Crawler!

But why was it out during the day?!

A chill ran down his spine.

Without time to think about it, Chu Guang raised his gun, pulled the trigger, and shouted sharply.

"Spread out!"

Bang—!

Flames burst from the muzzle.

But the distance was too great. The bullet missed its target, leaving only a deep crater in the wall behind the Crawler.

Enraged by the scattering debris and shrapnel, the Crawler bit through the leg bone clenched in its jaws and let out a shrill roar through its blood-soaked mouth.

"Roar!"

The players were dumbstruck by the sheer menace of it. They stood frozen beside the cart, as though their feet had been glued to the ground.

Holy shit!

This was way more terrifying than Raiders!

"How many times do I have to say it?! Get away from the cart!" Chu Guang roared, his hands never stopping as he worked the bolt and fired several more shots in quick succession.

Thankfully, the hunting experience he had accumulated over the past few days had not turned him into a sharpshooter who could hit whatever he aimed at, but it had at least made his reloading much smoother than when he had first picked up a gun.

The Crawler's four arms flailed rapidly. Then, in a flash, it slipped through a nearby window.

Only then did the two players finally react. They hurriedly raised their guns and aimed nervously.

"Administrator, we're not going anywhere!"

"Th-that's right! We'll defend to the death—"

"I told you to get the fuck away from the food!"

Looking at the two idiots still stammering through their lines, Chu Guang wanted nothing more than to kick them in the ass.

But this was clearly not the time for that.

He could feel the danger closing in fast.

Crawlers were different from Gnawers.

Though both were products of mutant fungus infection, the latter were much more like zombies with no self-awareness. They retained only the instinct to feed, feared sunlight, and were even less dangerous in combat than mutant hyenas.

Crawlers, however, were different. They were almost indistinguishable from living creatures. They did not hunt purely on instinct—they used their brains.

Not only could they devise tactics, they could even pursue targets that had vanished from sight. Sunlight frightened them, but it could not restrict their movements.

Which idiot had provoked this thing?!

A bead of cold sweat slid down Chu Guang's forehead as his gaze darted across the concrete storefronts lining the street. Every nerve in his body was stretched to the limit.

Left?

Or right—

A blur flickered at the edge of his vision. Chu Guang abruptly swung his gun around, aiming at the second floor of the storefronts on the right.

At almost the exact same moment, the hideous Crawler charged at him savagely, all four arms flailing.

Bang—!

The finger resting on the trigger moved on its own.

In that split second, the bullet luckily struck the Crawler in the shoulder.

Black blood sprayed everywhere.

The Crawler screamed in pain and rolled onto the ground.

Though they were half a beat too late, the two players finally reacted and hurriedly raised their 5mm pipe rifles to fire.

But both guns were cheap, smoothbore junk, and neither of them had any shooting experience. The two shots rang out uselessly.

They did not even graze a hair.

The shoulder wound did not stop the Crawler. Instead, it stirred its ferocity. With a roll, it adjusted its posture and charged recklessly toward the target it considered the greatest threat.

Death came like the wind.

Having just finished reloading, Chu Guang instinctively released the pipe rifle in his hands, pulled out the steel pipe he had strapped to his back as a makeshift spear, and held it across his body to block the gaping jaws lunging at him.

The steel pipe creaked under the unbearable strain. Chu Guang gritted his teeth, every inch of muscle in his body tensed to its limit.

But while 9 points of Strength might have made him stronger than ordinary people, it was still ultimately a little lacking against a mutant like a Crawler.

Even with all his strength, Chu Guang felt his feet gradually lose their grip on the ground. The low-crawling mutant forced him backward with brute strength until he slammed hard into a broken-down bus in the middle of the road.

Thud—!

The completely rusted bus shell cracked and caved in from the impact, and Chu Guang felt his back go numb in an instant.

Yet it was precisely because of this that the threat of death ignited his instinct to survive.

"Fuck!"

Blood vessels gradually crept into his eyes as he stared fixedly at the fangs closing in.

Chu Guang suddenly felt a surge of strength continuously pouring out from his bulging veins. It forcibly halted the gaping jaws moving toward him, even faintly forcing them back.

Perhaps sensing a trace of danger from the prey before it, the Crawler abruptly raised both forelimbs, intending to seize its prey by the shoulders and tear him to pieces!

But in that instant, two more gunshots rang out. One struck the bus, while the other hit the Crawler in the shoulder blade.

"Aoo—!"

Shot in the back, the Crawler let out a shrill, agonized howl.

