Chapter 111: Extra Story #4
Chu Jiu held up the makeshift torch and walked towards the beach.
Unsurprisingly, Little Can had pinned something down.
What could it be? A fish making strange noises?
Chu Jiu walked up to Little Can, holding the torch a bit lower, and examined the small thing under its paw by the firelight—
A slime?!
Blue, translucent, a plump teardrop shape, with tiny eyes, a tiny mouth, and tiny arms, could it really be a slime?!
This deserted island actually had such a creature?
Just as he was wondering, the system popped up a prompt:
[Blue Slime: A very bouncy creature…]
[Seems inedible? Could it be made into slippery slime jelly?]
[But it seems to have intelligence… intelligent creatures are inedible…]
[Squeak squeak squeak… So strange, analysis failed…]
The system had actually crashed!
This was the first time the system had crashed in so long!
With a “bang,” the little hamster, who had failed to complete the analysis task smoothly, jumped out accompanied by golden light, hovering in the air with flapping wings, frowning at the slime under Little Can’s paw.
Chu Jiu quickly said to the little hamster, “Don’t panic, don’t panic, let’s see together what this slime eats!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the slime’s tiny body began to tremble violently!
…Did it understand?
The next second, Chu Jiu’s body suddenly stiffened, and the little hamster’s face instantly turned pale, letting out a soft “squeak” of unease.
Little Can immediately tossed the slime to Kakaba to hold down, and jumped onto Chu Jiu’s shoulder, looking at Chu Jiu and the little hamster worriedly: “What’s wrong? What’s wrong with you?”
Chu Jiu’s complexion was also very bad.
At the same moment that the slime’s body trembled, he felt a “shock” coming from Tara, from this giant spiritual entity.
This kind of shock felt like a wad of cotton being stuffed into his chest, not painful, but suffocatingly uncomfortable.
It seemed that Tara was “issuing a warning”?
Could this little slime really have a close relationship with Tara?
Many thoughts flashed through Chu Jiu’s mind. Finally, he softened his expression and looked at the slime, saying, “I understand now, you are food.”
The slime’s small eyes suddenly brightened, and it began to nod repeatedly.
Of course, since there was no distinction between its body and head, this “nodding” motion was actually its whole body shaking.
As the blue slime moved, the “shock” blocking his chest disappeared.
Chu Jiu felt more or less certain.
He looked at Kakaba and said softly, “Kakaba, I guess it can’t talk to me directly. Maybe it can communicate with you?”
Kakaba was a “language master”!
So Kakaba held the blue slime and began to “dang-dang-dang” gently.
The slime was startled at first: “Puni?!”
Kakaba patted the slime’s head—or body, as if comforting it with its little paw, and continued to “dang-dang-dang.”
The slime’s small eyes gradually widened, as if very surprised and also a little excited.
It began to “puni, puni…” non-stop.
Kakaba listened while nodding repeatedly, as if saying, “So that’s how it is,” and “I understand.”
When the slime “puni”ed again, Kakaba looked up at Chu Jiu and began to translate.
“It, it’s called ‘Blue Puni,’ and it is food.”
“It is a ‘supervisor sent by Tara’ to inspect whether we have followed Tara’s rules.”
Chu Jiu: “…Oh.”
What a domineering supervisor.
Kakaba continued, “Blue Puni, if it finds that we haven’t followed the rules, it will punish us on behalf of Tara!”
Chu Jiu: “How will it check? And how will it punish us?”
Although Blue Puni couldn’t speak, it completely understood Chu Jiu’s words.
It tried hard to transform into various shapes in Kakaba’s paw, then “pupu”ed a series of outputs—
Kakaba translated, “Blue Puni says, ‘Are you eating things?'”
“If the things you eat don’t come from this planet, then it will drive you out!”
Chu Jiu affirmed, “Everything I eat comes from ‘Tara’.”
“If Blue Puni doesn’t believe me, it can go and see for itself.”
With that, Chu Jiu gestured to Kakaba: take it to the campsite.
Just as Kakaba was about to move its short legs, Blue Puni “pu”ed and jumped onto the beach by itself, puffing up its body angrily and shaking its head vigorously.
Kakaba: “It, it doesn’t need any outside help from you. It will go by itself.”
