Chapter 2: The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

Nestled inside New Haven’s District 11, or the traditional Japanese district, Tsuyoi! Ramen was a relatively new edition which served upscale artisan ramen. Both its interior and exterior looked like a ramen shop should, a perfect fusion of East meets West in terms of décor and functioning practicality. Noren curtains hung outside the entrance to show that the store was open while tables and booths furnished the dining area. Japanese placards hung on the walls and proudly displayed the store’s menu in both English and Japanese. On the main service counter, really cute chibis of now extinct animals were on display, immortalized in digital porcelain. The air was saturated with the scent of pork-bone broth.

Food is a universally understood concept amongst every human civilization because food is life. Different cultures may have different ideas about religion, politics, or other petty divisions but everyone can enjoy a good bowl of ramen. When Marco Polo encountered noodles for the first time in the Orient, he liked them so much he brought back the idea with him, just like how the Spanish Conquistadors brought back tomato seeds, hence the origin of spaghetti. That’s right – spaghetti, the staple of Italian cuisine, is fusion. And you know what else is fusion? Religion and politics. This shit is custom-made to divide people from seeing the truth.

As the trio made their way into Tsuyoi! Ramen, they were greeted by a comforting hustle and bustle of diners, servers, and Cynthia #1117, a freckled brunette wearing a white shirt with a black apron tied in front. Cynthia was the person manning the front counter and she looked positively vibrant.

“Irasshaimase!” Cynthia shouted with a big, bright smile. “Table or booth?”

It might seem incredulous that someone might enjoy being a server but people can enjoy a lot of things when the pay is good.

“Booth,” Aaron replied.

“Please! This way,” Cynthia said before picking up a bunch of menus from the counter and leading the trio to their seats.

The table they’d been brought to was a beater of a table – well used, but well-taken care of. Even though this was a virtual environment, developers quickly realized that people were more engrossed in the simulation when there was wear and tear instead of something perpetually new. That’s why the tables were even a little bit sticky. It really was a good simulation.

After everyone had been seated, Cynthia handed everyone their menus and said, “I’ll be right back with some water. Please take your time.” Then, she walked away and disappeared after turning a corner into the kitchen.

“All right, ground rules. One bowl, no extras,” said Aaron before he opened up his menu.

“Can I get extras if I promise not to get the most expensive thing on the menu?” Riley asked.

“Okay, new rules: I will get you the best ramen 3,000 Zeni can buy,” said Aaron.

“I’m going to get the store specialty,” said Lucius.

Aaron quickly looked up what it was – Shoyu Ramen, priced at a reasonable 2,500 Zeni.

“Excellent choice,” Aaron said approvingly.

“I want Tom Yum with a steak,” said Riley.

Aaron then looked up how much that cost and it cost 3,200 Zeni.

“Too much; get something else,” said Aaron.

“It’s fine – he’s subsidizing me,” Riley emphasized while pointing at Lucius.

“That’s not how this works,” said Aaron.

Lucius turned to Riley and asked, “You gonna share the steak?”

“I can share,” Riley replied.

“Okay. I’m on her side,” said Lucius.

Aaron sighed in defeat and acquiesced with a quiet nod.

When Cynthia returned, everyone got their waters and placed their orders.

“So you guys want a Shoyu ramen with thin noodles, a Shoyu ramen with thick noodles and extra garlic, and a Tom Yum with rare steak, right?” Cynthia parroted.

“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed.

“Got it. Okay! I’ll put the order in the kitchen!” Cynthia said before departing again.

Even though it were possible to immediately generate unlimited quantities of food, people found that such things by themselves were not enjoyable. Taste and ingestion meant little without hunger and similarly, reward without effort was equally unsatisfying. Even a child knows how hollow it feels when someone lets them win. You see, most people aren’t naturally lazy – they don’t want to be given things, they want to do, earn, and accomplish things themselves. People naturally have passions and pursuits. They want to work in the sense that they want to exert themselves. However, it’s society and the invisible hand which determines what work is beneficial, not the individual and it’s society which values productivity, or the production of goods and services, over personal fulfillment.

