Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

“Once we take control, we can give it a try. There are still several abandoned robots in Area C. We can attempt to repair them. Manufacturing them, however, will be more troublesome. The software of these robots is harder to deal with than the hardware.”

Suna replied through the channel. From the sound of it, these robots could all be refurbished.

Yang Yi exchanged a few brief words with her before ending the communication.

He stood up and inspected the production line again, counting the parts. It felt like they could assemble dozens of robots, if all the components were still usable. Clearly, the Sanctuary had already been preparing for mass production.

If mass production had succeeded, this rat infestation probably would not have turned into a disaster.

The rat thralls would have been suppressed by an army of fearless robots.

“An outbreak of rats happening exactly at this point in time… could it really be a coincidence?”

Yang Yi thought to himself. It felt as though the Sanctuary had once been monitored by someone, perhaps with an ability similar to the Astrology Ship’s skill.

But he did not dwell on it too much. After all, this had happened more than four thousand years ago. Whoever had been watching was most likely long dead.

What he needed to be careful about was whether, among this new batch of players, there might be someone similar, someone who possessed both Beautiful Dream and some kind of surveillance ability.

Yang Yi changed his position and moved to the entrance of the production workshop, right next to the main door.

This place was closer to the central warehouse, so he could hear the commotion there more clearly.

Bang!

Tat-tat-tat!

Squeak squeak squeak!

Gunfire and explosions rang out continuously. At the same time, the roars of giant settler rats could be heard.

Yang Yi guessed that the main force of the riot had probably shifted from the settler rats to the rat thralls, since they were the ones capable of using firearms to create such a racket.

Moreover, the potion seemed to take effect first on the smaller rats, gradually spreading to the rat thralls and the conjoined rat nests.

The small rats living inside the rat thralls’ bodies might also be rebelling, perhaps even attacking each other.

Yang Yi listened for a while but had no intention of going out. He planned to wait until the gunfire stopped.

There were too many rats inside. This might take two or three hours, possibly even longer.

Fortunately, Yang Yi had plenty of time and was not in a hurry. He also had food with him. He took out the cheese he had obtained earlier, which had been produced by the food printer, though he had no idea what the raw ingredients were.

He removed the silver beaked mask and sniffed it. It smelled milky, with a faint salty fishy scent. It seemed suitable as a seasoning, with a rather distinctive flavor.

Yang Yi looked around, grabbed a barrel-shaped robot shell, shaved it down with the Fang of the Flame Serpent, washed it, and turned it into a metal plate to try cooking something.

He placed peeled, black-skinned potatoes on the metal plate and shaved some cheese over them.

Then, using bits of wood, scrap parts, and grease from a Molotov bottle, he improvised a small stove and lit a fire, beginning to cook.

“Not bad!”

Yang Yi tasted the hot roasted cheese potato. The milky aroma carried a salty freshness that balanced out the astringent taste of the black-skinned potato, and combined with the potato’s soft, sticky texture…

He suddenly felt his stomach wriggle as the Gluttonous Maw began stirring again.

“Whatever I eat ends up in your stomach anyway, doesn’t it? Be quiet!”

He slapped the armor over his abdomen, but the agitation did not stop.

“I’ll give you a bit later.”

Yang Yi said again. This time, the Gluttonous Maw finally quieted down.

He reached out, just about to grab a second potato, when suddenly the Sanctuary shook with a violent tremor. The source was the central warehouse.

“Looks like the Rat King has started moving.”

Yang Yi was not alarmed. In fact, this was good news. It meant the battle inside the warehouse had become even more intense.

…

Two hours passed.

The noise outside gradually diminished, though it would still take some time before everything completely settled down.

Boom!

A massive explosion shook the place.

Yang Yi had already experienced several of these and had no idea what weapons the rats were using, but the power behind them was astonishing.

But what happened next made Yang Yi completely unable to sit still.

Because he heard the sound of flowing water…

“Could it be a leak?”

Yang Yi reacted instantly.

The warehouse was located at the bottom level, similar to the lowest hold of a ship. A rupture and water leakage were entirely possible.

If large amounts of water flooded in and caused the Sanctuary to sink, Yang Yi would suffer a huge loss.

He immediately opened the workshop door. Filthy water from the corridor rushed in at once, sticky, and foul, just covering the tops of his feet.

“So, it really is leaking.”

Yang Yi looked around and confirmed that the water was flowing from the central warehouse.

He then headed toward the stairwell. There had once been a waterproof airtight door here, specifically installed to deal with emergencies such as flooding.

But now the door had long since disappeared. Considering the condition of the Sanctuary’s interior, nine out of ten doors were broken, including those in the elevator shaft. If a large amount of water leaked in, the consequences would be unimaginable. The entire Sanctuary could easily fill with water.

The ventilation ducts were also in terrible shape, riddled with holes made by rats and branching everywhere.

So, the only solution was to seal the leak inside the central warehouse.

“Suna, bring the Nightmare Star over. Something unexpected has happened in the Sanctuary. The bottom hold has ruptured and water is seeping in!”

Yang Yi kept it brief and called Suna over, just in case.

If the Sanctuary really sank, he would still have the chance to transfer to the Nightmare Star.

A reply came quickly, and it was good news.

“Xiao Ji says it can repair ships and can also perform underwater operations. As long as we seal the holes in the hull, it should be fine. This series of robots was designed from the beginning with underwater work in mind.”

Yang Yi’s eyes lit up. His thoughts raced, and he immediately came up with an idea.

“How long would it take you to repair a robot? If you can fix the other units, the repair speed should increase quite a bit.”

“That’s hard to say. It depends on the level of damage. But if we have spare parts and the damaged sections aren’t too difficult to dismantle, one robot should take about ten to thirty minutes to fix.”

“Good! Then take all the robots to Area C. Check all the scrapped ones and bring back any that are easy to repair. That way we can have more robots available to fix the hull breach…”

Yang Yi watched the speed at which the seawater was spreading while making rough calculations.

The breach could not be very large. Otherwise, what would be rushing in would be a torrent of seawater rather than this shallow water barely covering his feet.

So, there was still quite a bit of time before the Sanctuary would actually sink.

It should be enough.

Yang Yi explained his plan to Suna, and she replied that she would come immediately.

“Be careful. If things get dangerous, call me. Don’t take risks. This Sanctuary isn’t worth betting your life on. If it sinks, it sinks.”

He said this to Suna, preparing to act.

“What about you? What are you going to do?” Suna asked in a message.

“I’m going to kill every rat in that warehouse before you arrive.”

Yang Yi replied through the channel. With a powerful push of his legs, he sprinted towards the central warehouse. His body grew taller and taller, transforming into a werewolf nearly 3.2 metres tall, clad in black armour.

When he reached the warehouse, Yang Yi found that it had completely changed.

Rat corpses were everywhere. At a glance, it looked as if the floor were covered with a layer of black cotton, giving off a nauseating stench.

The place looked like it had been bombarded. Craters were scattered everywhere. If not for the two to three meter high piles of garbage acting as a buffer, the destruction would likely have been even worse.

Yang Yi checked the hull. There were three breaches in the bottom compartment, all blasted open by high powered shells, each spraying water columns seven or eight meters high.

The seawater fell like rain, soaking the garbage and rat corpses, turning into a disgusting liquid mixed with grease that seeped out from the base of the trash piles.

A notification popped up in the activity log:

[Affected by Rat’s Doomsday. Your sanity decreases by 10. You feel an inexplicable disgust toward rats.]

Yang Yi saw the alert, but it did not matter.

He had come here to kill rats anyway. Those damned filthy rats were trying to sink his Sanctuary.

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