"Why in the hell would you even think to do something so reckless?!" Soze asked furiously.

After Loran returned to the village with Maxie's party he had tried to pretend that he hadn't left; unfortunately, Maxie had decided that it was more important to inform Soze of what his teammate had done. Loran had just barely made it back to his shelter when Soze found him and began demanding an explanation. Although Soze had been patient at first, he immediately exploded once Loran told him that he had gone hunting alone for the sake of training.

"What's the problem, it's not like I got hurt or anything," Loran responded calmly, sitting next to his shelter as Soze stood over him.

"This is a survival situation Loran, taking unnecessary risks like that is going to get you killed."

"Whoa, guys what's going on?" The shouting between the two had formed a crowd around them, Yang had been nearby and quickly stepped in when she saw who was arguing.

"Loran went hunting for Hell Pigs alone."

Murmurs of shock and admiration began rippling through the crowd, amazed that anyone was skilled enough and crazy enough to try fighting the woodland monsters alone.

"...And you didn't die?" She asked, more impressed than anything else.

Loran shrugged. "Barely got scratched."

"Not bad."

"Don't encourage him. He could've been killed."

"Do you think staying holed up in the village is a better idea?" Loran asked.

"This is a survival situation, we need to-"

"No Soze," said Loran, "this is a video game."

"So you think that makes it better!? This isn't just some game you brat, there are consequences."

"Which is exactly my point," Loran stood up, getting close to Soze, "how many people do you think will die if the Demon Bear shows up?"

"Bears aren't so territorial that they'll risk attacking a large settlement like the village."

"Maybe if we were talking about reality, but we're in a video game. Nearly every animal we've found so far has fought to the death instead of running away, is that supposed to be normal behavior for them?"

Soze was silent. It wasn't as if he hadn't noticed these things; in reality, all living things have strong survival instincts that will usually prioritize running over fighting, but that wasn't the case in New Eden Online. Animals also had access to Skills and levels, and adding the heightened durability of their bodies, fighting to your last breath had the potential to be far more rewarding. As a result, the wildlife had become far more aggressive than in reality, basically viewing all other creatures not as threats or just food, but as experience points to be harvested.

Soze shook his head. "That still doesn't justify your recklessness. We can fortify the camp, make better weapons, have a plan of action. We have over a hundred people living in this village, we can be ready for a Demon Bear attack."

"But that won't be the end of it. Again, this is a video game and we've only been playing for a month, do you really think the Demon Bear is the biggest threat NEO will throw at us?"

The murmuring of the crowd immediately turned silent, the weight of Loran's words settling on them.