But that’s not the only problem. The main and perhaps the most persistent problem with the invisible hand is that as a system of resource allocation, free market economics isn’t actually efficient. Empirically, it’s garbage at organizing resources because it is only efficient in terms of maximizing profit in the form of money and nothing else. Very often, free market economics is both harmful and wasteful. For example, in the 21st century, it was cheaper to grow cotton in America, ship it to Bangladesh, take advantage of the difference in labor costs to make T-shirts, then ship it back to America for sale and distribution – emissions and marine life be damned. From there, extrapolate for all types of imported and exported goods for this is the true nature of globalization. Even worse, the invisible hand is incapable of fairness or empathy for it can only price and quantify things in terms of money so people working dead end jobs or kids losing fingers to stitch soccer balls in China is a-okay. Without restraint, the invisible hand, like any other invisible appendage, will inevitably molest you.

And so, in order to enhance the allure and realism of the virtual world, most of the methods and means of production were simply ported over while tweaking the various rates of yield production. For example, agriculture still requires the physical action of planting crops, waiting for them to grow, harvesting them, processing them, and finally, storage and channels of distribution. The difficulty had been severely reduced as things like back-pain or carpal tunnel syndrome doesn’t exist anymore. As a result, a player who enjoys farming more than hunting may farm for their enjoyment instead while their crops are protected from unexpected blight and failure. From there, supply and demand for said crops is artificially controlled via an in-game agricultural board, which is the only channel for which a farmer may directly sell their crops. The agricultural board owns all the arable land of farm status then leases them out to prospective farmers along with production quotas. This gives only a limited number of farmers the right to farm. If there were a lot of farmer players who want to farm, individual production quotas go down. If there were only a few players who want to farm, individual production quotas go up. Since there is no additional compensation for exceeding the quota, over-farming is discouraged for these for-profit farmers. Recreational farmers do not have farm status and therefore cannot sell their crops.

This, along with Bernard #665 straining ramen in the back, is what makes the ramen here at Tsuyoi! Ramen artisan.

When Cynthia returned, she returned with three, pipping hot bowls of ramen and the trio were eager to devour them.

“Sorry for the wait! Here’s your ramen! Shoyu with thin noodles for you, Shoyu with thick noodles and extra garlic for you, and a Tom Yum with rare steak for the princess. Enjoy!” chirped the server.

Lucius took a big whiff of the ramen in front of him and then said to Aaron, “Well, I guess we should toast to you or something.”

“To Aaron! We hope you get promoted,” said Riley.

“Hear, hear,” said Lucius.

“Thanks,” said Aaron. “Itadakimasu?”

“Itadakimasu!” Lucius and Riley uttered together.

The ramen was delicious. The broth tasted salty and rich while the noodles were chewy and had texture. It was hot. Each slurp felt refreshing and left a pleasantly lingering aftertaste.

“Man, I can’t get over how good this is,” said Riley.

“Me neither. This is really good and it’s not just the hunger mechanic,” Lucius said in agreement.

“I don’t know. It’s all right I guess, but I don’t think it’s worth 2,500 a bowl,” Aaron opined.

“Oh, stop being so stingy,” Riley said disparagingly.

“Yeah, man. We’re coming back here,” said Lucius.

“We were out there for almost 8 hours. Even horse meat tastes good when you’re hungry – just sayin’,” Aaron remarked with a shrug.

Lucius turned to Aaron and said, “Dude, shut up.” Then, he turned to Riley and said, “Gimme some of that steak.”

In response, Riley sucked her teeth.

“Man!~ I was really hoping you’d forget,” Riley trilled before she offered up part of her steak, which was still sizzling on a little cast-iron plate resting atop a heat-insulating wooden base.

“Come to papa,” said Lucius before he picked up a piece of steak with his chopsticks.

“Can I have one?” Aaron asked.

“No,” said Riley.

“No bandit plates! If you want steak, go order another one,” said Lucius.

“Yeah, cheapskate! More! Steak! More! Steak!” Riley chanted.

“Man, I fucking hate you guys,” Aaron grumbled, but no one really cared.