Spring 24th of the first year
A seemingly peaceful town with undercurrents, an abandoned community center and mines, and young people returning from the city to inherit a farm heading to a country dance party that lasts until late at night—this sounds like a perfect backdrop for a horror movie.
Even if you find a lucky rabbit foot while entering the chicken coop today, it's hard to feel the same anticipation for the upcoming Flower Dance Festival as a true Stardew Valley player.
You walk into Pelican Town and block a villager's usual route, trying to gather information.
Nanami Kento knew the inside story, but he was in a hurry to get to work and absentmindedly replied, "When is the ball? If it's too late, some people won't go."
But everyone clearly went to Halloween!
[Early-going villagers: Are you crazy! You won't get to vote for Youyou in next year's town mayor election!]
I'm really looking forward to seeing Maya dance... Maya definitely has to go!
[I just checked and found out that Huihui is a good girl who goes to bed early, and Wu also goes to bed early. Wuhui, who wanted to see them dance, is heartbroken.]
Come on, it's not like you're dancing the tango, there's nothing to see here.
[What if this mod has a limited-edition Flower Dance Festival CG? I feel like it adds quite a lot of content, so maybe it will! I want to see Xia Xiao; do you know how cold it is to ship a couple in the Arctic Circle?]
Just hearing this CP name makes me feel cold, lol.
[Sister Xia Xiao, you can check out foreign websites; they're more welcoming there.]
You recalled which people stayed up until midnight, and roughly knew who they were. After thanking Nanami Kento, you turned and went to the mine.
It's still early, let's do some monster-killing quests.
Today I can complete a new sacrifice pack. If I find a tear crystal, I can repair the minecart as early as tomorrow!
Having a minecart will make it much easier to farm crystal balls in the mine and open crystal balls at the blacksmith's shop.
You prepared the other sacrificial items before 9 o'clock, but the Tear Crystal is nowhere to be found. There's no other way but to come back tomorrow to look for it again.
At 10:00 pm sharp, you appear on time in the clearing behind the woods on the west side of town. This area is specially designated for the Flower Dance Festival and is normally inaccessible. When I first entered it in the game, I thought I was stuck in some strange place and foolishly ran towards the edge to try and get back to the farm.
You can now walk across the bridge as easily as you would walk home; otherwise, coming to a dance party late at night without any lighting would have made it very difficult to find your way.
After crossing the bridge, you'll enter a wide, open space with no shelter. Tonight, instead of the usual groups of villagers chatting idly, it's teeming with all sorts of bizarre curses!
A giant hand and a gaping maw clung to the wooden shelves of the shop stall, a gash in its torso emitting a desperate roar: "Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!"
Next to it was a grid-patterned curse with half its body embedded inside the stall, extending several arrow-shaped tentacles to tap the table, constantly emitting a trembling sound similar to "buy, buy".
Not far away, a lump of mud twisted and crawled, emitting a terrified scream like a boiling kettle.
There were even cursed flying snakes floating in the air, which would rush towards you as soon as you entered, but before they got close, they were slapped to the ground by a scarecrow, writhing and struggling and making a high-pitched "whoosh" sound.
You stared in disbelief, then turned to run away.
"Hey, don't you dare leave!" Zenji Maki, holding the scarecrow's stick, forcefully pressed down on the flying snake, looking up angrily and saying, "You created so many curses that gathered here, and you think you can just run away without dealing with them?!"
...So these curses were formed from the various negative emotions you experienced in Stardew Valley? That's too abstract! If you formed so many curses, were you leaking curse power out like a burst pipe before?
According to the usual routine, in this situation you should stand still and ponder for a few seconds to elevate your thoughts, then suddenly turn around, draw your Galaxy Sword, and rush towards the curse, leaving behind a heroic silhouette.
But actually... you turn around, your survival instincts kicking in, and say, "I can't get my magical artifacts out, so I can't fight. I'm outta here, bye~"
Zenji Maki said with exasperation, "You have magical powers, right? You can also use your fists! Your fists!"
