Since the girls' shelter was near the center of the village, Lavesh notices that the middle area looks like a marketplace where players can trade with each other. He walks over and stands there for a moment, watching the crowd. Several players are wandering around. One boy announces that tomorrow he plans to go outside the village and hunt monsters in the forest.
"If we form a party, it'll be easier to hunt," he says. "Whoever wants to come with me, come stand next to me. This world isn't Earth. It's full of monsters. To survive, we need to become strong. So if you want to live, team up with me. We'll divide the loot based on everyone's contribution. Anyone interested?"
Before Lavesh can react, someone calls his name. He turns and sees a girl player, Poornima.
"So you're here too," he says.
Poornima sighs. "What else can we do? And of course you ended up in this village too."
She asks, "Are you planning to form a party and go hunting tomorrow?"
"I'm terrified of monsters," Lavesh replies. "I was just looking at the village's architecture since morning." A clean, bold lie.
Poornima says, "There are more classmate here… Vaibhav, Chaitya, and Ansh. They're all in this village too. And did you choose a shelter apartment yet or not? Otherwise you can stay with us. Honestly, I can't cook anyway."
She adds, "Everyone only got bread and water. What do you think you're going to cook? Don't tell me you got dal and rice or something."
"Inventory open," Lavesh mutters, pulling out the food supplies box. He tells her, "Let's check what's inside. I'm sick of eating bread since morning."
He opens the box. Inside are 5 kg dal, 5 kg rice, 5 kg wheat flour, and 10 liters of water.
"Today's food problem is solved for all of us," he says, and places the box back into the inventory.
Poornima looks at him and asks, "How much space does your storage ring have? You're actually able to store a whole food supplies box?"
"Fifty slots," Lavesh answers. "That's why it fits."
After talking about a bunch of things, the two of them reach their shelter apartment. The moment they enter the building, they see their classmates sitting in the large hall on the ground floor.
"So how's everyone's studying going?" Lavesh asks. "There's some project submission tomorrow, right? Why are you sitting here? Go finish your work."
Vaibhav groans. "You're joking even here?"
Lavesh says, "But the submission is tomorrow. Hurry and work on it."
Chaitya shakes her head. "Grandpa, please stop joking and tell us where you were since morning. We've been looking all over the village for our classmates."
Lavesh says, "If you people went into the forest to hunt monsters, you'd get some loot too. Then you wouldn't be stuck eating bread."
Chaitya answers, "We're younger than you. We were just searching for someone from our class. Killing monsters might sound fun in a game, but in real life… we can't even imagine killing something like that."
"If you want to survive, you'll have to do everything," Lavesh says. "You all must have read those ten rules about how to survive in this world. So let me ask you… rule number ten says the barrier around the village lasts only for 30 days. What then? Won't monsters infiltrate? Who knows how dangerous or vicious they'll be?"
Poornima nods quietly. "We know. It could happen. We're trying to adjust too."