Chapter Nine: A Cursed Item of Blood-Red Quality

Seeing the price tag of only 1 Ghost Coin, Bai Wan’s eyes lit up.

Holy cow! This thing had a bug too! The blood wine was originally priced at 100 Ghost Coins. If he could manage to buy it at this price, he’d be making a killing. Without hesitation, Bai Wan immediately picked up the blood wine and handed 1 Ghost Coin to the black skeleton in front of him.

The black skeleton took the coin, then looked at the price tag on the counter with a puzzled expression. After seeing the price, it froze for several seconds. It turned its head to look at the lonely coin in its hand, then back at the price display, repeating this several times before letting out an indecipherable cry.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…”

“Brother Skeleton… can I take this blood wine now?” Bai Wan asked with a light cough.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…” The black skeleton nodded reluctantly.

Bai Wan excitedly tucked the inferior Nether-Blood Wine into his pocket. He then purchased the new-player-discounted disposable anti-ghost desk lamp. The price was 40 Ghost Coins, and no bugs occurred with that item.

Just as he was about to buy something else, his gaze inadvertently swept over the skeleton, and he froze. Lines of text were floating above the bandages on the black skeleton’s body:

[Blood-Stained Skeleton Bandage
Category: Ghostly Item
Quality: Blood-Red
Ability: … (Cannot view without purchase)
Price: 100 Ghost Coins]

Bai Wan was stunned. Damn! A legendary ghostly item? Wasn’t this the kind of thing you had to risk your life nine times over to obtain? And it was of blood-red quality. Although Bai Wan didn’t yet know the ranking system for cursed items, it was clearly extremely rare. At a price of 100 Ghost Coins, it was practically a gift.

Thump, thump…

Bai Wan’s heart began to race. Clearly, the game was bugging out again. The items on this skeleton brother were supposed to be non-sellable, yet thanks to his bug-exploiting ability, they were being treated as merchandise.

Opportunity! This was undoubtedly an opportunity!

With burning eyes, Bai Wan walked over to the skeleton, pulled out 100 Ghost Coins, and said enthusiastically, “Brother Skeleton, that outfit of yours is quite stylish. I’d like to borrow it for a bit.”

The black skeleton flickered with a hint of mockery in its eyes and shook its head.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…”

Although Bai Wan didn’t understand skeleton-speak, he understood that the skeleton was essentially saying, “You idiot, keep dreaming.”

Bai Wan didn’t give up. He pointed his finger at the text next to the bandage and said with a grin, “Brother, look, there’s a price tag right here. According to the rules, we players certainly have the right to purchase it, right?”

The black skeleton reflexively looked where Bai Wan was pointing and froze again. This time, it stayed frozen even longer. It stared blankly at the price tag in front of it.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…???”

This time, its cry was filled with a hint of confusion. It looked at the smiling Bai Wan, then at the price tag on its own clothing, and finally shook its head violently.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh!!!”

The sound seemed full of dissatisfaction, like a child having their toy taken away by their parents.

Bai Wan smiled even more gently and said, “Mr. Skeleton, you might want to reconsider. You wouldn’t want the Ghostly Game to find out you aren’t following the sales regulations, would you?”

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…” This time, there was a hint of grievance in the skeleton’s voice. Appearing to compromise, it unwrapped its white bandages.

“Thanks, brother. May your business prosper.” Bai Wan tucked the bandages into his pocket, handed 100 Ghost Coins to the black skeleton, and turned to leave.

“Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh…!!”

The now-naked black skeleton let out a miserable wail.

…

The joys and sorrows of living things are rarely shared. While the skeleton brother was mourning, Bai Wan was excitedly inspecting his biggest haul of the trip.

[Blood-Stained Skeleton Bandage]
Category: Ghostly Item
Quality: Blood-Red
Introduction: A blood-red bandage cursed by ghostly power, containing a terrifying power of hexes. This bandage was a token of love given to the black skeleton by his first love. The black skeleton has used the same bandage for a hundred years and has never changed it.

Attached Abilities:
Resurrection: Upon activation, the skeleton bandage will gradually revive and can resist ghosts. It consumes 40 Ghost Coins per second and can only be used once per hour.
Binding: Can be wrapped around any part of the body to alleviate ghost curses. The effect is equivalent to black goat blood bandages. It can be used three times per instance. If 200 Ghost Coins are consumed, it can trigger a “Blood-Red Binding.” When used on a person, it can significantly reduce ghost curses; when used on a ghost, it can temporarily halt the ghost’s actions. This can only be used once per instance.