You're just an ordinary teenager raised with a materialistic worldview, how could you possibly use magical powers to fight monsters? I'm outta here.
...We can't get out.
Panic, pain, and exhaustion coalesce into a giant "E" key, pinning you to the lawn as you try to escape the chaotic scene of the Flower Dance Festival, relentlessly pounding on you. For a moment, you feel as if every bone in your body is about to be crushed.
In the end, it was Maki who saved you. She swung a wooden bucket full of flowers and threw it at you, knocking the curse that was clinging to you away.
"Get up quickly!" Zenin Maki shouted, loudly reminding you what you should do now: "Do you have 2500 gold? Buy a rare crow as armor, then run to invite them to dance as fast as you can!"
You grit your teeth and get up from the grass, buy the Flower Dance Festival special edition scarecrow as she instructed, and rush towards Nanami Kento with a wooden pole in hand.
Upon discovering the target, numerous curses swarm towards you, emitting various strange noises:
"Thump~ Thump~"
"Beep beep!"
"Bang—"
You used your broom-wielding cockroach-swatting skills, wielding a scarecrow to forcefully knock away the approaching curses, and with Zenin Maki constantly throwing flower buckets of support from behind, you finally managed to reach Nanami Kento's side and invite him to dance.
But that's not all. You have to keep running north and talk to Sadness before you can officially start dancing.
This stretch of road is longer and more difficult than the one we just traveled.
Zenin Maki threw flower buckets and Nanami Kento threw tableware to try and disrupt the curse, but their effective support was ultimately limited. Few people attended the ball, and the others, with their abilities restricted and lacking any usable tools, could only offer verbal hints, which were better than nothing.
Time flies, and it's already past 10:00 pm. You watch helplessly as Sadness disappears from the field, but the good news is that Mystic has taken over the mayor's authority, and the constraints on him have lessened, finally allowing him to command the crows that steal crops from the farm to come to his aid.
You were attacked by the curse several times along the way, and you were already covered in wounds. The health bar that appeared in your field of vision turned dangerously red, and you almost had to report to the clinic.
"Dong da da~ Dong da da~" A light dance tune begins, and you and Nanami Kento stand facing each other, your bodies involuntarily swaying to the rhythm of the music.
The curses were pulled by an invisible force to the positions of the dancers who were unable to attend. Every beat, one curse would dissipate, and then be replaced by another curse that had been blocked from the outside.
As the dance ended, all curses were dispelled, and the Flower Dance Festival came to a perfect close.
You return to the farmhouse, open the live stream, and find the atmosphere so lively it's like you've wandered into the wrong live stream room:
[Ahhh, Zhenyi's backless dance dress is so beautiful! Congratulations on winning the Flower Queen title for the sixth consecutive time, yay!]
Maki looks so cool in a long dress! She's totally my heart!
I'm probably not the only one eyeing Maki's abs, right? Everyone's doing it!
[The sister team climbs to the top!]
[What a sweet and adorable look Angehime has! I feel like she could marry me if she added a veil!]
[Take the songstress away, no dates allowed]
[I want to eat grains, is there anyone kind enough to sell them?]
[Kamo spoke my mind! Today is a lucky day! It wouldn't be too much to crown her Queen of the Night, would it?]
[Shoko is a little reserved, but she's super cute!]
Looking at these comments, you can tell how well the audience ate just now—it was practically a state banquet while the streamer was suffering. By the way, why didn't anyone take screenshots for the streamer, who was tormented by the "Stardew Valley player's exclusive curse" all night?!
When you're there, what you see is everyone's everyday style and dance moves, which are just standard squats and raises, and there are even a few cringe-worthy curses mixed in!
Feeling extremely frustrated, you casually stuck the rare crow, which had already been used to the point of being severely damaged by weeds, into an empty space by the field. You decided to go to bed early tonight and go to the blacksmith shop to open a crystal ball first thing tomorrow morning.
When you bring a new collection to donate to the museum, you might as well ask about the curse at the Flower Dance Festival.
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