Dorian gently closed Lyra's bedroom door, a satisfied look on his face. After the incredible dinner, he had tested his theory again. He told them a bedtime story, a tale of siblings and a magical wardrobe that led to another world. To maximize the emotional impact, he ended it on a massive cliffhanger, right as the youngest child stepped through the coats into the snow.
Lyra and Marcus complained loudly, of course, but Dorian calmed them with a powerful bribe: a promise of more real food for breakfast. That settled them down instantly.
Later, he checked the System. Sure enough, the Resonance gain from the story, which would have been a solid 700 before, now registered as a tiny 0.7. He smiled. "So it really is purely cosmetic for me. At least I do not have to stare at an unintuitive panel all the time."
He went to his bedroom and slumped onto his bed, the day's excitement finally catching up to him. System.
The panel popped into existence, cleaner now, just as he had designed it. He swiped his hand through the air, his will focused, and the interface split into two neat, separate panels: his Profile on the left, and the Stardew Valley Banner on the right.
Then, something new caught his eye. On the Gacha results screen, beside the [Skill: Basic Farming] icon he had won, was a new, glowing button: Extract.
He shrugged and, out of pure curiosity, chose to extract it. The icon detached from the Gacha panel, floated across the screen, and merged with his Profile. As it did, the [???] placeholder on the side of his profile, the one that had been empty before, suddenly lit up. The question marks dissolved, replaced by a new, glowing title.
[Title: Farmer of the Past]
He tapped it.
The world dissolved. For a split second, reality itself seemed to wrap around his body like shimmering, holographic cloth. He scrambled to his feet, a cry of shock caught in his throat. He looked down at his arms. His pale skin was shifting, darkening into a healthy, sun-kissed tan, the kind a person could only get from working long hours in a field. He felt a strange, satisfying ache in his muscles as they grew, just a bit, filling out his formerly skinny frame with a lean, wiry strength.
He ran a hand through his hair. The familiar black and white strands felt different. He looked at his hand. The hair was a warm, earthy brown. His heart hammered in his chest as he stumbled to the mirror.
The person staring back at him was not Dorian Kepler. It was the character from the game. The one with the simple brown hair and the bright, clear blue eyes. It was the first character he had ever created when he was just testing the Stardew Valley character creator.
He walked closer to the mirror, his movements stiff and robotic. He reached out a trembling hand and touched his own face, his own hair. His eyes, now a startling blue, were wide with a terror and a wonder that was all his own.
"WTF!"
…
Meanwhile, on the sun-drenched, pastoral world of Obelia II, Ewron sat in his cozy farmhouse, sipping a warm mug of morning brewka. He opened the creator tab on his Stellarcast channel, a smile already on his face. He loved his job. Having a "small" channel of forty million subscribers was a satisfying, peaceful life.
Some of his neighbors, farmers with a more aggressive, entrepreneurial spirit, always urged him to take sponsorships, telling him he could grow his channel into a massive brand. Ewron always answered them with a patient smile and a laugh. He did not need the billions of subscribers some of the top-tier casters had. He had his small, dedicated community, scattered across the galaxy, and that was enough for him.
He was ready to start his day by reading and responding to comments. He laughed as he read one from a longtime watcher, a Neman miner on Mord Tida, who wanted more screen time for his flock of Cuckoo-chickens. Another user, a Gunnossian engineer, wanted a detailed tutorial on the solar panels he used to power his barn.
But then, one comment, and then another, and another, started asking if he was making a game. He furrowed his brow, confused. He had never made a game. All he did was fix fences, gather milk and eggs, and wait for the Accord transport to buy his produce.
He read on, the comments all mentioning the same thing. Stardew Valley.
"Stardew Valley, huh?" he murmured to himself. "There is no valley by that name in this part of Obelia."
A sharp knock on his front door pulled him from his thoughts. It was Pyin, his neighbor, a cheerful human with a weathered face and a wide smile.
"Morning, our star!" Pyin boomed, his voice full of good cheer.
Ewron laughed. "Shut up, Pyin. What do you need, coming this early?"
