With the doors to other places of the ship opened, one by one people started to explore the ship. The place we were in was just a large loading area of the ship. The floor was carpeted and the walls of the ship were made of metal.

I could tell that the metal walls were not made of ordinary metals as it withstood the stray attacks of magic skills. During the fight, the walls were bombarded with magic skills whenever the attacks missed their targets. However, there was not a single scratch on it.

After leaving the boarding area and entering the inner parts of the ship, i explored and memorised the layout.

There were 4 levels to the entire ship. The bottom layer was dark and had very few rooms. All the rooms were empty and the lighting there was very dark. The lights were faulty and the doors of the rooms were hard to open. If something was blocking the door, it would be impossible for someone to forcefully open it from the inside. A great deal of force that no man would have would be required to open it.

The 3rd layer had the dining rooms, kitchens, bars, a pool, a spa and a gym. I could tell that the second floor was the leisure area. It was a place to relax.

The 2nd and top layer had our sleeping quarters. There were exactly 50 rooms. Each room fitting with basic necessities.

The ship had everything except for a control room and engines. The ship seemed to move by itself magically.

Everything was just like a cruise ship, except for the fact that we could not get out of the ship. The walls were fitted with high quality wood, making it feel homely. The floor was lined with red soft carpets and fluorescent lights filled the hallways.

The kitchen was filled with many different food ingredients and everything was plenty.

As i was walking around, i could see many people have many different expressions. Some were depressed and scared at what they had to do to live. Some were happy and cheering that they survived.

After walking around the whole ship and planning what i had to do, i went to find Andrew. Andrew was going to be my target of manipulation .

Andrew was chilling by the pool with his wife. They were swimming laps. Walking up to them while they were swimming, i asked Andrew’s wife if i could borrow him.

After me and Andrew sat down by the lounge chairs by the pool, i said to him “ Andrew, i don’t know what to do man, i feel so scared right now. What am i going to do when the World Survival Games starts? I don’t have that many points and i don’t have any skills to protect myself with.”

“Kid, don’t worry about it, i’ll be there to protect you, you’re like a son i never had. Trust me, i won’t let anything bad happen to you. Okay?” Andrew tried to assure me.

“ Thanks man, i’m glad you are here to help me, if it weren’t for you, i would have lost it long time ago,” i said.

“ No problem man, i will protect you in the next round,” Andrew said as he patted my shoulder.

“ Yeah, but if only you had more points, it would be better,” i said, trying to set the bait “ if you had more points, you could be stronger and protect me and your wife.”

Just as i said that, i could see Andrew stop for a second, thinking of what i just said. Seeing that he still hasn’t taken the bait, i said “ if only there were some way you could earn points on this ship, that'll be great.”

I could see that internal debate he was having as i said that. His expression changed multiple times as if he was convincing himself to not do it. Seeing that he was still reluctant, i decided to give a final push “ By the way, have you seen the bottom floor? It’s quite creepy, nobody wants to go there. Not only is it creepy, the doors are faulty as well, it is very hard to open from the inside if the door is closed.”

I could imagine a bright light bulb lighting up beside Andrew as his expression changed into resolution. Seeing that my work was done, i cheerfully left after saying goodbye. I entered my room after dining in the dining room.

I changed out of my drenched and muddied clothes and took a shower. Hot water rinsed my dirty body as i used the soap to rubbed out the grit and grime. As i looked into the mirror, i saw my reflection.

A handsome 17 year old boy with wet hair and bags under his eyes greeted me. My black wet hair stuck to my face.

After getting out of the shower, i wore the white robe i found in the closet and went to the laundry room to clean my clothes before going to sleep.

The next day, i went round the ship, counting the number of people to check if my plan had worked. After counting everyone, i stopped at number 42. Smiling at the succession of my plan, i went to find Andrew again.

“ Yo Andrew how's the meal?” I asked when i saw him at the dining room eating with his wife.

“Hey! Come try this, this is absolutely delicious!” Andrew cheered as he waved a slab of meat.

“Sorry, i’m vegetarian,” i lied.

