Ch. 28 - Fusion! Nightmare Star!

【Captain Suna of the Astrologer used a rare item – Ship Fusion Card, applying to merge her ship with yours. The resources in both ships' cabins will be combined.】【Accept/Reject】

【Accept!】

【Please vote for the new captain. If the votes are tied, the fusion will fail, and the Fusion Card will be returned.

Note: The captain has absolute authority, and a new election will only occur if the captain dies.】

Yang Yi immediately voted for himself, knowing that Suna would also vote for him, as they had agreed upon this beforehand. Yang Yi had to be the captain! He didn't feel safe with Suna in command – she might steer the ship into some abyss just to see if a sea monster's appetite was big enough…

After the fusion,

Both of their ship interfaces became identical, but the primary permissions were in Yang Yi’s hands. He could allocate certain permissions to Suna, including resource distribution, ship expansion, steering, and restricting access to specific rooms.

The ship was also given the option to rename itself. Its default name was a combination of the two ships' previous names, "Nightmare Astrology." Finding the name untasteful, Yang Yi shortened it to "Nightmare Star."

If all went as expected, "Nightmare Star" would be the first merged ship among the players.

Typically, merging required paying a certain amount of resources to modify the ship's structure, but in this case, those resources were already accounted for in the reconstruction.

Reconstructing "Nightmare Star" would require:

Wood: 700 unitsCloth: 300 unitsStone: 100 unitsCrystal: 20 unitsSteel: 10 units

Seeing steel and stone among the requirements, Yang Yi was pleased. The new ship would be sturdier.

The shortage was mainly in wood, with some missing stone and cloth.

Yang Yi had hoped that after the fusion, Suna could contribute some resources, but her cabin was nearly empty!

Wood: 1 unitCloth: 2 units

It was worse than a beggar's stash. Was she even trying to survive?

The current stock in the ship's cabin was:

Wood: 59 units (a shortage of 641 units)Stone: 44 units (a shortage of 56 units)Cloth: 274 units (a shortage of 26 units)

On the island, stone was easy to find. The island itself and the nearby shorelines had plenty of rocks.

Cloth could only be obtained by fishing and hoping for luck, though they didn’t need much.

As for wood...it was uncertain if the trees on the island would be enough.

"How much wood have you gathered, Suna?" Yang Yi asked.

Before he woke up, Suna had used her flintlock gun to blast down a lot of trees, likely causing quite a commotion, yet he had slept through it all. No wonder Suna had compared him to a dead pig...

"I've gathered 292 units of wood so far. If we dig up the roots of those trees, we could get a bit more," she replied.

"With the cabin stock, we have 351 units of wood. The shortage isn’t low..." Yang Yi frowned.

They couldn't trade, so gathering was the only option.

He looked around and saw that even the trees submerged in the sea and the ones closest to them had been chopped down by Suna.

The only ones left were those farther out, their crowns still poking above the water, about a hundred metres away.

To gather more wood, they would have to swim out there, shoot the trees down, and then haul them back.

Fortunately, the storm had subsided, and the sea was calm, so the water level shouldn't rise any further.

"Give me back the gun!" Yang Yi reclaimed his precious flintlock.

"You gather some stones near the island and the shore. We need 56 units. Don't bother digging up the tree roots – you're better off making a fishing rod and catching some fish! I'll swim further out and bring back some wood." Yang Yi instructed.

"Sure!" Suna agreed readily.

With his sharkskin swimsuit reducing his stamina consumption, Yang Yi was the best choice for the task.

But before setting out, they both needed to eat.

Catching fish was the quickest and most convenient option, and with Yang Yi’s gun capable of firing underwater, it was easy for him to catch some.

Within ten minutes, he had caught two plump groupers.

Though the fish were torn apart by the gunshots, they managed to eat their fill.

Then, Yang Yi swam out into the sea, while Suna stayed behind to collect stones and fish.

Thanks to the buffer zone, there were no monsters in the sea, making the process smooth and uneventful. After swimming a hundred metres, Yang Yi reached the first tree.

Bang!

The sound of gunfire and an explosion echoed underwater, scattering the nearby fish.

After another shot, a log about thirty centimetres in diametre floated to the surface.

It was the thickest tree in the area.

Yang Yi could haul two logs back at most, so he chose the thicker ones for more wood.

Half an hour later, he returned with two thick logs, which the system identified as 18 units of wood.

Swimming, diving, and pushing logs ashore was like a triathlon, exhausting Yang Yi by over 30 stamina points.

He could only manage two trips before needing to lie down on the island to recover.

Without any vitality coconut juice, his stamina recovery was slow. By the end of the day, he had only made five trips, collecting 93 units of wood.

Suna, meanwhile, had more than enough stones, gathering 74 units.

Gathering stone on an island was the simplest and easiest task – as long as you found the island.

As for fishing, Suna had exceptional luck, possibly due to some hidden blessing. She even caught two 2-litre bottles of Farmer's Three Punch.

All the fish she caught went into their bellies.

She also gathered 5 units of wood and 8 units of cloth.

At this rate, they would be able to rebuild the ship within four to five days.

At night, for safety, they avoided risky activities like fishing or logging and instead stayed in the centre of the island, waiting for daylight.

They also took turns keeping watch, with Suna covering the first half of the night and Yang Yi the second half.

Though there was no bed, Yang Yi slept soundly.

It was far more comfortable than sleeping on the Nightmare, with no nightmares!

In the chat channel, people were speculating about the three remaining players in the storm zone and why they hadn’t emerged yet.

"I bet they're inside some giant bug's stomach, not fully digested yet!"

"Good that they haven't come out; it gives us more time to upgrade our ships and gather resources!"

"Maybe they found a hidden dungeon at sea and are on some secret mission?"

Everyone had their theories.

They had no idea Yang Yi and Suna's ship had sunk, and they were gathering resources to build a new one.

As for the third person, Yang Yi had no idea what they were up to – they might also be repairing their ship.

A few friends Yang Yi had added earlier were asking if he was safe and if he had made it out. (These were people who had gifted items during the storm zone.)

Before going to sleep, Yang Yi sent out a unified response of just seven words:

"The ship blew up. I'm building a new one!" seaʀᴄh thё Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Wow, even after your ship blew up, you survived! Impressive!"

"Awesome, man. Need a leg attachment?"