Pyin's smile became a little sheepish. "Ahh, it is just, I wanted to say sorry. One of my hounds broke your fence this morning. He was chasing one of your Cuckoos right when the sun came up."
Ewron looked out his window. In the distance, over one of his pastures, a section of his wooden fence was indeed broken.
"Oh," Ewron said, his concern immediate. "Sorry about that. Is your hound okay?"
"Yeah," Pyin laughed. "I hope his brain is not any dumber after slamming into your fence, hahahaha." He then held out a bundle wrapped in large leaves. "This is some of the mushroom and wild game I got last night. I hope we are even. I will help you repair the fence later."
"Thanks, Pyin," Ewron said, taking the offering. "I will work on that."
Pyin left, and Ewron just smiled. There was always a new, unexpected thing in his life, and he loved it. He then grabbed his cam orb. Pyin's hound had just given him a perfect idea for today's video.
He started the recording, his familiar, calming intro filling the quiet farmhouse. "Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to Ewron Life. As you can see, the sun is just coming up over the hills, and we have already got our first little bit of excitement for the day..."
…
Dorian stretched and pinched his face, hard. The tanned skin felt real. The face in the mirror was not his. "What the fuck is happening to me?" he whispered, his voice trembling.
He looked at the System panel again, his eyes darting around frantically. He saw his Profile, the [Title: Farmer of the Past] glowing, active. The [Skill: Basic Farming] icon next to it was also lit up. An idea, born of gamer logic and sheer desperation, struck him. He focused on the glowing title and swiped his hand through the air with a single, clear intention: unequip.
The world dissolved again. Reality wrapped itself around him in reverse, a dizzying, shimmering cascade of light and sensation. He felt the tan fade from his skin, the lean muscle soften back to his usual skinny frame. He ran a hand through his hair, and the familiar, soft texture of his own black and white strands returned.
He stumbled back to the mirror. It was him again. Dorian Kepler stared back, his own grey eyes wide with shock. He frantically checked his body, his hands patting his armpits, his chin, his ears. Everything was back. He let out a long, shaky breath of pure relief.
"Thank god," he sighed, slumping against the wall. "I did not do what Marcus did and make a strange avatar for my first test."
He slowly walked over to his desk and sat down, his heart still hammering. He picked up his notebook and began to write, his hand shaking slightly as he documented everything he had just discovered.
System can physically alter my body to match in-game character models via "Profiles".
Skills are intrinsically linked to their source Profile. [Basic Farming] was unlit after I unequipped the [Farmer of the Past] title.
Can skills from different profiles be mixed and matched? Or are they locked to their respective personas? I need further testing.
He paused, the implications of this new discovery sinking in. The profile system was a perfect disguise. He could hide in plain sight, become someone else entirely. But it was also terrifying. The System was more powerful, more invasive than he had ever imagined. First, it had materialized items. Now, it was changing his very body. He looked at the Gacha panel, at the long list of items he had received from his one hundred pulls. It was mostly junk: a Broken CD, stacks of wood, stone, and a strange, slimy Green Slime item. But thankfully, the food items were real.
He made another note.
Gacha Pool Quality - Variables:
A) Is it tied to the number of pulls? (i.e., do rare items appear more often after a certain number of pulls?)
B) Is it tied to player enjoyment? (Does higher Resonance from a game unlock better loot pools?)
C) Is it tied to download/player count? (A more direct, quantifiable metric.)
He slammed the notebook shut, the sound sharp in the quiet room. He leaned back in his chair, overwhelmed. "It is too confusing to find out with just theories," he muttered. "Either way, I just need to make a good game." With that simple, clarifying thought, a new goal clicked into place.
He cracked his knuckles, a surge of renewed purpose washing away the last of his fear. He shouted, "Leo! Help me with the project, will you?"
A few seconds later, the Compadre floated into the room. "What do we do tonight, Dorian?"
A slow, confident smile spread across Dorian's face. "We wait for player data. And while we wait," he said, turning to the producer's desk, "you are going to help me with a new song."
