[Eerie Coconut]

Day had fully broken.

Qin Mao stood up aboard his own ship, thoroughly satisfied. He had a big ship of his own!

A single-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat just over twenty meters long and five or six meters wide.

Calling it "big" was a bit of an exaggeration, but compared to a canoe or a raft, it was a world apart.

It was far safer.

Visibility had been poor last night, so he had only given the ship a cursory look underwater.

Now that daylight had come, he stood on deck and finally had time to examine it closely.

Large areas were scorched, and its exterior did not look very reliable, as though it might snap apart, fall to pieces, or crack and take on water at any moment.

Yet it remained stable and sturdy.

Belowdecks were two levels, including functional compartments such as an infirmary (empty), a storeroom (timber and other miscellaneous items), a galley (an iron pot dented by an explosion), and three empty compartments.

Inside were only simple tables, chairs, and wooden beds, with nothing else besides.

"Now that's minimalist!"

Smelling the faint, intermittent odor of scorching inside, Qin Mao returned to the deck.

There was also a small room on deck.

It had windows on all four sides, allowing him to check the surroundings at any time. After one look, Qin Mao decided to designate it the Captain's Quarters. He could live here from now on.

Everything else was present too: the helm, anchor, rigging, boom, ballast, and so on.

From the ship's foresail and mainsail, he could tell that all the materials had been gathered from the Hope.

Scattered across the sails were scorched holes, stitches, and signs of patchwork.

"Hmm. Crude, but pretty sturdy!"

Qin Mao raised his hand as he looked at the mainsail, then reached out and tugged it.

Suddenly, he spotted something and recoiled two steps in fright.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

Hidden behind the yellowish-white sail swaying in the wind, a coconut actually hung at the very top of the mainmast!

Looking more closely, he saw it was not just the coconut! The featherlike leaves atop the mast, the distinct rings of coconut-trunk markings along the mainmast... all pointed to one fact:

His ship's mainmast was a tall coconut tree!

"How did this happen?"

The longer Qin Mao looked, the more familiar the coconut hanging from the tree seemed.

"Why does that look so much like the Curio Material I brought back from Stone Ape Island?"

Had it accidentally gotten mixed into the pile of materials, or had it been left in the Hope's remaining half-hull and counted by the system during the upgrade?!

"If it's a wondrous item, there should be information..."

He immediately touched the coconut tree. Sure enough, information appeared a moment later.

[Wondrous item: Eerie Coconut]

[Rank: 9527]

[Information]: A netherworld ship born from a damaged thousand-faced eerie coconut, a scorched ordinary wooden ship, and despairing, twisted souls of the dead. It holds a mysterious attraction for eerie creatures.

[Ability 1]: Devour. The trunk of the thousand-faced eerie coconut devours blood, Jade Moon power, Transcendent Power, and powers of various other attributes. Excess nutrients nourish the hull, producing mysterious changes.

[Ability 2]: Bloodthirst. The coconut has a chance of attacking unfamiliar living beings and eerie entities that approach the mast. It is especially fond of blood.

[Ability 3]: Cruise. The coconut tree's roots swim through the sea, increasing the ship's speed to a certain extent and assisting with steering.

[Cost]: The mainmast must be watered with blood daily, or the bloodthirsty coconut will indiscriminately attack anyone aboard. While it is ownerless, the first person to water it can complete the Owner-Binding ritual.

[Special effect]: A thousand people, a thousand faces. If someone willingly feeds this ship large quantities of their own blood for fifteen consecutive days, then willingly sacrifices themselves to the ship on the final day, the ship has a chance of gaining an unknown effect after the sacrifice.

After reading the information, Qin Mao let out a long breath.

"So it really did incorporate the Curio Material..."

No wonder he had gathered so many raw materials while paddling around on his raft, only to have a full 10,000 Kill Points deducted as well. It turned out to be because of the Curio Material.

Upgrading wondrous items cost more Kill Points than upgrading ordinary objects.

Qin Mao was particularly fond of this ship.

Although the Eerie Coconut only ranked in the nine thousands, just a little short of falling outside the top ten thousand, and had no particularly powerful abilities, it was a genuine vehicle.

