This Honkai: Star Rail is way too Minecraft!

"How is it still alive?"

Fu Zhu looked at the pufferfish flopping vigorously in his hand and casually tossed it aside.

He hadn't expected the fish he'd hooked from the swimming pool to actually be alive, rather than appearing as a dropped item in his inventory. This was somewhat surprising.

Coughing up blood again, Fu Zhu cast his line once more, not forgetting to warn Xing and March who were nearby.

"You two, whatever you do, don't touch that pufferfish. It's poisonous."

The pufferfish in MC weren't like their real-world counterparts, which only poisoned you if eaten. Simply touching an MC pufferfish, even if you were protected by armor, would still inflict poison. Although this toxin wasn't lethal, it was certainly painful enough.

"You actually caught a fish?!"

Herta wore an expression of utter disbelief. Fu Zhu's feat was tantamount to creating life from nothing! This level of achievement was beyond even her good friend, a master biologist. Perhaps only the Aeons possessed such power?

Xing and March watched the pufferfish flopping on the floor, hugged their knees as they squatted beside it, examining it with intense curiosity.

"Bro, don't pufferfish only poison you if you eat them?"

Xing, looking skeptical, fished a disposable chopstick out of her pocket and used it to tentatively poke the pufferfish bouncing on the floor.

The very instant the chopstick touched the fish, a distinct green hue washed over Xing's face, and she couldn't stop herself from coughing up a spurt of blood.

"Whoa! Xing, how did you get poisoned?!"

March, startled by Xing's sudden poisoning, frantically turned her head towards Fu Zhu, still seated on the deck chair fishing, pleading for help.

"Fu Zhu, Xing—she's poisoned! Quick, do something!"

"Cough cough..." Fu Zhu coughed up another mouthful of blood, calmly wiping the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. "Don't panic. cough Just cough it out, you'll be fine. It's not lethal."

"You're spitting blood, and it's not lethal?! And you, Fu Zhu! You're poisoned too, how can you still be fishing?!"

March was hopping up and down in anxiety. Just as she was about to search for a first-aid kit, the green hue on both Fu Zhu's and Xing's faces began to fade, and they stopped coughing up blood.

Xing dazedly touched her body, indeed feeling no lingering discomfort.

"How strange... this poison really isn't fatal? Let's try again."

Still skeptical, Xing once again poked the pufferfish with the disposable chopstick. The next second, she violently coughed up another mouthful of blood.

"Xing!!!" March slapped her hands over her cheeks, letting out a piercing shriek.

Herta, too, was now looking at the pufferfish on the ground with considerable interest.

"It can transmit toxins through inorganic matter directly into a person's body? Fu Zhu, how exactly did this little life form you created manage that?"

"I didn't create it, I fished it," Fu Zhu casually replied.

Herta naturally didn't believe this explanation. This pufferfish had clearly materialized out of thin air in the pool; she'd bet her bottom credit that before Fu Zhu arrived to fish in the swimming pool, there wasn't a single pufferfish in the entire Herta Space Station!

Mimicking Xing, Herta also squatted down in front of the pufferfish and tentatively poked it with her finger. The puppet she was currently controlling was inorganic, so she didn't need to worry about biological poisoning. If it could be poisoned, it would surely be by an electronic virus, not a biological toxin.

Yet, the next second, Herta felt the puppet's body stiffen, and she couldn't stop herself from coughing—though, being a puppet, it had no blood to cough up. What astonished her was that she actually felt a sharp, real pain transmitted through the puppet! And the puppet itself had actually sustained damage! This damage included, but was not limited to, physical damage to the puppet's chassis and impairment to its operating system!

Nous preserve us, what kind of cyber pufferfish was this?!

No, she had to poke it again. It couldn't be possible that a common pufferfish could actually poison her puppet—an amalgamation of various cutting-edge technologies—to the point of being scrapped, could it?

March was still desperately trying to prevent Xing from tempting fate again when she turned her head—only to see Herta, esteemed member of the Genius Society, also recklessly poking the pufferfish with her finger. Another piercing shriek escaped March's lips.

"Ms. Herta!!!"

March was half-sprawled on the ground, her right arm desperately clamped around Xing's long leg, her left arm encircling Herta's slender waist, attempting to restrain the two death-courting individuals.

"Fu Zhu, come help, quick! They've both gone mad!"

"Hang on, the fish are biting."

Outside the natatorium, Asta hummed a little tune as she pushed a small handcart. On the cart sat a full bucket of lava and two empty iron buckets. She pushed open the natatorium door, about to call out a greeting, when the scene that greeted her eyes—March, Xing, and Herta tangled in a heap by the poolside, and Fu Zhu calmly fishing in the swimming pool from a deck chair—made her freeze in place.

"Am I still dreaming?"

March heard the commotion at the door, turned her head, and saw Asta. It was like seeing her savior. She yelled at the top of her lungs,

"Asta, help!!!"

...

A few minutes later, Asta rubbed her slightly throbbing temples. Thanks to March's explanation, she finally grasped the situation.

With a weary look, Asta turned to Fu Zhu and advised him earnestly, "Fu Zhu, I know your abilities are formidable, but next time, could you please try not to create such dangerous things? Ms. Herta has always possessed an overwhelming sense of curiosity."

The last thing she wanted was for tomorrow's news across the universe to scream: GENIUS SOCIETY MEMBER HERTA DIES FROM PUFFERFISH POISONING AT HERTA SPACE STATION. If word of that got out, Aha of [The Elation] would likely die laughing on the spot.

Fu Zhu could only offer a helpless shrug; he couldn't control it. Whether it was good luck or bad luck, his very first catch had been a pufferfish.

Fortunately, the pufferfish had eventually died from asphyxiation. No matter how much Xing and Herta prodded it now, the poisoning effect wouldn't trigger again.

"Are all the items prepared?"

Fu Zhu noticed the buckets on the handcart behind Asta—presumably the lava and empty buckets he had requested earlier.

Asta nodded and stepped aside, revealing the entire handcart to Fu Zhu.

"Everything's here. Fu Zhu, take a look, do you need anything else?"

Fu Zhu walked over and single-handedly lifted the bucket filled with several liters of lava.

[Bucket full of Lava]

[Currently Convertible: Lava Bucket]

[Empty Bucket]

[Currently Convertible: Iron Bucket]

"Yes, everything's ready. Now then, as promised, allow me to demonstrate a piece of MC technology known as the Cobblestone Generator!"

Fu Zhu first used his Iron Pickaxe to carve a five-meter-long trench into the floor. Next, he used an Empty Bucket to scoop up water from the pool, then poured the water and the lava into opposite ends of the trench.

Seeing Fu Zhu suddenly get busy, Xing and Herta abandoned the long-dead pufferfish on the ground and squatted down before the trench like two eager children watching a magic show.

Once poured, the lava and water didn't rush towards each other as they might have imagined. Instead, they flowed towards the middle at a relatively slow pace.

The very instant the two liquids touched, a block of stone, measuring exactly one cubic meter, abruptly materialized right in the center of the trench.

Exactly one cubic meter, without the slightest deviation!