Soon enough, all of Arlong's crew was tied up tight and hauled aboard the ship like sacks of potatoes. The fishn were still unconscious, making the transport easier.
Marcus had constructed a special prison complex, connecting it directly to the ship's hull. The main holding area was wrapped in multiple layers of stone blocks. For easier monitoring, he'd installed iron bars across the front.
But there was one exception: Hatchan was being held separately.
His "cell" was just being tied with rope to the ship's anchor. Pretty casual treatnt compared to the others.
But at the mont, nobody was on the ship to guard the prisoners. Luffy and the entire crew were in the village, and the sounds of celebration could be heard echoing across the water.
In Nami's orange grove, chaos had erupted around the food.
The feast Sanji had prepared was disappearing faster than he could replenish it, and what had started as a peaceful al had devolved into an all-out war for food.
"Hey! That's my orange pie!" Usopp protested as Luffy's stretching arm made another grab for dessert.
"Haha, first co, first served!" Luffy shot back, already stuffing the pie into his mouth.
"That's it!" Usopp gripped his fork like a weapon. He feinted toward Luffy, then suddenly pivoted and stabbed toward Marcus' bowl sitting unguarded beside him.
Of course, he hit nothing but air. Marcus had anticipated the sneak attack and lifted his bowl clear at the last second.
"You think I wouldn't be ready for that? I've been watching you eye my food for the past ten minutes!" Marcus held his bowl protectively, wearing a smug grin.
But his mont of triumph was short-lived. While he was busy fending off Usopp, Luffy's arm stretched from his blind spot and snatched the entire contents of his bowl.
Marcus looked down at his empty bowl in disbelief. "LUFFY! That was the last of the roasted fish!"
"Mmph! It's already gone down!" Luffy tried to talk around his massively stuffed cheeks, desperately chewing to swallow the evidence.
Both Marcus and Usopp lunged at him, grabbing at his inflated face as he squird and tried to protect his stolen al.
"Spit it out!"
"It's cooked! Gonna spill!" Luffy mumbled, his words barely comprehensible.
The three of them tumbled around on the grass.
Sanji walked over carrying fresh plates loaded with more food. "Alright, break it up. If you're still hungry, I've got more."
He set the new dishes down, then turned to grab napkins. But when he looked back, the plates were completely clean, not even a crumb remained.
He stared at the empty dishes in silence. Hell, in all his years as a cook, he'd never encountered people who could make food vanish this quickly. It was like watching a magic trick.
Looking around the grove, he spotted the culprits. Alvida was sitting nearby. She was wolfing down food without a trace of elegance, her cheeks bulging as she chewed.
Sanji wiped sweat from his forehead and rolled up his sleeves. These people ate like they were preparing for hibernation. Looks like he'd have to completely change his cooking strategy. At this rate, he couldn't keep up with how fast they demolished everything.
"Hmm, Nami, you've joined an interesting bunch," Nojiko said, resting her chin on her hand as she watched the food wars.
Nami was sitting with Nojiko and Kira, all three won chatting and laughing together. It was the first ti in years that Nojiko had seen Nami laugh so freely.
The sound was infectious. Other villagers began sharing their own stories, mories of better tis before the fishn arrived, plans for rebuilding, dreams they'd put on hold for nearly a decade.
Genzo arrived with more villagers, carrying bottles of sake and homade dishes. The celebration quickly expanded beyond the orange grove as word spread.
"Is it really over?" asked an elderly woman Marcus didn't recognize. "Arlong won't co back?"
"It's over," Nami said, and the conviction in her voice seed to convince even the most skeptical villagers.
Children who had never known life without the fishn's oppression ran around the grove, playing gas their parents had thought they'd never see again.
As night fell, soone brought out a guitar. Soon after, others appeared with drums, flutes, and makeshift instrunts. The small feast transford into a festival.
Lanterns were strung between the orange trees, and bonfires were lit in clearings.
The festivities continued without pause until the next morning when sunlight finally began to filter through, and the exhausted celebrants collapsed where they stood, snoring loudly.
But there was one exception.
Nami had quietly slipped away to the village clinic.
