Chapter 53 The Player's Art of Combat
"I'd like to ask, have I misunderstood anything?"
Standing on the deck that had been cleared out in advance, Violet looked intently into Cracker's eyes.
"You want to fight me?"
“I don’t want to.” Cracker slung the pretzel over his shoulder and spread his hands. “So, can you just come with me?”
With such small arms and legs, what if he accidentally hurt her if he didn't control his strength properly? Wouldn't she have to rest for several days, and wouldn't he miss out on pumpkin cookies for several days?
"...Didn't we agree to send me away from the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Kingdoms?"
Vera looked at Cracker with suspicion. How dare this guy disobey Big Mom's orders?
Perhaps thinking that he would have exclusive access to all of Violet's desserts in the future, Cracker, in a very good mood, pointed out to Violet a small, almost invisible green island behind the stern of the ship.
"That's the outermost island of the World Kingdom."
In other words, Cracker has completed the task of "sending Violet away from Whole Cake Island," and now he has free time to act—to capture Violet again.
“Or do you want to go through a procedure?” Cracker looked at the small wooden boat hanging on the gunwale again. “...I don’t recommend it.”
It would be a real problem if he fell into the sea. He's a Devil Fruit user and can't go into the water to save people. The pastry chef he finally found drowned. If something like that happened, he'd probably be laughed at by his siblings until he's in his grave.
Cracker: "It's probably better if you just come with me."
Vera sighed, "I'll ask you one more time, are you sure you want to do this?"
Cracker nodded matter-of-factly: "I'm a greedy pirate, you know."
Pirates are inherently ruthless in their pursuit of treasure, resorting to any means necessary to obtain it.
"Big Mom didn't beat you, did she? What about Perospero? What about Katakuri?"
Although there has been much speculation that Charlotte Linlin's parenting methods were terrifyingly strict, this is not the case at all; Linlin did not participate in her children's education.
Poor little Charlottes, they've never even experienced zombie-style parenting.
Vera decides to give Cracker a complete childhood.
After switching her equipment from backpack to wooden armor, Violet took out the Frost Staff with a huge sapphire embedded in its top.
It's simple, like a branch casually broken off from a roadside tree, with a sapphire wrapped in straw rope that would amaze even the most discerning collector in terms of color, clarity, and size.
Cracker: "You like sapphires? I remember there was a batch of sapphire necklaces in the treasure we seized last time. You can go and pick one out if you like."
Cracker is very generous to its own people.
Vera: ...
Such a terrifying sugar-coated bullet! The honest and kind player almost succumbed to it.
No, no, no, working for money is no different from being a corporate slave. She's here to play a farming and monster-fighting game, not a job simulator!
Vera closed her eyes: "Stop talking, I won't bow down for a pittance!"
Cracker was shocked: "Have prices outside the World of Warcraft risen to this level?!" A high-quality sapphire necklace can only be exchanged for such a small amount of rice?!
Violet: "..."
Tsk, it's obvious that he was spoiled too much when he was a child. When he was reading, he would often say that he had a headache and his older brothers would let him go. This is why Cracker is now in such an embarrassing situation of being illiterate!
"Read more books, Cracker... Let me show you the power of knowledge!"
Violet waved her ice wand, and Cracker, who was hit, immediately felt a strong chill. Before he could react, a layer of ice the thickness of a thumb grew on his body.
Cracker was shocked: "Ice-Ice Fruit? No way!"
The Ice-Ice Fruit has already been obtained by the Navy, so could it be the Snow-Snow Fruit? But that doesn't seem like it.
Cracker was thrown into chaos. He had thought that Vera was just an unarmed pastry chef, and that getting her would be a piece of cake for him. But it turned out that his bag contained a little hedgehog covered in thorns!
Cracker shattered the ice on his body, jumped back a few steps, and finally took the pretzel off his shoulder.
A pinkish-purple cloak fluttered behind him.
Cracker: "You really want to fight me?"
Cracker was somewhat incredulous. He felt that he and Violet had gotten along quite well on Candy Island. Weren't they happy eating desserts together?
Cracker couldn't understand why Violet was so resistant to living with him on Biscuit Island, and why she actually attacked him.
He hates getting hurt and is most afraid of pain!
The shattered ice slid off Cracker's chest and shoulders, and his gloved hand touched the skin that was red from the cold.
Cracker lowered his head, his purple hair, wet from the melting ice water, becoming even darker.
I had thought of so many ways for Violet to resolve this peacefully without fighting, but Violet actually made the first move without hesitation.
It felt like he had eaten his least favorite food, kimchi—uncomfortable and unhappy.
Cracker: "Then I won't hold back either."
"OK!"
Violet didn't think much of it. It was fine if the NPC was a friendly green-named boss, but it didn't matter if its health bar suddenly lit up and it turned into a red-named boss.
Players will approach each story point in the game with a very positive attitude.
"bring it on!"
So why is he so happy? Is he the only one who's conflicted, or does Violet simply not feel happy spending time with him on Candy Island?
"No, I had a lot of fun eating desserts with Cracker."
When Cracker eats a delicious cookie, the sparks behind his hair flash in an exaggerated way, which looks really cool.
