Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

Chapter 126 - Chop, chop, chop, chop wood!

After being upgraded, the flintlock gun saw a comprehensive improvement in both power and firing speed.

A tree as thick as a thigh (1) could be broken with just two shots.

If this were fired at an ordinary person, there wouldn’t even be a chance for rescue.

Yang Yi fired continuously, felling a tree roughly every five seconds, making his logging efficiency incredibly high.

If it were a banana tree, however, Yang Yi would take out the Sea Serpent’s Fang and cut it down manually to collect the fire bananas.

Using a gun to blast apart a banana tree would likely cause the fire bananas to fall and get damaged.

Moreover, banana trees yielded very little usable wood, probably due to their high-water content, with each tree only counting for about 3 to 4 units of wood.

Other trees varied greatly in yield, mostly ranging from 10 to 15 units, while thigh-thick trees could be converted into 20 units of wood.

Yang Yi worked without rest, logging and gathering fire bananas nonstop.

After nearly four hours, he had “cut down” a third of the island’s trees.

For the following two hours, he planned to transport some of the logs back first and sell them at night.

For Yang Yi, chopping trees was easy since he could use his gun. Transporting them, however, was a different story. 

After two hours of hard labour, using both his hands and feet, Yang Yi managed to haul over 400 trees to the shoreline.

As for the remaining ones, he planned to go back for them tomorrow. It wasn’t like they were going anywhere!

Back on the deck, Yang Yi operated the grappling hooks of the Nightmare Star, loading all the logs into the cargo hold. Once converted into wood resources, the total came to 4,789 units.

At a rate of 30 Shell Coins per unit, the haul was worth nearly 150,000!

With that done, Yang Yi steered the Nightmare Star away from the shore, stopping 500 meters off the coast and deploying the Twilight Veil.

He had no intention of logging at night, and besides, he only had 40 stamina left — he needed to rest.

Although his attributes would increase at night, he didn’t want to mess up his sleep schedule. That was a habit of werewolves, not his!

Next came selling the goods.

Yang Yi pushed open the door to the captain’s quarters, sat on his bed, and opened the chat channel to check the day’s market trends.

It seemed the announcement of the Extreme Winter Sea’s exit point had caused a stir.

Some well-stocked players were offloading surplus supplies deliberately.

Since prices were high, they could sell for a profit and restock after leaving the Extreme Winter Sea, making easy money.

Due to this influx, wood prices had dipped slightly, dropping to 28 Shell Coins per unit.

Yang Yi sighed at the missed profits and quickly started selling.

“Bulk wood for sale! 28 Shell Coins per unit, no haggling! First come, first served!”

“Bulk? How much do you have?”

“Did you find an island?”

“Wait, are you the One-Eyed Boss?”

Yang Yi knew he’d be recognised.

After all, in the Extreme Winter Sea, even fleets struggled with resources. While they might sell some, no one would offload large amounts.

A sudden massive wood sale could only mean one thing — the seller was in a safe sea zone.

A few players had probably already exited the Extreme Winter Sea, but no one knew who they were.

However, everyone knew that the One-Eyed Boss had definitely made it out, so it didn’t take long for them to connect the dots.

Yang Yi neither confirmed nor denied their guesses, simply continuing his sales.

In no time, he had sold over 2,000 units.

Most players were buying in small batches of 100 or 200.

With only 10 to 15 days of sailing left before reaching the exit, they just needed enough to last the trip, supplementing what they already had.

As for those far from the exit with critical shortages — well, they were likely already eliminated, unless they were loaded with cash.

Yang Yi kept selling, and as he watched his Shell Coin balance rise, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction!

Suddenly, he received a private message from an old acquaintance, the leader of the Steel Brotherhood, Yu Dawei.

“Brother Yang, you’re the One-Eyed, aren’t you?”

“That’s right!”

Yang Yi saw no need to hide it. If he kept dodging the question now, it would just be awkward when the truth came out later.

“I knew I wasn’t wrong about you!” Yu Dawei replied.

