At six in the morning, Leo opened his eyes.
He checked his phone immediately. Ever since he downloaded the Stardew Valley App, the battery had remained miraculously at 100%. The charging cable in his bag had officially become dead weight.
"Ughhh~~ That felt amazing!"
He let out a guttural, non-human groan of satisfaction as he stretched his stiff limbs. He hadn't slept this deeply in years.
He walked out of the cabin, scratching his messy hair, and made a beeline for the Shipping Bin.
He lifted the lid. Yesterday's cold, slimy Snakehead had vanished. In its place sat a pile of coins—100 warm, gold pieces. They felt heavy, substantial. Even though his degree was in Logistics, not Finance, Leo understood the universal language of money.
"A beautiful day starts with watering," he declared, feeling weirdly nostalgic for a job he'd only ever done in a video game. "Reminds me of my first day in Year 1."
He grabbed the watering can. Instead of using his "Mana" (Stamina) to instantly water the crops with magical efficiency, he manually poured the water, tile by tile. Early-game energy was too precious to waste on tasks he could do with simple muscle power. He needed to save his stamina for the heavy lifting—hoeing and chopping.
After finishing the first patch, Leo spent the next hour clearing land. He tilled another small plot, chopped a few stray logs, and cleared some rocks.
By 8:00 AM, his energy bar hit rock bottom.
"Am I a broken iPhone?" Leo stared at his screen in disbelief. "I charge for 4 hours and die in 1?"
He had nothing left. His inventory was empty, save for a few Leeks and Wild Horseradish he'd scavenged yesterday. He'd eaten his last emergency chocolate bar last night.
"This won't do," Leo muttered, his stomach growling loudly in the silent valley. "I'll starve to death before the first batch of Parsnips even sprouts. Is this a bug? Where's the 'New Player Support Package'?"
The town was empty, so begging was out. Wilderness survival was a joke—he was a city boy. He couldn't light a fire without a lighter... wait, he actually had one. A cheap plastic lighter with an ad for an "Andrology Hospital" printed on the side, given to him by a random old lady at a bus stop years ago.
"It's decided. I'm going to the Wizard's Tower."
He recalled the Scroll he found in the Community Center. One of the unlock conditions on his phone was explicitly: Bring the Scroll to the Wizard's Tower.
"If anyone is alive in this world, it's gotta be the Wizard."
Leo grabbed his backpack and set off. If he didn't find food today, he'd be dead in 48 hours. He briefly wondered if dying and respawning at the clinic would reset his hunger meter, but decided he didn't want to test that theory.
It was 2:00 PM when Leo finally hacked his way through the dense Cindersap Forest.
He stood at the base of the tower, panting, dizzy from low blood sugar. He had burned his last drop of stamina hours ago and had been running on fumes ever since.
"Finally..."
The tower loomed above him, looking less like a magical spire and more like an ancient stone chimney. He pushed open the heavy wooden door.
The interior was shocking. It didn't look like the game at all. There was no bubbling cauldron, no Shrine of Illusions. Instead, it looked like a cozy, high-end living room—plush sofas, expensive carpets, and tasteful decor.
"Hello? Is anyone here?"
As if summoned by his voice, space itself tore open.
A familiar gap, decorated with ribbons and eyes, unzipped in the middle of the room. From the void stepped a woman of breathtaking elegance. She wore a purple dress, held a parasol, and had long, flowing blonde hair.
She looked at Leo with a polite, enigmatic smile. "Hello, I am—"
"Yukari-mama!"
Silence.
The smile on Yakumo Yukari's face froze.
In Gensokyo, she was called many things. Lady Yukari. The Sage of Youkai. That Dangerous Youkai. Behind her back, some brave idiots called her Old Hag.
But Mama?
This little human, meeting the Gap Sage for the first time, had just called her 'Mommy' to her face.
Yukari was stumped. If she responded, was she admitting she was old enough to be his mother? If she didn't respond, the conversation would die.
"Uh... sorry, force of habit," Leo stammered, realizing his mistake. "Here's the scroll. Also... do you have anything to eat? I'm literally starving."
He awkwardly thrust the dusty scroll toward her. Damn internet culture, he thought. Everyone calls her Yukari-mama online, it just slipped out!
"Food?" Yukari took the scroll, relieved to move past the awkward introduction. "Didn't you read the contents of the scroll?"
She sighed internally. Hadn't she told Chen to explain the situation? Food Crisis! The scroll was supposed to say, "We are starving, please help." And here was the savior, asking her for a snack?
"I looked at it," Leo admitted, "but it looked like scribbles. So... is there food?"
Yukari furrowed her brow and unrolled the parchment.
She stared at it.
What on earth was this?
Forget the human; even she, the Sage of Boundaries, couldn't decipher these hieroglyphics.
"Sit down first," she said smoothly, hiding her confusion. "I'll be right back."
She opened a gap and vanished, leaving Leo alone on the sofa.
Gensokyo. The Lost Village.
Yukari reappeared beside her Shikigami, Ran. She reached directly into Yakumo Ran's massive, fluffy tails and fished out a sleeping cat.
"Chen! Look at what you wrote!"
"Meow?" Chen, in her black cat form, blinked her big eyes innocently. "Chen wrote the letter exactly as Lady Yukari instructed!"
"Lady Yukari, please don't bully Chen."
Ran, ever the doting mother-figure, snatched the dangling kitten back and cradled her protectively. She took the scroll from Yukari and scanned it.
Ran fell silent.
Her supercomputer brain began cross-referencing Chen's paw-scrawls with every known language and cipher in existence.
"There is no problem, Lady Yukari," Ran said, opening her golden eyes and lying through her teeth. "Chen indeed wrote it according to your dictation."
If this letter were released to the public, only Ran (with her super-processing) and Keine (the teacher used to grading terrible handwriting) could possibly read it.
"You! Ran, you spoil her too much!"
"Lady Yukari, Chen is my Shikigami. I am her master."
"You'll regret this when she grows up illiterate!"
Yukari sighed and waved her hand, dismissing the argument. She had more pressing matters.
"Ran, is there any food left in the house?"
Ran's expression darkened. She rubbed Chen's head anxiously. "It's the same as always. Only some wild berries and a small amount of dried meat."
A massive food crisis had hit Gensokyo. The Human Village—their primary source of agriculture—had been spirited away by the Dragon God for protection. The youkai were left with no supply chain. They had been subsisting on foraged berries for weeks.
"Give me some berries," Yukari commanded. "And take a little Jerky, too."
"Understood."
Ran didn't ask why. She quickly packed a small basket with the meager rations—the very last of their household's protein reserves—and handed it to her master. As a Shikigami, her obedience was absolute (unless it involved Chen).
Back in the Wizard's Tower.
Yukari stepped out of the gap and placed the basket on the coffee table in front of Leo. She cast a longing glance at the dried meat inside.
"Eat," she said, her voice regal but slightly strained. "We'll talk after you're done."
Leo looked into the basket. A handful of wild berries and a strip of rock-hard jerky.
"Just this?" he asked, unable to hide his disappointment. "I thought Wizards ate better than this."