Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

New Novel - Read Here

“There are seventeen ships in total. Every single one is plated with gold, and they're all connected by cable lines,” Yang Yi said as he peered through the telescope.

He examined the fleet carefully, inspecting each vessel one by one to gain a complete understanding of the Golden Chamber of Commerce's formation and estimate its overall combat strength.

“The large ship at the front should be the shop. Most of the others are cargo ships, and there are only six warships,” he concluded after studying their appearance.

Not far away, Suna was also looking through the telescope—or rather, she was looking at Yang Yi.

She wanted to know exactly how much longer he intended to monopolise it.

Fifteen minutes passed.

Yang Yi renewed the telescope's usage fee once and continued observing.

At last, Suna had enough.

“Have you finished looking yet?” she demanded.

She snatched the Eye of Greed Telescope out of his hands, shot him an irritated glare, then adjusted it towards the Golden Chamber of Commerce fleet in the distance and began observing for herself.

“If you wanted another turn, you could've just said so,” Yang Yi muttered with a curl of his lips. He didn't argue. Instead, he took the helm of the Nightmare Star and continued shadowing the merchant fleet, carefully matching its speed.

At the same time, he began considering how to establish contact with the Chamber of Commerce.

According to the faction information, the Golden Merchant Association was a neutral organisation that strictly adhered to its own principles. Since most visitors were customers, they wouldn't attack strangers without reason.

Furthermore, the strength of the association's merchant fleets varied greatly. Some of the smaller caravans consisted of nothing more than a single merchant ship, and there had even been cases where players had successfully robbed them.

As for what happened to those players afterwards, nobody really knew. At the very least, no one had ever heard any follow-up.

The fleet before them, however, was considered a large convoy with formidable combat capabilities. Judging by the number of Light Containers they were using alone, it was obvious they were exceptionally wealthy.

They possessed a wide variety of cannons. Some were probably merchandise intended for sale, but merchandise could still be used in battle if necessary. If every cannon aboard opened fire simultaneously, the resulting barrage would be utterly terrifying.

The fleet also boasted a sizeable crew. Figures moved constantly across the decks. Some stood watch, some loaded and unloaded cargo, while others...

...were actually asleep right on the deck.

“Is that... a cyclops?

“And... dwarves...

“And are those... moving rocks?”

The more Suna observed, the more excited she became. These strange races fascinated her.

Although cyclopes had been recorded in the Monster Compendium, seeing an illustration was nothing like seeing a living specimen. A living specimen could be touched, examined, and dissected. A picture was just a picture.

The creature sleeping on the deck was indeed a Cyclops. It was massively built, both obese and muscular, and stood roughly six metres tall. One of its arms alone was as thick as a bull's waist.

“Suna, put your mask back on,” Yang Yi said as he prepared to steer the ship closer. “Your red eyes might attract unwanted attention.”

“Can those sailors be bought too?” Suna asked, already eyeing the crew with obvious interest. “I remember reading that you can buy absolutely anything from the Golden Chamber of Commerce.”

“After we've bought the two things we absolutely need—the crystal diamonds and the Light Containers—I'll buy a few for you,” Yang Yi replied, effectively agreeing to her request.

Yang Yi climbed up the mast and replaced the prey hanging from the execution rack with the Rat King's severed head, freeing up cargo capacity for the trade ahead.

The Nightmare Star's hull also changed colour, shifting from pitch black to a ghastly white mottled with streaks of emerald green.

With that eerie colour scheme, combined with the ghostly flames surrounding it, the ship stood out conspicuously on the Sea of Darkness.

He ordered the Old Captain to steer the ship directly towards the Golden Chamber of Commerce. Before long, the lookouts aboard the merchant fleet noticed the approaching vessel.

Inside one of the rooms aboard the fleet's lead vessel—the largest ship in the convoy, known as the Treasure Ship.

“Dad! This is bad! A skeleton ship surrounded by ghost flames is heading straight towards us!”

A strange creature with a monkey's head and a bat's body flew to the window, shouting in a shrill voice. Terror still lingered on its face.

“A skeleton ship?” a dry, elderly voice asked from deeper inside the room.

“Yes!”

“What exactly does it look like?”