After seeing the attributes of the ghostly item, Bai Wan’s eyes lit up. The attached abilities were truly excellent. Being able to use the binding three times for free per instance, plus having the blood-red binding that could temporarily control ghosts, was incredible. The only downside was the high cost in Ghost Coins. Currently, Bai Wan only had 39 Ghost Coins left… he couldn’t even afford one second of the skeleton bandage’s resurrection ability. He was short on cash.

Suddenly, he thought of his bug-exploiting skill: dancing. If he danced for the skeleton brother, would it give him something good? But considering the brother had just lost his first love’s token, he decided not to provoke him further for now.

With that thought, Bai Wan walked out. Two minutes had passed. Soon, everyone else finished buying their items and returned to the kitchen. Compared to the joyous Bai Wan, the others looked quite grim. They had too few Ghost Coins to get anything good.

“Alright, since we’ve bought our items, let’s explore quickly before it gets dark,” Liu Tong said. Daytime was the best time for exploration; things would get troublesome once night fell.

“Brother Liu, I found this too,” Lin Xi said suddenly, pulling out a compass.

Liu Tong looked at it curiously and realized it was a tool.

[Locating Pointer]
Effect: Input specific information or coordinates to locate an item. If locating a room, a specific room number is required.
Usage count: 3 times.

“I found this in another cabinet earlier…” Lin Xi had originally wanted to hide it for herself, but after thinking it over for a long time, she couldn’t figure out what to locate. Knowing she wasn’t the brightest, she eventually gave up on the idea of keeping it secret.

“A Locating Pointer?” Seeing it, Liu Tong immediately thought of the mysterious wooden door upstairs. That door was key to the instance. If they could find the wooden hut, they would likely be close to clearing the level. This pointer was probably left in the kitchen on purpose as a crucial task item.

However, using the pointer required specific information or coordinates. They currently knew nothing about the wooden door. If they could find the room number, they could locate the hut.

Liu Tong pondered for a moment, then led everyone out of the kitchen to the old woman cleaning in the library.

“Ma’am, we took a look on the second floor earlier and saw an old wooden hut. Do you happen to know anything about it?” Liu Tong asked politely with a smile.

The old woman put away her broom, looked upstairs, and said with a smile, “You must have been dreaming, guests. There is no such wooden hut on the second floor of this ship.”

There wasn’t? Liu Tong didn’t believe it. He and Bai Wan had seen that mysterious wooden door with their own eyes.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t know this ship even had a library.” Liu Tong had been on ships before, but he didn’t remember libraries being a thing.

“The ship’s library has some old books. It’s said the former shipwright loved to read, and his blueprints are kept in there,” the old woman said casually.

Blueprints? Bai Wan and Liu Tong exchanged a glance, both their eyes lighting up. If they could find the blueprints, they might be able to find more information about the door, which would allow them to locate that “non-existent” room.

Liu Tong revealed the existence of the mysterious door he and Bai Wan had discovered to everyone, omitting the details about Zhang Wen, as he didn’t want to say anything in front of him.

The process was now clear: find the blueprints in the library, use them to locate the mysterious wooden hut, and the hut should hide all the secrets of this ghost ship.

The group studied it and prepared to use the locator to find the blueprints. Unfortunately, it failed, and one charge of the pointer was wasted.

“We don’t know the name of the blueprints, so we can’t pinpoint them accurately,” Liu Tong concluded after some thought. No one knew what the blueprints were called, or perhaps they didn’t have a name at all.

Since they couldn’t locate them, and the pointer only had three uses, the group didn’t want to waste any more opportunities and began searching for the ship’s blueprints manually. Unfortunately, the library was huge, and they had no luck by nightfall.

At night, everyone had finished dinner and was discussing at the table. The moon was obscured by dark clouds; it was another sleepless night.

“It’s already ten o’clock. According to the rules set by the old woman, we should go to bed,” Liu Tong said, checking the time.

“I’m scared… Brother Liu, can you sleep in the same room as me?” Lin Xi bit her lip, her body trembling slightly; clearly, the footsteps from the previous night had terrified her.

“Forget it. I’m not used to sleeping with others,” Liu Tong refused flatly. He had no habit of dragging dead weight along.

Suddenly, Zhang Wen wore a gentle smile and looked at Lin Xi. “If you’re scared, why don’t you come sleep in my room tonight?”