As Garp collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth, everyone silently agreed to give him a wide berth. Not a single soul went to help him up. In fact, they even backed away slightly, acting as though they'd never seen this idiot before in their lives.
Rimuru glanced at him briefly, then leisurely returned to sipping their drink. Such a peaceful afternoon wasn't worth ruining over a single fool.
But alas, fate had other plans. This idyllic afternoon wasn't going to go as smoothly as Rimuru hoped.
Shion, standing near the edge of the pool, looked around at the others with a faint expression of disbelief. Then she walked straight up to Rimuru.
"Lord Rimuru, as a king, leaving everything to your subordinates isn't exactly the most responsible way to govern, you know," she said, removing Rimuru's sunglasses with a resigned sigh. "And you lot—your world's just been liberated, and you're already lounging around like this?"
"Well, with you guys around, I can be at ease, can't I?" Rimuru offered a sheepish yet courteous smile.
Shion simply shook her head and scooped Rimuru up into her arms, plopping down onto a lounge chair and casually beginning to knead him like dough.
"So, is all the work actually done?" Rimuru asked lazily, unfazed by the constant squishing. After all, he'd gotten used to this—Shion and Shuna both had a habit of treating him like a stress ball.
"Mhm, not much left to handle," Shion replied, clearly enjoying herself. "This country is just too peaceful. There's really nothing for us to worry about."
"Really?" Rimuru's eyes lit up a bit—this kingdom was his, after all. A harmonious nation meant a happy king.
"Oh, right, there's one more thing I need to tell you guys," Rimuru said, squirming free from Shion's embrace and standing up. "I recently updated the method for recruiting new guild members."
"Huh? Recruiting?" The others looked puzzled.
"Yup!" Rimuru adjusted a pair of non-existent glasses and said seriously, "In order to travel between worlds using the Gate of Worlds, we need the coordinates of each world. Automatically detecting those coordinates takes ages, so I've scattered a bunch of guild invitation cards into the chaotic space-time rift. If someone finds a card and meets the guild's requirements, they become a member. Once they join, we can extract their world's coordinates and use the gate to travel there. Clever, right?"
"Ooh, that's actually pretty smart," Shion praised.
"But wait," said a certain familiar voice—none other than the persistent contrarian, Garp, who had somehow recovered and was now squatting nearby. "What if someone finds an invitation card but doesn't meet the requirements, and they just hide the card instead?"
Never missing a beat, always asking the one awkward question no one wants to answer. Truly, this was Garp—King of Contrarians, undefeated for fifty years.
Everyone: "......" (-_-||)
"Hmph." Rimuru shot Garp a withering glare, then continued, "Anyway, there's something else I want to announce. I've been thinking—it's time we built a dedicated guild base. That way, we'll have a proper place to host gatherings, hold events, and just hang out. What do you guys think?"
"Now that you mention it, that would be really useful," Shion agreed.
"Yeah, constantly crashing at Rimuru's place isn't exactly ideal," Sengoku chimed in.
"Indeed. For example, take this pool—it's barely big enough to dip your toes in, let alone swim," Whitebeard added solemnly.
Rimuru gave him a deadpan look. You and Garp must be long-lost brothers.
"So, where are you planning to build it?" Roger asked curiously.
"Hehehehehe…" Rimuru grinned smugly, dramatically pointing off into the distance. "Over there!"
Everyone followed the direction of Rimuru's finger.
At the very heart of the city, a towering ancient tree stretched thousands of meters into the sky. Its massive, vibrant canopy blanketed the entire city in its soothing shade, exuding an aura of boundless life and vitality.
"Ooh!" Roger's eyes gleamed. "Now that is an excellent location. Building a base atop the Tree of Life—genius."
The Tree of Life—one of Rimuru's rarest lottery prizes—was imbued with endless life force. Just living beneath it could strengthen the body, ward off curses and disease, and nurture health. If merely standing in its shadow had such benefits, one could only imagine the life force saturation at the canopy level. It wouldn't be surprising if actual "Water of Life" formed up there.
"Incredible. Lord Rimuru never disappoints," Shion praised sincerely. "So, when do we start building?"
"We'll need to wait a few days," Rimuru said mysteriously. "I've got one little thing to take care of first. Once that's done, we'll head up there and build our base together."
"What kind of thing?" Shion asked, curious.
"Secret," Rimuru replied with a mischievous smile.
[Ding... Mission complete: Let Freedom Ring Across the Seas. Rewards are now being distributed.]
As the notification rang in everyone's ears, the group exchanged looks of pleasant surprise. The transformation of their world was finally complete. Their joy was heartfelt and unspoken.
"Hey! Sengoku, look—I got... 500 crystals?" Garp frowned. "Did I miss a zero?"
He checked again. Nope. Just 500.
"Don't complain," Sengoku sighed. "We used to be with the World Government. Honestly, if it weren't for our efforts in rebuilding the Navy, we wouldn't have even gotten that."
"Roger, how much did you get?" Garp asked, clearly disgruntled.
"Me? Eh, not much," Roger said with an annoyingly casual tone. "Just 8,000 crystals."
Garp's face immediately darkened. Why you smug little—!
Just then, another sound rang in Rimuru's ears.
Ding... Congratulations! You've received the following rewards: 40,000 crystals, one Ultimate Enhanced Devil Fruit, and one Lucky Grand Draw!
"Ultimate Enhanced version? Now that sounds interesting..." Rimuru muttered, rubbing their chin thoughtfully before opening the rewards screen.
[Congratulations! You've obtained the Devil Fruit: Space Fruit (Ultimate Enhanced Version).]
[Congratulations! From the Lucky Draw, you've received: Origin Flame.]
Rimuru's eyes sparkled with curiosity and excitement.
Now this... this is gonna be fun.
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