AFTER sailing peacefully for half an hour, the waves on the sea started to get violent once again.  Rocking the ship from left to right as if it would double over at any minute.  Then they heard rumblings in the sea, as if something was trying to rise up from the depths of the ocean. 

Then a huge tidal wave that suddenly rushed forward towards the ship.  It was such a huge wave that it even surpassed the height of the ship.  The players on the deck scrambled to get inside or at least held onto something so they wouldn't be flooded out of the ship. 

There were some who managed to enter the ship and closed it in time before the wave hit them.  Some who purposely didn't run inside the ship managed to stay unaffected by using their skills.  But those unlucky ones who didn't manage to do either of those things. 

Once that sudden tidal wave was over, the people who remained on the deck all temporary froze on the spot when they saw the thing that suddenly appeared in front of the ship.  No, it just didn't appear.  The rumbling of the ocean and that huge tidal wave, it was because something was trying to rise up from the depths of the sea.

A monster.  And not just any monster.

A kraken. 

That's right.  The legendary kraken in mythology.  A gigantic sea monster with a cephalopod-like appearance.  And by that, it meant that it looked some kind of a mixed of a giant squid and an octopus.  Of course, not just any giant squid-octopus.  But a terrifyingly looking one.   

Its upper body looked like that of a squid while its lower body was like that of an octopus with the famous eight tentacles. 

It looked like something that came out of people's worst nightmare. 

The players on the deck hadn't had time to react yet when one of the tentacles pierced the ship.  And not just any part of the ship, but the part inside where most of the players were staying.  Because some of the players inside hadn't yet noticed the presence of the kraken, they were thoroughly unprepared and was 'killed' on the process.

And chaos just erupted.

While almost everyone was panicking, there were two players who were completely unaffected by this sudden situation.  It's the Luo brothers.

Luo Yan stared at the huge kraken and he couldn't help but whistle.  Just look at that design.  Anyone with a weak heart would faint at the sight.  It seemed that the game devs didn't hold back in designing this one.  Well, considering how the game devs loves designing creepy monsters, no wonder they went all out.  Honestly, he was surprised that they didn't design the mermaids in a scary way.

"So, is defeating that monster the next trial?" Luo Jin asked, also looking at the kraken through one of the radars. 

The people in-charged of this event really wanted to lessen the numbers of the participants.  With that monster, their numbers would definitely be depleted at an alarming rate.     

"Yeah.  And this is most likely the last one if I have to guess," Luo Yan said.

"How can you be so sure?" 

"Remember what Captain Roger said earlier?  We're nearing the island.  And usually, whether it's in fiction or games, trials like this one usually come in threes."  Luo Yan looked again at the kraken.  "And besides, don't you think he looked very much like a final boss."

"Well, you do have a point," Luo Jin said, unable to refute what his brother said.  "I think we have no choice but to fight that kraken.  Sooner or later, this wheelhouse would probably be destroyed."

"Not necessarily." 

Luo Yan turned to the male NPC that was with them.  After the appearance of that kraken, he automatically stopped sailing the ship.  He didn't even appear scared of the kraken.  Luo Yan had a feeling that it was not just because the other had an NPC.  Considering how very detailed-oriented the game devs were when it came to their NPCs, the fact that this NPC didn't show any signs of fear must meant something.

He already had a guess, but just to make sure, he still asked the NPC, "Mister, are we going to be safe here?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Noctis, no matter how the kraken attack the ship, as long as we stay in this area, nothing will happen to us."

[I knew it.]

This area – this whole wheelhouse to be exact – became a safe zone.  It probably started during the mermaid trial.  Because the ship was supposed to collide with that iceberg, an NPC should be here to be the helmsman.  After all, how could the ship collide with an iceberg without an actual helmsman steering the wheel and acting like he was being mesmerized by the mermaids' song.

Because Luo Yan managed to enter the wheelhouse and prevent the ship from capsizing, he earned the trust of this NPC.  It's almost like a hidden quest.  If no one had done what he did, then the presence of this NPC wouldn't be known.  But he did.  And so, this area had become a safe zone because of that. 

He wasn't sure how the heck this wheelhouse would survive unscathed during the kraken's rampage.  But this was a holographic world.  Anything was possible no matter how illogical it might be. 

"Let's observe things first," he said to Luo Jin.

Luo Yan walked forward and gazed down at the deck through the screen window.  He could see the players there preparing to fight.  He then looked at the huge kraken.  It was also raising its tentacles to attack the ship once again. 

In order to defeat that one, the players on this ship needed to work together.  But was that even possible? 

He's not really good at cooperating with a group of strangers.  Especially strangers who had their own agendas.  Leading this many people to fight was just not something he's good at.  He simply didn't have the patience for that.  Before killing the kraken, he might kill the annoying players who couldn't follow instructions first.  So, really, it's not a job suited for him.

If no one took the job of leading the fight, then maybe the number of participants at the end of this trial would only be at the hundreds.

As he thought of that, the whole ship rocked again because one of the kraken's tentacles suddenly struck.

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