Alright then.
Chu Jiu didn’t force Blue Puni to pick it up, watching Blue Puni hop forward like a bouncy ball, “putong,” “putong.”
Just like the little hamster system said, it was indeed very bouncy!
Blue Puni finally hopped to the edge of the campsite.
It looked at the fire with flames leaping out from time to time, its small body trembled a few times, and then it cautiously kept its distance from the bonfire.
In this way, it couldn’t see what was being cooked in the big pot over the fire.
In the end, Kakaba held it in its paws and introduced the contents of tonight’s dinner one by one.
Blue Puni stared wide-eyed: “Your vegetables, did you pick them from the rocks?”
Chu Jiu: “That’s right.”
Blue Puni: “Your fish, did you catch them from the sea?”
Chu Jiu: “That’s right.”
Blue Puni thought for a moment and said loudly, “Did you also add salt? Your salt must have come from Tara!”
Chu Jiu shook his head: “My ‘salt’ was also extracted from the seawater here.”
Blue Puni opened its mouth slightly, wanting to continue “questioning,” but didn’t know what else to ask.
Could these outsiders really be living off of Tara’s resources?
However, it was only the first day!
My clever and wise Puni will not be deceived by the illusions of the first day!
Blue Puni muttered, “You have passed the first day’s ‘inspection’.”
“Next, I will continue to watch you! To prevent you from secretly violating the rules!”
At this time, Glup-Glup on the side flew to Kakaba’s paw, curiously looking at the round, translucent Blue Puni at eye level, then its small eyes curved happily:
“Gulu-gulu! What a cute little fellow!”
“Gulu-gulu, will you stay by my side from now on? Then Glup-Glup will have another little friend!”
After hearing these words, Blue Puni’s little brows instantly furrowed: “Who, who is your little friend!” “I am a supervisor, your opponent, ‘opponent,’ do you understand?”
Although Blue Puni retorted impolitely, Glup-Glup wasn’t angry at all—
Instead, it shook its little tentacles with a smile: “Gulu-gulu!”
Kakaba nodded its little head with a slight smile: “Dang-dang-dang!”
Rawr Rawr Rabbit also shook its long ears: “Roar roar roar!”
It’s okay, it’s okay, these initially grumpy little guys will eventually be captivated by me, Chu Jiu!
Chu Jiu said, “Well then, esteemed opposing supervisor Blue Puni, I’m going to rest and sleep now. Would you like a separate nest?”
Blue Puni: “A separate, separate nest?”
Chu Jiu: “That’s right. Each of my babies has a separate nest—what kind would you like?”
Chu Jiu pointed to the ground at the newly made “spirit beast baby nests” using local materials.
On the ground were a round wooden nest padded with hay, a wooden bowl with a thin layer of sand, and a wooden basin filled with clear water.
Blue Puni looked at the row of nests, its round eyes widening slightly. It scratched its head with its small arms in confusion, and finally “popped” onto the rough sandy ground. Its two thin little arms crossed over its chest:
“I, I am a supervisor, I won’t be bought by you!”
“I want to keep my distance from you!”
“I want to sleep by myself!”
With that, the opposing supervisor Blue Puni hopped away, “peng peng peng.”
Chu Jiu didn’t ask Kakaba or Little Can to chase after it.
He looked at the twinkling starry sky and said to the little guys, “Alright, now help me wash the dishes and the pot, and then we’ll get ready to brush our teeth and go to sleep.”
There was still a lot of work to do tomorrow!
*
That night, Chu Jiu slept very soundly.
He nestled in his sleeping bag, hugging Little Can, but his mind kept drifting back to that “big cat.”
He also remembered that back in WTO906, he had decided to give the big cat a return gift.
He knew very well what “returning a gift” meant.
Since returning to Arsa Star, there were new situations every day, and he learned new things every day…
At the beginning, even the imperial physicians hadn’t thought that he would adapt to Arsa Star so quickly, let alone that he could actually work independently.
His worries were not unreasonable.
After all, when he first came back, let alone working independently, he was even very resistant to the optical computer—
That thing wasn’t just a phone, but a human-machine interface device that connected to the nervous system.
