8
On the Eighth Day of Survival: Doflamingo, Did You Have a Nightmare?
Doflamingo had his own reasons for speaking so confidently.
Though young, his early involvement in illicit activities combined with his capabilities had made him quite successful in maritime smuggling operations. This had allowed him to accumulate considerable wealth.
Another person might have hesitated, not daring to freely plunder their boss’s treasury upon joining—but Wendy wouldn’t.
Wendy believed that a companion’s possessions were communal property—or by extension, essentially hers.
Similarly, with anyone else, someone of Doflamingo’s temperament would never allow an unvetted person with no proven contributions to touch his wealth. He’d likely view them as insatiably greedy and disrespectful—but this was Wendy. Her greedy actions came with reasonable explanations, and that heart-offering gesture had sufficiently demonstrated her loyalty.
Thus, Wendy strutted freely through the Donquixote Family’s treasure vault, picking and choosing at her leisure.
Though the Hunger System lacked a currency system and prohibited material transactions, it did support “free acquisition”—meaning any items others discarded on the ground could be picked up and claimed as one’s own.
Likewise, resources among companions were freely shared.
Wendy selected numerous gems, sorting them into categories.
She didn’t stash them all in her inventory. With limited inventory slots reserved for daily essentials, these rare materials for crafting precious items couldn’t afford to take up space.
“Rubies for crafting the Dragon Scale Furnace… if only I knew where to find Dragonflies in this world. Other gems can make Magic Wands, but that’d require unlocking Magic Technology first…”
Wendy muttered to herself while neatly arranging the gems by color. Then she crafted a wooden chest from planks in her inventory, stuffed all the gems inside, and nodded contentedly at the tidy result—Perfect! Much neater!
Doflamingo watched her consolidate the vault’s treasures into several chests, gaining new appreciation for her abilities—extremely useful for logistics…
He approached, opened a chest, and found its structure identical to the backpack Wendy had given him earlier: identical items occupied only one slot. Though it had capacity limits, the chest’s interior space far exceeded its physical dimensions.
The Don’t Starve Fruit… It seemed the Devil Fruit encyclopedia fell far short of documenting all miraculous abilities. This might even be something distinct from the existing Devil Fruit system. The question was how Wendy obtained such a fruit…
With this thought, Doflamingo closed the chest and turned to the golden-haired girl beside him.
Having collected the gems, she appeared disinterested in other items and was now standing by a pile of gold coins. She scooped up a handful, stared at them momentarily, then placed them in her inventory. Almost immediately, she frowned with displeasure and scattered all the coins back onto the floor.
Though Wendy had suddenly acquired great wealth and seemed to genuinely like these things, she showed no trace of greed. Instead, she acted as if all this was only natural—as if someone ought to present riches before her, leaving her to pick and choose.
Of course, Doflamingo didn’t dislike this trait in Wendy. On the contrary, he rather appreciated it and even asked, “Is there anything else you need? The bones you wanted?”
“I’m not that short on bone fragments right now, no need to rush.” Wendy thought for a moment, then wore a puzzled expression that, paired with her somewhat youthful face, gave her an air of innocence. “If I want them, I can get them anytime, right?”
Wendy’s actual meaning: Just dig them up from any random graveyard.
Doflamingo’s interpretation: Right, fresh kills, correct?
So Doflamingo slowly smiled. “Yes, anytime… If you need them later and I’m not around, just tell Vergo.”
Their thought processes were completely misaligned, yet they reached an agreement, and both were satisfied.
Wendy continued to ransack the Donquixote Family’s treasure vault—processed gold items like coins couldn’t be directly used as gold ore, which displeased her. Fortunately, there were some large pure gold objects she could smash with a pickaxe to use as gold ingots.
Doflamingo only watched for a while before leaving. Based on his initial observations, he had already categorized Wendy as one of his own family. Though he plundered wealth, he didn’t value it excessively and wasn’t stingy, so he left Wendy there without a second thought.
And Wendy didn’t find this behavior particularly unusual—if her teammate was out working, she’d handle things at home. Wasn’t that just basic Starvation game logic?
Doflamingo was engaged in typical pirate activities and, driven by years of unresolved anger, was quietly executing a revenge plan. The first step was recruiting followers and accumulating initial capital.
His key subordinates had been cultivated this way and were fiercely loyal—though their moral character was highly questionable.
There was a reason Wendy got along so well with them: as a game player, her ethical standards weren’t much higher than those of a typical RPG protagonist.
Doflamingo’s top subordinates could attest to this. In Wendy’s mind, since Doflamingo was her teammate, by extension his subordinates were also her subordinates—and their belongings were hers by default.
When she needed materials, she’d march straight into their homes, smash everything in sight, and happily walk away with armfuls of resources.
When Doflamingo received their indirect complaints, he summoned Wendy and issued a rare command: “If you need something, ask them first. Don’t just take it.”
Wendy was baffled, her expression turning genuinely shocked. “What? Is there anything I can’t just take?”
She meant this literally. In her understanding, anything she could actively pick up and store in her inventory was fair game as collectible resources. If something was unusable, the system would prompt that it was useless—and she couldn’t even put it in her backpack! So if she could take it, surely it was meant for players to collect!
Even someone like Doflamingo, who was inherently wicked, couldn’t help but fall silent for a moment upon hearing Wendy’s bewildered retort, inwardly marveling at how this young girl was a born bandit. Despite her innocent and delicate appearance, she possessed a thoroughly predatory nature at her core.
