Chapter 667: 403, Humanoid Self-walking King Crab Radar_3 Chapter 667: 403, Humanoid Self-walking King Crab Radar_3 One of the most dangerous things on the Barents Sea is being dragged to the ocean floor by a crab cage.
The rope was coiled into a circle on the deck, and the ship was violently rocked by the waves, making it easy for a crew member to step on it if they lost their balance.
At that moment, as the crab cage was rapidly sinking into the sea, the rope was being pulled down along with it. If a crew member’s ankle got tangled in the rope, they would be pulled into the sea with the cage.
Therefore, after all the crew members boarded, Old John distributed a dagger to each person. The idea was if someone got entangled, they would need a companion to help them by quickly cutting the rope.
In the Barents Sea, the only one who could save a crew member was their comrade.
Qing Chen and Nedup stood on opposite sides of the launching platform, pushing the crab cages into the sea until all eight were submerged.
The Arctic continued to move forward, with Zhang Jian in the cockpit following the sea charts left by his father to find the next place to drop the crab cages.
After six hours, the Arctic returned to the location of the pathfinding cage. Old John stood on the deck and threw out the grappling hook, wanting to catch the rope under the buoy and then haul it up with the crane.
However, Old John was too old now, his strength was not what it used to be, and his body trembled from alcoholism.
The waves were too big, and the ship’s constant pitching affected Old John’s accuracy.
No matter how many times he threw, it was hard for him to catch the rope beneath the buoy.
The ship was drifting with the waves; if they missed the catch, Zhang Jian would have to steer the ship back, and for an old sailor on a crabbing vessel, needing the captain to keep adjusting direction to catch the rope was a shame.
After thinking for a moment, Qing Chen said to Old John, “How about I give it a try?”
Old John chuckled, “The rookie thinks he’s up to the task? Well, give it a try then. Remember, don’t break the buoy, otherwise, the crab cage will sink to the bottom of the sea forever, along with the buoy.”
The next second, he passed the hook to Qing Chen, who casually threw it and hooked the rope under the balloon buoy.
Old John was stunned for a moment, “Damn it to hell, is this really your first time crab fishing?”
“I used to practice javelin-type sports,” Qing Chen made up an excuse on the spot.
Old John ran to the crane and pressed the switch; a rumbling noise came from the winch in the crane’s cabin, making sounds as if it were overburdened.
The experienced Old John immediately felt something was wrong and slowed down the pace at which he was pulling up the crab cage.
The crab cage from the seabed also rose continuously until it surfaced.
Only, when the rope reached its end, what emerged wasn’t a crab cage but a two-meter-tall standalone mobile public toilet.
Even the usually calm Qing Chen was dumbfounded; he had never heard that the Barents Sea produced public toilets.
Qing Chen pointed to the public toilet, “Honestly, I just can’t fathom why such a thing would appear in the Barents Sea.”
A mobile toilet suddenly being hoisted up on the vast sea, it was absurd.
However, they soon discovered that the door of the mobile toilet had been marked with a felt-tip pen: “A gift from the Tiger Whale to the Arctic.”
Zhang Jian stormed out of the cockpit, bellowing with rage, “It must be that Fern from the Tiger Whale!”
The Tiger Whale, the Alps, and the Long Tail—captains of these three crabbing vessels, were the ones who had tried to buy the Arctic’s King Crab fishing quota at the Walnut Bar.
Apparently, all three captains were targeting Zhang Jian.
Zhang Jian explained, “This is an old prank among crab catchers. Before heading out to sea, they go to the recycling station and buy this junk at the cheapest price, or a scrapped car, and bring it along to sea. If they see another crab boat’s buoys, they hook them up and replace the other’s crab cages with this kind of large trash.”
Old John added, “A crab cage weighs only six hundred and eighty pounds, but this thing filled with water could weigh four thousand pounds, much heavier than the crab cage. They know the Arctic is old and using the crane overloaded might just break it completely. If the crane is broken, the crabbing ship can only return to harbor for repairs before coming back to the Barents Sea.”
Qing Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry—was this really how the game was played? The battles he had experienced before were always direct confrontations with life and death, but the battles now were bizarre.
This was a battle among crabbers…
But this was too despicable, the other three crabbing vessels were scheming to block the Arctic’s livelihood.
Yet, this was the rule on the Barents Sea—a crabbing vessel could pull a prank once, but only once.
In the past, people might hang a small doll or a torn ball at the end of a buoy, but now some crabbers would use this rule to totally swindle others.
“What do we do with this thing?” Qing Chen pointed at the mobile toilet on the sea and asked.
Zhang Jian walked towards the cockpit with a dark face, “Remove the hook, let the thing sink to the bottom of the sea. Let’s start hauling up the other crab cages. They can only play this trick once at most.”
Qing Chen imagined, if years later someone came to the Barents Sea treasure hunting and suddenly discovered a mobile toilet standing on the seabed, their expression would be priceless…
Just the thought seemed thrilling.
As the remaining seven crab cages were hauled up, Old John simply refrained from touching the grappling hook; instead, he watched as Qing Chen accurately hooked each of the buoys.
Old John just made a comment, “Do you realise, even fifteen-year-old veterans might not be so precise?”