Marcus ended up making a Minecraft-style cherry blossom tree anyway.
Compared to the naturally branching cherry blossoms around the castle, his square, rigid Minecraft version looked like a blocky abomination.
"Yeah, it looks terrible," he said, scratching his head as he stared at the tree.
The contrast was painfully obvious. Where nature had created graceful curves and organic beauty, he'd produced a stack of wooden blocks topped with pink squares. It was definitely a cherry blossom tree, but it definitely wasn't winning any beauty contests.
Finally, he handed the composter over to Kureha, along with instructions on how to maintain it.
He also spent time renovating the castle's basement, setting up an underground farming area where the cold couldn't reach. He planted wheat, pumpkins, watermelons, and other crops that would provide sustainable food sources.
Marcus made sure to explain how to use the furnace and other equipment he'd left behind.
"All of these are renewable resources, so you can use them without worry. Oh, and these..." He pulled out two distinctly different apples. "This is a golden apple, and this is an enchanted golden apple."
He held up the regular golden apple first. "In theory, eating this can bring someone back from death's door. Even if they're just skin and bones, as long as there's still a breath left in them, they'll survive. Though I'm not sure if it works against diseases."
Then he showed her the apple with the soft purple glow. "This one's the upgraded version. If you fell into lava, it would give you five minutes of complete immunity to extreme heat, you could even bathe in it. But after five minutes, you'd better be damn careful."
Kureha was stunned by Marcus' explanation.
"Bringing the dead back to life..."
She took the golden apple from him, immediately noticing its unexpected weight.
Marcus hesitated as he held the enchanted golden apple. For him, carrying it was no problem at all. But the thing was crafted from eight gold blocks, and each gold block weighed 19.32 tons in real-world terms. That meant this single enchanted golden apple should weigh 154.56 tons.
Heavier than his iron golems.
And he wasn't carrying just one, he had thirty of the damn things in his inventory. That meant he was currently lugging around 4,636.8 tons worth of magical fruit.
That kind of weight would be overwhelming even for giants.
Seeing Marcus' troubled expression, Kureha smiled and waved her hand. "If it's that precious, you don't have to give it to me."
"It's not about the value, it's that this thing might be incredibly heavy. Much, much heavier than that golden apple you're holding."
Kureha looked puzzled by the warning.
After thinking for a moment, Marcus placed the enchanted golden apple on a wooden block.
"Try lifting it. If you can manage it, I've got plenty more where that came from."
Kureha didn't really understand the concern, but she reached out toward the glowing purple apple anyway.
Just as Marcus had predicted, the thing wouldn't budge. It was like trying to lift a mountain.
Anything that had been Minecraft-ified weighed nothing in his hands. But when he gave items to other people, they had to deal with the real-world physics, though usually that weight wasn't too extreme.
Enchanted golden apples, however, were clearly an exception to that rule.
By all logic, 4,636.8 tons should have crashed straight through the floor and kept going until it hit bedrock. But it hadn't, which was the weird part about how his abilities worked.
"Do you have any cloth? Or maybe a tray?"
Kureha pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket. "Would this work?"
"Let's find out."
Marcus wrapped the enchanted golden apple in the cloth. "Now try lifting it."
Still confused, Kureha grabbed the ends of the handkerchief. With just a light pull, she easily lifted the entire package.
"What?!"
She was completely baffled. She set the handkerchief down and reached directly for the enchanted golden apple again. This time, it was absolutely immovable, as if it had been welded to the cloth.
Marcus wasn't surprised. He'd figured out this quirk of his powers.
Minecraft-ified items didn't crush things with their weight. But if touched directly, you felt their full mass, though only the weight of a single unit, not an entire stack.
For example, if he dropped 1,000 wheat seeds on the ground, theoretically they should weigh as much as 1,000 individual seeds combined. But in practice, picking them up only required the effort of lifting a single seed.
When those seeds got fed to chickens, the stack would temporarily disappear from his inventory, then reappear after the feeding animation until all seeds were gone.
For objects too heavy to lift directly, you could still move them indirectly by supporting them from underneath, completely bypassing the weight restriction.
Just like Kureha's situation, with the handkerchief acting as a buffer, she could lift the enchanted golden apple. But direct contact made it impossible.
This was similar to how his iron golems worked. By their sheer mass, every step should crater the ground beneath them, but they didn't. Yet when it came to situations that required acknowledging weight, like boarding a boat, the game mechanics kicked in.
Unscientific as hell, but very Minecraft.
"What a mysterious ability," Kureha mused.
"Don't be fooled by it looking like just one apple," Marcus warned. "There are actually thirty enchanted golden apples in that stack. And the regular golden apple you're holding? That's a stack of sixty-four."
