I looked around at the dilapidated farm. I heard a low humming noise originating from above me. I looked up, raising my hand to spare my eyes from the brightness of the sun. To my surprise, I saw a medium-sized square metallic robot-looking object hovering in the air. It had propellers like that of a helicopter. It looked as if it were a drone.

I focused on the hovering object and saw the words Idle Bot appear before me. I remembered Cal stating the importance of the bots, but I did not know why they were important. I focused harder and saw a brand-new menu at my disposal.

Idle Bot

Level: 1

HP: 3

ATK: 1

Def: 1

Idle time left remaining: 4 hrs: 0 minutes

Assigned Task: None

Modifications: None

My gut told me that the assigned task was probably my best bet to look at. Although nothing was remotely intuitive, it felt as if some invisible force was guiding me in some way. I took note and smiled at the thought of perhaps my mom having something to do with how the System responded to me. I thought about the Idle Bots assigned task and saw a new menu. Albeit a much smaller one.

Idle Bot Actions:

Clean up

Make Plots

Look for seeds

???

???

???

Idle time left: 72 hours

It looked as if I could order this bot around to do things, however, it appeared that I could only allocate a certain amount of time per day. Four hours to be exact. I looked around the farm and thought my best bet would be to clean up this place. I wasn’t entirely sure that I could start making plots yet, due to the rocks and overgrowth the farm was currently experiencing.

I brought my attention to the clean-up task on the menu and sure enough, as I did that the Idle Bot hummed with purpose; collecting rocks as it started to spout gardening tools from its metallic body. Going to work like an automated lawnmower.

I saw the clean-up task highlighted and the idle time left option counting down like a clock. I wasn’t sure what would happen after seventy-two hours but I wasn’t about to find out anytime soon due to the four-hour limit set on the Idle Bot per day.

I found myself a little annoyed that the daily limit was set to only four hours. At this rate I am not getting home anytime soon, I thought in frustration. I focused my attention on my little Kaiju creature.

“Alright, little buddy. Let’s see what you can do.” He roared in what I felt was an agreement with the words that I said. Yet again a new menu appeared a small list for me to look over.

Leolear-Shin

Add to party

Return to Void

Release

The only option that made sense was selecting the add-to-party option. Most RPG games had this mechanic, and it was one I was familiar with. The other options did not make any coherent sense. As soon as I picked that option. A System message populated my field of vision, but not obstructing it by any means.

Leolear joined your party

I saw what appeared to be a health bar of sorts above Leolear as the Kaiju came closer to me within a five-foot radius. The Kaiju creature seemed to be on high alert looking around the farm.

If I were to farm, I would need tools and farming equipment. I still didn’t see how farming was correlated to leveling up my Kaiju, but Cal seemed to worship the System like a god of some sort. Perhaps there was some truth to it; as if the System was on my side like some deity.

I remembered that I still needed to visit my mailbox after I leveled the farm up. Leolear followed close to my heels as I walked over to my new mailbox. The box itself was nestled close to the main road where Cal’s Kaiju was waiting during our conversation.

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I worked up a bit of a sweat as I made it to the mailbox. I felt a bit weaker, but nothing to be concerned about. The sun was glaring, and it was humid out. I opened the mailbox, it bellowed out a sigh as the rust broke from the old still functioning box. As my hand entered the rusted box I saw a menu pop up in front of me. I jumped in surprise. I looked around to make sure that no one witnessed what happened.

I locked eyes with Leolear and the creature made a snorting noise.

“Wait, are you laughing at me?” I questioned.

Leolear gave a subtle nod and rolled in the dirt as I looked at the creature dumbfounded.

“You little shit,” I said under my breath as I stuck my hand in the mailbox, now ready for the System to show me what was in the box. I looked at another menu.

Mailbox

Sunflower seeds: 1

Hot Pepper seeds: 3

Wheat seeds: 5

Crafting recipe

At this point, I was pretty sure what to do. I thought about taking all the items from the box and saw a new System message.

Added to inventory:

[1 Sunflower seeds, 3 Hot Pepper Seeds, 5 wheat Seeds, Crafting Recipe]

“Awesome,” I shouted aloud.

It was clear that I was getting acclimated to the System as I began to become more unitive with each and every move. I speculated that the System had some Idle gaming mechanics. This would mean that I needed to be tactful in how I spent my time. I still needed to figure out how to level up my Kaiju and why the System wanted me to farm. I knew they were connected. Exploring the System was the only way to figure that out. I pondered this as I pulled my inventory up. I looked to make sure everything was accounted for. Fortunately, everything was. However, the mystery of how to use the seeds and crafting recipe was not evident to me.

