Remain inside

Sen flinched awake to the buzzing of his phone. Loud alarms had never worked on him—too many years of being woken up by doors slamming open and parents yelling his name from the other side of the house. A buzz was enough; he fumbled across the bedside table and silenced the alarm.

His room fell quiet again. Sen sat up with a yawn. "Ughhh," he groaned. "It's so warm, I don't even want to get up."

Unfortunately, work didn't care about his warm blankets, so, dragging himself out of bed, he shuffled to the bathroom. He moved to the sink and looked up at the mirror, where dark eye bags stared back. "I gotta stop playing games all night when I have work," he muttered.

His black hair stuck out in every direction. He grabbed his toothbrush from the cup beside the sink. Then Sen grabbed his toothpaste; it was the same brand he'd used since childhood. The toothpaste had tiny little white stars mixed into the blue paste. Sen thought they were cute; his older brother had called him weak when they were kids for liking the star toothpaste, but his brother could cry about it for all he cared. He squeezed some onto the brush and started scrubbing. Once his teeth were clean, he washed his face with cold water, dried off, and headed back to his room.

Getting dressed in his work uniform took less than a minute. His uniform was boring: he wore a plain black work shirt, a name tag that was rusted on one corner, black trousers, and black shoes that were scuffed up on the sides. After checking a few times to ensure he had his phone, wallet, and keys, Sen grabbed a couple slices of plain bread and headed out the door, chewing as he walked.

The cold morning air hit him as he stepped outside; he closed the door to his apartment behind him. The apartment hallway was mostly empty this early in the morning, so Sen headed for the stairs.

Technically, the elevator would be faster, but elevators were small metal boxes, and Sen had no interest in boxing himself in where strangers could stand too close and block the exit. Stairs were better, because nobody could trap you on a staircase. Sen descended the stairs with his hands shoved into his pockets; when he got to the bottom, he jumped down the last two steps.

His apartment building didn't have a doorman or anything, but what it did have was arguably worse: the old lady. Nobody knew when she slept, or even if she slept at all; she just existed near the building entrance like some kind of territorial gargoyle. Every day, she sat in the same chair, interrogating any poor soul walking past. Sen hated her. For someone like him who just wanted to come and go quietly, she was a nightmare. She would ask endless questions: "Where are you going? Why are you back so late? Who was that person? What time do you work?"

Who wanted to explain why they got home at nine every night? Sen had tried complaining to the landlord, but that had lasted all of five minutes before he'd discovered the old woman was the landlord's mother.

As soon as he stepped into the lobby, she spotted him. "Young man!" Sen kept walking, doing his best to ignore her. "Young man! I know you can hear me!" The old woman huffed loudly behind him.

Sen let out a breath when he got outside. The walk to the bus stop wasn't short. Most mornings, Sen spent it thinking about games he wanted to play or whether he had enough money left until payday, but today was different, because he actually had something to look forward to: the release of Remain Inside.

It was a game he'd beta tested a month or two ago that was finally launching soon. A lot of things could have changed since the beta, like new systems or quests, or maybe new monsters, but Sen wasn't too concerned with that.

During the beta, Remain Inside had stood out from every other survival game he'd played. The Great Forest, which was the starting region, contained a limited number of safe circles which were permanent safe zones that were unmovable, unbreakable, and impossible to recreate. Only a thousand existed in the game, and worse, each circle could only support fifteen players unless you used a 2-year crystal to upgrade the capacity to twenty. Normally, that would've been enough to make Sen quit, since the system practically forced people to socialize, which were all things Sen preferred avoiding when he was trying to relax.

The only reason he'd agreed to test the game was because the developers had reassured the beta players that there were only twenty beta testers. There had been plenty of room, so there was no fighting over territory or desperate scrambling. Sen frowned slightly as he walked,*now that the game is releasing publicly, a thousand spaces sounded a lot smaller.*

Sen arrived at the bus stop and dropped onto the bench with a sigh. The bus always took twenty minutes, and with nothing else to do, his thoughts drifted back to Remain Inside. His favorite feature was the seasons. While plenty of games had day and night cycles and a decent number even had changing weather, Remain Inside felt different. Spring wasn't just green leaves appearing on the trees, and summer wasn't simply brighter sunlight; the entire forest changed based on the season. Different plants appeared or creatures emerged. Resources would become scarce or more abundant, and paths became easier or harder to travel, making the world really feel alive.

Thinking about seasons reminded him of another game. "Hmm..." Sen frowned; it had been a long while since he played it. *What was it called again? Something with farming... Harvesting?*Then it clicked. *A Harvester's Story! Right, that was it!*

Sen smiled a little; he'd loved that game. It was a solo game—just him, his crops, and a little town full of NPCs where he could plant seeds, harvest vegetables, and watch spring become summer and summer become autumn.

Remain Inside had some of those same elements, like farming, crafting, cooking, and gathering, along with a ridiculous number of skill trees. The beta version alone had enough progression systems to keep people occupied for years, though Sen hoped they'd added achievements.

Before he could continue that train of thought, a familiar rumble rolled down the street and the bus pulled up with a hiss. Sen stood and climbed aboard. After paying his fare, he headed straight for the back. The bus wasn't crowded this morning, which made the trip peaceful.

The bus route took longer than the train, but the bus wasn't crowded. He hated trains; he had seen too many news stories of someone getting pushed onto the tracks, and the crowd of people at the station made him uncomfortable. It would be easy for someone to push him, and then suddenly he'd be dead. Besides, the train was packed full of people when it arrived and only got worse with even more people getting on.

*Bunch of sardines,* Sen thought, shaking his head. He settled into his seat and closed his eyes as the engine hummed beneath him.