"I called you an idiot, but I didn't realize you were really a big idiot. Is your own safety not important?"
Inside the cave at Southwest Bay, Kaoru was kneeling beside Kanae, who was resting on a grass mat, gently unwrapping the cloth bandage around the latter's left calf.
The cloth felt strange, somewhat like sandpaper yet still soft. For some reason, there was no blood on it, only the residue of some medicinal herbs.
"I'm sorry…"
Kanae, lying flat on the mat, responded softly, but both her tone and expression were absent-minded.
Kaoru looked at her helplessly and sighed slowly.
In her view, her childhood friend often zoned out or drifted off into thought for no reason, which was usually over volleyball matters.
But she hadn't expected that man, the ossan, would actually heal her injury…
After unwrapping the bandage, Kaoru saw that the bite mark on the lower part of Kanae's left calf was now completely scabbed over. The surrounding skin was slightly peeling but otherwise normal.
To stabilize the injury to this extent in just one day, without the ability to stitch the wound?
A sense of awe arose in Kaoru's eyes.
Could it be that Kaede's bite wasn't as serious as it looked?
Or is it because of these herbs…
Kaoru looked down at the cloth in her hand, stained with herbal residue. She blinked, deep in thought, and her eyes grew resolute.
No matter what, the decision she had made previously would not change.
She looked at Kanae, speaking calmly and seriously.
"Kaede, there's something I need to tell you."
Kanae, who was lying on the grass mat, froze upon hearing this. She propped herself up with one hand, slowly sitting upright.
"...What is it?"
Kanae frowned, feeling a vague, unpleasant premonition.
She rarely heard Kaoru use this tone, but every time she did, it meant Kaoru was about to say something shocking.
Sure enough, Kaoru waited until she was sitting up, gave her no time for mental preparation, and immediately delivered the bombshell.
"You must realize it by now. That Teacher Tang Yumo is unreliable."
"So, if we want to live safely on this deserted island, we must find someone we can rely on to protect us."
"So next… I plan to seduce that man named Chuck."
As the words fell, Kanae's pupils contracted sharply.
Her eyes under her short hair trembled slightly. She looked at Kaoru in disbelief, and her already confused mind went blank again.
But seeing her reaction, Kaoru's expression remained calm, as if she wasn't surprised by it. She then continued.
"If I can control that man, it will at least allow us to live securely from now on. But it seems he's been deliberately keeping his distance from me, likely because of Teacher Tang Yumo. He must have seen through my intentions and is wary of me."
Kaoru said this while grasping Kanae's hand.
"But you are different, Kaede. He clearly has no guard up against you. This is our chance!"
"All you have to do is find a way to help me get closer to that man. The rest is up to me… Don't worry, I will protect you, no matter the cost!"
"..."
The more Kanae listened, the more shocked she became, completely failing to follow Kaoru's line of thinking.
Seduce Mr. Chuck?
Eh?
Why would Kaoru think that?
Wait…
Why does she think she can seduce Mr. Chuck?
"Please, Kaede!"
Seeing that Kanae hadn't responded, Kaoru frowned tightly and shook her hand forcefully.
"This is for both of us! Don't you want to live until the rescue comes, to go home alive??"
"I…"
Kanae blinked, unable to utter a single word.
Go home alive?
Of course, she wanted to.
But the problem was, what was the use of wanting it?
Looking at her friend's delicate face, Kanae felt a sudden pang of pity.
In her mind, the scenes of unbridled sexual chaos she had witnessed in the wooden cabin last night resurfaced.
Man and woman.
Male and female.
Conqueror and conquered.
The strong… and the weak.
Just as she instinctively protected Kaoru when danger came, Kaoru would instinctively try to protect her.
But the problem was that Kaoru, up until now, didn't seem to understand one thing.
This is a deserted island…
Outside the cave.
Tang Yumo held a basket woven from palm leaves, leaning against the cave wall.
