At last, he crashed and crunched his way through the final stretch of the incredibly dense foliage, arriving at the edge of a murky pond.

A short, tanned man stood on the opposite side wearing shorts and sandals as well as a big, floppy hat, and Carl had a moment of slight panic when the other man waved and called out, "Ahoy, Carl! Was starting to wonder whether I'd see you here before I moved on!"

What the heck was the guy's name… Ugh, feels like forever since I saw him for what, like five minutes? He waved back and opened his inventory to pull out his fishing pole before he began to circumnavigate the pond while he again tried to recall back to however many days ago it'd been since he encountered the man, whose name was…something that he definitely knew, even if he couldn't recall it at this exact…exact…ex… "Hey, Rex," he called back, concealing his dueling feelings of relief and smugness at how great his memory still was even though he was already forty nine, the thought of which started getting him a little depressed since he was so freaking old.

"Nice day for some fishing, eh?" said Rex when he got closer.

"Always a nice day here, feels like," Carl said, feeling like the day was much nicer now that he finally had some sunglasses.

"Nice shades," the other man remarked as he reeled in his line. "Must've been expensive."

"Thanks," Carl said, smiling a bit at the compliment to Mina's crafting skills. "Nice hat."

"Thanks, I had it custom made." Rex puffed up a little at the statement. "You're here for that wager, I take it?"

Wager? Wager, wager, wager… Carl pondered it. "Yeah," he said, not remembering what that meant and again recalling just how freaking old forty nine actually was.

"Okay. Well, let's get started then," Rex said, seeming to be in a jovial mood. "Not many other people in the city who like fishing, Carl." He let fly with a beautiful cast that set his lure down in the center of the pond.

Carl pulled his can of unlimited worms from his inventory and grabbed one of them out to thread onto his hook before returning the item to its previous spot. "Well, the river wasn't too bad, but I'm not feeling super motivated to catch anything here." He flicked his wrist lightly and sent his line flying to land some distance to the side. Kinda amazed I didn't break more stuff back when I thought everything was a dumb physics bug. This pond is…

The pond itself was a pond, but it wasn't one of the nicer ones he'd fished in. Its waters were distinctly grayish, and there were places along one side where scrap metal was piled up and strewn about. There weren't many of the types of plants that fish usually liked to swim around in, and he was actually getting a little skeptical that—

"Here we go," Rex said as his rod bent, and he began to play the fish he'd hooked. "What do we have…"

Carl had no time to grow distracted, however, as he felt a tugging on his own line. He tried to recall how much strength he'd used to pull fish out of the water last time, feeling once again shocked that he hadn't just broken his line over and over. Hm, now that I think about it, kinda feels more like I can lift a lot than having the sense that I'm gonna start having some movie moment where I start accidentally destroying everything. He pulled the fish out with ease, catching the line as it came back towards him. Handy for this. Doubt I could get the leverage to pull hard enough in real life.

"Looks like yours is a little smaller," Rex commented, having caught a three-eyed fish that was about a foot and a half long to Carl's foot-ish-sized two-eyed fish.

Just getting started. Don't really need to keep the boring fish today, so I think it's gonna be a catch-and-release type of thing. He unhooked his fish and tossed it back. Better not catch you again though, or I might change my mind.

"So, you've been here a few days at least," Rex said as he cast his line out once more, "what do you think of the city?"

"Hm." Carl re-baited his hook from his inventory and threw his worm-bearing line to a spot slightly farther out, reaching the limit of its length while he considered how to answer the question. "I like it. Some people here I think could stand to not be here, but it's—"

"What do you think of the roads?" Rex interrupted. "How smooth and well-maintained they are?"

"It's nice," Carl admitted. "Can't complain about that part, that's for sure. Don't think I've ever driven on anything so smooth."

"Mm-hmm," Rex murmured in agreement. "How about the race tracks?"

Carl chuckled. "What a trip. It's such a great concept. Especially with the whole theme of the city." He swished his line a little, feeling that this was a much more relaxing time spent fishing and also feeling a bite. "Oh, got another one." He set the hook and jerked his line back, catching it smoothly as the flopping fish sailed towards him. "Hm."

This latest fish had two heads as well as three spiny fins on each side of its body. It was also a glowing neon yellow, though it was roughly the same size as his last fish.

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That's going to Bobby for sure. He tossed it into his inventory.

"Nice catch," said Rex. His line moved slightly, and he started to reel shortly thereafter.

"Do these fish have names or anything? For the types of fish, I mean."

"No clue."

The core giggled very quietly next to his ear.

Gotta see what's going on with that when I get back.

Rex brought up a fish that was nearly identical to Carl's previous catch, if slightly smaller. "What do you think of this whole system thing?"

