Ch.9595 – King Crab Apocalypse

<95 – King Crab Apocalypse>

Homeroom time.

In the game, Professor Mahabharata was just a weekly event notification bot who announced weekly events and disappeared, but now that the game had become reality, he continued with his guidance.

“During the heavy rain week, some facilities may be closed due to flooding concerns. Also, access to the first floor may become impossible, so additional entrances by floor will be opened or closed according to water levels.”

“I have a question nya… Which facilities will be closed nya?”

The cat beastkin Zenya, with her cute nya-speech, asked with drooping ears and a gloomy face.

Just as cats dislike water, water is a weakness for cat beastkin as well.

“Consider the training building basically unusable. Not that you’d have time for training anyway, with all the assignments you have.”

“Nyaaa… I miss the prairie field nya…”

A sad beast on a rainy day is pitiful indeed.

But it’s okay.

My eyes are enjoying the sight!

“I hate this academy nya… No wild pigeons to hunt, water everywhere, giant king crabs washing up from the shore—it’s the worst nya…”

“Zenya. Don’t be so depressed. According to an old saying passed down in the Thunderbolt Celestial God Church, lightning can strike even from a clear sky, so life is naturally unlucky.”

“…Where in that statement am I supposed to find encouragement nya…?”

“Worldly life is nothing but ash with a single bolt of lightning from the gods. If you think of life as already ruined, you can accept and endure any hardship that comes your way.”

“Hyaaak! Your sect’s philosophy is scary nya!”

Laughter erupted around them at Niche the Thunderbolt Celestial God Church nun’s not-so-comforting words of comfort.

“Are all religious people like that?”

“She must be joking to cheer her up.”

“No. She was definitely serious.”

One male student said with a straight face.

The surrounding students gave him reproachful looks.

“Yeltsin Brownie. Read the room. Everyone’s trying to lighten the mood, and you’re saying that?”

“Still, I know what I know. Andersen and I are certain, if no one else is.”

“What would you two know?”

“We’re students taking the ‘How to Use Divine Magic Without Faith’ lecture.”

“Ah… that infamous…”

Relying on faith for an easy lecture vs. extreme experiences without faith.

The notoriety of this landmine lecture had spread widely even among the senior classes, so students expressed sympathy for the two.

Isabelle, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation, suddenly became curious and spoke up.

“What does Oknodie think about churches?”

“Places to stack prayer skill buffs?”

“Pfft. What’s that? It’s not wrong, but you’ve learned it in a strange way.”

“Oh right. Isabelle, if you ever need to go to a church, try going at night.”

“Try what?”

“If you break into the sect’s food storage, you can find tons of food blessed with divine power and disaster relief supplies they’ve stockpiled. You can fill your food catalog like crazy!”

How about that? Isn’t it amazing?

This is how veteran player tips can be helpful!

“…Oknodie. I’ll make you a meat dish for dinner tonight.”

“Really?”

For some reason, Isabelle patted my shoulder with sad eyes.

When Isabelle gets sad, she makes meat dishes for dinner.

I input this new strategy information into my brain.

I should borrow a collection of tear-jerking stories from the school store later.

“Wait a minute. Didn’t someone just say king crabs are coming from the shore?”

“It’s true. Look out the window.”

“King crabs really are coming!”

“This is insane. They look so delicious.”

“I wonder if we can eat them?”

Slurp. A female student who was drooling wiped her mouth with her sleeve, blushing.

After living a hungry and poor academy life, land-walking king crabs might indeed look like free meals walking right up to you.

But the student who bravely tried to open the window and approach the king crabs couldn’t remove his foot from the windowsill.

“Huh? Why do they keep getting bigger?”

The students, who had misjudged the size of the creatures by ignoring perspective, began to panic.

And for good reason.

These were “Giant King Crabs.”

They were even larger than regular “King Crabs,” which were already bigger than normal crabs, hence the “Giant” prefix.

How could creatures that crack open the shells of all sorts of sea monsters and devour their flesh in the overflowing seawater be of ordinary size?

“Waaaaaah!! Close the window!! Look at the size of those pincers. If they catch you, you’re dead!!”

“They’re so gross!!!”

“How can crabs be bigger than large dogs?!”

“They’re big enough to feed a family of four commoners for a month if frozen!!”

