Volume 1, Chapter 51: Wait, what is that?

"Death Laser!"

Purple light converged in Zhang Wei's eyes, and the ray of lightning sliced across the water surface. Of course, Zhang Wei's primary objective was to cut open the spot where that crab had just appeared.

What kind of situation was going on down there could only be known by cutting it open and taking a look.

The lightning swept across, and the gravel and mud at the riverbed muddied the originally quite clear river water.

When the sediment dispersed, a severed, dark-cyan hole appeared before Zhang Wei's eyes.

The entrance was not large, about five meters in diameter, running straight down.

"It's only seven or eight meters deep!" Zhang Wei muttered, lowering his head to inspect it, and then stepped directly into the hole.

"There really is a hidden passage."

Probing with his foot, Zhang Wei discovered a hidden passage connecting to other areas. The passage was about three or four meters high, extending diagonally downward all the way.

Given Zhang Wei's current height, there was certainly no way he could squeeze in.

However, that was not much of a problem for him; he just needed to blast his way through.

The thermal greatsword that Zhang Wei had previously stowed away appeared in his hand once more. As the thermal greatsword hacked and slashed, the hidden passage collapsed.

Fighting his way step by step along the diagonally descending hidden passage, Zhang Wei actually chopped and sliced the passage open to the surface.

However, because the path sloped downwards, Zhang Wei's entire mecha was soon submerged in the river water.

"Just how deep does this thing go?" Zhang Wei wondered slightly.

Logically speaking, a river of this relatively small size shouldn't have such geological features.

As for this being carved out by the crabs themselves after their mechanization, Zhang Wei found that hard to believe either.

After all, this was only the third day of the apocalypse.

As he penetrated deeper underwater, Zhang Wei could sense the current beginning to affect his movements, though the impact was minimal.

Fortunately, the hiding place of the crabs was not too deep. When Zhang Wei reached a depth of about twenty meters underwater, the environment before him suddenly opened up.

This was a massive underground space, roughly the size of three or four football fields. Yet even with a space this large, Zhang Wei could not enter because while the area was sufficiently wide, the height was lacking; the ceiling of this underground space was only about five or six meters high.

Looking at the crabs covering the entire floor of the underground space, Zhang Wei casually squatted down in front of the hole he had forcefully breached.

As for the thermal greatsword, Zhang Wei put it away again, as it consumed too much power.

"This is a good spot."

Zhang Wei had no intention of leaving, nor did he have any thoughts of destroying this underground space.

Based on his visual estimate, the place where he stood was the sole entrance and exit of this underground space.

If the crabs wanted to leave, they had to pass through him.

Therefore, Zhang Wei intended to wait here for prey to run into his trap.

As for why he didn't destroy this underground space, the reason naturally remained the source crystals.

If Zhang Wei simply wanted to wipe out these crabs, he could have directly destroyed the structure of the underground space. As long as the underground space collapsed, not a single crab inside would survive.

However, doing so would mean the source crystals within their bodies would be buried right on the spot.

Although Zhang Wei's mecha possessed formidable combat power and immense strength, collecting source crystals amidst ruins was extremely laborious.

Above all, it would consume much more time.

Moreover, there were not only large crabs here, but small ones as well.

"These guys have already started breeding in just three days? Just how much metal have they swallowed?"

Zhang Wei looked with burning eyes at those small crabs that were only a little over twenty centimeters long.

Those small crabs also contained source crystals within their bodies, though the crystals would certainly be very weak.

Still, none of that mattered.

As long as Zhang Wei guarded the exit, he would use the metal remains of the dead crabs to feed these small crabs.

With a sufficient supply of metal scraps, the growth rate of the small crabs would be astonishing. Once these little creatures grew up, that would represent a brand new wave of crops to harvest.

"What a pity, there aren't enough metal remains, otherwise I could set up a breeding farm right here," Zhang Wei remarked with a hint of regret.

If he could truly establish such a breeding farm, achieving freedom in intermediate source crystals would be within reach.

Just as Zhang Wei was lamenting this, the large crabs grew furious.

How could they not be angry when someone blocked their front door?

Led by some unknown large crab, the large crabs collectively rioted.

Unfortunately, the entrance was only that large. Even though it had been violently expanded to nearly double its size by Zhang Wei, it could at most accommodate three or four large crabs attacking him simultaneously.

Facing the large crabs waving their claws, Zhang Wei sneered inwardly. His hands moved continuously, every punch landing precisely on a large crab's cranium.

The crab swarm began suffering casualties once more.

However, the rate of attrition was not fast.

Underwater, Zhang Wei was not using the thermal greatsword, and firing the floating cannons was useless as it would only freeze the river water, leaving him reliant solely on his own hands and feet.

"This efficiency is a bit slow." Zhang Wei was somewhat unsatisfied with his speed in slaying the large crabs.

When he looked back, he caught sight of the corpses of the dead large crabs he had discarded behind him.

Following that, Zhang Wei casually grabbed one, and with force from both hands, he snapped off the two claws of the large crab.

Through some modifications by Zhang Wei, the crab claw was turned into a makeshift spear; he discarded the smaller claw and kept only the massive one, reshaping it into a spear-like weapon.

The next moment, Zhang Wei turned around to counterattack, thrusting the spear forward. The large crab that had just been frantically hacking at his back met its doom on the spot.

"Not bad!"

A modified crab claw was not an official weapon and provided no combat power bonuses, but with its sharp tip, Zhang Wei found it quite handy to use.

"It looks like I'll need to acquire a conventional weapon to keep on hand in the future," Zhang Wei reminded himself internally.

The thermal greatsword was indeed exceptionally useful, but in such environments where it was countered, using the thermal greatsword consumed too much combat energy.

Therefore, preparing a conventional weapon as a backup was quite necessary.

As time passed, the pile of crab corpses accumulating behind Zhang Wei grew larger and larger, gradually forming a small mountain.

Even so, the frenzied large crabs still showed no intention of halting their assaults; they were prepared to fight to the death.

It wasn't that the crabs lacked fear, but rather that they had no way out.

As for why they didn't use their massive claws to carve out a new escape route, the circumstances simply did not allow it.

Carving out a new passage leading to the river surface required breaking through a stone layer nearly twenty meters thick. Furthermore, this underground space had already become unstable, and shattering the stone layer would easily trigger a collapse.

Right now, their only way out was to drive Zhang Wei back and let as many escape as possible, or at least break open a gap so that their offspring could flee.

Yet, while the plan was sound, the ending was destined to be tragic. Zhang Wei stood unmoving at the sole exit; apart from crab corpses, nothing was going to leave through this passage.

Gradually, the number of large crabs dwindled significantly. When their numbers dropped to a certain point, their frenzy faded away.

Zhang Wei checked his cargo hold, and the harvest was exhilarating: roughly over four thousand intermediate source crystals.

"If I raise all these little ones to full size, it should be enough for my third evolution!" Zhang Wei felt exceptionally thrilled inside.

To have brought his mecha to the tier three evolution stage in just a few short days—Zhang Wei really wanted to ask, who else could compare!

Yet just as he was secretly excited, the remaining large crabs began to stir wildly, and a flash of deep blue light violently broke through the stone from the depths of the underground.

"A mutant?"

"No, what is that?" Zhang Wei abruptly stood up, almost unable to hold back and rushing directly into the underground space.