Volume 1, Chapter 50: Harvesting the Crab Swarm

Zhang Wei joyfully dashed toward the village.

As he drew closer, Zhang Wei realized that this place could no longer be called a village; it was nothing more than a stretch of ruins.

However, Zhang Wei’s joy had already vanished. Walking among the ruins, he still failed to detect a single trace of mechanical lifeforms.

"That's impossible. Even if those things devoured all the people here, they wouldn't all just run off somewhere else, would they?"

What he found in this village completely upended Zhang Wei's understanding.

Mechanical lifeforms generally did not leave places that provided them with a sense of security, unless some irresistible event had occurred.

"What on earth happened to this village?"

Just as Zhang Wei was pondering in confusion, a distant metallic clanking suddenly echoed from behind him.

Before Zhang Wei could even turn around, his floating cannons had already opened fire.

Along the riverbank six or seven hundred meters away, countless heads emerged, but even more eye-catching were the oversized, massive metal crab claws.

"Crabs?" Zhang Wei realized the truth in an instant after looking back at the scene before him.

That explained everything.

"So they were farming river crabs here all along! I knew it!" Zhang Wei felt relieved.

Before the apocalypse, river crabs had been human food, but after the apocalypse, they had transformed into tyrannical existences, becoming a disaster.

Individual mechanical crabs could reach lengths of one to one and a half meters, and their claws alone could span two meters.

Crucially, their numbers were massive. While not quite comparable to swarms of rats, any standard-scale breeding farm held at least several thousand to tens of thousands of crabs.

What would happen if all of these creatures were converted into mechanical lifeforms?

The people in the village and the original mechanical lifeforms had undoubtedly been entirely devoured by these crabs. The absence of mechanical lifeforms in the river was entirely the handiwork of these fellows.

Zhang Wei did not strike immediately, but these giant crabs showed him no courtesy whatsoever. Waving their massive claws, they charged up from the river and scuttled straight toward Zhang Wei.

The floating cannons began firing continuously, each shot claiming the life of a crab.

With Zhang Wei's combat power exceeding one thousand, the attack power of his floating cannons had been vastly enhanced, allowing him to effortlessly obliterate a crab with a single shot.

Simultaneously, due to the freezing rounds, the ground quickly iced over from the frozen carcasses of the crabs.

The subsequent waves of charging crabs found their momentum drastically slowed by the slippery, frozen ground.

At that moment, Zhang Wei drew his thermal greatsword.

"Time to test a new skill."

A swarm of crabs made for the absolute best subjects to experiment with new skills.

"Ultimate Thunder Heavens-Shattering Strike!"

Energy suddenly began to surge at the tip of the thermal greatsword.

After a second of concentration, a fiery red sphere of light about half a meter in diameter formed and solidified.

"Go!"

Zhang Wei swung his sword through the air toward the crab swarm.

The glowing sphere at the tip of the blade shot forward like a cannonball, hurtling rapidly into the midst of the crabs.

When the light sphere struck one of the crabs, both the sphere and the crab paused for a fleeting instant.

The next moment, the glowing sphere shattered, transforming into countless bullet-like clusters of energy.

A ten-meter radius was completely engulfed by these fragments of light.

The entire sky flashed violently, even in broad daylight.

Yet, the shards of light vanished almost instantaneously, resembling sparks that disappear within a fraction of a second after a metal collision.

However, when the shimmering fragments vanished, the crabs within a ten-meter radius all collapsed to the ground, instantly clearing a large, wide-open space.

The crab carcasses strewn across the ground were riddled with holes; not a single part of their bodies remained intact, including their massive claws.

"Decent firepower." Zhang Wei nodded with satisfaction. In terms of area-of-effect damage, the Ultimate Thunder Heavens-Shattering Strike was indeed vastly superior to the Death Laser.

"The energy consumption is also acceptable." Zhang Wei glanced at his interface. Using the Ultimate Thunder Heavens-Shattering Strike had only consumed five percent of his mecha's power, which was mere drizzle to him.

He could simply use ordinary source crystals to recover while fighting; the power recovery and consumption could cancel each other out.

The crabs certainly weren't in as pleasant a mood as Zhang Wei. His actions had infuriated them, and unlike rats, they wouldn't easily be scared off by him.

Seeing the crab swarm charging at him with even greater frenzy, Zhang Wei was overjoyed.

Ordinary crabs dropped intermediate source crystals when killed, which yielded far greater rewards than slaying rats.

The next moment, Zhang Wei charged into the crab swarm, wielding his greatsword.

He rampaged through the mass of crabs like an unbridled bull.

The giant claws of the crabs were utterly incapable of harming Zhang Wei. The greatsword in his hands, his two heavy mecha feet, and the floating cannons hovering over his shoulders were all instruments of slaughter.

The crabs were harvested mercilessly, and the skills Zhang Wei periodically released decimated their numbers on a massive scale.

Such catastrophic losses finally made the crabs realize something was amiss.

Soon, the fury in the crabs' hearts dissipated, replaced by terror. Any living creature could feel fear, including Zhang Wei.

If Zhang Wei were to encounter an entity with a combat power exceeding ten thousand at this moment, he would feel fear as well.

After one of the crabs let out a shrill, bizarre screech, the swarm began to rout.

Zhang Wei, having slaughtered fewer than two thousand crabs, was certainly not going to let them off so easily. However, he stopped after pursuing them for a short while.

"Let's gather the source crystals first."

While hacking and slashing, Zhang Wei had been collecting source crystals along the way, but he hadn't been able to immediately gather those dropped by crabs killed via skill blasts.

Since he would have to pursue the crabs into the river, he likely wouldn't return for a short while, so it was wiser to collect the crystals before giving chase.

As for whether the crabs might run too far, Zhang Wei wasn't worried about that at all.

The river was only so big, and the sheer number of crabs meant that even if they wanted to migrate, it would take time.

In less than five minutes, Zhang Wei had cleared the battlefield.

Afterward, he tracked the traces left behind by the retreating crabs.

Pursuing them all the way to the riverbank, Zhang Wei halted.

It wasn't that Zhang Wei didn't dare to enter the river, nor was it that he couldn't.

His mecha didn't need to breathe, nor was it afraid of water; entering the water would merely impose certain limitations on his mobility.

Besides, the deepest part of this small river was only about five meters, which wasn't nearly enough to submerge him.

Yet, that raised a problem.

How could a river with a maximum depth of only five meters completely conceal any trace of a single crab?

"Could it be that they shrink in size once they enter the water? How is that even possible?"

Zhang Wei dismissed his own guess in an instant. He had only ever heard of mechanical lifeforms growing larger as they evolved, never smaller.

"I'll go in and take a look!"

Zhang Wei jumped into the river, the water only reaching just above the knees of his mecha.

Furthermore, the river water was rapidly receding.

Because the thermal greatsword Zhang Wei held was rather unfriendly to water, vast quantities of it were being evaporated.

Simultaneously, Zhang Wei's power consumption spiked; maintaining the intense heat of the thermal greatsword required continuous energy input from the mecha.

Seeing this, Zhang Wei had no choice but to put the thermal greatsword away.

Going head-to-head against this seemingly endless body of water using his mecha's power reserves would simply be asking for trouble.

"Huh? What is that?" Zhang Wei exclaimed in sudden surprise right after stowing his thermal greatsword.

He had just caught a glimpse of a crab, but within the blink of an eye, it had retreated out of sight.