But contrary to Chuck's expectations, after he unhesitatingly rejected Liu Siyao's request again that night, and even ignored the luminous pearl, she actually really never brought up the matter of sending her out to sea back to Jiangnan again.
Presumably, she also knew that since the conversation had reached this point, continuing to pester him wouldn't change the response she'd get.
Ultimately, whatever she wanted to do on this deserted island, she had to rely on her own two hands.
After the magnificent feat of freshwater diversion was finally accomplished, Chuck didn't immediately let it be. Instead, he spent another two days to comprehensively upgrade the water usage system in the house.
First, Chuck used the DIY blueprint function to build a freshwater reservoir—about two meters long and wide, and one meter high—out of stone bricks and concrete below the pipeline, serving as a transfer station for water delivery. Then, he made holes on the east, south, and west sides of the reservoir, near the upper water level mark, dividing the water source into three streams for diversion.
This time, for delivering freshwater around the house on the stone slope platform, Chuck didn't go through the trouble of firing copper pipes again. Instead, he directly processed hardwood into simple and convenient wooden pipes and brackets, quickly completing the connections.
One of the wooden pipes, Chuck connected to the kitchen of the residence, supplying water for washing vegetables, cooking, and boiling drinking water.
The second one, Chuck ran straight to the water tower at the edge of the platform, supplying water for laundry, cleaning, feeding in the livestock shed, and irrigation in the farm shed.
The remaining last one, which was also the pipe with the largest hole diameter, Chuck connected with a wooden pipe down to the eastern jungle, linking it with the seawater distillation salt pans he built previously. Then, through re-excavation and backfilling, he reversed the flow, flushing the fresh water towards the sea.
And the paddy field, painstakingly excavated and originally intended to save seawater, Chuck didn't just abandon it. Instead, he handed it over to Julia, along with the rice seedlings he had collected from the lake shore in the western plains and hoarded in his storage space for a long time, letting her and her farming group officially begin attempting rice cultivation.
It was perfect for transforming this ready-made paddy field into a rice paddy.
Although sweet potatoes and taro were good, after eating them for so long, let alone Chuck, even the women in the house were getting a bit sick of them.
Once the rice cultivation could be successfully completed, from then on, the dining table at home would have bowls of fragrant, steaming white rice!
This is a true "staple food"!
Moreover, planting rice was originally Chuck's important purpose and motivation for diverting freshwater.
Besides this, the plans that had been accumulated for a long time were also successively put on the agenda: the expansion of the livestock shed and farm shed, the scale-up of mulberry tree planting and silkworm raising, the increase in the number of livestock raised, and so on...
It was foreseeable that the living standard at home would soon usher in another series of improvements.
Only this time, Chuck handed most of the matters into the hands of the women in the house. The only things he worried about were the progress of various facilities and residence blueprints.
Instead, Chuck began to focus all his energy on conquering the BOSSes.
To date, the remaining time on the countdown was 73 days. And through his efforts over the past period, Chuck's base physical stats had also reached 1.30, increasing by a full 30% in the independent multiplier block.
At this point, it was already very difficult for Chuck's body to show changes in appearance due to enhancement. Similarly, although his workout intensity was gradually increasing, the efficiency of his base physical stats improvement was getting smaller and smaller.
The 0.02 improvement margin that used to appear frequently appeared less and less often. By today, it hadn't appeared for five consecutive days.
It probably wouldn't appear in the future either.
According to Chuck's guess, even a 0.01 improvement would probably gradually become a pattern of appearing at intervals in the future, ultimately reaching a cap for base stats. Based on the subjective feeling of Chuck's own body, the cap he predicted was probably in the range of 1.5 to 1.6.
Adding the 170% potion bonus, before starting the sprint to the finish line, the final physical stats Chuck could possess would be about 4.3 times his original physical stats.
Was this level enough to confront a lord-class BOSS head-on?
Honestly speaking, Chuck couldn't make a definitive conclusion.
But the fact was, after his previous opportunism led to death, the only path left for Chuck to clear the game was the simplest and most direct head-on confrontation. So no matter what, this was already his only choice. Fortunately, winning or losing in a head-on confrontation wasn't solely determined by physical stats.
