"What is that red X mark on your hand?" Ragnar asks.

"I am going to say it straight up. We got cursed, all three of us." Mikey says.

"Cursed? What kind of a curse is it?" Ragnar asks.

"We defeated a Kraken, got cursed by another one and have one year to defeat it. This curse however, doesn't affect you in any way. It only affects us." Zoro says.

"That's probably why my survival instinct told me that it's dangerous to stay with you, are you sure it doesn't affect me in any way?" Ragnar asks.

"The only way I can see it affecting you is, if the Kraken attacks us while we're travelling. The thing is we know its location 24/7 but the same thing goes other way too. Besides that, you don't have to worry about anything." Mikey says.

"Hmm, alright, just give me a moment, I am going to take my important items from my village and join you guys." Ragnar says.

(A few hours later)

Nobody can fall asleep. It seems that their bodies have adapted in such a way that sleeping isn't required everyday.

Even though that's the case, Mikey lied in the bed to check the number of players who are still alive.

[Players asleep: 400 888/420 991]

The number seems to have stabilized, there are still people dying but not as much as in the first days. That's great. Mikey thinks to himself.

The crew spends their night by just talking and travelling. Throughout the night they visited one more small island but there wasn't anyone or anything interesting there.

(The next morning)

Mikey is in the quarterdeck looking at the map, the others are looking at the ocean, Ragnar suddenly comes up to Mikey.

"So this is the map of the area?" He asks him.

"Yeah, we're somewhere around here right now." Mikey points his finger at a certain area.

"Wait, why are there no Islands in our direction?" Ragnar asks.

"That's what I am trying to figure out. Until now, there were a lot of islands all around us, but that's apparently not the case anymore. More Islands will appear up ahead, there will be just none for the next 200 thousand blocks or so, that's what the map says atleast." Mikey says.

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"I guess so, and what about that mark over there? It looks identical to the one on your hand." Ragnar asks.

"That's where we met the Kraken, the weird part is, that the area was marked before we even got there." Mikey answers. "The previous captain probably had to deal with the curse aswell or something, I am not sure." He adds.

"The previous captain was the guy you told me about right? Peter Jackson was it?" Ragnar asks.

"Yeah, the guy who actually saved me by leaving a bunch of things behind on the Island that I spawned on."

(A few hours later)

The crew is travelling across the ocean, they passed about 100 kilometers, Mikey's ship can now go much faster than any normal ship. They're in the middle of nothing right now. The closest island is about fifty thousand blocks away from them, but it's not in their direction so they won't be stopping there.

Lucy is enjoying the view, Ragnar is sharpening his axes, Zoro is playing with his lighter that he somehow got hands on. He's also creating more explosives. Mikey climbed the ladder to the top of the ship's mast. There's a little "watchtower" there. He's using his telescope to look around.

"Mikey! My instinct is telling me that something bad is about to happen! Be cautious!" Ragnar shouts at him.

[Survival Instinct] [Epic]

That's one of Ragnar's attributes, all it does for now is tell him when he's about to be in a dangerous situation or something like that, Ragnar wants to explore this attribute further.

This attribute is also the reason why Ragnar told Mikey and the others that it's going to be dangerous travelling with them, his survival instinct told him that.

Mikey starts looking around carefully, when he sees a shipwreck in distance. The ship isn't underwater but looks completely abandomed, its sails are torn apart, there are a bunch of holes in it, probably created by cannonballs. There doesn't seem to be a single living thing on board. The ship is relatively much smaller than Mikey's ship.

Mikey climbs down the ladder.

"Did you see something?" Lucy comes up to him and asks him.

"Yeah, Zoro! Ragnar! Come here." Mikey says.

He tells everyone what he saw.

"It's definitely a trap." Ragnar says.

"If your survival instinct was tingling then certainly." Zoro responds to Ragnar.

"Should we take a small detour and go around it or are we confident enough to deal with whoever set this trap?" Mikey asks.

Everyone looks at eachother.

"I mean, I doubt that there is a single team of players that is stronger than us at the moment. If anyone can deal with it it's us." Lucy says.

"I agree." Ragnar adds.

Zoro nods.

"In that case, there's nothing holding us back, prepare your weapons everyone! We're heading straight for that shipwreck." Mikey says with an excited smile.

Mikey slows down the ship to give Zoro some time to prepare a few more explosives. Ragnar takes the watch and Lucy starts talking with Mikey.

"You seem pretty excited about this. Is there any reason for that?" She asks curiously.

"Well, you know, none of us here talk about our past on the Earth, it's like an unspoken rule... but, I'll tell you one thing Lucy. I loved adrenaline, I was in life threatening situations more than I can count. It was fun, I obviously didn't come out unscathed everytime, but that's part of it. One of the reasons why I played Minecraft was because it was a world that was even more entertaining than the Earth itself. I did have a few friends back on Earth, I miss them, but they knew that I could go missing at any moment. They were prepared for something like that. That's why I am enjoying everything about this world." Mikey says.

Lucy laughs. "You're something man, I enjoy this adventure too, but I am certainly not as laidback about it as you are. That's maybe why you're number one and I am number seven." Lucy says with a smile.

Mikey and Lucy talk a bit longer about their strategy before Ragnar comes down from the ladder.

"Did you see anything else?" Mikey asks him.

"Yeah, I saw a few tubes coming out of the water not too far away from the ship." Ragnar says.

"You think there might be someone hiding underwater?" Mikey asks him expecting the answer to be no.

"Sure, why wouldn't they?" Ragnar asks.

"Why would you wait in the middle of the ocean for a chance to attack someone? That already is absurd enough and it's happening. Now imagine if they waited underwater this whole time too. That's just impossible." Lucy says.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Mikey says.

"Yeah, you have a point, but still, those tubes look suspicious." Ragnar says.

Zoro comes up to the three. "Everything is prepared."

"In that case, full speed ahead." Mikey points his arm towards the shipwreck and the speed of the ship increases to maximum.