A very slight sigh.

"Probably the fix I'm looking for is convincing and - importantly - dead cheap alternatives. Vat meat, vat eggs, in sci fi terms."

"Star Trek replicators."

"Oh, those are a much greater challenge than mere vat meat. But yes."

"I'm all for it if it's really dead cheap."

"The almighty dollar is powerful indeed."

"That makes it sound like some kind of cynical evil capitalism thing? Like, the things people are buying with the dollars matter and doing it with currency doesn't make it matter less than it would if we were in a paradisaical gift economy. Before people could afford meat and eggs in part because of them getting so dirt cheap, they were far more routinely malnourished."

"Not quite what I meant. It's just, yeah, corporations exist to make money, and- Having lots of money is a very powerful lever, because of how it's the universal barter good, and that's not good or evil it just kind of is, money enables chicken torture and addictive drugs just as much as dungeon rescues and bed nets."

"Yeah. Ren was vegetarian for three months once but she didn't feel quite healthy like that so she stopped."

"Mmh. I don't even keep to this that strenuously myself honestly. I don't think it makes me a hypocrite or anything. I ate fast food which is definitely the cheap kind of chicken. It's just... I don't know. Aspiration... Want to start the game back up?"

"Sure." What is in store in the next level?

It's another tutorial-ish one; They're making onion soup by the bucketload. The big counter in the way reinforces the idea that the players need to divide up the kitchen and work together!

"This is the last so easy you don't really have to think about it one, I promise. And once again, as soon as you get bored let me know."

"I'll give it at least this level and probably the next one before making a call on it probably. How's it assign starting positions?"

"Oh, sure, there's loads of games, this isn't even one of my favorites- I'll clean those dirty dishes, come down for a sec to chop- I think they're just preset for player 1 and 2. You can leave ingredients on the floor and there's no penalty by the way."

"Well that's not very sanitary. Here's your onions, is picking stuff off the floor the same as - there we go -"

"Oh, the later kitchens are wildly impractical. One of the levels has rats. Let's just- The stove's time is king for this level, just stack like three cut onions at once there we go-"

"Do the rats steal the ingredients or are they decorative?"

"They steal the ingredients. Anything plated is safe though. There's also like, conveyer belt monstrosities."

"Conveyor belt monstrosities? I need counter space."

"I'm clearing it as fast as you're adding it, let's, raw onions left side cut onions right side. Oof sorry." The two chefs ran into each other onscreen and lost like one second. "Conveyor belts going straight to the trash so you only have like one second to grab stuff."

"Wow, harsh. Are the kitchens supposed to be like the dungeons of this setting? Just, instead of dungeons, gratuitously evil kitchens."

"Huh that would make a lot of sense actually. Some of the later ones are really mean, they can kill you, you come back after five seconds though."

"Dungeons would probably do that if they could."

"It's probably good that humans can't get - whatever dungeons get - out of torturing humans."

The music speeds up! Thirty seconds left.

Onions onions onions! "I think the best guess is that they're feeding somehow but it's really hard to be sure."

"None of them ever - talk, have writing? -Oop that's it, no way we can make another in twelve seconds, the stove takes fifteen. We're done."