Chapter 464 - Good Morning

TL: Lifeisajourney

Liu Gan held his breath. He didn't dare move. It seemed the King Crocodile hadn't noticed his presence yet. Liu Gan escaped imminent death by the skin of his teeth.

Contrary to his earlier belief, the King Crocodile wasn't eating the shrubbery at all. It was tearing it apart, then regurgitate it back out. The one peculiar thing was that it would look in Liu Gan's direction every once in a while. Finally, after it was finished with its suspicious activity, the King Crocodile stood up and headed back in the direction of its lair. The King Crocodile was trampling over any obstacles in its path as it prepared to go to sleep.

What methods could Liu Gan take to assure his victory? Was it possible to poison the shrubs? Would it even succumb to poison? Once the idea popped into Liu Gan's head, he started thinking of all possibilities. The ultimate question was, Where will I get this poison? These types of mutant monstrosities should have a decent poison resistance, so all the normal types of poison wouldn't be effective.

Should he try out the tactic suggested by Stratos? Use a hand grenade and shove it up the anus? Or any other orifices? It might produce a giant crater. Actually, it might even be effective if he had more hand grenades or explosives packs to produce an amplified effect.

Even though Liu Gan believed that the tactic was ludicrous, he didn't want to ban the idea before testing it. He wasn't in a rush to experiment, since the King Crocodile was asleep by now.

***

Half an hour passed, Liu Gan waiting patiently for the King Crocodile in case it woke up. He climbed gently down the tree, then went in a roundabout way to circle the creature. He couldn't find the anal opening. It must be sitting on it when it was sleeping...

Even though the anal orifice was covered, the nasal cavity was wide open. Liu Gan could toss a grenade into the opening while it was still asleep! It might produce some favorable result, if the black fog wasn't overflowing from the shield. Liu Gan doubted any foreign object would be able to pass through the shield...

Instead of wasting a hand grenade, Liu Gan decided to use a rock. If the rock could pass through the shield and land inside the nose, then the grenade would work. If a rock wasn't able to go through, then he had just saved a valuable resource.

Liu Gan picked up a fist-sized rock. With his full strength, he threw it at the King Crocodile's gaping nostril...

Boom!

The rock didn't make it very far. It bounced off the invisible shield more than a dozen centimeters above the surface of the King Crocodile's skin. It sounded like the rock had came in contact with metal plate.

The King Crocodile's eyes fluttered. However, it wasn't enough of a disturbance to wake up. In fact the King Crocodile had gotten used to having falling branches or fruits fall on it.

Liu Gan inched closer. This time he tried to shove the rock up the nose. As he got closer, he found out that the shield was acting like a force field that wouldn't allow anything closer than ten centimeters. No matter how hard he pushed, he was repelled. This meant that the King Crocodile had a shield ten centimeters thick...

As Liu Gan decided to change his method, he felt the hair on his neck stand up. Something was wrong. Liu Gan looked up, and his gaze connected with the King Crocodile's cold glare.

"Oh! You're awake? Good morning!" Liu Gan chuckled nervously as he slowly backed off. First he inched backwards, then it turned into wide strides, and finally became a sprint. He ran toward the dense forest for cover.

As the King Crocodile propped its body up, it unleashed a deafening roar at Liu Gan. It had thought Liu Gan was far away by now, but Liu Gan had faked retreat. He turned back and pulled the pin off the hand grenade...

Even with a thick shield, let's see if you take damage from having your mouth open! We shall see who has the last laugh!

Unfortunately, the hand grenade was another failed experiment. To Liu Gan's disappointment, the King Crocodile's shield acted like an all-around force field. Even with its mouth wide open, the King Crocodile was still protected. The grenade bounced off the shield and landed on the floor, then blew open a small crater. Aside from the temporary scare, the King Crocodile was unharmed.

It looked like any strategy involving an opening like mouth or anus would have to be disregarded. Until Liu Gan had a way to completely shatter the shield, there was nothing he could do to harm the King Crocodile.

Taking advantage of the diversion, Liu Gan had retreated more than thirty meters. He didn't need to stay put to witness the damage. The moment he saw the grenade bounce off like the rock, he knew the outcome. Due to the sheer size of the King Crocodile, one of its steps would span dozens of his own.

Even with a head start, Liu Gan was struck twice on the back. He had set up traps earlier, solely meant to slow down the King Crocodile. The special nanite rope had been knit into a net. Both ends of the net were anchored to the base of several trees. Once the King Crocodile tripped into the net, it pulled down several trees with it as it fell.

Even though it had tripped, the King Crocodile was more formidable than anyone could have imagined. Once it fell into the trap, it released an angry roar, and then with sheer force ripped apart all the nets!

Liu Gan was shocked. That rope was something he had relied on for a very long time, and it had gotten him out of many sticky situations. However, when it was used on the King Crocodile, it was pulled apart like string cheese!

The rope's sacrifice bought Liu Gan enough time to reach the cliffside. With the vines laid out there in advance, he chose the closest one and rappelled off.

The King Crocodile stretched out its front jaw, trying to snap Liu Gan in half, but Liu Gan was out of its attack range. By the time it reached the cliff, it cried out in frustration. It hesitated above him, deciding whether it should keep chasing.

It glared at the wall of malice hovering above the seawater. It decided that Liu Gan was not worth the chase, and retreated back into the forest.

At the bottom of the cliff, Liu Gan also took notice of the wall of malice that was close to the cliff. An idea sprouted in his head.

He finally realized why the King Crocodile hadn't jumped down to attack him. It must be afraid of the boundary! The wall of malice might be the only thing that could inflict pain on the creature.

What could he do to lure the creature into the boundary? Could he take advantage of his environment to obtain victory? Just like that time when he used the broken Spatial Crack to kill off Peng Xue Tao in the underwater base...