The female lead really has the audacity to trick me. I grit on my teeth and quickly run outside of the room.

If my left foot has a mouth, it probably cusses me out until my ears bleed.

I emerge into the clearing on the main deck and see Aurora stop dead in her tracks, staring fearfully ahead.

I follow her eyesight and almost vomit my breakfast.

The floor has turned dark red from spilled blood. Lifeless bodies sprawled across the board. I wish there was a mosaic censor covering the scene.

Iron smell reaches my nose and I have to cover my nose, trying not to gag.

Making a mental note, once I go back to my real world, I need to DM the author to rate this fiction to PG-18.

Tearing my gaze away, I see a large group of pirates sitting on their knees while Ateez’s crew are surrounding them.

Hongjoong stands in the front of the crowd. His back facing me but enough for me to feel intimidated.

“Old seadog, long time no see.” Hongjoong greets the captive pirates casually but anyone can detect mockery in his tone. “Didn’t know you love to roleplay as Royal navy.” Although I can’t see his face, I can imagine his taunting smile.

The man that he called ‘Old seadog’ spat his saliva mix with blood to the ground but he can’t hide fear that shows in his eyes. “Hongjoong, don't act too cocky, your pirate king title came to an end.”

Hongjoong laughs, “Oh really? Captain Silver then advice me what should I do? Roleplay as Royal navy?” He jeers at the enemy captain. Ateez crew holler in mocking laughter.

“Keep laughing before you lot won’t even have time to breathe again.” Captain Silver hatefully says through clench jaws.

“You should be worried about yourself first Captain Silver. You’re the first one to lose your breath.” Seongwha steps forward, placing his cutlass on the man’s throat. “Now tell me why you foolishly attacked us.”

Captain Silver only laughs at Seonghwa’s question but he abruptly stops when the cutlass cut into his flesh.

“Answer me.” Seonghwa lowers his voice.

Gosh he’s so scary. Now I know he’s at mercy when he interrogated me. I won’t argue with him again.

Captain Silver snorts, “Keep being arrogant, You will eventually fall down from your delusion throne. The other pirates are coming after you.”

“Why? Do they also have a death wish?”

Captain Silver scoffs at Seonghwa, “We have the same goal. To crush you under our feet.” He laughs maniacally and his captive crew also follow.

“And this is how you crush us. Why don’t you see how we crush you instead?” Seonghwa raises his cutlass to strike the man. But captain Silver shouts, making Seonghwa halt his action.

“Stop!! If you want to know why the other pirates are band against you!”

Seonghwa exchanges glances with Hongjoong.

Hongjoong saunters forward. “Speak.”

“We want a map in your possession. The map that can lead us to our indefinite treasure. The place where all of our wishes come true.”

The Wonderland map.

They want the Wonderland map. The news of Ateez getting a hold of Wonderland map leaked among pirates so they’re after us. Captain Silver is the first group that clashes with Ateez. More are to come.

However, Ateez know that Pirates can’t cooperate. Each of them desire the same thing, they’re going to betray each other in the end. Having a large group of buccaneer coming after them is still tough to deal with. But who are they? They are the Pirate King. They are not afraid of those lousy pirates. It’s just that it’ll hindrance their plan. Moreover, if the fact that they were cursed leaks to the world, those people will use it against them. They gotta play it safe.

Hongjoong communicates with Seonghwa through the eyes. And Seonghwa nods in understanding. Dead men tell no tales. Get rid of all witnesses. Leave no trace of Ateez’s whereabouts.

Suddenly I feel a forceful tug on my arm.

“What’re you doing here?” I turn around and meet the angry red face Yunho. He quickly grabs my wrist and Aurora’s. Aurora screams in surprise, drawing the attention of the crowd.

Ateez furrow their eyebrows at our presence.

“I’ll take them back inside.” Yunho says and starts dragging us away. However Seonghwa stops him. “No. If they want to be here so let them be. So they’ll understand what we do to our enemy.” Seonghwa has a sinister smile on his face which I don’t feel good about it at all.

No, I don’t want to know. I’ve read about your cruelty toward those poor souls.

I grab on the shirt of Yunho and shake my head. Pleading him.

Captain Silver saw our commotion and chime in. “You have on your ship? Hongjoong, didn’t you know women bring bad luck.”

That nasty man actually called me a hoe. I shoot him nasty glare. But caught eyes with Hongjoong instead. So I quickly hid my face in Yunho's arm.

Hongjoong narrow eyes at us and then at the foul mouthed captain. Suddenly he uses the hilt of his cutlass, slapping Captain Silver. His whole body falls onto the ground, that’s how hard the slap is.

“Captain. You still never change. It’s an old belief and you still believe such thing?” Hongjoong clicking on his tongue in annoyance. “No more chit chatting. You’re wasting my time. Seonghwa get rid of them.”

“Aye Captain.” Seonghwa answers and then turns to the captives.

“Kill them all.” Once Ateez crew heard their quartermaster’s order, they picked up their weapons, ready to eradicate over 100 captives.

I bury my head behind Yunho's back, not wanting to watch the bloodbath scene. Ateez live up to their rumor, they’re truly merciless. They never relent to their enemies.

“You’re cruel.” A clear voice shouted. I stare disbelief at Aurora.

I know her character always upholds righteousness. But did she just call out Ateez like that?

“Cruel?” Hongjoong repeat her word and laughs. “This is the most merciful punishment we've ever done.” A flash of bloodlust cross his face. “Do you want to know what we do when we’re not at our mercy?”

No, I don’t. This situation is bad enough. I have a weak heart and I can’t consume anymore violent scenes.

I shake my head at Aurora. But the girl only stares at Hongjoong in bewilderment.

Hongjoong chuckles darkly and turns to order Seonghwa. “Cut off their hands and throw all of them in the sea.”

“Start from you captain Silver.”

“Monster! you are no human.” Captain Silver cries but he can only cry as one of our pirates forces out his arms on the ground. Another crew with a heavy axe ready to strike.

I want to shout at them to stop but that will result in me losing my hands instead. Because I know from the original story, sadly none of them survive.

So I try to think that those people are fictional characters. They’re minor characters whose existence have served their purpose.

Still, I feel sick to the stomach.

“I want to get inside.” I tell Yunho, tugging on his shirt.

Yunho sees my pale face and decides to go against Seonghwa’s order. We turn around to leave but a chill voice calls out. “Why leave so hurry? Not gonna watch the show.” Seonghwa smirks, “Yunho leave them here.”

“But..” Yunho reluctantly looks between us and his heartless quartermaster.

“Nevermind I think we saw enough.” I say to the cold blood quartermaster and grab Aurora's wrist to leave.

“Who told you to leave?” This time Hongjoong stops us. I turn around to look at him in disbelief. He no longer wears a smirk but replaces it with cold expression and bloodlust eyes. This is the real Hongjoong, the merciless pirate king. I feel like I never knew him at all.

What to do? I don’t want to taint my eyes though. But I can’t go against the scary Ateez.

So I turn to Aurora. “Faint,” I mouth at her.

If she pretends to be fainting, maybe we could escape this troublesome situation. But she knit her eyebrow in confusion, “What?”

“Faint!” I whisper yelling. But she still doesn't get it.

That’s it. If she is not gonna do it, then I’m gonna do it myself.

My eyes roll back to my head and I slip into darkness. The last thing I heard is Aurora screaming.

I faint. Literally.