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(1) Hahah I'm not surprised it's him. The dude is as proud as they come -Simply
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“No wonder the vending machine wouldn’t take it — turns out this bug is made of seawater. That’s just too cheap…”
Yang Yi silently complained to himself as he stepped out of the laboratory and onto the deck.
A thin layer of frost still covered the deck, and it didn’t seem like it would be clearing up anytime soon.
With the temperature this low, there was no way to expect the frost to melt on its own. The only option was to put the skeletal arm to work and put in some overtime.
Yang Yi walked to the ship’s railing and looked down.
The greyish snow below had been cleared away, thanks to the skeletal arm’s ability to extend from the ship’s side for cleaning.
With the snow gone, he could clearly see that the Nightmare Star was frozen together with the glacier.
Thawing it wouldn’t be easy, especially since the glacier’s size was no joke!
Yang Yi used his three-eyed vision to scan the surroundings and found that the nearest ice-free sea was to the southwest, about three nautical miles away.
That meant the Nightmare Star had to break through three nautical miles of ice to escape — an incredibly difficult task!
He moved to the bow and activated the Twilight Veil of the Nightmare Star.
As he turned, he ran his hand over the octopus-head capsule machine once again.
“It actually reacts to heat and cold…but its surface has no frost at all. How strange.”
Yang Yi found it baffling.
Only the monster capsule machine remained unaffected — there wasn’t a single speck of frost on it.
After patrolling the deck, he returned to the captain’s quarters.
Thanks to the Life Fireplace, the temperature inside had risen considerably.
Yang Yi warmed himself by the fire while organising the information he had gathered on the Ice Nest Worms.
Selling the intel to the newspaper would fetch him a good amount of Shell Coins. If he didn’t sell it, someone else probably would sooner or later.
After about ten minutes, Yang Yi finished organising his data, including photographs.
He had the skeletal arm hold up a relatively intact Ice Nest Worm for a picture. Inside its body, a frozen eyeball emitted a faint blue glow.
“Perfect!”
Then, he contacted the editor-in-chief, Song Yingwen, to sell the intel.
“Brother Song, I’ve got some explosive information for sale!” Yang Yi sent a private message.
“What kind of information?” Song replied almost instantly.
“The truth behind that buzzing electric noise!”
“Oh? If it’s that, I already know. The truth is a group of blue-glowing ghosts, right?”
“Ghosts?”
“Yeah, someone provided that information a while ago…”
Song Yingwen directly shared the details and even named the informant — clearly, the other party hadn’t requested anonymity.
The information came from the New World Fleet. They had given it for free, with only one condition: the publication had to prominently credit them as the source.
However, “blue ghosts” was far too vague — it didn’t even explain what these ghosts actually were.
All they had said was that these blue ghosts could freeze everything and were drawn to firelight.
And there were no pictures to back it up.
Compared to Yang Yi’s intel, it was hardly on the same level!
But it wasn’t really the New World Fleet’s fault.
Back then, Captain Zhao of the Ironhead barely managed to escape with his life — he didn’t have time to gather detailed intel. (1)
He only noticed that those blue lights targeted campfires, so he immediately kicked his own fire into the sea and ran for his life.
Of course, the teammates who covered his escape weren’t nearly as lucky.
After piecing together the whole story, Yang Yi simply dumped all his intel on the Ice Nest Worms, including the images, and sent it over.
The other party remained silent for a dozen seconds before replying:
“You really know how to surprise me — sometimes even scare me!”
Originally, the weekly issue had already been finalised and was just waiting for release, but since this explosive new intel came at the last minute, he had to delay it.
The crystallised Ice Worm, with visible proof, was far more convincing than the so-called "blue ghosts" no one could see or touch!
A few minutes later, Yang Yi received a payment of 20,000 Shell Coins — the highest he had ever gotten.
After all, intel on the Ice Nest Worm was extremely hard to obtain, and those who encountered it rarely lived to tell the tale.
After selling the information, Yang Yi decided to get something to eat and rest for a bit.
His condition was terrible. Although his severed limb had been reattached, his blood vitality, stamina, and sanity were all alarmingly low. Stamina, in particular, was just barely above thirty — if it dropped any further, he would pass out.
Everything else would have to wait until he recovered, including retrieving supplies from the Courage, dismantling the ship, and figuring out a way to escape this frozen wasteland.
“Suna, I’m about to make some food. Want to try some?” He sent her a private message.
But even after several minutes, there was no reply. Yang Yi glanced at Suna’s sanity level and saw it was only 51.
That number was far from reassuring. Best to put research on hold for now!
He got up and walked towards the witch’s lab, stopping at the door.
“Suna, you really should take a break!” Yang Yi called out.
At that moment, Suna was fully engrossed in her work, using tweezers to piece together human skin fragments found inside the Ice Nest Worm.
She had noticed that there seemed to be writing on the skin, though she couldn’t decipher its meaning. She was trying to assemble the pieces to make sense of it.
Even though the patches of skin didn’t come from the same person, the repeating symbols allowed her to cross-reference them and get a rough understanding.
“Suna!” Yang Yi called again.
She finally stopped what she was doing and looked up.
Yang Yi was holding a nearly three-metre-long skeletal fish in his hands.
“Want to try some of this gourmet dish?” he asked.
…
Twenty minutes later, a campfire was burning in the small courtyard on the Nightmare Star’s deck, with a large iron pot placed over it.
Yang Yi added more wood and grease to the fire, as it wasn’t burning as hot as he’d like — probably due to the freezing environment.
Inside the pot was none other than the Corpse-Manipulating Worm. A tangle of black, hair-like threads churned in the boiling water, along with some floating fish bones.
Peeling the worm’s skin was too much trouble, so Yang Yi had simply gutted it, disassembled it into parts, and tossed them into the pot to boil.
Once cooked, the black threads became much easier to peel off.
Suna, sitting nearby with a frown, didn’t look the least bit excited about the meal.
After all, Yang Yi’s infamous “bread mush” had left a lasting psychological scar.
This time, he wasn’t going to ruin it!
After removing all the black threads and the worm’s outer skin, he found that they had shrunk significantly — probably just enough for a single meal.
He boiled a fresh pot of water and threw in the edible parts.
Then, he added some salt for seasoning and prepared a bowl of jellyfish mucus as a dipping sauce.
“Wanna try?”
Yang Yi looked at Suna. She remained motionless, staring at the writhing black strands in the pot.
“Well, don’t mind if I do!”
He grabbed a piece of black worm skin, still laced with a few black threads, blew on it twice, and popped it into his mouth.
The texture was incredibly gelatinous — ten times softer and more tender than pig trotters or beef tendons, with a slight natural sweetness.
The black threads, on the other hand, snapped easily when bitten, like the crunchy cartilage inside pig ears, making a satisfying crackling sound.
After a few bites, Yang Yi didn’t bother convincing Suna anymore and just kept eating…and eating.
Finally, after watching him devour several pieces with enthusiasm, Suna couldn’t help but grow curious about the worm’s taste.
She picked up a piece, took a bite…and then immediately stopped.