At the nobles’ shock, one commoner muttered timidly:

“Commoners don’t even have freezers at home…”

Isabelle cautioned Oknodie:

“Homes with magic freezers are middle to upper class, Oknodie. You should remember these basics.”

“Why?”

“Because saying things like that in front of commoners makes you look really obnoxious.”

“Ah, I see.”

Isabelle and the other commoners seemed quite angry, their eyes narrowing into triangles as they looked at the nobles.

Even angrier than Isabelle were the giant king crabs that charged at the building and struck the windows with their pincers with all their might.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

“King Crab Apocalypse!!!”

“We’re all going to die!!”

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

“Don’t just scream! Stack desks in front of the windows!!”

“Uwaaaaang!! Mommy!!”

Screams, shrieks, and crying could be heard from junior classes in distant classrooms.

In the increasingly tense classroom, Professor Mahabharata smiled brightly and said:

“No need to worry. These are protective windows. They have protective magic cast on them, so they absolutely won’t break.”

Rattle rattle rattle

Crash!!

No sooner had the professor finished speaking than something fell off, and the sound of giant king crabs’ feet scuttling across the ceiling could be heard.

“Oh, the ventilation ducts.”

So they only put protective magic on the windows?

Professor Mahabharata chuckled at the pale-faced students:

“No need to be so serious. If we leave them alone, the seniors will take care of them. Many seniors like to hunt when there’s prey around to save points.”

The homeroom class ended in a chaotic atmosphere, with the students’ main concern naturally being the giant king crabs that had infiltrated the school through the ventilation ducts.

* *

Dragon Principal looked down at the professors who had barged into his office.

The professors whose lectures had been interrupted were furious, raging without restraint.

“Principal! What kind of outrage is this? Today was supposed to be the third-year magic broom flight practice, but you’ve made the weather conditions this terrible!”

“My ‘Let’s Learn About Fire Elementals’ lecture is also in trouble. The fire beast I caught from the elemental realm yesterday is whimpering and peeing itself inside.”

“Our ‘Let’s Learn Horticulture’ elective is also… Wait. When a fire hound urinates, does it come out as water or fire?”

“It comes out as liquid flame.”

“Oh, that’s quite interesting. Anyway, our ‘Let’s Learn Horticulture’ lecture is also difficult to conduct as planned because of king crabs invading the garden.”

-So what do you want me to do about it?

“Take responsibility and resolve this situation!”

“Make the rain stop quickly.”

“And return all the king crabs to the sea.”

The dragon’s face twisted with spite like that of a mean seven-year-old child.

-I understand your grievances.

-Then let’s do this.

The principal offered a solution.

-Cancel your classes.

“But then we’ll lose our weekends.”

-If you want to be called the world’s best in your field, shouldn’t you figure out how to either conduct your lectures despite adversity or cancel and arrange make-up lectures?

Because of the principal’s unfair but technically correct argument, the professors left the office grumbling.

Professor Mahabharata, who had returned after finishing his homeroom lecture, saw the professors leaving the principal’s office and smirked.

“You went too far, Principal.”

-I hear that every week. No matter what I do, two or three of them will always make a fuss.

Then why not just eliminate the special weeks?

Mahabharata only thought this to himself.

Given the principal’s petty personality, there was nothing to gain by saying it out loud.

-Think about it. How pitiful are the freshmen who grow up starving without points!

-It just so happens that giant king crabs are coming ashore for their spawning season, and they’re absolutely delicious. I cracked open a few shells yesterday and ate them—they’re real rice thieves.

-The kids should grow up eating such things.

“Ah. Such a compassionate intention.”

It was the principal’s own form of mercy—making it rain heavily so students could easily catch king crabs that had become so numerous that a king crab warning had been issued for the beach.

‘I don’t think the students will appreciate it though.’

But just as professors have college students to boss around like slaves, dragons have guardians.

He was afraid that if he upset the principal, he might be assigned tasks like <Retrieve the Pincer of a Hyper Giant King Crab Sleeping in an Underwater Pit>.

“Indeed, Principal, you are truly a person of integrity! There isn’t a principal at any academy in the world who would be so merciful as to ensure students can hunt king crabs for every meal!”

Except for the fact that the giant king crabs were desperate to eat the students, and most students were weaker than the giant king crabs.

Well, from the principal’s perspective, one could almost say he was being generous.