Chapter 233: Wanting Your Shelter
A 20-meter-long trawl fishing boat sailed on the water surface, and in the sound of rain, a large number of blue crabs smashed onto the deck.
“Bang bang bang!”
The man fired several shots in a row, the muzzle flash appearing briefly in the rain and then quickly quieting down.
Streams of rainwater slid down the raincoat into the gun barrel, and the man racked the sleeve with a click.
But the stuck bullet casing refused to eject no matter what.
“Damn! Boss, we can’t hold them off!”
The blue crab adjusted its posture, facing him sideways, its claw tip tapping the deck, and its basin-sized body flew toward his face with an eerie lightness.
“Bang!”
The man flung the handgun, smashing it onto the blue crab’s shell, shattering it into a pile of parts.
After mutation, these crabs’ shells had become even harder, each one like steel plate. 9mm bullets would just glance off them, and throwing the handgun only bought a little time.
“Useless.”
Just as he was about to be overwhelmed by the blue crab, Zhang Min walked out from the cabin.
The blue crab immediately lost its desire to attack, retreating sideways to both sides, as if welcoming their queen.
The man quickly retreated back, shaking off the rainwater from his body. Just as he was about to speak, he felt the fishing boat beneath his feet shudder violently, nearly capsizing.
A massive black shadow flashed past the side of the fishing boat and plunged into the water, kicking up terrifying waves.
“Boom!”
Surging waves crashed onto the deck and poured into the cabin.
The man steadied himself, his mind recalling the glimpse of scale armor from earlier, his complexion turning deathly pale.
“Boss, it’s a dragon! We’re not getting out of here!”
“It’s just a mutated beast, you idiot!”
Zhang Min bit her nails, saying irritably.
Traveling at night always meant encountering some random predators. These blue crabs were easy to handle—her Tier 1 ability had a crushing effect on these non-evolved crabs.
Sheltering a small fishing boat was no problem.
But this Tier 1 mutated beast was trouble. Her ability could influence those of the same tier, but only by amplifying an existing emotion, unlike against low tier, where she could forcibly strip away certain negative emotions.
The mutated beast underwater was enormous, each swim stirring up massive waves that boomed against the fishing boat.
‘What would the Train Conductor do if he were here?’
‘Throw teammates overboard to feed the fish?’
‘But that thing clearly isn’t something two people could feed. Should’ve recruited more subordinates earlier…’
Zhang Min’s gaze instinctively turned to the porthole outside, where the lonely Iron Mountain Shelter stood on the water surface like an isolated island.
The next instant, a lightning waterfall cascaded down from the rooftop, spreading all the way to the water surface, with cold blue electric arcs dancing even on the wave crests.
As if the heavens and earth had inverted, the dark water surface became dark clouds, while the clouds in the sky were deathly still, occasionally rumbling internally, but no lightning appeared.
Gem-like red eyes reflected this wondrous scene.
Red lips parted slightly, filled with inexplicable shock.
“The Train Conductor has gotten this strong…”
“It makes one unable to resist kneeling at his feet!”
“Bang!”
Another muffled thud came from under the fishing boat, shaking the cabin.
The subordinate at the helm said anxiously, “Boss, with this thing entangling us, we won’t reach the next settlement before we sink!”
Another man braced against the cabin door, “Hurry up and make a decision!”
“Go back!”
Zhang Min said decisively.
Compared to dying namelessly at sea, she’d rather go back and see Su Huan’s cold, indifferent face.
……
Iron Mountain Shelter.
Qi Zhendong kicked a blue crab, sending it skidding sideways several steps. It steadied its balance but landed on the electric current by the window, instantly roasted to a fragrant crisp, its blue shell turning fiery red at terrifying speed.
Its eight legs and two pairs of large claws flailed wildly, then went still soon after.
It could no longer grip the ground and fell.
The sound of its shell colliding as it fell was like the cook’s spatula, crackling.
Outside, more crabs were roasted by the current, peeling off layer by layer and falling.
Seeing this, the Qi Family members were shocked speechless.
“Is this… divine punishment?”
“It should be an evolver’s ability.”
Old Man Tie said.
Qi Zhendong subconsciously asked, “Who is this strong?”
No one answered him. Iron Mountain Shelter didn’t have this kind of strength, so the conclusion was obvious.
“It must be Brother Su!” Xiao Dong said confidently.
Qi Zhendong looked puzzled at Qi Jianguo, “Bro, what level has he evolved to?”
