The store took my XP tokens and added them to this mornings wolf massacre to show me the hefty little number of 165,812XP. Not a bad half day’s work. I was a little disappointed because this was the first time I’d gone over a hundred thousand and didn’t get offered the chance to upgrade my stats. I guess the XP required to level up was progressive, which fit with most video games I could remember. It’d be nice if this one came with a manual though.

For now I’d have to settle for buying items, and I wasn’t really sure what I needed. If I was leaving the village it definitely changed things, and I needed to do some thinking on how those changes should affect my purchases. First things first though, I bought two rolls of toilet paper just in case Kim backed out on our earlier deal. It was cheap enough when you considered the alternative was getting to know the local plant life a little too well. After that I ignored the text on the wall and actually sat down and unloaded my magical messenger bag. I needed to have a good idea of what I had to work with before I spent my wad and left the village.

It only took a couple of minutes and was a kind of depressing pile. I had an extra pair of socks, three chisels, a waterskin, a bow saw, a shovel, my splitting maul, knife, and a bar of soap. I also had some animal skins, my blanket, and a bucket full of stew that was probably going to be overcooked back at camp. That would go down a hell of a lot better if I could throw in some potatoes and carrots and make it a real stew. I couldn’t keep living on just meat, that leads to scurvy or rickets or something like that. I wasn’t real sure what would happen or how long it would take, but I knew long term I needed to diversify my diet.

Just ordering a bag of potatoes was a tad expensive, and I didn’t want to have to pack out a months worth of groceries if I could even fit it all. I checked prices on a jar of vitamins instead and whistled. That definitely wasn’t happening, at least not in the long term. I’d be hunting all day every day just to keep myself in flintstone chewables. I needed a better option, and while I didn’t look forward to the amount of work involved, I checked the price of seed. I remembered listening to my Mom complain when I was a kid and asked for the Heirloom variety so I only had to buy seed once. They were only a couple hundred XP an envelope so I bought a half dozen. I knew nothing about the different options in the description, so I bought some kind of pepper that sounded mexican and hard to pronounce. I also got a big boy tomato, whatever the hell that was, del monaco cucumbers, black diamond watermelon, a chicago kiwi, and green onions. Aside from the watermelon and the onion, I’d never heard of any of the other variations but I figured at least some of it would grow in this climate, maybe.

What I really needed was a safe place to make camp while I scouted around and found a good defensible location to set up permanently. Just for the hell of it I asked the autosort if they had an RV. They did but when I looked at the price I’m not sure of the name for a number with that many zeros in it. That wasn’t going to happen. Maybe I could go back to my atavistic roots and climb a tree. I asked for a portable deer stand and got several options. Those were affordable, but just barely. I thought about it for a minute but decided if I got caught up in one of those when some knifewings showed up I’d be screwed. There was a kevlar tent available. Pretty damn expensive but it was an option. In the end I decided even it wouldn’t offer enough protection. I’d want walls and a moat if I was out there alone. The idea of a moat sparked a thought and I quit looking through the items as I tried to chase it down. All the early explorers had travelled by canoe.

I could travel by boat, so no surprise attacks. At night drop anchor and sleep surrounded by running water. If something splashed out after me, pull the anchor and float away to safety. I started pulling up prices on water craft. There was a pretty big range until I put a cap of 150,000 points on it and a maximum weight of 300lbs. I’d be forced to carry, or at least drag, the damn thing after all. That seemed to stick me with canoes, kayaks, inflatables, and john boats. I immediately filtered out the inflatables. Kayaks seemed a little tricky and I cut them too since I’d never been in one. I started reading through my options, taking my time to make sure I didn’t make a mistake this time. After more time than it probably should have taken me, I decided on poor man’s bass boat. It was a fiberglass john boat with aluminum runners and a little solar powered trolling motor that I was pretty sure could beat the current. It cost the full hundred and fifty thousand, but they threw in collapsible plastic oars. This time my purchase appeared on the floor in front of me instead of in my hands and I was glad the game didn’t decide to try and squash me. I leaned over and grabbed the boat. It was light enough to carry, but it would be awkward as hell trying to go through the woods.