It was Lu Qingyan who demonstrated it to him bit by bit and taught him step by step from the beginning.
After learning how to use the optical computer, he was like a so-called “little hamster that fell into a honey pot,” interested in everything and wanting to learn everything he saw…
For anything he was interested in, Lu Qingyan would prepare all the external conditions.
Finally, after half a year, he had transformed from someone “who had difficulty adapting after time-traveling from the old days of interstellar civilization” into a “top-notch healing system master in the empire.”
Chu Jiu looked at the sleeping Little Can in his arms and whispered, “It was you who stayed by my side, supported me, and helped me that I was able to do it…”
But while I was rushing forward, I overlooked something very important…
Chu Jiu sighed again and closed his eyes peacefully.
*
The next morning.
Having slept deeply due to frequent dreams, Chu Jiu was still groggily nestled in his sleeping bag even after the sun had risen.
It was Rawr Rawr Rabbit and Glup-Glup’s soft voices that woke him up:
“Roar roar roar, that Blue Puni doesn’t seem quite right, Roar roar roar!”
“Gulu-gulu, that, little friend Blue Puni, has a bit of a problem.”
Chu Jiu woke up instantly and sat up straight in his sleeping bag: “What’s wrong with it?”
When Chu Jiu saw Blue Puni, the blue slime that had been so plump and bouncy yesterday had become a wrinkled lump.
Even its nose and mouth were deformed, squeezed together in the wrinkled blue surface.
Kakaba was lying next to Blue Puni, looking worried: “Dang-dang-dang, what happened to little Blue?”
Blue Puni blinked its eyes, which were no longer so round, and even its “pupu” sound was weak.
Chu Jiu looked up at the sun and recalled Blue Puni’s fearful appearance when it saw the bonfire last night. He immediately said:
“Blue Puni, are you dehydrated?”
“If yes, blink twice. If no, blink once.”
Blue Puni actually blinked twice.
Chu Jiu asked again, “Do you need to soak in seawater or fresh water?”
Blue Puni chose seawater.
Then it was simple.
Chu Jiu picked up the dried-up Blue Puni, went straight to the beach, and put the little guy, who was almost turning into a dried shiitake mushroom, into the seawater.
“Pupu pupu…”
Several bubbles rose from the seawater.
Before long, the shiitake mushroom had been rehydrated—ah no, it was Blue Puni that had been rehydrated.
It had returned to the size of a palm, a round and watery Puni.
It floated on the surface of the sea, staring blankly at Chu Jiu. Its eyeballs rolled around for a while, and finally it squeezed out a soft sentence: “Pu… Puni.”
Even though Kakaba hadn’t translated yet, Chu Jiu guessed it was saying “thank you.”
Chu Jiu said, “You’re welcome.”
“But if you get dehydrated when the temperature is a bit higher and need to soak in seawater to maintain your shape, then just find a rock to spend the night on in the future.”
Blue Puni spat out a few seawater bubbles and didn’t speak.
It swam around in the seawater again, suddenly its eyes widened again, and it said towards the beach, “Puni puni?”
Chu Jiu followed Blue Puni’s gaze and explained, “That? That’s the fish pond I built yesterday.”
“The tide came in at dawn, so it’s a good time to see how many fish are inside.”
With that, Chu Jiu picked up Blue Puni and walked towards the fish pond, stepping through the water.
*
They were still quite a distance from the fish pond when Little Can tilted its head, “swooshed” directly from Chu Jiu’s shoulder to the dam.
It looked down at the fish pond and “meow”ed once: “Chu Jiu, be careful, there’s a very big fish inside!”
Chu Jiu took a few steps forward, peering into the fish pond from afar:
It was indeed a very big fish.
This one fish, relying on its own strength, was actually enough to fill the entire fish pond.
It had a hooked beak-like mouth like an eagle, with a row of sharp teeth inside; its body looked like a long sack filled with things, its skin constantly changing color under the sun, sometimes turning black, sometimes turning brown.
It had ten thick and powerful arms, eight of which were coiled in the fish pond, while the other two stretched out of the fish pond and were angrily slapping the shore.
It looked like this fellow was very dissatisfied with being trapped in the fish pond.
