Stone World Problems

"This is getting ridiculous," Soze sighed as he watched the chaos unfolding before him. The small mob of players arguing over who would get to claim the remaining huts had gotten more rowdy as time passed. He had come over when their shouting had become loud enough for him to hear it on the other side of the village, and by the time he got there a few people had even started fighting in the center of the group.

"Truly," Yin said beside him. "I realize that our current sleeping arrangements are subpar, but there is no need for all of this..."

"Seriously...Hey, HEY!" Soze tried getting everyone's attention, but aside from a few of the closest players glancing at him, the majority just kept arguing and fighting. "God damn it. Have you seen your sister? Maybe she can get their attention."

"I'm afraid not. We spoke this morning but I haven't...oh dear..." Yin lowered her head and slowly face-palmed.

"What?"

Yin said nothing and gestured forward. Following her hand, Soze looked back to the fighting players just in time to see Yang punch someone in the jaw hard enough to flip them over.

"...Can you get her over here?" Soze asked, his voice tense with barely contained frustration.

"I'll see what I can do. Yang! YANG!" Yin shouted as loudly as she could, but she was naturally soft-spoken and was even harder to hear than Soze had been. None of the arguing players even noticed her. Yin's brow furrowed with frustration for a moment, but her expression softened as she seemed to have an idea. She took a deep breath.

"YANG!!!"

Soze flinched as Yin screamed at the top of her lungs. Instead of simply being loud, Yin's voice had become shrill and piercing, sounding like someone being murdered in a horror film. All of the arguing and fighting players stopped what they were doing and began looking around, confused as they searched for the source of that terrible sound. A few of the fighting players even fell over each other as they became distracted.

"SIS!?" Yang was among the few players who reacted with fear, immediately turning to search for whatever made her sister scream like that and getting knocked over by two wrestling players. Her panic quickly faded as she looked up and saw Yin and Soze calmly standing off to the side, watching her expectantly. Realizing that they must have been trying to get her attention, Yang pulled herself out of the pile of players and made her way over to them.

"Everybody listen up!" Soze shouted, finally getting everyone's attention. "I know that all of you want some better accommodations, but you can't just fight over them, and you especially can't do it here. If you're going to argue, keep it peaceful. If you're going to fight, go to the Training Field."

The players began to leave, but instead of simply dispersing as Soze expected, almost the entire group began making their way to the Training Field.

"They really intend to fight over this?" Yin asked, mildly surprised.

"I guess most of the people who don't have huts are people who joined the raid. They would all be pretty strong."

"And these huts are worth it," Yang said.

"Really Yang?" Soze asked, exasperated. "I would expect something like this from Zed, maybe Alexx, but I thought you were more level-headed."

"I am being level-headed. It just so happens that I really want one of these huts."

"Really Yang?" Yin asked.

"They have beds Sis, actual fucking beds," she emphasized. "I might not complain about sleeping as much as Loran does, but that doesn't mean sleeping on the ground is fun. Our shared shelter is also pretty cramped, especially with how much we've had to repair it."

Yin and Yang had been using the same shelter that Loran and Alexx had built together on their first day in New Eden Online, and while it was reasonably sturdy it still needed fixes every so often. At first, the two had just repaired it themselves, but they were in no way experts, and most of their methods just involved adding more branches to the structure for reinforcement. After nearly six months of this, the shelter had gone from comfortable, to cozy, to just barely big enough.

"Still, the last thing we need is a fight breaking out in the middle of the village." Soze paused for a moment. "Don't tell me Loran is a part of this too?" he asked, all too easily imagining the sleep-deprived player threatening someone with a fire bomb.

Yang shook her head. "No, he got lucky and claimed a hut last night."

"What about Alexx and Zed?"

Yang shrugged. "Don't know, haven't seen them."

"Well, at least they're laying low...

"I know you wanted to prepare for the next raid and the southern expedition, but perhaps this should take priority?" Yin asked.

"Yeah... that seems to be the case." The situation was incredibly disorganized. Even if two players could come to an agreement on a hut, a third could come in at any time and force them to start all over. It would obviously balance out eventually, but they didn't have that kind of time, and things could get bad if fights began to break out. They needed to get everyone together and get everyone to agree on how the huts would get distributed. "First, let me find Jorda and Alan. I need to know what the housing situation looks like."

~~~~~

It didn't take long to find the two lead builders, as they were both dealing with other players arguing over hut ownership. Once that was sorted out, Soze asked them what the situation with the huts was and what they were planning to do from now on. The five of them talked in an unfinished section of the east village, sitting on a few leftover logs and snacking on a bowl of berries that Jorda had pulled out of her inventory.

The builders had plotted out space for one hundred huts on the east side of the river and seventy-two of them had already been claimed by players that stayed behind during the raid. That left twenty-eight available for the returning players, three of which would be finished by tomorrow night.

"That's not even half of what we need," Soze said.

"Unless I'm mistaken, there were nearly one hundred people who stayed behind," Yin noticed. "Why have they not claimed any of the remaining huts?"

"Most of them are the crafters," explained Alan. "I asked them about it and they said they preferred to be close to the workshop in case they were needed. Honestly, I'm pretty sure some of them sleep in the storage shed."

"So they're fine sleeping in those shitty wooden shelters?" Yang asked incredulously.

"For now," Jorda said curtly.

"Once we're done with the east side of the river we'll have tons of space to work with on the east side again. First, we'll build huts for the remaining players, although that will probably take another two or three weeks."

"That fast?" Soze asked, mildly surprised. "Expanding the east side of the village took months."

Jorda shrugged. "We got better."

"The first design needed work, and after that things would slow down if someone made a mistake," Alan explained. "But by this point, we've made so many of these huts that most of us can do it blindfolded. We also, you know, didn't have players who could toss around two-ton logs like they're children's toys in the beginning, so that speeds things up."

"And you guys don't mind tackling this as soon as possible?" Soze asked. "It sounded like most of you were basically getting ready to start on personal projects at this point."

"Not really. Honestly most of us in the building team work on things whenever we feel like it," Alan explained. "The only time we really focused on a project was when we needed to build the walls, since being too slow meant putting people in danger."

"Well, we could really use that focus again," Soze sighed. "Something tells me that people are going to be causing trouble if we can't fix this soon."

"Do you truly believe that a lack of accommodations would agitate people that much?" Yin asked.

Yang put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Sis, if there's one thing I know, it's to not underestimate how petty people can be in a videogame."

"Yes, listen to her," Soze said. "Your sister is an expert on being petty."

"Can you not?"

"You're the one who basically got into a street brawl over a bed."

"Because sleeping on the ground for months fucking blows, which is exactly my point," she said, exasperated. "This whole life or death thing has helped to keep people in line, but gamers are the types to spend thousands of yen on cosmetic items, and they'll practically sell a lung for anything with actual use."

"She's right," Alan said. "This whole survival scenario means that people are desperate for comfort, and a limited supply is just going to make them fight over it."

"I get it," Soze sighed. "I just hope we can resolve this peacefully."

"And if you can't?" Jorda asked.

"Well...I still have an idea, but hopefully, we won't need something that pointless."