"So what did Alan mean by food problem?" asked Alexx, slightly concerned.

"Wait, do you not know about this?" asked Yang.

"I sort of remember hearing about it from some of the guys at the Training Field, but nothing specific."

"Long story short, we might be depopulating the area with our hunting," Soze explained.

"Might?"

Soze shrugged. "It's hard to say for sure. It seems like hunting trips are taking longer than they used to, but that could be due to animals learning to avoid the village."

"Even so, preparing for the worse outcome would be best," said Yin.

"Exactly," Soze agreed. 'and technically speaking, depopulation would be the more realistic possibility.'

As far as Soze could tell, the world of New Eden Online appeared to be a naturally occurring ecosystem. The animals may behave differently than they did in reality thanks to the game systems, but those behaviors still establish a kind of equilibrium.

'Once the game was started, it dropped one hundred and fifty humans in the middle of that delicately balanced ecosystem,' he thought. 'That would have massive repercussions, especially after nearly two months of hunting and foraging.'

Edible plants were becoming harder to find, and the same went for the various animals that made up the village's main source of food. If the situation continued to develop like this, the players were more likely to die of starvation than from any monster.

"In reality, agriculture was a necessary step for any society that moved away from a nomadic lifestyle," Yin said. "Unless we wish to leave this area, we must be able to feed ourselves with methods other than hunting."

"Right," Yang said impatiently. "Anyway Alexx, if you're done asking questions can you help me back to my shelter?"

"OH! Sorry, I'll see you guys later." The two slowly walked off in the direction of the sisters' shared shelter.

"I assume you'll be going to the Workshop?" Yin asked.

"Yeah, if nothing else I need to drop this off," Soze said while slightly lifting up the dead Iron Ant.

"Very well, I suppose I should go meet with Zed."

"Be careful around him, alright kiddo?"

"I'm well aware," Yin said, brushing aside his concern with a casual wave as she walked away.

"....Haaa, all these teenagers think they're goddamn invincible," Soze muttered.

'All the more reason to keep watch over them.'

~~~~~

"So this thing has iron in its shell?" Rika asked, examining the dead Iron Ant.

The moment Soze walked into the Workshop with a new animal he became the center of attention. That attention quickly turned into excitement as the crafters quickly realized that Soze was currently holding a giant insect. Most were looking at the ant in Rika's hands, while a few were trying to pester Soze with questions about where and how he got it.

"That's what the description says," Soze said, ignoring the others. "So do you think we can use it?"

"That's not even a question worth asking, obviously we can USE it," she said. "If nothing else we can scoop out the insides and turn it into armor."

"It seems fairly lightweight," one of the others said, thinking out loud, "even the DEX players should be able to wear it..."

"The real question is if we can extract the iron and use that," Rika set the Iron Ant down, turning to the others. "Thoughts?"

As if a switch was flipped the crowd began discussing amongst themselves. Even the ones pestering Soze seemed to forget about him completely.

"Iron melts at twenty-eight hundred degrees Fahrenheit right?"

"Real numbers for the non-Americans?"

"A little over fifteen-hundred Celcius."

"That's way too much for a campfire."

"So do we need a blast furnace?"

"Fuck that, we need a kiln."

"There's a difference?"

One of the players smacked the other on the back of the head.

"YES, THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!"

"So we need to make a kiln then."

"Okay but what about the chitin?"

"Well, that should burn before the iron melts."

"Doesn't it melt too though? I thought chitin was a polymer?"

"Is it?"

"I think he's right."

"Won't that mean toxic fumes?"

"Should we try to make masks?"

"Gas masks shouldn't be too difficult."

"I call BS on making gas masks with stone tools."

"I bet my best hammer I can do it in a week."

"You should probably go Soze," Rika told him, "by the sound of things this is going to take a while."

"I figured; seems like I won't be much help around here." He pointed at the Iron Ant. "Before I go though, can you break off a leg for me?"

"A leg?"

"Yeah, Aman will probably try to poison me if I don't give him a sample of some kind."

"Alright, give me a second," Rika firmly grasped one of the legs while planting her foot on the Iron Ant's thorax. At first, she tried to just pull it off but that didn't seem to be doing much. She then tried to twist at the same time and after a moment the leg came off. "Okay, here you go."

"Thanks," he said, taking the fresh limb. It didn't appear to be bleeding as much as he expected.

'Although, who knows how much a giant ant is supposed to bleed.'

With the limb in hand, he made his way to the Kitchen, wondering what new concoction Amad would have for him this time.

~~~~~

"So there's nothing for me right now?" Alexx asked.

"Sorry, it's just that we're turning in right now," Demeter explained.

After dropping Yang off at her shelter, Alexx decided to go ask Demeter if he could help with the field in any way. When he arrived, the sun was beginning to pass behind the western mountains, and so most of the players could be seen leaving the field, although a few seemed intent on continuing until the sun fully set. Alexx was surprised to see that they had managed to create wooden hoes for tilling the field, churning up the dirt and grass to prepare for planting.

'It's hard to imagine that the field isn't big enough yet.'

