Chapter 520: Chapter 331: People Are Surprised and Delighted by the Big Shell_3

Since discovering pirate traces on the deserted island last night, Chu Mingcheng had remained quite vigilant about it.

He deliberately kept his ship far from the island before preparing dinner for himself.

The killer whale stayed close by to alert him if anything happened, so he wasn’t too worried and slept peacefully.

Fortunately, the night passed without incident, and he had a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, Chu Mingcheng finally got a clear view of the deserted island’s situation.

On the southeast side of the island, there was a continuous stretch of coral reef where the Rat Spots and East Starfish resided.

Of course, it was nowhere near the scale of the first site he found.

But what interested Chu Mingcheng now was not this, as he noticed an unexpectedly high number of coconut trees on the island–there were about a dozen.

With so many coconut trees, perhaps he could find a few ripe coconuts.

There were plenty of fruits on the ship, but he didn’t mind natural wild coconuts.

Although it was already almost November, there were still ripe fruits hanging from the several coconut trees on the island.

Chu Mingcheng put down his telescope and tentatively confirmed that there were no human activities on the island.

He took out a newly purchased rubber dinghy, inflated it and put it in the water, then carried a small gasoline-filled motor and a toolbox, along with an empty plastic fish box on top, and had himself seated to set off for the island.

The killer whales had disappeared after he woke up in the morning, probably off to feed.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t mind them; if they weren’t full when they returned, he could always take them out for a big meal.

Arriving at the deserted island and dragging the rubber dinghy up onto the sandy beach, he took a woodcutting knife from the toolbox and headed toward the coconut trees.

However, right when he got to a coconut tree, he spotted many opened coconut shells at the edge of the bushes, and even some remains of other fruits and nuts.

Chu Mingcheng’s eyes lit up–these clues indicated coconut crabs on the island!

These creatures were basically extinct in the wild in the mainland, and it was uncertain whether they still existed on the deserted islands of Qiongzhou.

In any case, as a protected wildlife species, nobody dared to hunt them.

But this was the Public Sea, where in some countries, coconut crabs were so abundant they became a nuisance. Encountering them here, Chu Mingcheng indeed found them interesting.

On the Public Sea, just like the East Starfish, coconut crabs could be eaten, but they could not be brought back to sell or even cooked domestically.

Of course, releasing them was an option, but no sane person would do that.

Afterward, Chu Mingcheng gave up on the coconuts and started to look for coconut crabs first.

He followed the trail of broken shells to see if there were any coconut crab burrows nearby and soon was sweating all over, with the front of his shirt soaked through, revealing his strong pectoral muscles.

But just searching aimlessly like this wasn’t likely to turn up anything.

After half an hour, he found many potential coconut crab burrows, but only discovered a few small ones.

They were only the size of fists, and the whereabouts of their parents were unknown.

Fortunately, this was good news for him, at least confirming the presence of coconut crabs on the island.

Chu Mingcheng thought for a moment and figured that luring them out might be a good strategy.

So he quickly returned to the beach, pushed his rubber dinghy back into the sea, and then went back to the Sea God.

He then took out two apples to use as bait, as there weren’t many apples left on the ship and two were just enough for bait.

Back on the island, Chu Mingcheng cut the apples into quarters with a diving knife and placed them where some fruit remains were.

To attract the coconut crabs more quickly, he went under a coconut tree, climbed effortlessly to the top with his bare hands, and twisted off two slightly yellow coconuts.

These coconuts were just right, with very sweet coconut water.

He cracked open the coconuts with his woodcutting knife and spilled the coconut water near the apple bait, hoping the scent would spread and attract the coconut crabs more quickly.

Having done all this, he began climbing trees to collect coconuts.

He started with the tree closest to the bushes on the left, and just as he got there, he saw a large spider, bigger than a basketball, crawling on the trunk.

“…”

Chu Mingcheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, at a loss for words.

All that effort setting up bait traps, and then he stumbles upon the main target in the blink of an eye.

Well, the bait could serve as food for the baby coconut crabs then!

Coconut crabs moved slowly and were easy to catch.

However, they had a formidable grip with their claws. Chu Mingcheng prodded the coconut crab with the woodcutting knife to let it clamp on, and with his other hand grasped its body and pulled it off the tree.

This coconut crab was quite heavy, probably weighing about ten pounds–it must be a venerable ancestor of the coconut crabs on the island.

Having lived so long, it was probably tired of life, and Chu Mingcheng felt it was his duty to do a good deed.

Holding the coconut crab, he placed it into the fish box on the rubber dinghy, making the trip to the island a complete success.

He continued to harvest coconuts, picking ten altogether to put on the rubber dinghy before deciding to head back.

But before leaving, he went to check on the bait traps.

And there he saw several large coconut crabs, a total of six.

Although smaller than the one he caught, they seemed to weigh over five pounds each.

As for the number of small coconut crabs, that was even greater–at least a dozen.

Chu Mingcheng was puzzled; where had all these creatures gone when he was previously searching?

However, he did not continue to ravage these coconut crabs. Having one ancestor level was enough for now; he could always bring his wife over next time for another one.