Leo docked with the desk, its speakers humming to life. "Ready when you are."
"Alright," Dorian said, his fingers hovering over the sensor array. "Let's begin."
…
A week passed. After class, Juno sent a message to Dorian from her wristband, a simple, hopeful text.
'hey'
A reply came almost instantly. 'hey, how was your day?'
A smile touched Juno's lips. 'well all the same. im going to do practical class next week.'
'oh thats a shame,' Dorian's reply came, followed by a laughing emoji. 'i was about to ask for you to do your magical hand thingy to burn the headmaster's beard off. haha.'
Juno laughed. 'who knows maybe i can ask my senior weavers. afterall nullbreakers like me can control their minds hehehe.'
A scared-looking sticker appeared, followed by one of a character screaming. dont come closer!
Juno chuckled, her good mood restored. Just then, a familiar, unwelcome voice cut through her private moment.
"Hey, Juno. Who are you texting with?"
She looked up. Cassian Rhee was leaning against the corridor wall, his usual two lackeys flanking him.
"Oh, Cass," she said, her tone a little cooler. "It is Dorian."
Cassian's face twisted into a dismissive smirk. "That loser? The drop-out? He could not even make the cut."
His first lackey chimed in. "Yeah, what kind of Solar is afraid of combat?"
"He should not have come to Aethelgard in the first place," the other added.
"Well, I do not know about that," Cassian said, but Juno was already done with the conversation.
"I need to catch my next class," she said, her voice clipped and final. She turned and walked away at a brisk pace, leaving them behind.
Cassian watched her go, then let out a long, weary sigh. He turned to his two yes-men. "When will you two get a brain for yourselves?"
The first lackey looked confused. "I have got a brain in here, boss," he said, pointing a thumb at his own head.
Cassian just shook his head in disgust. "Well, maybe you should ask your parents to implant another one." He turned and walked away, his two bewildered lackeys scrambling to follow.
Juno, still fuming from her encounter with Cassian, quickly typed out another message to Dorian.
'you cant believe what the faculty is saying about you'
'what?' his reply came.
'the official story is that you decided to drop out on your own will. they're telling everyone it was your choice.'
'well, it was on the papers i signed,' Dorian texted back. 'and i agreed to it.'
Juno stopped in the middle of the corridor, her frustration boiling over. 'why? you could have just moved to the compadres or ship engineering majors. or even better, my old faculty in solar strategies!'
'well there are a lot of what-ifs,' Dorian's reply was calm, infuriatingly so. 'i can only move forward, can i? you too, juno. so good luck on that practical class next week.'
Juno stared at the message, a dozen angry retorts on the tip of her tongue. But she knew he was right. She sighed, her anger deflating into a familiar, worried affection. 'thanks. message me when you're bored, okay?'
A single, simple thumbs-up sticker was his only reply.
Back in his room, Dorian leaned back in his chair, looking at his Stellarcast channel. It had just crossed two hundred thousand subscribers. By the standards of his past life, it was a massive, life-changing achievement. In the vast, interstellar ocean of this world, it was still just a drop.
He scrolled through the comments, his eyes skimming over the words. He still could not bring himself to read them fully. The cringe of accepting praise for a song he did not even write, a song that felt like a gift from a ghost, was still too raw. But it was what it was.
Right now, he had a more pressing problem. He needed more Resonance.
His new routine was to do a one-hundred-pull on the Stardew Valley banner every single day. It was a compulsion, a desperate search for more useful items, for a tangible advantage. But his Resonance income had plateaued. "Your Song" was still bringing in a steady trickle, roughly a thousand Resonance a day after his decimal point correction. But he was spending a thousand Resonance a day on the Gacha. He was treading water.
He needed more music. He needed another hit. The Gacha was an insatiable machine, and he was now its sole provider.
⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂.. .⋙
🎮: Stardwey Valley: Completed.
🎬: -
♬:
- Your Name – Elton John (ch.9)
- Coming soon…
**A/N**
~Read Advance Chapter and Support me on [email protected]/SmilinKujo~
~🧣KujoW
**A/N**