The tiger and the brown bear represented the two most powerful combat forces on land; the volcano giant bird was the overlord of the sky; the existence beneath the southern shallow sea was a threat hidden underwater; and the crocodile in the summit lake was an amphibian between land and water.
Land, water, air, and even amphibian. It was as if the existence that arranged these BOSSes to appear on this deserted island deliberately selected them for balance.
Chuck himself was originally a land animal. The aerial overlord had already been skipped by exploiting a loophole at a cost. Among the remaining three lord-class bosses, the most troublesome was undoubtedly the existence hidden beneath the southern deep sea.
Chuck had seen the crocodile with his own eyes, and at least found traces of the brown bear. But beneath that seawater, Chuck merely caught a glimpse of an anomalous light swimming rapidly by chance, and made a guess based on that.
But Chuck had already explored the terrain of the deserted island thoroughly. Counting the brown bear, the crocodile, and the already slaughtered tiger and giant bird, there were only four lord-class BOSSes, which didn't match the number of stone grooves in the volcano cave.
This guess was basically ten out of ten certain.
Thus, besides exercising and improving physical stats, improving underwater mobility was also a crucial part. Not only would it be effective against the BOSS in the sea, but it could also prevent him from being dragged into the lake and losing all ability to resist when facing the crocodile.
So in the next two months, the most important items before Chuck were diving practice and the manufacturing of diving equipment.
Air cylinders, masks, diving suits, and most importantly...
New equipment that would allow him to fight fierce beasts underwater!
...
Recently, Lee So-yeon's mood had been somewhat conflicted.
Facts proved her worries were not wrong. Chuck was indeed a guy who liked playing with women. The sounds coming from the bedroom every night, just as she had personally experienced on her very first day here, could prove this point.
—Every woman here was subjected to high-intensity random inspections by him every night.
But was this really a desperately bad thing?
On her first day here, pinned beneath Chuck and tormented, Lee So-yeon would have answered without hesitation. But now, she couldn't be sure anymore.
Because the cries coming from the bedroom every night carried such intense pleasure, because the women around Chuck all looked so happy, and also because ever since her body was taken by Chuck, her body had unknowingly become strange...
At the edge of the platform in the early morning, behind the house at noon, by the water tower in the evening.
Under Yitong's management, she and her sister shared the cleaning work inside and outside the house. Whenever she caught a glimpse of Chuck's tall figure, either with his shirt soaked in sweat or simply shirtless, her heart would uncontrollably tighten.
But what confused her the most were the island north women who had followed Chuck here with her.
Sofia, He Xiaoyu, Nicole...
One by one, they successively offered their bodies to Chuck, and naturally received preferential treatment in return—soft, warm blankets on their beds, their own cups and bowls, and even a new piece of clothing woven from silk.
These were not among Chuck's initial promises to them, so obviously, they were rewards and privileges for proactively offering themselves.
While she and her sister could still only use dry grass as bedding. Even though the artificial cave with the stone stove was warmer than before, and the three meals a day were enough to eat and even nutritionally balanced.
But for this kind of life, besides "making do to pass the days," Lee So-yeon couldn't think of any other adjectives.
She couldn't help but ask herself a question in her heart—was her desperate final decision back then really wise?
Perhaps, what she thought was care and goodwill towards her sister had actually deprived her of her future happiness?
Finally, on an ordinary afternoon, after the sisters had worked hard all morning, each taking their dinner back to their beds in the cave, sitting face-to-face eating silently.
Lee Na-eun finally gave her the answer.
"Sister..."
Lee So-yeon looked up. After seeing the expression on her sister's face, the sweet potato in her hand fell from her trembling fingertips onto her lap.
"Why don't we... just go to him..."
"If after a while, he completely loses interest in us, just like Tang Yumo... what should we do?"
Tears slid down her sister's face. The struggles and hesitations of the past few days also completely ended in her sister's sudden bitter weeping.
A delicate flower raised in a greenhouse since childhood ultimately couldn't accept such a hopeless life.
So Lee So-yeon finally made a decision, even if it made everything she had done in the past become a joke.
Thus, that night.
...