"Sure, pushing our limits right now is risky, and maybe we can stay in the village and keep our heads down, but if we keep doing that and some level 100 monster comes wandering through, we're all screwed without a doubt." As he finished speaking, Loran was about to crawl into his shelter when he finally noticed the mood of the crowd and decided to make one more comment. "Maybe I went a little too far, but we're still in the early game, now is the time to be pushing our limits and getting stronger."

~~~~~

Having said his piece, Loran crawled into his shelter. Seeing that the conversation was at an end, the crowd dispersed as quickly as it had formed, and soon Soze and Yang were the only ones left.

"Come on, let's let him sleep," Yang said to the frustrated Soze.

The two walked in silence for a short while, taking in the conversation. They moved aimlessly through the camp, milling through the crowded paths.

"He's probably right you know," Yang said.

"I know," he said with a huff, "that doesn't make accepting it any easier."

"Really? Aren't you supposed to be the guy that flung himself into survival scenarios for fun?"

"I don't mean I'm scared, I just..." Soze buried his face in his hands for a moment, taking a deep breath. When he put his hands down his expression was far more focused. "Whatever, he's right, moving on."

"Alright then, so does him being right change anything?"

"Aside from my ability to yell at him, not really," he said with a shrug. "We still need to hunt and we were never going to just run from anything aside from the Demon Bear. Once everyone is nice and rested, the five of us will go out again tomorrow."

"Actually, can we push that to the day after? Rika is still working on my armor and says it won't be done till then."

Soze thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. A part of him didn't like the idea of having the party fully rested but not hunting, and even considered suggesting that he, Loran, and Yin should go out while Yang and Alexx spent the day at the camp, but silently decided against it.

'We only just had that argument yesterday, better to not press her on this.'

"Hey!" The two were about to part ways when Maxie came, waving for their attention. "I didn't expect you to go running off like that Soze."

"Sorry," he said, scratching his head, "but you did just tell me one of these brats had been doing something dangerous."

"We're not children you know," Yang remarked, "we don't need you to babysit us."

"Sorry kiddo, but I've still got a decade on each of you. When this is all over, I won't be the one to tell your parents that any of you died on my watch."

Yang frowned as he finished speaking, but she didn't say anything else.

"Anyway, I guess you two just finished chewing out Loran?"

"Just me actually, she just congratulated him for it."

"Honestly, it's deserved," Maxie said, crossing her arms, "that fight was crazy."

"You saw it?"

"Yeah, come on, I'll tell you about it on the way to the Kitchen, I'm starving," she said as they began walking. "Anyway, my party heard a loud noise and went to investigate. When we saw him the fight had already started, so we decided to keep our distance."

"Why didn't you help him?!" Soze asked incredulously. "He could've died fighting by himself!"

"We weren't expecting him to be alone! We figured he was acting as a distraction while the rest of you surrounded them or something. If that was the case we didn't want to ruin anything."

"Alright then," Soze sighed.

"Honestly, I'm surprised he was able to pull it off, he needed a lot of help when we were jumped by the Moss Wolves yesterday."

"Maybe that's why he did all this," Maxie said, "something was throwing him off before so he went out to make sure his skills were still sharp?"

"I guess that makes sense," Soze grumbled.

"Either way, it was a crazy fight to see, he was dodging and dashing about like crazy, always just an inch away from getting hit. It's kind of shocking that those pigs couldn't touch him."

"...Actually, that's probably why he sucked so much yesterday," Yang realized. "We fought the wolves off by posting up in a group, but it sounds more like he would've been better off fighting evasively."

"But that's what you're supposed to do in a wolf attack, he can't-" Soze stopped suddenly. 'Damn it, this is exactly what he was just talking about.'

Soze's experience with real survival was preventing him from properly dealing with the game aspects of New Eden Online. Separating during an attack normally would cause the wolves to focus on the lone target, almost guaranteeing death for at least one of them. However, that was because real humans had certain limits to their strength, speed, and reflexes. The abilities of the players far exceed those of real humans, and each of them had a different focus. For a team of players like Yang, forming a tight group would still be best, but for Loran, the more dangerous option was what he was simply better suited for. In fact, Soze recalled how Loran was working with Yang towards the end of that fight; if he had been like that the entire time it likely would have been much better in the long run.

'Actually, I was also pretty hurt after that fight, but that should've been normal for fighting wolves. Maybe I do need to change things...'

"He can't what Soze?" Maxie asked.

"Nothing," he huffed, "I'm just going to give myself a headache at this rate. Let's just get to the Kitchen already, I need something to drink."

"Well I don't think they've figured out how to make alcohol yet," Maxie said.

'How I wish they would already,' he began thinking, before shaking his head. "No, I don't need anything like that, although I wish we had something with taste."

"I think someone was mixing some kind of berry juice earlier," Yang offered.

"That'll do."

The three continued on to the Kitchen. As it was getting later, many of the hunting parties had returned and the Kitchen was quickly filling with animal bodies and players looking to help. Most of the players that worked here regularly had gotten a rhythm going and were quickly gutting, skinning, and bleeding one body after another. While there were several Hell Pigs that had been brought in, only three were fully cleaned, and they were some of the largest in the area.

"Whew," Yang whistled, "so he hunted three of those things on his own?"

"There were five actually," Maxie said, grabbing a handful of rabbit jerky from a basket, "one of them got away, and the last one we just had to leave."

"Really? You guys left a whole pig out there?" Soze grabbed a bowl of juice from a player with a clay pot and took a sip. 'I guess it's alright, but it still tastes like really weak wine.'

"My party doesn't have any STR-focused builds," she defended, "we're all DEX and AGI. I think Loran was the strongest at the time and he still needed help with the big one. Honestly, even getting those three back was exhausting, have you ever tried hauling over 300 pounds for a few miles?"

"No, but I can imagine," Yang said, remembering the return trip from yesterday's hunt.

"Actually," Soze said, "maybe that will stop Loran from going out on his own again."

"What? Leaving meat behind," Yang asked.

"Well that, but leaving dead bodies around the woods will probably attract scavengers, which would probably include the Demon Bear. As much as he seems certain that we'll have to fight it eventually, I don't think he wants to make it happen sooner than it has to."

"I guess if you still want to stop him you can go for it," Yang shrugged. "While we're on the subject, can I say it sucks how this game just doesn't have an inventory system?"

"Seriously," Maxie huffed, "I've seen plenty of the others complaining about how they wanted to keep hunting or foraging but they just couldn't carry anymore."

In any game, and particularly survival simulators, inventory systems were critical for carrying and storing materials and supplies. Even when games transitioned from traditional video games to Full Dive VR, the ability to store a large number of items in some kind of invisible space was so common that if any game didn't have one it was considered either a hardcore feature or just bad design. New Eden Online was one such game, you either carried things with your hands or you had to build a pack of some kind.

"I'm pretty sure asking for good game design from the mad man that trapped a billion people is a little much," said Soze, taking a big swig of his juice.

"I guess," said Yang, "but everything else about NEO would honestly be pretty fun otherwise, why is this the thing he decided to shaft us on."

"I'm going to have to agree with Soze on this one, there's no point in trying to understand the thought process of a psycho."

"Besides, it's not like complaining about it is going to change anything."

"True enough," Yang huffed. She began to walk off. "I guess I'll see you two later."

"Later kiddo," he said, waving his hand. Finishing off his juice, Soze put the bowl in a pile of other used stoneware before turning back to Maxie. "Anyway, I was going to hit the Training Field, do you want to join me?"

"Alright, I usually like to wind down after a hunt anyway."

