After they decided to abandon ship, Matt spent the next twenty minutes trying to help Michael put on the pitch black armor. Of course, they eventually gave up because it was just far too complicated. Aside from that, they would be trekking through the desert, so he probably would have died from heat stroke or exhaustion.

Instead of armor, they just took some light clothes, with some white bed sheets to cover themselves and keep from dying from the sunlight. Then they gathered up all the guns and ammo that were in the “Captain’s Quarters”, along with a paltry amount of food and water. They had been on the open ocean for a week without resupplying at all. Thus, most of the essential supplies on the ship had been whittled down to practically nothing.

“Where do we go Mike?” Matt asked, as the two of them were casually walking out onto the huge deck. A few people saw them, but cowered away, hiding from the armed men. Michael had obviously hoarded all the guns and ammo to himself, or he never would have been able to stay in control of the situation. Now that he was leaving, the remaining people would have to fight among themselves for power.

“Yeah, this ship is pretty fucking huge. To be honest, I’ve gotten lost a few times already. The lifeboats are kinda in the middle though, so we gotta make our way down there first.” They had been in the best suite in the whole ship. It was at the prow and had windows that could see in every direction in front of the ship. There were two exits to the room. One was to the deck, the other led to some stairs, which would have allowed them to head straight down into the ship.

“Wait, why did we come to the deck, if we need to go down?” Matt was slightly confused as he looked at a map of the vessel that Michael had given him.

The short man snickered and explained “I set up a claymore in front of that door. I’m not really an explosives expert, so I’d rather not risk my life trying to disarm it. I usually enter and exit through the deck. Anyway, we just need to go over to the other side… Which is actually pretty fucking far.”

“Wait, what the fuck?! Who the hell is driving this thing?!” Matt started screaming as he nearly fell over from the sharp turn that the ship suddenly took. They both looked back towards the room they just left, then up, past the actual captain’s quarters and into the control room. It was a large structure, with glass on all sides, so it was possible to see the ten people who were inside. They were mostly men, with a few women, but all of them had skin that was much darker than Matthew’s.

“Yeah, we should probably get the fuck outta here before the-yep! The ship is actually getting ripped in half right now!” As Michael shouted, a tear appeared across the middle of the deck. That pool was rapidly emptied, before the whole front of the ship was separated from the back end. As they ran forwards, the two of them were able to look down and see that there was a huge reef below the boat. The corals, combined with the waves, caused the ship to be torn asunder.

Fortunately though, both ends of the ship were big and buoyant enough that they didn’t immediately start sinking. In fact, the reef and rocks actually helped to prop them up and keep them from moving too much.

Michael snickered, “Unless you have a card that can let us fly, I suggest we find some ropes and try to rappel downwards.”

“Well, I got some coins, some bullets, some swords and a big-ass fucking castle-like tower! Which one do you think could save us at this point?!” Matt complained, as he ran over to the side of the ship. Obviously there were no ropes dangling around anywhere. It was a modern cruise ship, not a sailboat.

“Hahahaha~! I guess there’s only one way left, huh?!” Michael started laughing hysterically, as he suddenly lunged towards Matt, dragging him along as he started free falling towards the turbulent ocean waves below.

“Ah~! Goddamnit! You crazy bastard! I can’t swim!” Matt screamed, as he flailed around. No matter how hard he struggled, even after he let go of the guns, food and water he was carrying, he was still pulled down by the undertow.

When he sank down and finally reach the bottom, he opened his eyes and saw Michael standing on the coral reef. He had caught the heavy backpacks that Matt discarded and used them, along with his own heavy equipment, to casually walk underwater. When he saw Matt, he reached out and grabbed his wrist, then started dragging him along.

***

“Listen Kid… I hate to break it to you, but you’re definitely an MC. Your Protagonist Aura is just way too fucking efficient. You’re awake for less than an hour and somehow, the cruise ship just happened to crash and get ripped in half? Only a main character is this powerful or like, the character of a Player in a video game. Also, you literally got shot in the head and neck, yet still managed to survive somehow. If that ain’t MC potential, I don’t know what is!”

Michael was carrying the barely conscious man on his back, as he trekked through the endless sands. Not only that, but he also had over a hundred pounds of equipment in his backpacks, along with a few gallons of water in the form of jugs that he was carrying with both hands. Matthew groaned in pain, still recovering from getting saltwater into the wounds on his head and now the sun was bearing down on him, burnin his skin whenever it was exposed to the light.

“Hehehe~, but don’t worry… I’ve been the MC for as long as I can remember. Hell, even my name is MC! I’m sure that just by being around me, some of my ‘plot armor’ will rub off on ya… I mean, sure~, I’ll probably bring plenty of disasters as well. Since that’s the nature of every MC. To fuck shit up and grow stronger through the chaos. Hey, you’re still alive right? I haven’t heard you speak for like ten minutes.”

Matthew was actually still awake. The reason why he hadn’t spoken much, was simply because his ‘Hero’ never stopped talking. Not only was he speaking incessantly, but he acted as if the catastrophes around the whole world were all because of his Summoner.

Michael was snickering for a moment, but then he yelled “Oh shit! Matt, wake up! We got trouble!”

A few tan jeeps, with machine guns mounted on their backs were swiftly approaching from the distant dunes. It seemed as if they were heading straight towards the two of them. Of course, whether they were actually headed towards them or not, Michael didn’t take any chances. He dropped the water and other supplies, tossing Matt onto the sand. Then he rapidly unzipped a brown waterproof duffel-bag and pulled out a .50 Caliber sniper rifle. He took out the magazine, checked to see if it was even loaded, smiled and shoved it back inside the rifle.

“I’ve always wanted to use one of these…” Michael sighed, then aimed down the scope at the left jeep’s engine. He didn’t even bother mounting the gun on the ground and directly fired it while standing. Although the rifle did have a lot of kick… That was only from the perspective of normal humans. He had already started evolving past those limitations, due to the intervention of his Rapture-727 Delta nanites.

Without much suspense, the engine of the vehicle was destroyed and it even lost control, flipping over, before rolling down a massive sand dune. When they saw their ally jeep get disabled, the remaining team of people in the other jeep obviously heard the gunshot and saw the man in the distance, holding a rifle. Before Michael had chance to shoot at them, they quickly turned around and drove back behind the dune.

Although Matt and Mike couldn’t see them anymore, they could hear the engine getting farther and farther away. Of course, just because the other people escaped, didn’t mean that the first jeep’s passengers could do the same. The driver was crushed under the vehicle and barely alive, but the other three men were relatively healthy. Two of them had tanned beige skin, while the third was light-brown and they were all around six feet tall.

All of them wore matching green-brown camo uniforms, with bullet-proof vests and green berets on their heads. Obviously none of that mattered to Michael. Without even asking for his Summoner’s opinion, he immediately began picking them off one at a time with the sniper rifle. The first shot ripped the man in half at the waist, the second turned another man’s head into meat-paste, while the third ripped the guy’s left arm off at the shoulder… He didn’t live much longer after that.