“Mr.
Chris…
you…
what on earth are you doing?”
Old Larry and Mr.
Qiu were still racking their brains over Titan’s bizarre growth data, hoping the foreign expert might have some zoological insight.
Instead, they turned around to find that Chris Liwei had somehow stripped down to a swimsuit and looked like he was about to jump directly into the lake.
“Don’t worry,” Chris Liwei smiled calmly.
“These animals have never bitten me.
I know exactly what I should and shouldn’t do in the water.”
Titan floated near the center of the pool, watching the strange human slowly wade in.
The man moved with incredible precision, his body gliding through the water without causing a single disruptive ripple.
Rather than aggressively approaching the crocodile, Chris Liwei simply waded into Titan’s direct path and waited quietly.
If I just turn around and swim away, won’t you look incredibly stupid?
Feeling a bit playful, Titan casually changed direction to test the man’s reaction.
To his mild disappointment, Chris Liwei didn’t show a single change in expression or posture.
He just stood patiently in the water, waiting.
Well, this is boring.
Titan quickly lost interest in teasing the strange human.
He turned around and swam back to see exactly what the man was trying to accomplish.
“Don’t be afraid, little guy,” Chris Liwei murmured softly.
As Titan drifted past him, the expert leaned forward without a hint of hesitation.
He gently slid his bare hands underneath Titan’s scaly belly, applying a subtle, rhythmic pressure that raised and lowered perfectly with the water level.
He didn’t actively interfere with Titan’s swimming, but the expert handling naturally caused the crocodile to drift to a halt right in front of him.
The two men watching from the shore immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
“I apologize for the scare,” Chris Liwei called out without looking back.
“I just personally prefer to inspect every crocodilian this way.”
Old Larry and Mr.
Qiu had practically stopped breathing.
They silently cursed the foreigner for being so incredibly reckless.
Titan honestly didn’t think this Chris Liwei guy was all that powerful.
If the baby crocodile actually wanted to take a bite out of him, wouldn’t the man just be offering himself up as a free, unarmored meal?
Suddenly, a bare hand gently stroked the underside of Titan’s jaw.
The pressure was incredibly soft, perfectly mimicking the natural flow of the water itself.
Aside from a slightly strange sensation, the touch was almost imperceptible.
“His skull structure…
it gives me a very strange feeling,” Chris Liwei muttered, seemingly talking to himself or perhaps probing for an answer.
Old Larry snapped out of his terrified daze.
Not daring to shout and startle the crocodile, he replied in a soft, shaky voice.
“Yes, that might be because he was shot.
I picked him up from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
They said he was accidentally struck by a poacher’s bullet.”
Titan and Chris Liwei locked eyes.
Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate.
The expert was wearing dark polarized sunglasses in the water, so Titan couldn’t actually see his eyes.
“A shooting?
A gunshot wound?” Chris Liwei asked, clearly intrigued.
“Yes,” Old Larry confirmed.
“There was definitely a faint scar when I first brought him home, but I don’t know when it completely disappeared.
If I remember correctly, it was located right on his forehead.”
It was the most sincere, awestruck praise Chris Liwei had offered all year.
He had seen cases of mature crocodiles surviving small-caliber bullets before, but this specimen was supposedly barely a year old.
The revelation of the gunshot wound gave the expert a highly dangerous idea.
“I want to test his nervous system,” Chris Liwei announced calmly.
“This might be a little dangerous.”
“Get out of the water right now!” Old Larry hissed in panic.
“Don’t worry.
Nothing will happen.”
Titan’s right eye never left the strange human.
Chris Liwei gently lifted his right hand out of the water.
He kept four fingers perfectly parallel, with only his middle finger pointing downward.
He slowly waded to Titan’s left side.
Titan wasn’t distracted by the conversation.
His left eye remained fixated on the man’s extended left hand, while his right eye remained locked securely on the man’s exposed neck.
Drip.
Chris Liwei gently tapped the surface of the water with his left middle finger.
The tiny, microscopic ripple hit the sensory pits along Titan’s jawline.
Instantly, the crocodile’s pupils contracted into razor-thin slits.
Time seemed to slow down to an absolute crawl.
Titan’s entire conscious attention was violently dragged toward that middle finger, or rather, the exact frequency of the ripples it created.
In that split second, the human soul inside the reptile completely blanked out.
Ancient, uncontrollable predatory instincts hijacked his brain.
He threw his jaws open wide and violently snapped toward the source of the vibration!
His breathing completely hitched.
As his human consciousness violently snapped back into control, he realized exactly what he was doing and desperately threw the brakes on his own body.