~~~~~

By nightfall, word of Loran's solo hunt had spread, and unfortunately, it had greater consequences than any of them expected. Video gamers were nothing if not competitive, and hearing about such an impressive feat caused many to believe they could do the same. Some of the more cautious players had gone out with their parties while requesting they remain on standby, but those that were more brave or foolish simply left the village alone.

There was a handful that were successful, especially those that brought their parties with them, but most of these solo hunts ended with significant injuries. The first day ended with over a dozen people with serious injury debuffs, not one of whom would be able to leave their shelters for a week at least; one player had thirteen different broken bones and wouldn't be completely healed for a full 30 days.

And there were still those with even worse luck. On the third day, there were two people that went out alone, but never returned. Search parties were sent out, and while one of them was alive, found surrounded by the bodies of nearly two dozen Moss Wolves and unable to move because of her injuries, the other wasn't so fortunate. The search party returned to the village with his half-eaten body after fighting off the pack of Moss Wolves that had killed him.

The player's party members had only known him from meeting in New Eden Online, but they were still deeply shaken by his death. The fact that someone they had spoken to, that they had been laughing with just the day before was now gone, left a feeling of emptiness in the pit of their stomachs. The players had chosen to bury his body outside of the West Gate, and the village was deafeningly silent that night. The next morning, someone heading out to the Training Field noticed that the grave was now marked by a wooden post with a wolf skull atop it. No one knew who put it there, and no one felt a need to ask about it.

The next day saw most of the players just milling about the village, emotionally reeling from having been reminded of the reality of their situation. Among them though, were those that were not shaken, instead, they were filled with a silent determination. By this point, Loran's comments about how New Eden Online would become harder had circulated around the camp, and many were not about to let the game get the jump on them. More players began going on hunts where they would hunt alone but with their parties nearby for support. There were those that returned with injuries, but none as serious as the first day of the solo hunts, and as days turned to weeks, a month had passed since the solo hunting began, and the solo hunts had become a common practice for the more skilled players of the village. There were still those that would come back injured, but by this point, solo hunters were the only ones to return injured at all.

Perhaps these woods were dangerous, and perhaps New Eden Online was a death game, but games were made to be played, and the game had only just begun.