It might have been because Calvin's head pats felt really comfortable.
Charlotte made a soft gurgling sound and squinted her eyes contentedly.
When the healing gloves finished their job, Charlotte opened her eyes, reluctant for it to end.
Since she was lying on Calvin's lap, the first thing she saw was his handsome face with sharp brows and star-like eyes.
Even from the unflattering upward angle, Calvin still looked incredibly attractive.
Soon, she struggled to sit up and hesitated,
"Calvin, let's go back to the platform. It's almost time."
Calvin nodded.
"Can you walk? That big head of yours got hit by a coconut."
"If I can't walk, will you carry me?"
Charlotte asked with a bit of anticipation.
She was indeed a little tired, and being carried in the arms of such a handsome guy didn't sound bad at all~
"Nope. You're too heavy."
"Stupid jerk! Then why'd you even ask?"
Charlotte snapped back .
The two packed up and returned to the platform.
There were only a little over forty minutes left until the five-hour timer ended.
They sat on the platform and reviewed the gains from their floating island expedition.
Most importantly, they had found the silver treasure chest,
the Red Iron Sword, and the healing gloves.
Tomorrow or the day after, Calvin planned to make a copy of each for Charlotte,
so she'd have the ability to protect herself and heal others too!
With this, Charlotte would upgrade from a useless freeloader to a little loli swordswoman!
They also had the savage's bow and arrows. As a ranged weapon, Calvin planned to find time to duplicate it too.
Next came nineteen pieces of wood a lot of food, two coconuts, ten bottles of water, ten loaves of bread,
plus two savage arms and two savage thighs!
Calvin listed the arms and thighs on the trade post:
[Savage Arm & Thigh – Edible, slightly poisonous. Best used with a furnace.
Can be exchanged for any type of cube.]
Since cube value had dropped significantly especially with trees now obtainable upon landing on islands. Calvin wasn't worried about finding takers.
The post quickly attracted comments:
"Holy crap, bro, did you kill a savage?!"
"How'd you manage that? Savage live in the wild and must have way better stats than us modern folks!"
"Simple. Just use your brain. Set some traps or something."
"Oh, sure. Did you kill a savage too then?"
"No, I'm just saying."
"Wait, are people seriously buying savage meat? Isn't there a risk of some weird virus?"
"Yeah, they're still human after all. Is their meat really edible?"
"I don't care anymore. I'm starving. Haven't caught a single fish in days, and no floating island in sight. I'll trade a wooden cube!"
"Bro, you're a legend!"
"Same here! Starving to death anyway,virus or not, who cares. In ancient times, people even ate their kids!"
"Exactly. I'll trade a Red Iron Ore Cube!"
...
Soon, Calvin exchanged the four pieces of meat for two wooden board cubes, one stone cube, and one Red Iron Ore Cube.
Staring at the red ore cube, Calvin held the Red Iron Sword and pondered.
"Could this be the raw material for crafting the Red Iron Sword? And they just gave it to me this easily?"
He knew the sword was powerful, increasing damage by 25 points.
Against stronger enemies like savage, a few swings could end the fight.
"Maybe I just scored big," Calvin thought.
He placed the Red Iron Ore Cube on the edge of the platform. He'd use it later when needed. For now, it could serve as a platform extension.
The other three cubes were also added to the platform, expanding it to a 4×5 layout, or 20 square meters.
"We're doing okay now. If only we had a bed," Charlotte whispered.
They had been sleeping on the hard platform these past few days.
Calvin was fine. He was a big guy but Charlotte's chest hurt from sleeping that way. When she slept on her stomach...
She often woke up in the middle of the night and quietly rested on Calvin's belly, using him as a pillow.
"I'll check the trade market,"
Calvin said helplessly, watching Charlotte drink coconut water.
Unfortunately, there were barely any players selling blueprints.
He couldn't find any bed blueprints either.
Only a few, with no resources at all, chose to sell their blueprints.
Their water condenser only produced two liters, barely enough for both of them.
Right now, aside from bread and water bottles, the only tradable items were weapons.
But those were absolutely off the table.
After being chased by savage, Calvin realized that to survive on these floating cubes,
you needed real strength.
Besides increasing stats by fishing cloud entities, weapons were key.
Just then, a voice broadcast rang out:
[Five-hour cube stay time has ended.]
The 20-square-meter platform began to drift away.
"If there were no savage, staying on that floating island wouldn't be bad.
There was food, water, and weapons," Charlotte said suddenly.
"If we had stayed, it might have turned out like the system warned. Something truly terrifying might have happened,"
Calvin replied, opening the chat channel.
With so many unlucky players globally, surely some got left behind on the floating island.
Just like how, during college entrance exams, there's always someone who forgets their ID or runs into some kind of mess.
It's just a matter of probability!