Twelve twelve.

What do you think?
What do you think?
What do you think?
What can a player say? A player can only say, "There are only so many pixels in total, don't take it so seriously..."

However, was the island slave's reaction triggered by her behavior? Does stripping the undergarments of a minor enemy incite the wrath of others nearby?
Does this mean...
Can mobs be pulled together?
Player: "Wow..."
I truly never expected to see a mob-pulling mechanic in *Stardew Valley*... and such a bizarre one at that.

But the player isn't focused on that right now; she is focused on the exclamation mark that has suddenly appeared on the [Echo Shop] tab.
The [Echo Shop] is a new feature in the DLC. As mentioned before, in this map, the player is no longer a farmer who returned to the countryside, but a mysterious girl stranded on a desert island—though this game isn't *Don't Starve*!
Thus, the [Echo Shop] came into being.
And it looks quite mysterious.

The word "Echo" brings to mind the saying: "Those who never forget will always receive an echo," which means that as long as the belief in one's heart remains, one will eventually wait for the moment of response.
The currency used in the Echo Shop is also worth noting. In addition to the game's universal currency, [Copper Coins], one can also use a mysterious currency called [██ Precious Pearls].
Previously, the player had never figured out how to obtain this special currency.
But just now, her count of Precious Pearls turned into 4.
So, it is a special currency obtained through combat gameplay!

After all, with the setting of Chinese Wuxia, it is only natural that the importance of combat is increased. Combat gameplay is more varied, and the rewards are naturally more generous—items that would cost thousands of Copper Coins can usually be bought for just a few hundred Precious Pearls.
But to be honest, it looks a bit strange... If the goal was to encourage players to fight, they could have just increased the number of Copper Coins dropped in battle... like creating a bounty shop where you trade monster corpses directly for money; why go through the trouble of creating a completely different currency system?
I don't get it...
But she only understands one thing: combat yields high rewards!
Not only can you get items like cloth, roast chicken, ceramic bowls, and ghost-head sabers, but you can also obtain precious special currency!
Combat is great! Combat is great! Combat is great!

Jiuli picked up a ghost-head saber, held it in her hand, and swung it twice on the spot.
Okay, now she knows how to use this weapon. It's similar to the greatswords in the base game. The attack style is a horizontal swing, but it's relatively slow; you can't just mash the attack button mindlessly, you have to move around a bit.
Jiuli gripped the ghost-head saber, whetted her blade, and charged forward with great enthusiasm!
Yidian Hong: "............"
Yidian Hong reached out, grabbed the back of Jiuli's collar, and lifted her up.
Jiuli stared at Yidian Hong expressionlessly, her eyes green.
Yidian Hong stared at Jiuli expressionlessly, his eyes green.
Jiuli: "?"
Yidian Hong: "...These people are out on patrol; they are the only team in the vicinity."
Although Jiuli's face remained as expressionless as always and her behavior as odd as ever, Yidian Hong somehow understood her intent. He even explained it for the first time, sparing her from chasing them for half a mile.

An island is not like a continent; uninvited guests won't swim up from the sea, so the need for defense isn't that great. As could be heard from the mouths of those island slaves just now, this patrol duty is considered a cushy job that requires bribery to obtain.
Therefore, Yidian Hong guessed that the defenses of Bat Island were quite loose. With only a few teams out at a time, they were likely patrolling separate lines, and there wouldn't be many people spread out. Having dealt with four here, it was basically impossible to find another team nearby.

Jiuli: "............"
The silver-haired girl had no expression, looking as if she were somewhat displeased.
The killer didn't speak. He put Jiuli down and looked around... The island slave camp had been smashed into a mess and scraped clean by Jiuli—she hadn't even spared the undergarments of the dead, so what else could she have left behind?!
But she hadn't taken everything; at this moment, the items were neatly sorted and laid out on the pebble beach.
The killer sheathed his sword, took a careful look to ensure no strange items had been mixed in, and then used a coat as a bundle to wrap the pile of items. He carried it in his hand and said, "Let's go."
With that, he strode back.
Jiuli: "!!"
Heaven knows how long she had struggled with the inventory just now. She wanted this and she wanted that, but the twelve slots were simply not enough, so she had to think for a long time and tearfully throw things away.
It turns out the NPC actually helps the player gather the items they can't carry!!!
Player: "?"
Is this the *Jianghu*?~~~
How wonderful~~~
Jiuli: "Yidian Hong, you're so kind!"
Yidian Hong: "............"
The black-clad pixel figure suddenly shuddered, stopped for two steps, and familiar ellipsis bubbles floated above his head. Then, he suddenly accelerated and walked forward quickly.
Pfft!
What is this, a total *tsundere*.
So cute~~
The player rested her chin on her hands and sat in front of the computer screen for a little while, then manipulated pixel-Jiuli to "pitter-patter" follow behind the black-clad killer, happily walking back.

