Marcus sat down in one of the chairs on deck, while Alvida remained standing, leaning against the railing as she gathered her thoughts.
When Marcus didn't say anything, she broke the silence.
"First, we need to get some money."
"?"
"Those bastards took all my treasure and food when they ran off. You saw the kitchen, right? Just some rotting fruit and meat that's about to go bad."
Marcus nodded. He'd checked out the kitchen while renovating the ship, and just as she said, there wasn't much worth eating left.
"So," Alvida continued, "I want to find that Straw Hat kid."
"?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. He beat me once, so naturally I want a rematch. That's only fair, right?"
Her eyes burned with fighting spirit.
This wasn't quite what he'd expected. In the original story, after getting punched by Luffy, Alvida had teamed up with Buggy the Clown. Later, in Loguetown, she'd even boldly proposed to Luffy over a loudspeaker, threatening to kill him if he refused.
But now she looked like she wanted a proper fight rather than some twisted romantic pursuit.
He thought about it for a moment. Right now, he honestly didn't know what he should be doing in this world. He'd been transported here without any preparation or master plan.
Compete for the One Piece treasure?
Become the next Pirate King?
Join the Revolutionary Army and overthrow the World Government?
Or maybe join the Marines and hunt pirates?
To be honest, none of those grand goals felt real to him yet. They all seemed very far away from his current situation.
But he did want to meet Luffy, not just because he was the main character of this world, but also because the guy had inadvertently saved his life by sending Alvida flying at exactly the right moment.
Seeing Marcus agree so readily surprised Alvida a bit.
"You don't have any plans?"
"Well... if I had to say, maybe find a port town and grab some decent food? I'm getting tired of roasted boar."
"That's it?"
Alvida looked genuinely baffled by his lack of ambition.
"Alright," Marcus said with a shrug. "Tomorrow we'll set off and track down the Straw Hat guy."
"Can we make a small detour first?"
"Why?"
"Nothing much, I want to deal with some traitors before we do anything else."
Marcus understood immediately. "Do you know where your old crew went?"
"I've got a rough idea. We only had enough supplies for one destination. They'll definitely be there, probably spending my money and living it up."
"Fair enough. Let's go collect your due."
That night, they each went to their own cabins. Marcus lay on his bed, staring out the small porthole at the moon hanging high in the sky, and moonlight poured onto the wooden floorboards.
"I really did get transported to the One Piece world..."
With a sigh, he closed his eyes, countless thoughts swirling in his mind about what the future might hold. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep.
---
The next day, he woke to the sound of waves lapping against the hull and the creaking of ropes and sails.
Alvida had already set sail.
"Awake?"
"We're leaving this early?"
"I don't want those bastards to slip away while we're taking our time."
Marcus made his way to the bow of the ship and looked out at the endless ocean stretching to the horizon. At first, the sight was breathtaking, all that blue water under an equally blue sky.
But after a while, the calm sea became monotonous and boring.
"No wonder Luffy gets so excited when he sees islands. Man, what I wouldn't give for a computer right now."
Alvida emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray of sliced fruit and some simple prepared food.
"Eat something. It's going to be a long day."
Marcus grabbed some fruit and took a few bites. His hunger bar didn't even budge, the Minecraft food mechanics meant he was still completely full from the massive boar they'd eaten the night before.
Still, the fruit tasted good, so he kept eating until the plate was clean.
Staring at the fruit core in his hand, he suddenly had an interesting thought.
He stood up, went to the storage room, grabbed some dirt blocks, and returned to the deck. Alvida watched what he was doing.
She saw him dig a small hole in the wooden deck and fill it with soil. Then he just stood there, staring at the fruit core like it held the secrets of the universe.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Marcus pulled out a hoe and tilled the soil. The dirt surface became slightly indented, and with a wave of his hand, a small symbol resembling a planted seed appeared on the soil.
"I knew it!"
With that excited exclamation, he immediately ran to the tool storage area.
