Chapter 40 The Player Has a Good Idea

Construction on R'lyeh Island is in full swing.

Vera sat in the base copying recipes for desserts onto papyrus.

"Banana jelly, rainbow candies, cheesecake, pumpkin cookies, ice cream..."

Originally, Violet was supposed to work with the dragon to clear out the dangerous creatures around the island, but after hearing Violet's mission assignment, the dragon confidently patted his chest and assured her that he could complete the mission by himself.

Seeing his insistence, Vera stayed at the base and began to organize the dessert recipes she had tried out during this period.

She didn't know how many days she would have to stay in the Land of the Dead before she could find the undead, nor did she know which of Big Mom's children's territories the undead spawned in. She could only prepare as many different types as possible in case of emergency.

Ginny braided Vera's hair into a pretty plait, and Vera finally stopped randomly tossing and tangling her smooth black hair while working.

With a troubled expression, Vera clutched the rough papyrus paper, trying to recall the recipe, while behind her, everyone else busied themselves.

With one arm around a thick brick slab and the other hand gripping a pitchfork, Big Bear quickly shoveled away the rain-soaked, untouched ground and replaced it with brick slabs.

"We should have collected more deer hair when we were in the Drum Kingdom, so that we could have replaced the ground around the base with carpet."

It's soft, warm, and dry, but it always has a slight animal smell.

Ginny helped Vera collect the recipes she had written down, preparing to sew them together later: "This is already very good."

With sufficient supplies and manpower, Violet no longer needed to share a coconut leaf hut with Law. Now, Violet could proudly announce that every islander and temporary islander in R'lyeh had their own coconut leaf hut.

For some reason, when Vera asked Luo to move out, he inexplicably glared at the passing dragon like an evil and sinister mushroom.

She seems to be in a bad mood. Could it be that she's having trouble sleeping in this bed? Sorry, players cannot leave this spot located in the very center of the island; it's a privilege reserved for the island's owner!

Ginny chimed in, "Of course, the best spot is yours, Island Owner. Shall we put some flowers on the coconut leaves?"

Violet was quite inept at anything outside of the blueprints; otherwise, she wouldn't have ended up spending several nights sleeping in piles of weeds before Rhodes arrived. Ginny, a woman on the island with excellent aesthetic sense and practical skills, readily agreed to Violet's suggestion.

Violet: Yay, it's a new furniture skin!

Law: "Chopper, I told you to plant these berry bushes in a row in this square, four bushes per row, sixteen bushes in total, four rows. Don't just plant them randomly!"

Chopper broke out in a cold sweat: "Sorry, I'll start over!"

Luo's eyes widened angrily as he pointed at the land in front of him: "That's five plants! Can't you count?!"

Chopper quickly bowed deeply to Law: "Oh, I'm sorry, I can only count from one to ten right now."

Luo broke down: "Five is within ten!!!"

Vera immediately stood up and rushed to the two of them, handing each of Law and Chopper a vegetable cocktail: "Have something to drink and rest."

It's really tough being a player.

Luo took a sip of the icy-cold vegetable juice and felt his sanity, which had been depleted by the rain, recover somewhat.

Law sincerely apologized to Chopper: "I'm sorry, I was too hasty just now."

Chopper, who was carefully savoring the delicious juice he had never tasted before, was startled by Law: "Ah, what? No, no, it's me, it's my fault!"

Violet said with a look of relief, "Ah, it's so great to see that my OO generator and my mount can get along harmoniously."

Chopper asked innocently, "OO generator, what is that...?"

Luo covered Vera's mouth tightly: "Nothing, you misheard."

Law grabbed Chopper and led him away from Violet and their embarrassing past: "Who taught you math?"

Chopper quickly gulped down a mouthful of vegetable cocktail to avoid spilling it, and raised his hand under Law's serious gaze.

Luo: "Me?"

He took two steps to the side in disbelief, only to find that Chopper's hand was still pointing steadily at him.

Luo: "..." How could it be him? He had absolutely no recollection of him. Did he teach him while he was sleepwalking in the middle of the night?

