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In the humid evening air, sitting exhausted on the farmhouse porch and looking at the rapidly dwindling ledger of official activity funds, Leo suddenly, painfully understood Yukari Yakumo's painstaking, corrupt efforts in originally quoting 2 million yuan for the budget.
There were simply far too many ambitious, creative ideas he desperately wanted to add to make the festival perfect, but a measly 200,000 in physical activity funds could hardly do anything at all. The formerly warm, thick stack of 200,000 yuan cash had instantly turned into massive, expensive wooden puzzle boxes built outside for the event, daily employment wages for the massive workforce of Little Fairies, and several heavy wooden crates of prepared, high-quality cooking ingredients from the mainland.
Meticulously calculating absolutely everything at the end of the day, Leo was completely shocked and horrified to find that after funding this specific round, he had less than a pathetic 1,000 yuan left in his hand—not even mathematically enough to earn back his own hard-earned labor money!
As expected of the ruthless, bureaucratic Sage of the Moon, to be able to accurately calculate the absolute minimum operational budget to this precise, agonizing extent—truly, deeply terrifying!
"Dammit! I clearly had so many more cool, interactive ideas I wanted to add to the map!" Leo complained, throwing his pen down. "Now it can strictly only be a basic, standalone treasure hunt game! This is far, far too joyless and simple!"
It was absolutely, financially impossible for him to generously pay out of his own shallow pocket to fund the gap; as the old Earth saying goes, even close brothers must keep clear, strict financial accounts. Leo absolutely wouldn't spend a single cent of his own hard-earned farm gold. With this specific, chaotic group of unscrupulous, greedy Great Youkai in Gensokyo, once you start generously paying for things yourself, they'll permanently expect it again. What if they all maliciously decide to just come to his farm and freeload forever in the future?!
"Let it be, then. I'll stick to the budget. Tomorrow I'll formally give the finalized activity details to Aya Shameimaru to aggressively promote it in her paper, and the massive event will officially start at dawn on March 1st."
Feeling somewhat lonely and frustrated by the financial constraints, he carefully put away the thick stack of unused, rejected activity plans. This was the creative result of several days of hard, passionate work; if it couldn't be used this time due to Eirin's stinginess, there would always be a chance to recycle it in the future. Besides, there was the massive, upcoming summer team-building camp for the Three Goddesses' racing world later, which could absolutely all be used and billed then!
The next day.
"Extra! Extra! Stardew Valley's absolute first large-scale, massive event 'Want My Treasure? I Buried It in Stardew Valley' is officially about to begin! The specific, strict rules are finally out; those wishing to participate please check the rules in today's edition as soon as possible!"
Aya Shameimaru, finally doing some actual, proper journalistic work for once, circled openly and loudly in the sky above Gensokyo, dropping massive bundles of newspapers like bombs. Eirin Yagokoro had officially, publicly stated that all of Aya's past grievances and debts were entirely wiped clean for this job, so as long as she didn't aggressively initiate any new trouble now, other Youkai couldn't legally hit her.
"Give me a copy."
Remilia Scarlet, elegantly sipping blood-red tea on her newly repaired balcony, greeted the flying Aya Shameimaru with a massive, glowing red Gungnir spear she had magically condensed in her hand, casually throwing it at the Tengu. There was simply no other way; Aya Shameimaru was flying far too high for her to yell, and she was far too aristocratic and lazy to physically move from her chair, so she could only greet her this violent way to get her attention. She absolutely had no intention of actual, lethal revenge.
She had already heard exciting rumors about the upcoming event from Meiling, who often went to play outside with Flandre. Meiling eagerly reported that Leo's place had been incredibly, chaotically lively lately, with massive swarms of Little Fairies going in and out constantly holding tools. When playing in the wild jungle with Flandre, they could even see Little Fairies aggressively digging deep holes, though they didn't conceptually know what they were doing at the time.
A rolled-up newspaper fell heavily from the sky, landing perfectly on the table, and Aya Shameimaru, with thick, black smoke rising from her scorched feathers, flew away shakily, cursing vampires. Remilia calmly caught the newspaper, unfolded it, and began reading the front-page content.
Stardew Valley's First 'Want My Treasure? I Buried It in Stardew Valley' Event Details Revealed!
According to the official Stardew Valley administrative leak last night, the massive event preparations are complete and being finalized. A world update will be performed during non-stop maintenance on March 1st of the Stardew Valley calendar. Participants can go through the Gap to Stardew Valley exactly one day in advance for pre-downloading the map and scouting the difficult terrain to save time on familiarization when the event begins.
The core content of this event is to physically find the heavy wooden treasures buried deeply by Leo throughout the entire Stardew Valley map area. Digging should strictly be done only after finding the exact burial site according to the highly abstract treasure maps provided by the Little Fairies. Digging violently for treasures not explicitly indicated by the maps will be considered invalid and disqualified.
