"Sorry. That was improper of me," Laurel said. Her cheeks still blossomed with embarrassment. The light of the campfire masked her reddened cheeks.
"It's fine, Laurel. Everyone here also wanted to go home. It's not just you," Shingo chuckled while adding several branches to the fire. Anna nodded as well.
"I miss Mom and Dad as well. My brother and sister too," Anna sobbed.
"Hmpf! Instead of moping, we should think hard about how to get off this island!" Lexus scoffed. "You guys are crybabies!"
"Stop talking if you don't have anything useful to say, Lexus," Laurel scoffed.
"What did you say?"
"Then, do you have any idea what we should do?"
"Grr! Tch!" Lexus turned his head away, stewing in his anger.
"See? You don't have any plans at all!"
"It's not like you have any plans either! Come on, Miss Class Rep! What's your plan?"
"I propose we explore the island. If there is nothing here, we can build a boat to travel to other islands," Laurel said.
"Hah? Aren't you the one saying that there is nothing here? Moreover, do you seriously want to go to the sea? Those monsters in the sea are bigger than a house!"
"We will manage somehow! There is no other way. We have to explore this land; otherwise, we won't return to our colonies."
"That's reckless!"
"Do you want to spend the rest of your whole life on this planet?"
"I would rather die than live like a caveman here," Lexus admitted.
"Good. For once, I agree with you." Laurel crossed her arms, her chin raised, giving a smug look.
"But how do we even make a ship? We don't have a liquid craftable polymer here," Lexus groaned, remembering his ugly animal cell model made using expensive clay polymer.
"I recall it should be possible to make one with wood. I have seen one in games," Shingo frowned and looked over to Mistral. "Mistral, can we make a ship?"
[It is not possible to make a similar ship you see in Dragon Castle. However, it is possible to make a raft. Wood is naturally buoyant in water, so if you tie pieces of wood together, you can make a raft. Then you can use wooden plank as paddles to row the raft.]
"I see. That sounds like a plan." Shingo nodded.
"Guys, we need to think about food," Lazarus said as she gave each of them another nutrient slab.
"Hah? We still have lots, right?" Lexus answered.
"We have 100 bars of nutrient slabs. That is enough for 14 days of food. We have been here for almost one week now, so we are down half, right?" Laurel said. Lazarus nodded.
"So, we still have lots, right?" Lexus said, unbothered. "There were a lot of fruit near the lake. If we run out, we can just pick some of them."
"Lexus, this is an alien planet. We don't know if the food is safe," Shingo said.
"I would be surprised if there is any food that is safe," Anna said as she turned toward the glowing forest. "Even the trees are different at night. They glow."
"Yes. That's the problem. There are fruits near the lake, but we don't know for sure." Laurel inspected the pictures they had gathered at noon.
"Say, this is confusing. Let's just say we have only been here for three days," Anna said. "One day is supposed to be when the sun goes up and down."
"Even though the day and night are fake inside the colony?" Lexus scoffed.
"…Sorry," Anna yielded.
"Understood. It is certainly confusing when we keep using Earth days in this alien land. Let's change it. That means one day and night is roughly forty-eight hours, and our supplies will only last for a week," Laurel said.
"Some animals ate those fruits and berries near the lake. We should observe them. If there are animals that are similar to us, we should be fine," Xiaolang said.
"Hah? What kind of similarity do we have with these animals?"
"The cloud strider and those flipping pigs have red blood, unlike those purple amoebas. We might not be so far apart, Lexus," Xiaolang said. "The purple amoebas are a different story, though."
"... Hmmm. I think you might be right. So, are you saying they might eat the same food as us?"
"Or we can eat them ourselves. They are meat," Xiaolang said.
"No! We can't do that! Those pitiful creatures!" Lazarus yelled. "We can't eat them!"
"It's the law of the jungle here. We are not breaking any rules, Lazarus. Besides, you know that some animals need to eat other animals to survive, right? We are the same."
"We are not! There is cultured meat!" Lazarus argued.
"There isn't any in this world," Xiaolang said.
"There are plenty of fruits! We should eat them first. Animals should be left as the last resort!" Lazarus argued back.
"Hah? Are you saying we all should be vegetarian? Hell no! I want to eat meat!" Lexus said.
"Calm down, everyone. Lazarus is correct; natural meat is dangerous. Fish sometimes have parasites, right?" Laurel said.
"Better than the alternatives, Laurel. We don't know if the fruits here are edible. Some animals can handle poisonous food just fine."
"Ugh…" Laurel groaned.
"Everyone… um… we have a water spectrometer, right? How about if we use it to see whether the food is poisonous or not?" Anna asked.
"Idiot. It's called a water spectrometer for a reason. It only works for water." Lexus shrugged.
"Umm. I think it could work. Mistral, couldn't we dilute a food sample inside water?" Shingo said.
"Yeah. Any toxin should be diluted into the water and detected by a water spectrometer." Anna nodded.
