Chapter Two
Life comes atcha fast in Bliss Bay. I booted up cozy life sim “inZOI” with one goal in mind: Hang out with Jessica Powell and hopefully make one (1) friend. Then I started rearranging the apartment (for quality of life, more than anything else) and I just couldn’t stop.
The Bliss Bay apartment is huge compared to the one I started at in Dowon City. But it has a lot of angles and small, oddly-shaped rooms crammed all over. I wonder if this is how the developers imagine American cities. It’s spread out, yet crowded. And there are end tables and lounge chairs in every corner.
I try to streamline a few things: Move her main bedroom closer to the kitchen and the den; open up the office space and all the little closets to make one big workout room; put the computer desk closer to the TV and dining table. Now I can stop scrolling all over the place to follow her from activity to activity. Or clipping through endless zigzagging walls trying to use the Focus auto-tracking feature.
It’s a good thing we have lots of room, though, because my Zoi keeps wanting things we don’t have. She wants a handheld game system. She wants a smoothie maker. She wants to play on an arcade machine even though I just bought her a handheld game system. It becomes apparent that finding a job should have been a higher priority for us. Our $3000 investment earned us some gains, but we are still down to about $7500 Meow thanks to having to eat all the time. Ugh.
I finally figured out how to use her smartphone, which is where you can do everything from get a job to send gifts to your friends. I pick the highest paying job that will accept us and Koni starts as a Field Worker at the amusement park (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). We have a day before her first shift, so I refocus on meeting up with Jessica Powell. I will obtain one (1) friend before this gaming session ends.
I decide to meet Jessica at the amusement park, so that Koni can also get her arcade game fix. For whatever reason, the Gather point spawns inside a dreary office building. I try to get some snapshots of Jess and Koni hanging out, but they all look like an attempted mugging. Especially when Bench Man from last episode strolls past the window and peers in. It’s not glamorous, but her friendship meter fills up a bit. I can now invite her to my apartment!
Back at home, Koni embraces her love of cleaning (same) and hatred of home cooking (same same). I can’t seem to keep her away from the vacuum cleaner, which reminds me that I should clean my fridge IRL. I leave her on autopilot for a bit so I can order groceries, throw away leftovers, and make some noodles. By the time I get back, she has finished her first shift at the amusement park and brought home 700+ Meow! Woohoo! Things are looking up for the both of us!
She insists she needs a protein shake but the blender I bought her cannot be interacted with. It’s for decoration, I guess. She also has allergies and I have to re-buy the first aid kit I deleted while rearranging her space. It contains emergency Benadryl or whatever. Interrupting my day to deal with allergy symptoms feels a little too real, to be honest.
After I am able to wrench the vacuum away from her for the umpteenth time, I invite Jessica over for a chat! Jess runs down the street and into the apartment like her pants are on fire, which seems to be the default speed for Zois on-the-go. Gotta go fast, and all that. I corner her in the bedroom and talk to her until she acknowledges our budding friendship. She likes talking about art and coffee. She gets upset when I tell her it’s better to love than be loved.
I can tell she likes me because the word “Peer” materializes above her head seconds before she bolts out of my apartment and off into the elevator. She even texts me, which is great because I didn’t know that was an option and would never have figured it out myself. Mission accomplished! Koni has one friend.
I consider asking Jessica on a date just because I don’t want to have to go through all that again with someone new. But then—at a fateful encounter at the amusement park picnic tables—I see her.
Joanne Gentry.
She has wavy reddish hair and pink cheeks and doesn’t even need glasses like lame ol’ Jessica Powell. I try to tell her about the dangers of unchecked urban development, but she slips into the crowd and escapes. Rats!
Oh well. She is in my contact book now so we can try again tomorrow.
< Chapter 1 | Chapter 3 (coming soon) >
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