Four by Four
This is a story I wrote two years ago as an assignment in an English class. It was fun to write, and I thought it deserved being shared on the Internet. So, enjoy! Inspiration for the plot came from content by YouTube channels Orepros and ExplodingTNT.
After playing the game for many years, Steve is a pro in Minecraft. There is no block or mob still unknown to him. Steve has mastered redstone circuits and accumulated a large treasure of iron, gold and diamonds. Of course, he has stored all of it in several well-hidden bunkers. Now, Steve feels that, with his experience, he should bring some innovation to the game.
Facing his crafting table, he tries to imagine new items he might be able to craft. Steve first attempts to make tools with obsidian, lapis-lazuli, sandstone, sand, leaves… even water and lava, but he finds out he just cannot. He imagines and tries several other recipes that do not produce any item. As his experiments fail, Steve becomes more and more disappointed. Something has to come out of this three by three square!
Out of ideas, Steve puts a block of oaken planks in each square, just to see what the result could be. Then… surprise! For once, he gets an item, and it is another crafting table. After the surprise, though, Steve is quite disenchanted. He hoped for a more extraordinary creation. Yet, he moves the crafting table to his inventory then puts in on the floor of his house. At the very first stare, Steve realizes the table is actually exceptional.
Four rows. Four columns.
Steve has just made a four by four crafting table!
The only thing Steve knows now is that he can't think of all the epic crafting possibilities this table will grant. As fast as a player can run, he brings the awesome table to Notch, the creator of Minecraft. Notch lives in a magnificent mansion a long walk away from Steve's house. Excited, Steve yells, "Notch! Notch! You won't believe this!"
Really, only pure greatness may result from the creator of the game trying the four by four crafting table. When Steve earns Notch's acknowledgement for his innovation, he will be the most famous player in all History. To his satisfaction, Notch is amazed by the table and eager to try it. He starts with a simple recipe: he puts ten oak planks in the squares, forming a triangle in order to craft stairs. Then, Notch turns to Steve.
"With a regular crafting table, I use six planks to make four stairs. With yours, it took me ten planks to get as many. You suck. You're a noob."
"Huh, Notch… may I… ?
"No."
Near Notch's mansion is the Giving Up Hole, a pond of lava in a three-block deep hole. Notch breaks the crafting table, walks to the Hole and drops the table into it. Steve watches in shock the destruction of his invention. He had done one great thing, but he was told that it was completely worthless. Playing Minecraft is pointless now. Steve does not want to do anything more in this world. He just jumps to his death into the Giving Up Hole.
