Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 233 - First Meeting

Yang Yi often moved the Nightmare Star around, changing his fishing spots and drifting through the End Zone.

He happened to bump into the Fisherman right after it teleported in.

Ignoring the strange bits of equipment bolted to it, it was basically just a regular fishing vessel, small, about twenty-eight metres long. Its only weapon was a large harpoon cannon mounted at the bow, as thick as a man’s arm and clearly powerful.

The two ships slowly drew closer.

The Nightmare Star dwarfed the Fisherman. Its deck stood much higher, and its hull, made of bones wrapped in living vines, gave off an unsettling, almost oppressive presence.

He Qi was no exception to that reaction.

He stared at the dark silhouette approaching and swallowed hard.

“Why the hell is there a skeleton monster on your bow… and why is it fishing?”

Yang Yi stood at the front of his ship, waving awkwardly, a stiff grin on his face.

They’d known each other for a long time, but it was their first real meeting. Both were a little tense, wary despite their friendship.

That tension didn’t last long.

After a few rounds of food and drink, it melted away easily.

…

The Fisherman was nothing like the Nightmare Star. It didn’t have a wide open courtyard. Instead, there was a covered pavilion at its centre, perfect for fishing even in bad weather.

Behind it was the cabin, lived-in and connected directly to the hold, with all the marks of a proper captain’s quarters.

A huge fishing net hung from the eaves, swaying slightly in the breeze.

At the moment, Yang Yi and He Qi sat cross-legged inside the pavilion, a small table between them covered with a few side dishes.

They were drinking and talking freely.

“You look nothing like your magazine photo. That was a completely different person!” He Qi laughed.

Yang Yi’s picture had once appeared in a player weekly, and most people remembered him as being round and heavy. “Pig-like”, some said.

Now, though, he was nearly 1.9 metres tall, broad-shouldered, and built like a tank. His body radiated strength and pressure.

His face and skin were covered with scars, cuts, punctures, and tears healed unevenly, leaving pale, mismatched patches of new flesh that made the damage stand out even more.

“That was from eating too much,” Yang Yi said casually.

“Didn’t have time to lose weight back then.”

He looked He Qi up and down.

His friend was of average build, about 1.73 metres tall, with a handsome face except for a scar running across it, as if a centipede were crawling on his skin.

The wound had clearly torn through the flesh, leaving a slight misalignment. His tanned skin and defined muscles showed the years he’d spent under the sun; he didn't look bulky, but there was real power in his frame.

The two clinked their cups and drank.

“Cough! Damn! What is this? It burns like hell!”

He Qi nearly choked, face reddening. He’d never had scorched liquor before and felt like his throat was on fire. His skin started to flush and heat up too.

“Hah, you won’t find this stuff anywhere else,” Yang Yi said, grinning.

“My own brew, great for keeping warm.”

He drank it like it was water.

But he was genuinely curious about something else: where He Qi had got the seafood?

Paired with Yang Yi’s homemade soy and vinegar sauce, it was incredible.

On the table lay a beautifully plated dish of yellowtail sashimi, alongside thinly sliced blanched abalone and tender octopus tentacles, perfect drinking food.

“Where did you get all this seafood?” Yang Yi asked, unable to help himself.

“Caught it, of course,” He Qi said lightly.

“Huh?”

Then Yang Yi remembered the Fisherman’s special skill.

It could catch normal fish in any sea, no matter how corrupted or twisted the waters were. The exact opposite of the Nightmare Star’s ability.

A simple but powerful gift.

The two talked on for a while, easy and cheerful, the sound of the waves filling the pauses between laughter.

Unlike Yang Yi, who often went ashore to explore, He Qi spent nearly all his time fishing.

Suddenly, there was a faint noise from inside the Fisherman’s cabin.

It was small, but Yang Yi noticed it immediately.

He had already caught a faint trace of something familiar since he boarded, a salty, fishy scent that didn’t come from the sea.

“You’ve got someone else on board?” Yang Yi asked casually.

“You could say that.”

He Qi turned towards the cabin.

“Come on out. He’s already noticed you.”

A small head peeked timidly from behind the doorframe. The girl looked frightened.

When she saw Yang Yi watching her, she grew even more scared and ducked back inside. The movement was so sudden that she knocked something over, producing a loud clatter.

“Sorry about that,” He Qi said, sounding helpless.

“She’s shy around strangers.”

Yang Yi didn’t mind, but his expression grew serious.

He had recognised what she was.

A siren. And a beautiful one at that. When she peeked out, he had clearly seen the gills behind her ears.

He’d seen similar specimens in Suna’s lab, plenty of them, but this one was different. Her skin wasn’t covered in that transparent, bioluminescent slime typical of sirens.

It looked… almost human.

“That’s a siren?” he asked.

He Qi’s eyes widened slightly, surprised that Yang Yi could identify her so easily. Then his face relaxed, and he nodded.

“Kiki’s different,” he said.

“She’s a half-blood, part siren, part human. She’s part of my crew.”

“A demon-type creature can be a crew member?” Yang Yi asked, genuinely surprised.

“Of course. You just need the right item.”

He Qi shared an item description with him:

【Name: Crew Registration Card】

【Type: Consumable】【Rarity: Special】【Description: With the subject’s consent, registers a local native as a crew member. The captain can assign positions and permissions, assisted by the system. Requires the subject to possess a minimum level of intelligence.】

“A special-grade item…” Yang Yi murmured, surprised.

The last time he’d seen something like that was when he got the Ship Fusion Card.

He looked at He Qi.

“Don’t tell me you got that from a golden capsule too?”

“How did you know? Wait, you have one too?” He Qi asked in shock.

“Something similar.”

Yang Yi searched through his system logs, finally finding the entry, and shared the information on his Fusion Card.

“My ship’s actually a fusion type,” he explained.

“There’s someone else aboard too…”

Then, after a brief pause, he added, “But are you sure you want to keep a demon creature?”

He Qi stiffened, his eyes narrowing. His whole body went tense.

Three seconds later, he exhaled and slumped slightly, shoulders loosening.

“You got me,” he admitted quietly.

“Kiki’s a siren, yeah, but she’s different. She doesn’t eat people.”

Yang Yi didn’t press further. He nodded once and let it go.

The two continued eating for another hour. When He Qi invited him to stay and fish, Yang Yi politely declined.

The height difference between their decks was around three or four metres, but Yang Yi simply leapt back onto the Nightmare Star in one effortless motion, leaving He Qi staring, glasses slipping down his nose.

Back aboard, Yang Yi went straight to the witch’s lab to find Suna.

“I brought back some seafood,” he said, setting down the food he’d wrapped up.

“It’s good, you should try it.”

Then, with a tone that seemed casual but wasn’t, he asked, “Tell me, is it possible for a siren… not to eat humans?”

“Not eat humans?”

Suna looked up from her work.

“You saw a siren again?”

“Something like that.”

He told her what he’d seen aboard the Fisherman.

Suna was silent for a moment, then said firmly, “Impossible. A siren’s biology makes it mandatory, they have to consume human flesh. If they don’t, their bodies start to collapse.”

“High-tier sirens are somewhat different, but one that doesn’t eat people at all? I’d say that’s impossible.”

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