I decided to worry about that later and focused on spending what little remained of my XP. I didn’t know when I’d be back, so I needed to make a clean sweep this trip. I bought homespun trousers so I’d have something to wear when I washed my jeans. Another shirt for the same reason and two more pairs of socks finished out my wardrobe. I bought a shit ton of high test fishing line, even though I didn’t know if there were fish yet. I could always use it to sew if it came down to it. I picked up a whetstone and a file so I could keep an edge on my tools. Then I smacked myself on the head and bought two cigarette lighters. Yeah, I’d been taught how to make a fire drill way back in the day but it damn sure wasn’t the best option. I still had almost 2000 points left and couldn’t think of anything else I needed, so I bought a couple pencils and a notebook so I could make a list for next time. Probably not the best use of my XP but I was impatient and didn’t want to walk out with any tokens.

I loaded everything into my messenger bag, then stood the boat on its end and walked it to the door. I stood under the inside seat and rolled my shoulder up into it, heaving the boat up so it kind of hung off my back. I had to kind of hunch over to keep it in place, but I walked through the door carrying my boat. Once I was out the load really played a number on my peripheral vision, so I was nervous until I got well clear of the door and most of the way back to the rustic tenament. I’m sure I got lots of stares, but nobody jumped me by the time I got back and set the boat down. I squated out from under it, and lowered the boat down to rest on its runners.

The folks from my group were all kind of staring at me as I straightened back out and I grinned at them and winked at Angie who seemed especially unhappy to see me. She sniffed and walked off into the building. Debbie gave me a kind of sardonic slow clap, but Jeri was the only one to speak.

“Nice boat you got there. You want us to call you Captain Jack?”

Tim beat me to a reply.

“Did you not hear his speech? Jack is definitely at least an admiral. I assume he leads the naval forces of don’tgiveafuckistan if I recall correctly.”

“Sorry about that. I’m pretty easy to get worked up sometimes.”

Debbie spoke up then.

“To hell with them. I was thinking the same damn thing, I was just going to be more circumspect in going about it. I’m leaving the village too.”

Jeri nodded her head, “We’re leaving too.”

Hunter hesitated and rubbed the back of his head. “Babe, we talked about this. I don’t think it’s going to be near as safe out on our own.”

Jeri gave him a look and amended her statement. “I’m leaving the village. Hunter might choose to come with me, and might not.”

Hunter stepped over to her and they started a conversation that while it wasn’t quiet was obviously intended to be private and I tuned them out to turn to Tim and Debbie.

“How bout you, Tim? Sticking it out here in the People’s Republic of Ken and Li’s Village?”

“I don’t think the name is official, but yeah, I’m staying. There is no way Angie will leave and somebody has to stick around and try and make this work. I understand why you think you had to break away, but, Jack.” He stopped and took a deep breath like he was thinking about what he was about to say. “The game told us we have 30 days to build the village and grow stronger. It didn’t say what happens next but I bet we aren’t going to like it. If you can’t work with us, then you need to prepare on your own. Somebody needs to beat this game, however that works, so maybe they can get out and tell somebody what happened to us.”

“What do you mean, beat the game?”

“I mean games have a point, Jack. It can’t just be get XP to have XP. At some point there is going to be a winner and losers. Just keep it in mind, okay, Jack?”

“Sure, Tim.”

Debbie spoke up then, like she’d been waiting for Tim to finish.

“So you going solo out there in the world, or you wanna team up with me and Jeri?”

“Do I have to give you half my XP?” I grinned at her, trying to make it halfway a joke, but she answered it as if I’d asked the question seriously.

“Nope, you just have to try not to be too much of an asshole. You bought me stuff way in the beginning when you didn’t have to, so I know you’re not the kind of guy some people are painting you. On the other hand, if we go out as a team we will be sharing resources to some extent. You okay with that?”

