Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 228 - Photo leak

Three more days passed.

During that time, Yang Yi figured out the old captain’s traits: his fishing skills were terrible, far worse than Yang Yi’s own, but he was incredibly punctual. That was probably a side effect of being undead.

Every day, the old captain would fish for exactly eight hours before setting down his rod and switching to steering the ship. He would then sail for a full sixteen hours before picking up his rod again.

So by simply managing his fishing schedule, Yang Yi could make sure the old captain fished during the day and steered at night, avoiding the dangers of nighttime fishing.

What was even better, the old captain didn’t need to physically steer. He didn’t have to touch the wheel or even move. He was like the mind of the ship itself, able to directly control the Nightmare Star’s course and steer it away from dense clusters of flesh along the way.

Yang Yi observed him several times and found that the old captain could avoid massive corpse whales from ten nautical miles away, though the mechanism was unclear. And he never changed the ship’s destination. He would always return to the original route after a detour.

He was the perfect helmsman: tireless, precise, and obedient. All Yang Yi had to do was let him fish a little each day.

Yang Yi handed over navigation duties to the old captain, only taking the helm himself, or letting Suna do it, when the situation became urgent.

The Nightmare Star sailed steadily, avoiding corpse whales and running into no real danger.

Only once did Yang Yi spot a large “Delicious Chunk”, and it was an adhesive type.

He steered the Nightmare Star closer to test the strength of the vines and the ancient skeletal arm.

They were about equal in power to the large flesh chunk, locking it in a stalemate. If someone had been directing the fight and using sea salt from the deck, the chunk wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Yang Yi killed the large Delicious Chunk and, before cracking its capsule, tested its trophy effect.

It could only increase the ship’s durability by 500 points. So he chose to open the capsule instead and received a bundle of Delicious Fertiliser, ten packs in total.

Including the two packs he already had, that made twelve. Once he left the Bountiful Sea, he could finally try growing some crops.

It could also become one of the few remaining ways to obtain “delicious” things, which he needed to eat regularly to stay alive.

…

That afternoon, Yang Yi received a private message from Song Yingwen. The new weekly issue was about to be released.

It contained information about the exit of the Bountiful Sea. Apparently, some players had already left the area, faster than Yang Yi had expected.

“There’s also a photo of you in it. For ethical reasons, I won’t tell you who sold it. Hahaha…” Song joked.

Yang Yi didn’t need to think long to know it was someone from the New World Fleet who had secretly taken the photo, but he didn’t care.

After four days, he had already lost a lot of weight.

In another two weeks, he was confident he’d look completely different from the person in that picture.

“The exit, huh…”

Yang Yi looked at the sea chart. The edge of the Bountiful Sea hadn’t yet appeared, which meant another player was far ahead of him, most likely the Gale.

He had wasted a lot of time chasing the Farmer, which gave the Gale a huge lead.

He could locate its position through his Scrying skill.

Activating it, Yang Yi saw the Gale’s coordinates and a brief image feed.

It had grown larger, its hull lined with faint green streams of wind, giving it a sleek, aerodynamic look.

It was anchored on a stretch of dark, stagnant sea, likely beyond the Bountiful Sea, where the water was black.

As for its captain, Xu Da, he was peering through a telescope, observing something in the distance.

There wasn’t much visual data, and the Gale wasn’t moving.

Yang Yi watched for a while, then turned back to the map and compared their coordinates.

Based on latitude, he was about twenty days’ sail behind.

Factoring in possible detours to avoid corpse whales, the gap could stretch to thirty days.

“The Gale’s that much faster after upgrading?”

Yang Yi hadn’t expected it to pull so far ahead. The Nightmare Star had once been leading by a wide margin.

He went below deck to check the food stores.

They would last about twenty days.

If not for the consecutive attacks that damaged the ship and contaminated part of their canned food, their supplies would have been enough to last until they left the Bountiful Sea.

“With the fish we catch, we should have just enough to get by. Worst case, I’ll skip a couple of meals. Might even help me lose some weight,” Yang Yi said to himself.

Food shortages had become a problem for every player.

The Nightmare Star was in a relatively good position since it had reliable ways to obtain food. Starvation wasn’t a major concern.

But for others, it was different.

In a sea overflowing with flesh and abundance, people were still at risk of starving to death.

If the New World Fleet hadn’t started selling food to stabilise prices, the number of players dying of hunger, or turning to “delicious” flesh as a last resort, would have skyrocketed.

The Farmer’s food storage held a large stockpile of uncontaminated supplies, which had indirectly saved many players struggling with shortages.

Yang Yi contacted Shen Guanquan and bought forty loaves of black bread at the steep price of 300 Shell Coins each, using them as emergency rations.

It cost him a total of 12,000 Shell Coins. In the Bountiful Sea, that price was practically charity.

Once he canned the black bread, it could be stored long-term without risk of spoilage.

“Sorry about the photo thing,” Shen Guanquan said apologetically.

“It got out of hand. But I found out who sold it. You’ll get an explanation, I promise.”

“Eh… it’s fine. Just a photo,” Yang Yi replied, unconcerned.

And with that, the player who had sold his picture managed to escape any consequences.

…

That night, the weekly issue was released. Yang Yi handed one copy to the ancient skeletal arm to deliver to Suna, then sat down to read his own.

[Shocking! The One-Eyed Captain’s Photo Leaked, and You Won’t Believe…]

Below the headline was a picture with a “DANGER” label covering part of it for dramatic effect, much like how they censored images of eldritch monsters.

When Yang Yi lifted the cover, he saw a photo of himself standing at the bow of the Nightmare Star, round as a ball.

There was also a close-up shot of him shaking hands and talking with Shen Guanquan, taken from an angle that made it obvious the photographer had been on the Hope.

The photos took up almost the entire page, no text, no explanation, just a title and images meant to let readers “feel” the story for themselves.

The chat channels were flooded with mocking comments:

“So the One-Eyed’s a fat guy!”

“No way! That can’t be him! My eyes!”

“Must be the effect of the Gluttony debuff. Once he slims down, he’ll look totally different.”

“……”

Yang Yi didn’t care about any of it. He turned the page and started reading the main article which had information about the exit of the Bountiful Sea.

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