Rowan sat alone in his bedroom, staring down at the new virtual reality headset he had just received in the mail. The shiny brand new VR Tech headset was a prize Rowan had won several days ago in a raffle at a Minecraft convention and came with the newest edition of VR Minecraft. Although VR Tech is still a new thing, it's already gained a lot of popularity among the gaming community and is constantly praised as the closest thing humanity can get to living within a video game world. However there are still a lot of people who are against the usage of virtual reality for the purpose of gaming, believing it to be dangerous and uncontrollable. Still, Rowan had already gotten the headset. It'll be a waste not to use it. Reluctantly, Rowan slipped on the headset and laid down in his bed. Turning on the device, Rowan waited as the headset started up and his consciousness faded from reality and enter the world of the game.
Rowan opened his eyes. He was no longer in his room. He was now floating high in the skies of Minecraft with the main menu opened up before him. Rowan reached out to the "single player" option, but before he could make contact, a message appeared in front of him, which read:
"Dear player,
Congratulations on winning your very own VR Tech headset and VR version of Minecraft from MineCon. On behalf of the MineCon team, you have been personally invited to the private MineCon server to join other headset winners such as yourself in your greatest VR Minecraft experience ever. We hope you enjoy.
Sincerely,
MineCon Team."
A private server, huh? Rowan thought to himself, I'd rather not interact with other people right now. I think I should try to get use to VR first before I start playing with other people. But before Rowan could exit out of the message, the screen disappeared and Rowan was immediately taken to the servers list. The vast world around him transformed into an empty black void as he stood before the list, which contained only one server. There were no other options except that sole server, not even the option to return to the main menu. W-What? Rowan thought, a hint of panic rising within him, This can't be right. Where's the options? Why am I here? The single server waited. Am I suppose to select this server? Is this some kind of introductory thing? The server waited still. Rowan waited for a moment, hesitated, then drifted towards the server and selected it from the menu. Almost immediately, the menu disappeared and a loading text was displayed. An instant later, everything fell into darkness and Rowan felt his consciousness fade.
When Rowan finally regained his consciousness, he was no longer drifting in the void. Instead, he was standing in the center of a large, blocky stone structure surrounded by a couple of other players like himself. Is this the server? It's so small. I knew it was a private server, but I didn't think it'll be this small. Rowan looked down at his hands, Huh, I guess they got my skin during registration. At least I won't stand out too much as a total noob. Rowan scanned the crowd, Well, as long as I'm here I might as well talk to some people. Rowan walked up to the first player he saw, and tapped them on the shoulder.
"Hey, um, I'm Rowan. Er, I'm kinda new here," Rowan began.
"Oh, hi," the player replied, "I'm Rin. I'm new here too. Actually, I'm pretty sure everyone here is. I kinda got this weird message from MineCon and now I'm stuck here."
"Stuck here? What do you mean?" Rowan asked Rin.
"Pull up your menu," Rin said.
Rowan lifted up his hand and a small window appeared before it. However, instead of displaying the Minecraft pause menu, the window was blank except for the option to return to the game.
"That's weird," Rowan muttered, "Is VR Minecraft really that broken?"
"No idea," Rin shrugged, "It's been like that for at least an hour."
"Wait, what? You've been here for an hour?" Rowan responded with shock on his face.
"Yup, I'm pretty sure the other players have been waiting for a lot longer though," Rin answered, "Yeah… we're pretty much stuck here. We can't even get out of this weird structure. It's like there's an invisible wall keeping us trapped in."
"No way…" Rowan thought with despair swelling up within him. Am I stuck here then? For how long? Until someone fixes this? I knew using VR Tech was a bad idea! Suddenly, then crowd fell silent as a small wisp appeared in above the crowd, and then another and another. And in an instant, the wisps collided into a single point and a huge flame erupted from the collision point. From the flames, a silhouette formed, a figure of a player with eyes brighter than the burning blaze that engulfed them. Soon the fire faded into the still air, and a single figure remained floating threateningly above the crowd, a figure with the default Minecraft skin on and a pair of blinding white eyes.
"What… the…" Rowan couldn't take his eyes off the new player. It's as if those shining white eyes of his had somehow trapped him in an eternal trance. Rowan managed to tear his gaze away from the player for a moment to look over at Rin, who was visibly shaking with fear and unable to take her eyes off the new player.
"Welcome, players," the figure began with a deep, booming voice, "To the world of Minecraft. I am the god of this world. You may call me, Herobrine. A pleasure meeting you all."
Herobrine gestured to the audience with a graceful bow before continuing with a confident smile.
"Now then, shall we all play a little game?" Herobrine asked ominously.
"A game?" Rowan whispered to himself, "What's he talking about?"
"Here are the rules," Herobrine continued, " Rule number one: to win the game and leave, you must defeat the final boss. Rule number two: If you die in the process, you shall die in real life. And rule number three…"
Herobrine suddenly raised his finger to a player in the crowd and a blazing blue bolt of lightning bursted out of the sky and struck down the trembling player, reducing him to a corpse and a floating player head loot.
"Survive," Herobrine finished sinisterly with a wicked laugh. Panic struck the crowd and every player began scrambling over each other trying to escape the terror of a dozen lightning bolts raining down on them from the sky above. The sinister laugh of Herobrine echoed in Rowan's mind as he watched player after player fall dead before him, their drops floating lifelessly on the cold stone floor. Rowan couldn't move. He could run. He stood and stared up at the menace before him with trembling fists. What was there he could do but watch.
