Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 107 - Trying to escape

The two began discussing the main plan.

Yang Yi explained his strategy to Suna: using fuel to melt the ice and escape. The steps included setting fires, firing cannons, and manoeuvring the ship.

However, the actual execution required careful planning and precise calculations. If they set fires recklessly and ran out of fuel before freeing the Nightmare Star, they’d be completely doomed.

That’s why Yang Yi called Suna — he wanted her input on the execution details. After all, it was hard for one person to think of everything. With two minds, the plan would be much more refined!

But before they got into the details, Suna suddenly asked:

"Yang Yi, why do you smell like burnt flesh?"

"Do I?"

Yang Yi sniffed his thick cotton coat but didn’t notice anything unusual.

Suna, however, could smell it clearly.

Her sense of smell was sharp, and she had caught this strange scent earlier. Now, she was sure it was coming from Yang Yi himself.

Yet, Yang Yi was completely unaware.

Then, it hit him — the smell of charred liquor!

Just like drinking a lot of white liquor makes one reek of alcohol, consuming large amounts of charred liquor emitted a burnt stench, as if he would catch fire at any moment.

Yang Yi shared the charred liquor’s description with Suna to clear her doubts.

"Want to try some?"

He took out a cup of charred liquor, but Suna turned him down.

She didn’t like the burnt smell.

So, the two and a half barrels of charred liquor were moved into the ship’s cabin, stored for future use.

With that settled, they focused on drafting the escape plan.

Suna’s suggestions turned out to be quite valuable.

She proposed digging holes around the ship first. Once the holes were deep enough, they could light fires inside to increase the heated surface area of the ice.

Since hot air rises, they could also place pots over the holes to heat water and pour the warm water onto the surrounding ice layers…

With the plan set, it was time for action!

Yang Yi would be the primary executor, while Suna calculated fuel consumption and set up additional campfires on the deck.

To ensure smooth burning, the first step was to clear away the ash snow around the Nightmare Star.

The bone ash could interfere with combustion, so they needed a clean area to work with.

This would have been a tedious task, but with Suna’s Stitched Monster helping, it became effortless.

Its tentacles could blow and suck air like a vacuum, clearing large patches of space in no time.

Yang Yi then distributed over fifty stone pickaxes, made using the Simple Synthesis System, to his Skeletal Arms, ordering them to excavate the ice around the Nightmare Star and dig large enough pits.

Once equipped, the skeletal arms moved to the ship’s exterior and began chipping away.

Those without pickaxes could use stones instead — there were still plenty of stone resources on the deck.

If even stones weren’t available, they could simply punch the ice. It didn’t matter if they broke their hands — skeletal arms were renewable anyway!

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No lazy bones were allowed to slack off!

Crafting the stone pickaxes had already consumed over 500 units of wood. Including the distributed stone materials, the stone consumption exceeded 400 units — a considerable expense.

But at least, once used, the pickaxe handles could be burned as firewood, so it wouldn’t be a total waste.

With everything assigned, the skeletal arms got to work, filling the air with the constant clinking and clanking of tools.

According to the plan, they needed to dig eighteen pits, evenly surrounding the ship.

While the skeletal arms were digging, Yang Yi focused on purchasing iron pots.

These pots could be resold later, so even though they were expensive, the actual financial loss would only be a slight price difference — not too significant.

Yang Yi spent a total of 8,500 Shell Coins to buy seventeen large iron pots. Since they were made from steel alloys, he couldn’t expect them to be cheap.

After making the purchase, he went to the bow of the ship and used the water-soaked cannon to test the ice’s thickness. One shot blasted a hole straight through.

That was good news — it meant the ice layer wasn’t too thick.

Yang Yi ran over for a closer look and estimated the ice to be around 80 cm thick. The ice surrounding the Nightmare Star might be a bit thicker, but not by much.

So, they decided to dig the pits to a depth of 50 cm.

“If only the water-soaked cannon was portable,” Yang Yi muttered to himself. “If I could just aim it beneath the ship and fire a few rounds, we might break free immediately…”

About five and a half hours later, the eighteen pits were finally dug out.

And that was with Yang Yi helping — if he had left it to the Skeletal Arms alone, who knew how long it would’ve taken!

Their strength was just too weak, probably only 3 points in strength, making them incredibly inefficient.

If they had to dig out all the surrounding ice, it would take one or two whole weeks!

Once the pits were ready, Suna had also finished setting up over ten campfires on the deck and had prepared the fuel.

The fuel was naturally the fat of Pale Worms, which had a lower density than water and could burn on the surface.

Suna allocated 20 litres of fat per pit, totaling 360.

After pouring the fuel in, she fired flaming arrows from the deck to ignite the pits.

With the fires lit, they placed the pots over the flames, completing the initial setup.

Now came the long waiting game, repeating the same process over and over.

They added the chunks of ice dug from the pits into the pots, waited for them to melt, and then poured the hot water around the pits to expand them.

Once the water cooled, they would scoop it back into the pots, reheat it, and continue the cycle.

This step could be left to the Skeletal Arms.

Later on, once the pits expanded into pools of water, they could move the pots onto the deck of the Nightmare Star and start boiling water directly.

By continuously pouring hot water around the ship, they could keep the temperature high, while the Skeletal Arms stirred the water to promote heat circulation.

Soon enough, the ice beneath the ship would thin out, until it could no longer hold the Nightmare Star in place, allowing them to break free!

…

Four and a half hours later, accompanied by the sound of creaking and cracking ice, the Nightmare Star finally broke free!

The ship’s immense engine power crushed the last thin layers of ice, and the vessel floated back onto the water’s surface.

Seizing the moment, Yang Yi adjusted the ship’s angle, aiming the cannons southwest.

He planned to use artillery fire to blast a path through the ice.

Once the melted area expanded a bit more, they could finally sail out of this frozen trap!

Everything was going smoothly…

Until suddenly, a cold wind blew in from the northeast, causing the temperature to plummet.

Under normal circumstances, Yang Yi wouldn’t have paid much attention to it.

But now—

He realised the wind was coming from the northeast…and that was a big problem!

Immediately, he switched to his Three-Eyed Vision and looked towards that direction.

What he saw made his blood run cold—

A swarm of Ice Nest Worms was flying toward the Nightmare Star, still about two kilometres away!

They hadn’t arrived yet…but the chilling aura preceded them!

“…No way…”

Yang Yi’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“What’s wrong?”

Suna, who had been adding wood to the deck campfires, paused and turned towards him.

“The Ice Nest Worms are coming!”

Yang Yi’s voice carried a mix of exhaustion and frustration.

He wasn’t particularly afraid of the Ice Nest Worms.

However, their arrival meant that the past half-day of effort was about to go to waste!

“Get off the deck!” Yang Yi snapped back to his senses and immediately ordered Suna.

Then, he rushed into the captain’s cabin—

If the Ice Nest Worms were coming, then he would bring out the Life Fireplace and burn the damn Worms to ashes!

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