Spring 5th of the first year

When you open the door early in the morning, you'll be surprised to see the HDB flat tanner standing at the entrance.

The bald, burly man was wearing a thick apron stained with a suspicious red liquid, and his eyes were malevolent, as if he were about to deliver a fatal blow.

You felt a chill run down your spine and tried to go back inside to block him with the door, but found yourself completely unable to move. Then the other person pulled out a crumpled blueprint and said with a look of disgust, "I saw you were mining ore. Here's a blueprint for a furnace, take it!"

"Ore can be smelted into metal ingots. Once you've collected enough, come find me and I'll upgrade your pile of broken farm tools."

After saying that, he left the farm without looking back.

You said incredulously, "I remember he had a very good impression of me."

[Haha, you expect a pleasant attitude from a cursed tool maniac who's making farm tools for you?]

Is it possible that he didn't like making farm tools using only metal ingots?

I remember this scene should have taken place after the first mining operation.

[You must be mistaken, it's after obtaining the first copper ore.]

[Fun fact: Buying a copper ore from the blacksmith can also trigger this event. The streamer is already several days late (indifferent)]

Seeing this comment in the live chat made me realize what had happened. Yesterday, while fishing, I caught quite a few treasure chests, one of which contained copper ore and coal, unintentionally triggering the event that required me to give away the furnace blueprint.

Well, now that you think about it, you really should have gone to the blacksmith on day one to buy copper ore to unlock the furnace and then upgraded your axe to chop hardwood.

According to the game's settings, you can go mining today, and you'll find a letter in your mailbox from Morris, the representative of Joja's customer satisfaction department.

The letter contains the following:

Our team has cleared the landslide site, which was caused by our company's drilling activities. We declare that these drilling activities were entirely legal (in accordance with Joja Company Amendment L6109), and protecting the local environment has always been our top priority!

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this incident, and at the same time, we express our heartfelt gratitude for our customers' support and encouragement!

Honestly, judging from this letter, Joja is actually a pretty conscientious company.

Is it possible that they have too much experience handling similar incidents and simply used an apology letter template to generate one with a single click?

[It's incredibly naive to believe the sweet talk of capitalists!]

[The timeline is unclear. What if this landslide happened several years ago, and Joja is only now being contacted by the local environmental department to request environmental restoration?]

[They may have even already shirked responsibility in court, and the legal department felt it wasn't worthwhile, so they handed it over to Maurice to take a few workers and resolve the matter...]

You close the letter, and the entire letter disappears instantly. But you can always bring it back whenever you want to read it.

Going to the mine early or late doesn't really matter, since the mine has an elevator; you only need to go down five floors to get out. However, you should go to the blacksmith to upgrade your farm tools as early as possible, because the blacksmith closes at 4 PM and is far from the mine; going down early will easily cause you to miss the closing time.

So, you were supposed to go to the blacksmith's shop first. But as you passed the notice board, you noticed an extra piece of paper that said something like: Dazai Osamu wants to hire someone to find quartz.

[Accept! You must accept Tazai's mission! Head down into the mine now!]

I suddenly wonder what he needs quartz for.

[How did you know I was hungry?]

[A really lame Abigail joke]

[It can also be used medicinally, lol]

You're a bit reluctant to go down into the mine yourself, but you'll have to go sooner or later. Going down now and gaining Dazai Osamu's friendship seems like a good deal.

How about... go down to level 5, refresh repeatedly, and once you find the quartz, the beginner monsters on level 5 shouldn't be too scary.

The blacksmith shop wasn't open yet, but you stumbled and rushed into a mine deep in the mountains.

The person standing in front of you is not Ma Long, but Kyoto School's—sorry, it's still not the old master of Rakuganji, but that squinty-eyed young master, Kamo Noriyuki.

In any case, it's reassuring that he wasn't replaced by Nakahara Nakajima. At least he won't receive a letter one day saying that the mine has collapsed again and he needs to donate 1 million to rebuild it.

Kenki Kamo explained, "This ancient mine has been abandoned for decades."

“There may be some good ore below, however… what you’ve found there is probably more than just ore.”

"This is for you, please be careful."

You look at the sword that Kamo Kenki took out to give you, and you find that this rusty sword is even more broken than you imagined. It's so bad that if you use it a few more times, the blade will fly out of the hilt.

[Tetanus Warning!]

[Haha, why is it Constitutional Law? Where's the principal of Leyan Temple? I want to see the punk old man!]

You look up in disbelief and find that Noriyuki Kamo doesn't seem too keen on handing over the sword to you either.