“Let me be straight with you. We’re running critically low on wood. We had a battle with the Ice Nest Worm recently, and our wood reserves took a huge hit! Even if we ration it, we’ll need at least 8,000 units to get out of the Extreme Winter Sea safely. 

To round it up, I’ll buy 10,000 units from you.”

Yang Yi was stunned. He hadn’t expected Yu Dawei to ask for that much.

Good thing he had found an island. Otherwise, there was no way he could gather that much wood.

Even with the Nightmare Star’s cargo capacity, he’d likely have to deliver it in two shipments to fit everything.

“Uh… I don’t have that much in stock right now. I’ll need to log more tomorrow before I can sell to you.”

“No problem!”

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, despite Yu Dawei not asking for a discount, Yang Yi took the initiative to lower the price to 25 Shell Coins per unit.

They agreed to finalise the deal the next day. The 4,789 units of wood sold out quickly.

Yang Yi even sold the 536 units he originally had in his ship’s storage!

With the total earnings, combined with his previous balance, Yang Yi’s Shell Coin count skyrocketed.

The money was rolling in much faster than before! And with countless trees still waiting to be logged on the island, it was practically a goldmine!

Not long after, another private message came in, this one unrelated to trade. The sender was Shen Guanquan, and he was also asking about Yang Yi’s identity.

“Are you One-Eyed?”

Shen Guanquan didn’t know Yang Yi was the captain of the Nightmare Star, but since they had traded a few times before, he still remembered Yang Yi’s ID number.

Yang Yi pondered for a few seconds but didn’t bother hiding his alias.

After all, the alias was meant to conceal his real identity in the first place, there was no point in creating yet another fake persona just to hide it. That would be an endless loop of deception.

“Yes.” Yang Yi kept his reply short.

“Can you share how you cleared the Extreme Winter Sea? I’m willing to pay for the information.”

“No.” Yang Yi had no intention of revealing anything.

“Alright. Let’s work together more in the future.”

Shen Guanquan didn’t press the issue. Since Yang Yi wasn’t willing to talk, he let it go.

But this time, Yang Yi changed the topic.

“Can your Farmer ship grow anything?”

“Most things, yeah. Why do you have some special seeds?”

“Take a look at this, can you grow it?”

Yang Yi sent over the details of the Fire Banana, including its seed data.

He had considered growing it himself but ultimately gave up on the idea.

Even if the fruit was plantable, it would take at least a year or two to go from a seedling to a mature tree that could bear fruit.

That was way too long.

On top of that, he’d have to use up a ton of fresh water for irrigation, deal with potential pests and plant diseases, and there was always the risk of crop failure…

Overall, the cost of growing it on the Nightmare Star was simply too high.

Even if he bought some potted plant items that accelerated growth, it wouldn’t be worth it. Those items were expensive, had limited effects, and were more suited for growing vegetables than fruit trees.

So, Yang Yi figured he might as well sell the seeds to Shen Guanquan and let him do the farming.

That way, if Yang Yi ever needed Fire Bananas, he could just buy from him, at a discounted price, of course!

Shen Guanquan didn’t reply immediately. He was probably discussing the matter with his crew.

A few minutes later, Yang Yi finally received a response.

“This fruit is classified as a Level 3 Special Crop. Our Farmer ship is only at Level 3 right now, which means we can only speed up its growth by 200%. We’ll need to reach Level 4 before we can plant and harvest it quickly.”

“If you’re willing to sell, I’ll buy the seeds for 10,000 Shell Coins.”

“What if I just want to buy the fruit from you at a lower price later?”

“Give me the seeds for free, and I’ll sell you the fruit at cost price in the future. But you can’t resell them and mess up the market.”

“Deal!” Yang Yi agreed to the trade.

He wasn’t worried about Shen Guanquan backing out, neither of them needed the extra profit badly enough to risk ruining a valuable partnership.

Shen Guanquan would profit from growing the fruit anyway.

“By the way, do you have any other special crops?”

“Just one Vitality Coconut.”

Shen Guanquan sent over the item details.

“Uh…”

(1) What an odd measurement -Simply

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