Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

The morning passed, and Yang Yi had already caught four coral cage fish. If he worked hard in the afternoon, he could get another 10 — his goal for the day, as it would be enough to make 100 bottles of Spiderbane Potion.

Not long after, he received a private message. The fifth catapult had been completed and was ready for trade. The seller made and sold them one by one, messaging Yang Yi when each was ready.

One cost 650 Shell Coins, and since there were four, he had to fork out 2,600 Shell Coins in total.

Yang Yi’s previous large savings had dwindled to just 1,600, but luckily, he had plenty of food and water, so he had no worries about sustenance.

In the afternoon, he successfully caught five more coral cage fish, and just as he thought he wouldn’t be able to finish his task, he packed up his fishing net to find a surprise — a bonus coral cage fish!

Yang Yi handed all the fish to Suna, then headed to the courtyard of the Nightmare Star, planning to find a spot to install the catapults. When not installed, they were like miniature figurines, only a few centimetres in size, making them easy to move around.

After circling the area, Yang Yi installed the catapults symmetrically on both sides of the courtyard of the Nightmare Star, giving the ship long-range attack capabilities.

However, Yang Yi had another clever use for the weapons!

He opened the chat channel and sent out his usual message: "Buying fire-starting tools at a high price!" Then he quickly followed up with, "Buying rotten fish, bad shrimp, decayed meat, rotten vegetables, spoiled water, and mouldy bread! I don't want anything that’s not rotten. Message me if interested!"

"Whoa; do you want fish that's gone mouldy?"

"Of course, I need it!"

"Dude, your taste is pretty extreme, huh?"

"Are you composting? Planning to farm on your ship?"

Yang Yi couldn’t be bothered to explain. He simply bought at shockingly low prices. People selling rotten food didn’t care about the price anyway, as they were just going to throw it into the ocean. Even for a single Shell Coin, they’d make the trade.

In the end, Yang Yi spent 100 Shell Coins to buy a few hundred pounds of rotten fish and shrimp, an uneaten, rotten sheep, and a pile of decayed vegetable leaves.

Suddenly, a private message came in from Captain Yu Dawei.

"Do you want some stinky whale meat? I’ll deliver it directly to you!"

"Sure, but not too much — my ship is small!"

"These three chunks were about to be thrown out. I’ll send them your way!"

In no time, three pieces of whale meat, each about a metre in size, were ejected from the vending machine. It was hard to imagine how its fist-sized tentacle mouth managed to spit out huge objects.

It had its own strange logic, so there was no point in thinking about such details.

Yang Yi looked at the deck, now piled high with stinky fish and shrimp, and laughed.

"That should be enough!"

He wanted to turn the spoiled food into delicious meals, then coat them with Spiderbane Potion and launch them into the island using the catapults.

He called the trick Delicious Poison.

"Ew, what’s that awful smell? What are you doing?"

Yang Yi dragged the stinky fish and rotten meat into the cabin, much to Suna’s displeasure as she pinched her nose and walked out.

After all, her witch lab was connected to the cabin.

"Don’t worry, soon you’ll think it smells amazing! Don’t sneak a bite, and don’t blame me for not warning you!" Yang Yi grinned mischievously.

Suna seemed to catch on to what Yang Yi was up to, wrinkling her nose and putting on the plague doctor mask she had bought from her lab.

The two of them worked as a team. Suna was in charge of making the poison, and Yang Yi was responsible for "re-cooking" the spoiled food, turning it into something tasty.

He divided the food into one-pound portions and wrapped them in cloth, turning them into ammunition.

Altogether, the spoiled food weighed over a thousand pounds, and once wrapped up, it made 1,100 portions.

It was already late at night.

The cabin was packed full, but there wasn’t even a hint of the original stench. Instead, the air was filled with a tantalising aroma that made one’s mouth water. It was the effect of the Chef’s Cauldron.

