The fourth day inside the game started similarly to the previous one. Both groups woke up early and met at the plaza, where they rallied the volunteers. They sent the gatherers off and chefs bought fresh supplies. The soup kitchen ran more smoothly, opening up two hours earlier than the day prior. Scope and the children were deployed to advertise the new opening time, with a line forming outside the building right away. The food came out fast and consistent, supplies were delivered every two hours, and only a few individuals used the express door.

On the fifth day, more chefs, fishers, botanists and carpenters joined the crew. With the increase in gatherers, they weren’t required to work all day long. Only needing to do six or seven hours of work per person. The few extra chefs meant Lucas didn’t need to work three stoves on his own. With the carpenters, a large delivery of firewood in the morning was the only thing required of them. To further assist the cause, carpenters continued crafting plates and chopsticks, and those ambitious enough created wooden utensils.

By the sixth day, nearly every player had their own wooden plate and chopsticks. This removed the need for Cookie or the children to bus tables. Patrons of the soup kitchen would come in with their plate and chopsticks, place it onto a side table near the start of the serving windows, then grab a plate of food. Once finished, they would clean the plate and utensils in the barrel on the way out and take it with them.

On the ninth day, Tony’s job was no longer needed. No one had needed the express lane in two days. A handful of chefs had joined the cause, allowing chefs to have a morning or evening shift instead of working nearly all day. Fishers and botanists only had to work four to five hours a day, because of the reduced need for ingredients. They had gone from serving nearly two thousand people every day, to only around a thousand, with that number going down each day. Players were becoming more brave, or perhaps, impatient and bored.

It had been over a week inside the game. People were restless, frustrated, and desperate for a way out. A quest giver was discovered in town. A shop owner in the business district that sold fabrics and sewing supplies. Cookie discovered it a few days after losing her job in the soup kitchen. With her newfound spare time, she took it upon herself to use her tailoring jobs to create quilts and blankets for the children. That led her to the fabric shop. She talked up the NPC with small talk and ended up activating a dialogue chain that resulted in her receiving a package to be delivered.

That’s what Lucas figured, anyway, based on the story Cookie told. The news of this spread quickly. More and more quests were discovered in town. Everyone had gotten into the habit of simply asking NPCs for quests, but with this revelation came new knowledge. Sure, some NPCs would give quests if asked outright, though a good majority needed to be spoken too like a normal person. A simple “Do you have a quest?” no longer worked with the rest of these quest-giving NPCs.

With new quests popping up and players becoming tired of existing day to day inside a medieval town, having the same meal each day, it was no surprise they began to leave. That, and the new rumors going around. One of the new quest-givers had a map in their home. It showed a large island, or small continent, with the walled off town in the middle, a few villages, rivers, mountains, caves, roads, and forests were marked. A simplified map, not providing much in the way of details. The big rumor going around was, if all the quests were finished, a way off the island would be revealed. Once off the island, they would be logged out.

The theory behind it was sound. Everyone was playing a beta version of the game, and if they progressed enough, the end of the demo area would be found. Many speculated a developer console, portal or kill switch waited outside the island. Either way, the rumor lit a fire inside of everyone. A passion to play the game and progress returned to the players. Only now, it wasn’t to have fun, but in hopes of escaping this virtual world.

With the soup kitchen running smoothly with plenty of supplies and fewer people to feed, Lucas and his party decided to leave and pursue the rumors as well. Grunk, his party, and the kids were going to remain in the town and keep the soup kitchen going for those staying behind. Lucas’s party spent a few more days at the banquet hall. They helped run the soup kitchen as usual and also made sure Grunk and his team knew how to manage the place once they were gone. Though, after all of this time working together, there wasn’t anything to worry about.

On the morning of the twelfth day, the party slept in for the first time in over a week. All except for Cookie. She woke up shortly after the sun began to shine, as usual. The same small clearing was still their campground, though it had gotten more homey. The campfire had several layered stones around it, giving it a simple but pleasing design, courtesy of Raven. A few crude chairs, stools, and a small table were off to the side of the clearing. All were gifts from thankful carpenters.

Cookie busied herself while the others slept. They had been given supplies from the soup kitchen, though she decided foraging a bit wouldn’t hurt. An hour of that then led to an hour of tailoring, working on new clothes for everyone. It was around this time everyone woke up. A few morning greetings were shared, bedrolls packed up, then the chairs around the table were occupied. They set their packs down and carefully retrieved a steamy plate of food from within.

It was certainly awkward to pull a plate full of food from inside a backpack, and also to place it inside, but a cooked meal kept its heat and was good for twenty-four hours. It was also the only way to carry around a ready-to-eat meal.

“I like your cooking and all, but I’m so tired of eating the same thing.” Tony groaned. His fork rearranged the food atop his plate.

“Same here. I really enjoyed eating fish at first, but—” Raven trailed off, her eyes trained to the fish stuck to her fork.

Cookie slowly nodded, swallowing a piece of fish. “The food is still fantastic!” She looked at her plate. “But variety is the spice of life, and our life here has been bland.”

Lucas sighed, not having touched his food yet. “I don’t blame any of you. I’m a chef. I hate having the same meal twice in one week, let alone three times a day for over a week.” He picked up his fork. “I tried buying food or ingredients at the business district, but people are still buying everything out every morning.”

