Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 247 - Preparations

The atrium of the Nightmare Star was piled with the crushed remnants of player corpses, and the stench was awful.

Yang Yi put on his iron beak mask and directed the ancient skeletal arms to carefully scoop up the remains.

After he found that large force shield earlier, he realised there might be more items buried in the mess.

He searched around and, sure enough, dug out two more objects.

Both were badly damaged, to the point that even their original names no longer showed.

One was a dagger. It had probably been a longsword, but the blade had snapped, leaving it shorter than the hilt. It was made of metal, sticky to the touch, and seemed to have absorbed blood.

【Name: Bloodstained Hilt Dagger】

【Type: Relic】

【Quality: Rare】

【Description: The hilt of a weapon whose blade has broken, leaving only three inches. It can barely function as a dagger. After soaking in thick, blood coloured remains for a long time, the blade and hilt have been stained red.

It is reasonably sharp, but due to heavy damage, it cannot be upgraded with a Craftsman Inscription Stone until repaired. 】

Yang Yi tested it. It worked fine and had no side effects, aside from being a bit sticky.

He could use it as a substitute for throwing knives.

The other item was a mechanical glove, already rusty.

【Name: Bloodstained Rusted Work Glove】

【Type: Relic】

【Quality: Fine】

【Description: A piece of tech used for handling heavy materials. Only one remains. After soaking in thick, blood colored remains for a long time, it has rusted through, and the metallic smell can no longer be removed. Wearing it grants +2 Strength. Right hand only.】

Yang Yi tried it on as well. The fingers produced a harsh grinding sound when he moved them, and the joints were stiff, likely due to the rust. It was only suitable for gripping heavy weapons.

But the quality was poor, and there was only one, so it was nearly useless to him.

Even without transforming, his Strength sat at ten, based on a natural eight plus one at night and another from the Gluttonous perk.

When he transformed, he gained several more bonuses, so the glove’s Strength boost might as well not exist. Its quality was too low to break past the mortal limit of ten.

“I’ll just sell it at the next trade. Items with stat bonuses always move fast.”

He stowed the two items away and prepared to direct the ancient skeletal arms to clean up the corpse remnants.

But just then, he received an alert that the Nightmare Star was under attack. Durability had dropped by more than sixty points and was still falling.

He immediately opened the ship interface to check the damaged section. It was located on the outer hull.

“This is…”

He realised the issue at once and rushed to the deck’s edge, looking downwards.

At some point, the darkness had climbed much higher and was still creeping upwards. Its movement was slow but visible to the naked eye.

When it touched the vines wrapped around the hull, it began to eat through them and caused damage.

Yang Yi had deliberately set vines at one-third and two-thirds up the side of the hull so they would trigger entries in the activity log if anything happened.

Like now.

The vines were part of the Nightmare Star. Heavy damage to them would lower the ship’s durability.

They didn’t carry the same weight as the skeletal structure, but they were flexible and could move inside the hull. They were useful for sealing breaches or binding intruders.

The vines outside the hull served as his warning line, meant to alert him if the darkness suddenly accelerated or if a crisis developed without warning.

He checked the hull exterior again.

The darkness clinging to it was crawling upward like a living thing, thick and unsettling. It had suddenly sped up.

Something must have provoked it or drawn it there, perhaps the large amount of fresh corpse remnants on the deck.

“I need to get rid of these remains fast.”

Yang Yi had originally planned to sweep the corpse remnants into the sea, but that clearly wasn’t an option anymore. It could speed up the darkness even more.

Unless he sealed them in a container and threw them far away.

Or…

Yang Yi summoned a few vines.

“Can you absorb all this residue?” he asked.

The vines nodded, then surged up across the atrium deck, plunging into the corpse remnants like straws and quickly sucking them up.

In just two minutes, every trace of the residue on the deck was gone.

With the residue gone, the spread of the darkness slowed.

At the same time, the Nightmare Star’s durability returned to full.

It seemed the vines could restore the ship’s durability as they absorbed material.

By now, Yang Yi had a clear understanding of the Nightmare Star’s vines, also called the Ferocious Green.

They would actively attack hostile creatures on the ship but ignored caught fish unless they were dangerous.

They also wouldn’t touch dead bodies or food unless given a command.

Yang Yi updated Suna on the deck situation.

“The darkness is drawn to large amounts of corpse residue. The spread has already passed a third of the ship. Seal off a layer of cannon ports and windows so it can’t infiltrate. You handle the lab; I’ll take care of the rest.”

After sending the message, he went to the first level of the ship’s cabin.

Unlike earlier, he no longer had to manually seal the windows and cannon ports since the vines could handle it.

His job was just to inspect and ensure the seal was airtight.

Even after the darkness corroded the vines, they would only age and harden, losing vitality, but still blocking passages.

At least for the short term, there was no risk of leakage.

What would happen afterwards didn’t matter. By then, the darkness would already be crawling onto the deck. Who would care about the cabin?

Yang Yi checked the cabin’s inventory: 276 litres of pale worm grease, 297 litres of brandy, 22 loaves of black bread, 27 pounds of dried fish, 21 vitality coconuts, and over a pound of salt.

He ignored the rest of the basic supplies as they were stored in the cabin anyway. Freshwater remaining: 325 litres.

He put all the food into the Charred Worm Ring, including the worm grease.

The worms in the ring’s stomach would try to eat it, but he tested it and lost only a tiny amount.

The brandy wouldn’t be drunk by the stomach, so he could safely store it there.

He packed everything into the Charred Worm Ring and the stomach bag.

He did this as preparation. If forced to the lookout on the mast, the cabin would be a forbidden zone, and fetching supplies would be too dangerous.

He also took out the 325 litres of freshwater, preparing to defend the lookout post.

…

On Suna’s side

After receiving Yang Yi’s notice, she also made preparations, sealing specimens in glass containers, and storing important ones in the treasure pouch.

Windows were sealed with appropriately sized glass panes.

Once done, she focused on testing the corpse residue.

Through the microscope, Suna again saw the “0”-shaped structures, formed by stacked fragments of broken cells and other materials.

This wasn’t unusual, as she had seen it before. But two things puzzled her.

First, she didn’t see a single complete cell only shattered fragments.

Second, she didn’t see any bone remnants, not a trace.

That was odd.

Even if ground and pulverised, there should still be bone fragments.

Could it be that the flesh had somehow dissolved and fallen away on its own?

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