Early morning.
Su Ran, still asleep, turned over, feeling a soreness throughout his body.
In his grogginess, he felt something strange.
He knew that ever since he became a martial artist, he hadn't felt any physical discomfort.
Until he opened his eyes and woke up, the first thing he saw was the wooden beams above his head and the hard wooden bed he was sleeping on.
Instantly, he realized.
"Oh, right, I'm still in the game world!"
In fact, this was already his fourth day in this world.
The time flow in this game world was different from the real world; two hours outside were roughly equivalent to one day here.
Players would genuinely experience day and night changes in this world, feel hungry and eat, and naturally, get tired and sleep.
So the small wooden house on the farm wasn't just a simple decoration; players truly needed to live there.
"Oh, right, it seems it's time to water the plants again!"
As soon as he got out of bed, Su Ran suddenly remembered the crops he had just planted yesterday, and couldn't help but shiver, clearing his head, and then immediately became apprehensive.
After all, Su Ran had failed to plant many times these past few days.
On the first day, he had cleared the weeds, tilled the land, and planted the seeds, originally expecting them to sprout. But when he woke up the next day, all the seeds were dead.
After that, he tried many times, but the result was always the same. Every time he planted, they would die in less than half a day. Su Ran didn't understand what was going on at first.
He felt that his planting process was not problematic.
Later, unable to figure it out, he went to ask Pierre, the owner of the general store. At first, because his favorability was too low, Pierre was reluctant to tell him.
However, after Su Ran kept pressing him, Pierre impatiently wrote a long note and handed it to Su Ran, saying, "Every crop requires a complete system of cultivation methods to grow. This parsnip is already the simplest. If you don't even know such common sense, then I suggest you go to the library more often!"
Then Su Ran took the note with the parsnip cultivation method and was stunned.
It listed things like how often to water, how often to loosen the soil, how often to prune leaves, and how often to remove pests, truly a complete set of instructions.
But was this really just for growing parsnip?
If he remembered correctly, parsnip was the most basic crop in stardew valley.
Was this considered common sense?
No wonder he couldn't succeed no matter how he planted; it would be a miracle if he could. According to the method, just watering alone needed to be done every three to four hours.
However, after Su Ran followed this method, he indeed found that the seeds no longer died.
This new batch of seeds was planted by Su Ran yesterday, and he followed the cultivation method completely. He even got up in the middle of the night to water them once.
And now, calculating the time, it was almost time to water again.
So Su Ran picked up the watering can, opened the door, and walked out.
However, when he looked at the farmland in the distance, he immediately stopped, his eyes wide, dumbfounded.
"What's going on?"
The parsnip, which was only in its sprout state last night and even a few hours ago, was now a lush green, completely filling the desolate land, full of vitality. One could vaguely see rows of small, tender white fruits emerging from the bottom.
It was clear they had fully grown.
They could be harvested!
"This…"
Su Ran was incredibly surprised: "How could it be so fast?"
Although he knew that crops in the game grew faster than in reality, if he remembered correctly, the normal growth speed of parsnip should be at least four or five days.
But he had only planted them for one day!
"Hmm?"
"Are these the parsnip you planted?"
"They look to be of good quality. If you want to sell them, hurry up and harvest them!"
Just then, Mayor Lewis walked over from the side, looking at the parsnip in the farmland and saying.
Mayor Lewis came to the recycling bin by the wooden house every morning to collect anything Su Ran had to sell.
However, Su Ran was not in a hurry at this moment. Instead, he asked curiously, "Mayor, why did the parsnip I planted yesterday grow so much today?"
Mayor Lewis said with a devout expression, "This is all a gift from the God of Harvest!"
"Ah?"
Su Ran looked puzzled: "What do you mean?"
He had heard the Mayor mention such things before and thought he was just making it up.
But now it seemed there was a deeper meaning to his words. According to the Mayor, Stardew Valley was a blessed land, favored by the God of Harvest.
The soil was much better than outside, so as long as the correct cultivation methods were followed, crops would grow very quickly. Basically, the growth speed of any crop would not exceed three days.
If some special, high-grade catalytic fertilizers were used, it would be even faster.
"So that's it!"
After listening, Su Ran understood. He also guessed that this was probably a background story the system added to this world, fitting the game's setting, and also a kind of game rule.
The planting method became more difficult, but the speed also became faster.
So the 'enhanced version' referred to this?
The Mayor asked again, "Are you selling these parsnip? I see nothing in your recycling bin. If not, I'll be leaving!"
"Yes, I'm selling them! Wait for me!"
Su Ran hurriedly ran to the farmland and, like pulling radishes, pulled out the mature parsnip one by one.
Their emerald green stems and leaves, and fresh white, upright fruits looked like works of art carved from jade, and a faint fragrance emanated from them when one got close.
Just by smelling it, Su Ran felt his mouth water.
Su Ran couldn't help but be stunned.
After a moment of hesitation, he sold most of the parsnip to the Mayor but kept a few for himself.
He hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and he wanted to taste the parsnip.
The small wooden house on the farm was very simple and didn't have a kitchen, so he had no intention of cooking. He could only symbolically wash them clean and slice them.
But even so, looking at the tender, fragrant fruits, Su Ran was already very hungry.
He couldn't help but pick up a piece and put it in his mouth.
Before he even had a chance to bite, Su Ran felt a sweet fragrance spread through his mouth. Then, he couldn't resist taking a bite and chewing.
"Delicious! This is so much better than ordinary vegetables!"
Bite after bite, it was sweet and crisp, with an absolutely amazing texture.
This was definitely incomparable to vegetables on the market. Su Ran even felt it was fresher and more delicious than the ingredients the system prepared for him daily.
"If eating them raw is this delicious, what if they were cooked...? I should have known not to sell so many at once; I should have kept more!"
Even after finishing the few parsnip he had specifically saved, Su Ran still craved more, completely unsatisfied, and even completely forgot the difficulty of planting earlier. An urgent thought arose in his mind: "Should I plant some more today? Or try planting other crops?"