"That should be more than enough to last you."
Kureha stared at the gleaming golden apples, finding it hard to believe they contained dozens of identical copies.
"If you want to use them, you can pull individual apples out. Just think about taking one out, and it'll work. Same goes for putting them back, just think about stacking them together."
Kureha followed his instructions. Like magic, the golden apple suddenly became two separate fruits. Then she concentrated and merged them back into one.
"Incredible..."
"Alright, I still need to head into town," Marcus said, preparing to leave.
By the time he'd finished setting everything up, the sky was already starting to brighten with the approaching dawn.
"Wait, do you have anything like gunpowder?" Kureha asked.
Marcus immediately understood what she was thinking. After all, his presence had already caused significant changes to how things were supposed to play out.
"Hold on, let me check."
He did have some, Usopp had given him gunpowder from his explosive supplies.
He pulled out some fireworks. "These should work for what you need."
He placed one on the ground and lit it. With a sharp whoosh, it shot skyward and burst into a small explosion of colored light.
"That'll work, I suppose. By the way, when are you leaving?"
"Probably once the Log Pose finishes recording the magnetic field."
"So about a day and a half left?"
Marcus was quiet for a moment, then finally spoke, "You should still go see Chopper before we leave. Saying goodbye without words isn't the best way to handle this."
With that, he turned and left the castle.
Since there wouldn't be cherry blossoms blooming to see them off, at least there could be a proper farewell.
His next destination was the town below, where a new chapter in Drum Island's history was already beginning.
---
Dalton had officially become the new king, but the fresh ruler was sighing heavily as Marcus found him.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Marcus arrive, he looked like he'd found his savior.
"I've been thinking all night about what you suggested, and it's just too difficult. Because of the Blackbeard Pirates' attack, many villages have been destroyed. Now that a large portion of the royal army has returned, food has become a serious problem."
He began pouring out his troubles. "We might not last much longer. And if we want to establish schools like you suggested, we need to construct classrooms and facilities, there's too much piling up all at once. But the treasure on Wapol's ship wasn't much to begin with."
He rubbed his temples, looking exhausted. "That bastard probably only rushed back here because his own food reserves had run dry. And the most critical issue, we're almost out of ammunition. If we encounter pirates, we'll be defenseless after three or four skirmishes."
Marcus had anticipated these problems. Running a country was never easy, and the original story had never gone into detail about the challenges of rebuilding a nation.
From what he'd seen in other One Piece media, pirate raids often left entire populations struggling with hunger and poverty. An island like Drum Island, with its harsh climate and recent devastation, would face even worse conditions.
"Don't worry," Marcus said with a confident smile. "Since I'm here, I'll definitely help you solve these problems."
Dalton was taken aback. He'd only been venting his frustrations and half-hoping for advice, but Marcus had just promised to actually solve everything. That left him stunned.
The surprises weren't over yet.
Marcus asked him for a plot of land, then began demonstrating his abilities. He watched as Marcus tilled soil.
Moments later, he witnessed a miracle, stalks of wheat sprouting from the ground and growing to full height within minutes.
But that wasn't the end.
Square, blocky cherry blossom trees began appearing across the landscape.
Then came the iron golems, towering three-meter-tall constructs of metal.
"This... this... WHAT THE HELL?!"
And Marcus was just getting started.
Square wooden buildings began rising from nothing. Within an hour, an entire complex had taken shape.
"This will be the school," he said, rubbing his chin as he admired his handiwork. "What do you think, is it too small? Should I expand it?"
Dalton stood there in a daze, rubbing his eyes and wondering if he was dreaming. A school complex spanning 700 meters had been built right before his eyes.
There were fountains with running water, athletic tracks made of perfectly level stone, teaching buildings with multiple classrooms, dormitory facilities, and even a full cafeteria. Though the architectural style was unlike anything he had ever seen, he could see signs marking different rooms: "Room 101," "Room 102," and so on.
"Wait..." He found himself standing in one of the corridors, looking around. "It's not cold in here."
"Yeah, I added some heating blocks throughout the buildings," Marcus explained casually.
He had essentially recreated, brick by brick, the very school he'd attended back in his original world. The layout was identical, down to the placement of bathrooms and supply closets.
"Oh, and I've programmed all the iron golems to follow your commands. You now have over three hundred of them stationed around the island, ready to obey your orders."
He gestured toward the window, where dozens of the massive constructs could be seen patrolling the perimeter.
"So... any other problems?"
Dalton stood there speechless, trying to process everything that had just happened. Finally, he shook his head slowly.
"No. Whether it's food, housing, or defense, it's all been taken care of."