*Warning* This chapter contains a brief description of gore.

A large rabbit sat quietly among the tall grass, silently eating away at a patch of flowers. It did not appear to be an ordinary rabbit, in that most of its fur was a verdant green, however, that was normal for these woods. The fur blended nicely with the dense grass of the woods it called home, offering extra protection against potential predators.

The rabbit continued eating, the woods quiet except for the calling of birds and the rustling of leaves in the wind. Suddenly, the rabbit detected a new sound, a faint twang it had never heard before. It leaped forward in nervous fear, and rightly so as a strange object, a stone-tipped arrow, buried itself in the ground where it was just sitting. Birds took off in a cacophony of noise, startled by the thud of the arrow; the rabbit was about to continue fleeing when another arrow came from the same direction, easily catching it in the side.

As the birds left, the woods fell to a much deeper silence. After a moment a new figure, Loran, appeared carrying a bow. It had been over two weeks since he became trapped in New Eden Online, and much had changed. While he still wore his default gray starter pants and shoes, on top, he was wearing a shirt of thin, patchwork leather. Loran had already given up his shirt to use as crafting material, and even though his avatar was far more fit than his real-life body, he still wasn't about to walk around shirtless all the time.

"That makes seven," he muttered while retrieving his arrows. Loran currently had six other small animals hanging over his shoulder, rope tied to their legs. In addition to the Green Rabbits he also had two White Squirrels as well, and yes, those were the actual names of the creatures. Most things in NEO had the same names as their real-world counterparts, but if something was too unique it was up to the players to name it. Unfortunately, the first players to find these critters were not very creative, both being named for the color of their fur.

After tying the rabbit to his back with the others, Loran glanced up towards the sun. "That should be enough for today," he said, "guess I'll head back to the village." Despite only having seven kills, Loran had been hunting ever since dawn and was quite a distance from the camp, easily more than a mile away. He felt that it was odd to have so few after so long, but according to Soze, it wasn't that strange from his own hunting experiences in reality. "Still....even if this is supposed to be realistic, it's not very fun."

~~~~~

By the time Loran made his way back to camp the sun was beginning to set. He didn't understand how to navigate the woods yet, but thankfully as long as he made his way east he would find the river, and from there finding the camp was much easier, although time-consuming it was very reliable. He followed the flow of the river and soon enough he saw the edge of the camp.

It was day 14 since everyone had been trapped in New Eden Online, and the camp had expanded massively. For the first few days, Loran and the others focused on two things, building up the camp and finding other players. Luckily, the smoke from their campfire was easily visible during the day and many players were drawn to it. Along with some steady exploration, the camp had forty occupants by the end of the first week, and almost seventy by the end of week two. Even as he left this morning people were stumbling into the camp. With more players came more workers, and so the camp expanded quickly. Dozens of small wooden shelters scattered around, and a few larger ones for those who felt like putting in the extra work, all connected by a series of winding paths in the grass and dirt. The edge of the camp was surrounded by a fence made from thick branches and trunks, sharpened and pointing outwards to drive off any large predators, although no one had seen any yet. Past that was a large clearing in every direction, created from the numerous trees that needed to be chopped down to build the camp.

As the camp was protected by a barrier of wooden spikes, there were three places where the spikes were spaced enough for people to pass through, those were the North and South Gates by the river and the West Gate facing the woods. After walking for another few minutes Loran had made it to the North Gate, but while walking he noticed someone working in the dirt. Although the rest of the clearing was covered in grass and shrubs, the admittedly large area around this player was all upturned dirt, having been fashioned into a garden.

Just as Loran was hoping to quietly pass by the player, she stood up while wiping the sweat from her brow. Looking over the garden with satisfaction, she noticed Loran walking by. "Oh hi, you just getting back?"

"Yeah," Loran sighed, preparing to be talked at for a while. 'At least I don't need to worry about speaking.'

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This was Demeter, a player with deep chestnut brown hair, pointed ears, and skin tinted slightly green. She was one of the first players to discover the camp and was one of the most active participants in building it up. At first, she mainly helped with chopping down trees and building shelters, but when she realized just how many people were going to start living in the camp she started working on this garden patch. She had spent the last week working on it from dawn till dusk, and as a result, had met with Loran on more than a few occasions.

Unfortunately for him, Demeter was an extremely outgoing person, even more so than Alexx. Every time he met her by the gate she would talk his ear off for several minutes before giving him a chance to excuse himself. Thankfully she never really seemed all that interested in getting a response from him; Loran would just spend the entire time nodding and listening, or even just pretending to listen.

Even now, Demeter had managed to go on for three minutes straight about what kinds of crops she wanted to add to her garden, what kinds she hoped the others would find, and how she was starting to enjoy working with her hands rather than traditional tools.

"...I mean once you get through the top layer the soil is nice and loamy, perfect for farming. Once we expand the field, we'll have all the food we'll ever need," she said, finally pausing.

"You think it'll work though?" Loran asked. He had been wondering why she was so convinced it would work for a while now.

"I know my way around a garden, it'll be fine."

"Sure, but what about workers? If you want this to feed a hundred people you'll need a lot of farmers."

"That'll probably be fine too. You think people are going to be happy eating fish, squirrel, and rabbit meat every day? Sooner or later people are going to want more, and if nothing else I'm already growing grains, which will mean bread. Tell me you wouldn't like to have a sandwich after all this time?" Demeter looked at him smugly, certain she knew his answer.

She was correct. Even after only two weeks, the players were starting to get sick of what was available. The meat wasn't too bad, but everything else was just foraged berries, nuts, and wild vegetables. Even now, there were at least a dozen players at The Kitchen, the designated cooking and food storing area, experimenting with various mixes of ingredients just to try and create something that tasted better than meat cooked over an open fire. If Demeter could promise more variety in their diet, she would have plenty of workers itching to help.

"Alright well, I'm gonna go drop these in The Kitchen then go to sleep," Loran yawned, "It's too late for this."

"Late? The sun's still up, it can't be later than 8'o clock?"

"Don't care, still tired."

Loran was about to tell her good night and leave when suddenly there was the sound of someone yelling from inside the camp. Almost immediately after more and more voices could be heard raised in panic.

"...I just said it's too late for this."

"Doesn't matter, let's go."