The moonlight was like water. Behind the wooden bed where the firelight flickered, the intermittent cries of a woman and the sound of bodies impacting against each other still echoed.
When the Lee sisters, having gathered their courage, finally pushed open the room door and stepped inside, a sharp, familiar voice coming from the bedroom also made both their cheeks burn hot.
"Yamete... Iku (Stop... I'm cumming)!!!"
That was Matsuzaka Emi's voice.
After Sofia's trio, this woman from Osaka, Japan, had finally taken this step. Looking at it now, the person pinned beneath Chuck in that bedroom was mostly likely her.
But the Lee sisters weren't surprised by this, because when they left the cave, they had already noticed she wasn't in her bed. Hearing their companion's slutty cries right now only made them feel somewhat ashamed, but the resolve in their hearts grew firmer.
"Shall we... go in?"
Lee So-yeon turned her head and glanced at her sister. The sisters subconsciously gripped each other's hands tightly and nodded at each other, both encouraging the other and comforting themselves.
Creak—
As the bedroom's wooden door was gently pushed open, Chuck, who was standing by the bed punishing the little Japanese woman doggy-style, didn't even turn his head. He raised his hand and slapped that pink, cherry-blossom-like buttock, immediately inciting a wanton scream from Matsuzaka Emi right in front of the sisters, as well as an intense contraction. Then, while continuing to thrust his waist, he spoke slowly.
"There's no room on the bed, wait outside."
Lee So-yeon nodded slightly flusteredly, didn't make a sound, tugged at her sister's equally trembling hand, and turned to walk towards the dining table where the firelight flickered. But before turning around, her gaze lingered on Chuck's sturdy, sculpture-like back for a long time, as if attracted by a magnet.
Sweat covered his perfectly lined broad back and sturdy legs, carrying water stains that slid down from between his legs, flowing along the blanket to the floor. On the large bed, enchanting women lay sideways or horizontally, their breasts and tits exposed. Even though the window was open, the air in the entire bedroom was filled with an unimaginably sweet and musky scent of hormones.
Gulp.
Lee So-yeon only felt it hard to breathe, but not because the air was stuffy and lacking oxygen.
But for some other reasons...
...
Ten minutes later.
With only a towel draped over his shoulder, Chuck walked calmly out of the bedroom and came to the dining table. He picked up a clay pot of clear water Yitong had prepared in advance, poured it into his cup, and downed it in one gulp under the fearful gazes of the Lee sisters.
Then, with a thud, he placed the cup on the table. His gaze turned to Lee So-yeon—this woman he used to respect somewhat, but who now made him somewhat lose interest.
"Make it short."
"..."
Lee So-yeon's shoulders trembled slightly, but she didn't dilly-dally like ordinary women. She stood up decisively, came in front of Chuck, and actually fell straight to her knees with a plop.
Chuck didn't dodge, nor did he stand on ceremony. He just leaned back in his chair naked, quietly watching her like this, waiting for what she was going to say next.
"Regarding the previous matter, it was me who failed to recognize reality and was momentarily foolish. Mr. Chuck, I apologize to you."
After speaking, Lee So-yeon placed her hands in front of her and actually bowed her head down directly, giving Chuck a deep dogeza (kneeling bow).
Seeing this, Chuck raised an eyebrow, but wasn't surprised in his heart.
When the Lee sisters appeared in the room, he already knew what was going to happen next.
No matter what happened between them, to be fair, this Lee So-yeon was indeed the most adaptable to circumstances and the most clear-headed woman he had ever seen.
With every step she took, she knew what situation she was currently in, knew what she wanted, and was even clearer on what price she needed to pay for it. And precisely because of this, she was the only woman who, in negotiations with Chuck, despite standing in an absolutely passive position, still truly achieved her goal.
And this time, unsurprisingly, she made the right choice again.
"I know... an apology can't change anything. Mr. Chuck, you have every reason to loathe me, but Na-eun hasn't been disrespectful to you even once. So if possible..."
Speaking of this, Lee So-yeon paused slightly, then raised her head. Two streams of tears slowly slid down her cold, delicate cheeks.
"I wonder if Mr. Chuck... would still take a liking to my Na-eun?"