The fangs clamped around the steel pipe loosened instinctively, and its head snapped backward. For a moment, it lost both its balance and its control over its prey.

"Aaaah! Die!"

Throwing down the gun in his hand, Fang Chang grabbed the 9mm improvised pipe rifle Chu Guang had tossed aside earlier and charged forward with a roar.

Aim lousy?

Then get in close!

Bang—!

He pulled the trigger. Muzzle flash burst forth, and black blood exploded across the Crawler's back.

The shot still wasn't fatal, but it was enough.

Seizing the chance, Chu Guang raised the steel pipe in his hand, now bent completely into a V shape, and violently drove its pointed end into the Crawler's neck.

Once.

Twice.

Three times!

Then he twisted it with all his strength.

Black blood gushed out in a frenzy like a faucet turned on full blast, shooting into the air and drenching Chu Guang from head to toe.

The Crawler let out a hollow wail, flailing its arms wildly as it staggered backward. At last, it crashed heavily to the ground in a twisted posture, convulsed a few times, and stopped moving.

Leaning against the bus, Chu Guang panted as he raised an arm to wipe the black blood from his face, then spat onto the ground.

"Thanks."

The two players were deeply shaken as they looked at the blood-drenched Administrator.

So strong!

If it had been them, let alone trading blows with that Crawler, they probably would not have lasted even one exchange before getting killed.

"You're welcome... Let me help you up."

Fang Chang was the first to recover.

Seeing that the scripted event seemed to be over, he immediately stepped forward to help the Administrator up. However, the Administrator raised a hand and stopped him.

"No need. Let me rest for a bit..."

Panting, Chu Guang looked down at his arm, veins bulging as though he could see the blood vessels pulsing beneath his muscles.

Was this the potential hidden within the genetic sequence...?

When he had been pushed into a desperate situation earlier, he had felt an endless strength surge from both arms, allowing him to match the Crawler blow for blow.

It was hard to describe what that feeling had been like.

Gently clenching his sore, weakened fists, Chu Guang decided to get a physical examination after returning.

He wanted to know exactly what had happened to his body just now.

At that moment, Ye Shi, carrying his gun, walked over as well.

"Administrator, how about we rest in one of the shops nearby? The street's too open. I'm worried there might be danger..."

"True. With all those gunshots just now, anyone nearby must have heard them," Fang Chang added from the side.

Actually, Chu Guang wanted to say that any survivor who heard a Crawler's howl would keep far away and not even dare glance in this direction.

But every muscle in his body ached as if it were broken, and he truly did need to rest.

"Fine... Fang Chang, help me into the restaurant across the street. Ye Shi, drag our handcart to the entrance."

Ye Shi nodded vigorously.

"Got it! Oh, should we recover that Crawler's corpse?"

Chu Guang shook his head.

"No."

"Its meat isn't edible."

The Crawler's nervous system had already been completely invaded by mutant fungi. Every inch of its cells contained neurotoxins potent enough to kill.

Strictly speaking, the black blood splashed all over him was toxic too. But toxicity without considering dosage was nonsense; as long as he did not do something stupid like take a couple of gulps, he would basically be fine.

Besides, his Constitution was at 7 points. His recovery ability, resistance to abnormal conditions, and immunity were all roughly 140% of those of an ordinary adult male. He was not that easy to poison in the first place.

Come to think of it, Chu Guang had no idea whether Crawlers counted as mammals, or whether they could be tossed into the Active Matter Extractor and recycled.

If they could get the generator working, it might be worth trying.

But...

Chu Guang glanced at the cart piled high with food and silently sighed.

What a shame.

They had no carrying capacity left.

They couldn't exactly pile that thing's corpse on top of the food they were going to eat...

Ye Shi jogged toward the cart.

With one hand resting on Fang Chang's shoulder, Chu Guang limped toward the restaurant across from the street corner.

However, as the two passed through the open doorway and were about to find somewhere to sit and rest, they suddenly noticed someone reclining against the bar.

It was a red-haired woman.

Her sharp-featured face was pale from blood loss, her slender brows tightly furrowed, and beads of sweat as large as peas dotted her forehead.

The worst part was below that—everything beneath her right knee was gone. The wound had only been crudely bandaged with half a torn sleeve and some gauze.

Well, damn.

So you were the one who pulled its aggro.

Still, the fact that she hadn't passed out despite all that made her one tough bastard.

Chu Guang finally understood where the human leg dangling from that Crawler's mouth had come from.

"A new NPC!"

While Fang Chang was still marveling in surprise, Chu Guang snatched his rifle from his hands and, without hesitation, aimed it at the woman lying on the floor.

