It was a lot!
Sophia, living in a poor family, had never seen this much money at once before.
Watching his excited employee, Alto grinned happily.
We're just getting started!
"Notify Saint Oros Trading Company to mass-print the Moonstones."
"Yes, boss!"
This time, Stardew Valley's sales had clearly been impacted, not reaching his expectations. But no need to worry yet, time will take care of that.
He believed that any player who experienced Stardew Valley would be won over by its charm.
As for this Kane's work? In his view, it posed zero threat.
And at that time, Kane had indeed heard the rumors circulating outside.
However, he likewise didn't take it seriously.
This world had many geniuses. When they rose to fame, they were often accompanied by great renown. People subconsciously always compared these prodigies to industry veterans.
In his era, hadn't Kane himself been a genius?
Every Dream Apostle wanting to raise their dream world's level needed massive amounts of dream energy.
This required your work to achieve high recognition, with enough people providing it.
And those without recognition?
Might spend their entire lives stuck at level 0.
So, if you remained stuck at that level, then you either had to change careers or become a cog in the Moonstone engraving factory machines.
Even relying on Plants vs Zombies' terrifying sales figures, consuming nearly two months, had only elevated Alto's dream world to level 2.
And this was just the beginning.
As levels increased later, the required dream energy would rise exponentially.
The farther you got, the more terrifying the quantities it took.
High-level designers like Kane had reached such heights through centuries of hard work.
He pulled out a Stardew Valley Moonstone.
Planning to critique it from a veteran's perspective.
He wasn't the petty type who'd feel greatly offended that a rookie's work dared to compete with his own.
On the contrary, he felt the younger generation was formidable.
If there were any shortcomings, as a senior, he could also offer some guidance.
He stroked his beard, activating the Moonstone.
"Hm?"
The character creation screen appeared, surprising him somewhat.
"Actually has character customization ability, that's a nice creative touch."
Choosing pets, clothing, and a starting farm.
These settings seemed strange to him, since he'd never seen them before and didn't know what type of world this was.
As Stardew Valley's cheerful, melodious music played, the main POV gradually fell into memory.
A candlelit, somewhat dim but warm bedroom.
Grandfather's final words.
Then came the resignation, boarding the carriage to Stardew Valley.
Arriving at Stardew Valley, he experienced the simple character introductions.
The soundtrack was unique, but quite pleasing.
More importantly, it integrated itself perfectly into the story.
By this point, Kane was already somewhat shocked.
Adding embedded music to daily activities brought an exponential increase in overall immersion.
Why hadn't he thought of this before?
In traditional dream worlds, there was a higher focus on the narrative, more resembling the real world.
What you saw, what you used, mostly conformed to the real world to some degree.
Adding soundtracks to an entire dream world was a completely out-of-the-box idea.
He imagined it!
If he added music to his own work...
Cheerful music when viewing scenery, passionate, rousing music during combat, and melancholic music at endings.
This seemingly simple change brought a massive improvement to the overall experience.
He felt he already understood why this young designer was being celebrated.
After all, just this simple innovation made his work vastly different.
He subconsciously stroked his beard again, but grasped empty air.
He'd forgotten his character had no beard.
However, he felt he'd already grasped the key point.
This designer probably became famous through this kind of revolutionary design. Maybe his work itself wasn't particularly outstanding.
Relying solely on these gimmicks, perhaps initially, he'd gain massive fame.
But probably before long, these new mechanics would rapidly become popular. And as the originator of it all, he'd quickly be buried in the pits of history.
He snapped back, starting to experience other things.
Day one, he observed everywhere, thoroughly understanding the entire operating system.
When he saw the data panel, inventory, crafting, and character info appear out of thin air...
He was a bit stunned because again, these were operations he'd never seen before.
Why would a panel appear out of nowhere?
He picked up an axe and chopped a tree.
The fallen tree instantly disappeared, becoming various materials that dropped on the ground.
As he approached, these materials all got sucked into his inventory, becoming visible icons.
He clicked the crafting menu.
Consumed 50 wood.
Ding!
A wooden chest appeared in his hands.
Thud!
The wooden chest was placed on the ground.
Opening it, inside were 16 more slots, where he could put things from his inventory.
Simple, smooth, even somewhat logical.
Wood can make chests, no problem, right? Chests can hold things, no problem, right?
Since it's a dream, simplifying the process is reasonable too, right?
Kane's eyes widened, his breathing became rapid, and his hands even trembled slightly.
"Genius!"
"This guy's an absolute genius!"
This perfectly-tuned simplification was a stroke of genius!
Never before had a work surprised him to such a degree!
From scenery to soundtrack, to various designs seamlessly integrated, not conflicting at all.
Like in the real world, you want to get a stool. You need to chop lumber, process it, and then assemble it, requiring great effort to finish. Or you'd need to go to a shop and spend money to buy one.
You want to carry it out? You'd have to carry it on your back or hold it in your hands.
Even in dreams, this logic wasn't abandoned.
Never had anyone conceived such a unique design.
Chop trees, get materials.
An inventory can hold materials.
Consuming materials can craft items.
Stripping away meaningless, complex processes, leaving only the joy of obtaining!
This perfectly-tuned simplification, the instant reward mechanism, plus that clear-at-a-glance panel system brought a revolutionary improvement to the overall experience.
He felt like he'd become a student now.
Unlike others playing Stardew Valley, he was rapidly analyzing the various innovative mechanics within.
Chopping trees, mining, farming.
Day two, fishing, he discovered that this simple gameplay was also extremely interesting.
Hey guys, I've been doing my best the last few days to get more and more chapters ready, so I could offer advanced chapters, and I realized that the word count has almost doubled per chapter. Just wanted to hype you up and say that from chapter 30 onward, the quality and length of the chapters will jump up quite a bit. Especially since I just couldn't seem to get some chapters before that quite right, when it came to writing and phrasing, and I want to sincerely apologize for that.