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Setting aside how ruthless and ferocious Kaido was as a human being—emphasis on “human”—and how wary and murderous he remained toward Liyue, from Liyue’s perspective on the other side of the screen, Kaido was simply a young, fluffy, harmless little calf.

Moreover, a faint blush appeared on the calf’s face within the avatar frame, and Liyue thought it looked very embarrassed.

Kaido: “...Are you sure you want me to eat this?”

Ah, what a kind little calf. Despite his stomach growling loudly from hunger, he still remained polite to her.

“Yes! Eating it really will make you stronger. You should try it!”

After saying this, Liyue thought to herself, but the boost in abilities wouldn’t only apply to players, right? NPCs eating the food might not experience the same effects...

Kaido had already closed his eyes and swallowed the dish fiercely.

Kaido: “............”

Kaido: “...............”

Liyue waited expectantly for Kaido’s reaction.

Kaido didn’t respond at all, as if he had frozen.

Liyue poked Kaido. She was sure she only poked him, not accidentally triggering any attack moves like a charge.

Yet, after eating the food, the little calf once again showed signs of frailty; he wobbled and then collapsed backward, sitting down again.

“Are you still hungry?”

Liyue offered him a second dish... Wait, no, this wasn’t really food anymore; the system had classified it as an item.

When Kaido saw Liyue take out the dish—or rather, the item—an exclamation mark appeared above his head again. But Liyue quickly put it away, unsure whether Kaido’s expression meant he was very eager or very scared.

Kaido seemed to have just come to his senses and said, “I feel like I really did get a little stronger. How does your cooking have this effect?”

System dialog box:

(Kaido’s affection toward you +3. Current affection: 11.)

“We players are like that. We can do anything,” Liyue answered casually.

Although the game had a text input communication option, Liyue still thought this was a small-scale game.

Sometimes NPCs would respond to her words, but Liyue guessed it was just the game system simulating automatic replies by extracting keywords.

So she didn’t care whether Kaido understood — just as Kaido now fell silent again, with a spinning thinking icon over his head. Liyue assumed the game system was searching its memory for keywords to generate a response.

But after pondering, Kaido indeed did not reply to that sentence.

—Most games were like this. For example, terms like “player” or “The Fourth Great Calamity,” which break the fourth wall, rarely elicited NPC responses within the game.

Whether the system was trying to brush off the topic or not, the dialog box simply indicated:

(Kaido’s affection toward you +5. Current affection: 16.)

Kaido then jumped straight to a new topic:

“Although the cooking process... is hard to describe in words, I want to try it again.”

At that moment, Kaido’s stomach growled loudly once more.

Ah, if you’re hungry, just say so—no need to be so polite.

“I’ll go gather some more materials!”

Liyue was eager to continue cooking and happily ran into the forest.

Kaido, who had already left an impression of being delicate and frail in Liyue’s mind, hesitated and followed behind her.

...

Occasionally.

This time, Liyue collected more—and darker—materials. Kaido stood far off, unwilling to watch her cook in detail.

Again, strange, colorful, bizarre things went into the pot, and Liyue’s cooking encyclopedia progress suddenly jumped to 18 out of 379. Wait, wasn’t the collection target in this game way too vast?

If there were only 9 total, she’d finish it now;

If 79, she’d work hard to complete it;

—but 379!

One could only imagine the even more complex and massive encyclopedia of plants, animals, and insects behind this.

When on earth would she finish collecting all that!

Liyue decisively gave up on completing the entire cooking encyclopedia. She packed away the cooking pot and put the bizarre dark dishes into her backpack, only leaving a few that seemed to have decent effects to give to Kaido.

“This one increases attack power.” Liyue placed the [Worm Gazing at the Stars Pie] (R-grade) in Kaido’s hand.

Kaido: “...”

“This one increases health.” Liyue put the [Ancient God’s Compound Eye Stare Porridge] (SR-grade) into Kaido’s other hand.

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Kaido: “...”

“This one increases stamina.” Liyue placed the [Chaos Foolish Soup] (R-grade) on Kaido’s head.

Kaido: “............”

Do I have to eat this?

No matter what Kaido thought, when he saw Liyue calmly eat the other mysterious dishes and recalled the surge of power he felt afterward...

He decided to eat it for the sake of getting stronger.

He had heard that Devil Fruits were also hard to eat.

Could this be worse than a Devil Fruit?

(It can!)

(Whenever Kaido recalled this episode in later years, no matter how much time had passed, he could give a resolute answer:)

(Even if you juiced 100 Devil Fruits and swallowed them in one gulp, it would never be as disgusting as these dark dishes!)

(Juicing 100 Devil Fruits is deadly, but her cooking... her cooking destroys the spirit itself!!)

Kaido closed his eyes and did his best not to think about how the dishes were made, swallowing the three dishes as big bites as possible.

“Did you get stronger?”

After finishing, he heard her ask.

Kaido carefully savored the power surging from deep inside his body and nodded uncertainly.

