Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 240 - Pity system

Yang Yi opened the large blind boxes one by one.

【You obtained Wood x666】

【You obtained Shell Coins】【You obtained Super Magic Elixir】【You obtained a -5000 Points Discount Voucher】【You opened an empty box. Inside it says: “Buy another one.”】【You obtained a -500 Points Discount Voucher】【You obtained a Crew Registration Card】【You obtained Cloth x1000】

Soon, only the final large blind box remained in his hands.

Based on the first nine boxes, Yang Yi had picked up one excellent item, a Crew Registration Card worth twenty thousand points, a box of rainbow gummies, and a handful of low value resources and discount coupons.

And… an empty box.

The system had actually slipped an empty box into a high tier blind box. It was designed to mess with people’s nerves.

Compared to the nearly ninety thousand points he had spent, even with the earlier rewards factored in, he was still losing badly.

But there was still a chance for a turnaround.

Yang Yi pinned all his hopes on this last guaranteed box, waiting to see what it would give him.

Surely it wouldn’t be two super tier blind box vouchers. Right?

Holding his breath, he opened it.

【Guarantee triggered. You obtained a Teleport Gate Voucher】

“A Teleport Gate Voucher?”

Yang Yi froze, completely puzzled.

Wasn’t this the item that could only be purchased after a player unlocked their island?

What use was it right now?

He couldn’t make sense of it until he checked the blind box description and spotted the line mentioning that unopened items could appear as rewards.

So, this voucher was a closed content item you weren’t supposed to have yet, but the box could still produce it.

“We haven’t even found a player island yet. What am I supposed to do with this thing? Total loss.”

He grumbled, ignoring the fact that the voucher’s listed price was one hundred thousand points.

Suna, however, seemed to notice something. She grabbed the voucher from his hand.

Then she pointed to the dark brown stains on the back.

“These look like blood.”

“Blood?”

Yang Yi held it up for a closer look and compared it to the clean version projected on the vending machine’s screen.

He was right.

The stains blended into the design, but the image shown on the machine didn’t have them. Which meant they were added later.

And if Suna recognised them as blood at a glance, she was probably right. These stains likely came from the voucher’s previous owner, or rather, the previous owner of this teleport gate.

“Give it to me. I’ll examine it later and see if I can extract anything from it.”

Yang Yi nodded and handed over the mysterious voucher.

With that, the blind box experiment came to an end.

He had technically profited, and he also figured out how the system’s blind boxes worked.

All the useful items were concentrated in the large boxes, so unless you were ready to hit the hundred thousand point guarantee, you shouldn’t touch blind boxes at all. Otherwise, you were courting disaster.

The discount coupons he had drawn earlier were most likely traps. He suspected they would become much rarer going forward.

Yang Yi was ready to test the theory with another ten micro blind boxes to see what their guarantee produced…

“By the way, I actually came up here because I needed to talk to you.”

Suna suddenly cut in, stopping him before he could continue.

She summarised the test results for him.

Just as she expected, the system had used some kind of force to disperse the black mist inside the safe zone.

The dark vapor produced when seawater evaporated was actually diluted black mist. In that diluted state, it was inert and harmless.

Only when the concentration rose high enough did it become dangerous.

“This black mist behaves like a colony of microorganisms. I tried increasing the temperature. They died off in an environment above two hundred degrees. But once it cooled, they revived again. And I managed to gather some information on them.”

She handed Yang Yi a sealed vial. Inside, a cluster of black mist writhed and shifted, constantly changing shape.

She also lit a small alcohol lamp filled with her brewed burnt wine and handed Yang Yi a pair of wooden tongs.

“It’s easier if you see it yourself,” she said.

Yang Yi glanced at her, nodded, and used the tongs to hold the vial over the flame.

The temperature inside the glass rose quickly. Nothing happened at first.

Then, when the heat crossed a certain threshold, the mist contorted violently, contracting into a sticky mass that clung to the top of the vial like mucus.

At the same time… Yang Yi heard a faint wailing.

Human voices, mixed with something else. Dozens of cries pressed together. Muddled, impossible to separate.

The sound was so quiet that if the room hadn’t been dead silent, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

【A chilling wail echoes. Your sanity decreases by 3.】

Yang Yi frowned but didn’t stop. He adjusted the vial, trying to heat the contents evenly.

Finally, the black mist ceased moving. It collapsed into a fine black powder at the bottom of the vial, like black flour.

At the same time, he received information about it.

【Name: Clustered Darkness】

【Description: Darkness that thrives in the absence of light. It will vanish when exposed to light. To navigate the Sea of No Light, you must know how to deal with darkness. Otherwise, the spreading darkness can drag your ship, and everything aboard, into the void.】

“Wriggling darkness…”

Yang Yi now understood what it was.

He moved the glass vial away, and after only a short while, the cluster of darkness stirred back to life, seemingly immortal.

“I’ve tried higher temperatures, but they don’t seem to die. If it gets any hotter, the glass will melt, so I didn’t dare continue,” Suna added.

“It can definitely be burned to death.”

Yang Yi felt an inexplicable confidence. He was certain the darkness could be destroyed with heat.

“As long as the temperature is high enough,” he insisted.

Using fire against the darkness could work, he reasoned, but those who play with fire risk burning themselves.

Then again…

“What counts as light, anyway? Fire, ghost lights, lamps, none of that works?”

“They don’t. I tested it in the lab,” Suna replied.

Yang Yi left the captain’s room and went to the edge of the deck, using the faint glow from ghost flames to inspect the ship.

He noticed that the cluster of darkness was slowly climbing along the hull, moving just a few millimetres, barely noticeable unless you looked closely.

“The less darkness there is, the more active it becomes. It’s better to keep them in this state,” Suna followed him and said.

Yang Yi thought it over and realised she was right.

Stray darkness seemed restless, darting in all directions. Unlike the black mist on the sea, which spread slowly, this detached darkness moved with energy.

Still, preparations were necessary.

Since they couldn’t find any light capable of countering the darkness, Yang Yi planned to fight it with fire.

He intended to set up several bonfires on the ship to create a high-temperature barrier to block the darkness. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The vines on the ship would need to be rearranged, and water would have to be on hand to prevent accidental fires.

Though this carried the risk of igniting the Nightmare Star itself, it was the only method Yang Yi and Suna had discovered to deal with the darkness.

It could only be used in an emergency.

Hopefully, they could find a better way to counter the darkness before then, something that truly produced light.

Additionally, the crow’s nest could be put to use.

If the black mist maintained a steady, slow spread, the lookout atop the mast could serve as a decent refuge.

Thank you for reading! We hope you’re enjoying the story at iNoveltranslation.com :)

There’s now a Patreon, so feel free to check it out! You can read up to 12 chapters in advance!! :D

Please give the novel a rating and a review on novelbuddy. It will help the website and also help people find this novel!