It’s been a while since she started exploring the sunken tourist ship.

Shiori stood frozen in front of a door.

"Hmm... it won’t open..."

This was the area she reached after defeating the ’Small Octopus’ and continuing on, by climbing the spiral staircase in the large hall she came across.

To be more specific about the door’s location, it was in the upper, central part of the ship. She could deduce that it was probably a door leading to the deck.

However, it seemed to be locked and wouldn’t open.

Since attacking it with her air gun showed no sign of opening it, Shiori gave up trying to force it and turned her gaze back to what was behind her.

"Well, I guess we’ll probably need to explore the ship and find the key to this door."

"In that case, shall we go back to exploring?"

Having made that decision, Shiori turned back the way she came and began moving through the ship again.

"I wonder what’s beyond that door."

"From the outside, the deck area looked like it had been crushed by a huge rock... but if the inside is hollow, then perhaps the area beyond that door is a boss room or something."

"Unlike other dungeons, this one isn’t divided into floors or levels, so it’s not surprising that there are traps like that..."

In the other dungeons she had attempted so far, the floors were divided into the first, second, and third levels, so the boss room naturally ended up being the last one.

However, this "Sunken Tourist Ship"—the entire ship, spanning all four decks, formed a single large floor.

Furthermore, there were stairs everywhere, so it was up to the player how and where they went to proceed.

Therefore, in some cases, it might be possible to go straight to the boss room, so a lock system was in place to prevent that.

With these thoughts in mind, Shiori continued walking through the ship.

"Top...!?"

"Okay, to the ball!?"

"Heh...heh...phew...Now, the next room is..."

Along the way, several "Small Octopuses" appeared, but it seemed she wasn’t in the mood to be killed right now, so she took them down immediately by firing her air gun as soon as she encountered them.

And then she started moving forward for a little while.

A large room appeared before Shiori.

"This is... the cockpit..."

What appeared was the cockpit.

At the center of the room was a control stick, and in front was a giant compass. Surrounding it were various instruments, including nautical charts—it was an impressive setup, but...

Most of them were now destroyed, drifting aimlessly in the sea, in a miserable state befitting a sunken ship.

Anyway, there was a good chance the key was here, so Shiori began searching the cockpit.

"Hmm...it’s in tatters and there doesn’t seem to be anything here...If it’s not here then...oh, this is..."

Inside desk drawers and shelves.

Floating around near the ceiling, maybe?

She swam around and tried to find it, but... she couldn’t find the key.

Therefore, she began to consider other possible locations... Just then, Shiori discovered something hiding in the back of the cockpit, blending in with the rubble.

"This is... a map."

What she found was a map of this sightseeing boat.

The guide also included explanations of what each room was, making it a very useful tool for exploring the ship.

Unfortunately, it was embedded in the wall, so it couldn’t be carried around, and it had to be memorized.

"Um... so that door is indeed a door to get out onto the deck."

"It’s a huge ship, but there’s only one way out onto the deck...oh wait, there are others."

"Oh, but I think this area is broken and unusable... so it looks like we’ll have to use that other door after all."

"And then..."

Shiori explored the ship, pointing at the map as she went.

As she muttered to herself while looking at the map, Shiori’s finger stopped moving when she pointed to a certain spot.

"The captain’s cabin...it seems like it could be here. Okay, let’s go there."

Pointing to the room located near the center of the ship, Shiori nodded and proceeded to check the ship’s map, focusing on the captain’s cabin.

Having memorized the information, she immediately began heading toward the captain’s cabin.

"It looks like we can get there quickly from that spot. Let’s go this way first... Oh, it’s a dead end. I guess we have no choice. Let’s take a different route..."

Shiori began to follow the route she had memorized, but the nearest road was blocked and impassable, so she chose a different route and started moving forward.

However, that other route was also blocked, and yet another route was blocked as well... Every single path that led directly to the captain’s cabin had been blocked and was impassable.

"Is it even possible for every single road to be completely blocked off...?"

"...Well, this isn’t just any shipwreck, it’s a dungeon in a game, so it’s not surprising that it’s so neatly destroyed."

"In that case, there must be a place we can get to from somewhere... I guess we have no choice. Let’s search every nook and cranny."

Making that judgment while discarding the usefulness of the map she had memorized in her head, Shiori began exploring the ship again.

As Shiori was exploring, avoiding the collapsed and unusable paths and using the passable ones, a section of the floor that had crumbled came into her view. A hole.

"A hole... Ah, we can go down to the floor below from here. Okay, let’s go."

When she peered through the hole, she found she could go down to the floor below.

Therefore, Shiori floated down and began exploring again.

"...Maybe it would be good to keep going in and out of this hole..."

And so began her exploration of the lower floor.

Since she had also explored the stairs she had encountered on her way here, Shiori was exploring without much expectation. As she continued on, she realized that her current location was at the end of a passage that had been blocked and impassable during her earlier exploration, and she said this with a serious expression.

"At this rate, it looks like we might have to explore the entire ship to reach the captain’s cabin... Hehe, that makes it quite a challenge..."

In addition to using the stairs to move between floors, she used the holes that were likely created when the ship sank to move between floors.

Navigate through the collapsed passageways and explore this vast ship.

Shiori smiled at the prospect of exploring the intriguing dungeon, and then proceeded to explore the ship with renewed seriousness.

"Um...oh, another hole. Let’s use this to go down..."

"And then... this time there’s a hole in the ceiling. We have to get through that..."

To take advantage of the underwater environment, they swam with a swaying motion, diving into holes, going to the lower floor, going to the upper floor.

Sometimes, she would move aside the rubble to find a hidden hole.

Shiori slowly but surely made her way toward the location of the captain’s cabin.

Along the way, several "Small Octopuses" appeared, but for now, she wanted to focus on exploration, so she took down any enemies she encountered by immediately firing her air rifle.

And so she continued on, finally reaching the end of the corridor that had initially been blocked off and impassable, leading to the captain’s cabin, just outside the cockpit.

"Okay, then let’s go..."

Almost there.

With renewed determination, Shiori began to head toward the captain’s cabin.

"If we turn this corner... oh, this is..."

Then, turning at the fork in the road ahead toward the captain’s cabin, Shiori stopped.

"Oh...? Hahaha...!"

"Is this... a mid-boss or something?"

The distance from Shiori’s location to the captain’s cabin was 20 meters.

In front of the door leading to the captain’s cabin, there was some kind of humanoid creature.

Clothes that were tattered but could be judged to have been fine at one time.

Despite having lifeless eyes, a vulgar expression full of vitality and a lewd voice.

The name displayed was "Parasitic Captain Lv35".

Shiori was becoming increasingly wary of the monster, which looked completely different from the "Small Octopuses" she had encountered before. The "Parasitic Captain" tensed his body.

"Heehee, hahaha...! A woman, a living woman after so long... haha, hahaha! Hahahaha!"

"Ah...the road...!? Ah...fuh...!"

The moment the "Parasitic Captain" raised his voice, the passage Shiori had just passed through crumbled and became impassable.

With no escape route left, in the straight corridor, despite her surprise, Shiori aimed her air gun at the "Parasitic Captain."