"What the hell's going on down there?" asked Jordan getting ready to go down himself, as he was about to open the door he heard the sound of footsteps moving towards the door, they sounded slow.
JohnWillStab entered the room before slamming the door behind him.
"I'm alive..." John assured everyone while walking into the room, behind him he dragged the bag of beans.
"I was starting to think whatever's outside ate you..." Jordan said with a sigh of relief and a nervous chuckle.
Everyone except Alex moved over to the sack and saw that it consisted exclusively of cans of beans.
"Beans? I guess that's better than nothing..." sighed the captain.
JohnWillStab walked back up to the door.
"Be right back, I'll go get some... toast or something," John shrugged before walking out and closing the door.
A loud thud could be heard.
Concerned, Grim moved over to the door and wiggled the handle before stepping away, "Is the lock broken?"
Everyone could very clearly hear John running upstairs onto the deck.
The captain's eyes widened.
"How did he find out about my secret toast-storage station?!" exclaimed the captain.
"THIS IS SERIOUS, DUMBASS! WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE AGAIN!" Grim exclaimed grabbing the captain by the coat.
"Now, now! Let's not make a scene!" pleaded the captain.
Jordan walked up to the door and tried to open it only to find the outside blacked by something heavy.
"What the hell?!" thought Jordan.
He took a step back and tried kicking the door to no avail.
"I could try and burn the door... no... that's too dangerous..." he thought.
JohnWillStab finally reached the deck of the ship, he looked around and saw the monster leaping around on the unlit dock, the sound of wet feet stomping on wood audible with every jump.
Most of the lamps were broken off by this sea-monster.
"What kind of sea monster uses daggers?!" demanded JohnWillStab looking at the creature.
It landed on the railing, moments later a wide, toothy grin spread on its face, its breath visible in, its teeth sharp and its eyes large.
Its skin covered in scales and its blades sharpened to perfection.
It was wearing a hoodie and what looked like jeans...
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"Wait... you don't look like a sea monster..." said John hesitantly.
Without saying anything else the monster launched itself off the railing and towards JohnWillStab who got his daggers ready.
As soon as it was within range he cast manoeuvre, as he expected the creature did the same, little did it know John was prepared and already had his other dagger prepared to stab whatever was behind him.
Moments later both John and the monster fell to the ground, landing on the wet floorboards.
"Oh shit... looks like level twenty wasn't enough, eh?" laughed the monster.
"Hold on, I remember that voice! From Lorb's room! Olivionion?!" asked John.
"Huh? Yeah... that's me... do we know each other?" he asked holding onto the railing with one hand while laying on the wet deck.
His voice returned to being calm once more as if he didn't terrorize everyone for the last thirty minutes.
"It's me JohnWillStab!" John exclaimed.
Olivionion's eyes widened.
"You're the one that killed me last time!" he exclaimed.
"I- I mean... kind of..." John was starting to remember why he stopped going by John.
"I'm dying for a rematch!" Olivionion exclaimed.
He reached into his hoodie and pulled out a pistol which JohnWillStab quickly hit with his dagger, sending it out over the railing and into the stormy waters.
"Hey now, guns aren't like daggers, they don't come back!" laughed Olivionion as he used manoeuvre again, appearing behind John and planting a dagger through his chest.
JohnWillStab smashed the back of his head into Olivionion's face causing a mall squirt of blood to shoot out.
He stumbled backwards as Olivionion kept hacking at John's torso at random.
"Fuck!" John cursed as he started feeling the "hp" dropping dangerously low.
Ten minutes ago below deck...
JohnWillStab and Elix stood in the lowest part of the ship next to the sacks of food and piss-stained beds.
"That's all for Jordan, but I have one last thing to talk to you about..." said the trouserless Elix.
"Alright..." JohnWillStab got less aggressive as the man spoke, ever since the conversation topic changed to that of his virtual self.
"He saw your name pop up in the game a few days before the isekaing, I can't believe you just changed from JohnWillNotStab to JohnWillStab." laughed the man.
John frowned a bit.
Elix noticed this.
"Anyway, for a while now there exists a guild called Fishbones, originally it had twenty members but now expanded to over a hundred thanks to the inclusion of the NPCs,"
"A year ago, back when the game was receiving updates there was a planned expansion, with time the players basically gave up on the notion of the update ever coming out... but it did."
"A massive underwater nation, a continent only a few meters below the surface, southeast of the most southern and eastern landmasses."
"I don't exactly have the time to tell you the details... but know this, beware of sirens and players who are stuck playing as them,"
The man threw the cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it with his broken-looking legs.
"As it stands I have maybe an hour left to live, once an NPC from the content of Nearloa leaves the zone, we all perish within twenty-four hours."
"Why the hell did you come here then?!" demanded JohnWillStab.
"Maybe if we hurry up we can get you close enough!" suggested John.
He shook his head.
"Listen, John. To our knowledge, there exists only one or two, other players with the tenecirus class! That's why then can track you! That's why I could find you!" hissed the man, seemingly losing his temper for the first time since the start.
"I doubt either of us in here wants to spend the rest of our lives with our dick out... just the sound 'our dick'" the man shuddered.
"We decided that long before now... but since neither of us wanted to die with too many regrets, I came out onto the surface to try a cigarette, and Thomas wanted to apologise to you."
"Since he was the one who spread that whole rumour about that thing I can't say on RoyalRoad so just imagine some really really bad, like (2+2) Chan but even more offensive stuff..."
JohnWillStab shrugged.
"Eh, well, if he feels bad because of it."
Elix blinked once, then twice.
"I'm sorry what?"
"Yeah, I forgive him," John replied.
"Like hell I do... but I don't want to be the asshole who refuses a dying man closure..."
"So yeah, feel free to die and not feel bad," he concluded.
"Right... well, lastly, you cannot get caught by the Fishbones guild, I think they used to go by Raidbones if that helps, they were some big guild or something, I got isekaid before I got to figure everything out."
"But yeah, don't let them catch you! Or everything from outside Nearloa will perish."
"There'll probably be a time where you'll have to go down and deal with them yourselves... don't even think about doing it before level one-hundred! Because their level caps are -..." Suddenly he was stopped by a massive handprint appearing on his throat.
"Looks like that's it for me!" exclaimed the man as more hand-prints covered his body, he lit another cigarette.
They were black and slowly shrank, though as they did, chunks of meat also contracted, tearing Elix into bits.
"Elix!" JohnWillStab exclaimed as he ran up to him and tried to help him up.
"Don't touch me! They'll do the same to you!" exclaimed the man in a puddle of blood which further squirted from the ever-shrinking pile.
"We're counting on you surface-dwellers! There are decent people in Nearloa too, remember!" with that Elix let out his final cry of pain before disappearing, leaving nothing but their dick on the wooden floor.
"Shit... first the thing with Jordan and now this!?" thought John as he grabbed the can of beans as well as a few other sacks which he would later use to block the door.