The cauldron wasn’t powerful on the surface; it seemed ordinary but was actually incredibly dangerous.

Yang Yi even felt...the cauldron was more dangerous than all of his other relics combined!

Even he, wielding the cauldron, had to stay highly alert, fearing that if he wasn’t careful, he might end up eating the "delicacy" himself.

"The poison is ready!" Suna handed over 104 bottles of Spiderbane Potion.

"Great, you can go rest now. I’ll work a bit longer," Yang Yi replied.

"Need me to help?" Suna offered.

"No, it’s fine. I’m worried you might overeat!" Yang Yi joked, declining her offer.

He hadn’t told Suna the full truth, though. The strange, fragrant smell from the rotten food would lower one's sanity if inhaled for too long.

Yang Yi was fine, as he had high mental resilience and sanity resistance. Even if his sanity dropped, he wouldn’t go mad. But Suna, with less than 50 sanity...if she went mad, she might really grab the pile and gorge herself on it.

After Suna left, Yang Yi spent 10 pieces of wood to make a simple wooden barrel and poured the Spiderbane Potion into it.

The poison, totaling just over 10 litres, filled only half the barrel.

Yang Yi then dunked the cloth-wrapped rotten meat and vegetable bundles into the poison and let them soak. After leaving them overnight, they would be well marinated.

In total, he managed to make 462 rotten meat bombs using the 10 litres of Spiderbane Potion.

The barrel was completely dry by the end, with even the last drop of poison soaked up.

The remaining rotten meat could be saved for the next day. After all, he could still fish for more coral cage fish, and the poison could always be brewed again.

Checking the weather forecast, he saw that there were only two hours left before dawn.

Time had flown by.

"I’ll have to remind Suna to hurry up with making the stamina-recovery potion. The side effects of the Excitement Potion are just too awful!"

He fell asleep and woke up at dawn.

Despite only sleeping for two hours, Yang Yi had a vivid nightmare, yet while the dream left a deep impression, he couldn’t quite remember what it was about, only that it had a strong presence. It seemed to involve a giant spider, so large it was impossible to measure…

Every time he tried to recall the details, his head ached, and he felt nauseous.

"Is there really something that powerful on the island?"

A wave of fear washed over Yang Yi, reinforcing his resolve to poison these spiders.

His energy was still below 70, but since he wasn’t planning to go ashore that day, it would be enough.

He was less than 50 nautical miles from the island.

The Nightmare Star, towing the still-intact large sailboat, sailed for less than two hours before nearing the island.

Along the way, Yang Yi continued fishing.

He took the three coral cage fish he had caught in the morning to the lab, and then, using a large cloth, began transporting the 462 rotten meat bombs to the courtyard in batches.

"Time to give you a little treat," Yang Yi chuckled mischievously as he catapulted a package of "delicacies" onto the forest.

The catapult worked well, launching the one-pound bundle of rotten meat about 40 metres.

Though this was still the outer edge of the island, given the forest spanned five miles, Yang Yi was confident the spiders would follow the scent and go looking for it.

The cloth wrapping the food wasn’t very strong, so it would undoubtedly break open upon landing, spreading the rotten meat and vegetables for the spiders to feast on.

After launching a dozen packages, Yang Yi noticed movement in the forest — some large creatures were on the move.

"It’s working!"

Yang Yi adjusted the Nightmare Star's position and continued firing from different angles.

Before long, the 400-plus bundles were almost gone, with not many left.

By then, Yang Yi had reached the other side of the island.

For some reason, the spiders had discovered the Nightmare Star and began pouring out of the forest.

They varied in size, with the smallest being only the size of a palm, and the largest reaching a metre, with long, slender legs that made Yang Yi’s skin crawl.

Among them was a particularly large spider, around three metres in size, with a dried human torso, devoid of limbs and a head, resting on its back.

[Seeing an anomalous creature, your sanity decreases by 5.]

"What’s the deal with this spider?"