Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 246 - Residue
【Connecting…】
These words appeared on the portal’s display, and the device began to activate.
“It can actually connect?”
Suna’s crimson pupils lit with excitement.
Once the portal started running, the black geometric lines on the frame began to glow a faint blue. Something like liquid light seemed to flow within them.
Yang Yi stood ready.
A sense of danger which felt strangely familiar rose in him without warning.
“Have I… seen this in a dream? And just can’t remember it?”
His thoughts scattered. His heartbeat sped up and his breathing grew unsteady.
Then the situation changed. The faint blue lines on the frame flickered several times and went dark, like a broken light bulb.
“Did it break?” Suna murmured. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
That would be any normal player’s first thought, but Yang Yi was different.
As he felt like he was facing a deadly threat and the unease reached its peak, the frame lit up again. This time the lines were red. Something like blood surged inside them.
He really could smell it.
Yang Yi had sharp senses. He sensed the danger right away and moved to interrupt the connection.
【Warning: Connection cannot be interrupted before completion. Please avoid repeated inputs.】
【Warning: Connection cannot be interrupted before completion. Please avoid repeated inputs.】
【Warning: Connection cannot be interrupted before completion. Please avoid repeated inputs.】
【…】
【Connection established.】
The red lines crawled off the frame like living veins, spreading inwards and forming a “door” of their own. The connection to Player Island number 000000000 was complete.
A choking wave of blood stench poured from within.
Yang Yi had just pressed the interrupt button when the red membrane making up the portal swelled and ruptured.
It felt as if whatever was on the other side was too large, too tightly packed, and burst through the fragile doorway.
A flood of bright red paste gushed out, splashing across Yang Yi’s face and rising past his knees.
The moment he touched it, Yang Yi understood what it really was.
“Damn it!”
He swore and nearly reached for the giant sword of severed iron to hack the door apart, but held back.
He had already pressed the interrupt button, and the display now showed the disconnect sequence, yet the portal continued to run.
【Disconnecting. Do not attempt to enter the portal. Countdown: 5, 4…】
The five seconds dragged on endlessly. What made it worse was the stream of names in the activity log. They made his scalp prickle.
【A lump of red paste (Dong Ding)】
【A lump of red paste (Benjamin Grand)】
【A lump of red paste (Joseph Mach)】
【A lump of red paste (Gongsun Qi)】
【A lump of red paste (Kamijima Goro)】
【A lump of red paste (Zhang Yufeng)】
【……】
When a player died, the system kept their information.
Touching a corpse revealed their identity because the text always appeared in a greyish colour, different from the info of creatures or natives. Even players who turned into monsters retained their player identity.
And now, Yang Yi’s activity log was filling with names. The list was so long it flooded the screen.
It meant all those players had died, turned into red paste, and been mixed together. That was why there was so much information.
“Hurry up!”
Yang Yi barked as he kept his flintlock aimed at the portal.
Without warning, dozens of dark red fingers pushed through from the other side. Yang Yi immediately pulled the trigger, using the gun’s most powerful Roar mode.
The barrel shattered on the spot. A growing projectile shot into the portal and forced whatever was emerging back inside.
And at that moment, the five-second countdown finally ended.
The red glow on the portal faded completely, cutting off the link to that unknown player island.
The atrium of the Night Terror was left in a wreck. Sticky red paste covered the floor, reaching up to the ankles in the deepest spots.
The blast sent Yang Yi flying far across the floor, carving two deep grooves behind him that were soon flooded by the thick red paste.
He wiped his face, clearing away the sticky mess, but the shock lingered.
His sanity had dropped by nearly twenty points. He hadn’t even lost that much when he faced the forest wraiths, yet this time the decrease was so severe. Though it might have been partly due to his nerves being stretched thin.
Suna was stunned by what she had just witnessed.
She was standing farther away, but some of the red sludge had still splashed onto her. She also saw the long list of player identities.
“Suna, did you touch any of this red stuff? It seems… like the remains of players.”
Yang Yi finally pulled his attention away from the portal and looked towards Suna. He saw that her boots were covered in the sticky sludge and that she was crouching to examine it more closely.
“It looks like a mixture of blood, brain tissue, skin, and bits of organs, all crushed and ground together before being stirred into a paste,” she said while rubbing the substance between her fingers.
Yang Yi checked his status panel. Nothing seemed wrong. His HP was full. The substance didn’t seem harmful to the body. It was simply revolting since the heavy stench of blood drowned out everything else.
Suna took out a vial, gathered a sample, and tucked it into her treasure pouch.
Yang Yi walked over, pulled her up, and prepared to leave the atrium while directing the ancient skeletal arms to start cleaning the area.
“Wait!”
She stopped him and crouched again, picking something up from under her foot.
【Name: Bloodstained Field Deflection Shield】
【Type: Relic】
【Quality: Supreme】
【Description: A piece of advanced tech. When activated, it deploys a large deflective force shield that alters the trajectory of incoming energy and matter, allowing it to block attacks. The user feels almost no impact. However, due to being soaked in congealed biological residue for a long time, the internal circuits have multiple shorts. Do not use for more than 30 seconds at a time or it may explode.】
“A supreme shield. Looks like it leaked out of the portal.”
Suna sent the info to Yang Yi.
The item was shaped like a bracelet, with a white diamond-shaped gem in the centre that had absorbed streaks of red.
Yang Yi tried it on. A force shield over a meter tall appeared on his arm. It was faint red and seemed weightless.
“If this is the damaged version and it’s still supreme tier… before it broke it might have been hero level, maybe even master level.”
He glanced at the portal behind him, then handed the shield to Suna. It suited her better as it required no attributes and provided strong defense.
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