Ch. 3 - Great Find

[A/N: I made a mistake on the last chapter. Lucas' text read: "The place you are in now is your own pocket universe. You can exit it and enter it whenever you wish, with just a thought.", but that's only partially true. When on a mission, he can indeed enter it and exit it whenever he wishes, but while not on a mission, he can't. There's simply no place for him to exit TO while not on a mission, at least not yet. Hope that clears it out. Enjoy the chapter.]

[2735 words]

~4 days later~

Gabriel woke up next to the tree that he had been using to sleep for the past 4 days. His shack was so empty that it didn't even have a bed where he could sleep on. It really was just a wooden square with a roof, a table with a TV and the Fabricator on top, and the door.

For the first couple of the days, it was tough to sleep outside. But he managed to get used to it, and now he can sleep normally.

One other thing that he found out about Tiny Planet was there there were no animals present. Not even mosquitoes, which was absolutely great! He had already journeyed through about 50% of Tiny Planet, which already wielded a few interesting results.

First, on his second day of travelling through Tiny Planet, he discovered a forest about 1,5km west of the shack that had edible fruits. That was probably his greatest find yet because he had begun to feel very hungry after a day of not eating. Now with a constant supply of food, there was at least one item crossed off the list. Gabriel made it a routine to go there every day to collect a hefty amount of fruits, enough to last him a day. Throughout the 2 journeys he made towards the forest, he discovered that maybe this forest had an infinite supply of food because he plucked almost every single one of them on the first time, but on the second day he went there, everything had grown back.

Second, exactly 590 meters north of the shack there was a beautiful river. The climate there was very cold and the ground was filled with snow, so Gabriel thought that it was maybe the South Pole or North Pole of Tiny Planet. Fortunately, the water that traversed through this river was completely drinkable, which was a major plus. Now he had a constant food and water supply. He couldn't wash himself there due to the almost freezing temperatures, which only allowed him to stay there for 3 minutes tops before he started to freeze.

Third and last, even though this planet, or this entire universe, didn't have a sun nor a moon, Tiny Planet misteriously continued to have a day-and-night cycle. Another great thing, since sleeping with the sun still up was a major bummer. He used the clock that the TV had to know what time it is, and he found out that throughout the 4 days of stay, the planet lit up at 6:30am, and started to darken 6:00pm, so it was like Earth's day and nights.

Standing up from the unusually comfortable grass, Gabriel turned his head towards the tree, still having almost completely shut eyes,

"Good morning, Gerald." He said in his deep morning voice. This bastard had even named the tree that he slept at.

Doing some casual morning stretches for a few minutes, Gabriel walked towards his shack. Gerald the tree was only a few tens of meters away from the shack, so it was a good place to sleep. He'd rather sleep on the comfortable grass than on the hard wooden floor of his shack.

*creak*

Entering his small house, Gabriel checked the time on his big television.

-7:04am-

'Good time to wake up.' Gabriel thought.

Today was a good day for Gabriel, for today was the day he would gain 1 full Token! He'd been anticipating this moment ever since he first placed the Fabricator, and now it was finally here.

Throughout these last 4 days, Gabriel had thought of a plan that would help him a lot. It was quite a simple one really, but genious nonetheless. [suggested by 'suicide_elf'. Thanks!]

After he collected his one Token, he'd buy another Trash Token Fabricator, multiplying his daily income by 2 times! Instead of 0,25 Tokens per 24 hours, he'd now receive 0,5 Tokens every 24 hours!

The only thing that might be a problem was if the Trash Token Fabricator's price changed. He had already checked the Shop multiple times, and it always displayed that it was still priced at 1 Token. But, maybe after he bought the second one, God Lucas would change this price so as to thwart Gabriel's plan. Only time will tell.

Looking down from the TV, his eyes landed on the Fabricator's small display,

[0,75 Tokens]

[6 hours, 10 minutes, 03 seconds until the next batch] [A/N: added this for it to be easier to know when the Fabricator will work. 6 hours because Gabriel died when it was a little after midday, so +5 hours there until noon, and another hour because he spent one hour mourning everything he left behind, only after all of this did he placed down the Fabricator.]

"Still a little time left before I can buy the second Fabricator... hmm.... what to do, what to do." Gabriel walked in circles while thinking. Tiny Planet was a really boring planet.

