Infinite Hunter

The heart was difficult to aim, so Cheng Yijiu raised his gun and waited for an opportunity. People in the camp also ran out with weapons, and the platform even used lights to illuminate the crocodile. Someone on the platform opened fire, but unfortunately, in the panic, the bullets seemed to miss. The crocodile began to move towards the river at a very fast speed. Cheng Yijiu still didn't find an opportunity, and the crocodile always had its back to him.

Soon the crocodile was in the water, and the cage was half dragged into the water, with one of the chains broken. The black man trapped inside was so frightened that he dared not move, fearing that the crocodile would rush in through the underwater entrance and eat him - he was now bait.

However, it appeared the crocodile didn't do that. Instead, it appeared beneath the steel platform, biting into the bars and starting to shake them. The people on the platform screamed and fired their guns, but the shaking platform, combined with their poor courage and shooting skills, meant their bullets were nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Cheng Yijiu quickly descended from the tree and ran along the riverbank, constantly checking the crocodile's position as he ran.

Cheng Yijiu also had to be careful not to get accidentally shot by the panicked Americans, so he had to be careful not to be seen by them. Fortunately, the Americans on the shore seemed to be fools, because they could only scream and shout, and only the young black man was filming furiously with his camera. The angle between Cheng Yijiu and them was basically 90 degrees, and from his direction, the crocodile's belly and jaws were exposed to him when it bit.

Cheng Yijiu half-knelt on the ground, his right leg lowered and his left supported, his left elbow resting on his knee, his left hand supporting the Winchester Model 70. The butt of the rifle rested firmly on his right shoulder, his right index finger resting loosely on the trigger, his right eye fixed squarely on the target. At this point, Cheng Yijiu was about thirty meters away from the giant crocodile. The flickering lights and the flickering flashlight made aiming difficult.

But Cheng Yijiu still took aim in the shortest possible time. He held his breath, his index finger exerting pressure. He was waiting for a rhythm, for the crocodile to stop moving. The muffled, powerful sound of the gunfire suddenly stopped the shouting of the Americans on the shore—it was a shot more powerful than the pistols and small-caliber rifles in their hands. The full-powered .30-06 rifle bullet pierced the crocodile directly.

Cheng Yijiu's movements were fluid and swift. After firing the first shot, he quickly raised his right hand, pulled the bolt to eject the shell, and then quickly pushed the bolt again to chamber the second round. In just two seconds, Cheng Yijiu fired three rounds, and the crocodile flipped over and fell into the water... "Did I hit it?" Cheng Yijiu asked himself, taking a few steps back to get out of the water.

He yelled, "Hey, are you guys all right? Did you hit the alligator?" He was pretty confident he had, but he wanted to make sure. The American looked panicked, but soon a man's voice answered, "Sorry, I don't know. But man, it looks like you hit it."

"Damn it! Can a dead crocodile float? Or is it actually injured?" Cheng Yijiu shouted. The woman on the other side waved her arms and shouted, as if to say that Cheng Yijiu shouldn't have shot the crocodile... He should have captured it alive or tranquilized it with a dart. Cheng Yijiu didn't even want to answer this white leftist rhetoric. After all, there was no way to confirm the crocodile's condition in the middle of the night—if it didn't sink, the current would have swept it downstream... if it was dead.

Fortunately, Cheng Yijiu had a way to confirm whether the door had appeared. So he waved his hand, put the gun on his back and turned away.

"It seems to be a success." Cheng Yijiu looked at the lonely door in the moonlight and thought, this mission was not difficult. As long as the target was found, there seemed to be no danger - as long as Cheng Yijiu did not take a boat to hunt on the water, the crocodile should have no way to do anything to him.

He opened the door, walked in, and faded away as the door closed.

Cheng Yijiu was still wet and quite dirty—the torrential downpour had soaked him, and the short time he had available to dry his clothes was clearly insufficient. It was only natural that his clothes would be soiled from running along the riverbank and half-kneeling while firing. He first disassembled his rifle on the long table, then walked into the bathroom... After throwing his clothes into the washing machine, Cheng Yijiu, donning a bathrobe, walked to the long table and began cleaning and maintaining his rifle.

