Chapter 276: Planning Committee

The so-called "Planning Committee" basically consisted of one member of every ten-person team in town.

Even the newbies hadn’t been excluded.

The ones that had a proper team had sent someone to the group to represent their interests, and that had balanced things out rather well, in Kalli’s opinion. It wouldn’t just be the concerns of those with the most combat power that were speaking, but those who were grinding the lower level dungeons, trying to get their power up to par for the next trial.

"Good, we’re all here now. Let’s get this started." Sanchez began.

"We have been putting a lot of thought into just what the System is likely to want from us during a trial that is designed to improve the quality of life of the people of Marimgar. The System said that it was a Hard Difficulty trial, but we haven’t seen anything that would even be considered a threat, other than the heavy rain.

So, it is my opinion, and that of many others here, that we have overlooked something obvious.

That is the purpose of our meeting here today.

We are going to go over the ideas that everyone has to make the trial more successful, and to better improve the living conditions of our people.

There are a few obvious ones we can get out of the way.

We have plenty of food, enough that we will soon be able to relax the strict rationing, though I believe that we’re all in agreement with keeping the ration cards. They’re something like a debit card from the old world, and we can increase the limit on them as appropriate.

Clothing is coming along well, with our cloth factory running at one hundred percent output.

They could likely use an expansion, as we’ve got more tubers growing than we know what to do with. But for now, they’re doing their best."

Kalli raised her hand to stop him for a moment. "I can upgrade the textile mill. Expand it and add some fancier tools. That will let them pump out much more than they currently do, and keep the city supplied with cloth."

Food, clothing, and shelter. Those were the basics, and shipping bulk cloth to the hive city would allow Marimgar to develop its own fashion identity.

That had to count for something.

Sanchez continued. "However, that doesn’t account for the fact that the System called this a Hard Mode trial. We are definitely missing something, some opportunity, that would let us develop either to a much higher level, or at a faster rate.

Who wants to start with a suggestion?"

There was a short pause, as everyone thought about what should be presented first.

There were a lot of possible options, but most of them had major flaws that would be immediately called out.

After a few seconds, Yara stood to address the room.

"I have a suggestion, and I think that it’s one of the major things we’re missing.

Training.

We should be specifically training level 0 residents to encourage the System to give them trade related skills. We’ve got plenty of warriors already, but we’re desperately short on System related trade skills.

Cooks, weavers, tinkers.

I think that we should start classes again at the Academy, and have those with the skills teach classes for those looking to learn them.

There is likely a reason that the System picked an Academy to put all the heroes at.

It doesn’t seem to be snobbish about who gets a class, but all of the first batch were linked to the Academy in some way. To me, that suggests that teaching should have been one of our goals. But we currently don’t have any formal classes going."

Kalli nodded as Yara sat down, and the room quietly discussed the proposal.

Sanchez took charge of the room again and stood to get their attention.

"Does anyone have a reason that we should not try this option?"

"Will it count toward the work mission?" One of the women asked after a few seconds.

Everyone turned to Kalli, who nodded. "Yes, teaching classes counts as skilled work, so that won’t be an issue. I doubt that you’ll be doing it for four hours a day, unless it’s an apprenticeship. But teaching classes can definitely make up part of your four hours."

That led to more chatter about the viability of the plan.

They all had many things to do every day, even the ones that were primarily craftsmen. But they could either make time or sacrifice some of their other activities like dungeon runs to make sure that the next batch of system users would be more than basic warriors.

Sanchez cleared his throat. "Well, we’ve already got the whole Library in the app, but learning random information isn’t going to get us anywhere. I vote in favour of the teaching proposal.

Can I get a show of hands in favour?"

Nearly every hand in the room went up, and Kalli smiled as she saw that most of the holdouts were those with rare skills, who really didn’t want to get roped into teaching.

They didn’t object to the idea on concept.

They just didn’t want to be the ones who had to do the teaching.

"Then that settles it. A schedule will be made, and announcements will be put in the app to get students interested in the classes. With some luck, we will be able to spread System skills that aren’t all fighting.

I have sent the proposal to the Coordinator, and she can work out the details."

Kalli sighed dramatically, while the room chuckled. There was never an outcome to this meeting that didn’t end with sending it to her to make the plans.

Her class was literally called "Coordinator", so it must be her job.

"Alright, what is our next suggestion?" Sanchez continued.

"Has there been any luck finding more signs of survivors?" Reggie asked.

Kalli shook her head. "There are some signs that there might be survivors at a few sites, but nothing definitive. The satellite networks are failing at an increasing pace, and we don’t have high definition coverage of most of the continent anymore."

The room fell silent, and Sanchez asked the obvious question.

"What about the ones who went to orbit? Any sign that they’re still active?"

Kalli nodded. "I don’t know if there’s anyone aboard, but I can confirm that at least three of the space stations are still in orbit. They’re just radio silent."