The players who had been standing on the deck had all dispersed. Only Li Xian and Ji Xie remained.
"Aren't we leaving?"
Ji Xie asked the silent Li Xian.
Li Xian raised his head, carefully surveyed every part of the ship he could see, then chose a direction.
"Let's go."
Li Xian seemed to know exactly where he was going. Without much looking around or stopping, he headed straight for the bow.
When they reached the very front of the ship, they found an iron ladder mounted on the wall.
Li Xian climbed it to the ship's uppermost level, where there was only one room-
The Driver's Cab.
The door was unlocked, and Li Xian easily pushed it open and stepped inside. The Driver's Cab was small, its layout apparent at a glance. Directly ahead was a control console with a screen displaying the ship's position at sea.
The ship did not seem to be a particularly advanced model. Beside the navigation equipment was a circular mechanical wheel for manually adjusting its course and speed.
But no one was at the helm.
Ji Xie had explained to him earlier that Instances could contain people other than players. In this Instance, however, aside from the seven players present at the start, there seemed to be no one else aboard.
Li Xian began looking around the Driver's Cab. First, he carefully examined the image on the screen, then lowered his gaze to the console beneath it.
He cautiously avoided the buttons of various sizes on its surface. He knew nothing about operating a ship and had no idea what any of them did, so it was best not to touch anything and risk an accident.
Throughout all this, Ji Xie followed Li Xian like a tail. He neither searched for clues nor