After cleaning, drying, oiling, reassembling, and hanging the gun on the gun rack, Cheng Yijiu walked to the second-floor lobby to view his catch. The catch was particularly conspicuous—near the floor-to-ceiling windows, where the sunlight from outside perfectly illuminated the taxidermied specimen. It was a large crocodile, its mouth open, revealing its sharp teeth. From head to tail, it measured less than seven meters. Cheng Yijiu looked at the sign in front of the specimen, which said it was five point seven meters. Even among saltwater crocodiles, let alone Nile crocodiles, it was considered quite large.

Next to it was a skeleton specimen in an identical pose. On the top of the crocodile's head, there were obvious signs of repairs—it looked like resin had been used to repair the skull that had been blown off by the bullet...

Volume: Giant Crocodile in the Lake

Chapter 43 Begins

"Is it my imagination? I feel like this building is getting bigger," Cheng Yijiu muttered to himself. Originally, the lobby on the second floor seemed only about five or six meters long, but now it seemed to be at least twenty meters long, enough to be called a large and luxurious classical building. This reminded Cheng Yijiu of the British Museum in the photo, the old Shanghai Natural History Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

However, his second floor was very bright, and the sunlight from outside shone in unobstructed. Cheng Yijiu walked past the crocodile specimen and pushed open the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside was a long corridor and balcony with no roof. He walked to the balcony and looked out - in fact, he could see it from indoors. It was a garden with almost perfect geometric shapes. The gardens were on both sides, and facing Cheng Yijiu was a road divided by a series of flower beds in the center. A hundred meters away should be a large carved iron gate.

Cheng Yijiu didn't even consider jumping down, even though he was only four or five meters above the ground. He turned back to the hall, which was still relatively empty. The largest specimen was a crocodile, followed by a wild boar and a bear. "Someday, someday maybe I can fill this place up?" Cheng Yijiu muttered.

The bedroom that was originally on the second floor was now on the third floor, which was the evidence that made Cheng Yijiu completely sure that the house had changed again. The current bedroom was not big, because a bedroom that was too big would not have that warm feeling. However, the bed was quite big, and Cheng Yijiu fell on it and fell asleep.

The next day, he began to carefully examine the transformed house. The first floor didn't appear to have grown much, but upon closer inspection, everything had—from the workshop to the storage room to the study. The study had practically become a library, though most of the shelves were still empty. The workshop, with its various small machine tools, was a truly versatile space, and naturally, its area was comparable to that of a typical factory.

The storage room, of course, had become a "warehouse," housing everything from clothes and shoes to miscellaneous odds and ends, but lacking weapons. There was a weapons room, but it was rather small, with only a single rifle on the rack and boxes of ammunition in a drawer to one side. Cheng Yijiu had made these himself using the equipment in the workshop. He looked around the room and decided he'd better make a few pistols and a few hunting knives.

Choosing a pistol was simple. For large-caliber automatics, the best choice was the Sharps. Revolvers were a bit more involved—the Colt Python or the Smith & Wesson Model 500 series were both options. Cheng Yijiu's personal preference was the six-inch-barreled Colt Python. Of course, there was only one hunting knife to choose from—the Bowie. While a teardrop-shaped survival knife wasn't bad, Cheng Yijiu felt a Bowie would allow him to die with dignity in a hand-to-hand fight with ferocious beasts.

The second floor consists of a long hall, used to store game specimens. Living areas and daily necessities like laundry, drying, and bathing are located on the third floor. There's also a gym and a small study, perfect for relaxing—it's equipped with a stereo system and a home theater. A door on the first floor leads to the garden at the back, which, in addition to a few rest areas, serves as a large outdoor shooting range.

Cheng Yijiu remembered that he still had to find a militia organization that could train him in combat skills—anti-personnel combat skills. There should be many such organizations in the United States. He could learn some military skills from them, and ideally, some CAR shooting techniques. He was not short of money now. After hunting Gustav this time, there were several stacks of green US dollars in the drawer under the computer on the first floor. There was probably a hundred thousand US dollars in total, enough for him to do something.

