Seventeen thousand seventeen

Kaido gazed at the island until it disappeared far beyond the horizon, only then finally withdrawing his sight.

The small boat had been drifting on the sea for quite some time, and both of them were starting to feel hungry.

Kaido looked again at the farewell meal she had given him.

Without hesitation this time, Kaido stuffed the steak into his mouth, tearing off a large chunk of meat.

Then…

He nearly vomited.

Newgate watched Kaido’s reaction and found himself strangely curious about the taste of this dish.

… It was likely because recently, Carp Leap had fed him so many bizarre but somewhat palatable dishes. Every time Carp Leap cooked, it felt like opening a mystery box.

Newgate suspected that his curiosity for strange flavors had been cultivated by such experiences.

Having learned from Kaido’s reaction, Newgate took only a small bite.

His expression instantly twisted, as if the definition of “bad taste” in his memory had been completely rewritten.

The two sat in silence, staring at the more than half of the meal remaining in their hands.

After much hesitation, despite nearly eating until tears and snot flowed, Kaido quietly finished the entire meal. Newgate inwardly thought to himself: This one is destined for greatness…

Nearly losing consciousness, when Kaido looked up again, he met Newgate’s complex gaze.

After a long silence, Kaido finally asked the question:

“This thing and the Devil Fruit…”

“Which one tastes worse?”

Newgate answered without hesitation: “It’s a hundred times worse than the Devil Fruit.”

To endure the harshest bitterness is to rise above all others.

Humph, Devil Fruits — merely so-so.

Kaido let out a long breath, inexplicably feeling relieved.

—

Meanwhile, on the other side, Carp Leap saw off the two little animals, read the system prompt, and then fell into deep thought.

Previously, she had been obsessed with cooking, raising her [Cooking] skill to level 3, but had made no progress in island building. Now, looking at what she had to do, the tasks seemed quite numerous:

Increase the island’s combat power, raise her own [Haki] level, and build a simple house to match the bed Newgate had given her;

Besides that, as a personal interest, Carp Leap also wanted to further improve her cooking skill.

In short, she decided to take it step by step.

She didn’t know what events the [Full Moon Day] might bring. But since this was a farming-style game, there probably wouldn’t be any battles too difficult. Carp Leap resolved to simply enjoy the game at her own pace.

She planned to build a wooden cabin first.

Having made up her mind, she immediately began work. Carp Leap used [Armament Haki] to craft a stone axe by hand.

Then she struck at the trees with the stone axe, but in this construction game, logging was much more troublesome than in Animal Crossing.

Though Kaido could fell a tree with a single punch, and Newgate could knock down a row of trees with a wave of his hand;

For her, if she only used [Armament Haki] to strike the trunk, she needed 35 punches — presumably because her combat level was much lower than that of the two little animals.

Switching to the stone axe, she needed 28 strikes in total — what kind of game would punish the player like this? The difficulty of logging was almost equal to the real world!

Fortunately, she had stocked up on wood beforehand. Carp Leap could hardly imagine how difficult it would have been to start building infrastructure on this island if she hadn’t met Kaido or Newgate who had drifted to the island.

Carp Leap gave up logging and relied on her wood reserves, which thankfully were sufficient.

Following game prompts, she cleared a circle of weeds and cleaned the ground.

Then, taking the placement of the wooden bed as the origin, Carp Leap planned the surrounding space and began constructing the wooden cabin.

Without that bed, she probably would have just slept outdoors for quite some time, careless about the details.

But now that she had a bed — yes, Carp Leap was exactly the type to go to great lengths over a little jealousy.

After confirming the size of the empty space, she began processing the lumber. During this process, her experience points in [Armament Haki] steadily increased, though reaching level 3 still seemed a long way off.

Carp Leap was in no hurry.

She gathered enough wood to build the cabin, then followed prompts to craft grass ropes, vines, stones, and animal hides.

Why did building a wooden cabin require these materials?

Well, the game said so, so the player complied.

Time flew in the game. Since Carp Leap had never lost HP, and with no little animals urging her to sleep, she hadn’t used the bed even once.

She only ate when her fullness dropped near the minimum, and her eating frequency was lower than that of ordinary people.

The in-game character tirelessly continued construction. After just two in-game days and one night, the island’s first man-made structure was completed — Carp Leap finally had a shelter to protect her from wind and rain.

[Basic infrastructure on the island has increased; Island construction rating +3. The island has grown stronger!]

But for the player, “home” was of course not truly home; it was merely a large storage space.

Carp Leap cheered, rushing inside to toss all the bulky items from her backpack into the cabin.

Stepping out of the wooden house, Carp Leap felt refreshed in both body and mind.

After completing the cabin, the crafting methods for the related buildings — [Stone Kiln], [Workbench], [Lathe], and [Smelting Furnace] — were all unlocked. Carp Leap built them all in one go.

[Iron Nails unlocked!]

[Iron Railings unlocked!]

…

[Intermediate Weapons unlocked!]

With these facilities, Carp Leap could forge better weapons. But looking at the materials required for [Intermediate Weapons], she hesitated:

[Intermediate Arrows require: Wooden Sticks, Iron Ingots]

[Intermediate Iron Sword requires: Sword Scabbard, Sword Hilt, Iron Ingots]

[Intermediate Spear requires: Long Stick, Iron Ingots]

…

All materials demanded this item called [Iron Ingots]. But where could she find such a thing? Was there any metal ore on this island?

Carp Leap cast her gaze toward the unexplored gray areas deep in the forest on the map.

… It seemed she would need to explore the entire island.