You stand in place a few moments longer, until you see the bulky shadow of what could only be a bovine loom down the path to the right. Well, that made your decision easier at least.
You book it down the opposite corridor. As you ran, the number of hallways and rooms were boggling. You briefly saw a cow down one of them, and a milk-machine was sitting idle in one of the rooms you’d passed. Perhaps running was foolish, and it’d be better to hide? Still, you wanted something promising if you were going to stop. A big room, at least one other exit, and doors so you could block it. It’s not like the enemies could open doors, right?
As you continued wandering the barn-themed labyrinth, you came upon a dead end. Damnit, you’d hoped this was some sort of infinite random-generation thing. Maybe it was, and you just got unlucky? Turning around, you decide to take a closer look through the side rooms that you’d passed.
Empty. Empty. Cow. Milk machine. As you passed one room, you noticed something interesting written in floating text. It was a relatively large room with a stall and a gate, and the text had the following to say: “Trap (1) cow in stall for perk.”
So, the game had buffs! All you’d need to do is lure a cow into this room, have it chase you into the stall, then slip out and close the gate before it catches you. Heck, there was a cow just a few rooms back. You could take this chance to figure out how hard it really was to escape a bovine once it started chasing you, and have the safety of a kill zone in case aggro lasts indefinitely.
Walking back out, you jog to the correct room, open the door beyond a peak, then wait. The cow was facing away and it wasn’t attempting to search, but you didn’t want to touch the thing, in case that was a failure condition. It was a big, black-and-white Holstein with a gargantuan udder. As well as it had rendered you and your environment, you truly believed there was over a half-ton of beef standing in this room. The ambient smell and slight shifts in temperature from its body heat was a marvel to behold. Its dangling udder looked like there was full physics attached to it, as well.
Still, waiting wasn’t working. You decide it’d be best to try getting its attention. “Hey, cow!” The cow slowly craned its head until you locked eyes with it. What you didn’t expect was the sudden burst of movement from the fat heifer. “Oh shit!”
You quickly close the door and start running, only to hear the door smash as the cow burst through, its wavering moo hauntingly close to your backside. You didn’t have far to run, but as you wrapped the corner you felt the bovine slam past you, its bulk knocking you off your feet. It must have charged you at full speed!
Thankfully, it overshot the room, meaning it needed to stop, turn around, and backtrack at a more reasonable pace. That was useful knowledge; the cows could definitely outrun you in a straight race, but they couldn’t handle corners. You had plenty of time to get up and position yourself in the stall.
As expected, the cow charged forward once more, allowing you to sidestep the beast and dive out of the stall, closing the gate behind. The cow immediately returned to a passive state, a bell chimed, and the text faded away. In front of you was a hovering, translucent cube. Touching it caused a voice in your head to make the following announcement:
“Congratulations! You may choose to remove 4 hours from the exit timer, or gain the following perk:
Apprentice Farmhand: Receive a farmhand outfit, making cows non-aggressive and milk machines more aggressive. Milk cows for bonus perks!
Please state ‘accept’ within 10 seconds to receive this perk.”