The Blue Puni in Chu Jiu’s hand began to tremble non-stop: “B-b-big… squid…”
Chu Jiu: “Huh? Are you afraid of Tara’s creatures?”
Blue Puni: “Most creatures here know that it eats us Puni. The big squid will put anything its tentacles wrap around into its mouth.”
“Once, I was stuffed into the mouth of a big squid, and then it even wanted to bite me to pieces!”
“If it wasn’t because my skin was too slippery to bite easily, I would definitely have been bitten into Puni bits!”
“Ahhh, it’s so scary!”
Blue Puni trembled non-stop as it spoke.
Kakaba, who was responsible for translating beside it, also dutifully trembled twice.
Chu Jiu, on the other hand, felt no fear of the big squid.
After all, within Little Can’s defense range, there were no other threatening creatures.
He thought for a moment and smiled slightly at Little Can: “Little Can, back in Bean Village, I said I wanted to make ‘grilled squid’.”
Kakaba raised its paw beside him: “Dang-dang-dang! I remember! I also remember eating delicious teppanyaki that day! Eating it with Lu Qingyan!”
Chu Jiu: “That’s right… but it didn’t happen in the end.”
Because they later discovered that those “squid” were actually the mounts of little sea dogs, very obedient and good fish, and couldn’t be used as food.
He looked at the big squid angrily spraying ink in the fish pond and said, “This time, let’s try grilled squid on a stone slab!” Little Can: “Meow!” — “Okay! I’ll go finish it off!”
As soon as the words fell, Little Can, at a speed invisible to the naked eye, gave the struggling, escaping big squid a flurry of scratches.
In less than half a minute, the big squid’s skin, which had been changing color, had all turned a dull, lifeless gray-black.
Blue Puni was completely stunned.
After a long while, it whispered, “Wow, you, you, are so strong?”
That was a super troublesome big squid!
At this time, both Chu Jiu and Kakaba smiled slightly and said, “That’s right. Our Little Can is just that amazing!”
Chu Jiu walked to the fish pond with the machete and axe and successfully collected [Fresh Squid Meat], [Sturdy Squid Skin], [Sharp Squid Beak], and [Squid Ink].
Very good, a whole fish pond of squid meat was enough for everyone to eat for a long time!
While Chu Jiu was diligently collecting, the blue Puni “popped” onto the dam and rolled back and forth along it, looking here and touching there, its little brow furrowing from time to time as if thinking about something.
Finally, it even let out a low “Puni Puni Special Attack!” and puffed up its body, then “pu”ed a stream of seawater at a stone on the dam—
The dam, of course, didn’t budge.
Blue Puni’s expression became even more serious.
After Chu Jiu finished collecting, Blue Puni said with a solemn little blue face, “This ‘fish pond,’ did you use any special foreign materials?” If he used any of those materials, even if he looked like a good person, I would dutifully drive him out of Tara!
Chu Jiu, who was bending down to pick up sea urchins, looked at Blue Puni in confusion: “What special foreign materials?”
Blue Puni: “It’s those, those things that emit a pungent smell and stick everything together like strange glue, or shoot out blue flames and burn all the coconut trees to ashes like a ‘flame gun’…”
Chu Jiu: “No.”
“All the materials for building the fish pond came from this island.”
Blue Puni was shocked: “But, how can it be so sturdy?!”
I even used my “Puni Puni Special Attack” on it! The stones didn’t even move!
Didn’t the castles I built myself out of rocks all collapse as soon as the seawater hit them?
Chu Jiu smiled slightly: “That’s right. Our ‘professional architect’ builds things that are that sturdy.”
He thought for a moment and added, “But, this kind of professional construction method that doesn’t use any ‘glue’ at all, I actually learned it from another creature.”
“That creature uses branches and stones to build dams that even humans can’t push down!”
Blue Puni: “Eh?! Eh?!”
Chu Jiu said to Kakaba and Glup-Glup, “I’ll go make breakfast. You two tell the little friend the story of ‘how beavers build dams’.”
Kakaba and Glup-Glup happily agreed.
Then, they saw Kakaba and Glup-Glup, one waving its webbed little paws and its little tail wagging, the other turning its head with its little leaf, occasionally using its tentacles to roll stones for a practical demonstration, telling the story with great enthusiasm.
