. Entangled in water weeds, they nodded up and down with the waves, as if greeting passing ships.

It was too quiet.

Not to mention seagulls, there wasn't even a single fly.

Lu Sheng sat in the command chair, the cup of tea in his hand still steaming.

He didn't look at the radar; his eyelids lifted slightly, and golden Dragon Eyes had already silently taken over his eye sockets.

His vision switched instantly.

The murky, yellow, muddy soup became transparent in his eyes.

Underwater, in the shadows of the ruins, on the walls of the submerged buildings, it was densely packed with black dots.

They stood motionless, like silent stones, but in the gaps of their occasionally opening and closing carapaces, a greedy, cold light leaked out.

"Zhou Hai." Lu Sheng blew on the tea froth, his tone flat. "Stop playing with those two iron balls of yours and get ready to work."

Zhou Hai was squeezing two solid steel balls, making them creak; he had just had Engineer Liu machine them for him, claiming it was to train his grip strength. He was stunned upon hearing this: "What's up? Are there fish?"

"The fish have all been eaten." Su Li, holding the Shura Bloodblade, leaned against the window. Her malicious perception sensed that the water was filled with greedy malice, her gaze as cold as a blade. "The rest are all predators."

Just as she finished speaking.

"Boom—!"

Two hundred meters ahead, a modified fishing boat belonging to the suicide squad suddenly lunged upward, as if it had been kicked hard from the bottom of the water.

The stern tilted high, the rusted propeller spinning empty in the air, emitting a shrill wail.

"Ah! The hull is leaking!"

"There's something in the water! Help—!"

The screams erupted instantly.

The water surface seemed to be boiling; amidst the churning waves, several black shadows the size of millstones broke through the water.

They were crabs.

Pitch black all over, their backs covered in barbs, their two giant pincers over a meter long, gleaming with an eerie metallic luster in the sunlight.

【Target: Mutant Iron-Back Crab (Level 4 gregarious sea beast)】

【Characteristics: High armor, giant force pincers, pack hunting】

【Weakness: Joint connections】

"Snap!"

A teeth-aching crisp sound.

An Iron-Back Crab waved its giant pincer, cutting a suicide squad member in half at the waist as if snipping a dry twig.

Before the blood could even gush out, the lower half of the body had already been stuffed into its constantly wriggling mouthparts.

This was a one-sided massacre.

The machetes in the hands of the suicide squad hacked at the crab shells, but aside from sparking, they couldn't even leave a white mark.

Someone raised a homemade shotgun and fired, but the buckshot was all deflected, only angering the crab swarm instead.

"Damn, this thing's shell is harder than steel plate!" Engineer Liu shouted in the communication channel. "Standard caliber weapons are useless!"

In just over ten seconds, the fishing boat was submerged by the dozen or so giant crabs that had crawled up.

The screams grew weaker, and the smell of blood drifted with the wind into the main control room of the blazing flame.

"Static—Major Lu! Encountered a tough nut ahead! The suicide squad has suffered heavy casualties, requesting fire support!" Qin Yue's voice was somewhat urgent, with sounds of gunfire in the background.

Lu Sheng put down his teacup and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Looking at the distant fishing boat that was about to be torn to pieces, he had no expression on his face, only the corners of his mouth moved slightly.

"Finally willing to show your heads."

He turned around, looking at the three people behind him who had long been unable to restrain themselves.

"These crabs have hard shells; it's perfect for you to practice and adapt to the power of a Level 5 Spirit Source User."

"Go."

"Let these beasts know who the daddy is in this stretch of water."

"You got it!"

Zhou Hai had been bottled up for a long time; this whole journey he had just watched Lu Sheng perform, and his hands were itching terribly.

With a strange yell, this guy pulled open the cabin door and charged out like a wild boar released from a cage.

The blazing flame was less than fifty meters away from the attacked fishing boat.

For powerhouses who had just advanced to Level 5, this distance was just a matter of a running long jump.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three figures, like cannonballs leaving the chamber, traced three parabolas in the air, bringing with them a whistling wind, and smashed heavily onto the teetering fishing boat.

"Boom!"

Zhou Hai made the biggest commotion upon landing; the Deck beneath his feet was directly stomped through with two large holes.