The latter frowned tightly, “Not sure. Zhenbang let them in. When I saw him, he seemed like an ordinary person, even weaker than his elite soldiers.”
Qi Zhendong suspiciously glanced back, seeing only a sea of blue flowing light, but unable to find the source.
A hint of suspicion appeared in his eyes, “Could it be one of his subordinates…”
Qi Jianguo immediately thought of that burly man who had completely crushed him in strength.
Since the apocalypse, it was the first time he’d seen such a ferocious person.
His proud strength was like a child’s before the other man. That guy hadn’t even seemed to use full strength, yet tossed him around dizzy and disoriented. If not for wanting him alive, Liang Kuan could probably have killed him in one clash.
“Possible. They have a lot of experts.”
Qi Jianguo looked at the electric light, deep wariness flashing in his eyes.
Qi Zhendong sidled closer to his father and whispered, “Dad, how are you sure they’ll help?”
Old Man Tie opened the shotgun, ejecting the shotgun shells, and said silently, “I’m not sure. From start to finish, I was only sure of one thing: I couldn’t persuade him.”
“Then he…”
“Because Brother Su is a good person!”
Xiao Dong said firmly, his eyes reflecting the blue arc light, trembling with excitement.
Qi Jianguo touched the cracked scales on his body and fell silent.
The next instant, an arc of light seemed to lose its way and struck Qi Jianguo directly, instantly paralyzing him.
“What’s with this lightning, doesn’t it distinguish friend from foe?!”
On the rooftop, Old San clutched his clothes, grimacing in pain.
“Convoy Leader, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have killed indiscriminately. Give me a chance to correct it…”
Su Huan’s face darkened as he waved his hand.
With a slap, it sent Old San jumping three meters high.
“Shut up and stay away from me. I’m having a bit of trouble controlling it.”
Old San scrambled away over ten meters, then shouted from afar at Su Huan standing at the rooftop edge, “That last one too?”
Su Huan gazed at the roiling Lightning Pool and said flatly, “Except for that one.”
“Lightning Pool” was an ability he had deepened on the foundation of Static Swamp, changing the planar output of Static Swamp to lightning diffusion centered on himself.
It shaped two lightning zones above his head and under his feet, then the lightning at both ends would attract each other, colliding with a power-doubling effect.
Even without colliding, the current would attack targets in the area during flow.
Not to mention in this heavy rain and flood weather—it was practically his home turf.
Su Huan sat on a steel beam extending beyond the building, overlooking the blue crab tide.
Those blue crabs emerging from the water hardly needed his attention; the moisture on their bodies naturally attracted the current.
He just needed to maintain the current intensity and control it not to strike anyone.
The former was easy.
Circulating Vortex turned his body into a small self-circulating generator, continuously absorbing general energy floating in the surrounding air.
Consumption speed barely exceeded replenishment speed.
With his heart’s massive energy storage, he wasn’t afraid of consumption at all.
So controlling this energy became the trouble.
Lately, his evolution speed had been too fast. His main profession General Energy Conversion had reached lv7, and the energy in his body far exceeded the limit he could control in his previous life.
Like a power plant running at 1% efficiency daily—easy and pleasant—but suddenly going full 100%, the workers weren’t used to it, leading to chaos.
That was his current situation.
If his various data were visualized, Fine Control would already be marked red.
But under his full firepower, the blue crab tide was forcibly contained below the tenth floor.
Lin Jin wasn’t idle either. Though he couldn’t achieve Su Huan’s large-area coverage, taking care of the building under their feet was no problem.
So everyone upstairs saw a spectacle of heavenly fire.
A bolt of lightning struck the highest-climbing crab, instantly drawn by the water flow, cold blue electric arcs simultaneously appearing in the gaps of the crab mountain clinging to the building exterior.
Then a fire dragon smashed down from above.
In the massive explosion, the crab mountain disintegrated and fell into the water.
The two coordinated extremely tacitly, with almost no gaps—everyone could only see lightning flash, then fire erupt.
Like thunder and fire erupting together.
The people in the shelter watched this thunder-and-fire fireworks display close at hand, terrified.
The soldiers were more accustomed, holding their guns and briefly relaxing.
Yu Yue’s figure quickly emerged from the stairs, and Lin Jin and others guarding nearby greeted her.
“Sister Yue”
“Major Yu”
“Mm.”
Yu Yue acknowledged and ran toward Su Huan.
