Chương 96: CHAPTER 92 — Population Crisis

Mark had called a zone-wide planning meeting for today. They were having a population crisis, and they needed to resolve it soon. It has been getting more obvious to all that there were food shortages, and even finding enough clear room to set up a tent was getting to be an issue. The region was a forest unless they planned to chop down all the trees; then they just no longer had room. They had decided to meet at Crossroads, as it had the largest area, and even it was not large enough for all who wanted to attend.

When Mark arrived, he could already see that it was going to be out of hand; there were already arguments. He walked to the center of the group and cleared his throat in preparations to talk. Mark started to talk.

"Thank you to everyone who came. We are having a population crisis; there are over 300 people in the zone, and we are gaining more every day. We have housing for about 160 if everyone took a spot in each of the villages. That means we have more than 140 people and growing each day that do not even have a bed available and no real space to build more." Then mark received a system message. [Regional Development Milestone Recognized] Large-scale settlement planning underway.

Contribution toward future class advancement increased. Dale then spoke, "The bigger issue though is the food and supplies issue we're having. Local resources are being overused. People bringing in meat found in the local forest has almost dried up. If we don't stop overharvesting now, we will kill off all the wildlife, and then even if we had only the 160 people, they would starve from local resources."

Mark said, "We know that not everyone wants to leave, nor do we want a mass exodus, but we need to find proper housing for everyone, and we need to make sure everyone has a job they can do and preferably one they want to do." Jarek then spoke, "I am part of the committee that helps organize and schedule those running the cave instances. We can only run 5 teams at a time twice a day at the most. Which means only 50 people a day can go through the cave.

And that is if they all did the level two instances, which only run an hour or two. But most of the larger instances are taking about 8-12 hours to run, meaning only one team a day makes it through them rather than two. Meaning its more around 30 a day we can accommodate." Mark said, "We have been talking about the queue for the cave, and no matter where you live, either here in this zone or south of here, where there is more open available land, you will still get your turn in the cave.

So the location of where you live will not affect your chance to visit." John said, "I am concerned about worker shortages if everyone moves south. It's too far to live there and work here." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Sam, one of the miners said.

"We have just started mining; you can't make us leave." Mark replied.

"We are not asking everyone to move or even half, but we must start moving to a location that can support everyone." Elias said, "We need people with specific skills or those that want to gain those skills. We have more farmland than there is forest in this zone. We need people that would like to farm or work with livestock we have horses, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, and the list goes on."

Garrick said, "We need to build a village and build bridges over the rivers; we have a water mill and lumber-cutting operation that needs builders and workers. We need craftsmen and specialists of all trades to help build infrastructure and buildings, inns, houses, stores, warehouses, shops, restaurants, and businesses of all kinds." Cora said, "We need trails, roads, and infrastructure built so that travel and trade can be accomplished.

We need scouts, and runners, and wagon drivers, and all kinds of other help with building a proper system to travel and trade." Tom said, "We need tradespeople. Even more people will end up in that area than here. We need leather workers, tailors, alchemists, and the list goes on to supply the goods and materials those people will need." Dale said, "I plan to go there and build the finest restaurant that anyone has ever seen."

Someone in the crowd moaned, "There goes the food; we are sure to starve now," which caused many to laugh. Mark said, "The system here cannot support us all, and we are not abandoning it. We're just diversifying our abilities. We will have better food production there and will be able to trade back to this zone and others. We have already signed trade deals to support the zone to the west that is having similar issues with food production. They are also sending people to farm and help with the animals.

Just think if we moved enough south, then when you got your turn in the cave, there would be room to stay in the longhouses rather than sleep in a tent in a muddy field." People at that point started to talk over everyone; some said they planned to go, and others said they would never go. But those that were leaders knew that some must leave so that they can get food and have shelter for those that will be staying to work.

Mark then brought up the system map showing the zone and their planned village and outposts along with proposed roads and trails. It finally silenced the crowd. Someone in the crowd started to say, "The southern village…" but they got cut off by another.

"Village? They are not planning a town maybe, or they are planning a city." The conversation continued for more than two hours. They talked about how, why, and when this would all happen. But in the end it was a unanimous decision that it was happening. Even those that could not or would not move knew it was the right move to make, or none of them would survive. And they all remembered well the integration message, survive or die. The meeting finally ended, and everyone went back to their normal activities.

He could see that Cora was gathering workers and sending out runners; Garrick was doing the same. He knew that within the hours the initial groups would be heading south even though they never picked a date or time. Mark slowly walked back to his cabin. Forest's Rest had been where he survived. The south would become where they as a group would live.