Several Iron-Back Crabs that were eating the corpses were stunned by the shock, turning their mung bean eyes to stare at this fat man who had descended from the sky.

"What are you looking at? Never seen a handsome guy?"

Zhou Hai sneered, the muscles in his arms bulging violently, stretching his special combat suit tight.

"Hum—"

Crimson energy instantly covered his arms, magma-like firelight flowing through the cracks.

【Explosive Flame Fist】!

An Iron-Back Crab waved its giant pincer to clamp over, but Zhou Hai didn't dodge or evade, meeting that pincer capable of snapping reinforced steel with a punch!

"Get cooked for me!"

"Thud—!!!"

The dull, explosive sound made everyone nearby's eardrums ache.

The incredibly hard giant pincer exploded like a crispy biscuit the moment it touched the Explosive Flame Fist. The terrifying high-temperature punch force slammed into the crab shell without any obstruction.

"Pfft!"

The carapace dented and shattered. The crab meat inside was instantly cooked and vaporized.

A 4th-level mutant beast weighing half a ton was blasted by Zhou Hai's punch into cooked crab meat scraps scattering all over the sky.

"Awesome! Damn, that felt awesome!"

Zhou Hai shook the crab roe off his hand, looking intoxicated. "This feeling is way more exciting than hitting a sandbag!"

On the other side, Zhao Ze was as steady as Mount Tai.

He activated 【Immortal Golden Body】, his whole body glowing with golden light, like an Arhat. He let seven or eight Iron-Back Crabs besiege him; those sharp pincers clamped onto him with a "clang, clang" sound, unable to even break a layer of skin.

Zhao Ze was expressionless, the golden 【Immortal Heavy Shield】 in his hand swinging violently.

"Get lost."

The giant shield carried a whistling wind, like a heavy truck sweeping across, slamming hard into the crab swarm.

"Snap, snap—"

Three Iron-Back Crabs were directly flattened into meat patties, the sound of their carapaces shattering making one's teeth ache.

And Su Li's battle was a silent art.

She wove through the crab swarm, her red figure so fast only afterimages remained. She didn't need to hack or slash hard; the armor-piercing attribute of the 【Shura Bloodblade】 allowed her to just lightly graze the joints of the Iron-Back Crabs.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

The blade light flashed.

Those massive Iron-Back Crabs hadn't even reacted before their bodies were already torn apart, the cuts as smooth as mirrors, and it even took two seconds before black blood sprayed out.

In less than two minutes.

The dozens of mutant Iron-Back Crabs that had been ravaging the fishing boat were cleaned up by these three like chopping vegetables.

The few surviving suicide squad members lay paralyzed in the pool of blood, watching these three figures like gods or demons, too scared to even breathe.

This... are these the monsters in the military?

Compared to them, what they used to do, acting tough and fierce at Bull King Mountain, was simply child's play!

The blazing flame main control room.

Lu Sheng watched the surveillance footage and nodded with satisfaction.

The combat power of these three people was already completely overflowing.

Handling this kind of Level 4 sea beast tide was simply a dimensional strike.

"However..."

Lu Sheng's gaze suddenly tightened, his golden Dragon Eyes staring fixedly at the deeper part of the water.

There, a huge shadow was slowly floating upward.

Even larger than the previous Megalodon, its spirit source reaction presented an eerie deep purple, like a mass of poisonous fire burning at the bottom of the water.

"The small ones are dead, so the old one finally can't sit still?"

Lu Sheng stood up and stretched his neck, his cervical spine emitting a series of popping sounds.

He walked to the cabin door and pressed the communicator, his tone unassailable:

"Zhou Hai, Zhao Ze, Su Li, withdraw. Immediately."

On the other end of the communicator, Zhou Hai was killing with gusto: "What? We've barely started! I haven't even warmed up yet! These crabs are too brittle!"

"Splash—!!!"

Before the words were finished.

The water surface ahead suddenly exploded without warning.

A black-purple tentacle, fully ten meters long, broke through the water like a legendary pillar supporting the sky.

The wind pressure brought by the tentacle even made the fat on Zhou Hai's face tremble three times.

The sense of oppression in that instant made the smile on Zhou Hai's face instantly stiffen.

The aura of a Level 6 spirit source!

A true deep-water behemoth!

ps: Today's update (4/5).