Chapter 302: Reducing Pirate Attacks
After delivering the supplies, she caught up with Village Head Thorne on the latest developments. She also made a special trip to see Leo Sloan’s family to make sure everyone on the island was living relatively well. This time, she had brought a batch of lightbulbs and some elementary language and math materials photocopied by Zachary Pierce’s side. This would allow the children on the island to start their education, so they wouldn’t be without any learning materials at all.
Afterward, Faye Yardley left with Jennifer. The raft belonging to the shopkeepers’ families was naturally left for them, so they went off to help arrange the houses their families had been assigned.
The two doctor families consisted of one from a lineage of traditional healers and another specializing in modern emergency medicine. With two families of medical professionals, the health of the island’s residents was more or less guaranteed.
Faye Yardley also had Eamon prepare some medicinal herb seeds and high-yield grain and vegetable seeds.
Taking Jennifer to the other side of the dock, she found a small bramble bush covered in beautiful flowers. Upon seeing Faye Yardley approach, it immediately began to grow rapidly, each of its branches swaying joyfully.
"Huh? What’s that?"
"Come on, I’ll show you the bramble I planted. Its flowers are exceptionally beautiful and fragrant. We can have it give you two of its prettiest ones."
Jennifer wasn’t used to walking, so Faye Yardley was carrying her on her back.
She was as light as a feather. Faye Yardley even felt the merling was underweight and needed more nutrition.
"Bramble, are you doing okay here by yourself? Come, let me introduce you. The one on my back is Jennifer the merling. Isn’t she adorable? How about you give her two of your pink flowers?"
A branch bearing two pink flowers extended directly to Faye Yardley’s ear, drawing a gasp of surprise from Jennifer. "For me? Can I pick them?"
"Bramble is giving them to you. Go ahead and pick them."
"Thank you, thank you! The flowers are so pretty, and they really do smell amazing. The scent is making me sleepy."
No sooner had she said she was sleepy than Faye Yardley felt the weight on her back suddenly become much heavier. Then, two slender white legs transformed into a pink fishtail.
[Dear Island Master Faye Yardley, your island has won the affection of the merling Jennifer. Do you wish to allow her to settle here?]
Faye Yardley turned her head to look at little Jennifer, whose head was now resting on her shoulder, and then asked the bramble before her, "Bramble, what do you think? Would it be good to have Jennifer stay here and keep you company?"
Bramble conveyed a sense of joy, so Faye Yardley chose to agree.
The moment she agreed, Jennifer suddenly vanished from her back.
[An island with a resident merling will have a reduced chance of being attacked by pirates.]
"So, where did little Jennifer go?"
Bramble pointed downward. Faye Yardley let out a surprised "Ah." "Below the island?"
After receiving Bramble’s affirmative response, Faye Yardley decided to check the island model once she was back on her raft. The island now had water, electricity, and could be self-sufficient with food. She wondered what she would ultimately gain from this island.
’Right now, it’s just pure investment.’
Of course, there were mines on the island, and those belonged to her. She hadn’t decided whether to start mining them yet. If she did, figuring out the best way to arrange everything would be another series of problems to think about.
’Faye Yardley really felt like her brain was about to short-circuit.’
’All I originally wanted was to get stronger by myself, and maybe help my brother get stronger too. How did things suddenly develop to this point?’
After spending a little more time with Bramble, Faye Yardley returned to her raft. Of course, she couldn’t leave right away, since her two shopkeepers were still on the island.
’It was hard to say if they would be sent back to their own rafts when the island invitation time was up.’
’It cost her to travel back and forth. Could they avoid the fee by not hitching a ride?’
Asking questions when in doubt had always been Faye Yardley’s style. Unfortunately, she had asked the system many times without getting a response, and she couldn’t very well experiment on her two shopkeepers.
Since there was no response, she had the system pull up a 3D map of the island. Sure enough, in the waters at the very bottom of the island, she saw Jennifer curled up.
She was also within the protective Energy Shield of the tower.
Seeing that Jennifer hadn’t truly disappeared, Faye Yardley could finally relax.
She dialed Zachary Pierce’s number. It took a while for him to pick up. "Sorry, Yardley. What’s up?"
"I’m at the island’s dock right now. If there’s anything else you need to send, send it over quickly."
"There shouldn’t be anything else; I sent it all to you earlier. They brought the Bandage Hemostatic Pills and Inner Injury Holy Medicine with them when they went to the island. They shouldn’t need a restock just yet."
Faye Yardley grunted in acknowledgment, then asked, "Have there been any research breakthroughs recently? Or is there anything you guys particularly need? I’m going to Lumina tomorrow. It’s actually the main city of a game from another planet. They think I’m a player from another planet, too. And I’ve already used a blueprint that dropped there; the system recognized it, so it can be used normally over here."
"A game’s main city? You didn’t mention this before. Is it the kind of main city I’m thinking of?"
Faye Yardley blinked and smiled. "Exactly like the ultra-large, hyper-realistic virtual reality games mentioned in old web novels. Lumina is the main city for Level 30 players. The surrounding area has Level 30 to Level 40 mobs, and the biggest boss is Level 50. The fountain plaza in the city center is the revival point. We also start from the revival point when we go there."
"What an interesting place. So that means the other human players there are impossible to kill, right?"
"That’s right. So even if our people go over there and are mistaken for the same type of player, they can’t team up with them to run dungeons. After all, those players can be considered part of the fourth-calamity-style Undying."
The two exchanged more information about Lumina for a while before Zachary Pierce said, "Do the two shopkeepers you hired know about this?"
"I gave them a brief overview. Besides, they can’t stray too far from the shop. I estimate their limit is about two blocks. And fighting is forbidden within Lumina, let alone killing. So, my plan was to have them act as NPCs. Fixed-range NPCs—something those players can easily understand."
Then Faye Yardley chuckled and said, "To us, Lumina is a real place, and the people inside are real. Those players probably also know that the NPCs have a real, unique existence, but their mindset is definitely completely different from ours."
"Alright, I understand. Your arrangements are quite sound. As long as they can’t leave Lumina, they’re unlikely to die even if they do something stupid," Zachary Pierce said. He then added, "A city with players like that should have a lot of unique and functional items. I’ll go discuss it with the others, and I’ll let you know what we need before you leave."
The Invitation Card was only for two hours, so just as time was about to run out, the two shopkeepers ran to the dock, panting, and quickly jumped onto the raft.
The raft had just started moving when the two shopkeepers vanished from it.