Sitting behind his computer disgruntled Rick Jokowiro aged 41, tried to ease his mind with playing a relaxing game Farming Together (1). Suddenly he felt pain and collapsed in his chair. The last thing he could remember was a feeling that something was pulling him away from his body and an incoherent voice saying in his mind: “Ssttuuppidd Hhosstt, tthhiiss wwaass nnott hhooww yoouu ssuuppoosss…..”

Rick was once a promising man. He himself felt that something or someone was helping him in whatever he did. It is a kind of feeling that is unexplainable. "Is it luck or is it due to my own effort?", he sometimes wondered.

But in his early 20’s all this changed, he was hit with a traumatic event. Actually not his own but someone really dear to him, which slowly pulled him away from all the things he build-up since finishing High School. He began working for a company that was responsible for implementing and maintaining a national network inside the Country, called Local Area Network (LAN). Later this LAN became the backbone of what most countrymen in that Country have today in every household and it’s known as the Internet.

Rick climbed the ladder within the company very quickly through hard and precise work. The company was very pleased with him and sent Rick to College to get a degree in a newly found study that just started a year before, Information & Technology (IT).

It was in college where he found his first true love and they grew very close to each other. They made a good couple, supported each other in study and work. Talks of their future plans were also getting near after visits with their parents.

All this changed in the 3^rd year of College when something happened to his girlfriend, which pulled him out of his comfort zone. From there it went all downhill within a year he lost his girlfriend, stopped his study, and soon lost his job.

Rick was stuck for 3 years. The day he met his former girlfriend and tried to support her when given her report to the police. The details of what happened to her constantly playing through his mind. He tried to overanalyze it, soon plot and theories flooded his mind which took him away from reality. Guilt and self-blame overtook him which really wasn’t his to bear. (2)

The world moved on and things Rick desired to witness, the birth of the internet in his Country, he could only follow it from afar. Instead, with the help of his relatives, they slowly pulled him out of his shell.

Slowly getting back to society, he started with temp-jobs in the financial sector, since it was also the blooming stage of computers and a lot of accounting was done through computer software, which he was already good at.

With a swift course in accounting, he slowly got his old drive back, but occasionally drifted back to his past with ‘what would it be if’ scenario’s running in his mind. Through this, he never got involved in an intimate relationship with another.

Years went by and he was met several ups and down, he did manage to find steady work with the government. But deep inside, it didn’t bring him satisfaction as it was monotonous work from 8 to 5, which easily bored him. 

Then another misfortune came Rick’s way at 37, his mother was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, which would slowly deteriorate her skeleton and her health. Fortunately, the disease has a treatment that can delay the final outcome.

Rick discussed with his relatives to take care of their mother since she needed to be watched and cared for 24/7. 2 Years later they stood beside her bed witnessing her passing away, and he fell back to his old ways. He was depressed.

This continued on till the moment he had an argument with his father and went to his room disgruntled. He sat behind his computer and start playing Farming Together to relax his mind that is what he tried anyway. Till that occurred, the start of his story.

Back to where it all began.

Time passed on and somewhere deep in space a voice could be heard saying: “Why am ‘I’ still alive? ‘We’ aren’t supposed to be in this state. And why am ‘I’ stuck to this lousy Host? Host, WAKE UP!”

Several years went by the voice came again: “‘I’ can feel the energy in the surroundings, much better than what Host could give me from his world! Hmm… it all consists of space fluctuations let me study it.”

Another several year went by when suddenly the voice shouted: “No, no, the knowledge ‘I’ obtained is deteriorating, it’s bound to Host memories. If the host loose his memories ‘I’ would lose all the knowledge learned here. ‘I’ got to fix it!”

It slowly gathered the energy around it and made a bubble surrounding Host and it. The voice could be heard again: “Fortunately, this space carries time fluctuations as well and ‘I’ can freeze us in a time bubble, that won’t deteriorate Host memories. But ‘I’ need to see how long this time bubble can last and if it needs to be reenergized and when.”

2 Decades went by and ‘it’ managed to gain more knowledge of space and time fluctuations, which ‘it’ called Space-Time Law. ‘It’ became more ambitious and tried to experiment in the space they currently were in. ‘It’ managed to gather surrounding debris that was floating inside the space together, what it didn’t expect was to find a piece of land that had its own atmosphere and it maintained its own special ecosystem. ‘It’ observed the piece of land for several years.

After a few years later ‘it’ theorized that this space was once part of a galaxy that met a disaster and was a dual solar system. The nearby solar system collapsed and all the debris were blown to this side of the galaxy, planets that were floating around this Star were greatly affected some even destroyed. And what happened to its sister Star brought it over here, signs of deep straight slashes could be found here and there on large floating debris. Only the Star remained from this Solar system and all planets were destroyed.

The Star which ‘it’ could see in the distance was 2 times smaller than Earth’s Star ‘Sun’, but it gave twice as much atmospheric energy off than the ‘Sun’ containing Space-Time fluctuations. Perhaps it changed through what happened to it's the solar system or the Star always gave these fluctuations off. But ‘it’ didn’t know what exactly happened as the Star ejected itself with the surrounding debris out of its galaxy straight into a dimension. Though it really didn’t matter, because they were now the only intelligent entities inside the dimension.