Joining the table, i took a plate of vegetables and ate it, not touching anything meat at all. Most of the food in the kitchen were already cooked and all people need to do was to microwave it.

I chatted with them while praising and thanking Andrew on how devoted he was in protecting his wife. Andrew blushed and had a look of resolution as he heard me.

After eating with them, i headed off and rolled my dice trying to increase the chance of me finding a supply box. However, i could not find any supply box in the ship even after rolling a 6. After searching of the whole day, I came to a conclusion that there were no supply boxes on the ship. I learnt something new about the dice after coming to that conclusion. The dice could increase chances of something happening, however it could not change anything that was impossible. It was impossible for me to find any supply boxes as there were none on the ship.

The next day, i made rounds around the ship again, counting the number of people on the ship. It was 37.

I wonder if anyone noticed yet.

I met up with Andrew and his wife again and eat breakfast together before heading off. I did not forget to remind him on him being strong in protecting his wife and me.

After meeting up with Andrew, i went around the ship to talk to the rest of the survivors. After talking to everyone on the ship, i found out that none of them noticed anything strange. Everyone was doing their own thing.

Hahaha, Andrew, it ‘s looks like you certainly did your homework on the choice of your target. I wonder how long it will take until you get caught.

The next day, i did my routine again. I counted the numbers of people on the ship and then met up with Andrew to eat breakfast. After that i talked with everyone to get a feel of what they were thinking. I also spread rumors of there being sounds of growling coming from the bottom floor.

Everything was just like yesterday, except for the fact that this time someone asked me if i had seen Ryan. The person had told me he was supposed to meet up with Ryan at the bar for drinks, however Ryan did not showed up. I convinced him that maybe Ryan forgot or was still sleeping and that he should meet up with him tomorrow.

Next day, i did my rounds again and counted up to 28 people on the ship. I met up with Andrew and his wife again for breakfast before heading off to talk to everyone on the ship.

However, this time, there were a group of people shouting loudly in the bar. The guy who was asking about where Ryan was yesterday was shouting at everyone that there was something bad was going on in the ship. Almost everyone agreed with him as they too noticed that half of the survivors are already missing.

More people joined the group as everyone discussed what they should do and where the others were. Eventually all 28 arrived and everyone did a head count.

“ How is this possible! There are only 28 of us left!” One person yelled.

“ Where did all the rest go! It’s not like everyone suddenly disappeared!” A woman shouted.

“ i think we should all split up and search every corner of the ship!” A guy shouted.

After seeing everyone agree with him, i almost face palmed. However i did not disagree and followed the group who were going to search the top floor.

After few hours of searching every nook and cranny of the ship, everyone gathered back again at the bar to show their findings.

“ We didn’t find anything”

“ Me too”

“ Us as well”

Everyone shook their head as they found out that the rest of the group had magically disappeared.

“ How can 19 people disappear just like that! Even if they died, at least there would be a body as the ship is tightly locked. How is it possible for their bodies to vanish too!”

“ Wait! There were 28 of us before we left to search the ship, now there’s only 26 people here!”

Someone had finally noticed that while they were searching, two more person had disappeared.

“ So who disappeared?”

“I think it was Kimmy and Sera, they went to search the bottom floor together!”

“ Who else went to the bottom floor?”

No one raised their hands or replied. Everyone started to explain what they were doing and what floor they searched.

“ If no one else checked the bottom floor, then that must mean that they are on the bottom floor!”

“That must be it, everyone must be on the bottom floor then.”

“ Wait, didn’t someone say they hear growling from the bottom floor.”

“ Yeah, i heard someone said something like that!”

“ So that was where the sounds came from! In the middle of the night, i heard some sound coming from i don’t know where”

“ You think there could be something killing everyone on the bottom floor?”

“ I think is the reason why people are disappearing is because the monster on the bottom is killing them!”

Imaginations ran wild as everyone tried to convince themselves that a monster existed on the ship. However, a monster did exist, just not the type they thought it was.

This was how human brains worked. When we do not understand something, our brain would try it’s best to fill in the missing pieces. So when someone said something about growling, people started assuming that there was a monster. Some even tried to explain they heard sounds of growling, when there were none to begin with.