“Where on Earth am I?” Inside a dilapidated bus, Shiki looked out the window with a look of utter confusion.
He checked his phone every now and then, wanting to make a call but finding no signal.
The time displayed on the screen was…
6:00 AM.
What exactly had happened?
Shiki only remembered that when he got off work last night, the customer service representative under him hadn’t logged into the backend on time to take over the shift from home.
It wasn’t until he was on the bus heading home that they called him asking for a verification code.
Shiki had simply replied, “What were you doing earlier?
Go to the company and check it yourself,” before hanging up.
But within minutes, the manager called and gave him a piece of his mind.
Then he and the manager had an argument.
It wasn’t his responsibility anyway.
He had let the female staff work the night shift from home out of consideration, so why was he being scolded just because they didn’t log in on time and didn’t have the code?
On the spot, Shiki snapped that he was quitting and planned to go to the office early the next morning to grab his mug.
Then, sitting on the bus and watching the night scenery outside the window, he had dazed off into sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this godforsaken place—a highway surrounded by nothing but grass and trees, with a high mountain in the distance.
In front of the rickety bus he was in was a pitch-black tunnel, completely different from the bus terminal he knew.
Most importantly, it was night when he got off work, but now it was broad daylight, and the time was 6:00 AM.
“I slept for a whole night?
Even so, it shouldn’t have brought me here.
Where is this?” After peering around for a long time from inside the bus, Shiki eventually got off.
Staying on the bus wasn’t a solution, and this place clearly didn’t look like anyone was around.
After getting off, Shiki realized the entire front of the bus was crumpled, as if it had crashed into something.
He glanced at the bus stop sign near the door; the sign pointing toward the front of the bus said “West to Desert Station,” while the sign in the opposite direction had three question marks.
This didn’t match the stops for the Route 2 Bus he had been on at all.
“I just resigned; it’s not like they need to kill me.
Since when did e-commerce get so strict?
Getting silenced for quitting—is it to stop me from leaking the product costs?” Unlocking his phone, Shiki opened Quede Maps.
Although there was no internet, Quede Maps had an offline mode that could roughly determine his location using Beidou Satellite Navigation, which was a very practical feature.
“Hiss…
Why does this map look a bit familiar?” Seeing the map on his phone, Shiki raised an eyebrow.
The map displayed was simply too similar to the game he played every day.
If it was the same as in the game, he could walk back and forth with his eyes closed.
“No, there are still some differences from Stardew Valley, but now isn’t the time to obsess over the map.” Turning off his phone, Shiki grabbed the small bag he carried with him and walked toward the town’s location on the map.
This small bag was what he usually used to carry his charger, keys, and earphones.
Besides those, there were some snacks for passing time at work, but unfortunately, he had eaten most of them yesterday, leaving only a few pieces of Cuicuisha.
Following a dirt road that looked like a path toward the east for about ten minutes, a small town appeared before Shiki’s eyes.
The houses in the town were clearly not in a domestic architectural style, and it was eerily quiet.
Aside from the sound of his own footsteps, not a single sound came from the entire town.
Standing at the junction of the dirt road and the stone-paved road, Shiki hesitated for a long time, not daring to enter the town.
He was just an average corporate drone; usually, when he worked the night shift and there was no one in the building, he would jog to the restroom.
Now, in broad daylight, with not a soul to be seen in the town, he was even more afraid to move forward in such an eerie scene.
He checked his phone again: 6:30.
According to domestic habits, even if the streets weren’t crowded, the elderly who woke up early should be out for a stroll by now.
Silent Hill?
Raccoon City?
Squatting by the roadside, Shiki flipped through his phone, trying to see what he could still do.
Games?
Useless.
Without an internet connection, none of the online games would open.
He could play single-player games, but he was afraid the battery wouldn’t last, and besides, now wasn’t the time for gaming.
The customer service backend, strangely enough, could be opened, but the inquiry list was empty.
The rest were just a bunch of messy mini-programs that couldn’t be deleted, which were useless without the internet.
Standing up again, he glanced at the silent town.
Shiki decisively turned around and headed back.
Any fool could tell there was something wrong with this scene, so he wasn’t going in.
“Knowing there’s a tiger on the mountain, don’t go to the mountain”—his main strategy was being cowardly.
Returning to the bus’s location, Shiki chose to head west this time.
If it really was like the game, he should see a dilapidated farm after walking for a bit, which would mean he had…
probably…
maybe…
transmigrated?
Forget it, it didn’t matter.
He was the type where if he was full, the whole family was fed—the only person on his household register.
Otherwise, how could he have been so bold as to quit just like that?
If he really transmigrated, so be it.
Stardew Valley was quite safe.
As an old-timer with over a thousand hours of playtime, wouldn’t he be able to develop easily?
But where did the NPCs in the town go?
After another ten-minute walk, Shiki breathed a slight sigh of relief as he saw a rickety small shack hidden behind some large trees in the distance.
Good news: he had transmigrated, and the location seemed to be Stardew Valley.
Bad news: the entire town was terrifyingly quiet.
Where were the NPCs?
It couldn’t be a “Rules Horror” version of Stardew Valley, could it?
Bypassing the rocks, trees, and weeds along the way, Shiki stood by the window of the shack and peeked inside.
The interior was decorated much like in the game: a small bed, a set of table and chairs, a fireplace, a TV, and a chest placed right in the middle of the room.
“Is anyone here?” He shouted toward the farm, and after waiting a moment without a response, Shiki pushed the door open and walked in.
It was very quiet inside the shack.
The bedding on the bed smelled like it had just been aired in the sun, as if someone had specially cleaned it knowing someone would be moving in today.
He glanced at the map on his phone.
His icon was currently at the farm location in the southwest of the map.
Currently, there were no other markers on the entire map besides his icon.
Feeling slightly more at ease, Shiki opened the box in the middle of the room.
Inside were several packets of seeds, farming tools, and a backpack—just like in the game.
Besides those items, there was also a letter.
“Hello.
I believe you have realized by now that you have transmigrated.
This place is the Stardew Valley you know.
If you do not accept this, you can lie down on the bed and have a peaceful sleep, and I will send you back.
It will be as if nothing ever happened.
If you accept your transmigration, please continue reading.” Read on?
Shiki tilted his head as he looked at the blank piece of paper.
Transmigration—what was there not to accept?
He was all alone anyway and had just resigned, so he had nothing better to do.
He was very familiar with Stardew Valley, it wasn’t dangerous, and it was the rural pastoral life that most beasts of burden dreamed of.
“I accept.
What’s next?”