The room was clean. That was the first thing I noticed when the red dawn light filtered into the room again. The dust was gone from the bed, and the clutter was no longer filling this room. It felt so big, the ceilings so high.

I sat up, staring at the mirror. It wasn’t difficult to remember what happened last night, because I had no dreams to make me feel like it had happened a while ago. Not only was there a wolf creature prowling around the woods, but the house was haunted.

Of course it was haunted.

I threw the covers back and shot out of bed. Determination drove me as I grabbed a bag and started with the VHS’s. I gathered up a garbage bag full of horror movies and carried them to the dumpster before dropping them in.

The dumpster seemed to hesitate before it came up with a +.00

“I don’t care,” I muttered to myself as I went back to collect the rest of them.

Once the VHS’s were in the dumpster, I gathered all the books stuffed in the bookshelf. Those, too, gave zero dopamine points, but I didn’t care. If I was going to clean this place, I would make it comfortable for me. I did not want anything in the horror genre in this haunted house.

Absolutely not.

It didn’t take any of my stamina. My sanity still was at seventy-five percent. No doubt that shrieking ghost took another dent out of my sanity. I didn’t bother checking it last night. I was too busy trying to make myself unconscious so I wouldn’t have to deal with a mirror ghost.

With that all done, I walked into the kitchen. I lost maybe a half an hour of the day, but I didn’t care. Even if it didn’t reflect it on the bar, I had to do this for my own sanity.

I picked up the phone and pressed one.

“In two days, they will come. In two days, they will start to destroy. Anything you didn’t complete on your to-do list from yesterday will be added to this new list. If you do not finish your to-do list, you may not go to bed until midnight, or until your sanity drops to 20 percent.”

“Build protection around your green houses

“Find the river

“Discover clay and stone

“Gather 0/10 clay to the food storage room

“Gather 0/10 stone to the food storage room

“More instructions will follow.”

I stared at the phone. There was clay here. And stone. Probably for more building options. Or to make sure the fences were strong enough. There were a lot of options for that.

I tore off the to-do list and got to work. I made sure I had my trapper hat as I walked out to the green house. It had a smaller amount of firewood and boards, so that would be easy enough. First, because I was thinking about it, I went in there and picked more tomatoes and watered them. I put the basket of tomatoes in the food storage room before chopping down a few trees. I put in the firewood, then the boards. A smaller fence popped up around the greenhouses, and I was happy to see it looking protected. Whoever they are, hopefully they couldn’t throw rocks.

I heard the river, and I gave the house one more look. I didn’t want to get lost. From what I could tell, this was a huge forest, with a prowling wolf monster. I kept an eye on the sunlight in the hazy sky as I walked.

I was going in a northern direction, and as soon as I was out of sight of the house, I found the river. It wasn’t moving too fast. I approached it cautiously.

My eyes were freaking out. Numbers were vibrating above stones and clay. There was a ton here, and with the lower river, it was a perfect time to collect it.

Turns out clay and stone could only be brought one at a time. The monotony of it all was what I struggled with the most. Farming games were fun, as long as the developers managed to walk that fine line of making sure the monotony didn’t get too much.

“Any help, neutral party above?” I muttered.

There wasn’t much, so I kept going. My lips pursed into a line as I spent the majority of the afternoon taking clay, then stone, into the storage area.

By the time the sun was dipping toward the line of trees, I was done. All the stone and clay was in the storage room, and I sat on the concrete, feeling a wave of emotions that ended up making me feel empty. I closed my eyes, trying to gather the pieces of what I did know.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

This was not reality. That much I knew. I was transported here somehow, and asked to play this game. The more I played, the more pieces of information I would receive. There was a group of people above me who claimed to be neutral. My name was Quinn. There was a wolf monster, and a shrieking ghost that started haunting the house once it got dark. They were coming soon.

I remained on the ground as everything swirled around me. My to-do list was done, the sun was setting, and I should go to bed. I’d done everything, and yet I felt like I was drowning. It was the similar feeling of working hard then finally getting a breath of fresh air and realizing I was still in the middle of the ocean with no way to rest.

I got to my feet and walked over to the clipboard, flipping to the end to check my progress. There were six areas of progress, though the last one was still locked away.

