Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 258 - Entering the Sanctuary Ship - part 2

Most of the stains and rust on the wall had been scrubbed away, revealing the shelter’s internal layout in front of them.

Some parts were damaged or missing, but it did not affect the overall readability.

The shelter had fourteen levels in total. Its design was extremely complex, with eight levels underwater and six above. The areas were divided into administration, living quarters, residential blocks, manufacturing, and medical sections.

A tall tower stood at the centre, and an internal lift could take you straight to the top.

Access was restricted by clearance level, and movement was tightly controlled.

Judging from the size of the living spaces and the number of rooms, the shelter must have housed fifty to a hundred thousand people at its peak.

It was bigger and more complicated than Yang Yi had imagined.

The underwater portion was larger than what sat above the surface.

Exploring every corner of something this complex would take at least half a month.

Many areas were probably stripped clean anyway, which meant visiting them would be a waste of time.

Yang Yi did not plan to search the entire place. He intended to head straight for the highest clearance and most remote restricted zones, where valuable items or clues were more likely to remain.

The first was the main storage complex at the very bottom, the place most likely to still hold supplies. It sat at the four way junction between levels five and eight underground, where several floors had been combined into one giant warehouse.

The other was the top of the central tower. That was where the captain’s quarters were located, and the clearance level there was extremely high. It could contain important information.

Yang Yi explained his plan to Suna. She nodded in agreement while examining a cracked thigh bone with great interest.

This was a ruin. Finding bodies inside was nothing unusual.

Yang Yi had already checked. There were no player corpses. All of them belonged to natives.

The bone Suna held was thicker than the rest, almost twice the width of a normal human femur.

“Is that bone special?” Yang Yi asked.

“It doesn’t look like it was broken by a blow. It seems to have split from within.”

She handed him the bone and continued searching the area.

【Name: Right Leg Bone of a Cyclops】

【Description: A right femur covered in cracks. It comes from a Cyclops. Because of its special usage, it cannot be used in the vending machine.】

“A Cyclops?”

Yang Yi held the bone against his own leg. Judging by the proportions, the creature must have stood around four meters tall.

Suna quickly found similar bones and pieced them together into a full right leg. It was covered in cracks.

“It’s only one leg. Does that make you think of anything?” she asked.

Yang Yi had already made the connection. He thought of the Cult of the Spider.

The leg had probably been used with violent force, enough to crack the bone. The closer it got to the foot, the denser the fractures became, as if someone had stomped down with too much strength.

“What did it kick?”

Yang Yi looked around and walked up to the ruptured elevator shaft. Using the light from the container at his waist, he peered down and saw a metal door at the bottom, twisted out of shape.

Someone from the Spider cult had kicked it open.

It was likely Direk’s group.

Yang Yi turned back to the shelter map and took a photo.

According to the diagram, the shaft connected directly to the main storage levels. Going down seemed like the right move.

He decided to explore it.

He retrieved a black container from the Charred Worm Ring, opened it, and dropped a fragment of Light Fairy inside the shaft.

The fragment burst into bright light, illuminating the bottom and clearing out the black mist.

Yang Yi watched for a moment and saw no obvious danger. He signaled Suna and prepared to descend.

There was a ladder fixed to one wall of the shaft. It was a bit rusty but still usable.

Yang Yi entered the shaft first and glanced upward. The elevator was stuck above them.

Then he started climbing down, with Suna close behind.

They soon reached level eight underground. It was much colder here, and the air was stale and unmoving.

Yang Yi landed first. He scanned the area with caution but saw nothing dangerous besides scattered debris.

Suna followed right after.

Once he confirmed the area was safe, Yang Yi picked up the Light Fairy fragment, placed it back in the black container, and returned it to the Charred Worm Ring.

Unlike the upper floors, this place showed fewer signs of being looted. The drawers and chairs had not been stripped bare.

Even so, Yang Yi found nothing useful.

The native scavengers had done a clean job here as well.

He picked up an empty food can. The label was faded but still legible. It was beef. The shelf life was five hundred years, and the text was written in simplified Chinese.

That discovery gave Yang Yi some hope for what lay ahead.

A warehouse this size would have to contain some food.

Canned goods like these could last indefinitely as long as they remained intact and uncontaminated. They might still be edible even now.

“Shh…”

Yang Yi suddenly stopped and held out an arm to block Suna, signaling her to stay quiet.

The place fell completely silent once their footsteps ceased.

But Yang Yi’s hearing was far sharper than normal, and his nose picked up a strange scent, like rancid grease.

He crouched and pressed his ear to the metal floor. Goosebumps ran up his arms.

Sound travelled fast through metal.

He heard breathing. Far too many to count. The bulk of them were ahead.

There were some above and inside the walls as well, but in smaller numbers.

“What is it?”

Suna copied Yang Yi and pressed herself to the floor, but she heard nothing.

“Keep your voice down. There’s something inside the walls.”

Yang Yi didn’t speak aloud. He sent the message to her privately.

“Something?”

Suna looked around. She didn’t see anything unusual. It was just an abandoned metal corridor.

Yang Yi stood up and went to the wall. He leaned in and listened carefully, tracing the faint breaths to pinpoint whatever was hiding inside.

“There’s something behind this.”

He gestured for Suna to move back.

Then he tapped the wall lightly with his fingertip. The sound was barely audible, but enough for him to tell that the space behind it was hollow.

Yang Yi gripped the Flame Serpent Fang, braced himself, and drove the blade into the wall.

Clang.

The blade pushed through the metal with a sharp, grating sound that made his teeth ache.

He felt it hit something. Something on the other side gave a shrill squeal that lasted several seconds.

Yang Yi pulled the dagger out. Black bits clung to the edge, giving off a rancid oily smell that made his stomach tighten.

He dug open a small hole in the wall and uncovered the source. It was a rat the size of a stuffed ball, lying there with its belly split by a charred wound. Smoke still curled from it, and the organs inside looked cooked through.

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