During the day, Yang Yi had explored only about a third of the island, collecting twenty adult spider corpses and 327 units of wool in total.
If he explored the whole island, those numbers might quadruple.
And there were bound to be spider nests on the island, probably with no shortage of spiders inside.
If he collected all their wool and made it into sweaters to sell, he would definitely make a fortune!
As the sky darkened, Yang Yi sailed away from the island, planning to return tomorrow.
It was best not to stay too close to the island at night. It would be bad if there were some unknown creatures on it; after all, he had not explored it fully.
Tomorrow, he planned to get up early and arrive before dawn to ensure he had enough daylight to explore.
"Su Na, go back to your room and rest!" Yang Yi called as he entered the cabin.
This woman had no sense of moderation. Once she started researching, she easily forgot to eat and sleep.
Yang Yi checked and saw that her Sanity was down to just 53.
Only after he urged her several times did Su Na finally leave the laboratory, disbelief on her face as she muttered something.
"There was actually only one organ in his abdomen, an enormous stomach. The other organs seemed to have been digested. All those bodily fluids were stomach acid, and even his brain was directly connected to his stomach, as though the stomach was controlling the brain. If this continued, he might well no longer need a brain..."
"Enough. Check your Sanity!" Yang Yi pushed her along, ushering her onto the deck. "There are two more gacha chances here. Give it a try!"
Su Na had no enthusiasm for the gacha, and there was no soul in the way she turned the handle.
She casually put in the corpse pieces, turned the gacha machine a few times, then left without even bothering to pick up the capsules on the ground.
Yang Yi reluctantly picked them up.
[You obtained wood ×5] [You obtained crystal ×1]
They were all basic supplies.
This meant that crew members on the same ship shared their gacha attempts. After the first two draws, the rewards got worse.
Once all that was done, Yang Yi returned to the cabin.
He still had one thing to do: turn the three hundred-odd units of wool he had obtained into sweaters.
Yang Yi did not actually know how to knit sweaters, but the system would force him to know.
In fifteen minutes, he made a pair of woolen trousers with his bare hands.
The whole process was utterly magical. Yang Yi had no idea how he had done it; he could simply make them!
He worked for forty-five minutes, spending nine points of Energy and making two pairs of woolen trousers and one sweater in total.
Yang Yi placed these three garments together with the two sweaters Hu Wei had left behind. He planned to keep them for their own use.
Afterward, he returned to the Captain's Quarters and opened the world chat channel as usual.
As always, plenty of people were looking to buy fire-starting tools.
So far, no one had found a way to mass-produce them.
Yang Yi also tried posting a message: "Paying top prices for fire-starting tools."
Immediately afterward, someone repeated Yang Yi's words like a parrot.
From the look of things, it would be hard to beat the others to a purchase.
Yang Yi was in no hurry. There was still some time before the Extreme Winter Sea spread this far.
He drank a bottle of Vitality Coconut Juice Refresher, locked the door, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep.
The next day, Yang Yi got up before dawn.
He checked his condition. Aside from his Energy, which was not full and stood at only 93, everything else was full.
After breakfast, Yang Yi packed what he needed to bring: two liters of fresh water, several Long-Legged Sardines to open the Stomach Pouch, two sausages, the Crystal Ball, potions, a bottle of Refreshing Coconut Juice, weapons and equipment, and his newly acquired heart-protecting mirror.
He kept some backup supplies in the Stomach Pouch, such as silk sacs and spare Regeneration Potions.
Once he had finished packing, Yang Yi checked his attributes again and discovered that his Strength and Constitution had both risen to 5, reaching the average for an adult human.
He steered the Nightmare Star toward the island.
Su Na did not plan to come along this time. She was wholly focused on studying the Glutton's corpse.
Yang Yi reached the island ten minutes before dawn.
His goal this time was to find the spiders' nest and completely eliminate the island's potential dangers, creating a safe, convenient environment for his later activities.
