Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

This battle between the rats and the drowned lasted only about an hour before it ended.

Faced with overwhelming firepower, the drowned failed to cause much disturbance before being suppressed by the rat slaves, turning into corpses and sinking back into the sea.

The casualty ratio on both sides was striking.

On the rats’ side, only a little more than a dozen died. Most were killed when the drowned self-destructed and they failed to dodge in time.

Another loss occurred when a rotary beam cannon, worn out and overheated, exploded. The blast killed three rat slaves nearby who had been responsible for aiming and loading it.

“Squeak squeak squeak.” (Captain Liu Dong, there are no new drowned appearing on the sea surface!)

After scouting, one rat slave returned to report to the largest fused rat nest.

The voice also reached Yang Yi’s ears.

“Liu Dong?”

He raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised, but his hands did not stop moving. Holding a beam rifle, he fired intermittently at the sea surface, killing the few drowned that remained.

He remembered Liu Dong. In the shelter ship’s security team, Liu Dong had been the deputy captain. In the dream, Yang Yi had appointed him as first mate.

This enormous homestead rat sharing the same name as Liu Dong was probably not a coincidence.

Could it be that after fusing with human bodies, these homestead rats inherited part of their memories and abilities?

If that were the case, it would explain why these rats were so organized and disciplined, and even able to use firearms.

After killing the last few drowned, Yang Yi found that the beam rifle in his hands had almost run out of ammunition. He withdrew into the rat slave army, hiding among them and secretly listening to Captain Liu Dong’s conversation.

“Humans summoned so many drowned. They may be trying to divert our attention. Several of you tactical squads, stay alert. Search the other areas and report back to me. The rest of you, return with me to the central warehouse.”

The Liu Dong located inside the gigantic fused rat nest gave the order.

“Yes!”

The other rat slaves immediately began to move.

Yang Yi was among them. Relying on the disguise of the Rat Knight, he mixed into the rat slave crowd like an ordinary grunt and followed the gigantic rat nest back.

These tactical squads were probably considered the elite among the rat slaves.

A level above them were the fused rat nests and the gigantic fused rat nests.

They headed toward Area C. Surprisingly, an elevator there was still operating, and it was a large freight lift.

Painted on it was a familiar skull symbol, a warning left by the natives that roughly meant: do not use this elevator.

A rat slave pressed the elevator button. Soon it arrived, its interior space just large enough for Liu Dong to enter.

After squeezing inside, the elevator began to descend, while Yang Yi followed the other rat slaves down the stairwell to the lower level.

…

Ten minutes later.

Yang Yi followed the rat slave squad out of the stairwell on the lowest level, passed through a corridor, and entered a massive plaza.

It was extremely dark, completely swallowed by darkness. Without night vision, it would have been impossible to move.

The ground beneath their feet also felt strange, rising layer by layer like a heap of trash. A rancid, stale stench drifted upward, filling the entire space.

Walking at the back, Yang Yi quietly crouched down and reached toward the ground.

Just judging by the feeling underfoot, it was hard to tell what was beneath them.

“So it really is a garbage heap?”

Yang Yi froze for a moment after picking up a rusted, flattened can, still stuck to a filthy scrap of plastic packaging.

It seemed this central warehouse had been ravaged by rats for far too long. It had turned from a warehouse into a dump, and it was unclear how many valuable items remained.

And… the stench from this pile of trash was so strong it stung the eyes.

These rats apparently relieved themselves right where they stood.

He sent a message to Suna confirming that he had successfully infiltrated, then followed the rat slaves ahead into a sub-warehouse.

This place seemed to have been turned into an armory by the rats. There were large amounts of weapons and ammunition inside.

But the rats clearly had not taken good care of them. Most were thrown carelessly on the ground, and many were scattered parts or broken guns.

There were also quite a few magic stones piled in the armory, roughly estimated at more than five thousand. That counted as quite a fortune.

Imitating the other rat slaves, Yang Yi tossed his gun into the warehouse and then walked back out to the plaza.

The place was covered in black mist and filled with stench. Both sight and smell were difficult to rely on. The only thing he could depend on was his third eye.

Without drawing attention, he removed the eyepatch from his left eye.

To the other rat slaves, it only looked like he was touching the useless head above him.

Then he switched to observing with the third eye and finally saw the surroundings clearly.

Countless rat slaves lay scattered across the plaza in every direction, all in a dormant state. Only a few narrow paths remained for other rat slaves to walk through.

A rough estimate suggested there were twenty to thirty thousand rat slaves here, along with a vast number of homestead rats spread across the ground like a carpet, too many to count.

So many rats living here would naturally require a huge supply of food.

The garbage heap underfoot was probably formed from the leftovers of what these rats had eaten.

Later on, as food became increasingly scarce, most of the rat swarm had entered a dormant state similar to suspended animation.

“But what is that thing in the middle? A mountain of trash?”

Yang Yi focused his gaze and used the third eye’s ability to magnify the distant image.

That thing seemed to be a mountain, its surface wrapped in a layer of black mist. It stood roughly thirty meters tall and nearly sixty meters wide.

Yang Yi stared at it for quite a while before finally realizing what it was. The thing was actually a gigantic rat nest, probably formed from thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of bodies fused together into this enormous super-nest.

And in the middle of the nest was an enormous rat head, about ten meters in diameter. Because it was wrapped in black mist, it looked like a protruding cone.

“That should be something like a rat king.”

After figuring out the layout of the place, Yang Yi prepared to go beneath the rat king and release poison.

The area around the rat king was packed with sleeping rats and rat slaves. The density there was extremely high, making it the ideal spot for poisoning.

He quietly slipped away from the back of the group, planning to head toward the rat king’s position, but another rat slave noticed him.

“Squeak squeak.” (Hey, you there. What are you doing?)

Yang Yi immediately stopped, considering whether he should just release the poison right then.

But the rat slave’s next words made him abandon the idea.

“Aren’t you hungry? After waking up, you’ve got to eat something,” the rat slave said.

Yang Yi looked over and saw several rows of food printers beside him. There were probably over a hundred machines, though only a few were still working.

This was most likely the food source for the rat swarm.

Yang Yi walked over and copied the rat slave, entering the same numbers. He received a cheese-like biscuit, which he stuffed into his abdomen.

In reality, he stored it inside the Charred Worm Ring.

After eating, the rat slaves casually picked a spot and went straight back into dormancy, paying no attention to Yang Yi. In the end, he was the only one still standing.

Yang Yi then looked towards the distant position of the rat king, preparing to take this chance to release the poison.

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