If his reaction had been even a millisecond slower, his jaws would have slammed shut, completely severing the expert’s hand.
Even a Tyrannosaurus Rex couldn’t have stopped that biological reflex in time.
Snap!
The deafening, concussive crack of the jaws slamming shut sent a massive wave surging across the small lake.
Chris Liwei was undeniably skilled.
He had already cleanly withdrawn his hand the absolute second Titan’s conscious mind had regained control of his body.
Although the man’s rapid movement disturbed the water surface, it didn’t trigger another uncontrollable biological attack.
How did you do that?
Titan was completely bewildered.
The two terrified men on the shore were equally unable to comprehend what had just happened.
And Chris Liwei?
He was standing in the water, absolutely reveling in the echoing crack of Titan’s jaws.
“My God, did you hear that?!” Chris Liwei gasped in sheer delight.
“I have never heard such a terrifyingly powerful bite force in a juvenile before!”
“You…
you need to come up here right now,” Old Larry ordered, his voice trembling.
Titan still hadn’t fully recovered from his terrifying loss of control.
While relying on animal instinct was occasionally a useful cheat code, being completely hijacked by it was a deeply unpleasant, horrifying experience.
Drip, drop.
Chris Liwei finally waded ashore.
Water dripped heavily from his swimsuit, creating tiny splashes that once again attracted Titan’s attention, though the urge to bite wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as before.
It was all incredibly strange.
“That was an absolutely perfect ambush reflex!” Chris Liwei praised, dripping wet on the grass.
“You nearly scared us to death,” Mr.
Qiu sighed heavily.
Both men on the shore breathed a massive sigh of relief when the foreigner was finally safe.
The display had clearly inspired Mr.
Qiu.
As for Old Larry, he looked like he had officially reached his limit for terrifying surprises.
“Director Larry, in my humble professional opinion, aside from being just a little bit slow to react, your Saltwater Crocodile shows no other neurological abnormalities.”
Titan glared from the water.
Excuse me?
Slow to react?!
If I hadn’t actively fought my own instincts to stop myself, I wouldn’t have cared where your hand was.
I would have just bitten a massive hole straight through your torso!
“Director Larry, I still feel there is something fundamentally strange about your crocodile,” Mr.
Qiu mused.
“Maybe it is just because it is a bit thin.
Could it be a hybrid species?
Have you ever had a proper DNA blood test done?”
Titan, who was still fuming over being called slow, suddenly felt a wave of cold panic.
He quietly sank deeper underwater, remaining perfectly motionless until a few tiny bubbles broke the surface.
“Yes, he is absolutely a Saltwater Crocodile, and a purebred one at that,” Old Larry confirmed.
“The Department of Fish and Wildlife assured me his lineage was as pure as it gets.”
Mr.
Qiu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He had sensed something was off while Titan was on the lawn, but now that the crocodile was submerged, the physical differences were even more apparent.
“Hiss…
I feel like that poacher’s bullet might not have hit his forehead.
It looks more like someone hit him directly in the mouth with a heavy snow shovel.”
“Well, whoever swung that shovel must have had incredibly terrible aim,” Old Larry joked.
Old Larry was highly amused by the observation.
It was a funny way to describe the crocodile’s unusually broad, blunt snout, a key feature of a Deinosuchus that set it apart from a standard Saltwater Crocodile’s V-shaped jaw.
The tension on the shore finally dissolved into light laughter and professional chatter.
Mr.
Qiu and Chris Liwei seemed to have concluded their initial assessment.
Feeling embarrassed to leave his distinguished guests standing around the enclosure, Old Larry invited them to his office for some proper hospitality.
Titan listened attentively to the entire exchange.
He only slowly surfaced when the three men were playfully pushing each other toward the main corridor.
“Director Larry, this is my personal business card.
I have a very specific project here that I believe you will be highly interested in.”
Taking full advantage of the brief moment when Mr.
Qiu stepped out of the enclosure first, Chris Liwei leaned in and whispered directly into Old Larry’s ear.
He discreetly slipped a sleek business card into the old man’s shirt pocket.
Old Larry instantly felt something was off.
He paused, turned around, and exchanged a deep, knowing glance with Titan still floating in the lake.
He then quietly followed Chris Liwei out the door.
Clang!
The heavy iron gate swung shut.
The enclosure was empty, leaving only Titan and the eagle-owl behind.
Titan and the eagle-owl exchanged a silent, knowing glance of their own.
She had no idea what the crocodile was planning, but they both simultaneously spread their respective limbs and stepped confidently onto the lawn.