I woke up to Killie jumping off the bed. The red dawn light filled the room as I climbed out. My sanity was at seventy-five percent, which was great. I wasn’t sure if I would see Theo today. He mentioned needing to grind, and they were coming tomorrow night.

I placed the glass in the second greenhouse and gave a sigh of pure satisfaction as that greenhouse went back to normal. I put the extra glass in the first greenhouse. I was seriously tempted to upgrade the greenhouse now that it was all fixed.

0/15 glass

That actually wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t like I needed anything else today. I technically could make more glass this morning. Though if the barn needed something else besides primer, I would be in trouble.

For that alone, I stayed with my plan of putting more bricks in the tool. I then went back inside to gather the last piece of repaired clothes before going to the garage. I clicked on a variety of colors just to see what would happen before peeking outside the garage. It would still take about ten minutes to finish. I would be hopefully done with my morning routine by then.

I dropped the beer can and cigarette butts in the dumpster, trying to ignore the bigger sliver of sanity that disappeared with this discovery. I then moved to watering the plants. I picked the tomatoes, then got to work picking the lettuce and carrots before planting more carrots. At this stage, I wanted to plant whatever food I could.

I placed my hands on my hips, giving a little sigh. Food was planted and watered. The barn was almost done being painted. I could start priming the storage unit. It was more waiting for items to get finished. They were attacking tomorrow night, therefore I had two whole days to do whatever I wanted. And I really wanted to gather the meat from the traps.

I spent the next minute and twenty-four seconds watching the timer on the barn tick down. Once it was completed, I waited for anything else to appear. The barn was a lovely combination of pastel colors, each color painted vertically on one piece of wood. When a few seconds passed, I pulled out my to-do list and sighed. The barn was crossed off.

I didn’t waste any time running to the garage to get the storage unit primed. I had a feeling this was the last thing it needed, too. Despite telling myself over and over not to get my hopes up, it was too late. They were already rising.

Once that was done, I went over to the clipboard, flipping through the pages. A cow cost -30.00 dopamine points. As long as there were trees in this place, there would be dopamine points, so I wasn’t too concerned. I went to work chopping the trees and dropping all the boards into the dumpster to fill up my dopamine points before purchasing the cow.

It materialized between the house and the greenhouses. I dressed myself in animal care clothes, just to be safe. I walked over, my hand out, before petting the cow. It snorted, a rope hanging around its neck. It was exactly what I expected a cow to look like. Mostly white, with a few brown spots.

“Darla? What about Darla for a name?” I asked.

The cow mooed, and I couldn’t help but smile. I took the rope, leading her toward the barn where she settled into one of the stalls. Like with the chickens and with Killie, food magically appeared when I thought about feeding Darla. I patted her nose. “I’ll get you a friend, okay?”

Darla started eating, and I walked over, wondering how I could milk the cow. As though on cue, a glass bottle appeared, full of milk. I picked it up, feeling a lot more recipes unlocking.

I gave Darla another pat before heading back inside the house to put the milk in the fridge. I couldn’t be sure, but this seemed to be about a half gallon’s worth of milk.

I took a moment to check my stats.

Farming level 23

Cleaning level 25

Logging level 28

Cooking level 21

Building level 28

Animal Care level 20

I nodded, then pulled out my to-do list.

Repair all damages done by them

Build a barn

Purchase a cow

Purchase the fourth article of clothing for building

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Build a trap

Set trap in your foraging area

Clean the blackness in the house

Once the greenhouse had the glass in tomorrow morning, that would be it. The damages would be all done, and my to-do list would be finished. I nodded, tucking the to-do list away before picking up the clipboard again. Most of the recipes that became unlocked were a more complex, creamy soup, like a creamy tomato soup that took milk, or a creamy potato soup. I wasn’t going to complain. As I got deeper into fall, there would be colder days. I needed a lot more soups to help with the weather.

I then flipped to the clothing area. I had reached level twenty-five in cleaning, and I wanted to get the fourth article of clothing. I chose a hair ribbon, and tried it on just to see. My long hair was pulled back into a fancy bun before being tied in the front, almost like a head band. Not bad. I was actually rather happy to have my hair from my face while I cleaned. Though my hair being down had never bothered me before while cleaning. I shrugged it off as game logic.

My entire cleaning outfit came on, and I saw the words fill my vision.

Fourth level cleaning unlocked.

