I opened my eyes, sat up, and stretched. Killie, too, was stretching next to me before jumping off the bed. I got up, my farming clothes appearing before I stepped out of the front door. I placed all the junk in my inventory into the dumpster before beginning my morning routine.

I kept nervously checking the forest near the bridge. Theo said he’d see me later, but he didn’t specify when. He might not come this morning. Maybe not even today. Maybe I should try going to the other side to see him. My fear of those monsters kept me back. Sure, we shouldn’t die so much, but I understood why Theo went into things a bit recklessly now that death didn’t mean much. It was a recklessness I still didn’t have.

I grabbed the glass panes and put all five in the greenhouse. It was the last thing I needed for this part of the upgrade. I waited patiently, watching the words shift.

0/10 scrap metal

That was a chunk from my metal supply, but I probably had enough. Theo made sure I was well stocked. Even then, I had the option of buying more in the basement.

I emptied my supply into the greenhouse, figuring out I needed to buy two more to finish the upgrade. But to do that, I needed a lot of dopamine points. I continued my morning routine. I fed and gathered the food from my animals, placing them in the storage unit. I went to the fridge, knowing I’d have room for more milk now that I ate a lot of chilled tomato soup. But when I opened the door, it was completely full. An invisible wall kept my hand from putting the milk in the fridge. I dropped to one knee, looking inside. There were cartons of heavy cream filling up the spaces that the chilled tomato soup once was. I frowned, picking one up and examining it. The fridge had been full of chilled tomato soup in order to prepare for the hot day yesterday. I had eaten quite a few soups, making more room.

I grabbed all the chilled soup remaining and placed the other half gallon of milk in there. Heavy cream. What could I use cream for?

I closed the fridge, my arms full of soups as I went to the clipboard. I didn’t feel like anything unlocked on the clipboard, which was weird, because this was a brand-new cooking item. Shouldn’t there be recipes?

Everything remained the same. I was so confused. I tried to put the chilled tomato soups back, but I got a warning instead.

Cannot place a chilled item in the storage unit. It will spoil.

I grumbled, then walked over to the calendar. For the rest of the week, I wasn’t having a hot day. I wasn’t sure what the fog did tomorrow, but I could drop these tomato soups in the dumpster to get dopamine points and be able to replenish my chilled soups by next week.

I did just that, pleased that the negative went away and I now had 9.04 dopamine points. This was a strange, getting cream. It had to be the first time that I got a food item and didn’t get a bunch of recipes to unlock. Maybe they were meant for when I unlocked later greenhouses. I was really close to unlocking the next one.

I gathered the food from the greenhouses, placing them in my storage unit before going back to water the plants. I let out a sigh as I finished watering the first greenhouse before moving to the second.

“So… hello. It’s me again. I know you’re probably annoyed by all the little notes I give. But remember that one time? Back when I complained that often rain was so looked forward to because I didn’t have to water my crops that day? It kind of eases the monotony of it all, to know that sometimes my morning routine will get a shift in my favor. Pretty sure there’s research into it. Nice little boost of addicti-”

Things are already in place for such a thing

Just upgrade the greenhouse

I blinked as the words faded. Due to the fact that this was all words in my head, I couldn’t tell if they were annoyed, angry, or just wanted to keep me focused on the task at hand and to shut up. Either way, it made me far more determined to finish my upgrade, and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Besides, if they really were angry at me, they’d probably smite me with a lightning bolt or something.

I finished what I needed to do in the greenhouse, making sure the beer can was gone. Still no sign of Theo. I tried not to get worried about it, but I wanted to figure out where his base was.

I went to work cutting down four trees. I needed a lot of dopamine points, and right now, this was the best way to get them relatively cheap. I cut them all into boards before dropping them in the dumpster.

By the time I dropped the last bonus board into the dumpster, I gave a stretch and saw I had 599.14 points. I had a strong desire to drop just one more item in there to get past six hundred, but it was already approaching noon, and I needed to buy so many items. Especially some for lawn care.

I went to the clipboard and checked my progress. Animal care and farming were still at level 24, so I couldn’t buy the fourth article of clothing for them yet. But I did have enough to finally buy my slip-on shoes for my chef’s outfit. I put all the clothes on and felt an overwhelming amount of information hit my mind. Words appeared, but it did nothing for the sheer amount of information my brain was downloading.

New catalogue section unlocked! Appliances

Level 25 reached in both building and cooking

New ability unlocked! Upgrade appliances

Level 25 reached in cleaning, cooking, and building.

New feature unlocked! Electricity

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New recipes unlocked!

I stared at the words, then the kitchen light flickered on. I glanced behind me, gasping. There were so many things to do! Those six hundred dopamine points suddenly didn’t feel like enough. I flipped through the pages of the clipboard until I reached the new section of appliances.

I saw a blender and a juicer, which could make smoothies and other drinks. There was also a cheese maker, and a butter maker. That must be what the cream was for. There were still other appliances that were locked, but I realized there was a very good chance I’d be growing wheat in one of the greenhouses, because there was probably a wheat grinder.

I started buying things before I realized what I was doing. I needed to slow down and take a breath. True, it was too late to return the butter maker and the blender, but I needed to remember there were still things on my to-do list I needed to finish.

I flipped over to the lawn care section and started buying everything there. Shovel, rake, hedge shears, soil tiller, and seed spreader. I even bought a riding lawn mower, simply because I had the dopamine points. It was a hundred dopamine points that would no doubt go to good use. Eventually this lawn was going to be gorgeous, and I might as well store my lawn mower in the shed now that I had one.

