Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship
Ch. 158 - Understood

Nightfall.

Yang Yi stopped selling salt and recalled the armour.

With Suna’s help, its right arm piece was successfully removed, though the process was painful and bloody.

The embedded spikes acted like plugs, once pulled out, blood gushed out continuously.

If someone’s physical constitution wasn’t strong enough and they lacked powerful healing methods, removing the armour could very well mean death. Fortunately, Yang Yi’s body was tough enough. After drinking a bottle of Regeneration Elixir, the bleeding stopped.

He checked his vitality, still had 87 left. He hadn’t lost much blood over the day, but the process of removing the armour had cost him quite a bit.

The two of them had a simple dinner in the captain’s quarters, avoiding eating on the deck in case they encountered the elusive Collector, who showed up on the very night a player made money, so it was wise to stay cautious.

If a player couldn’t offer something of value, they could very well become the Collector’s “item” in the trade.

Suna slipped back through the hole in the room. Her slim figure, about 165 cm tall, allowed her to move in and out with ease...

With some free time, Yang Yi lay on the bed and browsed the chat channels, looking for anything worth buying. 

He spent 155,000 Shell Coins on a rare telescope, its price rivalling that of rare firearms, because the telescope had incredibly powerful attributes.

【Name: Eye of Greed】

【Type: Tool (Relic)】【Quality: Rare】【Description: A greedy telescope capable of detecting treasure. Requires Shell Coins for each use.

Yang Yi had reviewed many telescopes, but that one had the farthest view range. Even high-grade models like the Eagle Eye only offered 15 nautical miles, and that was in good weather — not much better than ordinary telescopes.

After completing the transaction, Yang Yi kept his eyes down and slipped out of the captain’s quarters, running to the vending machine to retrieve his newly purchased special telescope.

Unlike most, it had a short barrel with an inward-facing eyeball at the end. Without payment, all you’d see inside was a bloodshot golden eye staring directly back at you. Only after paying would the eyeball begin to function, rotating to observe distant views and projecting high-resolution images directly onto the user’s retina.

Though he had spoken with the seller, Yang Yi was still startled the first time the eye inside stared him down. It was like looking through a peephole, only to find a giant eye on the other side staring right back.

“I’ll test it tomorrow. I’d rather not accidentally spot something like the Collector.”

Yang Yi thought to himself and stored the telescope in his ring. 

Before sleeping, he checked the great sea chart. The coordinates of the black mist could be viewed on the chart. It had already broken through the Frozen Sea and was advancing northwards at a speed of 20 knots. Meanwhile, the Bountiful Sea was also expanding southwards.

Players probably had less than ten days left to prepare, given the wide radius of the Bountiful Sea’s radiation. As for when the white seawater would affect the island, it was hard to say, because the spread of seawater was faster than the expansion of sea zones.

Yang Yi needed to dig as much salt as he could before that happened. Once the white seawater arrived, the salt-covered corpse-whale wouldn’t revive instantly, but the island would definitely undergo some changes.

Whether to flee or explore, he’d decide based on the situation then. Personally, Yang Yi leaned towards exploration, because the core of the corpse-whale was its endlessly regenerating flesh.

To upgrade the Nightmare Star to Level 4, such an adventure was unavoidable. 

A half-dead corpse-whale would certainly be easier to deal with than a fully alive one!

…

The following day, Yang Yi got up on time and headed to the bow of the ship while eating black bread.

He pulled out the Eye of Greed he had purchased the night before, paid 10,000 Shell Coins, and looked towards the island.

He wasn’t trying to scout the area, he was using the Eye of Greed to check whether there were any treasure chests or valuables on the island.

“There really is something on the island,” Yang Yi said, after observing for a while, then handed the Eye of Greed to Suna.

Once its advanced feature is activated, the Eye of Greed marks the locations of treasure chests or valuables within its field of view, shown as golden auras.

After paying 10,000 Shell Coins, Yang Yi saw a golden glow radiating from the centre of the island, spreading outwards, which meant whatever was glowing was buried inside.

Suna took a look through the telescope too.

Yang Yi had sent her the item’s description the previous night, so she was already familiar with how to use it.

The two discussed the situation for a while but couldn’t come up with a way to enter the corpse-whale’s body. So, they decided to continue selling salt.

Yang Yi donned the arm armour and skillfully directed the Penitent Armor to go ashore.

He added a small experiment, placing two bottles of water inside the armour: one with freshwater, the other with saturated saltwater, to see if the Salt People would attack.

After landing, the Salt People did not attack until the armour entered an area covered in salt. Then, one Salt Person emerged from the salt and attacked the two bottles through a gap in the armor’s right arm.

“They’re not attacking living beings, they’re targeting sources of moisture. And their attack or sensing range is limited. If we clear enough salt from a given area, we might even be able to create a safe zone to land on the island,” Suna concluded based on the result.

But it didn’t mean much, because the deeper inland one went, the thicker the salt layer became. So even if they landed, they’d only be able to operate in the salt-free outer zones.

Yang Yi rejected Suna’s suggestion to go ashore herself.

After all, anything a human could do, the Penitent Armour could basically do too.

So, the salt-mining and selling continued, but with Yang Yi deliberately digging deeper into the island.

By the afternoon, he had harvested 15 tons of sea salt and sold it all, earning a large sum of Shell Coins.

Just as he started to feel a bit tired and planned to take a break, he suddenly noticed the ground beneath his feet tremble. It wasn’t from his own senses aboard the ship, but from the armour’s feet — the island was moving!

Yang Yi quickly guessed the reason and looked towards the sea, where he saw traces of white foam on the surface. It was caused by air from the Bountiful Sea region, and since he was wearing a mask, he hadn’t sensed it at all.

“Even sweet air can revive the corpse-whale?”

Yang Yi immediately felt something was wrong.

The following moment, the centre of the island opened up like a bottomless pit. The sea salt, like quicksand, collapsed into a massive depression and was swallowed up. Then, a huge quantity of salt spewed out from the pit like a volcanic eruption, shooting grains of salt into the air.

Before Yang Yi could react, the corpse-whale had already begun its second eruption.

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