Two types of monster cells gradually began to take effect inside the emperor crab monster.
They started to merge into the esophageal wall from the monster's esophagus.
After a series of reactions, they eventually reached a balance with the monster cells already inside the emperor crab.
At this very moment—
The emperor crab monster began to undergo changes in its appearance.
A glowing mass of soft tissue appeared at the back of its body.
It resembled a jellyfish, but also looked like a tail fin.
It was like a tail completely out of place on a crab's body.
With this tail, the emperor crab monster began swimming rapidly.
It passed through the deep sea, swam through schools of fish, and rode the waves to crawl ashore.
There were many crabs along the shore.
It snapped them up one by one with its claws, no hesitation at all!
As an emperor crab monster, it had a limitless appetite for all crab species.
Its giant pincers could crush other crabs into pulp and then send them straight into its mouth.
Very soon—
It had cleared all the crabs from the beach.
Then—
It quickly rushed toward the coconut grove.
Inside the grove, it encountered a massive coconut crab.
Without hesitation—
It ate it right away!
Even though their body sizes were similar, the cellular quality of a monster and a normal creature were on completely different levels.
A monster of the same size could easily annihilate any native creature of equal size!
Otherwise, it wouldn't be called a monster—just an ugly, useless freak.
After devouring the massive coconut crab, the emperor crab monster stopped in place, motionless.
It remained still and quiet.
A misty white layer began to form over its surface.
But that wasn't fog.
It was the outer shell of the emperor crab loosening, preparing to shed.
"Crack..."
"Crack~"
"Crackkk~~"
With a crisp sound, the outer shell of the emperor crab monster turned completely white.
A translucent kind of white.
Soon—
A new body inside broke through the old shell and emerged!
It was a new emperor crab monster, covered in fine bristle-like spines!
Each of those spines wasn't ordinary hair—they were as tough as silver needles!
Under the darkness of night—
Its mutated tail glowed with rainbow-colored light.
Its massive claws had just undergone an evolution! Its entire body had grown slightly larger!
Originally, both claws were already enormous.
But now, the right pincer was clearly one size larger than the left!
Under the diffused glow of the mutated tail, the massive right pincer emitted a chilling gleam!
It tried using the newly grown right claw to pinch a coconut tree.
Then—
"CRACK!!!~~"
The sturdy coconut tree was instantly snapped in half at its base!
Its claw was not only razor-sharp, but also incredibly strong!
Keep in mind, even a chainsaw couldn't cut through such a tree in such a short instant!
But with a casual test of its new claw, it sliced it clean through!
If that claw clamped down on a human, it could probably cut an adult in half at the waist!
Even land monsters that weren't specialized in defense might not be able to withstand such a blow!
After realizing the power of its new claw, the emperor crab monster was overcome with excitement.
It began charging wildly through the coconut grove.
Smashing everything in its path!
The entire grove was thrown into chaos!
Some coconut crabs were still cracking coconuts when they were knocked down by the emperor crab.
Before they could react, its giant claw had already squeezed out their crab roe...!
...
After a night of rampaging—
The emperor crab monster's body finally settled at two meters tall and three meters wide, not counting the mutated tail, which could expand and contract freely.
Its overall body parameters had actually reached this point by midnight!
Even though it kept eating afterward, it didn't grow any larger.
As if… its physical growth had completely stopped!
However, the continued eating in the second half of the night didn't halt its growth in other areas!
Even though the body didn't grow bigger, its speed and strength continued increasing!
This meant that its relatively compact body now contained the power of a medium-to-large monster!
That might not sound like much, but in reality, it was terrifying!
Put it this way—
If you could compress the strength of a thunder dragon into a human-sized body, that human would be a superhuman!
They'd move like lightning and lift a steamroller with one hand...
Back to the story.
At dawn—
The emperor crab monster's running speed had already surpassed that of any native land creature!
Most importantly, it moved sideways like a crab.
And because it moved sideways, its field of vision wasn't ideal.
So, when moving too fast, it frequently crashed into things—
Like trees, boulders... or dinosaurs.
Each of its legs had now been reinforced to blade-like sharpness!
When it hit trees or rocks, it simply barreled through them—
Shattering them!
Smashing them!
If it ran into a dinosaur, then the scene would be... extremely bloody.
Because when all eight legs started spinning at full power, it turned into a whirlwind of blades!
Any living creature made of flesh and blood that got hit—
Would be shredded instantly!
Of course, if it hit a dinosaur, it would take responsibility.
It would stop... and properly finish eating the dinosaur!
Though its body had stopped growing, its strength continued to build up from within!
This endlessly expanding power kept the emperor crab in a constant state of excitement and motion!
It couldn't stop.
Whenever it tried to rest, its entire body would throb with pain!
Thanks to this never-ending high-intensity movement, its body temperature kept rising—
So much so that by dawn, when it was still a bit chilly, steam was literally rising from its shell as it ran!
When the sun finally rose from the east—
The emperor crab monster's entire body had turned red!!
It had cooked itself from the inside out!
In physics, all movement requires work, and that generates heat.
At the same time, its muscles were constantly contracting and relaxing, which generated even more heat and consumed energy.
When it used up energy, it had to replenish it—
In other words, it had to eat.
By eating, it produced more heat, causing its body to swell again, forcing it to keep moving.
Because of this cycle, its body temperature never dropped!
In fact, it stayed in a constant state of overheating!
And also—
Friction generates heat too.
Not just with the ground—its joints and limbs were constantly grinding due to its nonstop motion!
That kind of internal friction was even more terrifying.
It raised its core temperature to a dangerous level!
Which is why...
It literally cooked itself.
Yet even in this extreme physical state—it didn't die.
In the shattered trees, among broken stones, in the places where dinosaurs screamed—
A red, blazing-fast figure darted back and forth!
Its temperature kept rising!
Its speed kept increasing!
Its strength kept growing!
Its life force boiled hotter and hotter!
And still—it never stopped.