I don't know what kind of animal I'll hunt on my next mission, but it's definitely going to be some man-eating beast. Before that, Cheng Yijiu went to the studio to forge a knife—for a pistol, it would be best to buy a sample and copy it. Forging a knife doesn't require any sandwiched steel forging techniques; it's simply a matter of repeatedly forging high-performance steel. Just be mindful of the two heat treatments of quenching and tempering—there's plenty of material here for Cheng Yijiu to practice on.

Forging the shape of the blade and the tip of the Bowie knife took Cheng Yijiu a lot of effort. His difficulty lay in forging the shape of the knife, and he often made it crooked. He finally forged a decent one, but he didn't control the blade's bend during the quenching process... In short, forging a Bowie knife took Cheng Yijiu three days of hard work.

He walked out of the room and looked back to see an RV. Cheng Yijiu was driving the RV towards Texas - there were more militia organizations there, otherwise he would have to go inland, where the people were more stubborn and unsociable. Cheng Yijiu finally found a militia organization that provided open training. He studied combat techniques seriously. The instructor praised his shooting accuracy, but at the same time mocked him viciously - "Do you think you will have so much time to aim accurately in battle? If you did, you would have fallen in the hail of bullets long ago."

Cheng Yijiu didn't want to refute him. He had once fired accurately amidst a hail of bullets from Uncle Hei—but that didn't count. So he had to learn quick draw and aiming, various directional shooting techniques, and even the cool CAR shooting technique that looked like a gunfight. The house was also quite cooperative, not assigning him any further tasks for three long months.

After completing numerous missions, Cheng Yijiu's various physical attributes improved imperceptibly. His vision, hearing, and even physical fitness reached a high level, as did his motor coordination. Consequently, he performed exceptionally well in training, often being able to apply his skills effectively after just one or two sessions. His limitations lay in his mindset, which required a shift in thinking to fully utilize his acquired abilities.

Cheng Yijiu also bought a few pistols here—he had been in the United States long enough to buy them. However, he also copied the pistols in the workshop during training, and when the training was completed, he sold the pistols.

The new mission appeared as he made his way back to California—everything was normal while the RV was in motion, but it changed when Cheng Yijiu opened the door to the back of the RV. The computer still displayed the crocodile hunt, but this time, asterisks appeared above the crocodiles. "Gustav again? How many Gustav crocodiles are there? What kind of crocodiles are they... Wait, this isn't Gustav, it's the one without a name!"

This time, when Cheng Yijiu opened the door, he saw a road sign—this was North America. And behind him, he saw an RV, his own...

Chapter 44: Few People

"This is very interesting." Cheng Yijiu muttered, looking at the surrounding woods, "There are alligators here? This is not Mississippi or Florida." He searched the address on the road sign on his computer - yes, there is a mobile phone signal here and a hotspot can be turned on, which is really rare in the United States.

"Maine? There are crocodiles in this damn place? I think it's more like a horror novel? Crocodiles?" Cheng Yijiu found it hard to believe that there were crocodiles in this place. Unless they were pet crocodiles kept in a greenhouse, how could there be crocodiles in the wild?

The average winter temperature in Maine is -7°C, which would freeze any crocodile to death. Even if a crocodile could crawl into a burrow to hibernate, it would probably need to accumulate a large amount of fallen leaves and branches, which would ferment and warm up to survive - 8°C is the minimum, otherwise it would freeze to death.

The average summer temperature in Maine is only 17 degrees Celsius, which is no different from winter or autumn for crocodiles and completely unsuitable for growth... So there are crocodiles in Maine, and large ones that can eat people? Cheng Yijiu thought this was a huge joke.

Since he had been placed here, it meant that there must be prey here. Cheng Yijiu returned to his car first and found that it was indeed a better RV than the average American could afford. It had a separate shower and bathroom, as well as a partition between the bedroom and the studio.

Simply put, this is a bus-sized RV, an all-in-one one—Cheng Yijiu actually bought one like this when he got the money, paying for it in installments, of course. In the workshop, there was a computer and a small table for work, and his weapons were hung on the wall.

Cheng Yijiu drove along the highway for about two kilometers before arriving at a small town. There were many towns like this in Maine, but most of its residents were scattered over a radius of dozens of kilometers. The town looked small, with a gas station, a supermarket, what appeared to be a market, and several grocery stores. Of course, Cheng Yijiu also spotted a movie theater. His RV slowly slid to the gas station, where he filled up his tank and bought a local map.

