Black Online-Chapter 177: Atlas City

The seagulls flew in circles above the boat, squawking as if they were trying to talk, and dive-bombing for any scraps of food they could find.

"The moon. The stars. The ocean."

Fang Raon sat on the deck, looking out to the skies, feeling at peace with the world.

During times of peace like this, he wasn’t surprised that Black Online had become as popular as it had.

The beautiful floors. Sights that were impossible to come across in the real world.

"Whew..."

Machary stepped out to the smell of the fresh air, and he had some kind of long pipe in hand that he was puffing on, the smoke curling around him like a ghostly apparition.

He let the boat run freely for now as it was still going in the right direction.

"What’s that pipe?"

Fang Raon asked curiously.

"This world’s version of pipe smoke, I guess, but much sweeter. It also doesn’t have nicotine, so no addiction, and I mostly smoke it to relieve stress."

Machary put the pipe in his mouth and puffed at it thoughtfully.

"This is called Bliss Pipe. You want to try?"

Machary offered it, and Fang Raon looked at it momentarily before taking it and carefully putting it to his lips.

"Huff..."

He blew out a puff of smoke, feeling the stress melt away.

"I feel... strangely light."

Fang Raon said in surprise.

"That feeling is good, yeah? It only feels good if you’re stressed, and it looks like you are quite a bit. Don’t get addicted to the feeling, though."

Machary said.

Fang Raon shrugged his shoulders and handed it back to him.

"I’ll be fine. So, if you smoke it when you’re not stressed, it doesn’t do anything?"

He asked.

"Yeah, it won’t work."

Machary said.

"Interesting. So, you’re stressed, huh?"

Fang Raon asked.

It meant that Machary wouldn’t be smoking the Bliss Pipe if he wasn’t stressed about something, so he was curious about what had made him so stressed.

"Yeah... I wanted to get out of the 15th floor for a while and come chill on the 16th floor, so I am grateful you came with me."

Machary walked to the railing and looked at the dark waters.

The ocean seemed very ominous and evil during the night because it was just pitch black.

"What’s up?"

Fang Raon asked curiously.

"It’s my family, man. They don’t think much about this whole gaming stuff. They’re old-fashioned, like dinosaurs, man.

"My father wants me to go work for him. I don’t because I can’t imagine anything less dull than being stuck in an office all day."

Machary sighed, and after feeling his stress grow, he took another puff of the Bliss Pipe and relaxed.

"I am planning to move to the countryside, away from them... Thus, I can’t keep being just some Fourth-Liner of a semi-successful guild man."

Machary said.

"...Then, what are you planning to do?"

Fang Raon asked.

He knew how Machary was feeling, as he was in somewhat of the same situation, and he also wasn’t satisfied being just a Fourth-Liner.

"I don’t know... I don’t want to leave the guild either."

Machary sighed and sat down on the railing—if he leaned slightly backwards, he might fall into the sea.

Then it would be truly impossible to find him, and he would die!

"My father has been pushing me harder and harder to stop playing. Who knows, today might even be the last time I ever get to play.

"Maybe when I wake up tomorrow they will have sold my Virtual Reality Pod away and then drag me straight to the office."

Machary wryly smiled.

However, he clearly wasn’t in a joking mood, and deep down, he feared that his worst nightmare might come true.

He took another puff of the Bliss Pipe.

"..."

Fang Raon looked at him silently.

"Fuck it. I am sure everything will be fine."

Machary put out the Bliss Pipe and headed back to the steering wheel and had to do some correction to the course.

"Inventory..."

Fang Raon whispered, and he took out a bottle of alcohol.

It was something that he bought out of a whim to use as a way to warm up on cold days on the 15th floor.

He bought several items that could achieve the same thing. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

This alcohol was called—Cold-Killing Whiskey—and it was capable of warming up the body in seconds.

It was quite popular on the 15th floor.

He also took out a couple of cups from the inventory, poured a drink into each, and slid one of the cups next to Machary.

"Huh?"

Machary looked at the cup, then at Fang Raon, who sat down next to him, and he lifted the cup for cheers.

"Shall we have a drink?"

Fang Raon asked.

