Tiny spiders

Hu Wei's ship was a level-three ship.

Both expansion spaces aboard had been used to build cannons.

[Name: Ordinary cannon]

[Type: Ship equipment]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: An ordinary cannon with a range of 200 meters.]

[Cannon fixed in the combat room. Cannot be dismantled.]

Yang Yi had wanted to see whether he could move the cannons onto his own ship, but after reading their information, he abandoned the idea completely.

Hu Wei really had been loaded, though. He had stockpiled a huge amount of supplies, only for Yang Yi to reap all the benefits!

The supplies and equipment aboard were as follows:

Wood ×912, cloth ×808, stone ×995, steel ×83, crystal ×63, sulfur ×35, fresh water ×50 L, and assorted food such as sausages and bread, enough to feed Yang Yi and Su Na for half a month.

The equipment included a common-quality telescope, a simple fishing rod, and two Tinder Wool Sweaters.

Yang Yi did the math. These supplies were enough to upgrade the Nightmare Star to level three.

But he still had no leads on the Otherworldly Demon corpse required for the upgrade.

Dismantling this level-three sailing ship would give him an additional wood ×520, cloth ×233, stone ×240, and steel ×20.

The total supplies already exceeded the Nightmare's capacity.

For now, the most economical approach was to leave this ship intact, wait until he obtained an Otherworldly Demon corpse, upgrade the Nightmare Star to level three, and then dismantle this ship.

For the time being, he could use this ship as a warehouse and tow it behind them.

After Yang Yi and Su Na moved the food, fresh water, and high-grade supplies onto the Nightmare Star, they sailed away from the island.

When the ship had traveled two hundred nautical miles, Yang Yi's expression suddenly changed. His entire body itched unbearably, as though countless insects were crawling over him and biting him.

He immediately stopped the ship, turned around, and sailed back. The itching vanished.

Yang Yi now knew why Hu Wei had stayed by this island. He had been unable to leave at all.

"What happened?" Su Na noticed the commotion and came out of the cabin.

"The spiders inside me won't let me get too far from this island," Yang Yi said, looking grim.

Su Na frowned, pondered for a moment, and said, "Stop the ship and come with me!"

She pulled Yang Yi all the way into the laboratory.

There were two large metal tables here. One held various instruments, along with a pile of shredded flesh-the pieces of Hu Wei's corpse that Su Na had collected.

"I just finished examining it. I can now confirm that this corpse is empty inside!" Su Na's expression was more grave than ever.

"Empty?"

"That's right!

"There are no organs or bones inside, just a thin layer of skin!" Su Na picked up a piece of flesh with tweezers and explained, "Didn't you notice how little shredded flesh his corpse left behind? There was very little blood, too!

"At first, I thought they had fallen into the sea, but after checking every piece, I found no bones or internal organs at all! It's all skin and muscle from the surface of the human body."

Yang Yi understood at once.

"This corpse is empty. No brain, no intestines, no heart!

"All of this must have happened in the instant after Hu Wei died. The spiders ate all his organs and bones!" Su Na gave her conclusion.

After hearing her account, a bead of cold sweat ran down Yang Yi's forehead.

Those spiders were probably inside him too. His life and death were out of his hands. At any moment, these spiders might devour him, kill him, and leave him an empty shell!

Suddenly, Yang Yi noticed an aroma.

Once he became aware of it, the aroma was impossible to ignore. It made his mouth water, and he couldn't help swallowing.

This was the power of the Delicious Chef's Knife, making Hu Wei's corpse delicious.

"Su Na, you haven't snuck a bite, have you?" Yang Yi asked in horror.

Given her temperament, he wouldn't have been surprised even if she had eaten a piece to taste it.

"What are you talking about? This is a precious specimen. How could I sneak a bite?" Su Na sounded displeased.

"That's a relief!" Yang Yi let out a breath.

He felt that eating anything produced by the Delicious Chef's Knife would be very bad.

It might be addictive!

"All right, your turn!" Su Na put all of Hu Wei's corpse into glass containers, cleared the table, and gestured for Yang Yi to lie on it.

"What is this...?"

"I'm examining your body to see just how those spiders appeared inside you!" Su Na explained.

Yang Yi was uneasy, but he eventually lay down on the metal table.

He wanted to know exactly what had happened to his body, too.

Su Na began examining Yang Yi's body, feeling him all over.

"Body surface is normal. Open your mouth."

Yang Yi complied.

Su Na looked inside with a magnifying glass, then scraped off some mucosal tissue, made a simple slide, and examined it under an optical microscope.

Seeing her brow furrow made Yang Yi feel as though he were sitting on pins and needles.

He felt like a patient waiting for a doctor's verdict.

The more hesitant the doctor appeared, the more the patient panicked.

A few minutes later, Su Na came over with a sharp dagger in her hand.

"What are you doing!"

Yang Yi shot upright and backed away to keep his distance.

"Why are you so nervous? If you're afraid of pain, give me some money. I'm out of Conch Coins!" Dagger in hand, Su Na commanded authority without a trace of anger.

Yang Yi swiftly transferred 2,000 Conch Coins to Su Na.

She performed a series of operations in her log, and a modern blood-drawing kit soon appeared out of thin air in her hands.

"You're drawing blood?" Yang Yi asked.

"Yes!

"I was going to cut you, but since you seem so afraid of pain, I'll use this instead!" Su Na approached with the blood-drawing kit.

Damn it! This woman must have staged all that on purpose to swindle me out of my Conch Coins!

Yang Yi had no proof, but he thought it was very likely.

While she drew his blood, Yang Yi asked about the laboratory.

"Can this laboratory provide any kind of tool?"

"There are major restrictions. Basically, it can only provide experimental equipment and medical tools. The bigger and more complicated something is, the more expensive it is."

"What about a lighter?"

"A lighter is possible, but it won't have fuel.

"Right now, the laboratory can only produce things made of glass, metal, ceramic, plastic, and the like. It doesn't provide fuels such as alcohol, and none of the equipment purchased in the laboratory can be taken outside," Su Na replied.

"I see!" Yang Yi nodded.

No wonder the alcohol lamp he had seen earlier contained no alcohol.

"Then can you generate flint or some other fire-starting tool?" Yang Yi asked again.

"No, but you could try starting a fire by rubbing sticks together."

"Forget it!"

Yang Yi didn't think he could obtain a flame by rubbing sticks together out on the damp sea.

Even if he succeeded, it wasn't a long-term solution. Once they reached the Extreme Winter Sea, he probably wouldn't get a fire going even if he kept rubbing until the end of time!

Su Na drew 300 cc of Yang Yi's blood, then prepared a blood smear and continued examining it.

"Just as I thought. Come take a look." She called Yang Yi over to see.

Yang Yi didn't know much biology, but he could at least look through a microscope that had already been adjusted.

In his field of view, aside from red blood cells, there were many tiny particles.

"See those black particles? Brace yourself!"

Su Na changed the microscope's magnification and adjusted the focus. What Yang Yi saw immediately drenched him in cold sweat.

They were miniature spiders, curled into tight balls. Only at a sufficiently high magnification could he barely make out their outlines.

In theory, spiders far smaller than cells did not exist.

Yet Yang Yi had seen them under the microscope.

His body... might well be filled with these tiny spiders, all dormant. Once they awoke... Yang Yi would suffer unimaginable torment, then be eaten hollow and die for good.

It seemed he had no choice but to visit this island!

There was definitely a solution on the island!

"Don't panic. Give me some time," Su Na said, drawing closer to reassure him. "I can try to kill the spiders inside you."