There was a lake on the map. "Looks like that's our destination." Cheng Yijiu asked the gas station worker if they could camp by the lake. "Ancient Lake? Sure." The worker seemed envious of his RV, specifically craning his head to take a look before answering. Cheng Yijiu nodded, and at that moment a police car pulled up beside them, and the local sheriff got out.

"Hello, Sheriff Hank." The gas station worker called out. "Sheriff Hank?" Cheng Yijiu also said, "Hello, stranger. Are you here camping? You are welcome to the campground at Guhu. As long as you obey the law, it is a very peaceful and tranquil place. You will have a wonderful memory."

Cheng Yijiu sniffed. The other person was a burly, middle-aged sheriff. The strange smell of white American country folk combined with the scent of cologne hit him straight in the nose. This strange smell really made Cheng Yijiu feel uncomfortable. He smiled and said, "I was just driving around North America, enjoying the beautiful scenery. I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Cheng Yijiu wisely left his M*1911 pistol on his waistband, so the police wouldn't bother him at all—and as for the weapons in the car? The sheriff wouldn't bother. Cheng Yijiu bought a bunch of junk food at the town supermarket, and several tubs of ice cream were stuffed into the car freezer. Since it was market day, he was also able to buy a lot of fresh beef, bled pork, chicken, and even lamb at the nearby market. Of course, Cheng Yijiu also bought a lot of vegetables, mainly onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and of course, cabbage.

In short, Cheng Yijiu felt that he would most likely be staying by the lake for a while, so a BBQ would be perfect. He didn't understand what to do anyway. In this kind of weather, a crocodile would come out to bask in the sun to warm up its body? Even if it basked from morning till night, it would be useless.

The temperature now felt to Cheng Yijiu to be at most 23 or 24 degrees Celsius, which was only average for a crocodile. Since Cheng Yijiu was very forthcoming with his money and paid in cash, he drove to the lake under the kind gaze of the locals.

The RV's high ground and suspension gave it some off-road capability. About half an hour later, Cheng Yijiu arrived at the ancient lake. The temperature near the lake was higher than in town, which struck Cheng Yijiu as odd. "How come the temperature here is already 30 degrees?" He flipped through the manual and discovered that there was a geothermal chamber near the ancient lake. The temperature of the magma heated the ground nearby, but there would be no eruption because there was no crater.

The lake water was also relatively warm, and Cheng Yijiu thought it might be possible for crocodiles to survive here. However, the water system here is the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles away from the Mississippi and Florida. What kind of crocodiles could have come here? It was likely that someone had released them.

Cheng Yijiu stopped the car. The ground was covered with fallen leaves, and the natural ecology was very good. He looked around and found deer footprints. Of course, there must be bears here, maybe even bobcats. Cheng Yijiu opened the retractable roof at the door and propped it up on the ground, forming a kind of "entrance".

He took out a folding chair and a folding stove from the car, unfolded them, and began to pickle meat and vegetables. He hoped to have something good to eat that evening. The car was parked about ten meters from the lake, on a small hill. Now Cheng Yijiu carefully observed the lake through a telescope.

"I can't see the whole view of the lake, but there is a house facing the water about one kilometer along the lakeshore... Is this where the residents of the town live?" Cheng Yijiu saw an old woman moving around outside the house, but he didn't say hello as the distance was too far.

So far, he hadn't heard anything unusual about the area online or over the radio, but it didn't matter. Cheng Yijiu could wait. The RV was reinforced, and the exterior was protected from attacks by wild animals—it had to be this way in the United States. Grizzlies in national parks had approached people more than once or twice.

However, when it comes to eating in the wild, Cheng Yijiu thought it would be better to take a gun. He put the marinated beef on the stove, covered it with a lid and roasted it, and chopped the vegetables into pieces and put them in a bowl. He added a piece of butter and a little water and then threw them into the stove to roast.

Night fell early. Cheng Yijiu turned on the overhead light bulb, sniffing the aroma from the stove beside him while observing the changes in the lake water. "Crocodiles don't come out at night, do they?... It's hard to say, but why are some people fishing at night?" He saw someone rowing a boat on the other side. They hung a lantern on the bow and took out their fishing rods. "Now I understand why there are so few foreigners."

