The night sky is absent from the moon's presence, indicating that tonight is the new moon. Darkness engulf the world, blinding the passengers on a small boat. The sound of oaring breaks the silence of the sea.

Reaching a small beachfront, 6 figures rise from the boat and head toward a wrecked ship. One by one, they climb up a rope ladder, boarding the ship. Damp wood planks groan when a person steps on it.

“What do we do next?” Once all team members step on the main deck, the quartermaster turns to ask the girl who claims herself as a seer. His eyes no longer hold menacing looks.

“Simple, we find the dagger.” stretches into a wide grin as if she’s mocking him. No matter how much he wants to jeer at her, her prophecy is right.

Yes, they found the wrecked ship.

Back when the scavenging team reported to Ateez, they found the wrecked ship.

Relief flooded the occupants inside the room.

“Wow Star! Impressive!” Mingi gave me a thumb up. His mind was blown by her accurate prophecy.

I smiled at Mingi and slump in my seat. I felt like lifting Korean three biggest mountains out of my chest. Finally, we found it. My life was safe.

“Great, all of you get ready, we’ll board the ship.” Hongjoong ordered his crew.

“Wait,” I interrupted. “Can I pick team members?”

“You’re not going.” Hongjoong objected.

“No, I must be there and I’ll choose the team members.” I cut him off. He raised his brow, staring at me as I challenged his authority. But I had a reason for picking a team member.

The others glanced between their captain and the seer, who was gonna win?

In the end, my persistence won. Six people formed into Crescent dagger operation; Seonghwa, Wooyoung, Mingi, San, Aurora, and me.

Back into the present moment. Seonghwa scoffs when he heard my answer, “Can’t you be more specific?”

“Oh right, the dagger is strapped on a wall in one of the rooms.” I describe to him.

“That’s help a lot.” He sarcastically sneers at me. But that’s the only description that I can remember from the fiction.

“All of you follow me.” He walks inside, leading the team.

I nudge Aurora to walk after him. She has been quiet since in the quarter room. When I selected her in the team, she looked like she was on a verge of breaking down. But it’s her role to discover the dagger.

I plead her with my eyes and she reluctantly follows Seonghwa.

Then I turn to signal Wooyoung to follow her. “You stay close to her.” He points at himself.

“Don’t ask, just go and take care of her.” I push his back to go after her.

Then I turn to the two guys; Mingi and San. “Let’s go.”

As we go deeper into the haunted ship, foul stench is getting stronger. The atmosphere is eerily, chilly, and damp. Goosbumps rising on my arms, I don’t have to possess 6th senses to feel something is off.

The ship was sinked at the bottom of the sea for a short period of time. However, the wood is already rotten and some parts of the floor and wall fall apart. The only source of light is from the torches that the guys carry which is hard to see what we step on so our group moves quite slowly.

The reason why I request Wooyoung to walk after Aurora is because in the original plot she steps on a broken floor and almost fall down. But Wooyoung’s going to play the hero saving her and Seonghwa will show her a glimpse of sympathy. Underline a glimpse.

I focus on Aurora’s back, waiting for the scene to happen. It’s been a while now but why she doesn't fall down-

I haven’t finished my sentence when the wooden plank that I step on collapses into a hole. I scream as my entire body falls down.

Suddenly a strong pair of arms wrap around me from behind and lift me up. My arms automatically hug that person for dear life.

“Omg omg omggg,” My heart pound, adrenaline pumping through my body. Staring at a dark hole that almost ended my seer career.

“Thanks, Ming-” I turn to look at my life savior who I thought was Mingi because I saw him walk behind me. But turns out it was the combatant.

“San!!” I shout into his ears in sheer surprise. He scowls and lets go of me immediately.

The whole group quickly surrounds me. “Are you okay?” Aurora asks, panic visible in her expression.

“Yes, fine.” I control my breathing from the shock of the accident and San.

There were 3 people walking before me but that damn floor decided to fall down when I stepped on it. This story should change the title into ‘An unfortunate event of Star’.

