Animal Crossing: New Life (TOSSTHATSALAD Version)

''DISCLAIMER: This is my interpretation of the story of a Minecraft adventure map made and played by TOSSTHATSALAD for their YouTube channel. They granted me permission to make this.''

There was some blinding flash of light. Weird. I made a mental note to get my eyes checked. For now, however, I was going to have some fun playing this game.

I named my character and stepped off the train. Upon leaving the train station, I got a bit of deja vu. Odd, since this was my first time playing any Animal Crossing game. I was greeted by Tom Nook, who took me to his shop.

He told me that he needed me to do a few jobs. He'd give me some money after doing so, not to mention it would benefit the town. A real win-win situation, I figured, so I set out with the tasks he had given me.

The first errand was to meet everyone in the village, which I had named Coeland. Simple enough, I supposed, so I set about talking to everyone. I walked into every house and only other business- the Able Sisters' shop. However, I did notice something odd as I was walking around: None of the villagers were in their houses. I didn't really mind, though. After all, it was just a game. Why be bothered?

I saved the Able Sisters' shop for last so I could carry out the next task immediately: Help the Able Sisters sew clothing. I got to the shop and exchanged formalities with the sisters before getting to the task of helping them sew. It was a cute little minigame where you stiched clothes together. I appreciated the fun; it seemed I would have to play this minigame whenever I wanted to make my own clothing.

Next, I was to play Hide and Seek with a crocodile named Snapper. I went to his house and triggered the game. I walked around for a bit, then found him hiding behind a tree.

Next, I went to help Melvin the dog bury a bone. Upon asking him about it, he gave me a shovel and a bone and sent me on my way.

I buried the bone behind Tom Nook's shop, and then went to find Waddles in her house. She asked me to find a key for her. I left, and then found the key in the river when I randomly cast my fishing line in.

Finally, I went to the river with a wet suit issued to me by Tom Nook to find a pearl. After swimming around without finding anything, I started to go back to shore when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I went towards it, and found a button stuck on the stone wall. I swam up to it and pressed it. Suddenly, the stone wall opened up to reveal a passageway. Curious, I went inside. I was now on solid ground, in some sort of cavern. It looked like the stone texture, just with a bit of odd coloration here and there. I decided to go forward.

I thought this was some glitch in the game. Just a joke programmed by some kid. As I walked, text appeared.

"Oh. You found a glitch in the game. Please turn back."

A... self aware glitch. Yeah, right.

I kept going.

"That is far enough. Please turn back."

Nope.

"Look, there is nothing here, so turn back."

Fat chance.

"ONE LAST CHANCE. TURN. AROUND."

I didn't want to, so I kept going. I noticed as I went that the walls' colors started getting weirder and weirder, and so did the messages. They didn't make any sense. Just random numbers mixed with the occcasional letter or two.

Eventually, the screen went black, and then came back on. I was back at the train station.

Upon getting outside, I noticed that things had changed.

The sky was red, and the water had turned to lava. The ground was brown, not a patch of green anywhere.

My first thought was, "What in the hell?"

I went to Nook's shop, as I had done once before. Upon talking to him, he said: "So. you have found the truth."

The truth? No, this can't be the truth. Did one of my friends talk me into doing drugs? Am I just high as hell right now? I thought to myself. Am I hallucinating? Last time I checked, I'm not some sort of schizophrenic...

Nook continued.

"As usual, do the jobs in order to get you in the go in your new town."

"This is not my town, you crazy I-don't-know-what," I spat at the game.

At that moment, and I can't be sure, but I think for a second, he looked up at me.

And it was terrifying.

I got the hell out of there. Yes, it was creepy out here, but it was better than being stuck in a room with that creep. I went to carry out my jobs.

Something told me I was going to regret this.

The first job: Go to Snappy's home.

I walked to his house and went in. There was just a small closet in the back of the room. Aside form that, the room was dark and barren. I went to the closet and opened it. Instead of getting some random message talking about what was in the closet, I could actually pick up things from inside. My inventory was apparently reset, so it had nothing in it. The closet only had one thing in it: a letter.

