The city glowed with brilliant colours and lights, but these still failed to light up the small ledge that a figure – cloaked in shadow – sat. Looking out towards the edge of the city, past the wall, the light only reached so far. And this 'so far' was absolutely nowhere. Beyond the wall, in the darkness, god knew what dwelled. Well, actually, everyone knew.

Monsters.

Zombies that could punch through wood but not iron. Skeletons that could summon arrows seemingly out of thin air. Spiders the size of children. Green phallic creatures – creepers – that exploded when they got close to a player.

Because that's what the people of this world were. Players.

Daniel, the figure perched about half way up the tallest building in the city, the clock tower, smiled at this thought. Only here, in Minecraft, could anyone think that giant green penises were normal. But that was just the way things were. Once you got sucked in – and, if you played the game like it was meant to be played, you would get sucked in – you were stuck. And you had to realise that this wasn't a game anymore. This was now your life. Daniel sighed. Except, of course, for those who had the ability to leave. Like Notch.

Of course, death wasn't a problem anymore. You respawned if it was something natural, like fall damage or a monster. And if it wasn't natural, like another player…

Daniel didn't like thinking about that. That was why most didn't leave the city that the first arrived in, the Hub. Here was the only place that you couldn't be hurt by another player. Here was the only place where things were safe.

Standing up, Daniel inhaled a deep breath, and jumped off of the clock tower.

The air whipped around him, causing his brown hair to move erratically in the wind. His eyes locked onto his target, and he twisted mid-air, and landed in a small pool of water. Ignoring the strange looks he got from players and villagers alike, Daniel climbed out of the water and walked away.

The city was beautiful. It had been built years ago, before players in large numbers started finding their way into the world. While this was only ten years previous on Earth, Daniel had been stuck for fifteen years, and some people had been stuck for much, much longer. Time moved differently between universes. Daniel shrugged off the odd feeling that he got whenever he thought about this, and continued down the road.

Daniel stopped outside a small building, set back from the road and hidden by shadow. In fact, if he hadn't known it was there Daniel would've walked past without even glancing at it. But he did know that it was there, so he turned off of the road and entered the building.

"Hey, Pablo!" Daniel shouted as he looked around the small shop that his friend – no, acquaintance – ran by himself. The walls were lined with iron tools and armour, bows, enchanted books, even shields. Anything more expensive and important - potions, diamond tools, enchanted weapons – were kept in the back. A man, Pablo, poked his head out of the back room, and smiled at Daniel.

"Hello Daniel. What can I do for you today?" he asked.

"Just wondering what you have that I could, maybe, buy off of you," Daniel replied. Pablo sighed.

"You and I both know that you don't leave your own server with anything more than a sword. You couldn't afford anything."

Daniel summoned a shiny green gemstone into his hand, and Pablo raised an eyebrow.

"You know what, I think I do have something," he said at the sight of the emerald, and he went back into the back room. Almost immediately, he came back out with a potion full of a strange liquid.

"What is that?" Daniel asked.

"It's a potion. Don't even know what it does. Not been added to the game yet."

Daniel was dumbfounded. "That's awesome."

Pablo nodded in agreement.

"It's yours for one emerald."

As Daniel took the potion from Pablo, passing him the emerald in return, he asked a question.

"How'd you get it?"

Pablo simply smiled, and he walked out of the room. Daniel, knowing that if Pablo didn't want to tell him it was probably cheated in, left the shop.

Eventually, Daniel reached the entrance to the city, and looked out at the road that wound into the darkness, dotted periodically by torches. He wouldn't be going that way.

Turning off onto a side road, he eventually reached a large wall made out of stone brick. Placing his hand against the carving, Daniel quickly stepped back to watch the wall slowly peel away from reality, revealing a hole full of darkness, slightly pulling him towards it. Closing his eyes, he stepped through the portal.

The wall sealed behind him.

Daniel climbed out of his bed, and walked over to a large chest set against one of the four walls of his house. He stored his shitty stone sword within the chest, and walked over to another wall. Pressing a hidden button on it, he heard pistons activating below him, revealing a secret ladder leading into his basement.

In the basement was where Daniel stored all of his rarities. Hung on the wall was a diamond sword, and his bow, which was enchanted with Infinity I. It had taken Daniel the better part of two years to finally get a book of enchanting, and he still wasn't sure if it was worth it.

A book was on the crafting table in the corner of the room, and Daniel walked over and read the open page.

COME AND SEE ME AS SOON AS YOU GET BACK – Z, it read, and Daniel quickly ran over to the back of the room, where a line of rails led into the earth. Pressing a button, a minecart appeared on the rails, and started to move along, picking up speed in a matter of seconds. Daniel leapt into the cart, and let it take him deep into the ground.

FINALLY STARTED

I hope you guys aren't like, offended by the swearing in my stories and stuff. Also, there'll be some minor sexual references later on. But nothing that'll make it over T, which is good.

Tell me what you think, maybe what you think will happen (although I don't see how you can make any predictions yet), and I promise, the other chapters will be longer, just I didn't quite know how to start it off.

Review if you want.

~ Dark