MTLNOVEL Chapter 145: The Little Fish Eats Shrimps
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The zombie in the cage seemed to still be oblivious to the imminent threat, instead violently ramming the steel cage, firmly holding the attention of the recently emerged crayfish.
Clang!
The cage was directly knocked over onto the sandy ground by the mutated crayfish.
It had already spotted the food inside, and after pressing its body against the cage, a pair of huge pincers easily tore open the whole steel-reinforced cage as if opening a can.
"Holy crap!"
"This guy can even pinch through steel bars?"
The onlookers above were all utterly stunned.
If it was a live person, they probably would have been snapped in half on the spot, right?
Zhang Ye was also somewhat surprised as he watched the crayfish feeding, but the astonishment in his eyes quickly turned to greed.
Such a hard shell, wouldn't it make great armor if processed a bit?
If marketed at a few dozen yuan, it would definitely sell!
And it could save some steel too!
The experiment had more or less come to an end at this point, and Zhang Ye has already seen the result he wanted.
What remained was to think about how to perfect the capturing process.
But just as he was preparing to leave, Liu Qingqing suddenly showed a shocked expression and pointed in the direction of the riverbank, shouting, "Ye Zi, look at that! What is that!"
At the same time, every person looking towards the riverbank exhibited a shocked demeanor.
Seeing this, Zhang Ye quickly turned around and saw under the calm surface of the water, a massive shadow had appeared, clearly something big approaching the surface swiftly.
Swoosh—
Waves several meters high shot up into the air.
A monstrous black fish, at least seven or eight meters long, writhed its body and surged onto the beach.
The feeding mutated crayfish didn't even have time to react before being gulped down by the strange fish coming up from behind, leaving only a small part of its body still outside.
A ripple of terrified gasps arose from the crowd.
Everyone who saw the scene instinctively took a few steps back, as if something was about to rush at them the next second.
In the few seconds while they stood petrified, the crayfish was completely devoured by the strange fish.
And its body instantly swelled to more than twice its size.
It looked somewhat amusing.
Seeing it seemed about to twist its body back into the water, Zhang Ye suddenly snatched a rifle from someone nearby and unleashed a burst of rapid fire at the strange fish below.
Bullets rained down on the sandy ground around the strange fish.
Dust and smoke quickly rose all around.
"Ah, what a pity, missed all the shots."
Zhang Ye couldn't help but sigh, preparing to set the rifle back down.
He had wanted to test if the strange fish's defenses were as strong as the crayfish's, but unfortunately, the distance was too far, way beyond accurate shooting range.
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But just then, another gunshot suddenly blasted near his ear.
"Bang!"
A burst of blood mist appeared.
The all-black strange fish instantly let out a low, hoarse cry.
At first, it sounded like the whistle of a steamboat, long and unending.
While everyone was still in astonishment, they saw the strange fish twisting its massive body and climbing towards them.
"Fire!"
"Shoot, shoot now!"
The power plant's manager, Zhou Xiong, was suddenly somewhat panicked.
But Ding Zhixiong beside him remained calm until he was certain the strange fish had entered range before swiftly lowering his arm.
The gunfire from the riverbank erupted in a rattle.
The combat team, divided into two groups, alternated in firing, quickly unloading hundreds of bullets onto the area where the strange fish was located.
In the midst of repeated deep cries filled with pain, bursts of blood bloomed on the strange fish's body, and seeing this, the team members' nerves were greatly eased.
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It seems guns can still cause damage to it!
That's enough!
Under the baptism of bullets, the black monster fish quickly developed a fear of the enemies on the shore. Its body abruptly swung, turning its head from the direction of the bank to the water surface.
Seeing it seemed to want to flee, the excited combat team disagreed.
It's not your turn to scare people anymore, is it?
Done showing off and now you want to run?
Dream on!
Nobody knew who took the lead, but suddenly a voice rang out from the crowd, "Brothers! It's trying to escape! Let's all go at it together, chop it up and stew it for the boss to drink!"
And just like that, the twenty-person team started chasing after it, yelling and shouting.
Their rifles were out of bullets.
The factory capacity was limited, and since most of the combat usually took place outdoors, there weren't many opportunities to shoot. Hence, each person only carried two magazines with them.
And those two magazines had been emptied during the earlier firing.
The dozens of bullet holes on the monster fish were the fruits of their labor.
So now, the only weapon the team members had was the crooked knife that had been hanging on their waists for nearly twenty-four hours.
Thwack!
The person in the lead had used the momentum of the sprint to thrust the chopping knife directly into the body of the monster fish but was immediately flung away, knife and all.
Zhang Ye hadn't even had the chance to stop them when he saw the monster fish below already flipping three or four people onto the sandy ground.
Two of them were even directly crushed by the monster fish as it rolled over them.
He suddenly felt the urge to curse out loud.
Such a drastic change!
He still remembered that when they first came to the hydropower station, Xu Lin's soldiers were as scared of the Type-T Variant as if they had seen a ghost, with many dropping their weapons and running away.
Now, they had completely changed, each one acting like a daredevil.
Knowing full well the monster's strength, yet still going in for close combat?
Had the canned rat meat made them dumb?
But it was obviously too late to stop them now.
The monster fish, already frightened by the recent intense gunfire and the pain in its body, subconsciously wanted to escape, but the bloated body from eating crayfish was slowing its crawling speed more and more.
Meanwhile, blood was spurting out of its body like it was free.
At first the monster fish could still knock over and crush the team members, but as time passed, all it could do in response to the attacks was a symbolic twist of its body.
Eventually, even this insignificant struggle gradually disappeared.
A long trail was left on the sandy ground.
The blood drying up in the sunset looked especially dark, and the strong fishy smell mixed with the smell of blood gave everyone who smelled it an inexplicable sense of excitement.
Zhang Ye was no exception.
He looked at the fish corpse, which had fallen like a small hill, a delighted expression on his face.
From above, he couldn't see it clearly.
Only standing in front of this monster fish in person did he truly feel how minuscule humans really are.
The fish, nearly ten meters long, was simply like an overturned bus.
And that huge mouth was over 150 centimeters wide.
Enough to swallow a child whole.
Surrounding the fish corpse were twenty company warriors, standing tall and proud.
Some of them even had injuries.
Ding Zhixiong intended to scold them for being too impulsive and tell them not to act like this in the future, but his words came out as praise instead.
"Well done."
"You've not dishonored the Combat Department."
As he was speaking, he already heard Zhang Ye's command, "Team Leader Ding, the riverbank is not safe. Have them move this fish to the hydropower station above first."