"Rowan!"
Rowan snapped out of his fear-induced trance and spun over to find Rin reaching for him from the crowd of fleeing players. Rowan quickly reached out to take her hand, but before he could grab on, a light appeared below him, and his vision became engulfed in an eerie white light. All the other players disappeared. Time seemed to slow down as Rin seemed to drift farther away from him. And in an instant, he was alone, gone in a flash of light. As suddenly as it came, the light vanished from Rowan's sight, and he was left stand with his hand outstretched in an unfamiliar new setting, a vast green field near a forest of tall oak trees. What? Where am I?! What just happened?! Rowan's thoughts streamed past him as he struggled to piece together the event he has just witnessed. Herobrine's malicious laughter continued to replay in his mind along with the sight of the dozens of bodies that fell during the merciless onslaught of thunderbolts. Rowan clutched his head and falter to the ground. The laughter, their horrified screams, it kept haunting Rowan's mind. This was no longer a game to him. This was now a matter of life and death.
Rowan regained his composure the best he could and began to think back to Herobrine's words. To beat this game and leave, we have to defeat the final boss. Does he mean the Ender Dragon or the Wither? Maybe both? And we have to do that without dying, because… Rowan paused. He couldn't bear to think about the consequences to dying, but he knew he can't just be afraid forever, because dying in this world means losing your life in real life. The thought sunk in deep with Rowan. He had never been a good Minecraft player. He constantly lost and in the most stupid ways too. How was he ever going to beat the Ender Dragon let alone survive Herobrine's wrath? No! No more thinking! Rowan decided, Thinking forever won't get me anywhere. I have to act! Now let's see… What's the first step to survival?
Rowan glanced around until he spotted what he needed, a rather small oak tree. Okay, okay, Rowan thought to himself, So how will this work? Do I just punch it like I'd normally do in a normal survival? Rowan had no experience in virtual reality, but he has had experience with playing a Minecraft game before. I'm sure it can't be that difficult. Rowan braced his fists and began rapidly punching the small oak tree. Several seconds passed by before Rowan could finally knock down one block of wood. Rowan looked down breathlessly at his prize as it floated uncaringly on the ground, a single block of oak wood. Okay, this might be a bit harder than I thought. Rowan admitted to himself. Regardless, Rowan picked up the oak wood and crafted it into planks in his inventory, and then into a crafting table. Rowan looked up at the sky and saw that the shining square sun was already directly above him. I'd better hurry. I might not have a whole lot of time before nightfall. Rowan thought to himself as he continued to punch down the rest of the oak tree.
An hour passed and Rowan has already crafted an axe and was chopping down trees at a slightly faster rate. This should be good enough, Rowan thought as he examine the full stack of oak wood planks in his inventory, Hm, strange though. It's not night yet. Is the time different in this version of Minecraft? Is it like real world time? Or maybe a bit shorter? Cuz I know this is definitely not Minecraft time. Actually, that actually makes sense. I knew it took longer to punch down those trees from before. Everything must've been adjusted to fit real world time. Rowan looked down at the axe he was holding. Real world time, huh? Everything here sure feels real. But at this point, it might as well be real. All this might as well be reality to me now. It is a matter of life and death after all. It would only make sense if I treated this game like my life.
Suddenly, the sound of growling pulled Rowan out of his thoughts. It was his stomach. Hunger? You can feel hunger in this game? Rowan looked down at his hunger bar and realized how low it was. He had only a hunger point and a half left. Food, Rowan thought, My next priority is food. That shouldn't be too difficult. Rowan scanned the field for a moment and found that there were several apples that had fallen from the trees that he had chopped down. Score! Rowan thought with hungry eyes. Rushing to the apples, Rowan began scarfing down apples after apples until his hunger bar had return to a safe amount.
Just as Rowan finished his last apple, he heard more growling. What? That can't be right. I just ate! Rowan thought. The growling became louder. Wait, that's not me. That's a- Rowan quickly turned around and jumped out of the way just as an arm came swinging past inches from his face. A zombie!
The zombie lunged at Rowan with fists readied, but before it could reach him, Rowan knocked it back with forceful side kick. Taking out his newly crafted axe, Rowan readied himself for his first battle in virtual reality. The zombie struggled back onto its feet and began limping desperately towards Rowan. Rowan gripped his axe tightly in his fist, and swung at the zombie with all his might. The axe dug deep into the zombie's head, but didn't kill it. The zombie quickly recovered its posture before Rowan could pull back his weapon, and ripped the axe out of his hands. With the axe now stuck in the zombie's head, Rowan had no choice but to fight unarmed. The zombie swung its rotten fists at Rowan, who dodged backwards quickly before delivering a vicious blow to the zombie's stomach. Stumbling backwards, the zombie caught itself and charged back at Rowan once more. Suddenly, an idea came to Rowan, and he took out his stack of wooden planks. As the zombie reached inches from him, Rowan began to beat the zombie senseless with the wood planks, until the zombie fell onto the ground unmoving and disappeared into a puff of white smoke. Rowan was left breathless as his axe fell onto the floating pile of rotten flesh on the grass.
Looking up, he noticed that the sun was about to set. Night was approaching, and Rowan was still without a home. Oh, this won't end well, Rowan thought.