Treasures can yield various points and prizes: Fresh Strawberries are 10 points, Boiled Eggs are 5 points, Steamed Rice is 1 point. It's also entirely possible to violently dig up a 'Fairy Kindergarten' trap or an 'Ancient Demon King' trap. There is a higher probability of digging up rare gems; five gems can be exchanged directly at the Heroes Hut for a High-Level Treasure Map. High-Level Treasure Maps are absolutely guaranteed to yield high-level treasures, including unreleased, precious magical drinks from the farm, secret recipe fried chicken, and various premium dairy products.
Everything successfully dug up completely belongs to the excavator and can be handled at their discretion after the official points are recorded. If you dig up something you absolutely don't want to eat, you can also legally feed it to Lady Yuyuko sitting at the tavern in exchange for extra points.
Finally, due to the highly specific, competitive nature of the event, the following personnel are strictly, permanently banned from participating:
Hatate Himekaidou: (The magical ability of Thoughtography is far too much of an absolute cheat in this kind of hidden treasure hunt game. Banned from this event, will be released in the future.)
Tewi Inaba: (No need for much explanation for this specific scammer; those who know, absolutely know. She's been on the permanent server ban list and has never come off.)
Remilia Scarlet: (Reason exactly same as above, permanent ban list. The power to manipulate fate is far too terrifying for a puzzle; I absolutely hate you people with rule-based abilities the most.)
Satori Komeiji: (Normally it's fine, but because I'm incredibly petty—the ancestral, trademark pettiness of the Stardew Valley home—if you're not happy about it, come physically hit me.)
"Tch, so incredibly poor-spirited and petty," Remilia clicked her tongue in annoyance when she saw she was formally, publicly banned from the event.
Honestly, who would care to exhaustingly dig in the dirty mud in the woods with that chaotic group anyway? It was far too undignified for an aristocrat. She could just easily, legally buy those premium things later; the Scarlet Devil Mansion absolutely didn't lack mortal money. Patchouli's massive royalty income from her trashy romance novels was enough for the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion to just comfortably lie back and rot in luxury for centuries!
But to culturally improve the Scarlet Devil Mansion's social status and dominance in Gensokyo, they still absolutely had to participate and win something.
"Sakuya, go call Meiling here immediately."
When the maid returned with the guard, Remilia handed the crumpled newspaper to Hong Meiling and said those commanding words completely calmly, without considering at all whether there would be any terrifying, overpowered 'old timers' participating this time.
"Meiling, you go physically participate in this event as our representative, and you absolutely must take first place over everyone else."
"Ah? Me?!"
Hong Meiling scratched her red hair, confusedly took the newspaper, and read it through, her eyes widening at the traps. She asked somewhat uncertainly; she was just an ordinary, sleepy Gatekeeper, how could she possibly take first place among so many terrifying, magical people?
"As long as you officially win first place, the massive amount of previously deducted wages from your sleeping will be entirely wiped clean, and I'll formally grant you a full week of paid vacation leave."
"I'll... I'll try my absolute best!" Meiling saluted, motivated by the money.
Seeing there was absolutely nothing else, Hong Meiling took the newspaper back to her small, drafty guard room by the gate, casually set it aside, lay down heavily on her hard wooden board bed, and started intensely thinking about the event strategies... and then immediately fell asleep.
On the other side, at the Farmhouse.
"I can logically understand the rest of the standard rules, but what exactly do this 'Fairy Kindergarten' trap and 'Ancient Demon King' trap physically mean?"
Yukari Yakumo leaned over the table, looking at Leo's finalized plan with some genuine curiosity. A treasure hunt is a simple treasure hunt; absolutely everything else has standard point values, but she didn't know what these two bizarre things without point markings were designed for.
"'Fairy Kindergarten' basically means there's absolutely no real treasure in that specific wooden box; instead, a few hyperactive Little Fairies are physically hiding inside it," Leo explained roughly, smirking. "Once the heavy chest is opened, the Little Fairies will violently scatter and run away into the woods. After successfully catching a fleeing Little Fairy, you can have them actively look at the other confusing treasure maps in your hand to get much more accurate, translated information. After all... you've seen the maps the Little Fairies drew with crayons; they're incredibly, terribly abstract. Without some massive imagination, you absolutely can't even tell what they mean."
He made the heavy wooden treasure chests so massively large specifically just so the Little Fairies could comfortably hide inside them. As for whether the Little Fairies would have claustrophobia or anything like that in the dark—don't be ridiculous. As soon as Leo made the chaotic suggestion, the Little Fairies immediately exploded with sheer excitement at the prank. If he hadn't strictly controlled the physical numbers, every single chest opened would have been a Little Fairy!
"As for the 'Ancient Demon King' trap... I secretly went to see Yuuka Kazami. Some massive chests I absolutely didn't put anything in; they're completely empty. When they're eagerly opened by a player, you immediately use a Gap to violently teleport Yuuka Kazami directly there for a sudden boss fight. If the player somehow miraculously wins, Yuuka Kazami will generously give a rare gem as a reward. If they lose... they get violently beaten up and get absolutely nothing. You guys can absolutely participate too if you want, just to spice things up."