I threw back the covers, determined yet still shaking off residual fear from last night. I climbed out of bed and tiptoed toward the door that led to the hallway. Killi was walking around the room like she didn’t have a care in the world, which should have been a comfort to me, but the memory of last night, those bloody footprints, would not leave my mind. I was terrified last night, and as the red dawn light filled the room, I took a steadying breath and pushed open the door.

It was dark in this hallway, as there weren’t any windows. I clicked on the flashlight, shining it on the ground. No footprints. I took careful steps forward, my light bouncing everywhere, but I didn’t see any signs. I then pushed open the door to the kitchen, but the worn carpet in the kitchen was clear.

I turned off the light and leaned against the fridge, letting out a relieved breath. I had a feeling that they would disappear in the morning. All other paranormal activity only happened at night, but for my own sanity, I needed to make sure there weren’t residual footprints. I could almost chalk it all up as in my head, but I’d seen too many things in this house to think anything was in my head.

Though… honestly was everything in my head? I still didn’t know why I was here.

Play the game. Get answers.

Three full days before they came, with no unusually hot or cold weather. There were so many things I wanted to do, but for my own sanity, literally, I needed to finish the things on my list. For good measure, I glanced at my sanity bar and saw it completely full. Perfect. I needed to keep it that way.

The questions of what an upgraded garage would do was shoved to the back of my mind as I stuffed ten more clay bricks to be baked. I then dropped the junk from the porch into the dumpster before rushing to the greenhouse to do all the farming I needed to do there.

I then gathered another egg and made sure both Killie and the chicken had food and water.

“Daisy?” I asked the chicken. “For whatever reason, you feel like a Daisy.” The chicken didn’t reply, simply kept eating. I shrugged. “Daisy it is, unless you don’t like it. Then you can tell me what you’d rather have.”

I chuckled to myself, until I thought about what might happen if the alien overlords gave this chicken the ability to speak. Considering the logic of this game, it was a possibility, and might freak me out.

I then sat down and started cooking. I tried out the recipe of a simple cooked egg, but until I ate it, I wouldn’t know how much sanity it gave me. After I cooked the two eggs, I went through my collection of tomatoes and potatoes. My attention was divided between cooking and finishing decluttering the pink room. I needed to know what that sewing machine did.

After a rainy day, it was nice to not have to worry about eating food to keep warm. There wasn’t much junk left in the pink room. As I sat to finish up the tomato and potato soups, I pulled out my list.

Repair all damages caused by them

Strengthen the wall around the house and greenhouses

Buy a chicken

Upgrade brick tool

Make glass

Declutter pink room on second floor

“Hey, alien overlords,” I said quietly. “Remember my first week here, and I did so good on my to-do list that I was given a free day to do whatever I wanted?” My eyes drifted over to the garage that I hadn’t touched in a while. “That’d be nice. Just sayin’.”

Again, I got nothing in response. I was probably pressing my luck with these people, if they even were people. But if they really are a neutral party, they wouldn’t be offended by this.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Just some notes. From a lover of farming games.”

Words appeared in my vision, and I held my breath.

Get better at finishing the to-do lists, then.

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, is that… snarkiness? Condescension? Should I be afraid?” I didn’t know why I had such courage to say that. Probably because it was the middle of the day.

The words disappeared, and I honestly expected some sort of backlash for my brashness. But nothing happened. I kept going throughout the day, trying to remember they were a neutral party.

The storage room was stocked again with food. I could tell that it was starting to burst at the edges. Food had to be on the shelves, while grouped items like tomatoes or clay bricks were on the ground. It would be nice to upgrade this room, but no doubt it felt so full because I finished cooking a lot of soups. I couldn’t just cram food on the shelves. Each had a designated spot, and they couldn’t crowd.

“I really wanna try fishing,” I mumbled to myself, checking the list one more time before cooking more bricks.

I then made my way up the stairs to the second floor. The clutter was gone, though it needed a good sweep. Sweeping wasn’t necessary for the sewing machine, though.

Decluttering finished. Sewing machine activated.

“Okay, but what do you do?” I asked.

Killie perched near the door, her head cocked, curious.

There was a book there that wasn’t there before. It made it look as though it was a pattern book. There was a page for every clothing I owned, and then in the back it was all grayed out of the clothes I didn’t have yet. But it still didn’t tell me what it did.

I closed the book and looked at the cover again. The book started to glow.

Upgrade book?

-1.00

“Sure. Go ahead.”

My mind was telling me that was one stick’s worth of dopamine points, and honestly, it was a fair enough trade. I was curious.

The points left my total, and I flipped through the pages again. There was writing underneath, and I brought the book closer, squinting.

Increases probability of extra produce by 10%

I glanced up, and saw it was under the straw hat. I flipped it over to see the overalls saying the same thing. It sounded like if I upgraded both, that gave me a 20% chance of an extra tomato or potato. If I had all five clothes, that would be a 50% chance that I’d get an extra produce.

I flipped another page and found myself in the cleaning section.

Increases probability of a stamina burst by 10%

Okay, I was sensing a pattern here. The logging section gave a 10% chance for dropping an extra logging section. Not logs, though. It sounded like either boards, firewood, sticks, or matches. Cooking gave a bonus for an extra food to appear after being cooked. That had to be some strange level of law breaking physics, there. To put the appropriate amount of food for one tomato soup and then to have a second one pop into existence. Building gave a probability of less building materials needed for an item, and animal care gave a probability of increased production from the animal. I assumed Daisy would have a possibility of giving an extra egg, but I wasn’t sure how this worked with Killie. She was always pretty consistent in finding ghosts.

As a test, I tried it on my straw hat, since I was done farming for the day. I saw a timer for three hours on the sewing machine that started sewing without anyone sitting in it. Killie jumped on the chair, staring at the sewing machine as though mesmerized.

“It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen,” I mumbled.

I walked down the stairs and almost went outside when I glanced around the kitchen again. Specifically, the wall, where the calendar was hanging. I remembered I upgraded it like I did that book up there. It was toward the beginning of my time here, where dopamine points were hard to come by. I walked over to the calendar and studied it, frowning. It started to glow.

Upgrade Calendar for -.35?

Y/N

At this point, I was driven by curiosity. What more did the calendar have to give me? I mentally chose yes and waited.

It was nothing that happened to the calendar, but to the bars on the side of my vision. Right underneath them a timer appeared, counting down. I assumed it was until nighttime until I saw the icon next to the timer. It was a simply drawn wolf’s head.

This must be counting down until the wolf came. I always assumed it came right as the lamplight flickered on. I had been so scared of it that I always stayed inside right at sunset. But if there was a way to test when it actually came, that would be nice. I could be working right up until the last moments of the day. On days where I felt rushed, every second counted. I tucked this away again as an experiment. I could see if the wolf came consistently, or if it varied.

I walked back outside and made sure the brick tool was still going. I double checked my list, but I was at the point where I had to wait for that tool to finish upgrading. Which meant I was at a bottleneck. The bricks would be finished tomorrow afternoon, and I would still have a full day and a half to go before they came again.

I really hoped there weren’t too many other materials I would need to upgrade the brick tool.

Alright. It was a matter of waiting, which meant for the time being, I had half a day free to do what I wanted while the bricks cooked.

And I wanted to go fishing.