Farming level 2

Cleaning level 5

Logging level 6

Cooking level 1

Building level 3

I had 6.50 total points, so I bought those steel-toed boots so I could drop five logs. I didn’t care what tomorrow’s to-do list would be. I dropped the clipboard, and it clattered against the wall. I walked inside and locked the back door, then went to the front door and locked that before climbing into bed.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, this isolation will kill me. I… I need someone to talk to. Even if it’s an NPC or something. Anything.” I closed my eyes, tears spilling over. “And whoever it is, please… don’t let them get hurt. I can’t befriend someone and have them taken away by… by them. I just need this one thing. I need a friend who won’t die.”

I closed my eyes and the power of game logic forced me into sleep.

And forced me to wake up when the dawn light appeared again. I rubbed my head as I walked out of the bedroom. Seriously, I needed to sleep in my nightgown sometime. I just never got to the point of caring at nighttime.

I opened the bedroom door and stepped into the entertainment room before my feet froze in place. The VHS’s and the books were back. I blinked, the unease that was always in my gut returning in full force. I couldn’t deal with this right now.

I stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, pressing the button to listen to the message.

“At midnight, they will come. At midnight, they will start to destroy. Anything you didn’t complete on your to-do list from yesterday will be added to this new list. If you do not finish your to-do list, you may not go to bed until midnight, or until your sanity drops to 20 percent.

“Purchase one article of clothing from animal care

“Finish all previous items on your to-do list.”

The phone beeped, and I glanced at the list. It seemed like the neutral party over my care had planned on giving me an easy day in case I had a lot from previous to-do’s I didn’t finish. It was surprisingly considerate of them.

Which meant, since I worked so hard, I had a day of doing whatever I wanted. Well, almost anything I wanted. I needed to buy something from the newly unlocked section of animal care.

That did remind me that I might as well start on the chicken coop. The more boards I could get in now, the more I wouldn’t have to worry about later. Also, I needed some dopamine points. I only had 3.50 total points, and I needed 5.00 to get the animal care clothes.

With both the plaid shirt and the steel-toed boots, I was getting five logs at a time, and it wasn’t taking nine or ten thwacks with the axe, either. That was really nice. Though it still took huge chunks of my stamina. I wasn’t a fan of that.

I sacrificed one of the boards into the dumpster to give me 13.50 total dopamine points. Once that was done, I carried four boards at a time over to the chicken coop and dropped them in. I kept going until all the boards were gone.

9/100 boards

I would get there. Eventually.

Once the boards were gone, I quickly ran over to the greenhouse and did my picking of the tomatoes before giving them a good watering. I placed the tomatoes on the ground before glancing at the soup I made a couple days ago. Despite this place being covered in cobwebs, that soup looked ready to eat. Still smoking a bit, too.

I shook my head and walked out of the food storage room and grabbed the clipboard. The animal care clothes had a long sleeve shirt and jeans, with bite protective gloves, boots, and a hair tie. It seemed simple enough.

I chose the hair tie. Though my hair didn’t get too involved in my face with game logic being applied, it was still nice to have it pulled back. The trapper hat disappeared, and my hair was all up in a ponytail. I touched my hair, feeling it off my neck. It would be so much easier to-

A noise came from outside. I slowly lowered my hands, my eyes darting out the screen door. Something was out there, but since it was barely the afternoon, I didn’t feel as nervous.

I opened the screen door and walked out, frowning. Whatever was out here, I was determined to find out what it was. The noise became more distinguishable the closer I got to the front door. There was a good chance I was imagining it, but it sounded like meowing.

I peeked my head around the edge of the house to see the front porch. A little kitten had her paw stuck in a rope, and my heart practically disappeared with how fast it melted.

“Oh, hey. Hey, little one,” I said, rushing toward the kitty.

She meowed at me, sounding distressed. She was so small. I quickly undid the rope and picked up the kitten.

“Hey, where’d you come from?” I petted her head, seeing a collar around her neck with a name printed on a tag. “What’s your name, girl?” I asked, gently taking the tag so I could read it.

Unkillable

My heart quickly molded back into place before pounding in my chest. I kept petting the kitten’s head. The kitten, who I guess was named Unkillable, started to purr. I brought the kitten closer, giving her a hug as she shivered.

“Well… that name better be a sign that you won’t actually be killed,” I said, lifting the kitten as she continued to purr. I closed my eyes, holding her close again. “Because if something does happen to you, so help me, I will light a torch to this entire forest and burn it all to the ground.”

I opened my eyes, staring at the sky. “I assume you can read my mind and know I’m not joking.”