"Hm." Carl finished re-worming his hook and tossed it out again while he considered the new question. "Kinda weird addition? Surprised people seem to have adapted to it as well as they have." Can't really talk considering I've been getting used to having ten million Strength pretty fast. But it's amazing people have gotten so used to having all these crazy stats and classes.

"You think they'd be better off without it?"

Carl swished his line in the water a little. "You mean like, no stats and classes at all or just removing the ones that don't make sense?"

"All of it." Rex started to reel in his line, but his hook came up empty. He cast it back out. "Imagine if there was no system garbage. If there was no arena here, just the tracks. Competition would be based on skill alone rather than stats and strength. Everyone could compete fairly, and the only limitation would be having the dedication and focus to learn how to drive well. Wouldn't that be grand?"

No arena… Guess it's not a big deal to me since I haven't seen it myself. People here seem to really like it though. "How would it be better if so many people enjoy it as it is?"

Rex tilted his head up and back to give him a look. "Carl, people don't know what they want, they only think they do." He resumed watching his line. "They're set in a routine now, but if someone were to take that away…"

Carl felt a nibble and yanked on his fishing pole, revealing a tiny little something made almost entirely of eyes. What the actual heck.

"That's a weird one," said Rex.

"I'll say." Carl tried his best to pry it off the hook without squishing—nope, he squished one by accident—any of the eyes and tossed it back in, then wiped his hand on his pants.

"If someone were to take all of that away and turn peoples' attention to something more productive, wouldn't that be better than all this mindless grinding for stats?"

Carl tossed his worm-laden hook out once more.

"They'd probably even be grateful for it," Rex continued. "Why should someone have to spend years trying to gain some random stat point that lets them participate?"

"I guess there's something to that," Carl said. "Then again, it's not like anyone's forcing people to do that, right? I mean, they could just as easily go out and fight monsters for fun, or beat a dungeon, or m—" Probably shouldn't mention making dungeons if this guy's getting all riled up about a hardcore vs casuals issue since that's a super hardcore-ish thing with how high the stat requirements are… "Make a guild," he said instead, "or… I don't know, there's just so much to do, isn't there?"

They stood in silence for a short while.

"There is, and there isn't," Rex said slowly. "People don't want to be leaders. They want to fit into a hierarchy, and they want to be the best. They want to be loved and adored. Everything you suggested means becoming a leader. It requires creating a hierarchy."

Carl pulled his line up. A tire was attached to it, and he glowered. "C'mon, don't throw random garbage in here," he muttered.

"If people weren't so busy focusing on that system, maybe this place would be a bit nicer too," Rex said.

"So you think people just wanna sit around in this city and race? Or watch races?"

"Don't they?" asked Rex. "Isn't racing fun? Isn't it popular? Easy to get into?"

Carl held back his immediate response while he finished baiting his line and throwing it back into the pond. Even with VR and online content taking off, racing's still been going pretty strong. People do seem to love it for some reason. And he's not wrong that it's easy to get into, at least at the lower level. "You might be right," he allowed. "But people are already doing all this stuff. You're talking like you could change that."

"Well, I—No, no, of course I couldn't," said Rex, shaking his head. "Obviously not, right? It's not like someone could just build something into the ground that would nullify all the effects of the system, is it." He jerked his fishing rod, then began to reel his line in.

The conversation paused as they waited to see what the catch would be.

"Haven't caught one quite like this before."

"Uh…"

The two foot long fish had three tails, and its six eyes were somehow positioned on the tails instead of its head. It flopped back and forth wildly, spraying them with pond water.

Game's got some really freaking weird fish. Carl shook his head, watching out of the corner of his eye as the other man expertly detached his newest catch and tossed it back.

"Looks like that's the new one to beat," said Rex with a hint of a smirk as he turned his head up to look at Carl.

"Gotta wonder where fish like that even come from," Carl commented.

"Those scraps and slag that get dumped at the far side there probably have something to do with it," Rex said, pointing at the debris he was describing.

"That's a thing?"

"Seems that way."

"Huh."

They stood in silence again until Carl hauled up a significantly larger version of the eye-thing he'd caught earlier. "What the heck are these?"

"Hardly the strangest thing I've seen," Rex replied.

Carl grimaced as he again tried to—nope, already an accidental squishing—remove the—gah, another one—hook from the stupid—yikes, hopefully that one wasn't especially important—eye-fish-thing and—ugh, how many, ughhhh—throw it really far towards the other side so he definitely wouldn't ever catch it again. He bent down and washed his hand a bit to get the eye-fish-thing eye-goo off.

Carl Maximus Weathers wasn't a quitter though. He pulled another worm out, cleaned his hook off, and strung the bait on before sinking his line into another part of the pond.