‘It’ soon came to an idea when looking at the Host memories. The most recent memory was that of the game Farming Together and with that thought, it began organizing the debris and increased the landmass of the independent piece of land. ‘It’ fortified the atmosphere the land was covered in and shielded it with Space-Time Law. Since the nearby Star provided the energy why not make use of it, was ‘it’ logic thought.

It shrouded the shield with mist through the active collision of space fluctuations, which gave any outsiders who’re looking in the direction of the piece of land that it was just a gaseous anomaly or planet. Those who still had the urge to inspecting they would then be hit with space fluctuations repelling them away.

After having done that, ‘it’ concentrated on the piece of land and from the memories of his Host, began to change the ecosystem to that of the earth without Human civilization and let it prosper on its own. While observing the piece of land, ‘it’ also studied the soul and noticed without a container ‘body’ it can also grow but has its limits and is bound to it in a special way. When the soul departs the body, it usually dissipates after the body stops functioning ‘death’ and this is also the case with people who are the same as Host and ‘it’.

But somehow Host and ‘it’ was sucked into a distortion the moment Host body ‘died’ and were pulled into this space. ‘It’ was now part of Host soul and if Host soul dissipates ‘it’ will be gone as well. To prevent that from happening, ‘it’ tried to connect the Host soul with the piece of land, but it’s wasn’t a viable container. Then it looked at the animals and plants and thought: “Maybe?” But ‘it’ reconsidered quickly because ‘it’ was sure Host will become crazy and would commit suicide right after his Host awakened.

‘It’ could only sigh and watch the creation ‘it’ made with glee and try to maintain 'it' existence with the Host as long as possible and says: “Well, ‘I’ did life longer in this space, then when we were inside Host previous body. Let’s just enjoy the sight of this wondrous ecosystem ‘I’ created.”

7 Decades went by just like that. ‘It’ gained more knowledge of the Soul and Space-Time Law, even managed to merge a piece of the Host soul with it, making the piece of land an isolated space-restricted only to the Host. More debris floated near the isolated space and ‘it’ had to build another available land near it, through the collision of space fluctuations it manages to touch on the concept of Destruction - and Creation Laws. ‘It’ wanted to try to build a type of land that resembles the game Farming Together. ‘It’ didn’t know why but 'it' became obsessed.

Another decade went by and ‘it’ was done creating the game concept and says: “Well it’s not the same, more realistic that reflects how the agriculture and economy work on Earth, but its close enough. ‘I’ will name it Offshoot Farming Together, because we, you and 'I', will work on it, though Host is still sleeping.”

Suddenly a distortion was felt and they were pulled inside of it. Coming back to ‘it’ senses, ‘it’ looked around and saw ‘it’ was in a room within a body of a 10 years old boy and screamed: “YES, WE HAVE A BODY HOST!”

The door of the room was abruptly opened and a man came in. He checked if the boy was awake but saw the boy's eyes closed, he said some gibberish words to another man and walked out of the room. Before closing the door he glanced at the boy with disdaining eyes and after closed the door.

‘It’ could feel that this boy’s soul was slowly dissipating and wondered if they too were met with a misfortune. ‘It’ checked the boy’s body and nothing was a miss, then ‘it’ pried the memories of the boy and gained an understanding that the world they were in wasn’t Earth, but a different one which had abundant types of energy floating in the air.

It said in the Host mind: “It seems that this boy has met with some misfortune since childhood. But one misfortune is another’s blessing. ‘I’ am truly sorry kid, I can’t do anything for you but I will slowly guide Host to take revenge for any misgiving done to you. Your relatives will be fine, Host will provide for them as that’s the type of fellow he originally is if we manage to get out of here. I don't know the current situation, but we, Host and 'I' have hope.”

Saying ‘it’ last goodbye to the former occupant of the body, ‘it’ became resolute in changing the current body of Host and says: “Let’s get to work host, the ideas and the visual experiments I have done should make it possible. I’ll turn this current body of yours like a computer that stores its data on drives since the body has so many, why not the cells. With Space and Time concept, ‘I’ will be able to recreate it, let’s call it Spatial Server, hehehe… For now, host sleeps tight and enjoy the memories of the previous occupant of this body. I hope you also notice the things done to this boy.”

Rick who was deep in slumber for about 8 decades showed signs of waking up.

Author tries to explain:

• 1) Farming Together is a social game published by Milkstone Studio in February 2018. It's an enjoyable and relaxing game where you can farm and build structures on your own or with friends.
• 2) Somewhat based on a true story, that happened to a friend of mine. We were close but drifted apart, but kept taps on him so now and then. But my own life moved on and I can only write his lifestory anonomous in short with his approval as their are other things involved. Principal Indonesian people are quite stubborn and like to resolve their own problems on their own, but before they know it they are stuck in a loop, very hard to get them out of it. At that time that what happened to his girlfriend, Victim Support wasn’t widely known to civilians in the country and he wasn’t offered / reminded to get help himself. So if you are met with a traumatic event, even if it not directly happened to you, talk about it when offered help. Accept it! You aren’t crazy.

Updated 04/29/2020;

Galaxy was previous written as a Solar system, author face is red and fully ashamed. Rethought and rewritten that piece of text "After a few years later ‘it’ theorized ...", though it doesn't influence the overall story, but ain't no harm of making this story whole again.