“It's a mouldy skeleton ship covered in weeds. There's a rotting rat's head tied to the top of its mast, and a moving skeleton monster is hanging from the bow.”

“What about the deck? Are there people on it?”

“Uh...”

“Never mind. Just tell me which direction it's coming from. I'll take a look myself.

“If it's a ghost ship, we'll sink it immediately. There's no reason to let it damage my merchandise.”

“Broken skeletons are the least valuable things there are.”

The elderly voice remained calm throughout.

Inside the room, an elderly dwarf, who stood less than half a metre tall, adjusted a device resembling a periscope. He carefully focused it towards the sea, and before long, the Nightmare Star came into view as it sped across the dark waters.

He also made out the figures moving about on its deck.

A fat man with an eyepatch and thinning hair.

A bizarre machine.

A gigantic long-legged sardine.

And a mysterious woman dressed like a Plague Doctor.

“What a peculiar group,” the old dwarf murmured to himself.

However, he had spent three hundred and seventy years conducting business on the Sea of Darkness. Someone with that much experience wasn't easily alarmed.

It was obviously a special magical ship.

Its skeletal hull allowed it to travel through the Sea of Darkness as effortlessly as a fish swimming through water. In fact, it was even more dependable than gold plating, as it almost completely ignored the darkness's corrosive effects on the hull.

“They're probably customers. Let them approach.”

The old dwarf quickly reached his conclusion and passed the order down to his subordinates.

Meanwhile, Yang Yi continued steering the Nightmare Star towards the Golden Chamber of Commerce fleet.

He made several final preparations, most of them centred on combat, ensuring that if anything unexpected happened, they wouldn't be caught completely off guard.

Naturally, everyone equipped their weapons before the two ships made contact.

Xiao Ji switched to its Land Operations Module, transforming into a heavy-duty engineering vehicle whose primary responsibility was protecting the Nightmare Star.

Yang Yi changed into his Captain's Coat and ate several kilograms of premium dried meat, increasing the Feast Gourmand attribute bonus to +2. His body became noticeably bulkier, further enhancing his combat strength.

As for his weapons and equipment, he didn't leave a single item behind. Everything was stored inside the Charred Worm Ring.

Suna, meanwhile, wore the Witch's Casual Outfit—ordinary clothing originally intended as a witch's everyday disguise. Combined with the Plague Doctor's mask covering her face, she exuded an indescribable aura of mystery.

Not long after they resumed sailing, Yang Yi noticed that the Golden Chamber of Commerce fleet had begun to slow down.

It was both a welcoming gesture and confirmation that they had spotted the Nightmare Star.

Yang Yi reduced the Nightmare Star's speed accordingly, and it wasn't long before they caught up with the merchant convoy.

The two sides officially made contact.

“Straight ahead. Dock alongside the Treasure Ship to conduct your trade.”

A human sailor aboard one of the warships at the rear of the convoy waved a signalling flag, directing Yang Yi to steer into the centre of the formation. He was apparently communicating through semaphore.

Yang Yi, however, couldn't understand flag signals at all. Fortunately, his keen hearing allowed him to catch the sailor's shouted instructions instead.

He guided the Nightmare Star past the outer ring of warships, then through the cargo ships occupying the middle of the formation, before finally pulling alongside the Treasure Ship. The Nightmare Star now found itself completely surrounded by the merchant fleet.

The Treasure Ship was an enormous vessel.

Its shape resembled a gigantic golden alms bowl floating upon the sea, measuring roughly three hundred and twenty metres in diameter. Its vast deck displayed all kinds of large merchandise for sale, while a domed building stood at its centre. Layered like a five-tiered cake, the structure rose nearly twenty metres into the air.

Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, gunshots rang out from somewhere above on the Treasure Ship.

Yang Yi immediately became alert.

He stepped back until he was standing beside Suna, his eyes fixed on the Treasure Ship's deck.

Since its deck stood more than ten metres higher than the Nightmare Star's, his view was completely blocked, preventing him from seeing what was happening above.

The voices that followed, however, explained everything.

“You good-for-nothing idiot! All you do is eat! Get your arse up already!”

An elderly man's furious roar echoed across the deck, punctuated by more gunfire.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!