Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 272 - The potted plant has just grown

Yang Yi felt that these robots all looked almost identical, and judging who was who based solely on appearance and battle damage wasn’t going to work.

So he came up with a solution: he would mark them.

He pushed open the door and entered the witch’s laboratory, holding a brush made from wolf hair for marking.

Only Xiao Ji remained unmarked.

Behind him were Xiao Yi, Xiao Er, and Xiao San, the three robots, each now labeled with their respective numbers: One, Two, and Three.

The second robot, which had lost a wheel, was fitted with a wooden replacement. It wasn’t as good as the original, but at least it no longer scraped the floor.

Yang Yi found Xiao Ji in the lab and approached with the brush in hand.

The robot instantly powered on, exiting standby mode, and extended a mechanical arm, grabbing a cloth to pretend it was mopping while running away in the opposite direction from Yang Yi.

But Yang Yi already understood Xiao Ji’s nature, it could be treated like a mischievous child pretending to be a robot.

Its dodging was meaningless; he grabbed it in one motion and lifted it off the ground.

“Warning. I am currently performing cleaning tasks. Your behaviour may constitute obstruction…”

The indicator lights on Xiao Ji’s head flashed rapidly. It clearly didn’t want to be marked like the other three robots with the character “Ji”.

But its resistance was futile.

Yang Yi pulled out a spare eye mask and placed it on the robot. It fit perfectly, covering the bullet hole. The tie could be extended to secure it on the bucket-shaped robot’s head.

He set Xiao Ji back on the floor, pleased with his handiwork.

With the eye mask on, the bucket-shaped robot’s demeanor changed entirely, it now looked like a pirate.

Xiao Ji froze, seemingly unable to compute what had just happened.

“There’s some grease here, you can lubricate your wheels so you move more smoothly. But handle rust removal yourself, don’t want you getting damaged.”

Yang Yi placed a bottle of pale worm grease in front of Xiao Ji.

“Also, this grease is flammable, don’t use too much, and stay away from fire,” he added, then turned his attention to Suna at the lab desk.

“Dr. Suna, may I ask how long it might take to produce the Rat Killer?”

Suna looked up, a little annoyed.

Yang Yi quickly corrected himself and asked again using her proper title, “Suna,” and repeated the question.

“There’s no sample, but the data remains. It should take roughly two to three days to produce. But the raw material comes from rats. If you want to mass-produce it, you should capture some, preferably live rat slaves,” Suna replied, gesturing to the rats nearby.

After several hours, these rats had clearly grown, living within the tendrils of the pale worms.

Yang Yi nodded, deciding he would find time to capture some.

He then returned to the deck, taking control of the Nightmare Star and steering it toward the original port. The area was familiar, making it a suitable base for attacking the rat nest.

Once the ship was docked, he retrieved the previously collected rat slave skeleton. It no longer had much research value and could be used for the pull system.

Before trying that, he tested its effect:

【Evaluation: A rat slave skeleton, reflecting the ship owner’s hatred for rats.】

【Effect: Ship gains skill - Summon Skeleton Rats: Can summon 10 skeleton rats, obedient to you, restricted to a range of one kilometer around the ship.】

“Also a summoning skill?”

Yang Yi read the information. The summon had been upgraded: the number had increased from one to ten.

Even so, ten rats weren’t very powerful, their combat ability remained weak.

Yang Yi swapped back to the Spider Queen’s head, climbed down the mast, and dropped the rat slave skeleton into the vending machine.

Soon enough, he got a capsule.

【Name: Rat Gloves】

【Type: Treasure】【Quality: Fine】【Description: Gloves made from rat fur, resistant to the corruption of darkness, with good waterproof and thermal protection.】

“Rat fur gloves?”

Yang Yi looked at the gloves in his hands. He could make something similar himself, but it wouldn’t be as refined as what the system produced.

He handed the gloves to Suna, she might find them useful in experiments. For himself, wearing the Penitent Armour, the gloves had almost no practical use.

After that, he returned to the laboratory, melted down the Crystal Greatsword, and took some materials from the Crystal Sheild to repair the sword back to its original state. He swung it a few times to test it, then stored it back into the ring.

He planned to wait until the Flame Serpent Fang cooled down before going to capture more rats, which would take another four or five hours. Since trade time would follow soon after, Yang Yi decided to go the next day instead.

Checking his energy, he still had 76, barely any depletion, so he ate two roasted chickens and did a little exercise.

Then he climbed up to the lookout to inspect the potted plant left there.

“This… counts as a tree?”

Yang Yi paused. In the pot, a long purple sardine had grown, about two fingers thick and forty centimetres long, with a fish head at the tip.

It looked like an actor in a play pretending to be a tree trunk, staring at Yang Yi with one dead fish eye and mouth open. Four long purple legs extended from its body like branches, stretching out to the sides.

Yang Yi touched it and found the texture hard, it was actually made of wood, though incredibly lifelike. He took a photo and sent it to Suna.

“It’s grown, but it will take another two days to mature. No signs of aggression so far; I’ll bring it back to the captain’s cabin to observe.”

After sending the message, Yang Yi carried the pot back to the captain’s cabin and sprinkled some water and fertiliser on it. The purple sardine head consumed part of the fertiliser .

He watched it for a while, feeling like it might run off.

So he called over Xiao Ji.

“Here’s a task for you, watch this specimen and don’t let it escape the room.”

The robot’s indicator lights flashed, and it seemed much more obedient than before. Adjusting the eye mask with its mechanical arm, it replied:

“Task will be completed.”

Xiao Ji ran out, and shortly after, Xiao Er ran in. It looked like Xiao Ji had outsourced the task to Xiao Er.

“This one actually learned how to delegate… not bad.”

Yang Yi scratched his head and ignored it. He knew the robot’s combat capability, so keeping an eye on this fish-like sapling shouldn’t be a problem.

Once the data was confirmed, the pot could be moved to the lab, where Suna could handle it.

Thank you for reading! We hope you’re enjoying the story at iNoveltranslation.com :)

There’s now a Patreon, so feel free to check it out! You can read up to 12 chapters in advance!! :D

Please give the novel a rating and a review on novelbuddy. It will help the website and also help people find this novel!