The value of an Anomalous Object Vehicle could not be judged simply by its wondrous-item ranking.

On the danger-ridden sea, apart from the islands encountered along the journey, the only places humans could stand were the ships beneath their feet.

Compared to other wondrous items of the same rank, vehicles were unquestionably more valuable!

"It's just that the cost is a bit troublesome. I have to feed it blood every day."

"And this special effect-who'd be stupid enough to willingly sacrifice themselves? It's not like they're superstitious country bumpkins."

Frowning, Qin Mao smeared the blood on his arm haphazardly over the coconut tree's trunk.

The coconut tree swayed, twisting comfortably, and the coconut overhead suddenly split open a huge mouth and laughed.

"Kakaka-eat-eat-"

The sudden, eerie laughter gave Qin Mao a huge fright.

"Fuck! You motherfucking bastard, you scared the shit out of me!"

He raised his leg and gave the coconut tree a vicious kick.

Then he took off his jacket and wrung it out a couple of times, pouring all the bloody water onto the mainmast and provoking another round of eerie laughter from the coconut.

"Kakaka... eat..."

"Eat my ass!"

After another vicious kick from Qin Mao, the thousand-faced eerie coconut shook its trunk resentfully and finally shut its mouth.

Qin Mao also felt that some sort of connection had formed between him and the coconut tree.

He had truly become its owner!

The greatest benefit was that he could control the roots with his thoughts, helping the hull accelerate or turn.

The sun had risen fully above the horizon.

Having resolved the foremost issue of the Vehicle, Qin Mao began considering survival.

Food, fresh water, and heating equipment were all urgent necessities.

Books said that people would die after at most three to seven days without drinking water.

As for food... eating raw fish for an extended period also carried a high risk of parasites and the like. He had to find a way to cook it.

The Hope had previously used an integrated solar cooker.

Simply setting it on deck allowed it to use sunlight to boil fresh water and cook the food in the pot.

There had also been solar storage batteries, which could be brought out as backups when it rained and there was no sun, or when overcast weather meant insufficient sunlight.

Unfortunately, they had been too large to take along and could only sink into the sea with the explosion.

As for the fleet he and Su Miaomiao had previously stayed with, since it had only just put to sea, many of the survivors aboard had gathered supplies from homes, supermarkets, and grain and cooking-oil shops along the way.

Besides rice, flour, instant noodles, snacks, and other things the Hope had lacked.

There had also been plentiful supplies of solid alcohol fuel blocks, portable gas stoves, solar power banks, candles, and more. He had even seen someone carrying an induction cooker.

"If only I could come across a ship. I could figure out a way to trade for some supplies."

But his ship was utterly impoverished at the moment. The only thing he had to offer was his ship-repair skill. Unfortunately, he only had 1,900 Kill Points left, which really would not go far.

His left shoulder had stopped bleeding, but he still could not move it. Only his right arm was usable.

As a result, he could not handle the sails either.

Unable to sail properly, he could only drift with the wind and current.

After rummaging through the storeroom for ages, he found half a tattered sheet of transparent plastic. He paired it with wood and upgraded them into a simple freshwater collector, using sunlight to evaporate seawater and obtain fresh water.

Though its efficiency left much to be desired, at least he had something to look forward to.

He also dug a charred long stick, a frayed hemp rope, and an iron nail out of the ship's storeroom, then used the system and spent 100 Kill Points to upgrade them into a simple fishing rod.

Time to fish!

Since he was out at sea, he kept feeling he ought to catch something.

Even though he had eaten so much last night that he still was not hungry, he had to stockpile some fish.

Sometimes, starving to death and getting parasites were the only two choices.

As for using completely unrelated materials to upgrade a solar cooker or freshwater condenser out of thin air... he tried, only to be scared off by the many zeroes at the end of the system's required Kill Points.

There might not have been as many zeroes as on Chunxi Road in Bashu, but it was still far beyond his current reach. Even if he saved up enough Kill Points, upgrading something like that would absolutely not be worth it!

After casting the hook into the sea.

Qin Mao kept feeling as though he had forgotten something very important... but even after racking his memory for ages, he still could not recall it.

Forget it. Fishing came first.