"I'm not as disgusting as you, you damn loli," Calvin muttered.
This time, the lunchbox had chicken wings, three of them with a side of vegetables and rice.
Calvin remembered how Charlotte had given him most of her chicken cutlet last time. So he thought for a moment and only ate one chicken wing and a small portion of the rice and veggies before handing the box to Charlotte.
"Calvin, what's the meaning of this?" Charlotte frowned slightly.
Was Calvin... being considerate?
That Idiot?
Charlotte couldn't believe it and stared at him in disbelief.
"Eat more meat. Maybe it'll help you grow some more," Calvin said, glancing at her chest.
"Get lost!"
Despite her angry tone, Charlotte felt a faint warmth in her chest.
She often checked the chat channels and had seen countless female players complain about being assaulted by their teammates.
Though the matching system was based on the relationship status between a man and a woman before crossing over. The closer they were, the more likely they'd be matched together—there were no longer laws or morals to restrain people.
Some players, who used to be polite or shy in the real world, showed their darker sides after the crossover.
But Calvin had always been decent, even if he could be a little annoying. And after crossing over, though he was still annoying, his personality hadn't changed much.
"Calvin, then I won't hold back."
"Eat more, maybe you'll finally grow up."
"Get lost."
After eating, they fished up more supplies. Then cube clouds appeared again, and they actually caught several cubes at once!
There were wooden planks and stones.
Calvin placed the new cubes on the sides of their existing platform, expanding it into a 4x4 layout, 16 square meters!
The cubes were a colorful mess: wooden planks, stones, jade, and more. Sixteen cubes plus a water condenser ugly and totally against their aesthetic sense.
But with cubes being scarce, they couldn't be picky.
"Hey, Idiot! Our home just got bigger!" Charlotte cheered as she jumped happily.
4x4 was noticeably bigger than 3x3.
But before Calvin could say anything, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a massive cloud in the distance.
On it, he could vaguely see mountains and forests.
"So that's a sky island? Turns out it's floating above the clouds."
Unfortunately, based on their cube's movement speed and the island's trajectory, they probably wouldn't cross paths.
"Hey, Idiot! Can we get up there?"
"Get up there my ass. It's way too far. We'd need to meet it halfway. What, should I toss you up there? And can you stop calling me Idiot, you damn little brat?"
"You call me little brat, don't you?"
"…If you stop calling me Idiot, I'll stop calling you little brat."
"Same here."
Neither of them backed down, locked in a stubborn glare.
Two hours later, a medium-sized floating island drifted directly toward their cube platform.
No, to be precise, it was the cube platform flying toward the floating island.
Calvin crafted a wooden axe. It required ten pieces of wood, which he had just enough of.
With the axe, a dagger, a hammer, and some extra meat for sustenance,
Calvin packed everything up, placing any space-consuming items from his inventory onto the platform to avoid overloading his grid.
According to game hints, the floating islands were rich in resources.
Charlotte, mimicking Calvin, also packed up.
A dagger, a one-liter empty bottle for collecting water, and so on.
"Calvin, we're about to land. Let's do our best,"
Charlotte said, no longer with her earlier arrogance, calling him "trash."
She knew she was clueless about survival, and as a weak girl, her only hope of making it was to rely on Calvin.
"Don't worry. Just stay close behind me and don't act recklessly. I'll make sure we survive," Calvin replied calmly.
As they approached, the island grew larger, its edges resembling a sea of clouds. Wispy like clouds but moving like ocean waves.
[Cloud Sea: The edge of the floating island. Not very useful.]
"This cloud sea looks just like an actual ocean,"
Charlotte said in awe.
She reached out to touch it beside the cube, feeling like she touched nothing yet also like something sticky and slimy.
As their platform passed through the cloud sea, it caused waves to ripple around them.
Then, it reached a sandy shore at the island's edge.
"Amazing,"
Calvin murmured in wonder.
Just as he was about to disembark with Charlotte,
a message popped up:
[You have arrived at Spirit Creek Floating Island.
Island size: unknown.
Stay duration: 5 hours.
The platform will maintain its location and guide you during this time.
Please return within five hours.]
After the message ended, Calvin jumped down to the beach, just over a meter drop.
This was thanks to the platform automatically adjusting its height. Otherwise, if it were still hovering dozens of meters up, landing would've been a real challenge.
"C-Calvin, I'm scared…"
Charlotte peeked over the edge with a nervous voice.
While a meter might seem short to Calvin, it was about her full height maybe more. To her, it looked really high!
"It's just over a meter. Just jump."
Calvin opened his arms.
"Don't worry, I'll catch you."
"Really? You better catch me, Calvin!"
Charlotte beamed and glanced smugly at him.
Her idiot really listens to her, just as he should.
She leapt confidently, her petite frame aiming for Calvin's arms and landed half a meter in front of him… face-first.
Calvin hadn't reacted in time.
The big-loli was now face-planted in the sand, her head embedded in it.
She looked up at him with a blank expression.
Her delicate face already sweaty from the sun,
was now speckled with sticky grains of sand.
"Ah… didn't catch you…"
Calvin scratched his head awkwardly.
"Calvin, I swear you did that on purpose."
Charlotte wiped her face angrily.
"It really wasn't on purpose…"
Calvin found her disheveled look kind of amusing,
but truthfully, he had just frozen.
"Sigh… let's go. Not exactly a great start to our floating island adventure."
Charlotte brushed the remaining sand off her body and sighed.
Calvin quickly helped pat her down, especially the front.
"Hey, hey, hey! Where do you think you're touching?"
"Just brushing off sand. Don't overthink it."
"Oh, so I should thank you, huh?!"
Charlotte blushed, snapping back.
"No thanks needed. Just call me 'good big bro' a few times?"
"Screw you! You dumbass!"
Charlotte aimed for his arm and hit him with a big bite!