Her increasingly thin face held only numbness and blankness as she silently gazed at the distant jungle.
Upon seeing the strange, glistening stones growing in the rock face, Chuck's heart rate quickened.
Is it ore?!
He quickly approached and reached out to touch it. He immediately felt that the surface of the stone was hard and rough, but faint patterns shimmered in the cracks.
Even without knowledge of minerals, Chuck could tell that these stones distributed in the rock crevices definitely contained some kind of metallic element.
Most likely iron or copper!
I finally found ore!
After a burst of elation, Chuck immediately took out an item he had long prepared from his Storage Space…
A Flint Pickaxe.
Like the Flint Axe, it was a flint tool synthesized using flint and wood sticks via the Workbench's multiple recipes, and it was the sturdiest tool Chuck could currently craft.
Flint is essentially quartz. In terms of hardness alone, it probably wasn't far off from the ore and the cliff face. Therefore, Chuck still felt uncertain about the mining process.
It was even possible that the Flint Pickaxe wouldn't be able to mine the ore here at all…
But regardless, this was the only way right now. He had to try!
If he could successfully mine it, this first attempt only needed a small amount of ore—enough to craft tools. Later, he could focus on upgrading the furnace. Once he had metal tools and had "traded his shotgun for a cannon," he could return to mine in large quantities!
With this thought, Chuck's joy gradually turned into nervousness. He raised the Flint Pickaxe high in his hand, aimed at the stone blocks glowing with an unusual luster in the rock layers, and swung down heavily!
Thud!
Sure enough, when the Flint Pickaxe struck the surface of the ore, the sound produced was not the dull thud of striking ordinary stone but an unexpectedly crisp clang, accompanied by a small cluster of sparks.
But even though Chuck used seven or eight tenths of his strength in that blow, which left his arm numb and the web of his hand stinging, it only left a shallow scratch on the metallic-looking stone.
Chuck's heart immediately sank. As expected, the hardness is far greater than ordinary stone!
So, he took a deep breath, raised the Flint Pickaxe again, slightly adjusted the angle of impact, and then began to strike the metallic stone block, blow after blow.
Thud, thud, the sound was incessant. The mark on the metallic stone gradually widened, but at the same time, the sharp edge of the Flint Pickaxe splintered bit by bit at a visible rate.
Suddenly, with one powerful blow from Chuck, the wooden handle of the pickaxe instantly jolted, and the flint head shattered and flew off completely.
It scattered into pieces on the ground.
And the metallic stone was still clearly far from being knocked loose.
Chuck casually tossed the empty wooden handle aside, bent down, and picked up a sharp fragment of flint from the ground—something he could still use later.
Then, he took out a second Flint Pickaxe from his Storage Space.
Chuck was not reckless. He had prepared three spears when attempting to hunt goats; there was no way he would only prepare one pickaxe for mining critical ore.
So, he raised the pickaxe high and swung down with all his might again.
With every strike, Chuck's arm ached, and sweat gradually beaded on his forehead. The sun climbed higher, and his shadow on the rock wall slowly shortened.
Finally, just as the head of the second Flint Pickaxe was nearing its limit, the metallic stone block on the cliff face detached with a low, cracking sound!
The ore, shimmering with a mix of deep yellow and emerald green luster, landed heavily on the ground, kicking up fine dust.
Chuck discarded the second, almost ruined Flint Pickaxe, slowly bent down, and lifted the basketball-sized stone block with both hands.
The sheer, unexpected weight made the smile on his face even wider.
Sure enough, upon placing it in the Workbench, the exciting light screen appeared.
[Workbench detected: Chalcopyrite Ore]
[Chalcopyrite Ore (30 kg): A composite ore rich in copper. The internal copper can be refined into a strong and durable metal. Copper content is approximately 30% to 35%. The ideal smelting temperature is 1200°C. Smelting efficiency will be significantly reduced at temperatures below 1100°C.]
Perfect!
