The sun lingered on the horizon, casting an orange glow over the vast ocean.
The waves were silent—far too silent. The stillness didn't bring peace; it brought unease. An eerie tension hung in the air, as though the sea itself was holding its breath.
Everyone was engrossed in their tasks, minds focused, bodies moving. But Ray lay beside Jack, staring at the sky, lost in thought—thinking about the moment he would finally be able to use his system.
He should've felt pure joy. And he did, to an extent. But there was also something else—a creeping unease clawing at his chest. A strange, restless anxiety that he couldn't understand. The closer he came to the stone, the heavier his heart felt, like fear was growing inside him, fed by his own anticipation.
High above, in the crow's nest, Sicilia sat perched, scanning the horizon with an old pair of bronze binoculars.
"STOP!"
Her shout split the silence like a blade.
In a heartbeat, Robin reacted, halting the ship without hesitation. The ship jolted violently, the hull groaning under the sudden stop.
Ray scrambled to his feet, eyes flicking between them. "Is something the matter?"
Robin reached into his coat and pulled out a rolled map from an inner pocket. He stepped forward, unfurled it over a nearby wooden drum.
Ray frowned. The map was blank.
Then Robin spoke: "Show me the path of the Void Sea."
As if responding to his command, the map shimmered. A glowing 3D projection rose above the surface, the form of an endless sea emerging from thin air. Everyone instinctively stepped back. For a moment, all they saw was water—the vast, mysterious waters of the Void Sea.
"Show me the obstacles," Sicilia added.
A thin red line appeared across the projected sea.
"There," she said, pointing. "That's the point we need to pass to enter the territory of the Void Sea."
Ray stared at the glowing line, eyebrows knit. "Wait, does this mean... there's only this line to cross and then... nothing? I mean, are we safe after that?"
Everyone looked at him, but his eyes stayed locked on the red mark.
"Of course not," Sicilia replied, gesturing at the map. "This map uses high Spirit Energy. But that's exactly the issue—it doesn't function well in the Void Sea's domain." She pointed to the line. "This is where the Void Sea begins, and believe me, there are plenty of obstacles after that."
Robin crossed his arms tightly across his chest. "Spirit energy weakens near the Void Sea. That's why this map can only show us a small area near the border."
Sicilia nodded. "Yeah. We only identified this boundary because it lies just outside the Void Sea's influence."
Robin turned his gaze to the ocean behind him. "Although, calling it 'outside' feels misleading. It's more like... this line divides two different seas."
Ray's eyes didn't leave the map. "Then why did we stop here?"
Robin smiled, his voice calm but ominous. "Because this is where the game begins. Based on the scraps of knowledge we've gathered, there's a guardian stationed at this line. Its job is to test whether someone is worthy of passing. But the problem is..." Robin trailed off, glancing at Ray, as if weighing his next words. He opened his mouth—but Sicilia cut in first.
"You'll die," she said bluntly. "If you're not worthy, you'll die."
She turned to Robin, then back to Ray. "We wouldn't have brought you this far if we'd known sooner. We only found out on Dead Island."
She looked at Robin, gave a firm nod as if telling him to trust her, then turned to Ray. "So choose wisely. We don't want you to die. But I think you knew—there would be death threats. And still, you came. That means your goal must be as important as ours. So tell me, do you want to go?"
"I... I—"
Robin snapped, cutting him off. "I told you, he's just a kid," he said, rolling the map back up. "I've already made my decision—he's not going in."
Ray's eyes widened, his expression hardening. "Wait, what?"
Robin turned, his face sharp and eyes like cold steel. "You hesitated. That alone proves you're not ready. You'll fail the test. And you'll die."
Sicilia frowned, stepping between them. She gently pushed Robin back. "Calm down, Robin. At least listen to him first."
"There's no need to," Robin muttered, walking toward his room. "It's getting dark. We board at first light." His voice echoed back as he disappeared behind the door.
Sicilia sighed and placed a gentle hand on Ray's shoulder. "Don't take his sharp words to heart. He just doesn't want to lose you."
"But... but I need to go there too," Ray said, his voice thick with desperation.
