Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 132 - The Satisfactory Contract Item and the Armour

“Name?”

After accepting the statue, the Collector scratched a few words on the deck with its withered hand, asking Yang Yi.

He had never thought about giving the statue a name, so he had to come up with one on the spot.

After over ten seconds of thought, he replied, “Let’s call it The Blasphemer”.

The Collector nodded, stowed the statue into its robe, and then stood up.

It extended its right hand, seemingly offering a handshake.

Not wanting to seem rude, Yang Yi returned the gesture and shook its hand.

By then, Yang Yi had a decent understanding of the Collector’s traits, which he could organise into intelligence and sell to Song Yingwen later.

The Collector seemed to be a special entity that abided by rules of fair trade.

As long as the transaction went smoothly, it showed virtually no hostility.

What’s more, they were quite polite, likely possessing a considerable level of intelligence.

However, the logs had mentioned that there were many types of Collectors, each with different preferences, so the one before him could simply have been one of the more docile kinds.

Good thing it didn’t attack right away. If it had, the consequences would’ve been unimaginable.

The Collector was offering Yang Yi a courteous handshake.

But Suna, off to the side, kept staring at the Collector’s hand, feeling it looked strangely familiar.

Once the handshake was over, the Collector gave Yang Yi a slight bow, performing a formal classical gesture.

【Transaction complete. The Collector is highly satisfied with the trade and has left behind a Contract Item. 】

The moment the log message popped up, the Collector vanished into a shadowy blur.

Its speed was so fast, it seemed like teleportation, any ordinary eye would perceive it as instantaneous disappearance.

Only Yang Yi, using his Third Eye, managed to catch a clearer glimpse, he saw that the Collector had been yanked away by a string trailing behind it.

Like a fishing line reeling in a hook.

That string from the sea had tugged its robe and dragged it straight into the water, making a barely audible plop.

From then on, the Collector was nowhere to be seen but it hadn’t taken the traded goods.

In fact, it even left behind a golden medal, or rather, a coin the size of a medal.

Yang Yi scanned the area one last time with his Third Eye. Once he confirmed there was nothing unusual, he put his blindfold back on and bent down to pick up the coin.

【Name: Satisfactory Contract Item of the Rare Collector】

【Type: Consumable】【Quality: Supreme】【Description: A coin from a lost civilization, used by the Rare Collector as a contract item. The golden version denotes a satisfactory trade. At night, toss this item into the sea and the Collector will return with even better goods to trade. (The Collector may appear on any night within a week — do not be negligent.)Warning: The Satisfactory Contract Item may attract other Collectors. Prepare adequate goods for trade.Rare Collector: This Collector enjoys acquiring obscure and little-known items. If the trade fails, it may take the trader instead. The longer a trader is kept hidden, the more their value increases. 】

“A Satisfactory Contract Item… and a supreme-grade item?”

Yang Yi was surprised and also a little shaken.

Because the Collector wasn’t nearly as “friendly” as it appeared. If the trade had failed, it might’ve turned hostile instantly and taken him away entirely.

That way, it wouldn’t even need to offer anything in return, just a clean steal...

“Attract other Collectors…”

Yang Yi took note of that warning.

It meant the next Collector might not be the same one.

Trying to test another Collector’s preferences and offering the right trade goods would come with serious risks. But if successful, it could yield even rarer items, possibly beyond supreme grade.

It was the classic case of high risk, high reward.

Yang Yi shared the item’s details with Suna.

But she had already crouched down and picked through the traded goods, reaching for a bottle of deep blue super magic potion. She even popped the cap, waved her hand over it, seemingly to catch a whiff of the liquid inside, then frowned.

“Well?” Yang Yi asked.

“Smells awful. Want a whiff?” Suna held out the super magic potion.

Yang Yi didn’t need to lean in, he could already smell it. His nose was especially sharp.

“Smells like rotting meat... What the hell is this stuff made of?”

“We’ll need to run tests to know for sure.”

Suna sealed the bottle to prevent evaporation and tucked it into her pouch.

“By the way, did you catch a briny, fishy smell from that Collector?” she asked.

“No.”

Despite his sensitive nose, Yang Yi hadn’t picked up any unpleasant scent.

“Its hand probably came from a merman or some similar creature. The webbing between the fingers had been cut off, so it looked like a human hand. But it was very similar to the hand of the little merman specimen I keep in my lab. Remove the scales and webbing, scale it up a bit...” Suna recalled aloud.

“Also, that statue you—”

She was cut off as Yang Yi suddenly moved. He pulled Suna to his side and raised his flintlock, aiming straight ahead.

“What’s—”

Suna had just opened her mouth to ask, but as she turned, she immediately understood why Yang Yi was reacting this way.

The armour… had moved.

The helmet of the armour turned, its grille-like eye slits focused on both Yang Yi and Suna, emanating an intense pressure.

After all, it was towering at around metres. Even among humans, only the most elite could hope to wear it.

“What kind of mechanism is this?”

Suna wasn’t afraid. Instead, she was curious as to how it was moving.

Yang Yi, however, remained on high alert, ready to fire at any moment, even if that meant damaging it.

It was not the time to worry about preserving equipment. The thing could attack or even kill.

Thankfully, the armour didn’t make any hostile moves. It only adjusted its stance, turning fully to face the two of them.

Then, all of a sudden, it squatted down slightly, and the spikes covering its surface grew longer, as if they were sprouting from inside.

The tips of the spikes were reddish-brown, like rust, but the rest was pitch black.

The entire suit was scratched and filthy, as though it had soaked in mud for ages. Its once gleaming surface was tarnished and stained, like it had been soaked in blood.

Clack!

The chest plate swung open to reveal a skeleton inside.

Without the support of the armour, the bones crumbled and spilled out onto the ground, piling up like trash.

It was most likely the remains its previous wearer.

Clearly, he was long dead.

Judging by the skeleton, he hadn’t been tall, maybe 160 cm, and he was missing a hand and a foot. freewebnoveℓ.com

For someone of such small stature and missing limbs to have worn a 2.3-metre-tall suit of armour… was nothing short of bizarre.

Even more strange, all the bones were black, as if they’d been soaked in ink.

Suna wanted to pick one up to examine it, but she held back, knowing it could be dangerous.

Yang Yi, meanwhile, wore a grim expression as he studied it.

He realized the spikes were meant for the person inside.

Once the armour was sealed, those black spikes would pierce into the wearer’s body, turning them into a human pincushion.

No wonder it couldn’t be taken off...

Calling it armour was generous, it was really more of an instrument of torture, like an Iron Maiden.

Only a true masochistic lunatic would willingly wear something like this!

With its chest wide open and crouched on the ground, it almost looked like it was inviting someone in.

Yang Yi narrowed his eyes and watched it for a few seconds. When he confirmed it wasn’t going to move again, he slowly approached with his gun still raised.

“Wait! You can’t wear that thing!” Suna shouted in warning.

She, too, had noticed something deeply wrong with the armour. She had spotted tiny needle holes all over the surface of those blackened bones!

But Yang Yi ignored her and continued walking towards it.

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