Chapter 4

Naturally, that player got eliminated.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, relieved that Henry had only swiped samples. That would not trigger the alarm.

After downing a few chocolates, my hunger bar went back down.

I said admiringly, "What did you use to do? Your hands are incredibly fast."

Henry grinned. "I used to be a magician."

"Impressive." I gave him genuine praise. "With skills like that, you won't starve."

Henry lifted his chin proudly. "Piece of cake. I used to make a living doing this, but..."

He looked around and lowered his voice. "Samples only tide you over. The portions are too small, and there are only a few sampling stations on the whole ship. Do it too much, and we'll get caught."

"Right, can't keep milking the same cow." I agreed.

Night fell, and our energy levels dropped severely. However, finding a place to sleep on the cruise was not easy.

The lounge chairs on the open deck were already taken, and the hallways were too dangerous. We needed to find somewhere safe to spend the night.

I remembered the karaoke rooms I had scoped out during the day. "Do you want to check out the karaoke bar? The couches there are big enough, so it might work."

"Sure." Henry nodded. "Karaoke's probably noisy, but the couches should be decent for sleeping."

The karaoke lounge was small, and one person was howling into a microphone, while the air reeked of smoke, alcohol, and perfume.

The luxurious wraparound couches were wide enough, but they were already sprawled with people lying in every direction.

There was no need to guess that they were definitely players who had beaten us to the karaoke bar.

Henry brazenly tried to negotiate with them. "Hey guys, any chance you could make some room for us?"

A player with a scar across his face snarled, "Get lost!"

His three equally burly companions sat up straight, eyeing us with hostility, muscles tensed in clear threat. Even the guy who had been singing shot us a murderous glare.

Henry did not try to force the issue and backed away with a smile. However, just as he reached the doorway, flames suddenly erupted from the scarred man's body without warning.

"Holy shit! I'm on fire?!" The scarred man was the first to scream.

His companions all sprang off the couch in panic. The flames spread rapidly, seemingly reaching toward the ceiling.

"Run!" The five burly men fled from the karaoke room in panic.

At the exact moment the last one bolted out, Henry moved at impressive speed near the door, and his fingers brushed the lock with lightning speed.

The door locked with a click.

Looking back, there were no flames at all, and it was the magician's illusion.

"Done deal." He flashed a brilliant smile, walked over to the now-empty couch, and patted it, saying to me, "Come on, let's sleep!"

I lay down on the couch, thinking to myself that things had gone unusually smoothly today because of Henry. However, that smoothness scared me.

When the moment came for the system to announce the hunt, would Henry bare his fangs at me?

Sure enough, all the sampling stations on the ship had disappeared the next day. Calling to charge water to rooms no longer worked either.

Someone was extremely hungry, so they took a desperate gamble and tried to steal food from an NPC, only to get thrown overboard by security.

Henry and I wandered the ship, finding every restaurant entrance heavily guarded by vigilant staff.

Finally, someone could not take it anymore and pooled 55 dollars with another person to buy a sandwich.

Henry asked me, "Should we pool our money and buy food too?"

I shook my head. "If we can't find a way to actually fill our stomachs, eating one meal now just means we'll still get eliminated tomorrow."