“I’ll share some of my stuff, hell, I’ll even donate some of my stuff, just as long as we can agree it’s my stuff and my choice. Charity don’t mean shit if its compelled, that just leads to a welfare state.”

“Yeah, I don’t do politics, Jack. Just don’t be an asshole and be willing to share if needed. That cool?”

“Works for me. Look, I gotta take off today, but I’m not leaving until that Kim guy comes back. You wanna hit the XP store so when he gets back we can go?”

“I’m going to wait and see what Jeri says, but that works for me. Talk to you in a little while.”

She walked off to go third wheel Jeri and Hunter, and I sat down to eat my stew. I carved something vaguely spoonlike from a chunk of the firewood laying nearby, and realized I should have bought some kind of mess kit at the XP store. I even pulled out my handy new notebook and wrote it down. After that I went to work on my staked out hides. I’d tanned the wolfskin with ‘dillo brains, but I was going for the stronger but less supple rawhide on the crabadillos. Each was as stiff as a board by now and I began the process of flexing them back and forth, trying to get them shapeable. The armor on its back left a material a hell of a lot thicker than any piece of leather I’d ever seen in the real world, but it felt about the same as a rawhide chew toy.

I pulled out a branch and trimmed it down until it was roughly the same shape and size as my forearm. I was planning on turning the crabadillo into a pair of bracers. Using the log as a form, I poured water on one of the hides and wrapped it around. Hopefully it would shrink up and lock into shape as it dried. I was working on trying to carve out another form when a couple guys came up and gave me the stink eye.

Neither of them seemed like much of a threat. One was in a pair of overalls and had actually spent XP on buying a straw hat. The other was in slacks with a button down shirt and even a pair of dress shoes. I tried waiting them out, but they both just stood there watching me like a couple of mouth breathers until I finally put my stuff down and stood up.

“What do ya’ll want?”

The farmer spoke up first.

“I’m John and this is Steve. He don’t talk much.”

“Okay.” I didn’t say anything else, determined to wait them out this time. Maybe it was childish, but I was committed. I just stood there, returning his own vacant stare with a stupid look of my own. He eventually nodded and spit on the ground in a motion I recognized, and I had a brief flash of curiosity if he’d bought actual chewing tobacco with his XP or if he just spit out of habit. I didn’t ask, because he was finally talking now and I didn’t want to derail it.

”Well. Saw your dustup with the boss man a while ago.” He paused, like he was waiting to see if I took the bait. I just kept staring and I saw the corner of his lips twitch with the hint of a grin, before he started up again. “Yup. Didn’t really see much point of giving that much to the revenuers my own self. Steve here, been siding me since we first came out of the door. When I started jawing at him about maybe taking off, said we’d do better to throw in with you.”

I looked over at Steve, who didn’t make eye contact but addressed the tree off to my right in a monotone voice.

“Three is still a sub-optimal group size, splitting a night watch will provide inadequate rest for three.”

He had a valid point, but it was a damn weird way of expressing it. I shot a questioning look at John and he shrugged.

“I got a cousin back home kinda reminds me of Steve. He ain’t retarded or nothing. He can pull his weight. He just acts different.” John looked around the camp and kind of shrugged his shoulders. “Place like this, where folks talk about the common good an awful lot, maybe ain’t such a good place to be different.”

I nodded my head because he had a valid point. The whole point of this was to gain my own freedom, not saddle myself with a bunch of new people so I tabled it. I looked around the camp and spotted Debbie not too far off talking to some chick I didn’t know.

“You see that chick in the mottled green dress with the bow? She’s gonna be in charge. You boys wanna trail with us, go talk to her.”

Steve turned away and immediately started walking in that direction. John thanked me for my time and shook hands before he left. He looked kind of dumpy in those overalls but he’d had a handshake like a damn vice. I went back to puttering around camp and waited for Kim to come back.