Chapter 45: Follow the Rules

Night fishing is a great way to have fun. Cheng Yijiu even thought there might be giant crocodiles in the lake. But wait, if this guy is a local, then he's probably been fishing for years. So why didn't the crocodile eat him? After thinking about it, Cheng Yijiu still couldn't figure it out. Of course, the boat quickly moved out of sight.

"Forget it, he asked for death. Out of sight, out of mind. Let's go to sleep first." Cheng Yijiu packed up his things, turned and went into the RV, closing the door to isolate the danger of the night outside.

As expected, there was no boat in sight the next day. Of course, it's possible the guy had gone home after fishing—though Cheng Yijiu figured the American might have just feasted on the crocodiles. He ate a traditional English breakfast outside the car—bacon and eggs fried in a frying pan on the barbecue stove, followed by a large glass of milk, bread, and cheese. Cheng Yijiu had no particular food restrictions; he was adaptable to both Chinese and Western cuisine.

Cheng Yijiu sat on a chair outside, enjoying the cool summer breeze. The temperature here was only about 27 or 28 degrees Celsius, and the cool breeze on the water was very comfortable, much more pleasant than places like Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Cheng Yijiu held a telescope and scanned the lake. Soon, a boat passed by his sight. On board were the sheriff he had seen and another person in a diving suit.

They stopped near the center of the lake, just in sight of Cheng Yijiu. He'd looked around and seen nothing, so he decided to just watch from a distance to see what the local sheriff was up to. The diver submerged, while the sheriff sat in the boat, bored and looking around. Perhaps catching the reflection from Cheng Yijiu's binoculars, the sheriff waved in the camera's direction and made a shooting gesture.

The sheriff in the camera was also laughing, and Cheng Yijiu put down his binoculars and laughed too. He sat comfortably in a chair, also leisurely enjoying the cool summer breeze. There was no need to take out the gun now, after all, the crocodile hadn't appeared, right? About five minutes later, Cheng Yijiu took off his sunglasses while sitting on the unfolded lounge chair, because things had taken a turn for the worse.

He didn't notice the beginning of the incident, but he heard the sound. Then he saw the diver suddenly pushed to the surface by the underwater creature. The sheriff grabbed his hand, but when he pulled him up, it seemed that the whole person was a little short... "Damn it!" Cheng Yijiu cursed, and he rushed into the RV with great speed and picked up the rifle. However, Cheng Yijiu also knew that this was probably useless because the crocodile couldn't see its position underwater.

Now there was a good thing. Since someone had died, someone would definitely come to deal with it. Then he might have a chance. Sure enough, later that day, Cheng Yijiu, who was sitting outside the RV, saw a police car driving by. Two people got out of the car. One was the local sheriff, and the other, judging by his uniform, was probably a childcare worker. They got out of the car and walked towards Cheng Yijiu. "Hello," the sheriff greeted first.

"Hello, Sheriff, hello, Mr. Caretaker." Cheng Yijiu greeted them politely. "I'm sorry to interrupt your holiday. You saw what happened this morning," the Sheriff said, his tone heavy. Cheng Yijiu nodded. "Yes, I saw as much as you did, Sheriff. Is there anything in the lake?" It was obvious that the Sheriff didn't want to say more, but the caretaker spoke up.

"My name is Paul," Cheng Yijiu suddenly remembered that he hadn't introduced himself yet, "Oh, you can call me Cheng." The caretaker Paul said, "Okay, Mr. Cheng. Have you seen anything unusual in the past two days, except for the one this morning?" Cheng Yijiu shook his head, "Sorry, I only found deer footprints here, and didn't find anything unusual in the lake..."

"A creature capable of severing a human being..." Cheng Yijiu continued, "and in the water—does this place connect to the Atlantic Ocean? Could it be a bull shark?" He was practically lying. But bull sharks were still ten times more plausible than crocodiles—after all, there were reports of bull sharks in southern Massachusetts, which is also part of New England. But a bull shark capable of severing a human being in two... that would likely set a new record for bull shark size.