"But what does that have to do with me preparing to hit you?"
If you really like the friendship route, you can just start a new save file after the game ends.
Cracker gritted his teeth and used a pretzel to block the ice staff that was swinging at him like a hammer: "You're a really strange guy..."
Weapons are, ideas are, and states of being are even more so.
Violet laughed loudly, "This kind of thing doesn't matter, does it?"
That's just how players are!
Violet waved her ice staff again, and Cracker warily dodged away from his original position. When he turned around, he found that there was an iceberg more than a meter high where he had been standing.
It's a troublesome ability; you can't see the trajectory of an attack, so you can only use Observation Haki to predict Violet's movements and dodge in advance.
However, it seems that only one target can be attacked at a time.
Cracker raised his hand and clapped his hands several times. Cookie warriors made of hard cookies appeared out of thin air beside Cracker, protecting him.
"Try this, biscuit soldier!"
So Cracker is actually a summoning-type boss? Violet looked at the tall biscuit soldier whose heavy footsteps shook the deck, and switched back to the simplest and cheapest spear in the game.
Cracker's face darkened as he looked at the weapon made of branches and stones that Violet had taken out: "Are you mocking me?"
Of course not. Violet didn't know where Cracker's conclusion came from. A spear that only requires grass, twigs, and saltpeter to make, can be used 150 times, deals 34 damage, and has no usage requirements or side effects is the most cost-effective weapon.
However, Cracker truly deserves to be one of the Sweet Commanders of the Big Mom Pirates. Although his personality has a slightly strange childishness, his combat instincts are absolutely formidable.
Without area-of-effect weapons, Violet would find herself struggling against a large number of enemies attacking simultaneously.
However, Cracker underestimated the player. The strategy is to retreat when the enemy advances and pursue when the enemy retreats, thus dividing the battlefield and creating local one-on-one situations!
Then Cracker saw Violet turn and run with her spear in hand, the giant biscuit soldiers hot on her heels. Violet, taking advantage of her small size and agility, darted across the deck, occasionally darting back to launch a surprise attack on the biscuit soldiers, before continuing her escape without a second thought...
Cracker, who was standing to the side, was getting tired of watching, but Violet remained enthusiastic from beginning to end, not finding the battle boring at all.
In some ways, Violet's focus is truly terrifying.
However, his Biscuit Warriors are not so easy to defeat. Having eaten the Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit, he can create an endless supply of biscuits simply by clapping his hands, while Violet needs to expend a lot of energy and time to defeat a single Biscuit Warrior.
In terms of physical exertion, Violet definitely couldn't keep going.
If Cracker were to express his thoughts at that moment, Violet would surely pat his head affectionately and tell him—this game doesn't have a stamina system.
She could play like this all day long!
With a final, powerful blow, Violet finally shattered the biscuit soldier who was closest to her.
Cookie fragments flew through the air, and Violet curiously caught one of them.
Cracker: "I've lost my patience."
He stepped forward, ready to end this torturous battle that had been a torment for both of them.
Vera: "Sigh, actually I didn't want to use this trick."
[You made gunpowder]
[Consumes 1 Rotten Bird Egg, 2 Saltpeter, and 3 Charcoal]
The last time she made gunpowder was when Violet was too lazy to clean up the mosquitoes in the puddles on the island next to R'lyeh, so she simply lit the gunpowder with a fire, thus achieving a physical purification.
Violet placed the gunpowder on the deck and replaced her stone spear with a torch. The burning flame pressed against the gunpowder, and with a hiss, white smoke billowed out.
Cracker: "What is this?"
One part sulfur, two parts saltpeter, three parts charcoal—that's gunpowder, of course!
Vera covered her ears and ran to the side of the boat, threw the bamboo raft into the sea, and then opened her arms to Cracker.
"Art is an explosion!"
Bang!
A violent explosion rang out, and the entire ship shook violently. Thick black smoke obscured Cracker's vision. He raised his hand to shield his eyes, but the smoke still stung his eyes, causing them to water.
"Vell!"
After the rocking subsided slightly, Cracker rushed to the side of the boat and looked down, his eyes meeting those of Vera, who was standing on the bamboo raft.
Violet looked up and waved at him: "Forget it, I don't want to blow up the cracker with gunpowder."
No matter how intense the battle was before, once on board, it was considered an end to the fight.
"See you again sometime, Cracker... Oh, and don't forget to read more books!"
"Lord Cracker, the keel of the ship has cracked due to the explosion, and some water is also taking in..."
As Cracker glared angrily, the pirate's voice trailed off: "...Should we...keep chasing?"
Cracker clenched his fist in anger and slammed it hard against the wooden railing: "We're going back to Tavern World!"
Cracker turned and walked toward the center of the explosion to check the damage to the boat. After lifting his foot, he suddenly turned back and looked at the small green bamboo raft on the blue sea.
"As long as we're still on this ocean, we'll meet again someday."
"I hope you'll be prepared by then."
"Vell".
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Author's Note: Cracker: Hehehe, I'm going to use force to capture the player.
Violet: Counterattack
Cracker: You actually hit me? Have you forgotten the days we ate delicious cookies together? [Crying]
Vera: You can't be so hypocritical. [crying emoji]
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