Starting in One Piece: Fantasy Realm Multiverse

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Chapter Start:

Time passes in a flash. Alex spends his days checking out the trading HUB, training his Nen abilities—sometimes alone, sometimes with Menchi—and genuinely living a fulfilling life.

Tereza takes near-daily trips to the forest, careful to avoid being seen and risking punishment from the Realm for exposing its existence.

Alex notices his life changing little by little. Almost daily, he casually interacts with his teammate and his supporter, no longer feeling as nervous as before. While he still struggles to fully accept his new position, he's now able to enjoy close, intimate moments with both of them—sometimes even at the same time. If it weren't for the looming mission, Alex feels he could happily continue this blissful existence forever. Their teasing has decreased significantly, though Alex can't imagine it ever stopping completely—it's just too deeply ingrained in their personalities. Whenever Alex looks at Tereza or Menchi, taking in their stunning figures, he can't help but feel a little proud of what he's experienced with them—though he tries not to let it go straight to his head.

One day, just 4 days before the start of the next mission, Menchi gathers the group, including Rishi, to announce the results of her last-minute cooking sessions. They meet inside Alex's player room in the Realm, unwilling to discuss these matters anywhere else.

"I've heard about your dishes, and honestly, I'm amazed by your success," Rishi says, his expression calm but clearly impressed. "With you on the team, we now have as many White-ranked dishes as we want. I also heard you've managed to sell your dishes at a profit. I guess we're lucky to have you."

Tereza immediately chimes in, her tone playfully sharp. "She's Alex's supporter and my gi… my friend. Why are you happy?"

Rishi raises an eyebrow, unfazed. "We're a team. Of course, our supporters support the entire team. If you or I ever get a supporter, they'll offer their services to everyone as well—that should be obvious."

Alex intervenes to keep things on track. "Rishi is right, Tereza, that should be obvious! Anyway, Menchi, carry on. As Rishi said, you've managed to turn a slight profit with your cooking, so by now you're no longer using up FC with your experiments, right? You can more or less sustain yourself now?"

Menchi responds, her tone smug as she crosses her arms. "Hmph. I've been turning a slight profit from the start. By now, I'm earning quite a bit every day. But I don't just want to earn FC—I want to use it to invest in even higher-quality ingredients! You know my dream: I want to create the greatest dishes in existence! I want to make food that defies logic, that creates miracles just by eating it. Every bit of FC I earn, I'll reinvest into making that dream a reality!"

Her expression softens as she looks at Alex. Despite her busy schedule, the past 10 days had been filled with meaningful moments shared between them. Alex had never pressured her and had supported her unconditionally, alongside Tereza, who didn't care about the financial investment at all, even offering her more FC.

"Anyway, Alex," Menchi continues, her voice sincere, "I'm grateful for your support. Only after experiencing the market and meeting other players did I realize how much 50,000 FC actually is. I met someone who cried with happiness after making a 2,000 FC profit, acting like it was a life-changing windfall. If you ever need FC, I'll stop my experiments and focus solely on earning back every last bit for you. I'm your supporter, and while I live for my own goals, my main job is to support you—and of course, your teammates as well.

"For now, our goals align perfectly. You said you and your teammates desperately need high-quality healing items since the generic [Healing Potion] isn't suitable anymore. You gave me until today to produce the best dishes I can—or else we'd have to buy them from the market. I've called you all here to show you the results of my efforts!"

Alex, Tereza, and Rishi watch intently as Menchi begins pulling out her dishes.

[Infused Superior Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)] x10

World: Monster Hunter, Fantasy Realm

Quality: Deep Green

Effect: Heals 75 HP over 10 minutes. Immediately heals 30 HP and cures minor internal wounds.

Note: A superior dish pressed into the form of a hamburg steak, containing Kulu-Ya-Ku meat, various other ingredients, and a [Healing Potion].

Note: This dish is the result of excellent preparation and synthesization, achieving results similar to actual medicine.

Alex and Tereza look at Menchi with bright, happy faces.

"You did it!" Alex cheers, forgiving her for keeping quiet about the results earlier.

Tereza hugs her tightly and plants a kiss on her cheek, obviously thrilled by her achievement.

Rishi, however, looks almost alarmed.

"What's wrong, Rishi? Your expression looks weird. This quality is quite good. We get a 50% larger instant HP boost than the [Healing Potion], and 75 HP over 10 minutes is also solid. Did you expect even better items?" Alex asks, confused by Rishi's reaction.