The caretaker nodded, a look of helplessness on his face. "The ancient lake is indeed connected to the Atlantic Ocean - but the river channel has long been blocked. It's about seven or eight miles long." Cheng Yijiu nodded. "So, Mr. Cheng, will you stay here? If I were you, I would leave." The sheriff said. Cheng Yijiu smiled. "No, I won't leave. In fact, I'm quite curious. Don't worry about me, Sheriff. I have a hunting rifle, and the RV can resist bear attacks."

The sheriff pursed his lips and said, "Okay, I wish you peace, Mr. Cheng." The caregiver Paul also nodded, and they turned around and got back into the car and drove away.

Cheng Yijiu watched them leave, then turned and looked at the lake more than ten meters away. "A crocodile...it can bite a person like this. I'm afraid it must be a saltwater crocodile."

The next day, the lakeshore became bustling with activity. Since Cheng Yijiu had driven down the road from the town, his location must have been the most suitable for camping on the lakeshore—it was easily accessible. Thus, he saw a succession of SUVs approaching, the childcare worker driving a pickup truck with a camping tent, and the local police—at least five or six men and women, led by the sheriff.

There was also a woman who seemed a bit out of place. She looked like the type who never wanted to be outdoors in the bustling big city. A typical New Yorker. They all greeted Cheng Yijiu when they saw him. It seemed the sheriff had already mentioned this. The woman glanced at Cheng Yijiu curiously, then turned her attention to taking her "equipment" from the car.

Tents were being set up one after another by the lake in a chaotic manner. The caretaker, Paul, was definitely staying by the lake, and the sheriff seemed to be staying as well. The New Yorker woman also occupied a tent. "Have you figured out what it is?" Cheng Yijiu asked the sheriff. The sheriff glanced at the caretaker and then said to Cheng Yijiu, "Crocodile."

Cheng Yijiu made a surprised expression, "Crocodile? New England? Maine? You have to be kidding me. Crocodiles will freeze to death here." Although Cheng Yijiu cursed, the sheriff was not angry at all, and nodded in agreement, "I think it's a joke too! Crocodile?!" The sheriff spat fiercely.

Chapter 46: All Arrived

This was pure venting. The sheriff didn't mention that they had evidence, but he just thought it was incredible. Cheng Yijiu knew very well that there were crocodiles in the lake, but he also said that this was completely unscientific - crocodiles could only survive for one season in this place.

In short, the two sides exchanged views amicably. If Cheng Yijiu wanted to stay here, the sheriff would not object. The sheriff and his police officers, especially a female officer, even expressed envy of Cheng Yijiu's living environment. They lived in a tent - which was not a big deal, as the summer nights in New England were not hot and were quite cool, but there were too many mosquitoes...

And they also have to worry about bears rummaging through trash cans and food at night. Cheng Yijiu doesn't have to worry about this, he just needs to sleep well.

Cheng Yijiu watched them set up all the tents. The woman from New York came over to say hello. Cheng Yijiu then discussed the issue with Paul, who was standing nearby. "Was it an alligator? I had no idea there were alligators in this northernmost state of New England... Do you have any evidence?"

The caregiver scratched her hair and said, "Oh, I'm not sure about that. But Mr. Cheng, you should wait for the official statement from the sheriff." It seemed that she was not willing to talk to Cheng Yijiu, a "commoner", and the female scientist named Shirley from New York said that she had nothing to comment either.

"Okay, not very friendly." Cheng Yijiu shrugged his shoulders and decided not to raise the issue. He shouted, "BBQ for dinner, does anyone want to eat too?" He dragged out the folding stove, brought out beef, vegetables, pork ribs, and of course chicken.

He immediately won the favor of most people present, especially after he unloaded the beer from the car. The people here were quite simple and honest. Since Cheng Yijiu was treating them, they came to eat wholeheartedly. After the BBQ, even the caretaker Paul was willing to say a few more words. "Almost. There are teeth. We found teeth on... "

Cheng Yijiu said, "I'm not trying to argue, but crocodiles aren't sharks. Their teeth can't be replaced all the time, can they? They don't seem to be that easy to rip out either." Paul, the caregiver, sighed and said nothing more. It was night anyway, and there wasn't much entertainment, let alone the mood for it. Soon, one of the officers left to work with the sheriff, while the caregiver and scientist Shirley stayed in the camp. The four of them went to rest in four tents.

