When the ship reaches the continent, the captain tells the volunteers that they have to follow the rules of the game. He tells them that they are in the "renowned / Fog sea / It takes five days to get to / zu . . and that some of the volunteers have failed the simplest part of the rules. He says that he would rather die than be a slave to the ship's rules. The captain says that the ship is "riddled with complex formations" and that the volunteers are doomed if they don't adhere to the rules and work hard. He asks the volunteers which one of them would be willing to let the "sloppy guys have their back" . They all agree that the captain's words are true. They decide that the only way to organize the volunteers is to have them team up on their own. They realize that there are only 537 people on the ship and that 7 of them will be left. They also realize that one of the groups is invalid because the captain has snatched a man away. The remaining 77 people will be relegated to the "lowest rank of volunteers." They also learn that they will have to catch "the virtual lip fish" , which is a type of fish that emerges from the fog. They learn that the blood of the fish is a "precious virtualization material" and they must work hard to catch these fish.