Another annoyance lingering in the back of my mind was that I needed farming tools. I’ve never farmed a day in my life. I had no idea what tools I even needed.

I watched as my Idle Bot worked on its task to clean the farm up. I thought that the bot had cleared out a nice little area. I wanted, no, needed to figure out how everything worked.

I cycled through the menus and assigned the Idle Bot to make plots. I heard Leolear roar, and the little creature ran away into the thick of the farm’s property. I did not know how far the farm stretched due to how overgrown the farm was.

“Hey, wait, where are you going?” I said in disbelief. Fine, I don’t need your help anyway, I thought to myself. As I witnessed Cal’s Kaiju, it seemed that my own wasn’t going to listen to me as well.

I needed to focus on the task at hand, and it seemed that the creature was more of an annoyance than any help. I wasn’t sure why I expected the Kaiju creature to help me. I also wasn’t going to wait around for Cal or anyone else to help me for that matter.

In the back of my mind, this wasn’t my home, as much as I wanted to explore this world more. I needed to get back to Tim and my life.

As I pondered about my Earth life I thought about testing the capabilities of the System. I thought about the Idle Bot making enough plots for the seeds in my inventory and wondered if I could assign multiple tasks at a time. The System came to life with another message.

Idle Bot:

Task chain queued

Make plots:9

Clean up

End Command

Time remaining: 2 hrs: 54 minutes.

Perfect, I thought to myself. It looks as if I could chain a series of commands together. This would prove useful. I was feeling better about the limitations of the System. My frustration dissipated somewhat, knowing that I had more control over the System itself. I wanted to acquire more Idle Bots; that would mean I could get home faster. I hoped that leveling up the farm wasn’t the only way to get more bots to work for me.

I watched my Idle Bot go to work using its own tools to till the land as I paced back and forth waiting for the little bot to get its work done. I wondered If I could do anything else to help the process quicker.

I hated not knowing. There was no instruction booklet; like on the inside of old video game cases. If there were, I would study the ever-living shit out of that resource in order to get home faster.

However, I thought long and hard, putting all my focus into an instruction booklet or manual. Unfortunately, I did not see any menus or System messages.

“Well, I guess I can’t win them all,” I said to myself. It felt a little empty without Leolear on my heels giving roars and snorts of his own. Where did that little guy go off to, I thought. Though we hadn’t spent much time with one another, it appeared that we were bonding quite nicely. Enough for me to care that he wasn’t on my heels.

I continued watching my Idle Bot go to work as I thought about how much I missed Tim. Though I thought our relationship to be a complete mess; I still missed him and the life we had built together over the years.

As the bot finished up with the ninth plot, I watched it fly away as it performed what I called a ‘tool change’ and it continued to tame the wild overgrowth of the farm.

If I didn’t get another Idle Bot soon, I would not advance quickly in the slightest. I stood over the newly tilled soil and thought about planting my seeds. Suddenly, seeds materialized into my hand and I bent down scooping the earth in my other hand in an attempt to plant the seeds. The system responded in kind.

Sunflower seeds planted

[One action point used]

Alright, planting seeds isn’t that big of a deal, I thought. That was the first action point that I used; according to my stats, I only have two more left. I wondered what would happen if I used them all. I was bound to find out.

I went for the wheat seeds next. I did the same as before and got a similar System message. I felt lightheaded and dizzy. I wasn’t sure what was happening to me.

As I gained my bearings Leolear came running with a bucket in his mouth. He presented the bucket to me and the bucket itself was full of water.

“Oh, I can't believe I forgot the most important thing…water,” I thankfully said, talking to the creature I dismissed just a few moments before. Well, I feel like a dick, I thought.

If planting seeds cost action points, surely watering plants did as well. I didn’t want to use my last action point just planting a seed if I had no way to water the plants.

Two plots did not seem like it would produce a lot. I felt as if I was in a bind. I went with my gut, and I used the bucket to water my plots.

Watered sunflower seeds

Watered Wheat seeds

Watered empty plot

Watered empty plot

Watered empty plot

[action point used]

It appeared that one bucket covered five plots altogether. That was good. My body felt terrible. As if it were shutting down on me. The earth started to spin. I wanted to see if I could use another action point.

As I materialized seeds into my hand; I heard a voice yelling.

“No…stop…don’t.”

A shadowy figure rushed into my blurry vision. I couldn’t make out what was going on. The earth felt as if it were flooded in a vast ocean as I lost total conscience. My mother’s voice appeared in the annals of my brain.

“Honey, be kind to yourself. Remember to take care of yourself. This world is magical but unforgiving.”