The ghost ship was accelerating towards an unknown horizon when Allen heard shouts coming from the main deck, he hurried over there and saw seven NPCs surrounding a player, "Shit, this cant end good, who are you lady?"

"I am the owner of this ship" she was about 175cm tall and had a curly short black hair "I demand that it be turned about" her face was red with rage and she started pulling out some weapon from her stash.

"Why am I even talking to stupid NPCs?" as she started drawing the sword 210m pushed through the crowd and slammed her hand back, she looked at him in absolute terror as he and the other NPCs stood around her, like she was seeing some crazy robot shooting bystanders in the street.

"I suggest you log off now lady, the ship is undergoing some maintenance and in about an hour you can have it back in harbor with no problems", Slom smiled at her but her eye seemed drawn to his scar and especially his ruined eye that he didn’t cover.

She was shaking her head when he took a small step aside letting her see the giant rat swarm and all the other wounded and broken NPCs some of which she recognized from the cruise, "please lady just an hour", she gave a little nod and logged off, "SOMONE GET IN THAT CHARACTER NOW, WE NEED TO OWN THIS SHIP".

A little girl stepped forward, her dress all bloody and torn and after a second of staring at the vacant character she collapsed and the woman was turned to an NPC, she pulled out the ownership document that you had to have in your available inventory for the ship to sail, and handed it to Slom that was trying to send a message through the list function.

[List: 210M Shut up /List] while dozens of messages ran through saying nothing

[List: 210M Shut up /List] another five messages trying to figure out why they were all here

[List: 210M Shut up /List] one more message before the next

[List: 210M Shut up /List] and he got a second of silence in the list function

[List: 210M thank you, we need to get rid of the unoccupied players /List] half a dozen messages asking what and why

[List: 210M, take stock of our food supply and plot out course to the forbidden islands where players can't catch us /List]

[List: 730M who are you to boss us around? We are here to have some fun /List] stuck in Allen's mind

[List: 625F yeah you shut up /List] got him really pissed

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

[List: 210M fine do whatever we still need to drop all the players or they will take over when they log back in/List]

[List: 730M sure boss /List] and he just ignored the scroll

The ghost crew dispersed and started throwing unoccupied player characters overboard, so they will respawn at the nearest harbor town, Slom noticed some NPCs carrying a few characters to the back of the ship but ignored it mumbling "If they want to carry them farther it's their problem, I don’t mind their harder work"

[evolution success: 210M is now captain of Odacious pirate ship]

The message popped to everyone's vision and they all turned their eyes to him,

[List: 1368F what is evolution? /List] started the flood

[List: 79M NPCs don’t level /List]

[List: 79M we evolve when certain conditions are met /List] he explained further

[List: 326F being an NPC sailor and holding ownership deed will make you captain /List]

[List: 122F like I evolved these rats to giant rats by making them eat each other /List]

[List: 1368F how do you know the conditions for evolution? /List]

[List: no one knows, you just learn them /List]

[List: usually we don’t have so many experienced NPCs in one instance so no chance of asking anyone about it /List]

[List: 252F and don’t ask in list, just ask the others in private maybe they will give you their secrets for free but I'm not going to and its flooding my view so stop /List]

The ship was sailing fast, leaving behind white crests, while the NPCs were all over the player owned rooms trying outfits and eating the prepaid food when Slom walked up to the bulkheads to talk with the player that took over the ship, "You from Gen1?"

Turning its head slowly to look at the captain, Odacious measured him and finally nodded, "long time since I enjoyed this world, long time indeed".

"we need to think about shifts if we want to keep going", turning his head to look into the wind with his hair whipping back, "I have a friend that can take over as captain, though she won't like this look", he traced the scars on his face with a finger, "do you know somone on day shift that can take over animating the ship?".

After some time thinking Odacious replied "I might know someone for it", nodding slowly as if considering the person, "but he isn’t an inmate anymore"

Slom reached out to grab the rail, "can you contact him from within?"

"Yea, we elders have our ways", leaning forward to look down at the rushing water the statue looked like it was diving, "will tell him to switch in an hour, before you have to leave".

The Odacious seemed to move faster towards its mysterious goal while its passengers and crew were moving about their day with a swarm of giant rats guarding the food stores and a few players got the message that their character has respawned in shallow water harbor, while one pissed off owner realized she lost her ship permanently when she was forced to create a new character.