Yet, he didn’t dislike this trait of hers.
He chuckled a few times, reaching out to stroke Wendy’s fluffy, soft golden hair, and remarked, “As long as you’re strong enough and stand high enough in position, there’s nothing in this world you can’t take. But right now, you can’t make Vergo and the others willingly give it to you.”
Wendy nodded with partial understanding, her face still clouded with confusion. “So, do I need to fight Vergo and the others and defeat them before they’ll willingly give it to me?”
Doflamingo propped his head up with one hand, looking down at her. His sunglasses hid his scrutinizing gaze, revealing little emotion. “If I said yes, what would you do?”
Wendy pondered the question seriously.
Her actual combat ability was quite low; it was Abigail who was strong. But Abigail was an area-of-effect attacker—powerful, yet limited in single-target damage. Plus, she was fragile…
Early on, it was manageable, but once she encountered boss-level enemies, she could only rely on evasive maneuvers to chip away at their health or use tactics like redirecting threats. For example, using the Autumn Boss to chop trees and provoke Tree Guards, having the Winter Boss kill tentacles, or occasionally deliberately cultivating a Spider Queen to fight bosses…
Having her fight opponents with higher combat prowess wasn’t very realistic. She had also observed the health bars of Doflamingo’s executives.
Even if she used potions to boost Abigail, the effects couldn’t stack. If the enemy’s damage was high enough, it would still be dangerous.
“It’s no use; my combat ability can’t be trained up,” Wendy sighed regretfully, though her tone remained puzzled. “But since you’re my teammate, Doffy, I can take from you, right?”
…What a shrewd and insatiable little bandit!—Doflamingo marveled inwardly.
He could have said, “What if I refuse?” and taught Wendy to see him as a leader, demanding loyalty and respect from her… but then, she would be no different from anyone else.
So, he indulged her once again, letting out a low chuckle from his throat. The wide, upturned corners of his mouth made his grin appear even more sinister. “Ah, that’s right.”
Wendy was delighted with the answer. “Then I’ll go find Vergo and have him bring back a walrus tusk! It’s winter now, so the walruses are out. I walk too slowly and need to make a Walking Stick!”
The Walking Stick required one walrus tusk, two gold nuggets, and four twigs to craft. Twigs were basic materials and easy to get; as for gold nuggets, Wendy, who had been plundering the Donquixote Family’s treasury, had no shortage of them. The only tricky part was the walrus tusk.
When Vergo heard this request and looked at the abstract walrus drawing Wendy had made for him, he fell into silent contemplation.
Why did this walrus drawing look so much like Trebol…? Could it be that Trebol had complained to Doffy earlier and Wendy found out?
Vergo pondered how to resolve this conflict between colleagues, while Wendy remained completely unaware that any such conflict existed.
She was in her room, restoring her sanity by staying close to Abigail’s urn.
As long as Wendy maintained normal three-dimensional data, she didn’t need to sleep. During nighttime, people automatically lose sanity, but staying near Abigail’s urn could restore it.
This was a low-cost sanity restoration tool that only she could create. It only required offering four flower petals in the urn, making it a highly cost-effective way to restore sanity.
Although wearing a flower wreath could also restore sanity normally, not only was it slow, but the Hunger System destined that she couldn’t stay in environments that were too cold or too hot. Otherwise, losing sanity and health simultaneously would require relying on some functional hats for regulation. There was only one slot for headwear, making it impossible to stack effects.
Anyway, with sufficient resources now and no need to work at night, Wendy felt at ease just summoning Abigail and idly spinning circles around the urn to pass the time.
Fortunately, no one approached easily at this time, otherwise a few timid, ghost-fearing individuals might have been scared unconscious—after all, the scene of a pale-faced blonde girl followed by a white ghost, happily running circles around an urn, was still too avant-garde.
“So boring… Abigail.” Wendy looked at the white ghost staring at her with adorable big eyes. After her sanity was fully restored, the restless her decided to go back to work—she hadn’t sorted through the latest batch of supplies the Donquixote Family had plundered!
She originally wanted to rush over directly, but remembering what Doflamingo had told her before, she decided to be a considerate companion and ask him before taking anything. If he refused, it would just mean this companion had become stingy, and she would need to consider finding the next one.
Having made up her mind, Wendy ran in Doflamingo’s direction.
But when she opened the door, she saw the blonde young man sitting on a chair, sweating profusely and panting heavily, his expression appearing quite ferocious. The overflowing negative emotions almost filled the entire room.
She paused for a moment, then ran over to stand beside him, placing her hands on his arms, widening her eyes as she looked at him: “Doffy, did you have a nightmare?”
Author’s note:
In the turkey’s eyes: Evil Flower Cultivation Plan [sunglasses]
In Wendy’s eyes: Starvation Player Hoarding Guide [shy]
Wendy really doesn’t lack resources in the Donquixote Family—whatever she wants, the turkey will have people bring it to her, after all, they specialize in smuggling and have plenty of stuff [dog head]
Actually, Doffy is quite good to his own people, even allowing the young Baby 5 to hug his leg and cry loudly when the family went out to seize territory and fight in group brawls… But at the same time, when he needs to sacrifice you for his own goals, he doesn’t hesitate and barely has any emotional fluctuations [sunglasses]