Her running posture was odd—body leaned forward, arms barely swinging, tense tiptoes pushing off, propelling her several meters forward.
It was more like jumping than running.
“Just stand there. Getting too close distracts me.”
Su Huan said flatly.
Yu Yue’s almond eyes paused slightly. She glanced at Shu Wei beside her, took one more step forward, and stopped.
“Most of the cannons downstairs have been moved onto the train, leaving only one. The ammunition box wasn’t transported in time, so I had soldiers carry it upstairs. Currently, from the tenth floor down, it’s all those crabs.”
This was within his expectations. Even if Iron Mountain Shelter had a few boats, in the war and chaos back then, they probably couldn’t transport much heavy military equipment.
Getting some small cannons up was already good.
Though not very useful, better than nothing.
The train was sorely lacking this kind of heavy firepower now.
“Figured out how these crabs came out?”
Looking at the armored train surrounded by crabs below, Su Huan asked with some doubt.
“According to the biological experts on the train, these crabs likely had no natural predators in Jingchao Lake, leading to massive reproduction and population explosion, then migration to relieve group pressure.”
“When will they retreat?”
“Hard to say…”
Su Huan frowned, “Am I supposed to sit here in the rain roasting crabs all night?”
Yu Yue bit her lower lip, “Originally, the crab group was just passing Iron Mountain Shelter, but too many corpses were thrown down from upstairs, and the bloody smell attracted the crab tide. Now crabs within ten kilometers have gathered.”
Su Huan glanced at Old San, who was hiding under the eaves talking to soldiers.
The latter abruptly shrank his neck, looking around suspiciously, thinking it was his imagination, scratched his head, and continued gesturing at the lightning in the sky and boasting to the unfamiliar soldiers.
“You guys were lucky then. If the Train Conductor had advanced to Tier 2 at that time, with your little tricks, one bolt of lightning would’ve scrapped you along with your vehicle!”
The combat group soldiers looked at the sky, nodding with lingering fear, not daring to make a sound.
Afraid a bolt would come down on them.
Su Huan ground his teeth, and after a while said, “Get Qi Tieshan and them moving for me. Tell him, from today on, he, his son, grandson, including that brat Xiao Dong—all of them are to work their asses off for me!”
“I’ll see just how tough his Iron Mountain really is!”
“Oh.”
Yu Yue responded, then quickly changed to “Yes.”
Her eyes curved, almond eyes gaining a bit of amusement.
She naturally heard Su Huan’s gritted-teeth voice. In her view, Su Huan was just having a childish tantrum—clearly wanting to protect Iron Mountain Shelter, yet finding an excuse for it.
Shu Wei couldn’t hear that much, puzzled at how Yu Yue found fun in such a simple conversation.
‘Am I too dull?’
Shu Wei silently reflected while looking at Yu Yue’s round and graceful figure.
But deep down, she admired Yu Yue. Su Huan’s bt playstyle, and she endured it for so many days without changing expression.
Just the thunder overhead now made her legs weak.
Legs numb, body limp.
“Anything else?”
Yu Yue asked.
“Catch a few more crabs. I want to eat them for breakfast.”
Su Huan’s eerie voice came from the rain.
“Got it.”
Yu Yue agreed happily, turned to Shu Wei, and said softly, “Then I’ll trouble you to watch him for me.”
Shu Wei’s mouth twitched, but she still lowered her head and said, “It’s my duty. No need to be polite.”
Watching the woman leave, Shu Wei carefully pondered the earlier conversation.
A bold idea popped into her mind.
Yu Yue was jealous.
But she immediately dismissed it herself.
Based on her observations lately, Yu Yue had also been forcibly taken onto the train by the Train Conductor.
How could anyone like someone who bullied them?
Especially someone like that…
Shu Wei’s gaze fell on Su Huan’s back.
Black hair whipped wildly by wind and rain, thunder pouring down from around him, like Zeus high on Olympus overlooking his divine kingdom.
How could anyone like such a tyrant.
She was probably the same, merely submitting to his strength.
Hu Shuo’s arrival broke her reverie. He nodded at her, then shouted toward Su Huan.
“Train Conductor, there’s a woman named Zhang Min downstairs who wants to see you.”
Shu Wei immediately recalled that young girl pretending to be mature, a faint vigilance rising inexplicably in her heart.
“What does she want?”
Su Huan asked suspiciously.
“She wants to obtain your shelter.”