Machary looked at the cup, then took it, and clinked glasses with him, and then brought the cup to his lips.

He took a long sip.

"Ah!"

Machary exclaimed.

He felt his body burning inside him, and he started to feel like he was getting drunk.

"Crazy stuff!"

"You gave me some of the Bliss Pipe. I gave you some of my Cold-Killing Whiskey. We’re even."

Fang Raon brought the cup to his lips and took a sip.

"I didn’t know you were a drinker."

Machary said with a chuckle.

"I am not, but it felt like a good moment to drink, so I couldn’t resist. I just wish we had some fishing poles so we could fish too."

Fang Raon said with a wry smile.

It was another thing that Fang Raon had always wanted to do—fishing—as he never had a chance to.

There was basically a to-do list that he created after getting his body back to healthy, and fishing was one of the things.

"Maybe we can fish over at the Atlas City."

"Atlas City... Is that what the Safe Zone is called?"

Fang Raon asked.

"Yeah. I don’t think we’re that far, but who knows, maybe we had shitty luck with the warp point."

Machary said.

In that moment.

Almost like the gods themselves were joking with his expense, he saw something appear a distance away.

It started as a silhouette. A big one. Then there were many silhouettes—many ships and boats surrounding the big one.

"I think we’ve arrived."

Machary said with a chuckle.

Fang Raon looked over and was shocked at the sight of the silhouette and never knew that one ship could be so big.

"Is it even a ship at this point?"

He asked.

"I’ve heard that it can move across the ocean. It rarely does. Only if there is an emergency that requires such a thing."

Machary said.

"Emergency... What could be so urgent that such a massive ship would need to move?"

Fang Raon asked.

"A tsunami, haha. That would be the only thing powerful enough to force it to move."

Machary said.

The small fishing boat-sized vessel kept the course, and the closer they got, the more ships they came across.

It took them almost half an hour to get from the spot where they first saw the silhouette to the large, imposing ship that was now visible in full view.

"Where do we go?"

Fang Raon asked.

They were quite close enough to see the massive ship’s hull, and it was so big and tall that it resembled a massive wall.

"There should be an entrance somewhere. Let’s just follow the other ships."

Machary said.

They followed behind a fleet of ships, and they went all the way to the backside of the ship, and there was surprisingly enough room for them to dock their own vessel.

The room was inside the ship. The backside of the ship would open like a garage door, and they sailed right in.

When they were inside, it was really dark.

They were going through some kind of dark corridor—there was no light, so it was very dark, and it was difficult to see where they were going.

"...I’ll shift to the first gear."

Machary pulled down the lever, and the boat continued moving very slowly behind other ships, as he didn’t want to collide with anything.

In that moment.

They left the corridor and arrived at the massive harbor—there were ships and boats of all sizes, shapes, and colors.

Hundreds of them!

The harbor was inside the ship. So they couldn’t see the sky, and only the walls of the ship surrounded them.

"Carefully."

Fang Raon said.

"I know."

Machary carefully slipped the small boat between two ships, and as the tip of the boat was about to touch the dock, he pulled the lever.

With the zero gear, the propeller stopped, and they came to a complete stop.

Meanwhile, Fang Raon dropped the anchor into the water.

TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!

At that moment, rapid-sounding footsteps echoed down the dock as a long, braided-bearded man speed-walked towards their boat.

He was holding a book with a familiar emblem on the cover.

"Excuse me, the two of you over there!"

The man waved to Machary and Fang Raon, and they looked over the railing at the strange man—who looked like he was well-off.

"What is it?"

Machary asked.

"If you want to dock here, you must pay a sum of a hundred gold coins for every day that you plan to stay here!"

The man said.

"Ah, great, Harbormaster."

Machary scratched the back of his head, and then he stepped out of the boat and pulled out a hundred gold coins.

"Just one day."

And he put the coins in the Harbormaster’s hand, who smiled with a twinkle in his eyes.

"What if we stay longer than one day?"

Fang Raon asked curiously now that they’ve only bought one day.

"We would be taking your ship and getting you arrested. If you want to extend your stay, come over to me, and we can sort it out."

The Harbormaster said.

"Ok."

Fang Raon said with a nod.