Cheng Yijiu also entered his RV. If he wanted to, he could still watch TV or movies, but unfortunately his external surveillance could only view his car door and could not be adjusted to view the lake - and this camera did not have night vision function.

He just casually searched for information about crocodiles for a while and then fell asleep. The next day, Cheng Yijiu heard the sound of helicopter rotors while eating breakfast, and soon he saw a helicopter parked on the water nearby, and a fat man arrived with several large boxes.

This fat man was quite cheerful, in fact, almost to the point of being insane. Cheng Yijiu could hardly understand his "sense of humor" and wondered if he even knew what atmosphere was. Of course, Shirley had told him that the fat man was a professor who studied various mystical beliefs and primitive faiths. Professor John's hobby was the place and influence of crocodiles in the legends and myths of various ancient peoples.

Is this even necessary? Even Cheng Yijiu knew, without the fat man's explanation, that crocodiles had appeared in various ancient civilizations and held a high status. Not to mention ancient Egypt, where crocodiles were considered a kind of deity, even in his hometown, the crocodile's religious totem was closely related to the dragon.

However, another sentence of the fat man made Cheng Yijiu think that this guy must be an arrogant "idiot". He firmly believed that there were crocodiles here. When the sheriff asked him about it, he simply said that as long as the nose was not frozen, the crocodiles could survive - this sentence would offend most zoologists who study crocodiles and other reptiles to death.

Cheng Yijiu thought about it. He had previously thought that if enough plants were piled together to ferment, the temperature would be high enough for crocodiles to survive the long New England winter. Although there was still insufficient evidence to support this hypothesis and the crocodiles must have had a very difficult time, Cheng Yijiu still found it extremely strange that no one had discovered the crocodiles.

He asked the sheriff nearby, "Are there a lot of people missing lately?" The sheriff shook his head. "Old Bush hasn't seen him in a few days, and even his boat is missing. We're looking for him too." Fat John was nearby, and he happily rolled over. "Well, let's see if there are any spare parts for him nearby. Hello, my name is John, and I'm a mystic."

Cheng Yijiu also shook hands with him, "Hello, my name is Cheng. I... can be considered a 'hunter'. Sheriff, I have a hunting license." Cheng Yijiu did have a certificate on him, which allowed him to hunt two deer.

His carrying of a hunting rifle was legal in Maine. Even if he were to wander the woods carrying a hunting rifle, it would still be legal. "Okay, Mr. John, you said there's an alligator in this lake... so how did it get there? Is it new and no one has ever seen it?"

"That's a good question. I think it probably came from the Atlantic Ocean—saltwater crocodiles can live near the coast, and then they crawled seven miles ashore to this lake." John answered quite seriously. Cheng Yijiu laughed, "Well, the saltwater crocodile swam across the Indian Ocean, then went north along the Atlantic Ocean, and finally came here—so why didn't it live in Florida from the beginning? It's much more comfortable there than here."

John also shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, I don't know about that. Anyway, let's find him first."

Well, later they found a big toe, and then Shirley had the bad luck to come across a human head—the sheriff said it belonged to George H.W. Bush. This situation gave John's story a lot of credibility, and now they were driving a boat and preparing to use a small sonar to see what was going on in the lake.

Cheng Yijiu was neither a professor nor a policeman, nor a keeper, so he couldn't go with them, and Cheng Yijiu didn't want to go either - if possible, he didn't want to hunt a crocodile in the water at all.

So he used a telescope to observe the lake, observing the two boats in front of him. They rowed, and the fat man looked at the laptop in his hand. The small sonar image was on the computer, and the other boat followed... The splash of fish jumping appeared on the water.

Cheng Yijiu didn't draw his gun; accurate shots with a rifle at this distance were unrealistic. He simply observed the scene before him—and just as he'd predicted, the two boats had returned unharmed. "There's something there, and it's quite large," the fat man said excitedly.

