I went through my morning routine. I saved the greenhouses for last. I realized I hadn’t finished upgrading the first greenhouse, so I went to the basement to buy two more metal shards and placed them into the greenhouse.

Two more seeds opened up once the greenhouse was finished upgrading. Onions and cucumbers. I walked into the first greenhouse, and even though the outside hadn’t changed, the inside had gotten bigger. Not only did I have bigger soil boxes for the tomatoes and potatoes, I didn’t have to build the new ones, either. I got to work planting more seeds for them and also starting onions and cucumbers. I went to grab the watering can, but my fingers went right through it. At first, I was confused, then I heard a spraying sound within the soil boxes. I sat up, my eyes widening as I saw each box was set up with an automatic watering system.

“Um… yes please,” I said, realizing this was the answer to my concerns with a rainy day. Now I only needed to pick the produce and plant them. The watering was completely taken care of. That alone made me want to focus on upgrading the other two greenhouses.

I then watered the lettuce and the carrots with a promise to upgrade this greenhouse next. I already put five panes of glass in the second greenhouse to get that upgraded. I’d need ten more, and some more scrap metal. I had another five bags of sand in the tool, and eventually I’d put more in tonight.

Once that watering was done, I finished planting the wheat, then finished building the soil boxes for the rice. I wasn’t an actual farmer or anything, but I was pretty sure rice was grown in the ground covered in water. That was about the extent of my knowledge. I planted the rice, then watered it.

I didn’t want to work in the house, but I had a butter maker and a blender that I hadn’t touched since I got it. I had lost a day, so I now had three more days until they attacked.

I slipped into the house and placed two containers of cream in the butter maker. A timer appeared above it with one hour. I then placed some milk, blueberries, and strawberries in the blender. It had a fifteen-minute timer above it as it started to count down. That was a long time for a smoothie, but I let it go.

I would have stayed longer and bought more appliances, but the whispering started to pick up, and I did not like my chances with only twenty-five percent sanity. Besides, I had a lot of stuff to do outside the house.

After buying another bag of grass fertilizer, I went to work spreading it around the ground. Theo was working on getting the amulet, and I was working on making this place covered in grass. I had the entire front lawn covered when I took a break to gather the raw meat from the traps. When I got there, the meat was gone. Most likely because I lost all of yesterday, and therefore the wolf must have eaten the meat. I sighed, then reset all the traps. I was delighted to see another cow in the box trap, though. Wearing my animal care outfit, I eased the entire cow into my inventory in the pocket dimension in my back. It was wild.

I walked back and waited until I was in the barn before easing the new cow out of my inventory.

“Nellie?” I asked, petting the cow’s nose. “You feel like a Nellie to me.”

The cow mooed before walking over to the feeding trough and starting to eat. For good measure I added some more. I almost went back to work spreading the fertilizer when I paused. I then slipped in through the back and checked the clipboard.

“Ha!” I said, flicking the board with my finger. Animal care was at level twenty-five. I bought some scrubs for my legs, and the option for a sheep popped up. Sheep and cows must be in the same barn, because it didn’t require another building to get for it. That was fine with me.

I dropped -40.00 dopamine points to get a sheep. It appeared, bleating just outside. I walked outside, giving the sheep a nice pet.

“And you feel like Cupcake. Come on, Cupcake, let me show you your new home,” I said.

Stolen story; please report.

I placed the sheep in the barn near the cows. A pair of scissors appeared in my hand as I started cutting the sheep’s wool. “Well this is just odd, Cupcake. I hope this is okay,” I said.

Cupcake bleated again as I finished collecting one clump of wool.

“I hope you know this is going to be one of the most comfortable blankets I’ll ever own,” I told Cupcake.

I was getting there. I was at a minimum of twenty-five levels for all my sections. That felt good. Part of me wondered if I would reach five articles of clothing in all the sections. I didn’t know. Part of me wanted to already be out of this game before that happened. Despite the incentives in some of the sections, like being able to finally tear up the carpet, I knew the real incentive was to do what we could to get out of this game. No matter how tempting those floors would be, I would rather choose to get out of this game with Theo next to me.

But also, if I could get the floors done, that’d be nice.

I entered the house quickly to gather the butter and the smoothie. I drank the smoothie to test what it gave me, and I saw a half an hour of heat resistance, which was nice. I’d have to work on picking more fruits while foraging. It restored a bit of my stamina, too.

I placed the butter in the fridge, and glanced at the appliance. I now could buy appliances, but could I upgrade the already existing ones? I stared at the fridge, hearing the haunting whispers around me, before my building clothes came on.

0/25 scrap metal

My face relaxed. I had a feeling this meant the storage part of the fridge would get deeper, just like the storage unit outside. That would be nice, because I now had two cows. I would need more space.

I hurried outside before the whispers made my sanity disappear, and went back to work on the lawn. I was spreading fertilizer around the garage, raking it in a fine line so the red light I saw turned green. I went a bit faster, because I had the stamina.

As I worked, my thoughts went to Theo. He was probably doing the same, except he was killing monsters. The monotony that we both enjoyed. I was content making this house beautiful, and Theo was content with destroying all the monsters.

I finished placing and raking all the grass fertilizer on the entire lawn. I gave myself a moment to appreciate how much I’d gotten done, then grabbed the tiller from the shed and started walking the till over the fertilizer. Tilling didn’t take nearly as long as the fertilizer, but it was a constant reminder to me that this lawn was massive. But that was going to be an absolutely lovely lawn.

By the time the sun was sinking, I was pouring grass seed into my seed spreader and using up a lot of my stamina to at least get the first part of the front lawn done. The wolf wouldn’t come for an hour, but I had lost a whole day yesterday. Sure, it didn’t seem like a lot considering I was done with my to-do list, but I still had so many things to do.

I used up my stamina four times, taking a break to eat through my food each time, to make sure I pushed through and covered the lawn with grass seed. I raked as much as I could before I went to the tool, quickly moving the five panes of glass to the second greenhouse before placing five more bags of sand into the tool. Once that was done, I entered the house to avoid the wolf.

I took a deep breath. It was the first time I wished for a phone or some sort of communication device to check in on Theo. He would be here tomorrow, but it would be nice to make sure he was okay.

When the wolf timer started blinking, I knew I wouldn’t see my brother tonight. Instead, I went back to the clipboard, looking at the appliances. I bought the cheese maker, because I wanted some cheese. Also, the wheat grinder, because what else was I going to do with the wheat once I harvested it?

When all was said and done, I had 180.14 dopamine points left and a counter full of appliances that I could only partially use. My excitement was too much, though. I started a batch of cheese, because I needed more room in my fridge. Each thing of cheese took three containers of milk. Upgrading the fridge needed to be the next thing. I would need a lot of scrap metal.

I then filled up my inventory with the junk from the green room. It was getting closer. If I even spent a quarter of the day focusing on this room, then it would be done. The lawn was practically done, too. Would I need to water it? Something told me game logic was taking care of that.

The shadows started to move and whisper, so I quickly ran to the pink room and switched out the apron for my last clothes. I wanted to be fully ready for when Theo tried to face his ghost father.

I sat down on the bed that requested 0/8 wool. I would need another sheep soon, just to get more wool.

The whispers were there, but there was no more grandmother ghost. Killie was content to be on the bed, no longer harassed by that lady ghost. And Theo was probably going to confront his father tomorrow. Or the ghost of his father. Or the made-up creation of who he believed his father was when he was a child.

I rubbed my temples. All I knew was at this point I needed to clean this house as much as possible. Get all the levels I can. Keep playing the games. And at the first opportunity, get out of here with Theo.