Ability: repair furniture

I blinked, then I glanced behind me through the kitchen door where the beautiful cherry wood cabinet still had that door hanging off its hinges. Words appeared above it.

0/2 boards

Perfect! Sure, I was still itching to transform these floors, but maybe this was a way to upgrade the old technology. Not that I planned on ever watching any of the movies in the bookshelf next to that tv.

It was decided. As I waited for bricks to finish, I would work on repairing the furniture on the first floor. I got to work chopping down more trees. It didn’t take long before the cherry wood cabinet was back on its hinges, as it didn’t need anything other than the boards. I then fixed the windows, which meant I could finally open them. I hadn’t smelled mildew in ages, but having a breeze coming in through the kitchen seemed to perk up this old house. I fixed one other hanging cupboard, then saw the doors needed a few boards. The screen door on the covered back porch needed some scrap metal, but it would be nice to finally have that close right.

I kept working until the tool stopped making bricks. I switched it out with ten broken stones before I took a break from repairing furniture to enter the wolf territory.

I was silent as ever. The more times I did this, the less nervous I got. I still kept one eye open, though, because even though I had almost everything done on my list, I had a shiny new objective to make the house clean, and I wanted to spend all my time on it.

It was a lot of meat, and I was happy I unloaded my inventory before coming out here. I could finally feel like I was preparing for the harder parts of the season. I walked back to my house with mixed feelings. Part of it was the elation at finally storing food, the other part was I was super excited to get back to repairing furniture.

It didn’t take long for the kitchen to be done. The dangling wires from before were now tucked away in the repaired ceiling. The cabinets were secured on their hinges, and the door to the bathroom and the hallway were beautifully sanded and stained. Now the only thing I had left to completely transform this kitchen was to restore the floor. It was practically unrecognizable now, and I took a lot of pride in that.

I moved on to the living room, working on the windows as the sun started to sink and the shadows stretched. I kept working, glancing at my wolf timer. I would need boards every so often, so it would make this difficult when the wolf appeared. But I kept working solidly, trying not to think about Theo. He wasn’t back yet. He mentioned he would be grinding for a while, trying to reach level twenty-five. I certainly knew how hard it was at times to grind.

Little Theo started singing upstairs. Since my sanity was at seventy-five, I wasn’t too worried. When it got dark enough, I slipped outside and stored the stone blocks in my storage unit before placing the bags of sand in the tool. That greenhouse was going to be done by tomorrow morning, and it would feel fantastic.

I then continued working until I ran out of boards to restore the furniture. I checked the entertainment room and discovered I wouldn’t be able to restore the couch, because I needed some wool. Something I wouldn’t get until I had a sheep. But the legs of the furniture looked really nice. I also needed some metal scraps to replace the computer chair, as well as for the computer. I spent a few moments wondering if the computer would ever work if it was fixed. Somehow I doubted it. There was no one here to contact with the computer.

It was time to be brave. The wolf was roaming, and I had dirty walls in the pink room. I technically could clean those walls right now, even though it was on the second floor.

I knew what the footsteps meant, painful though it was to my heart. I knew the murder happened up there. The room was locked. I knew most of the haunts, and instead of making me afraid, they made me sad. I could start cleaning the walls in the pink room.

The stairs creaked as I walked up them. I tried to keep my cool. It was fine. I knew what happened here.

I entered the pink room and got to work, hearing little Theo singing in the other room. Despite knowing this, a sliver of sanity disappeared as I started cleaning the walls. I would stay up here until I was done cleaning the walls or my sanity dropped past sixty percent. It was time to see which one was reached first.

At sixty-three percent, I finished the walls and headed down the stairs, changing into my nightgown before slipping into the bedroom. Killie was already sleeping on it, and I smiled as I rested around her, petting her.

“I suppose Theo’s going to attack them tomorrow,” I said quietly. Killie kept sleeping, and I set my head against the pillow. “He’s not going to make it, is he.”

Again, no response from Killie. I sighed, closing my eyes. Of course Theo was going to die. They were strong, undoubtably stronger than the wolf. This first attack would be to gather information, and I doubted he expected to survive.

I let out another annoyed breath. Part of me wanted to keep Theo from dying. Despite seeing him die right in front of me and then come back the next morning, there was still a strong feeling inside that said something was off. Some clues my gamer brain was picking up on that the rest of my brain didn’t understand. My gamer brain was screaming at me to stop Theo from dying so much.

I let out another sigh, then moved into a fetal position around Killie before allowing the game to let me sleep.