Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 252 - Cross-shaped Island

After the shadow was wiped out, Yang Yi did not head back right away.

He planned to toss the drowned sailors, and the skeleton remains left scattered across the deck into the capsule machine.

There were seven bodies in total, three drown victims and four skeleton creatures.

He had the Ancient Bone Arm handle the work for him. It gathered every corpse and fragment, and once everything was piled together, he was ready to try his luck with capsules.

This time, though, he chose not to burn a path. Instead, he tested the Penitent’s Armour as a way to touch the darkness.

A cold sensation crept up from the sole of his right foot. It was not regular cold, but something that felt like it could reach straight into the heart.

He checked his condition and activity log. Nothing unusual appeared.

That meant the armour could block the darkness too.

The only problem was how quickly the darkness spread across the suit. It took just ten seconds to cover his ankle.

Another two or three minutes, and it would likely reach his thigh.

Yang Yi pulled his foot back and set it into the bonfire.

The darkness clinging to him crumbled like dust and scattered away.

"Two minutes. That should be enough."

He sprinted to the capsule machine, shoved all seven mutated remains into its maw, and received seven capsules in return.

He didn’t have time to look them over. He swept them into his ring and hurried back.

After burning away the darkness that had crawled up to his knee, he climbed the watchtower to inspect the loot.

He had four real items, two from the drowned, two from the skeletons. The rest were empty capsules that produced only basic resources: two hundred wood and one hundred cloth.

The items were as follows: a bottle of rum, a sailor’s uniform, and two packets of powder.

【Name: Sea-Brewed Rum】

【Type: Consumable】

【Grade: Fine】

【Description: Rum submerged in the ocean for many long years, infused with a strange flavour of the sea. Excessive drinking causes drunkenness: Sanity -20, Perception +2. You may see things others cannot see and hear things others cannot hear. It might not be hallucination.】

【Name: Ragged Sailor’s Uniform】

【Type: Relic】

【Grade: Good】

【Description: A worn-out sailor uniform stripped from a drowned corpse. Loose fitting and reeking of sea rot. Reduces hostility from sea creatures while swimming. Even a beggar wouldn’t want it.】

【Name: Strengthening Bone Powder x2 】

【Type: Consumable】

【Grade: Fine】

【Description: A physical enhancer that boosts constitution growth by 0-100%. The weaker the body, the greater the gain. Duration lasts forty eight hours.

Must be taken with plenty of fresh water to reduce the chance of stones forming.】

Yang Yi passed the two packets of bone powder and the bottle of rum to Suna.

The powder could increase constitution growth, and since weaker users benefited more, Suna was the best target for it.

As for the rum, he had no idea what it might be good for, so he handed it to her for experimentation.

The ragged sailor’s uniform went into the Charring Worm Ring.

Used together with the sharkskin swimsuit, it might be valuable for sea travel later.

By the time he finished sorting everything, midnight had already passed.

The shadows had not caused much trouble in the end, but they served as a warning.

Making noise at sea could attract unknown things.

Many players had died after entering the Lightless Sea. They must have encountered dangers beyond this. These shadows might be one of them, but certainly not the only one.

Soon it was past two. The bonfire below had burned out.

Much of the surrounding black mist had baked into lifeless ash, spread thin like soot over the deck.

But when the flames died, the ash revived. It began crawling upward along the mast and returned quickly to its former height.

It kept climbing as if memory were embedded in it, returning to the height it had reached before.

Yang Yi watched, puzzled. He could not explain what caused it.

Was it easier for the darkness to climb once it had done so before?

He had holy water now, though not enough. If he had more, he could try washing the ship to reset the spread entirely.

He would wait for the next shipment then. There was no immediate threat anyway.

He tore off a piece of black bread while keeping an eye on the watchtower skill timer as it ticked down.

The moment it refreshed, he activated it.

This time, the screen was not blank.

An island appeared on the chart with clear shape and position.

It lay to the southeast, only slightly off their current route. The distance was eleven hundred nautical miles.

Sailing straight would take ten hours or so at most.

The island’s shape stood out at once, a perfect cross. Yang Yi had never seen an island like it.

The chart also displayed its scale.

It stretched about seven point seven kilometres in length, with both crossbars nearly equal. The shorter axis measured seven and a half.

The width was the strangest part. Each section was almost exactly four hundred metres across, edges clean like they were drawn with a ruler.

This looked artificial. There was likely someone there.

Natural islands simply did not form like this.

He sent the chart to Suna, who drew the same conclusion.

They changed course and set the Nightmare Star toward the cross shaped landmass.

The old captain at the bow shifted the rudder without a word and guided the ship toward their new target.

The journey passed quietly, without trouble.

Yang Yi and Suna slept in turns, pushing their stamina past eighty five, ready for landing.

But when the island came into view within the crystal sphere, everything changed.

The sphere began trembling, a sign that another player’s ship had appeared in the navigation field.

Yet Yang Yi had checked the region channel many times. The player count never changed. Only two players existed in this entire zone, himself, and Suna. Within ten thousand nautical miles there should be no one else alive.

Which meant the ship was…

“The Sanctuary?”

He focused on the map and froze. What he had mistaken for an island on the edge of the chart was not land at all but a colossal ship, a player ship.

Its name showed clearly: Sanctuary.

“This must be a remnant from the last batch of players,” Suna said when she saw the label.

After the update, the system explained that player vessels would no longer be recycled. They would persist as magic ships even after their owners were gone.

So this was almost certainly a ship left behind by the previous cycle.

Only there were no players aboard. At least, none alive.

Yang Yi considered the risks, then made his decision.

The number string island filled with corpses was still fresh in his memory, yet the sight of the Sanctuary drew him in regardless.

In this sea, the chance to find another place to dock was slim. He had to take a look.

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