~~~~~

Loran and Demeter ran into the camp towards the shouting. Unfortunately, everyone else in the camp had the same idea as them and the two were quickly blocked by the numerous people trying to figure out what was happening.

"Everyone please move aside."

As they tried to move forward, Loran was able to see the people ahead of them being cleared aside by Soze. The two made eye contact and Loran immediately knew the situation was bad. His friend's face was haggard, dripping sweat, eyes practically bloodshot.

'What in the hell happened...' The two had met this morning as they left the camp to hunt, and if anything Loran had looked worse off at that point. What could happen in less than a day to cause such a change? He didn't have to wonder for long, as soon it was their turn to move aside.

What they saw was Maxie, a leader for one of the hunting parties, being carried by her teammates in a makeshift stretcher with what could only be described as a huge chunk of flesh ripped away from her side. The wound was gruesome, with even exposed bones and organs. Additionally, there were at least three other wounds visible on the rest of her body that looked rather deep. Her breathing seemed steady, but the players carrying her each wore looks of extreme stress and concentration as if the slightest disturbance would cause Maxie to shatter like glass.

"Oh my god..." Demeter choked out, her stomach feeling ready to heave.

Loran was similarly shaken, unable to process even the simplest of thoughts as his eyes subconsciously followed the young woman being carried off by her friends. He had played plenty of violent games, and the use of AetherGear had caused most games to have photo-realistic graphics, but for some reason, none of them had felt quite as gruesome as Maxie's injury; it was as if knowing that she was in real danger right now made the blood more crimson, the gashes more visceral, her pale face more corpse-like. Just before Maxie was out of sight, Loran quickly thought to use [ANALYSIS] on her.

[NAME]: Maxie

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 7

[EXP]: 1100/800

[STATUS]

{HP}: 7/100

{SP}: 20/100

[END]: 10

[STR]: 10

[AGI]: 16

[DEX]: 20(+10)

[PER]: 15

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 2

[SKILLS]

[CRITICAL STRIKE] Lv.10

[DEXTEROUS] Lv. 10

[HUNTER] Lv.7

[DEBUFFS]

[MINOR WOUND] X7

Remaining Duration: 1 Day, 20 Hours, 55 Minutes, 13 Seconds.

Taking damage to the afflicted areas will impose a [MINOR BLEEDING] debuff.

[SEVERE WOUND]

Remaining Duration: 6 Days, 20 Hours, 55 Minutes, 13 Seconds.

Taking damage to the afflicted areas will impose a [BLEEDING] debuff.

Excessive movement of the afflicted areas will impose a [MINOR BLEEDING] debuff.