I handed the phone to Henry and had him request water the same way.

I said, "At this time, most people are either at the restaurant or just boarded and exploring, so rooms are probably empty. Cruise service is all about efficiency, and they won't question small requests like this, especially when it's charged to the room."

Henry's eyes lit up. "Genius! Let me try!"

We immediately left the casino and headed quickly toward the cabin area on the fourth level. Outside Room 407, four 500ml bottles of water sat on the floor. I quickly grabbed all four bottles and stuffed them into my backpack.

We did not linger and moved on immediately to collect water from the other rooms we had called. In just half an hour, we had scored over 50 bottles of water.

Henry was panting heavily. "Julia, that's way too much water. It's only day one... We won't need this much."

I shook my head. "We have to stockpile all our drinking water today. This method won't work for much longer."

Based on my experience, the system would patch this loophole quickly. However, I did not tell Henry that.

Henry asked in surprise, "Why? How do you know?"

I vaguely answered, "Every bottle we take gets charged to some unlucky person's room account. Once they notice weird charges on their bill, or staff realize the water they deliver keeps disappearing, they'll definitely investigate."

The heavy load of water was both a lifeline and a burden, and we needed to find somewhere to hide it all. This time, I kept my guard up and had Henry hide part of the water separately. Then, I took my share and stashed it in my own spot.

After hiding everything, we met up at the agreed location.

Water was handled, so next came food.

I had tried ordering food to be charged to a room earlier. However, the front desk mentioned they did not provide food delivery and told me to go eat at the restaurant.

Just then, we heard arguing coming from the hallway.

"I found this first!"

"Bullcrap! I clearly saw it first!"

We peeked around the corner and saw two players fighting over half a sandwich in a trash can.

My heart sank. It was only the first day, and people were already digging through garbage.

Their arguing caught the attention of a cleaning lady, who spoke briefly into her walkie-talkie.

Within two minutes, a group of security guards rushed over.

"Show us your room cards."

Naturally, they could not produce any, and the guards quickly hauled them away.

Elimination and debt awaited them.

The restaurants were inaccessible, the convenience store had outrageous prices, room service would not deliver food, and scavenging trash cans would get us caught by security.

What other options were there?

We wandered over to the duty-free shop.

A shop assistant at the chocolate counter was holding out a sample tray, and Henry and I exchanged a glance.

I walked over first with a curious expression. "Excuse me, is this dark chocolate on the bitter side? I'm not a fan of things that are too sweet."

"You can try this one," the shop assistant said, handing me a sample of chocolate. "This is 75% cocoa. It is rich, bittersweet with a lingering finish."

She enthusiastically launched into her pitch, tilting the tray toward me. While her attention was fully on selling the chocolate, Henry's hand casually swept across the sample tray.

Several of the largest chocolate pieces and two thick nut-covered cookies vanished into his palm in an instant.

The shop assistant noticed nothing and kept talking about where the cocoa beans came from.

From a short distance away, Henry flashed me an OK sign.

Just then, the alarm at the entrance started beeping loudly.

A player with bulging pockets had just stepped out of the duty-free shop, and a swarm of guards lunged at him, catching him on the spot and pulling stolen food from his clothes.

Naturally, that player got eliminated.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, relieved that Henry had only swiped samples. That would not trigger the alarm.

After downing a few chocolates, my hunger bar went back down.

I said admiringly, "What did you use to do? Your hands are incredibly fast."

Henry grinned. "I used to be a magician."

"Impressive." I gave him genuine praise. "With skills like that, you won't starve."

Henry lifted his chin proudly. "Piece of cake. I used to make a living doing this, but..."

He looked around and lowered his voice. "Samples only tide you over. The portions are too small, and there are only a few sampling stations on the whole ship. Do it too much, and we'll get caught."

"Right, can't keep milking the same cow." I agreed.

Night fell, and our energy levels dropped severely. However, finding a place to sleep on the cruise was not easy.

The lounge chairs on the open deck were already taken, and the hallways were too dangerous. We needed to find somewhere safe to spend the night.

I remembered the karaoke rooms I had scoped out during the day. "Do you want to check out the karaoke bar? The couches there are big enough, so it might work."

"Sure." Henry nodded. "Karaoke's probably noisy, but the couches should be decent for sleeping."

The karaoke lounge was small, and one person was howling into a microphone, while the air reeked of smoke, alcohol, and perfume.

The luxurious wraparound couches were wide enough, but they were already sprawled with people lying in every direction.

There was no need to guess that they were definitely players who had beaten us to the karaoke bar.