"No… I'm just a little shocked," Rishi admits. "Surely you noticed the amount, huh? You told me Menchi bought medicine for cooking, and you also gave away your remaining stock of [Healing Potions], but this amount—despite probably wasting a lot of ingredients during testing—that's crazy. These items are easily worth 5,000 FC… these 10 are already worth your entire investment! No wonder you said she locked herself in the kitchen for 10 days, only sleeping a few hours each day."

"Amount?" Tereza repeats, puzzled, and then her eyes land on the x10 behind the dish's name.

"Oh wow… 10 of them!"

"After quite a few failures, I finally figured out how to infuse the [Healing Potion] into the meat," Menchi explains with a proud smile. "I needed to buy a few more potions, but I think the result is worth it. The last thing I focused on, by the way, is a gift from Alex and me to you two." She turns toward Rishi and Tereza with a meaningful look.

"Another gift? Don't overdo it, Alex… I still owe you for that charm!" Rishi says, looking flustered, quite a rare occurrence for Rishi.

[Infused Exceptional Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)] x4

World: Monster Hunter, Hunter x Hunter, Fantasy Realm

Quality: Blue

Effect: Heals 75 HP over 10 minutes. Cures most poisons and significantly weakens others, reducing their remaining duration and mitigating their effects.

Note: A superior dish pressed into the form of a hamburg steak, containing Kulu-Ya-Ku meat, various other ingredients, and [Diluted Gel's Panacure].

Note: This dish is the result of excellent preparation and synthesization, achieving results similar to actual medicine.

"Remember [Diluted Gel's Panacure]? I gave my 10 remaining doses to Menchi so she could use them to improve her cooking. This is the result, apparently," Alex explains.

"The effects of the poison removal are enhanced, as you can see from the quality and description. It's a bit weird that the HP recovery didn't improve, even though the dish reached Blue quality. It looks like the Green-quality Kulu-Ya-Ku meat is responsible for the healing effect, while the Blue quality comes from the poison-removal properties," Alex analyzes, clearly impressed.

"This is so fun! You combine normal food and a healing item into a unique dish with both effects enhanced. It's like multiplication instead of addition," Alex notices, the others agreeing with him.

Menchi hands Rishi and Tereza 2 poison-removing [Infused Exceptional Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)], 3 HP-recovering [Infused Superior Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)], along with a few White-quality [Successful Dish (Fried Cucco)] and [Successful Dish (Braised Blobfish)]. The former increases HP regeneration and instantly heals a little HP, while the latter significantly heals HP over a longer time outside of battle.

"You know… I would have liked to create food that's a bit more refined," Menchi comments. "However, I chose dishes like these that you can easily stuff into your mouth, even during a fight. It should only take you a few seconds to eat them."

Tereza and Rishi both accept the food, fully aware that the funds and ingredients were all provided by Alex.

"Thanks for this. I promise you, I'll return the favor!" Rishi says earnestly. "I didn't think your plan of using Menchi to create items of this quality was feasible—I'm genuinely surprised. Once we're inside the mission, we can keep an eye out for more ingredients and maybe even medicine, particularly potions, to infuse. This cooking style has so much potential. To have access to this even inside the tutorial is something I never expected."

"Yeah, thank you so much. I owe you so much already, Alex—this little bit more doesn't make a difference, hehe. Also, thank you, Menchi. I feel a lot better now going into the next mission," Tereza adds, her tone slightly sheepish but her gratefulness genuine.

"So I think we're done with the business of acquiring healing items. We've got 3 full days left. What do we do?" Alex asks, looking around at the group. "We planned to meet up with Roja and Perlah again before the actual mission, right? I want to ask Roja about the damn stat threshold. The contract is signed, so she has to answer us—or at least tell us why she can't, right?"

"No, Alex," Rishi explains. "It's one of the exceptions. It's not related to the mission at all. Sure, helping each other is part of the contract, but this doesn't count."

"Might as well ask her anyway!" Alex retorts, unwilling to let the matter drop.

"That's true," Rishi concedes. "I propose we set up the meeting for tomorrow. It's just casual, but we need to talk to her more. I feel like her information could be useful for the mission, and I plan to get it out of her. The contract gives me a few ways of achieving this… and if not, we bribe her!"

"Let's do that!" Tereza says confidently, clearly bolstered by her newly acquired power.

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