Chapter 47 Discovery

Fatty proposed a plan to go underwater and see for themselves. Crocodiles weren't particularly effective underwater—they attacked from the water to the land, with only a few gharials primarily attacking underwater, preying on fish. Cheng Yijiu surprisingly heard no objection to this suicidal act, which made him wonder again why there were so few foreigners. However, there wasn't time to go underwater that day, and the equipment wasn't complete. Fatty called for equipment to be delivered, but it wouldn't arrive until the next day at the earliest.

Cheng Yijiu was woken up in the middle of the night. He opened the door and saw everyone rushing out of their tents. It turned out that the fat man had been setting a trap all night and scared the sheriff who was out to pee at night. Cheng Yijiu laughed for a while and thought that the fat man must be mentally ill. "Such a guy is also a professor, and he looks very rich... Sigh." The next day, they just drove around in the lake in a boat, but the police did find some things on the shore.

It was part of the wreckage, part of the wreckage of a person eaten by a crocodile. Cheng Yijiu didn't go to see it. He just watched in the fat man's tent as the fat man searched for pictures of different crocodile species on the screen, and after comparing them with the teeth, he confirmed that it was a saltwater crocodile.

Cheng Yijiu once again oiled his gun to ensure nothing would go wrong when he fired. Crocodiles move faster on the ground than most people imagine, and certainly faster than humans, but their endurance is poor. Cold-blooded animals are like that, and crocodiles easily accumulate lactic acid during pursuit, becoming immobilized and needing time to recover.

The water activity took place on the third day. As expected, they were so desperate that they even brought a sound generator to attract crocodiles. Cheng Yijiu watched them enter the water from the shore through a telescope. As expected, something went wrong. First, the boat was suddenly hit, and then a police officer had his head bitten off. Cheng Yijiu could do nothing. He still felt that the crocodile's movements were too fast, and the attack was over in a flash of water.

He raised his gun—because in the other direction, Cheng Yijiu had spotted a crocodile. "A very large crocodile... This crocodile must be at least sixty or seventy years old, right? Otherwise, how could it have grown so large?" Cheng Yijiu thought it was unscientific. The saltwater crocodile seen through the telescope was probably over seven meters long; even Gustav couldn't compare. Based on the density of the telescope, Cheng Yijiu estimated the crocodile to be closer to eight meters long.

Possibly the largest saltwater crocodile ever recorded.

He put down his binoculars and raised his rifle—this time equipped with a pre-calibrated white-light scope. The crocodile bobbed in the water, and Cheng Yijiu couldn't find a suitable opportunity to fire. At this distance, the bullet's angle of entry was very shallow, easily ricocheting off the water. Furthermore, the bullet would easily shatter upon impact, making it highly likely he wouldn't injure the crocodile at all.

They still had to wait for the crocodile to reveal most of its head. For now, they could only hope those guys had enough luck. The crocodile didn't seem to be heading their way, but since it had already dived, there was no telling whether it would actually head their way. Cheng Yijiu could only move along the lakeshore, gun on his back, and be careful not to get too close to the water to avoid being ambushed.

All he did was try to get as close to the boat as possible, hoping to be able to fire if a crocodile appeared and attacked. However, this was also dangerous for the divers, who were easily hit by stray bullets. The crocodile didn't reappear, not even after the two divers boarded the boat and quickly returned to shore. "I saw a crocodile. It was huge. Judging from the surface, it might have been eight meters long," Cheng Yijiu said, stepping forward to share what he had seen.

The fat man gasped, "Water, in the water. That thing in the water is really big!"

Cheng Yijiu touched his chin. "In the water? Did you see the crocodile on the surface diving underwater?" He said, "No, we saw it underwater among those tree trunks, and then it swam out." Cheng Yijiu asked them to tell him the location, and everyone present was stunned. "Two giant crocodiles?"

The question, then, remains the same: what do alligators in this area eat? Although there are deer and bears in the woods, and people come and go, no one has ever reported finding anything in the lake.

Cheng Yijiu didn't continue the conversation with them. "Hey, Sheriff. I'm going to take my weapon and walk around the lake to see if I can find the crocodile." And then everyone present, except him, actually only had a pistol... or a shotgun at most. No one had a rifle with full-power bullets. Cheng Yijiu shook his head and slowly walked away along the lakeshore.