Chopper: "I...I read what Law wrote...and I liked it."

Luo's parents used to run a small clinic. When Luo was a child, his early education books were various medical cases and textbooks from the clinic. As he grew older, he often helped get medicine when his parents went to see a doctor.

Luo's parents and the clinic are no longer here, and she doesn't want these memories to fade with time.

Luo asked Vera for some papyrus, wanting to preserve those memories in written form.

The yellowed paper, bearing records of a bleak past, attracted another lonely soul, but to be more precise, Chopper was drawn in by the scent of the papyrus.

It's true that Violet's cooking is delicious, but Chopper, being a herbivore, doesn't mind occasionally eating some pure, natural, unpolluted, and finely processed reed products.

Is it considered... a whole grain?

Chopper chewed absentmindedly until he tasted the bitterness of the charcoal, which snapped him out of his daze. By the light of the brazier, Chopper could see the writing and drawings on the papyrus.

It was the same text and pictures he saw in the books in the room when he woke up.

Under Ginny's tutelage, Chopper, who was diligently learning to read, squatted by the fireplace and tried his best to memorize the words and pictures by the firelight.

...Although he only remembered very simple content from Ginny's class the next day, Ginny still hugged him and praised him a lot.

Luo was stunned: "You... want to study medicine?"

Chopper nodded vigorously, looking at Law with his bright eyes.

Chopper: "Teacher!"

Ms. Ginny is always very happy when Chopper calls her that.

Ginny watched the two interact, resting her chin on her hand: "How nice, a friendship between children."

"Bonnie, grow up quickly so you can learn about intelligence with Mommy in the future!"

Bonnie kicked the wooden cradle that Big Bear had made for her away: "Ouch!"

Violet scratched her head in frustration: "Damn it, so many desserts are lacking in ingredients."

Rainbow candies lack royal jelly, ice cream lacks dairy products... Violet's gaze towards Chopper changed.

Vera: "Is there any possibility?"

Ginny: "No way, Chopper is a male reindeer."

Vera: "Sigh—"

Seeing the dejected Vera, Ginny stepped forward to comfort her: "Actually, you don't necessarily have to make rainbow candies or ice cream. The butterfly pancakes that Vera made before were delicious."

Although the color is a somewhat strange purple, the taste is really good.

Violet took out the blueprint for the Abigail Flower from her backpack, feeling helpless as she looked at the treasure she had taken out of the treasure chest, which was still just a blueprint.

Vera stroked the pale pink flower bud on the drawing: "I will definitely make you and let you bloom!"

The dragon's voice came from afar: "Vell, strange flowers are growing here!"

Violet carefully put the blueprints into a box and ran towards the dragon's location.

Long looked at the grass not far away with a somewhat unpleasant expression.

It was a huge, nearly one-person-tall, purplish-green flower with thick, tough petals that were tightly closed together. From the hole in the center of the petals, a green vine, about two cups long and with a curled end, extended out.

Beneath the enormous purple flower grows a twisted root system and emerald green leaves, vibrant and delicate after being wet by the rain, swaying gently as if breathing under the dragon's gaze.

The dragon felt like its eyes were going blind upon seeing this flower: "What is this?"

Vera carefully walked around the flower to confirm its variety.

"It's a man-eating flower."

The carnivorous plant follows the scent of humans and grows along paths frequently traveled by players. Papyrus consumption on the island has surged recently, and Violet has been using this route to sail out to sea to transport reeds for papyrus production.

Dragon: "Man-eating flower?"

This species sounds a bit strange, but it seems quite normal for it to appear on Vil's Island?

Long sighed helplessly, "Whether it's on the island or near the island, there are really a lot of strange things around you."

He raised his hand to destroy the flower, but was stopped by Violet.

Vera: "Wait, if we keep it, we can get rid of some mosquitoes or something."

Vera: "And in a couple of days, leaf pulp will grow on that vine to attract prey. When that happens, you can get the leaf pulp by defeating the man-eating flower. Leaf pulp is an important ingredient in several recipes."