“They’re probably tired of the meal being served at the banquet hall like us.” Tony continued to play with his food. “At least we’re finally doing something different. I was getting tired of fishing all the time. Turning a hobby into a job takes the fun out of it.”

“Oh, that’s right! We’re going to do the delivery I was given, right?” Cookie said with a smile.

“Yep. I gathered up all the quests in town. There is your delivery, and a few more quests to a village to the west, and a few in a southern village.” Lucas raised his fork to his mouth. “I think it’s five quests in total.”

“We still have that many after the ones we did in town?” Tony asked. “We already did a handful of new ones in town, and we barely got a level from it.”

Lucas nodded his head as he chewed.

Tony’s fork stopped. “These other quests better give some good experience. I didn’t even unlock a new skill yet! I’m stuck with only a buffing song.”

“Shouldn’t your first skill always be an attack?” Raven asked, looking at the Kobold. “You’ll be just as useless as when that spider attacked us.”

“What—You don’t have an attack either!” Tony Retorted.

“Yes, but I’m the healer. My job is to keep everyone alive, and I can’t do that without healing, now, can I?” Raven said with a smirk.

Tony grumbled, stuffing food into his mouth.

“Stop the bickering, the both of you. Can’t we have one nice meal without anyone getting upset or arguing?” Cookie sighed. “Besides, not all of the missions are fighting. There was the pocket watch one, the one where you tidied up and—Oh! The one mission for that sweet girl and her boyfriend, running letters back and forth for them because their relationship had to remain a secret.” She nodded her head. “That was a good one, and no fighting of enormous rats.”

“All you had to do for that was teleport back and forth from one part of town to another, and the quest was done.” Tony said.

“Pretty quick and straightforward. I don’t think it gave much money or experience as a reward.” Lucas added.

“You two didn’t pay attention to the story or read the letters. It was sweet.” Raven said.

“It was very sweet! I wouldn’t be surprised if it was turned into a movie.” Cookie nodded. “Anyway, my point is that we can avoid fighting stuff and just do the fun missions.”

“We can’t avoid combat forever, but if we could hold off on it so I can get an attack skill, that’d be good.” Tony said, before taking another bite.

“We can’t?” Cookie asked.

“Fighting monsters and bosses is the main point of an MMO, or so I’ve heard. I’ve never gotten into an MMO before.” Lucas said.

“Well, let’s try to keep the fighting to a minimum. There are a lot of other things to do, I’m sure.” Cookie wiggled her fork at the other’s plates. “Eat your breakfast and let’s get a move on.”

The party finished their food, packed their things, then headed out of the forest and to the main road. The rats that were scattered around the area roamed freely. Not a single player was seen slaying them. Plenty of people were traveling to or from the city, however, and almost always in groups of five.

“We need to fill the last spot in our group. The enemies are only going to get harder. We should find an archer or something.” Tony said.

“Isn’t four enough for now?” Lucas asked, glancing at the Kobold walking beside him. “This is still the beginning of the game.”

“I know, but we’ll need a full group at some point.” Tony said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you could do a lot of this early stuff alone. I’m thinking we’ll have to do a dungeon eventually, and then a fifth person would make it easier.”

“Oh, another person to join us? The more the merrier, I say.” Cookie said, taking in the sights as they walked.

“Eh, why not.” Raven mumbled, flipping through pages in her book. “We should be getting to a fork in the road soon, and we need to go left.”

“A fork in the road?” Lucas repeated, shooting a glance back at Raven. “How do you know that?”

“Take a look.” Raven’s pace quickened to walk beside Lucas’ free side, book held out.

Lucas slowed down, taking the opened book. “Wow. Is this a map of the island?”

“What? Lemme see!” Tony leaned in to get a look for himself. “Wait, this is just a copy of that one map.”

“Yes, it is. I thought it’d be helpful so we can get around and not get lost.” Raven said.

“That’s really good, Raven! Smart, too. I didn’t even think about getting a map.” Cookie peered around from behind the Draconian to get a glimpse of the map.

“We couldn’t get a map if we wanted to. No one sells maps, and if you lose the one you start with of the town, you can’t get it back.” Lucas said, giving the book back. “Looks like you’re the navigator, Raven.”

“Fine with me. Too bad we don’t have GPS.” Raven said, pointing ahead to a fork in the road with a signpost. One sign pointed left, and another pointed right. “There it is. The western village is Ekleta.” Her finger trailed the road on her map to the appropriately labeled village.

“Bah, GPS always annoyed me and got me lost. A paper map can’t steer you wrong.” Cookie ran ahead to the signs, then turned around with a smile. “Come on, hustle! We’re going to see something new!” She broke out into a run, following the road to Ekleta.

“Cookie, Wait! There’s going to be another fork in the road.” Raven ran after her.

“I guess Cookie was getting stir crazy in town.” Tony said, watching the two women run off. “Some new scenery would be nice, but running?”

Lucas chuckled and nudged the Kobold. “Tony, we don’t get tired from running around, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. I should’ve known better. I was the one running back and forth from the pond and—Hey!” Tony stumbled after being nudged again, the Draconian breaking out into a sprint.

“We’re going to get left behind and get lost. Hurry up!” Lucas called out.

“Wa—Wait, I don’t want to get lost out here!” Tony took off, chasing after Lucas. “This isn’t fair. I have tiny legs!”