“What a nuisance,” I heard the quartermaster mutter, he stands further away from the group. “Let’s keep going!” He shouts. I feel grateful for his non-existing sympathy.

Before we resume walking, a glowing light comes out of Aurora’s pendant. Her eye trails toward the hole. All eyes follow her. “The dagger is down there.” Aurora whispers.

Seonghwa walks up to the group, examining the dark hole. “Let’s go.”

We found a stair leading to the lower deck. The 4 men kicked open every room they saw. Doors and walls fall onto the ground, creating heavy thud echo throughout the ship. If they keep doing that the ship might break apart before we find the dagger.

Surprisingly Aurora seems excited as she pokes her head in every direction to see if her pendant glows or not.

Wooyoung does a good job as he keeps an eye on her all the time.

I wonder after today will they start to warm up to each other?

“Can you stay still? You made me dizzy.” Wooyoung drops her a snarky remark when the girl walks all over the place not sticking to the group.

“And can you stop kicking the doors? It’s bothering me.” She taunts back.

Umm...maybe not.

They both stop bickering when Aurora’s pendant starts to glow brighter. They turn their head at a room.

“It’s locked.” Wooyoung mutters as he spots an old rusty lock on the doorknob. “Mingi” He calls the master gunner.

Mingi fishes out his pistol and shoots at the lock, it falls to the ground. Then he kicks the doors.

Seonghwa strides inside the room, lifting up his torch. At the end of the room, something glimmers from the flame of Soenghwa’s torch. It’s a silver sickle shaped dagger strap onto the wall. “Found it.”

As if the crescent dagger notices the presence of Aurora’s teardrop pendant, it flashes bright silver light and dims down.

Everybody stunts at the scene.

“I bet that dagger is also cursed like us.” Mingi comments earning the others snicker.

Aurora walks toward the dagger like she is hypnotized by it. But Seonghwa grabs her arm to stop her. She wakes from her trance and frowns at him.

Seonghwa points at a dark abyss in front of her. “If you want to fall to your death, then be my guest.”

Aurora pales when she sees the giant dark hole before her.

The floor of the room turns into a giant black hole between where we stand and the dagger. But at the end of the room, there’s a tiny wooden plank that still didn’t fall down and its size is big enough for one person to stand.

Soenghwa calculates the distance, it’s almost 4 meters apart. The only way is to jump onto that small peaking wood. It's a risky move as falling down the hole might inflict serious injury.

“Wooyoung, give me the rope.” Wooyoung passes the rope to Soenghwa but I interfere.

“No, not you.” I know that he plans to jump and get the dagger himself.

“You don’t give orders around here.” He squints his eyes in dissatisfaction. He tolerated the girl's order once. He couldn’t believe Hongjoong agreed to her request. But that was his captain's decision which he had to obey. But now, captain isn’t here to back her up. He won’t tolerate her for the second time.

He ignores her and begins looping the rope around his waist. But Star grabs tightly on the rope.

“Let go.” He growls.

“No, Seonghwa you might get hurt.” I whisper to him.

“What?” His brows furrow, thinking his ears might deceive him.

“Let someone else do it.” I suggest.

In the story, he jumps and falls down although there’s a rope to secure his body from falling down, he’s still injured. Believe it or not, I cry at that chapter. Even if he hates me for being too demanding, I don’t want to see him get hurt.

“No, I’m the quartermaster-”

“San,” I cut him off by calling out the combatant and San instantly yanks the rope from Seonghwa’s grasp. Seonghwa can only glare at San in disbelief.

Once he gains his composure, he scoffs under his breath. The others watch the scene with interest. They take note to spread the news of San and the seer ganging up on Seonghwa.

San swiftly ties the rope on his waist and passes the end at Wooyoung. He takes it to secure at a nearby pole.

Everyone automatically makes way for him to jump.

“Be careful mate,” the others say to him.

I watch nervously at the side. I know he successfully retrieved the dagger in the story, but I don’t know if any factors will hinder him at this moment or not.