He came back with a bucket and just stood there by the edge of the ship, looking thoughtful.
He lowered a rope ladder and climbed down to sea level, scooping up a bucket of seawater.
"You're going to water plants with seawater?" Alvida asked skeptically. Even though she wasn't a farmer, she knew enough to realize that salt water would kill most plants.
When Marcus returned to the deck, she didn't say anything more, she just watched quietly to see what he was planning.
Marcus dug another hole in the deck, placed a block underneath to contain it, and poured the seawater into the space.
Obviously, one small bucket couldn't completely fill a 1x1 block space, but something magical happened anyway.
Even with just that small amount of water, the nearby "farmland" became moist and ready for planting.
Seeing that, he nodded in satisfaction. "So it really works."
While ordinary tools couldn't be transformed into full Minecraft equipment, some of the game mechanics still applied. Seeds could be planted on farmland, and farmland would become hydrated as long as there was any water source nearby.
Didn't matter if it was proper Minecraft water or not, as long as it was water, the farmland would work.
Thinking ahead, he covered the partially filled water block with a half-slab. From the surface, you couldn't even tell there was water there, just a smooth wooden deck.
"Too bad I don't have bone meal. I could make a composter, but we don't have any leaves... though maybe I don't need leaves for this."
"Alvida, what did you do with the kitchen scraps?"
"Just threw them in the trash can in the kitchen."
Marcus rushed into the kitchen with Alvida following curiously behind him.
She watched as he flipped over the trash can and dumped all its contents into a square, block-shaped container that definitely hadn't been there before.
Then something incredible happened.
The blocky container began glowing with a soft green light, processing the organic waste. Soon, a wrinkled white item popped out of the top.
"It works!"
"Alvida, give me a hand, throw all the rotten or inedible stuff in here."
Working together, they fed more kitchen waste into the composter. By the time they were done, Marcus had ten pieces of bone meal in his inventory.
"What is this stuff? Can you eat it?" Alvida asked, examining the white powder.
"Come with me. I'll show you the power of bone meal."
When they returned to the deck, both of them stopped dead in their tracks.
A perfectly cube-shaped tree now stood where Marcus had planted the seed.
"What the hell...?"
Alvida was completely bewildered.
Marcus wasn't surprised at all, though. Minecraft trees had unpredictable growth cycles, sometimes they'd take days to grow, sometimes they'd shoot up immediately after planting. It was just the nature of the game mechanics.
He walked up to the tree and examined the wood block.
Tropical Fruit Tree.
Taking out his axe, he chopped down the entire tree in a few swings. The leaves began to wither and fall.
A Tropical Fruit Sapling dropped to the deck, and as the leaves fully died, several pieces of tropical fruit fell as well.
Marcus picked up two pieces of fruit and tossed one to Alvida.
She looked at the plump, perfectly round fruit in her hand, taking in everything she'd just witnessed with disbelief.
Then, she took a couple of bites, it was indeed tropical fruit, crisp and flavorful, much better than the stuff they'd been eating from their dwindling supplies.
But the surprises weren't over yet.
Marcus planted the sapling again and used one piece of bone meal on it. The tree grew to full size instantly.
This made even him slightly surprised. The bone meal was working much faster than he'd expected.
He repeated the process: chop down tree, collect fruit and sapling, replant, use bone meal, repeat. He kept going until he'd used up all his bone meal.
"Your ability is seriously useful," Alvida said, looking at the basket now full of tropical fruit. "With this, we'll never run out of food again."
Each fruit was plump, round, and looked almost identical to the others. Strangely, these fruits had no seeds inside, just solid, sweet flesh. They were also surprisingly filling. Just one piece was enough to satisfy most of your hunger.
"Too bad I don't have shears," Marcus said with a sigh. "Otherwise I could set up a truly sustainable cycle. What a pity."
Just then, Alvida walked to the bow of the ship.
"What's up?"
"Those bastards... I found them."
Marcus walked to the front of the ship and looked ahead.