Alexx didn't know anything about farming, but the field already took up a considerable amount of space. The area was easily as large as the eastern side of the village, but according to Demeter, this was maybe a tenth of how much space they would need to feed the whole village.

'Well, I guess we're talking about feeding one hundred and fifty people. That's a little more than a backyard garden.' He turned away from the field and back at Demeter, who was apparently still talking about the field while he wasn't paying attention.

Demeter herself was holding a wooden hoe over her shoulder and was covered in dirt and mud. The sleeves of her default player shirt had been torn off and were being used as a headband. Even after having spent the entire day working in the field, she seemed just as energetic and cheerful as ever.

"Still, I'm kind of surprised to see you asking me about this," Demeter said, bringing his attention back to the conversation. "Don't you usually spend all of your time at the training field with that weirdo Zed?"

"Yeah, but that's just because there's not much to do around here aside from training and hunting. Besides I heard about how the field needs all the help it can get right now, so why not?"

"Didn't someone come up with some kind of game last week? Something with wooden boards and sandbags?"

"Yeah, Cornhole, I know. It was popular where I lived in reality and I kind of suck at it," he said with a shrug. "Anyway, do you have anything I can do around the field?"

"Well, if you're not going to be busy tomorrow we need all the help we can get. Do you think you can use a hoe?"

"That....might actually be a problem. I'm too strong to use weapons on hunts so I might also be too strong for that."

"Strength huh, in that case, I have another idea," Demeter turned around, pointing generally to a few areas out in the field.

Looking closer, Alexx realized that she was pointing at tree stumps that hadn't been removed yet.

"Those stumps are the things giving us the biggest problem right now. If we leave them they could rot and damage the surrounding crops, or be a nest for pests." Demeter slapped Alexx on the shoulder. "Right now we need at least four people to get rid of each stump, but if your strength is as great as you say then maybe that'll speed things up. Sound good?"

"I....okay," Alexx sighed. 'Why is it still trees?!' "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, we'll be glad to have you!" she said cheerfully.

Alexx waved as he walked back into the village.

"I guess I'll get something to eat now." He wasn't feeling particularly hungry, but he hadn't had a chance to eat since meeting Loran and Yang out in the woods.

It took a few minutes to make his way to the Kitchen, when he got there he saw Soze talking with Aman, both of them staring at whatever was on the flat stone Aman liked using as a frying pan. On the rock was a lump of unidentifiable pale meat.

'...Maybe I should come back later...'

Unfortunately, Soze noticed him and waved for him to come over. Sighing, Alexx walked over, resigned to his probably disgusting fate. If there was one thing that he hated about being trapped in New Eden Online, it wasn't the danger or even the lack of normal food, it was that Aman was hellbent on finding every possible food combination.

"So do I even want to ask what that is?" Alexx pointed to the sizzling flesh.

"It's Iron Ant meat," Soze said, showing Alexx an empty piece of the carapace.

"It looks nasty."

"Actually, it looks a lot like crab meat," Aman said, turning over the lump of meat with a stick.

"You're joking," Alexx said dubiously.

"Nope."

"If you think about it, how different is a crab from a giant bug?" Soze asked.

Alexx paused at that, shrugging after a moment. "You got me there. So does that mean we're eating fancy crab dinners from now on?"

"Depends on if we can cook it or not," Aman said. "Crab has bacteria that can make you sick if it's not cooked right, and since this thing has been dead for over a day, that might be too much for our bodies to take."

"Does bacteria even exist in NEO?" Alexx asked.

"Probably not," Soze said, "which is why we're going to taste test day old bug meat."

"Alright," Aman removed the stone pan from the fire, setting it down before moving the meat onto three wooden dishes. "You two feeling adventurous?"

"Give it here," Soze said with no hesitation.

"....This better not make me sick," Alexx tentatively took the dish.

After waiting a moment for the meat to cool, the three each took a bite.

Alexx had never eaten crab before, and definitely not insects, but he did try fish in the past and this was somewhat similar. Not quite the same fishy taste, but it had a strange taste that he could only describe as....

"Buggy....it tastes buggy," Alexx said, swallowing with an unpleasant shiver. The taste was reminiscent of fish, but instead of being mildly salty, it had a kind of earthy aftertaste.

"As dumb as that sounds he's right." Soze didn't seem perturbed by the taste and swallowed normally. "It's also slightly metallic tasting."

"The texture and consistency are really similar to crab, so we were right on that," Aman said, continuing to chew. "And considering that these things apparently eat iron, them having a metallic taste is to be expected."

"Does that mean this stuff could be dangerous to eat?" Soze asked, "like how fish can cause mercury poisoning?"

Aman swallowed and opened his menu, "I don't see any debuffs at the moment, and iron is much less deadly than mercury. We should still be careful but I see no reason not to add Iron Ants to the menu. Once we make it taste better, of course."

"Before you get on that," Alexx said, "can I get some actual food? I need to get this taste out of my mouth."

"Yeah," Soze said, his own stomach grumbling, "Aman, what do have for us."

Aman grinned. "The dinner rush just ended, and the others are breaking down today's kills, but I can whip something up for the two of you."

Alexx did not like that grin. 'Maybe I should ask someone to teach me how to cook...'