***

Meanwhile, Chu Liuxiang was emerging from that bat cave... of course, not to collect raw materials for bat dung.
He had simply swapped for a brighter torch, searched it thoroughly, and discovered something he hadn't noticed before.
The cave was damp, with water constantly seeping down from everywhere. However, the ceiling and walls of the cave were smooth and flat, with no stalactites or stalagmites... This could only mean one thing: the cave had been excavated only a few years ago.
—An artificial cave, which for some reason had been abandoned later.
Chu Liuxiang squinted and walked toward the deepest part, touching the cave wall, causing sand and soil to fall with a rustle.
—So that was it.
When the cave was excavated to this point, the craftsmen suddenly discovered that the structure behind was unstable and that digging further might cause a collapse, which is why they stopped here.
He turned and went out; the sky had already turned completely dark.
Zhang San had returned. He had rubbed tree bark into hemp rope and used the rope to carry a string of fish. Spring is the season for Spanish mackerel, and the fish spawn in the near-shore waters, so they were easy to catch, leaving no need to worry about starving.
He had also picked up some mussels on the beach.
Mussels are extremely cheap in the southeastern coastal regions, and their taste is incredibly fresh. They are best used for soup. They didn't have containers like bowls or pots, but the bamboo in the back mountain was inexhaustible. The nodes near the roots were thick, and one chop made a large bowl. The mussels were boiled inside these, bowl by bowl, like the clay pot soups sold on the streets.

At this moment, Yidian Hong and Jiuli returned with the fruits of the day's hunt—clothes, a ghost-head saber, spice jars, and a roast chicken wrapped in oil paper!
Zhang San was dumbfounded!
Chu Liuxiang smiled and said, "It seems you found the other people on this island?"
Yidian Hong ignored the remark and said concisely, "This is Bat Island!"
Zhang San was shocked and blurted out, "What?!"
Wasn't this silly girl just spouting nonsense earlier? It was actually true?!

This Miss Jiu... is she pretending to be stupid?
Jiuli remained expressionless and justified: "Mm-hmm! This is Bat Island!"
Zhang San: "............"
Zhang San: "..............."
Zhang San suspected that something as high-difficulty as pretending to be stupid was beyond Miss Jiu's capability.
Chu Liuxiang seemed quite calm. Having just come out of that artificially excavated bat cave, he wasn't too surprised by this result.
If this is the real Bat Island, then who is Jiuli?
They were brought here by a shipwreck, but what about her?
Chu Liuxiang suddenly asked, "Jiuli, do you remember when you came here?"
He was much taller than Jiuli, and when he asked her this, he had to lower his head to carefully observe her expressions and actions.
Jiuli's face remained completely expressionless.
Sometimes, Chu Liuxiang felt that her body was empty, as if it were just a shell. Her soul seemed to drift far, far away, only occasionally returning to fill this shell and make her come alive.
She tilted her head and looked at Chu Liuxiang indifferently, seemingly thinking, or perhaps thinking of nothing at all.
She opened her mouth and said calmly, "I don't remember."
Of course she didn't remember... The player's time and the time of the plot in the game were not synchronized. At first, the player was playing this game as an ordinary farming simulation and didn't pay much attention to the plot, so naturally, she hadn't pieced it together.
Chu Liuxiang heaved a long sigh.
However, in such moments, the more dialogue the better. When playing a game, how can one hold a mindset of "the more you say, the more you err"?
Jiuli remembered a joke she once saw online about a player of an *otome* game who, whenever key plot choices appeared, always thought, "This wouldn't be good, would it?", "We aren't that familiar yet," or "Would it be a bother to butt in?"—and thus cautiously chose to reject everything.
In the end, she successfully lived a lonely life.
Why be cautious when playing a game? At worst, you can just reload a save.
Therefore, Jiuli opened her mouth again.
She seemed lost in some kind of memory, and also seemed a bit hesitant.
Chu Liuxiang suddenly couldn't help but reach out and pat her head. Jiuli didn't dodge, obediently letting him ruffle her hair.
The girl's silver hair was exceptionally soft, reminding him of a long-haired Persian cat belonging to a friend.
Chu Liuxiang said warmly, "What do you want to say, Jiuli?"
Jiuli's eyelashes flickered slightly.
She finally spoke, her tone as cold as the winter moon, pale and devoid of a trace of warmth.
"I was shipped here... on a cargo ship."
Chu Liuxiang's heart suddenly missed a beat!
It wasn't a shipwreck; that meant it was a Bat Island ship... Every year, Bat Island transported invited guests to the island. Jiuli was clearly not a guest; she had traveled on a... cargo ship.
What kind of cargo was being shipped?
Anything can be bought, anything can be sold... He recalled Bat Island's lawless, taboo-free ways again.
A vein suddenly popped up on the back of his hand, the flesh bulging with the shape of this furious meridian.