He takes several steps back and gets into a lower stance. Then he sprints and jumps. Everyone holds their breath in anticipation. San lands on the small wooden planks. A part of it can’t hold on his weight and it falls down. Fortunately, the whole place didn’t fall down.

However, San is still far away to reach the dagger. But he doesn’t show a slight emotion. He takes out a dagger from his pocket. He jumps and stabs the dagger into a wall.

I bite my nail anxiously when I see him dangling with no place to stand. But San is the strongest crew in the ship. I must have fate in him.

His free hand grabs the crescent dagger. He cranes his body toward us and throws the dagger. Seonghwa caught it in his hand.

How he is going to comeback? Everyone thought nervously.

But that doesn't concern San. With one hand holding on the embedded dagger, San lifts both of his legs onto the wall and pushes himself. The force send him flying toward us. But it isn’t enough to land on the ground as his body disappears inside the hole.

Everyone stops breathing.

Then we notice a pale arm clings to the ground. Seonghwa and Wooyoung immediately grab and pull him up.

“Great job.” Said Seonghwa. While Wooyoung patted his friend’s back.

“Mate! You almost got me heart attack.” Mingi whines at the side, clutching on his heart.

True to Mingi’s words, I almost died of a heart attack when I saw him didn’t make it to the ground.

“Let’s head back.” Seonghwa declares, clutching the crescent dagger in his hand.

We exit the ship by climbing down the robe one by one. I’m the last person to go down. As I climb over the rail, my legs trip and lose balance. However, a cold hand grabs me.

“Thanks,” I thought everyone already left the ship. I can’t see the person's face since it’s too dark.

I slowly climb down and reach the ground.

“Everyone’s here, let’s go.” Seonghwa announces and leads us to the lifeboat.

“Wait, there's still one more person on the ship.” I jut my chin toward the wrecked ship

“Who? Everyone is here.” Wooyoung asks, confused at the girl’s comment.

I count people on the beach and pale.

All of us are here, then who did I see?

I look up at the ship and see the shadow fade before my eyes.

Oh no… Don’t tell me...

---

The dagger operation team came back safely but one of them seems to have shaken up badly.

“What happens to her?” Yunho whispers to Wooyoung when he sees the seer frantically asking people about seeing something.

But the latter boy shrugs, “She said she saw a person on a ship.”

“Did you see it? You must see it too right?” Star keeps asking Aurora. But Aurora shakes her head for the umpteenth times.

“Star, stop asking, will you? If you really saw a person then I’m gonna blow that ship for you.” Mingi shouts.

“”Wait! What if what I saw wasn't human...” Star protests in a weak tone.

The whole room snicker.

Hongjoong, who has been quietly observing the crescent dagger in his hand, speaks up. “Whether it’s a man or a ghost, Mingi you take care of it. We can’t leave any witness.”

“Aye aye, captain.” Mingi yells and leaves the room.

I gulp at Hongjoong’s cold blood decision.

Hongjoong after attaining the dagger, he has been grinning like a madman, “Thanks for your effort.”

He signals the navigator to lay down the Wonderland map on the table.

“Miss Aurora, now I can drop my blood on the map, correct?”

Aurora nods. She bites her lip nervously. She is glad that she found the dagger but honestly she doesn't want it to fall into pirates’ hands.

Hongjoong pulls the dagger hilt out of the sheath, revealing a sharp silver blade. He instantly cut his hand. Oozing red blood flows out of his wound, it drops on the map and magically disappears as the map absorbs his blood.

Everyone in their breath in anticipation.

In the next second, dark red lines appear all over the yellow paper.

Hongjoong laughs hysterically and then follow by the others.

Sinister smile paints on their faces, “Wonderland, we’re coming.”

// I actually planned to update tomorrow to celebrate San's birthday but I'm not available tomorrow so...

Happy early Birthday to our Sannie ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡
He's my bias who once a bias wrecker. But he successfully wrecked my bias list. 
And he's the reason why I want to live for thousand years to cherish his perfection lol

See you guys next chapter! We're heading to Wonderland, are we...?