Sebastian did not feel like coming out of the house today. Normally, he would have just spent most of his day inside his room, programming and then chilling with video games.

  He didn’t expect someone to come over to his room.

  “Can we come in?” Abigail knocked.

  “…Yes, it’s fine,” Sebastian replied.

  The door opened to reveal three people. Abigail, Sam, and that new farmer who just moved in. He had short, dark hair and matching dark eyes with a solid tan.

  His name was… John Doe? I think. Who names their child ‘John’ when their surname is ‘Doe’? Sebastian thought.

  “Sup, Seb. We’re going to Abigail’s house to play Prairie. Wanna come?” Sam asked.

  I don’t feel like going out today, though…

  Sebastian looked at Abigail. Her face looked like she really wanted him to accept.

  He sighed with a small blush. “Alright, fine.”

  “Yay!” Abigail and Sam high-fived, while the farmer looked at them with a smile.

  Sebastian stood up. Only now did he realize how dirty it was. Whatever, he would take care of it later. He walked up to the farmer and held out his hand.

  “I’m Sebastian,” he said.

  “John.” The farmer shook his hand.

  ---

  Out of all the people I have seen so far, Sebastian looked the most as I imagined.

  He had dark hair, which under the light shone with a slight purplish tint. That black hoodie was probably the only thing he wore, and overall, he gave this emo vibe. Hell, he even did kind of look like an e-boy.

  “Isn’t Prairie with four people going to be too easy?” Sebastian asked.

  No. Prairie was never easy.

  “Maybe the game's harder if more people are playing,” Abigail said.

  “Maybe.”

  We plugged in Sebastian’s extra controllers to Abigail’s console and booted up the game. Ah, this soundtrack still gave me trauma, no matter how catchy it was. In the whole time I’ve played Stardew Valley, not once have I beaten Prairie. I only got to the third stage.

  Today, this would change.

  “Get ready!” Sam shouted, and each one of us tensed up.

  The game took place in a square arena, with four spots in the middle of each wall from which enemies appeared. Over time, the arena would change, creating more obstacles such as walls and spawning harder enemies.

  The first enemy appeared from the top. We employed a strategy where each one of us took up one of the four walls.

  Me at the top, Abigail to the right, Sam at the bottom, and Sebastian to the left.

  “Shoot!” Abigail shouted, and I got rid of the first orc.

  More appeared from each side, but we took care of them easily.

  “At this rate, we won’t even realize when we’ve won,” Sebastian said.

  “Wait, have any of you gotten to the third stage yet?” I asked.

  They responded with a collective ‘no.’ Oh no. They don’t know.

  The spawn rates seemed also strangely high – definitely much higher than back when I played the game. Still, it was uncanny how exact the game was here and back on Earth. After getting used to all of the changes, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

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  We beat the first level easily, and Abigail picked up a machine gun upgrade.

  The next round came. This time, once in a while, the enemies slipped through the constant shooting. I wasn’t imagining it; the spawn rates were definitely higher.

  We beat the first four rounds of the game with ease and moved on to the fifth round.

  “This is just too easy,” Sam said.

  The boss appeared. I thought it would be just like in the game. I was wrong.

  This goddamn motherfucker had a machine gun upgrade!

  “Agh!" Sam got shot. Now he only had three lives.

  “Damn it!” Sebastian got shot as well.

  With the four of us, we were hitting the boss at a rapid pace, but his health pool was going down much slower than usual. The game must have adapted to accommodate four players, either through higher spawn rates or making the bosses stronger.

  “Not again!” Sam clicked his tongue at being shot.

  Eventually, we managed to defeat the first boss. It cost three lives in total, and it would only get harder from now on, especially in the third stage.

  The game commenced, and the four of us moved to our positions. Sebastian and Sam had a confident smile on their face, which turned into confusion as they saw something appearing from one of the corners.

  It was a butterfly, flying slowly towards the closest enemy.

  “Wait, is that…” Sebastian muttered.

  Abigail shot it down, but just then, enemies appeared from the right. She failed to get all of them, and a few broke through, causing chaos.

  Sebastian immediately moved to try to help her, but that caused even more to slip through his side.

