Farm Simulator and Soccer

Vanessa Odelia's parents were killed in the Croatian War. The Modric family, their neighbors, took her in and brought her to a refugee camp to escape the war.

Vanessa was two years older than Luka Modric. After a high fever in childhood, she stopped speaking and could only direct people with simple gestures. In the Modric household, Luka had three little sidekicks like himself.

The Modrics were amazed that Vanessa could always find delicious food, no matter how far she had to go. Even among desolate ruins or in a crowded, noisy refugee camp, she could grow a patch of green and cook delicious meals.

Although she couldn't speak, Vanessa was loved wherever she went.

But Vanessa hadn't really lost the ability to speak. She had traded her words with the System for a "farming simulator." Inside it, she could enjoy the quiet, peaceful passing of the seasons, celebrate the harvest at regular festivals, and raise little animals that followed her around, wobbling along behind her.

The only downside was that there was too much farmwork to finish. If she borrowed NPCs from the simulator to help, she had to share her crops with them and pay them too. It just wasn't worth it.

The System gave her a hint: "Only people with strong bodies and willpower can enter the system. Athletes fit the criteria."

Vanessa tilted her head and understood at once.

The woman and the System hit upon a plan: by raising their affection level, they could summon soccer players Vanessa had met in the real world to help with the farmwork.

Luka Modric was the first to be summoned.

At night, he helped the sister whose face he couldn't make out pull weeds, wrap apples, feed chickens, ducks, and sheep, and collect eggs. He followed her with a little cloth bag to mine in the caves and fish in the river. "Why are they all cheap sea bass?"

Luka worked until his eyes went blurry!

When he woke up in the morning, he felt as if he'd been run over, but his body and mind were in fantastic shape, and he played better than usual on the field.

His teammates crowded around him.

One of them ruffled Luka's hair without the slightest hesitation. "You train with us every day, don't you? Why have you improved so fast?! Don't tell me you've been secretly doing extra training behind our backs!"

"I don't think so...?" Luka said uncertainly. "If doing farmwork in my dreams every night counts as extra training, then I guess I have."

His teammate: "???"

Every team Luka played for came to know a farming legend: "No matter how exhausted you are, just enter a dream like a peach-blossom paradise and get straight to work on the farm. You'll wake up the next day full of energy, with improved soccer skills to boot!"

"It's the perfect paradise for people who train extra!" Cristiano Ronaldo exclaimed.

Sergio Ramos scratched his head. "We can all dream together, so why have I never been scheduled for a shift with Luka? This dream has no taste!"

Vanessa: "? What do you mean? If I put my husband in a group with you, what am I supposed to do? Keep some distance from my husband, okay? After hearing the CPF fans' analysis, I'm not feeling great about this."

Luka got better and better at soccer, and Vanessa's farm grew bigger and bigger.

In the end, Vanessa finally turned her farm into Croatia's number-one farm and brought it from the simulator into the real world.

Every player who had visited the farm said, "What the hell, do you get it? That damn farmer in our dreams, the one who yelled at us through a megaphone and made us work, looked just like Luka's wife!"

Luka looked at his shocked teammates, then at his perfectly relaxed wife.

"You do farmwork for a day, and spend ten years afraid of farms. My wife is sweet. She'd never do anything to torment people."

Vanessa smiled warmly at the perfect moment. "That's right. I'm very sweet."

tips: This story is completely detached from reality, but the farmwork is real. (The games I drew inspiration from are mostly various farming games, especially Switch games. I don't get very into Stardew Valley, so there's very little Stardew Valley content.)

2. The author doesn't read the comments much and doesn't like replying. They just keep their head down and write.

3. Older woman-younger man romance. She was adopted, but there was no legal paperwork, just a verbal adoption.

4. Before the farm enters the real world, the heroine has completely lost the ability to speak. But she can talk in the farm (the System world). The soccer stars can't make out Vanessa's face and have never heard her voice, so they don't recognize her. This isn't a plot hole.

5. I'll rule out other potential triggers in advance. I just play games, and somehow ended up wanting to write a Luka story QAQ. Thanks.

Theme: Happiness belongs to those who work hard.