Chapter 1: Awake

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Ugh… My head…"

I slowly opened my eyes. My head hurt beyond all hell.

What I saw could only be described as a cube land. Everything around me was made of blocks that were cubic in shape and came up to about half my height.

If I looked around, I saw that the blocks on the ground were covered in green (but if a block's side was exposed, I could see that it was plainly brown except at the top).

The blocks that stuck out of the ground had a different appearance. They were brown and appeared rigid, even though I could see by looking from various angles that all of the blocks were perfectly flat.

Some were not brown, they were white with black stripes.

In either case, they were topped with a small canopy of more green blocks. The shade of green varied depending on the color of the blocks leading up to it. These green blocks also had holes in them, allowing me to see the blocks behind them. This block was the same as the one leading into the canopy.

Leaves. That's what the green blocks were. That makes these things… Trees?

The next thing I noticed was what I could feel under my feet. I could feel blades of grass sticking out of dirt. But no matter which way I looked, the block I was standing on was perfectly flat.

I sighed, ignoring that for now. I looked around again. Nothing but trees and grass as far as I could see.

Frustrated, I punched the ground. The weirdest thing happened after that: The block I punched was dislodged slightly and had shrunk slightly, although it was quickly returning to normal on both counts. I punched it again, worsening the condition slightly, and decided to see if I could punch it into nothingness.

This was not to be, though. When the block had shrunk down to three quarters of its original size, it suddenly popped, dropping down into the hole it had created.

I reached down into the hole and grabbed the block, which had by now become devoid of its grassy topping. As I collected it, it vanished from my sight. Somehow, I knew it wasn't gone.

I thought about what I had collected so far.

Achievement get: Taking Inventory

Current armor: None

Current inventory: Dirt (1)

And then I wondered: Would the same happen with the tree? Would the whole tree come crashing down? It probably would; gravity has its way with things.

But it's not like it'd hurt to try, I thought to myself. After all, nothing's made sense yet.

So I pulled back my fist as hard as I could, and I struck the tree with all the force I could muster.

A block popped out of the middle of the tree, and I grabbed it without thinking.

Achievement get: Getting Wood

Feeling a strange sense of achievement, I started punching the other log-like blocks of the tree. They took a little longer to get than the dirt blocks, but I managed to make them pop out and collect them; there were six in total.

I was just about to mention to myself the fact that the blocks had remained floating in the air when I heard an explosion of leaves above me. All of the leaves, now unsupported by logs, were breaking apart; from the chaos fell an apple and three miniature trees.

I tried to think about what I could do with the logs.

I can make... Planks. Or I can burn the logs for Charcoal. Or they could fuel a fire for a short time.

All said, that wasn't many options. But there was a more important question:

How do I make planks?

As I asked, I held a block of wood in my hand. Right then and there, that block split into four blocks with a different texture; this texture looked like rows of four planks.

Wooden planks, I quickly surmised. And then it occurred to me what I could make with these: Crafting table for four, four sticks for two, pressure plate for two, or a button for one. I'll make a crafting table because it sounds most useful.

As soon as I thought of that, the four wooden planks I had combined themselves and formed into a crafting table.

Achievement get: Benchmarking

That was all the clarification I needed about crafting. But that made me realize something: I had no clue how to use this thing I had just made.

I decided that I would have to place it in order to use it.

But how do I get it in my hand?

I looks down at my hand. There it was. Was I supposed just throw it on the ground? Wouldn't hurt to try. I threw it down as hard as I could. It hit the ground with a "plonk" sound, popping into a full size block. There were some spaces open on the top, arranged into a 3x3 grid.

Wait… What's this?

I pulled a small card off of the table. On it were a few diagrams. One showed the wood planks along the top and sticks down the middle. The next showed the same, but with only the center plank instead of all three. The third diagram showed the two sticks and three planks rounding a corner of the spaces. The fourth showed the slots occupied in both the third and first. The fifth was two planks down the middle atop a single stick.

Are these… blueprints for something? I suppose there's only one way to find out…

I picked up a couple of the planks and attempted to turn them into sticks. Just like that, two planks became four sticks. I still found it weird how it did that, but decided it was best to ignore it for now. I placed some planks and some sticks in the configuration shown in the first diagram. Then I waited for a couple seconds before the planks and sticks floated out of the crafting table and combined themselves into an item.

It appeared to be… a pickaxe made out of wood.

Achievement get: Time to Mine!

This is completely useless, I thought to myself. But I reached out and grabbed it anyway. As with everything else, it vanished the moment I touched it.

So the first diagram shows how to make a pickaxe… Let's see what the second is.

As with the pickaxe, I arranged the blocks and waited. What I got this time was a little different: a shovel. It was still made from wood, as I expected, but there was no way it was anything besides a shovel.

Now this is more useful. Let's try it!

I looked at the ground beneath my feet. Taking a step aside, I started digging, expecting the block to distort again. However, instead of shrinking and turning, a pit formed in the surface of the block. This pit was a small cube being hollowed out in a bigger cube.

What did go by my expectations was that once the block was sufficiently hollowed out, it popped into a smaller, retrievable block. Another thing I noticed is that unlike the fifteen punches it took by hand, it took only eight hits with the shovel.

So it's faster to use the shovel on soft blocks. Makes sense. So what's the next one?

I made more sticks. I placed the sticks down the middle and the planks at the top, the left, and the corner, just like the third diagram showed.

After a moment of waiting, the objects formed themselves into what looked like a wooden axe.

If shovels go to dirt, axes must go to trees.

I stored it away for now. Next was the one with the planks at the top and corner. After placing the planks in the correct spot, I waited. This time, I got what looked like a wooden scythe.

Achievement get: Time to farm!

… What do I need a scythe for? I'm not doing any farming or soul reaping.

I grabbed it anyway though. Might as well take it–oh it's actually a hoe. Well still: what do I need a hoe for?

I looked at the card. There was one diagram left and, unlike the others, it had only one stick below two planks. I placed down the items in the correct spot and waited.

This gave me a sword. A sword. Now we're talking. Even though it looks like a little toy sword, it still has relatively sharp edges. I would not want to be in front of someone as they swung this.

Achievement get: Time to Strike!

I looked at a tree, then back at my sword. Let's see just how sharp this is.

I readied myself and swung my sword. It connected with the tree, leaving a shallow slash mark in the bark. As with anything else, though, the slash mark quickly faded away, leaving behind no evidence that I had even attacked it.

What are these trees even made of? I wondered. How can anything heal that quickly?

I couldn't ponder on that too long.

Before I knew it, night was falling.