The two little ones not only talked about how beavers built dams, but they also mentioned how the big beaver later met the beautiful beaver, and how the two beavers worked together to build the dam even stronger.
Of course, the “anecdote” of how the big beaver was beaten lame by the beautiful beaver back then was told by the two little ones with particular vividness.
Blue Puni listened with a flickering light in its eyes, its face full of “So interesting, so funny…”
When the “Adventures of the Big Beaver” was almost finished, Chu Jiu’s breakfast was also ready.
Little Can and Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s breakfast was inevitably sliced tender white squid meat and plump, orange-yellow sea urchin.
Glup-Glup had a cup of “water boiled with coconut tree core.” The amount of coconut tree core was very limited, but if boiled into water, it could still last for quite a while.
Kakaba’s breakfast changed from “tumbleweed shoots” to “fresh kelp.” The kelp was washed into the fish pond with the high tide. When Chu Jiu collected the squid meat, he naturally wouldn’t forget to take the kelp away as well.
Chu Jiu laid out the spirit beast babies’ meals one by one on the reef and then looked at Blue Puni: “What do you eat? Do you eat meat with Rawr Rawr Rabbit, or are you vegetarian like Kakaba?”
Blue Puni tried hard to prevent its saliva from flowing out of its tentacles while trying its best to look firm: “I, I am a supervisor! I won’t eat with the supervised outsiders!”
Chu Jiu blinked: “Then… what do you plan to eat?”
Blue Puni raised its arm and wiped its mouth: “Anyway, I’ll eat something!”
With that, Blue Puni “peng peng peng” jumped into the sea.
It rummaged around in the rocks for a long time and finally scooped up a small fish thinner than a human finger.
It found a shady spot, held the small fish, and sat alone in the water, gnawing at the fish without any relish, while thinking:
Eating with these outsiders doesn’t seem bad either…
They not only eat well, but it also seems very lively.
And they have so many interesting stories…
Alright, alright, what am I thinking! I am a fair and selfless supervisor!
*
After breakfast, the main event of the day was “building a house.”
Chu Jiu stacked the existing raw materials aside: shark skin as rough as sandstone, rocks and coral stones of various sizes, wood split from coconut tree trunks, and “ropes” made from squid skin.
Chu Jiu actually had [Sturdy Climbing Ropes] in his backpack. Thinking about how much Blue Puni rejected “foreign materials,” he simply made ropes out of the squid skin he had found earlier.
To be honest, the effect of these ropes was not at all worse than climbing ropes.
After the raw materials were gathered, Glup-Glup flew around them twice and confidently raised its little tentacles: “Gulu-gulu! I know how to build the [Fish Skin House]! Don’t worry, I will definitely build it very sturdy so that everyone can sleep comfortably!”
With that, Glup-Glup and Kakaba got busy.
At this time, the system displayed, [Estimated completion time: 6 hours]
Chu Jiu was just about to leave the “construction site” to find Rawr Rawr Rabbit when he saw a small blue figure hopping all the way from the beach.
“You!” Blue Puni’s face was stern.
Chu Jiu: “Me?”
Blue Puni: “What are you building?”
Chu Jiu: “This is a ‘Fish Skin House,’ a small house with a roof made of shark skin instead of palm leaves.”
Blue Puni: “So that’s how it is…”
Blue Puni jumped up and “inspected” the laid-out materials one by one. Finally, it turned its head, its round face almost turning square: “In order to prevent you from secretly using materials that belong to Tara, I, I, the supervisor—”
“I want to build the house with you!”
“Yes, I want to supervise you building the house!”
Chu Jiu said, “Okay.”
Glup-Glup’s eyes curved into two slits: “Gulu-gulu! Hooray, let’s build together!”
Blue Puni: “It’s not building together, it’s ‘supervising’!”
Kakaba nodded its head happily: “Dang-dang-dang! Hooray! Let’s build together!”
Blue Puni: “I said it’s ‘supervising’!”
Glup-Glup: “Gulu-gulu, little Blue, can you move that stone over there? Will it be a bit heavy?”
Blue Puni: “Oh, okay, I’ll move it! Not heavy, not heavy, I can move it!”
