[NR] There Are References, Yes - Chapter 693

Suffice it to say, when the team rolled up to Helina’s office and offered to help with the hunting efforts, she was more than happy to have them. Not that there weren’t a sufficient number of people wanting to head out into the forest to hunt. Rather, as usual, they wanted to go into the Deep Wilds for their usual hunting, which doesn’t really bring food back to the settlement.

Helina happily sends them off to the gathering point, “Don’t forget that if the forest begins to look strange, you went too far! Only stuff you hunt right near the settlement should be brought back and that’s the stuff we’re looking for.”

Rosha has a stiff smile as she waves back, “No problem! We’ll keep an eye on it!” And then she rushes the other two away.

Once a good distance, she relaxes. “I’m going to guess she’s had an unpleasant experience with idiots bringing back bad food before. The first few reminders were more than enough.”

Courtney shrugs, “It is fair enough to be worried. While most things will be fine to eat. After all, you’re presumably surviving in the place you got it.”

Jason shakes his head, “That means nothing. First is because we’re actually at the point that we can be considered ‘high-level’, nevermind how much it feels like we’re not anywhere close. To the regular person, being near the fourth bottleneck is considered quite advanced.

“We simply have the benefit of being players. Both in the fact that our bottlenecks early on are less personalized and that we don’t have to worry about death. Even if we would hate to get ‘sent back to spawn’s, it wouldn’t stop us.”

Rosha, “And the second?”

Jason gestures around them, “It isn’t only the strong that visit here. Sure, only the strong go into the forest, but regular people live in the town for the money. People who would be toast just existing in some of the locations we can stroll through at this point.

“Whether it is something as simple as being a volcanic region with heat and the poisonous vapors or some sort of parasite. Being close to the fort and ‘normalcy’? I’m betting a decent part of that isn’t that they expect meat that isn’t digestible.

‘Rather, they’re likely worried about extra-System threats. This close to the System? Those sorts of problems are going to be neutralized. However, it would suck to accidentally bring back a parasite that System based healing and detection spells can’t handle.’

Rosha, “Oh! I think I get it. Reminds me of this super old, pre-collapse comic. NeoRealm proper is the normal world. Once you leave it though? All bets are off.

“Not that outside our controlled bubble is all a giant death zone. However, the checks and balances on power aren’t there. And of course, while not as bad here, just entering a System-less area can bring back a calamity.”

Courtney frowns, “Was this the food one or the one I dropped because I didn’t like what happened to the main character?”

Rosha frowns in return, “Maybe both? Though I’m sure they aren’t the only stories with a structure like that. If I had to choose one, it would be the food comic. The other had a much more hardcore divide between the ‘human’ world and the outer regions. I read them a long time ago as after a while, I kind of focused on sci-fi stuff.”

Courtney nods and pats her on the shoulder. “Yeah, anyone would want to escape from fantasy after how your father pushed you. I mean, just look at history! There’s a reason there aren’t multiple-choice questions in school at any level behind the earliest years.

“People could get by just by being good at taking tests. And math! What good is knowing the solution to a specific math problem if you don’t actually understand the formula being used? Nevermind the teachers weren’t paid enough.”

Rosha smiles at her, “The history lessons you got forced into really affected you. Lit a fire in your spirit.”

Courtney sighed, “What I do? We aren’t all that separated from when it would be looked down on. A servant? I would be underpaid, overworked, and unless I got lucky, likely working for someone who purposefully makes my life harder for their own amusement or simple laziness.

“You really don’t want to look into the kind of nonsense that happened just before some of the early sweeping changes began to happen. You could make a living off of harassing people. Random people you didn’t even know!”

Rosha grabs her hand for a moment and gives it a squeeze, “The internet was both one of the biggest blessings and worst of curses and I reserve my opinion on which comes out on top. Maybe once we get self-sustaining colonies off-planet I can label it under the good side of things.”

Courtney sighs, “We’re close to that. Though we’ve been close for decades. It is a simple fact that whoever makes that first trip is likely on a one-way trip. At least it isn’t like the failed red planet colony.”

Rosha laughs, “Maybe someday we can take the planet and make their attempted colony some sort of historical site. The folly of man is always amusing.”

Courtney, “Blarg, at the moment we’ve got the trip down to half a year. We just need to get a proper megastructure for going orbital.”

Rosha nods vigorously, “We totally do! In fact, maybe all this cultivator stuff will be the answer! Space elevators are a bit of a material science problem and it seems that we might be able to cheat now. Though I always did enjoy the various alternate structures. The concept of active support? Oh my!

“Being held up not because the material is that strong, but because you’re sending a bunch of material around at speed? If megastructures weren’t inherently so costly, I’m sure we would have managed it already.”

Off to the side, Jason notices the town gate coming up and cuts in, “Get ready, we’re about to leave town.

“Oh, and energized materials totally can do what you want. We’d have to find the right ratio, but earth energized steel can probably do what you want. The stuff is quite common as far as such things go and if we want to use sci-fi naming conventions, I’d probably call what I’m thinking of ‘Durasteel’.”