And he should also be able to find answers about the Spider's Kiss status in the spiders' nest!
As soon as day broke, Yang Yi landed on the island and headed straight toward its center.
He remembered that the spider corpses were more densely concentrated in the center, so the nest was most likely there.
As he walked, Yang Yi picked up some Tinder Wool Spider corpses along the way.
The Greedy Stomach refused no corpses. It would open on its own, swallow them, and eat all the flesh and blood, leaving only the shells and wool.
It even ate rotten corpses!
As he walked on, Yang Yi began to wonder.
"What exactly do these spiders eat to survive? Why haven't I seen a single small animal on this island? It's all spiders..."
"It's not like they can go into the water to catch fish."
Yang Yi found it strange.
After circling the center of the island, he finally discovered a hole.
It dropped vertically for two meters, with a pitch-black passage inside sloping farther down.
The entrance was broad, and the creatures that passed through it were not small. There were not even any weeds around the entrance, so something clearly came and went often.
Yang Yi approached the entrance. Several dead little spiders lay by his feet, each the size of a palm, their corpses already dry and hard.
Barring anything unexpected, this should be where the nest was.
He tried sniffing the air in the hole. It smelled of rot.
This meant there were large numbers of corpses inside. The spiders had suffered heavy casualties and might even all be dead.
That was good news!
Yang Yi picked up the spider corpses by his feet and fed them to the Stomach Pouch, then took out the Crystal Ball stored inside.
Aside from displaying the Sea Chart, the Crystal Ball itself also gave off a faint glow. It was dimmer than a candle, but better than nothing.
With his gun in one hand and the Crystal Ball in the other, he jumped in.
There was no danger inside, only spider corpses on the ground.
As Yang Yi ventured deeper, the passage widened to a full five meters, with a height of over three meters. Even giant spiders could pass through unhindered without curling up their bodies.
He remained cautious and alert, and only after going a hundred meters in did he discover something.
A kind of mushroom grew in tightly packed clusters on the rocky ceiling, giving off a red fluorescent glow. Each one was almost the same size.
[Name: Firefly Mushroom] [Description: A special mushroom that emits a red fluorescent glow in darkness and grows rapidly. Its juice is somewhat poisonous, and consumption is not recommended. Some ants and spiders use this mushroom as their primary food source.]
After reading the information, Yang Yi immediately understood.
These mushrooms must have been cultivated by the Tinder Wool Spiders. They actually knew how to grow crops!
Under the red fluorescent glow, the Crystal Ball's light became unnecessary.
He put the Crystal Ball into the Stomach Pouch, exchanged it for the Sea Serpent's Fang, and continued inward.
He walked another hundred meters or so.
The passage widened further, reaching seven or eight meters, and dead adult Tinder Wool Spiders began appearing along the way.
Yang Yi also noticed a light breeze in the cavern. He had no idea where it came from; it was quite remarkable.
He did not rush to collect the corpses. Confirming that it was safe was more important right now.
Yang Yi continued deeper, and the corpses grew more densely packed.
He discovered two giant Tinder Wool Spiders, each with a human body grafted onto it. One even had human arms rather than just a bare torso.
They were both dead, and their corpses had already rotted, posing no threat whatsoever.
Yang Yi collected tissue samples from them.
Unlike adult Tinder Wool Spiders, these giant Tinder Wool Spiders could be used to upgrade the Nightmare Star. Since he had found them, he might as well take them!
As he passed an opening, Yang Yi saw a horrifying sight.
Dismembered pieces of human corpses hung from the rocky ceiling on spider silk, like cured meat waiting to air-dry.
A few of the corpses were still relatively fresh and might have been hung up only recently.
"They air-dry the corpses, then graft them onto themselves?"
Yang Yi could not understand these spiders' behavior, nor did he understand how they managed it.
Su Na might have been excited and investigated further, but Yang Yi... all he wanted was to kill these disgusting spiders.
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