Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 146 - The drifting fragrance
After trying it out, Yang Yi had more or less figured out the characteristics of the armour and was finally able to use it in combat.
He stored it back into his ring and tried the newly bought canned bread with Suna.
The original price was 200 Shell Coins per can, but thanks to his connections and persistent bargaining, Yang Yi managed to haggle it down to 180 Shell Coins per can and bought 500 cans in one go, spending a total of 90,000 Shell Coins.
He also bought 500 loaves of black bread, which cost 20,000 Shell Coins, bringing the total to 110,000 Shell Coins, enough to last them a good while.
Though it was a hefty expense, having some tasty food on board could significantly boost morale.
It wasn’t just about filling their stomachs.
If one could actually look forward to meal times, the quality of life would shoot up as well.
“You get what you pay for. Soft white bread tastes way better than that dry, hard black bread!”
With a refreshing coconut energy drink in hand, Yang Yi devoured two cans of bread in no time, still craving more. This was the kind of bread humans were meant to eat! That black bread? Totally inhumane!
Suna ate much slower than Yang Yi, but she clearly also preferred the canned bread.
Each can contained two small pieces of bread, with a long shelf life, making it a real delicacy out at sea.
After they finished eating, Yang Yi activated the lookout post to scan the surrounding area for any islands.
He wasn’t expecting much. After all, the last few scans had come up empty. But surprisingly, the scan yielded a result, though the location was a bit awkward.
It was in the lower right quadrant from the Nightmare Star, roughly 1,400 nautical miles away.
If he chose to go, it would take about two days for a round trip (not including the time spent exploring).
Moreover, the price of lumber had already dropped, selling at 4 Shell Coins per unit.
Yang Yi hesitated for a moment before deciding to record the coordinates and come back to explore it later — gathering intel on the Bountiful Sea region was more urgent.
He’d have to return afterwards anyway, so he could explore the island then.
Charging headfirst into the Bountiful Sea and trying to brute-force his way through hadn’t even crossed his mind.
The voyage continued.
That night, Yang Yi resumed his training while keeping an eye on the number of players still stuck in the Extreme Winter Sea.
Only a little over 30,000 players remained, and it had been a long time since anyone from the Extreme Winter Sea posted in the world chat.
Yang Yi suspected that the remaining players were probably all living ice statues, doomed to be swallowed by the creeping black fog, whose exact location was unknown, as the world map didn’t show it.
However, at their speed, it would probably catch up in a couple days.
He needed to reach the Bountiful Sea and gather intel before the Extreme Winter Sea event ended.
After two hours of training, Yang Yi’s stamina stat was nearing 30, so he stopped, wiped off his sweat with some cloth, and rinsed off with fresh water.
“Looks like I need to buy more fresh water,” Yang Yi muttered, checking his supply.
There was plenty if it was just for drinking, but training significantly increased consumption.
On top of that, Suna used water for experiments, and both of them needed it for bathing. The snow they'd stockpiled in the Extreme Winter Sea had melted down to just over 100 litres of water.
Luckily, fresh water wasn’t expensive.
The problem was space: the Nightmare Star’s cargo hold only had less than 200 units of storage left thanks to all the previously bought and scavenged goods, which wasn't enough to store much water unless he used barrels instead.
A single barrel, like the ones used for storing scorched liquor, could hold up to 200 litres of water.
Yang Yi checked the chat channel, planning to purchase more.
In theory, fresh water could be obtained by distilling seawater and condensing the vapor. With the right tools, made from crystal or metal, one could easily build a distillation setup, and players had already done so.
Materials like crystal could be used via the simple synthesis system to craft standard containers like bottles and beakers, but since crystal was expensive, most players preferred using wooden barrels, which could double as firewood afterwards.
One bonus of distilling seawater was the byproduct — sea salt.
However, it had a bitter taste, with flavor variations depending on the sea region. Eating too much could reduce one’s sanity and cause hallucinations, so almost no one bought it.
Suna had tried studying it before, but didn’t get far and never found out what caused the hallucinations.
Yang Yi quickly wrapped up a deal, spending 5,000 Shell Coins to buy litres of fresh water.
He had considered turning water production into a money-making venture. After all, his witch lab could provide him with condenser tubes, making distillation easy. However, evaporating seawater required a lot of fuel, and even in the 21st century, few countries used that method for freshwater — it simply wasn’t cost-effective.
The players who made a profit from selling fresh water likely had access to more efficient methods, such as expanding their ship with production modules.
Since Yang Yi’s ship didn’t have any such expansion, it made more sense to just buy water directly.
After dealing with all that, Yang Yi went to bed.
…
Another two peaceful days passed.
That night, as usual, Yang Yi was training when a sudden scent made him stop in his tracks.
It was a sweet, cloying aroma, one that easily stirred the appetite. Yang Yi had encountered this smell before on delicious mushrooms, fish, and seaweed.
Though faint, he couldn’t possibly mistake it, his sense of smell was far too sharp now.
He immediately made his way to the bow of the ship and brought it to a stop to investigate.
It was nighttime, with only a faint moonlight and a few wandering ghost flames on the deck providing illumination. Visibility was limited.
Even with his werewolf-enhanced night vision, Yang Yi couldn’t completely pierce through the darkness.
He switched to his third-eye vision and scanned the area ahead. About three nautical miles out, the surface of the sea showed a strange layering effect.
There appeared to be another liquid floating atop the seawater, and a large number of marine creatures, even large, aggressive fish, were rising to the surface and gathering there, greedily gulping down the mysterious liquid.
“Fat?” freёwebnoѵel.com
Yang Yi quickly connected it to the rich, white fat found in those delicious lifeforms.
That extra layer on the water was very likely this same kind of fat.
Standing on the deck, he weighed the pros and cons and decided to retreat a few nautical miles and wait until morning to explore.
In daylight, even without using his third eye, his field of vision would be much broader.
That way, he wouldn’t need to rely on the third eye the whole time.
He informed Suna of the situation and asked her to prepare for an exploration.
She was clearly intrigued and eager.
Yang Yi then steered the Nightmare Star to retreat and anchored it about ten nautical miles from the anomaly.
For whatever reason, perhaps due to some kind of limitation, the fatty liquid floating on the water showed no signs of spreading. So, anchoring at this distance shouldn’t pose much risk. Still, to be cautious, the two decided one of them would keep watch overnight.
As per usual, Yang Yi would take the second half of the night shift.
He drank a bottle of appetite-boosting potion, ate two cans of bread, two loaves of black bread, and a small amount of dried fish before heading to sleep, planning to wake up four hours later and relieve Suna.
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