Chapter 100

It took considerable time to get the people out of prison.

The floor was too large, and some areas were locked with padlocks that couldn’t be opened with the keyring they had, causing delays as they had to search for new keys.

In the end, despite their best efforts, they only managed to save half of the people on the floor.

“Cough, cough! Shapiro, you bastard! Never thought you’d pull something like this!”

“Th-thank you for saving… Cough!”

“Where’s the leader? Where’s our leader?”

Most were in poor condition, likely from nearly drowning.

People were either shivering with blue lips or staring blankly as if in severe shock.

Though he wanted to give them time to rest like the young girl he’d evacuated first, the situation wouldn’t allow it.

‘The ship has tilted more in the meantime.’

The ship that had been tilted about 10 degrees when they escaped from prison was now nearly 15 degrees.

Every minute and second was precious.

Yuseong clapped his hands lightly to get everyone’s attention and shouted loudly

“We don’t know when the ship will sink! I know everyone’s tired, but now is the time to move!”

“Arrogant bastard, who does an acrobat like you think you are to give us orders?”

Among the inmates were not just Shapiro’s companions but also criminals.

Though the criminals twisted their faces menacingly as if trying to maintain dignity even in this situation, when a violent impact came and the water started rising faster, their faces instantly turned pale.

“If you want to stay here, I won’t stop you.”

“Damn it, get out of the way!”

Starting with a skinhead pushing past Yuseong to run up the stairs, many people began following behind.

Only those who appeared to be Shapiro’s circus colleagues remained.

“Whew, we save them and this is how they repay us. Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re fine.”

“That’s good, let me help support you and let’s hurry up too.”

“No. It’s dangerous to go right now. We’ll wait a moment before moving.”

Though people stared at him with bewildered looks, Yuseong sat down on the stairs with a shameless expression.

-The ship could sink any moment, what are you doing?

‘Trying to escape safely. Let me ask you something. What kind of ship is this?’

-As big as the Burgundy Building?

‘Not the size, I’m asking what type of ship it is.’

-It’s an imperial cruise ship that runs regularly between the provinces and capital.

Though momentarily thrown off by the unexpected answer when he’d been thinking it was a prisoner transport ship, Yuseong quickly regained composure and continued.

‘Though I want to ask why a cruise ship has a prison, anyway, since there are criminals, there must be soldiers or police escorting them. You think they’ll just watch while criminals escape?’

-…Ah!

‘If this was on land and a building was collapsing from a disaster like an earthquake, fleeing might be understandable. But this is at sea, and the lifeboats are likely insufficient for the number of people trying to escape. With barely enough boats to evacuate regular passengers, a bloody situation is likely if criminals rush in.’

The original plan had been to team up with the criminals to fight against the escort forces, then reach the deck and either escape if there were enough lifeboats or hijack them to evacuate the client and companions who would give the most points if insufficient, but with the criminals rushing ahead first, he had to change plans.

“Let’s start moving too.”

When Yuseong stood up, his anxious companions also got up as if they’d been waiting and started climbing the stairs.

Rumble!

With an ominous rumble, the tilt grew even steeper.

It was steep enough that one might slip if they lost focus for a moment.

However, perhaps thanks to the Divine Balance skill, Yuseong could pass through without much difficulty, and his companions also followed easily behind as if they might have worked as professional performers at the circus.

The condition of the upper floor wasn’t very good.

A musty smell permeating the entire floor, small shabby rooms, numerous pieces of garbage floating on the water.

Given it was right above the prison and the overall condition, this was likely third class.

“Tch.”

“Why the sudden clicking of tongue?”

“Just disappointed. If it were first class, or even second class, it would have been much better.”

“Eh, huh? Wait. What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? You’re going up wearing those clothes? Take them off immediately and change into something else. If possible, cut your hair or put on makeup, and if nothing else at least make a scar on your cheek!”

His companions, who had thought he was going to steal in the confusion, checked their prison uniforms and scattered in all directions with sheepish expressions.

Feeling their contemptuous gazes from just moments ago, Yuseong asked Shapiro in his mind while searching.

‘Why are they reacting so sensitively? Weren’t you all criminals?’

-Criminals?! We’re people who could live without laws! Model citizens who pay their taxes properly!

‘This is different from what I know. And why would model citizens be in prison? You must have committed some crime to be locked up.’

-Damn it! Those were all false charges! How could a circus troupe possibly collude with the Republic or commit ideological crimes?!

An unexpectedly fierce reaction.

Yuseong kept quiet to avoid provoking Shapiro further and focused on searching.

Though the quest description clearly stated he was involved in serious crimes, what mattered to Yuseong wasn’t whether Shapiro was innocent or guilty, but how to escape this situation.

Considering the risk of losing information access by antagonizing the client while trying to discover the truth, it was better to just play along.

“Is this world’s civilization somewhere between Earth’s modern and contemporary eras?”

