I gaze at the window, the first one I've seen, intent on critically revising its truths.

  9.1/10

  I blow on the stone to eat it.

  8.7/10

  Another window telling me I've done it pops up, while the feeling of emptiness is slightly pushed back. However...

  9.2/10

  ...Here it comes... Any minute now...

  9.1/10

  There. For some reason, it's going down faster. I've noticed this because as I keep expanding from the center of this room, the number has begun to act a bit odd. At first, I could refill it to a full 10/10 by consuming the rock. However, as time goes on and I move further away, I start to lose ground on its continued lowering.

  Two things have changed from the time of my awakening. I've dug much deeper into the ground. In my mad crunching, I've more than doubled the space around my 'core', where I first started to perceive things around me. I've taken care to equally push outwards in all directions. The other thing is, well... The screens that light up this space. The little windows that keep popping up whenever I do anything, really.

  Light source they may be, they've started to clutter up my surroundings, and are a bit repetitive. Just thinking about dismissing them causes the little screens to flare up and shrink, until they disappear in less than a second. Closing all the gray ones takes about a minute, and the difference is noticeable. The growing pangs haunting my mind grow a bit less dire. Not that much, but they feel a bit better. And, true enough, I found out I'm able to refill it back to 10/10 again. Not for long, but I can see the number again.

  Right. So, I need a way to keep the number up. I look around, exploring my options, and feel quite a few more phantom limbs than I had at first. Flexing whatever I perceive, even more windows pop into existence. Resisting the urge to close them, I focus on the screens. One of them is a catalog.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Curious. Very curious. I'm just going to assume the number is linked to the only meter I can affect. A quick glance at the other one shows me another series of scribbles.

  Okay. So the prices are both ridiculous and quite literally outside of my range.Even maxed out I an't reach them. There must be something I'm missing. Either they are not referring to that number, or there must be a way to increase it. The cheapest thing to buy is an 'Entrance'. A thought has me selecting that, and suddenly a good chunk of my consciousness turns a blaring red.

  Moving my invisible eyes out of this zone, I see it is a glowing red rectangle. It's very bright, and sections of the corners stick out through the rock. Turning it around, I have just enough space to make it fit in the space I've excavated. I don't think it should be put diagonally, and it seems to agree with me because it remains red.

  I discard it, and take a quick look at the others. Like the Entrance, each room lights up a section of space. The empty rooms have a little addition to the side, some different scales. The first one marks them at 7x5x3, which leaves them longer and larger than they're tall. The stairs are much smaller than the rooms, and twice as tall, while the research room is a massive 10x10x10, a squat box that clutters up most of the space I've dug out. As usual, it seems I need to do a certain thing before I can progress. Eat some more rocks. Just as I get to it, however, the tooltip written on some of the screens catches my eye.

  Usually, I just ignore them. However this time, I focus on it, and feel something click. In the blink of an eye, a whole chunk of stone is gone. Just, poof, disappeared without leaving any trace. I eye the little numbers that equate to the itch in my mind.

  9.6/10

  I don't think it has increased as much as it does when I do it. I note that, before trying to solve the issue at hand. Which is my curiosity about the shop. It takes a quick second to come to grips with the sudden change, but when I do, I'm quick to get back on the menu.

  Sure enough, it's just the right amount of space for one of the 'empty rooms'. After confirming that it can be placed there because it becomes green, I plop it down. The greenlit space warps, and the way I perceive it shifts. Thin walls manifest out of nothing, much like the screens do, to close off the newly excavated room. The itch in my mind blooms into a slight pang of pain, which - well, it's unpleasant, but it's not as all-encompassing as before. Now it does not hurt as much.

  4.6/11

  ...

  It has never been as low as now, and yet it bothers me much less. I feel bigger. It's not easy to put into words, but everything feels smaller in here. Not by much, but it's noticeable. Experimenting with the new informs me of some odd proprieties of this thing.

  For one, I can just move through the walls. For another, I don't really need to, because I'm somehow perfectly aware of everything going on inside the four walls. Which is nothing at the moment, but just thinking about that-

  Everything I do pops up more screens. While that would normally be a bother, this one has something I really, really, really want to poke. The sap, whatever that is, says it will give me one unit per day. Apart from making me question how this... thing I'm using is quantified, and what it is, it makes my non-existant heart tremble with expectation. This is possibly going to change my life. I need this. In the name of getting at least one sapper plopped down, get back to mining. I do it manually to make sure I get as much out of it as possible. It does not take me too long to get over how much I need, but I keep going to have a bit of a buffer.

  I'm not sure what happens when I get to 0/11, but I kind of do not want to find out.

  8.3/11

  Okay. I think I have enough. It's time. The moment I focus on it, I feel energy drain, leaving my mind as an almost empty husk. I begin to feel sheepish, drained, and the sharpness of my vision is smudged into a sloppy and confused mess. Darkness begins to grow at the edge of my perception, and no matter how or where I franatically move, that doesn't change. I blink out, slipping out of consciousness just as easily as I first awoke.