Henry brazenly tried to negotiate with them. "Hey guys, any chance you could make some room for us?"

A player with a scar across his face snarled, "Get lost!"

His three equally burly companions sat up straight, eyeing us with hostility, muscles tensed in clear threat. Even the guy who had been singing shot us a murderous glare.

Henry did not try to force the issue and backed away with a smile. However, just as he reached the doorway, flames suddenly erupted from the scarred man's body without warning.

"Holy shit! I'm on fire?!" The scarred man was the first to scream.

His companions all sprang off the couch in panic. The flames spread rapidly, seemingly reaching toward the ceiling.

"Run!" The five burly men fled from the karaoke room in panic.

At the exact moment the last one bolted out, Henry moved at impressive speed near the door, and his fingers brushed the lock with lightning speed.

The door locked with a click.

Looking back, there were no flames at all, and it was the magician's illusion.

"Done deal." He flashed a brilliant smile, walked over to the now-empty couch, and patted it, saying to me, "Come on, let's sleep!"

I lay down on the couch, thinking to myself that things had gone unusually smoothly today because of Henry. However, that smoothness scared me.

When the moment came for the system to announce the hunt, would Henry bare his fangs at me?

Sure enough, all the sampling stations on the ship had disappeared the next day. Calling to charge water to rooms no longer worked either.

Someone was extremely hungry, so they took a desperate gamble and tried to steal food from an NPC, only to get thrown overboard by security.

Henry and I wandered the ship, finding every restaurant entrance heavily guarded by vigilant staff.

Finally, someone could not take it anymore and pooled 55 dollars with another person to buy a sandwich.

Henry asked me, "Should we pool our money and buy food too?"

I shook my head. "If we can't find a way to actually fill our stomachs, eating one meal now just means we'll still get eliminated tomorrow."

By early evening, Henry's and my hunger meters had already risen to a dangerous level.

At that moment, the poolside snack bar on the eighth floor opened for service.

The pool area was open access and did not require card checks, while the bar itself only scanned cards at checkout.

Henry winked at me and said, "Time to put on a show."

A group at one table looked like they had finished eating and left the outdoor pool area, and a lot of half-eaten food was still sitting there.

While the server was not paying attention, Henry casually sat at that table and pulled the fruit platter toward himself. He frowned and complained in a voice just loud enough for nearby people to hear.

"Where did she run off to? I told her not to wander around."

Then, he stabbed a piece of watermelon and popped it into his mouth, waving at me in the distance. "Hey, Julia! Take a seat. I ordered everything!"

I immediately slipped into character and hurried over to take a seat.

A server glanced our way when he heard the commotion. However, he naturally assumed we were friends of the previous guests and paid us no more attention.

Right under the server's nose, we brazenly polished off all the remaining food. Henry even grabbed a few plates of food from other tables the servers had not cleared yet.

After a full meal, our hunger bars shot back down, and we quietly slipped back downstairs. We headed to the karaoke bar as usual to rest, but just as we reached the entrance, five burly figures burst out and instantly pinned us against the wall.

It was the scarred man and his four buddies from last night, the ones Henry had chased off with his illusion.

"So it was you two–you tricked me! I was wondering how the hell a fire started on the ship! Get them!"

Henry was slammed to the ground as the men kicked and punched him. Yet, all he could do was curl up to protect himself while muffled groans and cries of pain kept escaping him.

I tried to help, but two people held me down tight.

"Search them! Take everything valuable they've got!"

All the food we had stolen from the restaurant, and even the bottled water in our backpacks, was stripped away.

"Listen up, punk! If you try to mess with me again, I'll throw you overboard to feed the fish!" the scar-faced man snarled, kicking Henry one last time before leaving with his crew.

I quickly helped Henry up. "Are you okay?"

His face was bruised, his lip was split, and the skin at his temple was scraped raw. Deep in those eyes, I caught a glimpse of something bloodthirsty, like a predator just before the kill.

"I'll live..." He wiped the blood from his lip, his gaze still frighteningly cold. "Julia, you go rest inside the karaoke bar. I'll be there in a bit."

"You're badly hurt! Where are you going?" I tried to grab him, but he firmly pushed my hand away.

"Getting some medicine. Don't worry about me." Henry insisted on leaving.

With no other choice, I entered the karaoke bar and found a couch to lie down on. Just as I was drifting off, the system broadcast suddenly rang out.

"Players 22, 37, 48, 55, and 63 have been eliminated. They now have a one-million-dollar debt!"

I jolted wide awake, no longer feeling drowsy.

I remembered that the scarred man was Player 22.

Five people were all eliminated!

What the hell had happened?