"You'd better behave... My injuries are lighter than yours, no matter how you look at it."

The woman's hand had already reached for the pistol on the ground.

Seeing the black muzzle aimed at her, she resignedly curled her lips, pushed the pistol to Chu Guang's feet, and simply closed her eyes.

"Is she an enemy?"

Noticing the administrator's actions, Fang Chang nervously asked him to confirm the woman's identity. But to Chu Guang, asking that question in the wasteland was stupid in itself.

"I don't know."

And it didn't matter.

After giving that ambiguous answer, Chu Guang motioned for Fang Chang to help him over to a nearby chair. Then, with a click, he worked the bolt and chambered a round before slapping the rifle onto the table.

Hearing the sound of a bullet being chambered, the woman's brow twitched violently, and her tightly shut eyes were full of regret.

Who the hell could have known?

The gun in this guy's hand hadn't even been loaded...

Though pain wracked his body, Chu Guang still forced a pleasant smile onto his face.

"Now we can talk."

The woman forced herself to remain calm and spoke evenly.

"What do you want to know?"

Chu Guang didn't beat around the bush. He introduced himself first, then got straight to the point.

"Chu Guang. Your name?"

"Xia Yan."

"Who are you?"

"A mercenary from Boulder City."

"Your teammates? Were you alone?"

"They're dead."

"Oh... How many died?"

Xia Yan's mouth twitched. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Three... Everyone except me is dead."

Chu Guang nodded, then looked at Ye Shi, who was dragging the cart in through the doorway, and spoke in Mandarin.

"Leave the stuff at the entrance. Don't drag it inside. Search around nearby and see if there are any... corpses dressed like the lady on the floor."

"If you find any, bring back the equipment they're carrying."

Ye Shi stared blankly at the woman slumped before the bar, having no idea where this NPC had popped out from.

Damn!

Missed the plot again?

Watching the man turn and leave, Xia Yan's eyes flickered slightly. She couldn't understand Chu Guang's gibberish, nor did she know what he had gone off to do.

"Right, I nearly forgot to ask. What was up with that Crawler?" Chu Guang looked at Xia Yan as she opened her eyes and continued, "How did you provoke it?"

"It was the one that targeted us," Xia Yan said frankly, without hiding anything. "We were searching for the entrance to Vault 117 when we ran into it... It chased us all the way out of the subway. We were nearly wiped out."

Crawlers really were difficult to deal with, especially in cramped terrain. Even seasoned veterans would find them troublesome.

This was also Chu Guang's first time encountering one. He had only heard Old Charlie from Bette Street say before that if you ran into a four-armed monster, you should run—run as far as you could.

Thinking about it now, it was a good thing he hadn't listened to that old man.

How the hell could anyone possibly outrun that thing?!

"The entrance to Vault 117? What's that?" Chu Guang asked curiously.

"I don't know. We only know its approximate location is near New World Department Store Station on Line 7, in the northern outskirts of Clear Spring City. There's something inside that our employer wants."

Chu Guang nodded.

He wasn't particularly concerned with whether she was telling the truth, and he didn't really care either. There might be some good things in Vault 117, but they weren't worth risking his life for.

Just look at the state she was in.

Even professionals had been beaten into such a miserable condition. Who knew what other dangers might be waiting there?

The top priority now was to develop and strengthen the outpost. Chu Guang had no intention of creating unnecessary complications. Once he had built up enough strength, wouldn't it be better to just toss the place to the players as a dungeon and let them investigate it?

Why take that risk himself?

Seeing that Chu Guang didn't seem very interested, Xia Yan asked tentatively.

"You're not interested?"

"Why should I be?"

"I heard there's a suit of power armor inside."

"Oh? You saw it? Let me see the photos."

"...No."

Chu Guang smiled faintly.

"Then come talk to me about it once you do."

As far as he was concerned, chatting with her was merely a way to pass the time. Once Ye Shi finished looting and came back, he figured he would have rested enough as well.

He would leave the pistol on the ground for her.

As for whether she could survive, that had nothing to do with him.

"By the way, is your hair dyed, or is it natural?"

Xia Yan froze.

The topic changed so abruptly that she didn't react for a moment.

"...N-natural."

"Oh. It's a pretty color, but you should wash your hair."

Xia Yan glared at him angrily.

"Are you making fun of me?"

Chu Guang smiled, finding it rather amusing.

But just as he was about to tease her a little more, a sharp shout suddenly came from the doorway.

"Let her go!"