Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

Dull explosions echoed one after another.

Yang Yi kept firing miniature torpedoes, driving back the drowned drifting toward him.

Only when it was a lone target, or a straggler that slipped through, would he switch to the harpoon, piercing the drowned’s head from about ten meters away.

Sometimes the harpoon would get stuck in a skull, making it hard to retrieve, so his supply was gradually dwindling.

“How much longer on the repairs?”

Yang Yi asked Xiao Ji.

“Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds remaining.”

“That should be enough.”

Yang Yi replied, checking his remaining ammo.

Four harpoons left. Twenty-three miniature torpedoes.

Holding out for three minutes would be more than manageable. The robot team could also spare some units to assist with defense, so there was no real concern.

So far, Yang Yi had killed over five hundred drowned, most of them blown apart by torpedoes.

But the remaining horde was still massive, roughly twelve hundred. Because of limited visibility, he could only estimate.

He continued firing, using torpedoes to blast apart the approaching drowned.

Soon, three minutes passed. Good news came from Xiao Ji, the three leak points had all been repaired. No more water was getting in.

“Alright, prepare to fall back!”

Yang Yi let out a long breath.

Now the Sanctuary wouldn’t risk flooding and sinking.

Once he got back, there would be a massive haul of spoils waiting for him, and countless capsule draws.

Yang Yi and the robot team began retreating, heading back toward the diving operations module.

This time, the robots moved in front, using their beam cannons to eliminate the drowned drifting nearby.

“Suna, things went smoothly on my end. It’s all taken care of, we’re heading back now. How about your side?”

Yang Yi sent her a private message.

“I just finished repairing the last robot. I’m about to head down,” she replied through the channel.

Yang Yi looked toward the diving operations module. The elevator above was slowly descending.

Since the outer wall was made of transparent material, he could clearly see the elevator moving.

He adjusted the control grip at his waist, increasing the thrust of the propulsion unit to speed up his return.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to collect drifting chunks of corpses…

“Huh?”

Yang Yi froze for a moment. The piece he had just reached for suddenly moved away on its own, something was off.

Then, one after another, the floating fragments of corpses around him began to sink, as if being dragged down by something.

Sensing something wrong, Yang Yi immediately looked downward. With the help of his headlamp, he spotted some translucent, crystalline substance, clearly distinct from the surrounding seawater, like a highly elastic mucus.

These strands could stretch very far, like transparent tentacles. They would stick to the corpses of the drowned and yank them downward at high speed. Even a few of the still-living drowned were dragged under.

“What the hell is that?”

Yang Yi had never seen anything like it. All he felt was that something was seriously wrong.

“Xiao Ji, move! Forget the drowned.

There’s something coming up from below!”

he shouted, cranking the propulsion to maximum.

By now, the surrounding corpse fragments, and even some of the drowned, were dropping downward like dumplings being poured into boiling water.

Suna also arrived at the diving operations module just in time to witness the scene.

A large number of crystalline, translucent tentacles were sticking to the drowned and fragments of corpses, dragging them rapidly downward.

One of the tentacles even reached toward Yang Yi, moving extremely fast.

Acting on instinct, Yang Yi raised his weapon to block. He felt a tremendous force yank at it, and his tactical rifle was torn straight from his hands.

If he hadn’t let go in time, the thing might have dragged him into the deep sea.

Without the rifle, Yang Yi stopped trying to hold anything and sped up, swimming toward the diving module.

But before long, one of the robots beside him disappeared, Robot No. 7 had also been caught by a transparent tentacle and was being pulled downward at high speed.

The robots’ beam cannons were almost useless against this translucent, mucus-like substance. The beams passed straight through it, causing virtually no damage.

“It sticks to everything…?”

Yang Yi realized its characteristic, it seemed to take whatever it touched, grabbing anything and hauling it away.

So he pulled out his stomach pouch and released a large number of cube-shaped steel blocks, stones, and other materials as cover.

The effect was immediate. Most of the tentacle attacks were intercepted by the materials he threw out.

Yang Yi and the remaining two robots successfully made it into the airlock.

After the water was drained, Yang Yi and Suna reunited.

“Whew, that was close. Something weird came up from the sea again. Good thing I thought fast and threw out materials to distract it.”

He said to Suna, preparing to take off his diving suit.

Out of the water, the suit was nothing but a burden.

“Wait, don’t move!”

Suna walked straight over, put on a pair of rodent-fur gloves, and pulled a transparent tentacle off Yang Yi’s back.

The thing was nearly invisible, against the clear air, it was even harder to notice.

Yang Yi had no idea when it had latched onto him, but Suna explained:

“There were two tentacles attacking you just now. One was in your blind spot. I twisted it off with the Curled Tentacle.”

“I see.”

Yang Yi nodded, thanking her, and at the same time obtained information about the substance.

【Name: Abyss Scavenger’s Mucus】

【Description: The Abyss Scavenger is a special lifeform that lives in the deep sea. Its mucus has extremely strong adhesion, anything stuck to it can hardly escape. It has the habit of collecting corpses and debris from the ocean, hence the name ‘Abyss Scavenger.’ However, during collection, it may mistakenly target the wrong objects. It is attracted to large amounts of corpses and waste.】

“Abyss Scavenger… there’s actually something like this in the ocean.”

After reading the information, Yang Yi noticed that Suna hadn’t moved for quite a while. She was still holding that piece of transparent tentacle.

“Stuck?”

Suna nodded.

Luckily, she was wearing gloves. If she had touched it with bare hands, she might have lost a layer of skin.

Yang Yi removed his diving suit. The suit, along with the Abyss Scavenger’s mucus and the rodent-fur gloves, was collected by Suna into her storage bag and sent directly to the laboratory.

“Let’s go.”

After checking everything, Yang Yi stored the other two high-quality diving suits in the module and prepared to take the elevator out.

“Look outside,” Suna suddenly said.

Yang Yi turned back.

The underwater environment had become much cleaner, as if it had been swept. All corpse fragments were gone, along with the drowned, even the smallest debris had disappeared.

Visibility underwater had improved significantly.

Curious about the scavenger, Yang Yi switched to his Third Eye to take a look.

About two thousand meters below, there was a massive, amorphous mass of viscous substance. Those transparent tentacles seemed to extend from within it.

The mass was enormous, over three thousand meters long, like a gigantic amoeba.

Inside it, a huge amount of garbage and corpses were suspended.

Perhaps having finished cleaning, the Abyss Scavenger was slowly sinking back down.

【You have discovered information about Player Island No. 09 , Garbage Island. You have gained a small amount of player points.】

“What?”

Yang Yi was startled. “This thing is connected to a Player Island too?”

His words caught Suna’s attention. She immediately looked downward as well, even taking out the telescope, and finally caught sight of the mysterious creature.

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