Survival of the Poorest 2.0: Ghost Cruise

I handed the phone to Henry and had him request water the same way.

I said, "At this time, most people are either at the restaurant or just boarded and exploring, so rooms are probably empty. Cruise service is all about efficiency, and they won't question small requests like this, especially when it's charged to the room."

Henry's eyes lit up. "Genius! Let me try!"

We immediately left the casino and headed quickly toward the cabin area on the fourth level. Outside Room 407, four 500ml bottles of water sat on the floor. I quickly grabbed all four bottles and stuffed them into my backpack.

We did not linger and moved on immediately to collect water from the other rooms we had called. In just half an hour, we had scored over 50 bottles of water.

Henry was panting heavily. "Julia, that's way too much water. It's only day one... We won't need this much."

I shook my head. "We have to stockpile all our drinking water today. This method won't work for much longer."

Based on my experience, the system would patch this loophole quickly. However, I did not tell Henry that.

Henry asked in surprise, "Why? How do you know?"

I vaguely answered, "Every bottle we take gets charged to some unlucky person's room account. Once they notice weird charges on their bill, or staff realize the water they deliver keeps disappearing, they'll definitely investigate."

The heavy load of water was both a lifeline and a burden, and we needed to find somewhere to hide it all. This time, I kept my guard up and had Henry hide part of the water separately. Then, I took my share and stashed it in my own spot.

After hiding everything, we met up at the agreed location.

Water was handled, so next came food.

I had tried ordering food to be charged to a room earlier. However, the front desk mentioned they did not provide food delivery and told me to go eat at the restaurant.

Just then, we heard arguing coming from the hallway.

"I found this first!"

"Bullcrap! I clearly saw it first!"

We peeked around the corner and saw two players fighting over half a sandwich in a trash can.

My heart sank. It was only the first day, and people were already digging through garbage.

Their arguing caught the attention of a cleaning lady, who spoke briefly into her walkie-talkie.

Within two minutes, a group of security guards rushed over.

"Show us your room cards."

Naturally, they could not produce any, and the guards quickly hauled them away.

Elimination and debt awaited them.

The restaurants were inaccessible, the convenience store had outrageous prices, room service would not deliver food, and scavenging trash cans would get us caught by security.

What other options were there?

We wandered over to the duty-free shop.

A shop assistant at the chocolate counter was holding out a sample tray, and Henry and I exchanged a glance.

I walked over first with a curious expression. "Excuse me, is this dark chocolate on the bitter side? I'm not a fan of things that are too sweet."

"You can try this one," the shop assistant said, handing me a sample of chocolate. "This is 75% cocoa. It is rich, bittersweet with a lingering finish."

She enthusiastically launched into her pitch, tilting the tray toward me. While her attention was fully on selling the chocolate, Henry's hand casually swept across the sample tray.

Several of the largest chocolate pieces and two thick nut-covered cookies vanished into his palm in an instant.

The shop assistant noticed nothing and kept talking about where the cocoa beans came from.

From a short distance away, Henry flashed me an OK sign.

Just then, the alarm at the entrance started beeping loudly.

A player with bulging pockets had just stepped out of the duty-free shop, and a swarm of guards lunged at him, catching him on the spot and pulling stolen food from his clothes.