It took a log cut into boards to stuff in the dumpster for me to get enough dopamine points to buy a fishing rod, then I stored the rest of the logs. I walked down to the river and got into my cooking clothes, which… I don’t know why I needed to wear a chef’s cap and jacket to fish. If the fish had any sort of intelligence, they were going to suspect something was up.

Okay, maybe fish weren’t that smart, but if I were a fish, I’d personally be worried if someone came up to the river looking like they were ready to deep fry me. I held up my fishing rod, glancing around the river. I could see dark shadows in the middle of the river. Despite playing farming games, I didn’t know a ton about the fishing that actual people did in an actual river in real life. Good thing this wasn’t real life in any way, because I doubted this game would start getting technical now. If I could drop ingredients into a fire and have them pop out food, then the fishing wasn’t going to be too technical.

I decided to try the basics of every farming game. I threw out my line and waited for it to jiggle. I had the distinct muscle memory, waiting for the handheld device to start vibrating in my hand before I pressed a button, but I was curious to see what this experience was like.

Right before I wondered if I needed to try a different tactic, I felt the line pull. I started reeling the fish in. It worked for a few seconds, but I watched as the rod started to bend dangerously. I stopped reeling the fish for a bit to make sure the rod wasn’t going to break before trying to reel the fish in again. I did that two more times before the fish finally came out of the water before magically being placed in a basket next to me. I smiled.

“Alright, then.” I could already feel recipes being unlocked on the clipboard back home. I also noticed a small sliver of my stamina disappeared with that fishing endeavor. I could sacrifice that. Did fishing also mean I was gaining experience in my cooking level? I hoped so. Of all the levels I had, cooking was the lowest. I always waited until I had at least an hour’s worth of food to cook, and so my experience level wasn’t nearly as high as building or logging. Since the fire only took an hour, I didn’t want to waste it, which meant little time to level my cooking.

I remained at the river until I had five fish in the basket. I then picked up the basket and glanced around the river before trying to see the house. There were lots of trees. Most of the trees around the fence were gone, which meant I should start looking for a new place to cut them down. It might be a smart idea to start cutting down the trees from the house to the riverbank so I could see it better.

The moment I thought about it, a war of ideas started inside me. Logistically speaking, cutting down a path from the house to the river would take ages. At least a full season or two if I just focused on cutting down trees. I couldn’t possibly be here for that long. Maybe the calendar showed all four seasons, but that didn’t mean I was staying here for all four, right? Personally I would love it if I could figure out a way to leave before winter. So, I couldn’t possibly be here long enough to start a project of cutting down the trees from the house to the river. But just in case I was wrong, and I would be here for a while…

I started walking back with my baskets, again running through what I knew. Alien overlords. Neutral party. Theo. Wolf. Horror. Farming game.

Theo was clearly someone I knew, and also someone who adored horror. He also drew the picture of the wolf creature on the fridge, and the wolf creature showed up here. There was something about Theo that this neutral party was taking note of, not just me.

I got back to the house and checked the bricks. They were almost done. By tomorrow afternoon I would have all the bricks needed and could move on to the next materials needed to upgrade the tool. I kept telling myself that so I wouldn’t be left surprised when material popped up.

I walked into the covered back porch and grabbed the clipboard, flipping toward the recipes. There weren’t many.

Fried fish

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0/1 fish

Fish omelet: basic

0/1 fish

0/1 egg

Fish omelet didn’t sound like a super delicious meal, but I was thinking more game logically. A fish omelet had a fish and an egg, both higher level food sources. I would have to see what kind of stamina it brought. There were still a lot of recipes to unlock. When I found different food sources, I would no doubt unlock more recipes.

As I was flipping through the pages of recipes, I saw something blinking at the top of a page. I frowned, bringing it closer to my face to read it better.

Upgrade cooking fire to unlock new category of recipes

Cannot upgrade cooking fire until you reach Cooking Level 10

Huh. I didn’t notice I could upgrade the fire. Maybe it didn’t show it to me because my cooking was still below level 10. I was too focused on everything else I could upgrade. I’d have to look into that.

I flipped the pages toward the back to see my progress.

Farming level 12

Cleaning level 14

Logging level 15

Cooking level 7

Building level 16

Animal Care level 10

I glanced again at the clothes options. I had to wait until I reached level fifteen before buying any. Cleaning was close. I’d already bought clothes for logging and building. Those wouldn’t get their fourth article of clothing until level 25, which seemed so far away. I wouldn’t be here that long, right?

“I’m not going to be here for ages,” I whispered to myself. “I am going to figure this out.”

I tried to believe it.

My wolf timer continued to tick down as the forest blocked the sunlight. I hastily placed the newly cooked bricks into the tool. Ten more to go. I’d get them cooking in the early morning and have them in there by the afternoon.

With the time remaining, I went to the garage and kept sorting through the junk. I hadn’t touched this place in a while, but the possibility of upgrading it got my curiosity going. It was also the easiest place to declutter, since it was a short walk to the dumpster.

I worked on getting the junk out, feeling more relieved now that the system would stop me before I sold anything valuable.

It got late enough that I turned on my flashlight as I worked. I glanced at the bare lightbulb on the garage ceiling, wondering when I’d be able to get electricity working. I had long since ignored the logics of the whole thing. There was one power pole not connected to anything else, but I had no doubt that eventually this house would be glowing with electricity. Somehow.

I had finally unearthed some sort of desk with drawers, and organized all the things that seemed like they would be needed later in there. As I finished stuffing the junk into the dumpster, my timer started flashing red. I had a minute left.

I glanced over and noticed that though it was dark, the lamp hadn’t turned on yet. I didn’t want to push it, because I wanted to keep my sanity, so I quickly slipped inside the house.

The timer dropped to zero. A few minutes later the lamp flickered on, and I heard a wolf howling in the distance. As odd as it sounded, I didn’t think this was the wolf creature. This sounded like a regular wolf. The wolf creature sounded creepier.

I closed my eyes, leaning against the door. With the night brought a scared, crushing feeling of solitude. I was growing to hate the dark. As the light disappeared, I felt the crushing feelings of panic as the walls of the house felt like they were shrinking around me. I didn’t understand why this sudden seize of panic hit me. I was doing well. My to-do list was getting done. The walls outside were strengthened. The bricks would be done tomorrow afternoon. As I waited for the bricks, I was able to do other things. I could fish. I cleaned the garage. Protect my sanity from the wolf.

But I was still here. It was the conversation warring inside me ever since I thought about the project of cutting down the trees to the river. I was here. The game was set up to make me feel like I would stay here for a long time. Stay here, even though I didn’t know what was going on in my old life. Spending time here when there was a good possibility time was moving on in the place where I was before. I had family that missed me, no doubt. Friends. Maybe coworkers? But I wasn’t there, I was here.

Here in a haunted house. Here with a wolf prowling. Here where they attacked. And as the darkness deepened around me, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed. Once again, it felt like I was working hard swimming in the ocean to look up and see I was still in the middle of it, with no island in sight to rest.

I took a deep breath, then let it out. The door was cold to the touch, but I did not give in to the panic. I had done it. My metaphorical moment of gasping for air in the middle of the ocean. I had a choice to panic and sink or keep going.

Killie jumped off the couch, hissing at the doorway of the bedroom. Looked like the ocean was making my choice for me.

I grabbed her, avoiding the rooms, trying to stay out of the kitchen, not ready for another sanity attack from those bloody footprints. As the hour was up, I went to sleep, another day of swimming in the middle of the ocean completed.