The bishop stared at the young man lying on the ground, half terrified and half furious, itching to step forward and stamp on his back a couple of times.
You've said everything, good and bad, so how are we supposed to explain ourselves? There's no way to explain anything.
Seeing the dragon turn its gaze toward him, the bishop completely lost his composure and hastily said:
"Honored dragon, I can explain all of this."
But the dragon had no intention of listening to him and continued muttering in that deep, heavy voice:
"Every time something like this happens, I have to spend ages arguing with the Church..."
"Your honored draconic excellency, I hope you can..."
"I don't like exchanges that involve no profit. They waste so much of my time."
"...It was because of the apostates-no, because the test subjects escaped..."
"Sleeping or making money would both be better than pointless conversation."
"...Just let me go back. Two thousand gold coins, or more, I can..."
"So, let's leave it at that. I'm tired."
Dragonfire ignited everything, dragonfire burned everything, dragonfire swept through everything.
Once everything that could burn had burned away, the cave returned to its usual tranquility.
The dragon looked at the young man trembling on the ground and asked:
"Any problems with handling it this way?"
"N-no."
The man on the ground trembled in fear of his master's might. That trembling seemed constant, merely transferred from the members of the Tree Worship Church to him.
"Leave. Remember to deliver this month's metal."
"As you command."
Trembling, the young man crawled through the hidden door and ran all the way out of the cave.
Looking at the setting sun outside, he felt rather as though he had been given a new lease on life.
Catching sight of the dead horses on the ground out of the corner of his eye, the young man suddenly felt some regret-
If I'd known those Tree Worship Church idiots were going to die, I'd have kept their horses.
[Your body has been fully repaired. You may log into the game normally in twenty seconds.]
While the Tree Worship Church's plant people were being turned into barbecue, Ed also finished repairing the three players' bodies.
It was already dusk in the World of Disorder, while dawn had arrived in the real world.
Without the game, the three in the real world were clearly too excited to sleep. They kept their eyes glued to the bodily status displayed on their gaming helmets and logged back in the instant soul summoning became available.
[Shit Appraisal Master] connected successfully once again. He could distinctly feel changes in certain parts of his body, presumably aftereffects of the repairs, but none of his stats had been affected. He was practically fresh out of the factory.
He opened his eyes and saw Ed sitting nearby. Strange as it sounded, at that moment, [Shit Appraisal Master] really wished this NPC were a woman. That way, the vaguely maternal sense of déjà vu he had felt upon reviving would fit the character better instead of making him seem like a pervert.
It was the first time any of the three had died, and the sensation of reviving was quite novel. They were all flexing their muscles.
[Zhongde] stepped forward and asked:
"My lord, may I ask where our companions are?"
Ed pointed toward the castle's main entrance:
"The two Soul Returners are chopping trees. They said they would wait for you to revive before exploring together."
[Zhongde] and [Do Some Farm Work] soon left by the floating stairs, leaving [Shit Appraisal Master] as the only player in the castle hall.
He approached Ed with a solemn expression. Their four eyes-no, three eyes-met, and he suddenly whispered:
"You're actually alive, aren't you?"
Ed froze for a moment and nearly failed to suppress a smile.
This was clearly the sort of player who was curious about everything, the kind who might kick even a wall a couple of times in hopes of uncovering a hidden door.
He kept his expression firmly under control, then delivered a line that fit the setting perfectly:
"Of course. In fact, it is difficult for any life in this world to die completely, unless..."
"Unless what?"
[Shit Appraisal Master] grew interested, feeling he had unlocked a new piece of dialogue.
"Unless it is cooked and eaten. That would most likely make revival very difficult, but even that is no problem for you Soul Returners."
[Shit Appraisal Master] nodded in satisfaction, then asked a few more miscellaneous questions, all of which Ed fobbed off with stock dialogue.
Having run out of ideas, [Shit Appraisal Master] left in disappointment to join his friends' logging crew.
Near the castle, [Howling Pothos] leaned on his axe and looked at the players cutting up wood as he said:
"Everyone, I've noticed a problem."
[Zhongde]: "What?"
[Howling Pothos]: "This game is more realistic than we imagined."
"Didn't we say that two days ago?"
"Yes, but there's more to it."
[Howling Pothos] pointed at a stump:
"This is where we killed a Deadwood Vine on our first day. I deliberately left this stump that had been gnawed hollow, and now it's been two days, but no new Deadwood Vine has crawled out."
[Zhongde] wiped away nonexistent sweat and said, "Isn't that only natural?"
Then his expression shifted slightly, as though something had occurred to him.
The others fell silent at first, then seemed to realize something too.
[Howling Pothos] explained:
"If no more Deadwood Vines will ever appear here, then... this world's resources are finite. In other words, every plant and animal we kill stays dead permanently. There's no respawning at all. So, given enough time, could we end up with..."
The others all recalled situations they had encountered in other games, the sort of predicament that made farming players gasp in horror-
"Resource depletion!"
[Howling Pothos] looked at them and said:
"We already know the Black Forest to the south and west of the castle isn't somewhere we can explore at our current levels, and we haven't explored enough to the east and north yet. Eating, hunting, and repairing our bodies all consume those monster resources every day. So what if this happens-we exhaust the resources here without growing strong enough to explore the new maps outside? Wouldn't that softlock our save?"
[Howling Pothos]'s question rang like a bell, making all the players turn serious.
This was no small matter. Of all the crises that could arise in games, a resource crisis was undoubtedly one of the most painful, especially when other resources were plentiful but one crucial resource was scarce. That could torment players beyond endurance.
At that thought, [Good Times Don't Last] asked:
"So, do you have a solution?"
[Howling Pothos] took a palm-length severed piece of Deadwood Vine from his pocket. According to the new information [Shit Appraisal Master] had brought back, this thing was not actually completely dead yet.
Pothos tossed the severed piece of Deadwood Vine into the hollow in the stump, then used his short spear to cut some flesh from his own body and tossed that in too.
The Deadwood Vine soon recovered its basic vital signs and began wriggling at the bottom of the hollow.
Watching this, [Howling Pothos] said with complete seriousness:
"If we can successfully breed monsters ourselves, you know what that means, right?"
The players all nodded, anticipation showing on their faces. What did it mean? Why, of course-
Assembly lines, automation, and a [farm] where they could grind for everything.