Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 248 - Sprouting

Yang Yi stepped into the witch’s laboratory, not for anything in particular, just to check whether the windows were sealed properly.

“By the way, I brought all the supplies from the cabin with me. If you need anything, come get it from me. You can store some food and fresh water in your pouch too.”

He said this to Suna, still bent over the microscope.

She had prepared and gone through many slides, all spread across the desk.

“How strange. There isn’t even the tiniest trace of bone.”

Suna sounded bewildered.

There were too many strange things here, and not all of them had answers.

When the remains had spilled out from behind the door, they were still warm, almost as if the bodies had only recently died.

But based on the equipment information they retrieved, the people inside had clearly died long ago. Only the warmth remained.

Yang Yi didn’t want to pry too deeply into whatever lay beyond the door.

He knew he wasn’t strong enough to deal with anything that might be inside.

Those players were probably not from the same generation as them, but they must have been strong. Far stronger than the two of them now.

The equipment that spilled out proved this. They had weapons and armour well above top grade.

Yet even with gear like that, they were wiped out.

They might have freed several player islands, and this Island No. 0000000… was likely one of the islands they liberated.

Judging by the outcome, things didn’t end well for them. They were reduced to nothing but red pulp.

“The other side of the door is dangerous. You saw the fingers that reached out from inside. Whatever that thing was… it’s not something we can fight.”

Yang Yi said quietly, hoping to dissuade Suna from reconnecting to Island No. 00000000… and digging further.

“But someone survived.”

“A survivor?”

“Yes.”

Suna looked over at him and explained.

“When a player dies, the body retains a data imprint. Touching it allows us to receive information. But the bloodstained exchange coupon had no information attached and the bleeding was minimal. My guess is that he escaped with his life instead of dying.”

Yang Yi thought it was possible, though there were unknowns. Perhaps the survivor wasn’t alive at all anymore but had changed into something else.

Either way, he planned to avoid reconnecting to Island No. 0000000… anytime soon.

He even dismantled the teleport gate to the player island and stored it inside the charred worm ring.

There were secrets and treasure waiting there for sure, but it wasn’t wise to enter until they had the strength to face it.

For now, they needed to focus on the darkness.

He laid out his plan to Suna:

If the darkness kept spreading, it would reach the deck in about three days.

When that happened, they would have to move up to the lookout post and ask the old captain to sail, just to buy time.

The captain was a skeleton, immune to corruption, so he would be fine.

As for what came after, Yang Yi already had a risky idea.

…

Two days passed quickly.

The darkness below had already climbed past the first level cabin windows. In less than ten hours it would spill over the deck.

Whether it was the darkness or something else, Yang Yi thought the ghost flames on deck had grown dimmer.

He picked up the potted plant from the cabin, meaning to move it up to the lookout post.

It had sprouted. A purple sardine head had pushed out of the white soil, about as thick as a thumb and two centimetres long.

Its appearance made it difficult to think of it as a plant.

Its information was displayed as well.

It was called a Vitality Sardine Tree, combining traits of the Vitality Coconut and the Long Leg Sardine, and would need another 142 hours and 52 minutes to mature.

【Name: Vitality Sardine Tree Sapling】

【Description: A mutated plant cultivated in a special pot. Grows quickly. When mature, it can regularly produce Vitality Long Leg Sardines. They taste great, but remember to fertilise and water the tree or it may wither.】

The first time he saw the sardine head poking out of the soil, he froze for several seconds. Now he was used to it.

It looked like an animal, but it behaved like a sensitive plant. It moved when stimulated, like a mimosa.

Its mouth usually hung open, but if touched or threatened, it snapped shut.

It could eat fertiliser.

Yang Yi sprinkled some near its mouth before, and it swallowed it.

As for what lay beneath the soil, he never dug to check. He didn’t want to risk killing it.

If eating its sardines restored stamina, then this odd little tree would be extremely valuable.

Yang Yi placed it at the lookout post, out of reach of the creeping darkness.

Suna had seen the sapling too, but it was fragile enough that she gave up her idea of cutting off the fish head to examine it.

When it matured and became hardier, then she could experiment freely.

Yang Yi carried the bedding from the captain’s cabin to the lookout post, clearly planning to stay there for a while.

Compared to the deck, the lookout post was cramped at only three or four square meters, with a mast in the middle.

Lying down required curling up tightly.

Yang Yi expanded it by force. He pushed down the railing, used boards and nails to extend the platform, and let the vines wrap around to reinforce it.

Once the work was finished, Yang Yi jumped on the platform a few times to test its strength.

It held up well enough. As long as they didn’t move too violently, it wouldn't collapse.

Suna gathered her things and climbed up the mast.

The Nightmare Star had two of them. One held the lookout post at its peak, the other bore an execution rack. Both stood around thirty metres tall.

Because of that, the severed head of the Spider Queen hung not far from them, which was quite unsettling.

But Suna had brought it from her laboratory, so she was used to it. She looked down towards the deck.

The darkness rising from the sea had consumed most of the hull and lowered the ship’s integrity. There were only twenty centimetres left before it reached the deck.

They watched as the darkness crept higher and higher, until it finally swallowed the deck and spread into a layer of shifting black mist.

Only the masts and the space above remained untouched.

The supplies they ordered never arrived, so they were of no help.

Yang Yi took out the crystal orb to check the sea chart.

Everything depended on the orb’s map and the lookout post’s scanning skill. If they could locate an island or anything at all, they might have a chance.

If not, once the mist climbed further, Yang Yi had only one option left, set the Nightmare Star ablaze and hope the flames could push back the darkness, even at terrible risk.

Most of the ship’s structure was made from bone. If he controlled the temperature carefully, it shouldn’t burn down completely.

He had even prepared for that, filling his stomach pouch with seawater.

If they could create even a small safe zone, putting out the remaining fire wouldn’t be too hard.

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