I took out the letter and read it:

"'He's after me! I have to hide!"

"Well, thanks, Snapper," I snarked. "Now I have no idea where you are or who's chasing you. Honestly, could you be any more vague?"

I figured I'd go looking for him. I looked behind the tree he had been hiding behind when we had played Hide and Seek with him earlier. No dice. Just when I thought I'd looked everywhere, I decided to look behind the Able Sisters' Shop.

Oh. My. God.

Poor little Snapper! He was all in pieces... Literally. There was blood everywhere. I almost vomited. I looked at the scene again, then noticed a letter on the ground. I picked it up and read it. It was from Tom Nook.

"He always liked Hide and Seek. Too bad the knife found him."

 Whaaaaaa?

I didn't know what to think. I just didn't. I was shocked. Tom Nook? A killer? I'd heard he was a selfish jerk from other fans of the series, but he was no killer.

Still shocked, the only thing I could think of doing was to keep going.

Next, on to the Able Sisters' Shop. Two of my favorite characters.

Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be-

Crap.

Yep, they were dead. Blood everywhere. Their heads were on pikes, for God's sake.

Another note. From guess who? Tom freaking Nook.

"You really thought you were helping the Able Sisters sew clothes? No. You were sewing their eyelids and mouths shut. Same thing, really."

 "No, it's no-ot!" I said in a weak voice. I really didn't know what in the hell was going on anymore.

I walked over to where my next "job" was. I had to go to little Melvin's house.

I walked in. It was the same deal as with Snapper: A closet in an empty room. In the closet was a note and a shovel. All the note said was, "Find Melvin."

I got a creeping suspicion of what was happening.

I walked to the same place where I had buried Melvin's bone earlier. Sure enough, there were spots left over from where I had buried his bone behind Nook's shop. I dug it up reluctantly.

There was a coffin inside. I opened it. There was Melvin. And he was dead. Big surprise. He looked pale, as if he had suffocated, like he was buried alive.

I felt really sick. I couldn't possibly continue. But I had to. My sense of curiosity just would not go away.

To Waddles's house I went.

A disembodied head lay before me. Reluctantly, I went up to interact with it. She was still alive.

And she talked.

"Please find my heart in the lava river. In return, I will give you the Coeland Town Hall key." She then proceded to give me a fishing rod.

Part of me wanted to go back into the Able Sister's shop and see if their heads would talk, too.

But no. I had to find Waddles's... heart.

I went to go cast my line in the lava river in the same place as before. Sure enough, I caught Waddles's still beating heart.

At this point, I didn't even question it. This place defied all logic. I was almost sure that trying to make sense out of what was going on would drive me to insanity.

I took the heart back to Waddles, who gave me a key. The key to the Town Hall, just as she had promised. Before I left, I decided to talk to Waddles again. Nothing happened. So, she was dead? What a disappointment. I wanted at least one other sane person here, even if they couldn't really do anything. But at least I had the key, so maybe it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I went to the Town Hall and unlocked the door. I went in.

And there was Tom Nook. I wanted to yell at him, to tell him he was insane. But he already knew that.

And he was perfectly fine with it. He just stood there. Smiling. He spoke.

"All this time, you've been my puppet. You've been following every order I've given you. Now, go to your death, puppet. I'll see you in your new life." He pointed to a pit of lava. Suddenly, my character started walking forward.

"Oh, no. Oh, no no no no no!" I panicked. "Stop stop stop stop stop! Back! Back!" I pressed every button I could, tried to make my character stop moving. But it just kept walking.

As it walked, I came to a horrible realization.

That other world had been fake. A disguise. My own actions had been disguised. When I went throught the glitched cave, the disguise had come off. That was why that voice- Tom Nook- hadn't wanted me to go through. He didn't want me to find out. He wanted me to keep on doing his dirty work for him, under the illusion that I was just having fun. But I had kept going. I had found out. And now, he had to kill me.

My character jumped in the lava.

There was some blinding flash of light. Weird. I made a mental note to have my eyes checked. For now, however, I was going to have some fun playing this game.

I named my character and stepped off the train. Upon leaving the train station, I got bit of deja vu.