Once that was all said and done, I had 319.14 dopamine points left. Still a nice, healthy chunk of points that I would no doubt need for the grass fertilizer and everything else. I still wasn’t sure how much of this stuff I would need.

I walked out toward the shed and opened it. I was rather relieved that the only thing I needed to build was the lawn mower. I was sort of hoping I wouldn’t have to build any of them, but I could work on the lawn mower for the next few days. I picked up a rake, wondering what I needed to do to start this whole lawn process. Maybe I needed to be in the right clothes.

My building clothes materialized on me and I looked around. All I saw was the pile that would eventually become the riding lawn mower, with some words and numbers above it.

0/50 scrap metal

That was going to take a while. I might have to make a lot of chicken wings for Theo in exchange for those.

It still didn’t give me the information I needed, so instead I jumped into my farming outfit.

I then understood exactly what I needed to do. This was farming territory, so I would need to be in this outfit while I did yard work. Which was fantastic, because that was the level I needed to work on the most.

I replaced the rake and instead grabbed the shovel. I walked up and down the lawn, finding weeds and digging them out. They were far more plentiful on the other side of the house, especially near the front and back porch. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on the weeds growing around the side of the house. I was even able to pull out enough weeds to make the side door on the back porch far more noticeable. There was honestly a nice plot of ground for a flower bed here on the back end of the house. And I only wanted to trim those lilac bushes. They were still glorious.

So many thoughts and plans were going through my head. I saw the potential of this place as I was digging out weeds.

I tore out the bigger weeds, placing them in the bag that magically appeared. This place was getting cleaned up nicely, and I sort of forgot just how huge this lawn was. The lawn always seemed to disappear among the trees because there wasn’t much of a difference between the spotty lawn and the ground among the trees. It was a great distraction from everything else, because Theo still hadn’t returned.

I took a break to gather food from my traps, thinking that it was close enough I might have to add this to my morning routine. I returned with a live chicken in my inventory that I stuffed in there before it could freak out. I deposited the chicken in the coup, calling her Poppy. She was immediately welcomed by the other two chickens and Killie, who was sitting on the ground, giving a big yawn.

I about continued my weeding when I decided to pull out my to-do list instead.

Strengthen the fence

Purchase shed

Build shed

Begin lawn care

Make sure no essence of them remains in your house

I let out a sigh. The to-do list was finished. I now had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. And I had to do the things to get out of this game.

The sun was disappearing behind the trees by the time I lifted my shovel and observed what I was able to do. It was a far patchier plot of land. Some of the bigger weeds took some of my stamina. I took one break to eat chicken and veggies to restore my stamina to keep going. As far as I could tell, the weeds were gone. I placed my shovel in the shed and knew what I had to do next.

I went to the clipboard in the shed and bought a bag of grass fertilizer. I needed to experiment to see how long one bag would last. I needed to do something to take my mind off everything else.

I tore the top of the bag open, then started spreading the fertilizer at the top corner. I could almost see it in my mind’s eye. The entire lawn was red, and as I spread appropriate amounts of fertilizer on the ground, those sections turned green. I knew I would later come out here with my rake and make sure it was all evenly placed, but for now I needed to get the fertilizer on the ground.

The bag lasted a lot longer than I expected. It still reminded me just how massive this lawn was, but I was able to get a good chunk of the front corner done with one bag. I’d probably at least need another four bags to do the front yard, and a lot more for the back. I brushed off my hands and saw Theo walking through the trees. It was starting to get dark. My heart lightened at the sight before it immediately fell again. Theo’s shoulders were slumped, his gaze downward. I approached him, noticing there were some black veins on his neck. I’m sure the veins in his arms were solidly black again.

Theo brushed the back of his hand over his forehead, and his gloves had some black sludge on them. What I had mistaken for dirt on his forehead was actually sludgy sweat.

“So um…” he closed his eyes, rubbing his temples before giving a slight shake of his head. “I… didn’t die.”

I stared at him, realizing his meaning. I had never seen him like this, because he had always done something to get himself killed before it got like this. He had listened to me and tried not to die. But now he was in a really bad state.

I tried to hug him, but Theo held out a hand to stop me. His face twisted in pain, something gurgling inside him. I about asked him a question when he turned his head and cupped both hands under him to catch the thing that left his mouth. It wasn’t vomit because his vomit from before was in a much more liquid state. This was like he had coughed up the equivalent of a sludgy hairball. I flinched as the sludge shivered in his cupped palms before they snaked back up his arm and reentered his ears, nose, and mouth. I moved forward to help, but Theo just raised a hand to stop me again.

“Theo…” I started to say.

He rubbed his temples as though it was taking a conscious effort to think. “I’m… here to set up the… the thing. I’m going to see if this works. I’ve reached level twenty-five.”

“Hey, that’s fantastic!” I said.

“Yeah.” He didn’t sound like he was all that thrilled, but I was familiar with this part of Theo. The sludge monster was taking too much energy inside his body for him to feel anything else. “I’ll… go set it up.”

“I’ll make you some comfort food,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said with the same tone again.

I watched him stumble toward the greenhouse, and my heart started to break. I had asked Theo not to die. Theo listened. Now I found myself with the very real responsibility of helping him figure out how to get them out of his system without dying.