[Identifying whether a food is safe or not using a water spectrometer by homogenizing the food into water is possible.]
"Eh? It's possible?" Laurel was surprised.
[Yes. The USF also used a similar method to determine whether food was safe. They would take a sample of the food, dilute it in water, and use a lab-grade spectrometer to see whether dangerous toxins such as botulinum were present in the food.]
"Oh. That was surprising. I didn't know that. Good work, Anna, Shingo. We can now identify food and water using a water spectrometer," Laurel nodded. That was one thing off her mind now. Tomorrow, they would try to find food.
"Um… we should also explore the island. How about going to the eastern plain tomorrow?" Bob said.
"What about the water duty? We need to collect more water than normal to test the food, right?" Lazarus said.
"That's…"
"My body also feels sticky and gross. I want to take a bath," Anna said.
"We don't even have a change of clothes here," Laurel muttered, feeling how gross her body felt. "How are we going to do laundry?"
"Lazarus can sew, right? Can't she make clothes?" Lexus pointed at her.
"Knitting clothes needs weeks! I don't have any yarn for that! I don't even have the charts and pattern notes!" Lazarus said. She could knit, but she was a beginner. She could still feel the embarrassment from three months prior when her orphanage brother and sister laughed at her attempt to make a scarf. Her scarf was not only crooked, but it was too short as well.
"Pattern? Charts? Are you making a house?" Lexus asked. Mistral answered.
[A knitting pattern is a set of instructions that tells you what stitch to use, how many stitches to cast on, when to increase or decrease, how big to make each part, and how to assemble the piece such as sleeves, collar, etc.
A knitting chart is a sort of blueprint: pictures of the end product with symbols incorporated instead of text instructions.]
"You don't need to explain that, Mistral. Everyone knows Lexus is stupid," Shingo sighed.
"But in games and movies, don't they use fur or leaves as clothes? I wonder if we can do that," Anna said.
"Wasn't fur incredibly expensive?" Lazarus said.
"The problem isn't the price, but that we don't have any domesticated animals here. Besides, fur is made after killing the animals," Xiaolang said.
"Eh? Really? Wasn't fur the same as wool? It was made after shearing an animal's hair, right?" Lazarus was shocked.
[Not quite. Fur is the animal's coat with skin still attached, while wool is the soft, curly fiber taken by shearing live animals. Mostly sheep.]
"Then that's a no!"
"Lazarus, I didn't say we need to kill it. But if we find some animal remains, we could scavenge them, right?" Xiaolang said while reaching into his pocket. There was an obsidian shard and a bone. "Similar to this. These are the rocks and bones I found in the mountains. See, they fit each other. I think I can make a knife out of this."
"Whoa! Awesome! Let me borrow one!" Lexus reached out for the impromptu knife, but Xiaolang took it back into his pocket.
"No. It is not done yet. I am planning to work on it tonight. Besides, you would just break it. This is a valuable tool."
"Tch! It is just some rock from a mountain, right? Don't get cocky."
"If you can climb that mountain and back safely, bringing me more rocks and bones, I would give it to you. I can't promise the birds there will be friendly with an obnoxious brat like you, though," Xiaolang sneered.
"What did you say? So arrogant." Lexus pouted.
"So, who will be on food duty?" Laurel ignored Lexus.
"Can't we combine them with water duties? They are in the same place, right?"
"Hah… sure. How about tomorrow you go on water duty and food duty," Xiaolang sighed.
"Hey! That's not fair. The water is heavy!"
"So you know. Are you doing this on purpose?" Xiaolang glared.
"I mean, we should just move near the lake and river," Lexus said.
"Lexus. You know it's not safe," Laurel sighed in exasperation. This idiot has suggested this before; why did he suggest it again?
"You know what, I think Lexus has a point. We shouldn't move to the lake until we have a house, but at least we could boil the water there," Shingo said.
"And bring the pot there and back?" Laurel asked. She would normally dismiss this if it came from Lexus, but Shingo was the one who said it. He should be more thoughtful than him.
"We didn't need to bring the pot back. We could just leave it there," Shingo said.
"What if someone stole it?" Laurel asked.
"There is no one here, Laurel. I don't think animals have any use for a metal wok or pot, though…" Shingo said.
"Why would we need to move the cooking area there instead of here to begin with?"
"We are losing about a single bottle when we boil the water with every trip here. I thought it would be more efficient if we cooked there," Shingo said.
"Ah! I see. You are right. I agree. Let's move the cooking place there." Laurel nodded. As Shingo said, there shouldn't be thieves here.
"Let's all sing! To our survival!" Lazarus cheered.
"Alright! Let's bring out the music!" they cheered.
Little did they know that invisible danger lurked—the thing all survivors feared.
Father! Why are we apologizing? Shouldn't we have the right to defend ourselves? I don't care if he is rich! He insulted you and Mother! ~ Bob