Please don't abandon this. This happens to be one of my favorite story premises ever.
Preplay feedback: Have you tried using Virtamate?
Post play feedback: Ignore what I said about Virtamate, you have animations and the story is good. You could use a dialogue box, the white text was lost on...
The info is hard to find and ill defined. There could be a lot better explanations with the shop.
My understanding is the major levels stick around forever.