Given the many strange things happening around Violet, and the fact that she had knowledge of these strange things that they couldn't possibly know, the dragon listened to Violet and left the suspicious man-eating flower on the grass.

Three days later, the dragon saw a patch of green eyeballs growing outside the man-eating flower, all looking at him.

dragon:"……"

Sanity value plummeted!

Vera poked her head out from behind him, looking at the cluster of rolling eyes on the grass with delight, and exclaimed, "They're growing so fast!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a buzzing mosquito flew over the eyeball grass. The eyeball, which had been staring intently at the dragon, suddenly turned its gaze away, sprang up, and swallowed the mosquito in one gulp. Then it continued to watch the dragon quietly.

dragon:"……"

Just as I was about to tell Long that it was time to harvest the leaf pulp, I turned around and found that Long looked pale and was stiff all over.

Violet: "Don't worry, they're not very aggressive." At most, they can only kill small insects like mosquitoes and bees.

Is this a matter of attack power? Anyone who's half asleep in the morning and sees a bunch of eyes the size of human heads staring at them from the ground would be terrified, wouldn't they?

Luo, who had gotten up early to move things, happened to pass by here. He turned his head habitually following the sound of Vera's voice, and was immediately startled.

"Ugh, what the hell is this?!"

He pressed his back against the tree trunk, looking as if he couldn't bear to look at the grassy area.

Long Chaowei shrugged.

"But I think it's quite unique. I'm even thinking of collecting more carnivorous plant seeds to build a leafy plant farm."

Long and Luo: "No, absolutely not!"

The fact that there was a patch of eyeball grass on the island was already unacceptable enough, but if it were covered with this kind of bizarre plant... Dragon suddenly felt that sometimes the Navy's Buster Call wasn't entirely a bad thing. At least an island covered with eyeball grass should be physically wiped out!

Violet's plan to build a cool leafy meat farm was violently suppressed.

Violet looked pitifully at Long and Luo: "Really not allowed...?"

Luo: "There are still babies on this island."

Luo really couldn't imagine what a baby growing up in an environment full of eyeball grass would eventually become... It would definitely be more twisted and terrifying than that guy Doflamingo.

Luo made an "X" sign with his arm in front of his chest with a serious expression: "No."

Vera started to fake cry: "Waaah, you know I left when I was little..."

Luo looked at Violet speechlessly: "Do you think I'd be fooled by you like that fishman?"

Luo: "Don't plant it on the island, plant it on your little bamboo raft."

dragon:"……"

Didn't we still get scammed?!

Vera thought back to the size of the small bamboo raft. Wouldn't that mean only a pitiful few eyeball grasses could grow there?

Long and Luo both breathed a sigh of relief.

Great, only a few eyeball grasses can grow.

A lightbulb seemed to appear above Violet's head: "Hey, I have a great idea! How about we put a row of bamboo rafts next to R'lyeh, and then on each raft... Waaaaaah!!"

Luo and Long, one covering her mouth and the other binding her legs, carried the daring Violet back to the base.

If Violet continues to cause trouble like this, R'lyeh will really be subject to the Buster Call!

Violet cried out in fury, "This is outrageous! This is outrageous! This is my island!"

Long rubbed his sore arms and looked at Vera's small arms and legs, wondering why this child was harder to massage than a pig.

Ginny smoothed down Violet's upturned ahoge, but it must have been restless in her sleep last night, because the ahoge that Ginny had pressed down on bounced up again the next second.

Just as energetic as the child himself.

Ginny: "How do carnivorous plants grow?"

Vera: "Hmm?"

Ginny smiled and stroked Bonnie's hair: "I'm a little curious, do carnivorous plants only grow on the islands near Violet, or can they grow anywhere?"

"If we can't kill the carnivorous plant's main body, will those eyeball plants just keep growing endlessly?"

Ginny is still the same beautiful and patient Ginny.

She rested her chin on her hand and looked at the distant sky.

Ginny: "I have a good idea too."

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Author's Note: A no-prize guessing game: guess what Ginny's idea is. Hint: This is a lighthearted farming story. [kissing emoji]