Stardew Valley of Gensokyo

The great fairy curiously leaned over and saw nine candies with exquisite outer shells wrapped inside her skirt.

"This is?"

"Hehe, these are delicious candies!"

Cirno proudly spoke to the shocked Great Fairy beside her.

"Put it away!"

After realizing what Cirno was hiding, the Great Fairy quickly covered the candies with her hands and looked around warily.

There is no order in the fairy world. Although Cirno is arguably the strongest fairy, she is still outnumbered.

If you're swarmed, don't even think about keeping these things.

"Let's find a secluded place quickly."

The great fairy said warily.

"Um"

Under the cover of darkness, to protect Cirno's candy from being taken by other fairies, the two of them quickly left the shores of the Misty Lake along the forest path...

-------------------

In a remote corner of the human village, in Akina Zeya's small courtyard.

Marisa, who had almost fully recovered, had left, and the farmhouse had returned to its usual tranquility.

However, Akina Sawa was not idle either; he still had to prepare the gift he had promised to give to Reimu.

Although he said he would give her ten large watermelons weighing ten kilograms, since it was a gift, he couldn't just do it half-heartedly. Qiu Mingze also had principles; he wouldn't do anything that involved shortchanging her.

Moreover, my own warehouse is almost full, and I don't know where to put the crops. As a farmer with hamster-like habits, the thing I hate most is having a full warehouse with nowhere to put them.

But it's not right to waste it, nor is it appropriate to give it away for free to the people of the village, since I'm not the only vegetable farmer.

After much thought, Akina Ze still couldn't come up with a good solution and had to put it aside for the time being.

The most important thing right now is to prepare Reimu's big watermelon.

The watermelons in the field were all big and round with bright green skin. Akina Ze also followed the example of an expert and reached out to tap the watermelon skin.

Hmm, I don't understand at all.

Although he grew these watermelons, he didn't know how to tell which ones were good and which ones were bad.

Now we can only hope that every single one of these watermelons is good.

Stardew Valley system update complete.

Version number: 2.1

Just then, Akina Ze also heard a long-lost system notification in his mind.

When did this system start updating?

Akina Ze also searched through his memories, but couldn't recall when the system started updating, or rather, he didn't care about the system's existence at all.

But after so many days of silence, what are they up to now that they've suddenly popped up?

[This update includes new features; please check it out.]

Oh? I'd like to see what this useless system has come up with this time.

Akina Ze also closed his eyes and flipped through the pages in his mind, discovering that two project pages that were not originally there had indeed appeared.

【Friends' Cabin】

[Supply Mission]

What are these things? Will they affect my farming?

Akina Sawa, completely bewildered, clicked on the introduction page...

Chapter Thirty-One: The Girls of the End

【Friends' Cabin】

[You can invite friends to live with you]

A simple line of text appeared on the Friends' Hut introduction page.

This is practically the same as not having any introduction at all...

Akina Ze also complained with dissatisfaction.

Looks like we can forget about this useless system doing anything.

Despite his complaints, Akina Ze patiently opened the supply mission page.

As expected, the description page for the supply mission only contained a single line of text.

Offer help to others

Upon seeing this line of text, Akina Sawa was completely confused.

Offering help to others? What does that mean? How am I supposed to understand such a broad concept?

What use is my little courtyard and dilapidated house?

Are you suggesting I, with my few pounds of flesh, go fight with others? That would be like giving myself away for nothing!

You're the Stardew Valley system, not a giant egg!

How can someone so useless have the nerve to ask others to fight for them?

Akina Sawa was also internally ranting and raving...

-----------------

In the ruins of a giant city that stands high in the sky, amidst endless rows of abandoned buildings, a half-track motorcycle rumbles along a road that has not been repaired in a long time.

In the quiet world, this half-track motorcycle seemed quite noisy.

It was the only means of transportation for the two little girls, and also their daily home—it was their home.

"You, stop worshipping. Gods don't exist in this world."

The girl holding the handlebars was driving the car while talking to the girl behind her who was making strange movements.

"Xiaoqian, what are gods? Can you eat them?"

The little girl named Yuri turned around and asked.

"...I'm not too sure about that either. I read it in a book; it's said that gods are beings who grant wishes."

Chito replied, recalling what he had read in the book.

"Tch, then you definitely can't eat gods."

Yuri turned back and continued performing her strange actions.

Qianhu shook his head helplessly and continued driving the half-track motorcycle.

Although the road is wide, abandoned vehicles often block the way, so you have to concentrate on driving.

As for why Yuri made those moves, Chito knew a little bit about it.

This was all because of a book that was dug out of the rubble while we were looking for food yesterday.

The book had no words, only some pictures.

Because he didn't have any copies, Chitoge forgot about the book, but Yuri saw it.

Yuri was illiterate, so she found the book, which had no words but only pictures, quite fascinating.

But if it were just something to look at, Chito wouldn't be so bothered now.

Yuri seemed to really believe what was drawn in that book.

This made Qianhu wonder if he had overlooked something.

"Xiaoqian, I'm hungry. Isn't it time to eat?"

Yuri stopped what she was doing, rested her head on Chito’s shoulder, and said.

"You, you need to understand that we don't have much food left. We can only eat once every two days. We already ate yesterday, so we can't eat today."

"Ugh... but I'm so hungry~" Yuri's voice was weak and listless.

“No means no”

Chito sighed, forcing himself not to look at Yuri, who was standing to the side, looking extremely dejected.

She glanced through the rearview mirror at a box placed in the very center of the half-track motorcycle.

The box full of canned food, which was found in the ruins, has extended the lives of himself and Yuri by many days.

But now the canned food in the box is almost gone, and if we don't find another food source soon...

Chito glanced silently at Yuri behind him, who had already started conserving energy by sleeping...

Boom!

A loud noise rang out from the gloomy sky.

Qianhu looked up with concern.

The sky was dark and gloomy, and the air was slightly damp, as if it were about to rain.

Driving through the ruins in the rain is an unwise choice, which means she has to find a place to shelter from the rain.

This further reduces the time available to find food.

Boom!

Thunder rumbled once more in the air.

Raindrops fell from the sky, pattering onto the concrete ground, onto the helmets worn by Qianhu and Yuri, and onto the thin shell of the half-track motorcycle.

Qianhu's eyes darkened slightly. Before the raindrops became so dense that they obscured his vision, he drove into a space that was covered by a collapsed concrete slab.

The space is very dry, and raindrops from outside cannot get in at all.

Chito stopped his half-track motorcycle and looked wistfully at Yuri, who was still fast asleep beside him.

The tracked vehicle is also running low on fuel.

Yuri is illiterate and carefree; Chito always thinks about how to solve difficult problems on his own.

And even if she understood her current situation, Yuri would definitely laugh it off and not take it seriously.

"Hey~"

Qianhu sighed heavily once again.

The sky was gloomy, and the rain kept pouring down. Qianhu's heart sank lower and lower.

Time is running out.

---------------

"Xiaoqian, how long have I been asleep?"

Yuri woke up, rubbing her eyes.

You've been asleep for a while now.

Chito looked up at the sky outside and answered.

The heavy rain outside had subsided considerably, but it was already evening, as evidenced by the fact that the streetlights were already on.

These cities were built in ancient times, and so are these streetlights; they light up on their own at fixed times.

But perhaps because so much time has passed, many streetlights are still on, but many others will never shine again.

So Qianhu has chosen to rest here tonight.

"Is it time for dinner?"

Yuri reached out her hand toward the box.

"No~"

"Oh~"