NOVPUB78: 8.
Crab Lady
78: 8.
Crab Lady
Night had already deepened, and aboard the SS Lauren, apart from a few crew members who were still on duty, most people were deeply asleep.
The ocean, coated by darkness, was so calm; the nighttime sea breeze whistling past, from the ocean or from the sky, a shadow silently fell upon the deck.
The shadow, carried swiftly along by the fierce deck winds, slipped into the passenger cabins.
The corridor lights in the cabin area were already turned off.
Apart from a few rooms that still had lights on or from which soft conversations could be heard, everyone else was sound asleep.
The shadow silently moved down the hallway, leaving behind a large crab silhouette on the wall under the emergency lighting.
Out of curiosity, the shadow closely inspected the tightly shut doors of the surrounding passenger rooms, wanting to get a glimpse of the construction and scene inside.
However, a thick curtain hung inside every room’s door; it could only vaguely make out the light situation inside.
The cruise ship, encountering waves, slightly tilted, but the shadow stood steady as a mountain, pausing in front of a specific room’s door.
The body of the shadow trembled slightly, as if struggling to breathe, seemingly detecting the scent of something appetizing.
It was the smell of a pearl!
The shadow leaned against the door that was now darkened, repeatedly trying to glimpse the precious pearl inside through the thick curtain but couldn’t fulfill its wish without the superpower of x-ray vision.
The next second, the door handle was turned, revealing the dim emergency lighting outside.
Silently, the shadow slipped through the door gap, immediately smelling the floral fragrance that filled the room.
Unaccustomed, the shadow covered its nose, fearing that a sneeze might awaken the sleeping occupant the next moment.
Soon, it saw the pearl resting on a table, gleaming like the moon.
A treasure!
A shiny treasure!
Definitely very valuable!
The shadow stealthily stretched out its hand and grasped the small pearl in its palm; the cold pearl was so enchanting that it wanted to lift it up in the moonlight to check its quality.
When it lifted the pearl, however, instead of bright moonlight, it saw a face as expressionless as a shadow—Fisher.
“Whooaaahhh!
It’s a sea ghost!!!”
The shadow let out a cry in a strange language that Fisher didn’t understand at all, and its petite body collapsed to the ground in an instant.
The pearl, now unsteady in its grasp, rolled across the floor and hit the wall.
As the pearl touched the wall, that little body suddenly dashed backward, and its speed of escape was beyond Fisher’s imagination.
In the blink of an eye, the creature nearly reached the doorway.
But Fisher didn’t give chase, because in the next moment, a purple ethereal figure had appeared at the doorway and easily took control of the fleeing shadow.
“Whooahh, let go of me!”
“Fisher, look, it’s a demi-human!”
“Don’t let her escape.”
The lights came on, and it was only then that Fisher, dressed in a white shirt, saw Renie, wearing a lace nightgown, holding a petite humanoid girl.
The humanoid creature was about the size of a seven or eight-year-old human child, but instead of a human-like spine, her back was a complete shell like that of a crab.
The clothing on the child was quite peculiar, resembling fabric woven from aquatic plant leaves, lacking any sensation of threads yet exquisitely beautiful, making her appear like an endearing doll.
At that moment, she struggled continuously in Renie’s hands, but being petite and with limbs hanging, she could only feebly flail around.
Fisher also noticed that her left hand was clutching a leather pouch, bulging with numerous objects.
Yes, you heard right—clutching with a pouch.
The demi-human in front of him had a complete crab claw for a left hand, but a human-like right hand, round and plump fingers with structures resembling webs in between, making Fisher, who had studied demi-humans for a long time, find the design of this creature very strange.
Renie beamed as she turned the child, revealing the fierce struggling pink-haired kid in her arms.
Her face was slightly chubby, her body damp, yet her skin wasn’t peeling at all, suggesting its texture was far different from that of humans.
Upon seeing Fisher’s expressionless face, she panicked and puffed her cheeks, and the next moment, numerous bubbles started emerging from her mouth, seemingly warning Fisher not to come closer.
“Look, she’s blowing bubbles.”
“Be careful, those bubbles could be poisonous.”
Yet this entirely non-threatening gesture only amused Renie, who curiously prodded the demi-human’s cheek, causing her to frantically blow out even more bubbles.
Renie didn’t touch the bubbles she blew; she simply kept prodding her face.
Renie thought her cheeks were even more elastic than human skin, soft and mushy, extremely comfortable to pinch.
This demi-human made no sound when walking, not even when opening the room door.
If Fisher hadn’t preemptively set up a magic alarm at the doorway due to his vigilant nature, he might not have realized this demi-human had entered.