Nako, still wearing his sunglasses, got up rubbing his aching head from the night's drinking. "You're here."
"Yeah... I want this removed." Nami touched her shoulder where Arlong's tattoo was branded into her skin.
"Well..." Nako frowned. Removing tattoos was possible, but given the size of this one, it would leave visible scarring.
"We could redesign it based on a new image instead."
Nami smiled and handed him a piece of paper she'd prepared.
Nako looked at the design, a combination of a windmill and oranges, and his expression softened. But as he smiled, tears began forming in his eyes. "Nami... all these years have been so hard on you."
"We..."
"It's alright, I know. Genzo told everything last night. This ti, let's make it beautiful."
Nako nodded warmly. He still rembered the day when Nami had co to him carrying Arlong's flag, asking him to tattoo it on her shoulder as a symbol of her servitude.
In the blink of an eye, eight years had passed.
"That girl from back then has grown up now. Bell-mère would be so proud of you."
"Mm."
---
"You're sure you don't want to keep any of the original trees and just let transform everything?" Marcus asked as he surveyed the golden orange grove, feeling it was sowhat wasteful.
Nojiko held up one of the Minecraft-style oranges in response. "I've never eaten oranges so juicy with no seeds before. They look weird but these could beco our village's specialty in the future."
She peeled the blocky MC-style orange and took a bite, savoring the flavor.
Marcus scratched his head. It wasn't that he didn't want to help, but he wasn't sure whether these orange trees would fruit just once or continue producing over ti.
"I still think we should keep half the grove as backup, just in case. But first, try using this."
Marcus handed an iron hoe to Nojiko, who tilted her head in confusion.
"Try using it to till the soil and see what happens."
Though puzzled, Nojiko accepted the tool. The hoe that had seed normal-sized in Marcus' hands suddenly grew much larger when she grasped it, almost as tall as she was, while maintaining the sa Minecraft aesthetic.
Marcus wasn't surprised by this transformation. He'd already tested this chanic back on the ship: when he gave Minecraft tools to other people, they would automatically resize proportionally to fit the user's body.
In simple terms, if a giant picked up one of his tools, it would scale up proportionally for them too.
"Give it a try."
After a brief mont of surprise, Nojiko began to plow the earth. At first, the ordinary soil didn't seem to change much as she turned it over.
But soon, the tilled earth transford completely, becoming proper farmland, though dry farmland without water.
"Now try planting an orange sapling."
Nojiko touched the slightly dry farmland. She dug a small hole and planted the sapling.
But the sapling remained unchanged.
"No luck..."
Marcus scratched his head in disappointnt.
"What's wrong?" Nojiko asked.
Marcus explained his concern about the trees potentially being one-ti-only producers.
"A tree that only bears fruit once... yeah, that would be a major problem." Nojiko now understood why Marcus had asked her to test the planting process.
Out of curiosity, Marcus touched the small sapling and used bone al on it.
In the next instant, the orange tree began growing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"This is incredible!"
In less than ten minutes, the small tree grew to full size, blood with white flowers, and bore fruit.
Of course, these weren't MC-style oranges, but normal ones.
Nojiko picked one and tasted it, it was very sweet, the sa variety she'd been growing herself, and the yield was extrely high with nearly 100% perfect fruit.
"This is amazing..."
Marcus examined both the farmland and the hoe, which had lost about one-tenth of its durability.
"Just as I thought."
He nodded thoughtfully. His tools worked exactly like the original ga when he used them, but when others used them, the durability depleted much faster, though the effects still worked perfectly.
The hoe could till land, axes could fell entire trees in one swing, shovels could excavate full blocks instantly. Regular people couldn't access an inventory system, so they could only hold items in their hands. When they placed blocks on the ground, the blocks would be positioned normally. The sa applied to pickaxes.
However, when normal people picked up stackable blocks, they didn't feel the weight of stacking, and they wouldn't place entire stacks at once either. Apparently, their two hands were treated as two separate inventory slots.
The only difference was that their stack limit was 64 instead of his thousand.
"Now try using the composter."
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40 Advance chapters!
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