Monday, Day 1
Early that morning, Charlie discovered something unbelievable.
He had woken up at exactly 6:00 a.m.
That was something he had never managed before.
Was this what farm life did to a person?
“I can’t believe I got up at six, and I’m not even sleepy…” Charlie rubbed his eyes, still not quite convinced.
Then he looked around.
The little cabin wasn’t very big.
It had a bed, a table and chair, a white teacup sitting on the table, a fireplace, and an old CRT TV.
That was almost everything he owned.
“Pretty bare-bones…” he muttered, taking in the shabby furniture.
After all, just yesterday, he had still been living in a modern city.
“But city life in this world…”
“From these memories, it’s just another soul-crushing corporate grind.
Maybe I don’t need to go back after all.”
Thinking back on that soul-crushing routine, Charlie sighed.
The countryside had to be better than that.
At least out here, no one was going to work him to death.
After getting dressed and climbing out of bed, he noticed a package on the floor.
“A package?
Who sent this?”
He picked it up and opened it.
Inside were fifteen packets of seeds and a note.
“Take these and give it your best shot!”
Charlie checked the name on the note.
It was from Mayor Lewis.
“As expected from the mayor.
He’s already looking out for me,” he said with feeling.
Sure enough, getting on Lewis’s good side had been the right move.
Then he took a closer look at the seeds.
The moment his fingers touched them, an interface popped up.
[Parsnip Seeds.
Plant these in the spring.
Takes 4 days to mature.]
Seeing the display appear in midair, Charlie understood at once.
So there really was an interface.
The screen he had opened was a crop description.
There were also tabs for tools, skills, inventory, and more.
After poking around for a while, he figured out the basics.
There were some tools in his backpack, and when he selected one, it appeared in his hand out of nowhere.
Most of them were farming tools.
Fitting enough for a farmer.
His skills were divided into five categories: Farming, Mining, Foraging, Fishing, and Combat.
Every single one was at zero.
“Combat!?”
“So this game really does have bosses.
I’m done for…” Charlie’s mood sank at once.
He still didn’t know exactly what the levels were for, but he guessed they worked like ordinary game progression.
The crafting menu seemed to let him turn materials into other things, like using fifty pieces of wood to make a chest.
Charlie tapped it, but the screen showed that his current wood count was zero.
Once he had more or less figured that out, another tab caught his attention.
A heart-shaped one.
“Hearts?”
“What’s this supposed to mean?”
Curious, he tapped it open.
Inside was a list full of question marks.
The first two, however, were names he recognized: Robin and Lewis.
Their entries showed actual names instead of question marks, and on the far right were ten empty hearts.
“Is this like affection points in a dating sim?”
“What happens if I fill all ten hearts?”
Charlie’s curiosity flared up.
With so many question marks waiting to be unlocked, he suddenly felt motivated.
…
He pushed open the cabin door and stepped outside.
The farm was still a complete mess, no different from yesterday.
Charlie looked at the seeds in his hand and thought for a moment.
Farming?
Farm my ass.
The most important thing right now was building relationships with the villagers.
With that in mind, he put the seeds away and headed down the path Robin and Lewis had taken the day before.
After leaving the farm, Charlie stepped onto the cobblestone road and soon reached the place where he had gotten off the bus.
“Huh, the bus is still parked here?”
“Forget it.
I’ll worry about that later.”
“I’ll go into town first.”
After walking a little farther, he reached town.
The first thing he saw was a pair of connected buildings.
One looked like a clinic, since the red cross over the entrance was hard to miss.
As for the other building, Charlie couldn’t tell what it was yet.
He went up to the clinic first.
He knocked on the door, but no one answered.
“Hello?
Anyone there?”
“I’m the new farmer.”
Still no response.
Charlie tried the doorknob.
At that moment, several large lines of text suddenly appeared in midair.
[Locked…
Hours: 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM]
“Huh?” Charlie froze.
Something had just appeared that didn’t fit his common sense at all.
“Hold on.
What kind of clinic opens at nine-thirty and closes at three?!”
After that complaint, he looked toward the other building.
He still didn’t know what kind of store it was, but the owner was probably named Pierre.
There was a calendar posted on the wall, marked with birthdays and festivals.
Beside it was a request board, though there were no requests on it right now.
Above both of them was the name Pierre.
“Pierre.”
“Looks like some kind of farm supply store.”
Just as Charlie thought he could greet this family first, another message appeared.
[Locked…
Hours: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM]
Charlie: “…”
“Why is this a store too?
And why are its hours longer than the clinic’s?”
He raged uselessly for a bit, then calmed down.
Then he opened the interface and checked the time.
“It’s only 7:30.
More than an hour to go.
I’ll be waiting forever.”
So Charlie gave up on waiting and decided to check the neighbors’ houses first.
However…
[Locked…
Hours: 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM]
[Locked…
Hours: 8:30 AM – 10:00 PM]
And then, even worse:
[Locked…
Hours: 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM]
“They don’t open until noon?
What is this, a karaoke bar?”
Charlie finally stopped in front of a place called The Stardrop Saloon and snapped.
Just as he was starting to lose hope, with it almost eight and not a single person in sight, footsteps came from nearby.
A man in blue slowly walked over.
When the man was only a few steps away, Charlie got a clear look at him.
He looked to be in his thirties or forties, with worry written all over his face and stubble covering his chin.
A middle-aged guy.
To Charlie, he might as well have been a savior.
He immediately perked up and walked over.
“Hey, friend.
I’m the new farmer here,” he greeted him.
After all, Lewis had said the people here were interested in him.
But reality had other plans.
“I don’t know you.
Why are you talking to me?”
That single sentence left Charlie frozen in place.
Weren’t they supposed to welcome him?
Didn’t everyone want to meet him?
What was with that attitude?
While Charlie stood there stunned, the man gave him a tired look, walked past him, and went on his way.
Soon, he vanished from sight.
Charlie was left standing there alone, disheveled in the morning breeze.
“Lewis, you big liar.”
“Didn’t you say I was popular here?”
Just as he was about to open the interface and yell at Lewis through it, Charlie noticed something.
The question mark over the man in blue was gone.
In its place was a name:
Shane.
Beneath it, one word stood out.
Single.
So just talking to someone once was enough to learn their name.
Charlie understood at once.
At the same time, he noticed something very wrong.
“Single?!” he stared.
Was this guy seriously single?
Seeing Shane marked that way, Charlie felt something was off and quickly looked down at Robin’s entry.
What!
My Robin isn’t single?
Charlie took the blow straight to the heart.