Kaelen’s eyes widened. "In the middle of this hurricane? Without a lifeboat? That’s suicide. The fall alone will kill us, and the Sirens will pick us apart in the water."

"Not if we time it right," Kang Min replied. "Liora, I need you to find the exact resonance point of the Aethel-Core in the hull. Zoya, I need your most volatile ’Deep-Sea Depth Charges’. Kaelen, you lead the distraction. You have to make the Captain believe we’re making a desperate push for the helm."

"And you?" Kaelen asked.

"I’ll be dealing with the anchor," Kang Min said, a sharp glint in his eyes.

The plan was a gamble that relied on absolute synchronization. If the core didn’t blow, they would be trapped in the hull as the ship regenerated. If they blew it too early, they would be sucked into the vortex.

[Night Seven]

The seventh night arrived with a storm so violent it felt as if the ocean was being torn apart. The Kraken’s tentacles were everywhere, crushing the railing and swiping players into the air.

"NOW!" Kang Min yelled.

Kaelen and a dozen other warriors charged up the stairs toward the helm. "MUTINY!" they roared, their voices joined in a desperate, manufactured rage.

The Captain laughed, a sound like dry husks rubbing together. "Mutiny? On my ship? I have sailed these seas since the first star went cold!" He raised a hand, and the shadows around him solidified into lances of dark energy, impaling two of Kaelen’s men instantly.

Meanwhile, Kang Min, Liora, and Zoya slipped into the lower decks. The air here was thick with the smell of stagnant water and old blood. Liora placed her hands against the damp timber.

"Down here," she whispered. "The vibrations are strongest behind the spirit-bulkhead."

They reached the hull’s center. There, floating in a cage of ribbed bone, was the Aethel-Core. It was a pulsing, iridescent sphere that radiated a cold, oppressive power. It was the "heart" of the Flying Dutchman.

"It’s beautiful," Zoya whispered, already pulling a massive, spiked explosive from her bag. "I’m going to love watching it pop."

"Hurry," Kang Min said, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "The Captain knows we’re here."

The wood of the hull suddenly began to groan. Rotted planks morphed into jagged teeth, and the shadows coalesced into a manifestation of the Captain himself—a phantom duplicate.

"You would destroy your only sanctuary?" the phantom hissed.

Kang Min stepped forward. "This isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a coffin."

He activated his [Exchange] skill. He targeted the phantom’s shadow and swapped it with the heavy iron anchor sitting on the deck above. The phantom was suddenly pinned to the floor by the sheer weight of several tons of magical iron, the deck beneath it cracking.

"Zoya, set the timer for thirty seconds!" Kang Min commanded.

"Already done, Boss! Let’s get out of here!"

The Sinking of the Sovereign

They scrambled back to the upper deck just as the first explosion rocked the ship. The Dread-Sovereign shuddered, a sound of absolute agony erupting from its timbers. At the helm, the true Captain screamed, his body flickering as the core below took damage.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" he shrieked, the chains on the mast beginning to glow white-hot.

"Ending the loop," Kang Min said.

He didn’t run for the railing. He ran for the mast. He knew that even with the core damaged, the ship would try to reset if the "Soul-Anchor" wasn’t severed.

He summoned the Blue Tiger.

The azure beast appeared amidst the spray and shadows, its fur crackling with lightning. "Tear the chains!" Kang Min ordered.

The tiger leaped, its claws—infused with the mana of the 13th-floor souls—rending through the spectral iron. As the chains snapped, the Captain’s body began to dissolve into salt and sand.

The second explosion, the big one, tore the hull open.

The ocean rushed in. The Flying Dutchman began to tilt violently, its bow lifting toward the swirling vortex.

"EVERYONE OFF!" Kaelen shouted. "GRAB THE DEBRIS!"

The players leaped into the dark, churning water. Kang Min waited until the last possible second. As the ship was sucked down into the depths, he used his blade to carve out a massive section of the mast’s wood—timber that was still infused with the ship’s ancient, buoyant magic.

The whirlpool was a roar of white noise. Kang Min felt the crushing pressure of the deep as he was pulled under. He gripped the timber, his lungs burning, his vision fading to black.

The Morning After

Silence.

The first thing Kang Min felt was the warmth of a real sun. Not the sickly green light of the curse, but a pale, golden dawn.

He opened his eyes. He was lying on a large, flat piece of the mast, drifting on a calm, crystal-blue sea. The hurricane was gone. The vortex had vanished. Around him, other players were clinging to barrels, planks, and crates.

Liora was sitting upright on a floating door, her blindfold remarkably still in place. Kaelen was pulling a shivering Zoya onto a large section of the deck.

A system window appeared, glowing with the gold of a "True Clear."

「Floor 17: The Phantom of the Flying Dutchman - COMPLETED」

「Clear Result: The Eternal Voyage is Broken.」

「Condition: The Sovereign is Sunk. The Captain is Drowned.」

「Player Kang Min has acquired the ’Ghost-Timber of the Sovereign’.」

「Hidden Reward: ’Sea-Legs’ passive skill granted to all survivors.」

The survivors looked at each other. They were battered, their armor was ruined, and they were soaking wet, but they were alive. And for the first time in seven nights, the timer didn’t reset.

"We actually did it," Kaelen said, his voice cracking. He looked over at Kang Min. "You really are a madman, Singularity."

Kang Min sat up, looking at the horizon where the gate to the 18th floor was beginning to shimmer over the water. "The Tower only gives you a ship so it can watch you sink. If you want to reach the top, you have to be willing to swim."

The chat on the floating stream interface was a blur of absolute chaos.

" -THE MADMAN SANK THE ENTIRE FLOOR!!-"

" -Did you see the Blue Tiger rip those spectral chains?!-"

" -I’ve been watching this floor for three years and I’ve never seen anyone sink the ship...-"

" -He literally used the boss’s own anchor to pin him down!!-"

" -Singularity is just playing a different game at this point.-"

" -Kangpany stock is literally breaking the market right now.-"

" -Guardian of the Lost? More like Destroyer of the Fables.-"