They looked at each other.
Yukino composed a graceful smile, voice wobbling just slightly: “I~ know~ I’m adorable — please stop staring, Mr.
Slacking-on-the-Job.”
“Ha — Yukino, your ears are red.”
Yukino resisted the urge to touch her burning face, held firm, and said with dignity: “Flushing after exercise is perfectly normal.
Please stop making a spectacle out of nothing, Mr.
No-Common-Sense.”
Natsuyū looked away, faintly resigned, and shook his head.
What a beautiful girl.
Pity she opened her mouth.
If Yukino were mute, her charm rating would go up a full tier.
“Natsuyū — are you thinking something rude?” Yukino’s eyes sharpened, catching the offence in the air.
“No — I’m thinking about how to improve everyone’s situation.”
I’m not lying, Flat Plains.
Yukino’s gaze was saturated with disbelief, but she had nothing to say to that.
Arguing further would just make her seem unreasonable.
Natsuyū loaded everything into the backpack.
Final inventory:
Wooden pickaxe (x1), wooden axes (x2), crafting table (x1), hay (x12), sticks (x20), logs (x20), logs (x5) — taking up 7 of the 8 backpack slots.
He also confirmed: the stacking limit for logs was 20 per slot — identical to Don’t Starve.
Interestingly, axes and pickaxes could also stack, unlike the game.
He’d test whether crafting tables stacked later when he had time.
He lifted the backpack.
It felt like nothing — as if it were empty.
In reality, its contents could have crushed a person flat.
A backpack operating on game-rule physics.
Naturally.
When he touched it, the system panel showed the eight unlocked slots and everything inside.
A thought, and a one-metre wooden axe appeared in his hand — heavy, solid, edge sharp.
Retrieval is smooth.
He dismissed the axe back into storage, curved his mouth slightly, and said to Yukino: “Let’s keep moving.”
“Let’s.”
Yukino withdrew her curious gaze, stood up and smoothed down her JK uniform skirt, and fell into step beside him.
The exertion had worked up a faint sweat, and as it evaporated, the clean, slightly damp scent of her shower soap drifted over — Natsuyū caught it without trying.
Yukino began her report:
“The surrounding area is forested.
I spotted birds — and signs of something crawling that I didn’t recognise.
There may be unknown creatures nearby.
We should be careful.” Get faster updates on novelping.com.
“Got it.”
He breathed in that faint clean scent and glanced down at her small leather shoes and black over-the-knee socks with a small frown.
Water needs to be found soon.
At this rate, after a few more days of activity, everyone’s going to start smelling — which will be unfortunate.
Beautiful girls are better when they smell nice.
A smelly beautiful girl would genuinely bother him.
And there were no spare clothes out here.
If they needed to wash what they were wearing, he — as the only guy — would inevitably end up with a view of…
ahem — a logistical problem.
Then there was the drinking water issue.
Raw water was best not consumed directly — parasites were a concern.
The hay he’d collected was dry enough to start a fire.
He could boil water.
His Physique was probably strong enough to start a fire by friction now.
If not, Kiana could handle it.
As long as Kiana-sama steps in, everything will be fine.
With that settled in his mind, he said quietly: “Yukino — we should find water first.”
Yukino nodded, thinking aloud: “Water is the priority.
We need to secure drinking water today.
The vegetation here is lush, and there are living creatures — there must be a water source somewhere nearby.”
“Same conclusion I came to.
But hold on a moment.”
He looked at a large rock just ahead.
A thought, and the heavy wooden pickaxe appeared in his hand.
“Before we go deeper, I need to upgrade my tools to stone.
We might run into something.”
“Fair point.”
Yukino felt it again — that particular sense of security that came from Natsuyū thinking ahead.
He walked up to the rock, drew a breath.
[Congratulations on unlocking the achievement “Stone Age!” — shout the incantation “Successfully connected to the Brainy Smurf Brain Network!” to claim your rewards: Stone Tier Crafting Upgrade, Furnace Recipe, EXP +10.]
[Basic Achievement Tree — new advancement unlocked:
…Stone Age!
→ Levelled Up!
(Craft a Stone Pickaxe) → ?]
If Yukino hadn’t found evidence of unknown creatures, he’d have waited until she was far enough away.
But knowing danger might already be lurking — holding back now would be gambling with both their lives.
Natsuyū turned his back to Yukino, squared up, and shouted clearly:
“Successfully connected to the Brainy Smurf Brain Network!”
He said it.
There was a sensation of dropping a mask.
Like streaking down a street, wind in his hair, indifferent to the world, the kind of thing that gets filmed and made into someone’s dream content—
There was even a strange, inexplicable thrill to it. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Oh no.
He wasn’t going to develop some weird habit, was he.
[You have received: Stone Tier Crafting Upgrade, Furnace Recipe, EXP +10.]
Stone axe, stone pickaxe, and furnace recipes — all unlocked.
And unexpectedly: a stone crafting table as well.
The wooden crafting table couldn’t process stone.
For stone tools, a stone crafting table was required — which was, somehow, entirely logical.
Stone axe and pickaxe recipes just swapped wood for stone in the components.
He could also use sticks for the handle, or stone — his choice.
High flexibility.
The furnace needed eight stone blocks to make.
[Natsuyū: Level 2 (EXP 15/20)]
Craft a stone pickaxe and he’d level up.
He gripped the wooden pickaxe with both hands and started chiselling away at the rock, head down.
Men have always had a soft spot for chiselling things.
Look at that rock.
Round and chunky.
Made to be opened up.
Five hits — and a perfect ten-centimetre cube of stone detached cleanly from the face.
“You…”
Yukino walked over, picked up the stone cube, and helped stack the resources.
She looked up at him, expression lightly puzzled:
“The thing you were shouting just now — was that the incantation to activate your ability?”
Natsuyū let out a quiet sigh.
Can’t escape the sharp-tongued flat plains after all.
“Yes.
Every time I unlock an ability, I have to say the incantation.
Whoever designed this system has a twisted sense of fun.”
Though, if he was honest — past the initial embarrassment, there was something oddly liberating about it.
The dropped-mask feeling.
But he wasn’t some kind of exhibitionist.
The embarrassment was still real.
He breathed in, steeled himself:
Whatever she says, just act like it doesn’t bother you.
Yukino crouched to collect the falling stone chunks, pressing down her small skirt with one hand, looking up at the Natsuyū who appeared to be working hard but was very much dodging eye contact:
“I didn’t know that about you until just now.”
“Thank you.”
To be continued…