Deciding to do his usual harvest at the forest right now, Gabriel grabed his shirt-bag that he left at the wooden table and left the house.

The shirt-bag he was carrying was actually the shirt he was using the moment he died. It was a simple and plain black t-shirt. All of the clothing he was using at the time of his death were transported with him to Tiny Planet, and also completely fixed because they had been destroyed from the explosion which killed him.

As Gabriel had watched many survival shows on television back on Earth, he already had some basic knowledge on how to survive in the wild, and one thing he learned was that he could use his shirt as a bag.

It was a little troubling to make it since he didn't have any of the tools necessary, such as a knife, a scissor, or a needle to sew it, but he managed to complete it.

~3 days ago~

Before Gabriel set off on his first trip towards the Tiny Planet's horizon, he started to think of how he could make himself a weapon and also a small bag for him to carry the things he found interesting. He had no idea if there were dangerous wild animals roaming around on Tiny Planet, but he didn't want to risk it.

Formulating a plan on his head for a couple of minutes, Gabriel went to Gerald the tree to get the most important item, a stick.

He removed one of Gerald's many sticks and sat down on the grass. He then used his finger-nails and teeth to model it, making a sharp stick that was able to penetrate and even slice through things, though slicing required more effort. This actually took a few hours for him to complete, and gave him a lot of pain on his fingers and mouth in the end, but it was worth it.

Then, he took off his t-shirt and started to cut off the sleeves, making a sleeveless shirt. This process also took longer than expected. 49 minutes to be exact. Although the stick he made was sharp, it was no knife, so cutting the sleeves out of the t-shirt was dificult. Ahh, what he would give to have some scissors with him...

After robustly cutting the sleeves off, he went on to cut the neckline area. Cutting it off would allow him to hold the bag through the 2 cut off sleeves, almost how you'd hold a plastic bag.

Finished with cutting the neckline, his black t-shirt now looked like a black tank top, meaning that it was working.

Now for the last part, he'd have to cut the bottom of his shirt into fringes on both sides simultaneously, which would allow him to tie them up and finish his bag. If he didn't do that, then the bag wouldn't be a bag, just a tank top.

Spending one more hour cutting the fringes, Gabriel grabbed the first pair of fringes and tied them into a knot. Then he tied two more pairs. Finished with this, he grabbed one strand from the middle set of tied fringes, and once again tied it into a knot, but now tying it with one of the strands from the left set. Then he grabbed the other strand from the middle set and tied it with one strand from the right set. He continued to do this until all strands were nicely tied up with each other.

Finally finished with all the knots, he breathed a sigh of relief. The drenched in sweat Gabriel smiled at his creation.

"I'M A FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" He yelled in satisfaction.

Grabbing his new bag through its sleaves, he placed his weaponized stick inside it. Noticing that it did not drop from the bottom, Gabriel saw that it worked perfectly.

~Back to the present~

The forest that Gabriel was heading to was a really small, tree filled green forest. It was only about 60 meters long and 20 meters wide, but it had plenty of juicy fruits.

There were Brazilian Nut trees, apple trees, orange trees, chestnut trees, and strangely enough, palm trees which grew big green coconuts.

Gabriel had to become Tarzan for some moments to grab the coconuts and Brazilian Nuts, since he had to climb the trees to get them, but he did it.

Reaching the forest, Gabriel did the routine that he'd done for the past 3 days. He grabbed 10 apples, 10 oranges, 30 Brazilian Nut seeds which he removed from the woody capsule and 2 coconuts. He placed the nuts in his right and left pockets, while the 2 coconuts, apples and oranges were on his bag. Surprisingly, his bag was sturdier than he thought, it didn't even rip apart with all the weight.

Carrying the bag with his left hand and his sharp stick on his left, Gabriel returned to his shack to leave the food there. He'd be going to the places that he hadn't been yet while he waited for the Fabricator.

A few minutes later, he dropped his bag next to the door and started making his way East, a direction he hadn't gone yet.

Still with his stick on his right hand, Gabriel walked to the horizon. Even though he didn't find any sort of life on this planet yet, he'd rather make sure that he had something to protect himself with him at all times.