Sicilia stared into his eyes, searching, then slowly turned toward the sea. The ocean was unnervingly calm, as if nothing waited beyond it. But it was an illusion—a cruel illusion hiding what lay beyond. For all they knew, a great monster could be waiting just past that line, mouth wide open, ready to devour everything.
"Robin told me to ask you," she said, back still turned to him. "What exactly do you want from there? If we had more time, we'd go and retrieve it for you."
Ray's brow furrowed. His head dropped, and pain flickered across his face. Tears welled in his eyes, refusing to fall just yet. "What if... you don't had time?"
"Nothing is more important than your life then," she replied softly. Then she turned to face him. "But I promise—I'll try my best—"
"NO!" Ray shouted. "You don't understand at all!"
His voice cracked with pain—raw, loud, and full of everything he'd endured. "You don't understand how important it is to me. It's more important than my life!"
His face twisted in anguish, a single tear breaking free from his burning eyes. He wiped it away roughly with his sleeve, frustrated that it had fallen at all.
"You guys are going too, because something's out there that matters more to you than your lives," he said, voice trembling. "It's the same for me. I waited sixteen years—but that was bearable. I knew how long I had to wait. There was a deadline."
He swallowed hard, his hands trembling as they clutched his head. "But after that... I waited four more years. That was hell. Because that wait had no deadline. Every day began with hope—and ended with pain and emptiness."
He sat on the floor, body shaking. "This is my only chance."
Sicilia stood silent, her face calm, listening to him without a word.
Ray looked up at her, eyes bloodshot, voice low but filled with conviction. "If I die, then everything ends. Everything. And maybe then... I'll finally be free from this curse. A curse I was born with. One no one else in this world carries."
His jaw clenched, trembling under the pressure of his own resolve. Tears glimmered but did not fall.
Sicilia glanced toward the quarters where Robin had disappeared, then back at Ray. "Don't just talk big. Are you really ready to die?"
"I am," Ray said firmly, choking back tears that still threatened to fall. "You don't have to carry the burden of my dead body. If I die, just throw me out." He forced a chuckle. "Let me be eaten by those monsters you all talk about." He shook his head with a bitter smile. "What do you call it again? Oh, right... that celestial whale."
He took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his words settle heavily. "Let's see what its stomach looks like."
"But you won't be able to see it if you're dead," Sicilia said flatly—almost serene. Her calmness caught Ray off guard, and he tilted his head in disbelief.
She added, "So either go there alive, or slit its stomach open." Her tone held a rare hint of encouragement. Ray's eyes widened in surprise. She was trying to motivate him.
"We can help. If you want," Sicilia said, locking eyes with him. But Ray was too stunned to respond before she turned and walked toward her quarters.
"Anyway, get some sleep," she called over her shoulder, "until I talk with our emotional captain." She waved as she disappeared down the corridor.
Ray sat there, dumbfounded, as Jack approached.
"You will die," Jack said in a low, gravelly voice—deep and rough, as if stone itself was speaking. "But Rabbit likes your cleaning, so I'll help you." He ruffled Ray's hair and walked away.
Ray watched them vanish. The night was silent. Ahead lay the place where the key to the lock—the thing he had desperately been searching for—waited.
He took a deep breath and flopped backward onto the floor. "Just one night," he whispered. "And it feels so long... like I could count every star in the sky a hundred times."
Ray curled up as memories of Robin's angry face and Sicilia's calm yet emotional expression flooded his mind.
He never knew the people he lived with were so deeply emotional. He thought no one cared whether he lived or died. But now... now there were people who did.
"Death?" he muttered to himself, as the cold ocean wind cut through his skin. "Would it be worth it?"
The question gnawed at him.
'What if—even after activation—it demands something I can't provide? What if I die trying to get it?'
'Although… no one but Mom and Sam would really be very sad. They wouldn't even able to see my body. Mom would be broken.'
'And in the end, will it have been worth it? What if my system turns out to be a failure... an even bigger failure than my life has been so far?'
This moment felt like what people call the memories before death. His mind was flooded with a torrent of questions. The painful days he had tried so hard to forget, the times when his only friend Sam supported him through it all.
The good memories made him weak—but they were just a handful of sugar in a vast ocean of salt. They couldn't erase the pain he had endured, or the way his soul crumbled when he imagined a future without the system.
And yet, as if fate had already decided, it was fixed.