The Stack

At this point, I’m actually going through with what I identified as the proper approach in my last post: camping in one spot for 24 hours, waiting to see if anything happens. Specifically, I’m at the blocked entrance to the caves, which I’ve seen people walk past in dreams. If I see an old man go by, he’s headed for the nearby well, which I’m thinking I can use to escape once he lowers a bucket in.

Obviously this isn’t an activity that occupies my full attention, but it does require steady vigilance. Or perhaps not: I probably don’t need to keep a close watch during the nighttime, because it’s always sunny in the dreams, and besides, who fetches water in the dead of night? Also, every daily event I’ve seen so far happens at the top of the hour, so I very likely only need to check in then. Nonetheless, I’m keeping a window open, just in case. But for all I know, fetching water might not even be a daily event. Maybe it only happens weekly. Maybe it only happens once. Maybe I have to wait out the full 400 days for it to happen.

And really, this uncertain waiting is something I’m subjecting myself to. I could give up and go for either of two other endings. First, I could just wait out the 400 days and wake up the King. This wouldn’t take long — I’m at less than 40 game-days to the deadline, and the time ratio at home is at about 20:1. But I’m reluctant to give the King what he wants, for reasons I’ve already gone into. Secondly, there’s the secret, the one you unlock by following those cryptic clues I’ve been obsessing over. I’ve gotten that to the point of opening up a portal with light streaming from it, which apparently leads to a secret ending. But I took so many hints to get it that far, essentially playing the game out of a wiki by the end, that it would feel cheaty to accept it as my ending. I want an ending that I earned.

And in this game, you earn things by waiting for them.