After about 3 hours and 30 minutes of walking, he reached a beautiful spot filled with small little hills. Walking through these hills for a few seconds, he saw a small chest lying on the grass. It was exactly in the middle of two of the tallest hills in the area.

Curiously running up to this chest, Gabriel examined it before opening. By the looks of it, it was a rectangular shaped chest measuring 10 centimeters in lenght, 5 centimeters in width, and 5 centimeters in height. It seemed to have been crafted using a beautiful dark wood, and coated with polyurethane from its glossy and shiny look. On the middle front of it was a simple lock that when flipped up would open the chest.

Carefully opening the wooden chest after unlocking it, Gabriel only found a small piece of paper inside. It contained a few words, so Gabriel quickly read it.

-10 REDEEMABLE TOKENS- The paper read.

"Huh? I can claim this to earn 10 Tokens?! If this is true, then it will help me a lot! I need to get back to the shack quickly!" Gabriel excitedly started to run towards his house.

~2 hours and 50 minutes later~

*creak*

Gabriel quickly sprung the shack's house open and hastily went towards the TV that displayed a few lines of text.

"Congratulations, ding-dong! You managed to find a Free Token Code! There are many of these scattered throughout Tiny Planet, but they're not easy to find! Some may be buried deep inside the ground, while others might be on top of tall trees! To claim the Token Prize, you must press the TV with it, which will automatically update your Token Balance, rewarding you with what the paper contained. Hope you're having fun! In a couple of days, your first mission will be arriving, so prepare yourself! Lucas out!"

After reading the message, Gabriel muttered in surprise, "It's true! Holy crap! These 10 Tokens will really change the game!"

With his left hand holding the paper, he moved to towards the television, touching it.

*DING!*

With a bell of confirmation, the paper started to quickly desintegrate in his hands, completely disappearing after just 3 seconds.

Gabriel was shocked seeing the paper disappear. Although the things that happened to him the past few days were truly bizarre, something about just watching that paper disappear in his hands really just showed him that this was his reality now. Everything he once thought impossible, was now completely possible. His world had done a full 180 from this thought.

Getting out of his head, he tapped the screen once again to remove the text from it. After it disappeared, Gabriel looked at his Token Balance with anticipation,

-Tokens: 10

"FUCK YEAH!" He screamed in happiness. In just a second, he had just gained what would've taken him 40 days to make with one Fabricator!

Immediately opening the shop, Gabriel bought 3 more Trash Token Fabricators and placed them right next to the first one. Thankfully, he managed to buy all 3 for only 1 Token each, so it appeared that the price hadn't changed! He now had a passive income of 1 Token per 24 hours!

Due to the time taken to go to the place filled with hills and to return, his first Fabricator had just finished producing the last 0,25 Tokens needed to complete 1 full Token.

Tapping the 'Collect' button, his balance went from 7 Tokens to 8, and now all of his Fabricators were almost perfectly in sync with each other. The first one was ahead only a few seconds. Gabriel's journey to and from the hills took the exact amount of time needed for the 6 hours and 10 minutes to end, which was very lucky.

Still excited about his progress, Gabriel searched the Shop for one item that he saw on the first day.

[Name: Trash Home Starter Pack]

[Description: A 3.000 sq ft fully furnished home with 5 bedrooms, a large living room, a big kitchen, 7 bathrooms, and 2 floors.]

[Price: 2 Tokens.]

Using 2 of his 8 Tokens, Gabriel decided to buy this nice house for him. It was fully furnished, so he imagined that it would have at least a bed, a couch, and a few kitchen utensils such as knifes.

[Please leave the vicinity for the Trash Home Starter Pack to be built]

Reading the text that the TV displayed, Gabriel gladly left his small shack, but before leaving he grabbed all of his Token Fabricators, his sharp stick, and his bag filled with food. He didn't know if maybe they'd disappear with the house being built since he thought that it would replace the shack, but just for the sakes of it, he grabbed everything. He only left the TV behind because he imagined that the new house would also have a TV.

Distancing himself about 500 meters from the shack, he turned towards where the shack was, but what he saw made him surprised.

Replaced by the shack was a beautiful 2 story house. No more shabby shack baby! (new house and shack image here, will start adding images to some things so it's easier to know what it looks like)

Stunned at his new home that looked even bigger and better than the one from his aunt Anna and uncle Mat, he walked towards it with his hands full of things.