I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 471

Chapter 471: The Bonfire for Pride

“When the sun is out, I sunbathe, and when the moon is out, I moonbathe—”

The entire afternoon, I was busy setting up a small bed for myself on the two thick branches of the tree by the fifty-meter-high stream, using the “willow branches.”

I found that when living alone in the wild like this, I particularly feel like singing when I’m in a good mood.

“The sky is about to rain, look at the ants moving house, bumping their antennae and talking, fighting a bit, the world is still the same…”

While singing an unknown song, I secured the branches I had moved onto the tree. The little leopard cat, which had quietly come from somewhere, lay on another branch, watching me silently and occasionally yawning.

After spending I don’t know how many hours, from the afternoon when the sun began to set, working until the sun dyed the clouds on the horizon a deep red, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and bounced around on the completed “big net” for a while.

Hmm, perfect. This should be strong enough to support me and one more cat.

I glanced up at the dense branches above and estimated the distance from the leaves to this side.

This tree… resembles the towering giants of the tropical rainforests on Earth, but the leaves of this tree are purple, and it’s covered with many vines.

If it weren’t for the vines wrapping around the giant tree that I could use as stepping stones, I wouldn’t be able to move things up and down so easily.

With many vines serving as stairs and the massive canopy above providing shelter from wind and rain, as long as there isn’t a superstorm tonight, I can rest comfortably here…

Weighing about thirty kilograms is a huge advantage in the forest. If I were still like my previous self, I’d be starving before even getting a few kilometers away.

Since the sleeping situation is sorted, let’s get something to eat!

Feeling noticeably hungry after a whole afternoon of work, I climbed over to the little leopard cat.

“Do you eat meat or are you a vegetarian? Should I go down and bring some fruit for you?”

“Meow?”

The little leopard cat tilted its head, seeming not to understand what I was saying.

Well, never mind.

Feeling a bit foolish, I jumped back, skillfully slid down the vines on the tree trunk, and soon landed on the ground.

First, switch to elf mode.

I took a deep breath and sought out the feeling of being an elf.

Light began to shine on my body, my human-like ears disappeared, replaced by elongated elf ears and sharper vision.

In catgirl form, my body’s sensitivity, hearing, and sense of smell are enhanced, but felines don’t have very strong vision. So, the moment I switched from catgirl mode to elf mode, I felt like the whole world was “suddenly illuminated.”

Not only were the colors of the surrounding scenery more vivid, but the shapes and colors of some fruits were also more pronounced, and the contrast was stronger.

On Earth, studies have shown that girls generally have sharper vision than boys. This is because, during human evolution, men were primarily responsible for hunting. Armed with spears, they would hunt mammoths, much like in my favorite childhood cartoon, “Little Hunter in the Mountains”.

Men went out with weapons to hunt wild boars and elephants, and if they couldn’t catch those, they would hunt wild chickens and rabbits. Over millions of years, men evolved to have strong muscles and broad shoulders—traits that made them more likely to catch prey and bring it back to their wives, thus passing on their genes.

Women, on the other hand, while caring for children in caves, also needed to gather food to prevent situations where their husbands couldn’t bring back any game or might even die outside. They would gather wild vegetables or fruits near the cave. These fruit trees didn’t require women to have strong muscles, but they did need good vision. Women with sharp eyesight, who could easily spot fruits and were sensitive to colors, were more likely to gather food and survive, passing on the gene for “sharp vision” to their descendants.

Over time, girls developed sharper vision compared to boys, and could see more colors, which is also why many female artists’ paintings tend to be more vibrant and saturated. In this world, the “elf race” seems to see even more colors than ordinary girls.

The fruits and mushrooms I didn’t pay much attention to in catgirl mode were instantly spotted when I switched to elf mode.

“This one looks a bit like a cantaloupe, but also a bit like a coconut…”

Carefully walking to the base of the “willow tree” by the river, I tried to pick a “willow fruit.” Looking around, I went to a large rock, held the fruit up—

“Click.”

The fruit cracked open, revealing yellow flesh inside.

It has a… sweet and fragrant smell, like a yellow-fleshed watermelon?

I broke the fruit apart with some effort and took a bite of the flesh inside.

It’s indeed sweet, this one is edible.

I took the largest half of the “yellow-fleshed watermelon” in my mouth, climbed back up to the small bed I had woven in the tree, and placed the watermelon down.

Such a large fruit should be filling enough to eat if I get hungry at night.

Returning to the ground, I began collecting “blue raspberries,” “strange grapes,” and “perfect bananas” from nearby trees.

As for how to identify whether they are edible… I just take a bite.

Elves’ sense of smell doesn’t lie. You can tell which fruits are poisonous, sour, bitter, or unpleasant just by taking a bite.

If a bite reveals something off, I immediately use purification magic on myself and toss the fruit far away.

Among these fruits, aside from the “yellow-fleshed watermelon” by the river, I was most surprised by the “bananas” here. They are plump and extremely sweet, with a texture very similar to Earth’s bananas, but their taste is much better.

I remembered seeing a banana called “Big Mike” on an Earth science program. Big Mike is now near extinction and was once considered one of the most delicious bananas on Earth.

However, due to its unique reproduction method, similar to “cloning,” Big Mike bananas can only reproduce asexually, meaning all Big Mike bananas have the same genes. This uniformity made them highly susceptible to diseases, which, when they struck, would wipe out entire crops and contaminate the soil, making it impossible to grow Big Mike bananas for decades.

Aside from a few areas that still sell Big Mike, most bananas on the market today are Hua bananas. These bananas are disease-resistant but don’t taste as good as Big Mike.

Although I’ve never tried Big Mike, it feels like the plump bananas here in this world are very similar to that variety.

“Done.”

After spending an hour having a simple dinner and transporting a pile of fruits up to the treetop, I sat down by the river.

Next up is… a bath!

“……”

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