He said, “I am Noriyuki Kamo. After you go down to the 5th floor, if you have completed the task according to the letter the next day, please come to me between 4 pm and 10 pm. I will be waiting for you at the Explorers’ Guild on the left side of the mine exit.”

Did Ma Long originally give this detailed explanation?

He's so considerate, I'm so happy!

[Hilarious! What kind of NPC introduces their address and business hours in their self-introduction?!]

The story ends, and Noriyuki Kamo disappears from the mine in an instant.

You stand in front of the ladder leading to the depths of the mine, take a deep breath, then turn your back to the ladder and step towards the first rung—this is the only way you know how to go down the ladder; jumping directly into the dark mine shaft is too wild for an ordinary person.

Then you feel a mysterious force pulling you down, and in an instant you find yourself standing on the first level of the mine with your back to the ladder.

My heart was pounding; I never realized Stardew Valley was such an exciting game!

You stood there for a few minutes before picking up your pickaxe and starting to smash the rocks. This was the only clumsy way to find the exit to the next level before you found any bombs or stairs.

Nothing happened on the first floor, and nothing happened on the second floor either.

But once you get to the third level, you'll see two round, sticky things wriggling in the mine.

You quickly gulp down coffee to speed things up, trying to bypass them and carve out an exit, but unfortunately, there isn't much room to maneuver on this level.

When a seemingly harmless slime pounces on you, it's like a huge cloud of scalding steam rushing towards you, painful and overwhelming.

You can't even tell if the difficulty in taking a step to run away is due to the slime's slowing skill or because you are simply too terrified.

In the end, it was the automatic attack setting that saved you. The rusty sword in your hand seemed to be activated by some kind of program, and it swung on its own, cutting the two green slimes into pieces, making them disappear from your sight, and leaving a lump of slime in your backpack.

Still shaken, you make sure there are no more slimes attacking you before finally picking up your pickaxe again and continuing your search for an exit.

Holding onto the upward-reaching stairs, you almost gave up exploring the mine.

What's wrong with the streamer? He seems to be breathing very heavily.

Are you afraid of getting too immersed in the role?

[Nonsense, even cutting a little green thing makes you pant.]

You looked down at the slime residue on your arms and the disgusting wounds on your legs, and suddenly felt very lonely.

You're all alone in the mine, along with these monsters that keep spawning and tormenting you.

They know nothing and don't care.

After a long while, your trembling body suddenly calmed down. You turned around, vigorously hammered at the rocks with your pickaxe, and then quickly took advantage of the large flying insects swarming back and forth in the mine making way, burying your head in your hands and jumping into the exit behind the swarm of insects that wasn't covered by rocks.

Finally reaching the 5th floor, you rush to the elevator, press the floor button 0 without hesitation, and return to the ground.

"It's about time now. Let's go to the blacksmith's shop and see what the pig cart is selling today," you announced to the viewers in the live stream.

On your way to the blacksmith's shop, you see Osamu Dazai standing by the lake, gazing into the distance, but you are not in a good mood and do not want to deal with him for the time being.

Just pretend you didn't see it. Anyway, the audience won't know you actually ran past them; they'll just think you were distracted while controlling your game character.

Dazai Osamu wasn't particularly interested in you either. He only glanced at you, seemingly already aware of your predicament, and continued staring at the lake, lost in thought.

Upon arriving at the blacksmith's shop, you extravagantly buy 999 copper ore and 999 coal, then build five furnaces on the spot. You arrange them in a row in front of the blacksmith's large furnace and throw five copper ore and one coal into each.

The copper ingots are smelted very quickly. After you take out the copper ingots, immediately use your pickaxe to knock down the furnace placed on the ground, retrieve them into your backpack, and walk to the counter to have the HDB tanner upgrade your copper axe.

Next stop, the pig truck.

On Fridays, a purple pig will arrive in the forest west of Pelican Town in a vending cart. You can buy some rare items from the traveling merchant on the cart, but what exactly they are depends on a bit of luck.

For example, today, the only things worth buying are pufferfish that are hard to catch in the sea and rare seeds.

The rare seeds are not yet ready to be planted, so you are just buying them to store.

You ignored the calls in the live stream for you to continue searching for quartz in the mine, and diligently worked as a farmer, watering the potatoes and parsnip in the fields. After watering, you didn't leave the farm, resting at sunset and going into your hut early in the morning to relax by watching the fish in the aquarium.

It's okay, it's just a game... just a game.