A brown beret and yellowed clothes, dark blue overalls.

While admiring his reflection that looked like an Industrial Revolution era worker, Yuseong snapped back to focus and continued searching.

He was looking for weapons or tools that could be used if a situation arose.

For D-rank and lower quests, the otherworld skill and artifact usage rate rises sharply even with minimal use, so for high-rank clears, it was most efficient to overcome challenges using only the client’s abilities and locally sourced items.

‘How ironic that while I freely use all sorts of skills and artifacts from other worlds to grow stronger each day in reality, I have to fight so hard without even taking out a single item in other worlds.’

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that he couldn’t take them out but chose not to, but it was still amusing.

Smiling wryly at the gap between his seemingly omnipotent self on Earth and his current self rummaging through junk, Yuseong found a dull kitchen knife and tucked it into his waist.

“If you’ve changed, come out to the hallway right away! We need to head up soon!”

“Just wait a moment! Just need to put on pants!”

“Coming now! Don’t leave without me!”

The water had now risen to thigh level.

Though there was still time before the water would fill up, staying submerged in freezing seawater for too long was absolutely not a good choice.

“Mmm…”

When they reached the upper floor, groans erupted from among the people.

A corridor stained with blood and bodies lying here and there.

When people realized the bodies were the criminals who had gone ahead, they finally understood why they had to leave later and broke out in cold sweats.

“That guy, is he really the Shapiro I know?”

“One of our friends went crazy after being interrogated by the intelligence department, this must be something similar.”

-It’s a misunderstanding! This isn’t me! Can’t you say something to my companions?

Pretending not to hear the companions’ gossip and Shapiro’s pleading, Yuseong spoke in a low voice.

“From now on, everyone needs to be careful. If a prisoner suddenly runs out or a soldier points a gun, can you act naturally without panicking?”

After confirming everyone nodded, Yuseong moved forward carefully.

How far had they walked while carefully avoiding stepping on the increasing number of bodies when voices were heard from beyond a barricade at the end of the corridor.

“Stop! Don’t come any closer! One more step and I’ll shoot!”

Comparing the number of gun barrels aimed at them with his current armament, Yuseong abandoned thoughts of resistance and raised both hands above his head.

“D-don’t shoot! We’re passengers who were staying on the lower floor!”

“Lies! The people from the lower floors came up long ago! The ship started flooding how long ago, you think it makes sense to come up only now?”

“We tried to come up right away! But suddenly prisoners came up from below and we got scared and hid in our rooms until now – what else could we do?”

The officer behind the barricade showed a conflicted expression.

He had planned to pull the trigger immediately if they said anything nonsensical, but this was unexpectedly plausible.

Still suspicious that so many people remained, he tried comparing their faces with those of the criminals he knew, but only became more confused.

‘They seem like them, but also not…’

Hastily donned clothing, faint makeup, careless hairstyles.

Normally such crude disguises would have been seen through immediately.

However, in this urgent situation with the ship sinking in real time, the officer couldn’t even consider the possibility that prisoners would leisurely disguise themselves while coming up, and could only hesitate to make a judgment.

BANG!

“Ugh! What now? Did the engine explode?”

As an unknown explosion sounded, the ship suddenly tilted sideways.

Yuseong pointed at the rushing seawater and shouted.

“Do we need to go down and bring tickets for you to believe us? No, more importantly, what right do you have to stop us when you’re not even crew members of this ship?”

“…Come up! We’re going up too!”

Thinking there was no way prisoners would act so confidently, the officer led his subordinates up, and Yuseong followed behind with people wearing dazed expressions.

“Just how many more floors do we have to climb to reach the deck?”

Complaining, Yuseong clicked his tongue briefly at the scene that appeared on the next floor.

What looked like dozens of people were gathered in front of a massive space that appeared to be a dining hall.

If the ship’s condition had been normal they could have just walked across, but the problem was that the increasing tilt had turned it into a slanted cliff.

‘Length about 80 meters, current tilt around 45 degrees. Floor is slippery like it’s been waxed. There are some tables that could serve as footholds in between…’

Whether fixed to the floor to prevent shaking or not, unlike the fallen furniture and chairs, some tables stood firmly like trees with deep roots.

Though quite troublesome, escape wasn’t impossible.

Shapiro’s stats were decent, and with the Enhancement Procedure skill able to raise all physical-related stats by 50 points, this level could somehow be crossed precariously.

The problem was that escaping like that would be meaningless.

‘What use is getting just the basic reward? 50,000 for passengers, 100,000 for companions. Need to save as many as possible.’

Yuseong had absolutely no intention of escaping alone while leaving these karma points behind.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Need something to grab…”

Several people screamed and fell while trying to cross the dining hall.

Watching their attempts from start to finish while pondering how to escape this crisis, Yuseong muttered unconsciously.

“This is just a disaster movie, isn’t it?”