Although this piece of chalcopyrite ore wasn't particularly large, it weighed a full 30 kilograms! No wonder it felt so heavy!
According to the Workbench's description, the copper content was over 30%, which meant that if fully smelted, he could get about eight to nine kilograms of pure copper!
That was more than enough to craft one or two tools!
Copper Axe, Copper Pickaxe, Copper Knife…
At that time, metal tools would further boost Chuck's work efficiency and productivity!
Now that he finally had metal ore, the next step was self-evident: formally upgrading the Advanced Kiln to a Furnace!
Thirty kilograms of chalcopyrite ore was too difficult to carry, so Chuck took out the goat carcass, put the ore into the Storage Space, then tied the goat's four legs together in pairs, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and walked down the hill.
Truthfully, Chuck was now very close to the volcano. He could almost smell the distinct odor of sulfur.
But as the highest elevation area on the entire deserted island, located in the center, it was obvious that the area near the volcano likely held some unknown dangers.
Chuck had already had plenty of experience with the island's personality.
But given his substantial haul—securing the long-coveted ore and successfully hunting a goat—Chuck was eager to rush back to butcher the goat, eat the meat, upgrade the furnace, and enjoy the praise and "encouragement" of the women at home.
There was absolutely no need to risk exploring a new area right now.
Carrying the goat, Chuck slowly returned to the stony beach beneath the hills, opening the Workbench's Blueprint interface in his downtime.
The Furnace upgrade blueprint was Tier 4. According to the system's description, the upgraded Furnace could reach a maximum smelting temperature of 1300°C, which was perfectly above the optimal smelting temperature for the copper ore and fully sufficient for the task.
But the most crucial upgrade materials presented a new challenge.
[Required Materials for Upgrade: Mud Brick x20, Firebrick x20, Wooden Plank x5, Animal Hide x2]
Of the materials needed to upgrade the Advanced Kiln to a Furnace, the Mud Bricks and Wooden Planks were familiar to Chuck. As for the Animal Hides, the two wolf hides currently being used as mattresses weren't something he couldn't part with, especially since he could replace them with wool bedding soon.
The key, as expected, was the second item: Firebrick.
According to the system prompt, Firebricks were similar to Mud Bricks, requiring a mixture of two materials. However, it wasn't mud and sand but purified clay, used for firing pottery, and quartz sand, which had to be carefully washed and sorted from ordinary gravel.
The mixture of these two created the valuable Firebrick, and he needed twenty of them.
Unsurprisingly, this was going to be another long-term project.
However, as the transition point from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, Chuck didn't consider this level of difficulty overly harsh.
Carrying the goat, Chuck crossed the stony beach and returned to the wooden cabin on the rock platform. The sky was finally completely bright; it was just past nine o'clock.
As expected, when Chuck walked toward the wooden cabin, covered in blood and carrying a goat over his broad shoulder, the three women who were busy outside all froze simultaneously.
With a thud, the goat's carcass was dropped onto the rock platform floor, and Chuck's voice followed.
"Julia, get me a knife and go fetch some seawater from the beach."
"Yitong, you help me set up the rack. I'm going to butcher the goat."
"Mòmo, you… go for a walk. Pick some wild vegetables. We'll have goat soup for lunch."
The three women nodded obediently in response and then set about following Chuck's instructions.
But for some reason, all their faces were flushed red, and their gazes toward Chuck were increasingly heated.
Although the three women were not solely motivated by profit, ever since they started following Chuck and became his women, Chuck had repeatedly delivered on the promises he first made to them.
—He would always protect their safety and never let them go hungry.
The saying goes, "Food and sex are human nature; when one is full and warm, the mind turns to lust." Now that the three women were living a life free from worry about food, shelter, and clothing under Chuck's care, they naturally began to feel the impulse to bear Chuck's children as sheltered females.
Of course, this impulse wasn't about the result but purely the process.
To put it more bluntly, after seeing Chuck return like a tribal warrior carrying his prey,
Their pussies started to itch.