  “Calm down! Just take care of your own side!” I shouted. “As for the butterflies, shoot the ones to the right in clockwise fashion.”

  The three of them nodded, and the situation calmed down. We barely got through the round without losing any lives.

  Sebastian picked a musket upgrade in the next round and occasionally shot at enemies that slipped through from the others. He wasn’t supposed to do that, but oh well. It was just a game.

  Unfortunately, Abigail got hit, and so did I.

  In the third round, Sam got hit by a butterfly, leaving him with one life. Everyone else had three when we moved to the boss.

  This time, not only did it have a machine gun upgrade… it had the wheel upgrade! The one that made it so he shot in every direction.

  It was more like three, considering he could only shoot upwards, but it was still really difficult to move around.

  Sebastian got hit, and so did Abigail. Miraculously, Sam survived the onslaught. Just barely. It was time for the third stage.

  The fact that we got to the third stage on our first play-through was insane.

  Here it comes… I thought.

  The battlefield changed into a graveyard, and now, instead of butterflies, demons appeared from the corners. They were much faster, and now each enemy except them took two hits to die.

  Just as we thought the round would end, Sam was hit by a demon.

  “Agh! Damn it!” Sam sat up straight. “Looks like it’s the three of you now.”

  The second round caused yet another casualty. It was much harder now that we had to take care of a free wall. Sebastian was hit, leaving him with one life. He would have been hit again if Abigail hadn’t picked the machine gun and wheel upgrade at the same time and absolutely obliterated the enemies until the end of the round.

  “Hahaha! I am the immortal god of destruction!” Abigail shouted with a smile.

  In the third round, both Abigail and I were hit. I was the only one with two lives now, but we were already facing the final boss.

  It was a witch with a gun.

  She had the machine gun upgrade, the wheel upgrade, and an insane pool of HP. Occasionally, she would disappear and summon other enemies, but they weren’t the problem. She was.

  These upgrades were fucking busted!

  “Agh!” I shouted as she got me.

  Now, each one of us only had one life.

  “Come on, kill her!” Sam shouted from behind. I didn’t turn around.

  Maneuvering around her bullets was tricky. Too tricky for Sebastian, who got hit when only half of her HP was gone.

  “Danm it!” He clicked his tongue.

  I bit my lips as I focused. Abigail leaned forward – I saw her only with the corner of my eye.

  When the witch was at quarter HP, Abigail was shot. She grunted in displeasure.

  Now, it was up to me.

  Just me alone, against the final boss of Prairie, whom I had never even reached before.

  Sam, Abigail, and Sebastian cheered me on. There was no way I would lose like this!

  Bit by bit, I shot at the witch and reduced her HP. Just a smudge of the red bar was left.

  Come on, come on!

  The damn witch was flying around the map. It was so hard to shoot her. Sometimes I was so close, but the enemies blocked her.

  There!

  I saw the chance. No more enemies, just her at the center of the map! I shot with sniper’s precision, but she responded with her own attack. Both of our bullets flew at each other.

  I was too close, I couldn’t dodge it. But neither could she. My heart stopped as the two opposing bullets flew.

  And mine hit first.

  The opposing bullet disappeared, and the witch blew up! Only a heart was left in her place!

  “Hell yeah!” I shouted with pure joy.

  “That was so close!” Sam shook me from behind.

  The three of them all shook me around, both happy and teasing me a bit.

  “Man, you are such a tryhard.” Abigail chuckled.

  I grabbed the heart, and a cutscene appeared of the game character giving it to a girl and them kissing—the end.

  “So, uh… that was kinda overwhelming.” Sebastian scratched his head.

  True… we really did beat Prairie on our first try. Part of me did feel bad about the fact – what kind of challenge was it if we had the whole four people? But… if I were playing alone, would I have had the same amount of fun?

  “Let’s play Kario Mart,” I said with a smile.

  “Sure, I’ll boot it up.” Abigail nodded.

  We spent another few hours just playing games, and I didn’t even notice when 2 AM came. Practically immediately, I fell asleep, only to find myself sleeping in my bed.

  So that part is the same…