“Too bad I can’t check how these dishes affect you... Can NPCs really enjoy attribute boosts?”

Kaido heard her mutter something afterward but didn’t understand her last words.

What’s this “NPC”?

Since meeting her, strange words kept coming out of her mouth—words like “player” and “NPC.”

Kaido glanced at her, wondering if she had somehow ended up stranded alone on this deserted island and had gone a bit mad from loneliness.

As Kaido pondered this, Liyue said, “Hey, I think I need to become your ‘friend’ or ‘islander’ before I can check your attribute info?”

Liyue suddenly looked up. Standing before Kaido, her expressionless face showed a faint glimmer of hope. Her voice was cheerful:

“Do you want to be my very first islander?”

...

“No.”

Liyue received a decisive refusal from the little calf.

Tsundere, huh? So that’s what it was. Liyue had already formed a rough understanding of the little calf’s character:

Delicate and frail, saying one thing but meaning another—your standard tsundere young man.

But this time, Kaido, usually silent and seemingly afraid of hurting Liyue’s feelings, gave a detailed explanation:

“You don’t know who I am. I’m wanted by the Navy.”

Navy? What new power was that?

Liyue suddenly remembered the game was called Pirate Simulator. Since there were pirates, the Navy must exist too, likely as antagonists.

But the game was called Pirate Simulator, so naturally, players took the pirate side, right?

Got it.

Sure enough, this initial stranded animal—the little calf Kaido—was one of their own!

Kaido: “Besides, I don’t want to stay confined on an island for long.”

“The Navy could come after me anytime. It’s safer if you’re here alone. I was planning to leave anyway.”

After all these words, Kaido’s real intention was to worry about her safety and fear that the Navy’s pursuit would drag her into trouble!

Although a tsundere, he really moved her to tears.

Liyue didn’t force Kaido to stay. In fact, since her affection level hadn’t reached the requirement, she had already expected this failure.

In short, she would just have to raise his affection first!

From Liyue’s gaming experience, anyone bold enough to appear before a player was a potential romance candidate.jpg

If not, just flame the developers until they made them one.jpg

She asked Kaido, “I see. How do you plan to leave?”

The little calf in the avatar frame looked displeased, lips pressed into a straight line, ears drooping slightly: “There’s wood on your island. I plan to build a raft and set sail.”

Game system:

[New task available! Help Kaido build a raft and set sail again!]

[Task reward: Island Building Score +5, Island Reputation +5]

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Liyue happily accepted the task: “I’ll help you build the raft! What should we do first? Cut down some trees?”

Narrator dialog box:

(Kaido’s affection toward you +5. Current affection: 21.)

Liyue nodded in satisfaction and looked at Kaido, asking first, “But I’ve never cut down a tree before. And I don’t have an axe...”

“An axe?”

A question mark appeared above Kaido’s head: “Do you need an axe to cut down trees?”

“?”

Liyue also had a question mark above her head: Isn’t this a base-building game? Isn’t an axe an essential tool for chopping trees?

Kaido walked to a tree. His already dark hooves suddenly darkened even further.

Liyue saw Kaido raise his hoof and lightly touch the tree. Without much force, the tree crashed down!

Liyue: 0口0!

This time, an exclamation mark appeared above Liyue’s head.

Her first thought: No wonder it’s a bull! Such immense strength!

She had thought he was gentle and fragile like a delicate willow, but in reality he was a delicate willow with the strength to uproot willows!

Liyue ran around Kaido, observing his magical hooves from different angles: “How do you do that? How do you do that? Why does the tree break with just a touch? Why?”

“You mean this?”

The avatar frame showed a faintly proud expression on Kaido: “Just Armament Haki.”

Game notification:

[You have witnessed [Armament Haki] for the first time!]

[[Armament Haki] unlocked, you can now learn it!]

…Armament Haki?

What kind of new skill was this?

Liyue was thinking of looking up the skill description when suddenly she heard a loud, familiar rumbling sound.

“Gururururu...”

As if responding, her own stomach growled loudly too.

System notification:

[Your fullness has dropped to 18, please eat soon to restore fullness.]

…No, I just ate, okay?

Three big dishes all gone to waste? Why do I still need to increase fullness?

Seemingly hearing Liyue’s complaint, the system gave another prompt:

[Remember, the essence of cooking is to increase fullness.]

A sample picture appeared on screen—

Glittering food, with a description below:

[Perfect food with exquisite color, aroma, and taste.]

[Effect: Increases fullness by 100.]

…Increases fullness.

So cooking actually increases fullness!!

Liyue fell into a long silence, looking at Kaido. Kaido was silently meeting her gaze.

“…At this point, let’s just eat.”

Liyue pointed to some fruits hanging on a nearby tree, embracing the philosophy of simplicity:

“If it’s just to restore fullness, look at those fruits on the tree. One apple adds +5 fullness.”

“Let’s just make do with apples for this meal.”

Kaido looked at her, then at the mysterious dishes she made with her hands, then at the plain but at least edible fruits...

He nodded heavily.