Su Ran entered the game.
The game began with a motivational, self-help style narration.
It started by delving into the player's personal background, enhancing the game's immersive quality, and allowing different people to have different experiences.
Like other players, Su Ran woke up on a bus at the start, arrived in Stardew Valley, met Robin who came to greet him, and under her guidance, reached the farm, where he met Mayor Lewis and received the starting farm tools and seeds from him.
This initial sequence largely served as a tutorial; it was pretty much the same for everyone.
However, immediately after, Su Ran felt a difference.
"Um, Mayor, after I finish planting, can I come to your house for lunch?"
"Oh, Su, I generally don't invite people to my home easily!"
"Sister Robin, I'm not very familiar with this place yet. Could you please show me around the town?"
"I'm busy today, no time!"
Actually, just now, Su Ran felt that Mayor Lewis and Robin were a bit lukewarm towards him.
After explaining what needed to be said, they turned and left without another word, completely unlike the warm hospitality some other players experienced.
But he soon realized that compared to other residents of Stardew Valley, their attitude towards him was already considered good.
For example, when Su Ran went to the beach to find Willy, in the original game, he could get an old fishing rod from him, but here, Willy was unwilling to give it to him and instead wanted him to pay for it.
At Pierre's shop, forget about discounts or credit; even the price of seeds was much more expensive than for others.
And at Marnie's ranch, it was even more outrageous; Aunt Marnie directly stated she was unwilling to sell him livestock.
Su Ran was bewildered: "What's going on?"
Is the style of my game slightly different from others?
What happened to the promised simple and honest Stardew Valley?
Is this it?
But soon, Su Ran realized that this should be one of the game's core elements: Friendship.
This was also evident in monster hunter, where every NPC in the game had a real personality.
It just seemed more pronounced in Star Dew Valley World due to its gameplay.
As a new resident, the player is a stranger to the residents of Stardew Valley, and the first impression they leave determines their initial Friendship with the player.
The level of this Friendship, of course, directly influenced the other party's subsequent attitude towards the player.
Take Zhou Yang, for instance; the Mayor actively invited him to his home for a meal, which naturally indicated that the Mayor had a high Friendship with Zhou Yang, but he himself didn't cherish it…
And Robin's care for Liu Shiwan, along with the collective friendly attitude of the Stardew Valley residents towards Liu Shiwan, further indicated that Liu Shiwan's starting Friendship must have been extremely high.
Is this what they call "beauty is justice"?
After roughly understanding this point.
Su Ran understood, but he was even more speechless: "So, am I too unsightly, or is my overbearing aura too strong? Is everyone's Friendship with me this low? Are they even letting me test the game properly?"
This almost made him buy items that increase NPC Friendship directly from the system store, but after thinking about it, they seemed quite expensive, and he couldn't afford them right now.
Moreover, Su Ran knew that this Friendship could definitely be slowly increased later on.
"Forget it, let's get to business first!"
Su Ran then returned to the overgrown farm, rolled up his sleeves, took out his scythe, and began clearing the weeds.
…
After some time.
"Huff, huff, huff."
As sweat dripped faster from his forehead and his breathing grew heavier, Su Ran couldn't help but stop and check his progress, only to find that only a small portion of the large weed-covered area had been cleared.
He paused, stunned.
It was then that he truly realized the huge difference between the original version and the virtual reality version.
When he played the original version before, he would listen to music and easily move the mouse and keyboard, clearing large patches of weeds in an instant. It wasn't tiring at all; in fact, it was a bit satisfying. But now, this was real physical labor.
Moreover, he could clearly feel that the player's body in Star Dew Valley World was even weaker than in monster hunter. Although Martial Qi couldn't be used in monster hunter either, as a hunter, one's physical fitness must still be far superior to ordinary people; otherwise, there would be no way to hunt monsters or even Ancient Dragons.
But here, the player was truly just an ordinary person.
After cutting grass for a little while longer, Su Ran felt his body getting heavier and heavier.
"Grrr…"
Then his stomach also started to rumble.
"So, I really do get hungry?"
Su Ran had already learned from other players that there was a hunger value setting in this game, and now, experiencing it firsthand, it couldn't be more real. This feeling was all too familiar to Su Ran recently.
"Heh, starving in reality, then continuing to starve in the game. Only I could do this!"
And because his body in the game was weaker, as soon as hunger set in, he felt his limbs start to weaken. In his current state, he definitely couldn't work and had to eat something quickly to satisfy his hunger.
But at the moment, the farm was empty, and he didn't have a single coin in his pocket…
Su Ran couldn't help but frown. After thinking and recalling for a while, he left the farm and went to search in the nearby forest green space.
Before long, he returned holding some brightly colored fruits.
With one bite, juice burst forth, incredibly sweet.
"I finally understand why some players starve to death!" Su Ran thought with emotion as he ate the wild fruits.
The farm the player operated itself required a certain preparation period to start making money and get on track. He had been cutting grass for so long and hadn't even finished.
It probably wouldn't be so easy to plant the parsnips given at the start and earn the first pot of gold.
But because of the hunger value, players faced the pressure of having no money and no food at the start.
Su Ran, having experience with the original game, knew that there were wild crops in certain parts of Stardew Valley. He searched according to his memory and found these wild fruits.
Other players, however, knew nothing when they started.
Unless they were like Zhou Yang or Liu Shiwan, who had the help of high-Friendship NPCs from the beginning, especially Liu Shiwan, who could be said to have easily gotten through the relatively difficult early stage precisely because of Robin's help.
But Su Ran guessed that for most players, the NPC Friendship wouldn't be too high at the start, and Su Ran himself was a prime example of the opposite. If he hadn't even gotten a free fishing rod, he would have started fishing long ago. Maybe he wouldn't be eating wild fruits right now, but grilled fish!
So, from the current perspective, this game seems to be a bit tough…