Chapter 1: This world

I faced off the spider, its abdomen turned to me. Even though its multiple eyes could see in most directions, it couldn't see me. Good. I had no weapons, but I had my fists to fight it with. On the count of three, I leapt towards it, screaming. It whirled around, its mandibles clicking in surprise. But I hit the spider with a hard right jab, knocking it to the ground. I took this spare moment to hit it again, its life dwindling faster than it can heal. I kept on jumping above it and pounding it into the ground. Somebody said, "Minewalker, what are you doing?" I ignored the comment. I let the spider get up, look at me with venomous distaste, and then it lunged at me. I got hit hard as the spider's jaws ripped into my body, filling me with lethal poison. I quickly took a sip of milk, and then hit the spider with all the strength in my arm. It turned over and died, leaving behind a couple of glowing balls and a thin, white thread. By now, a crowd had gathered to see the spider's final breath. I looked up into the not-so-well lit back alley in the city. This was probably the cause of the spider. It must have been attracted to the darkness that engulfs the alley like a black fog. After a little while, the spider must have found sanctuary in the shadows, protecting its eyes. A job well done and I did it all without moving from my chair.

In science class, we touched a little bit of scientific and unexplained phenomena such as psychic abilities. It was a little sci-fi, I admit, but the computers in the computer lab stopped working, so we had nothing else to do. One of my classmates asked about something to do with being trapped in a computer, like in Tron. I couldn't catch the name of the word, but I got a nagging feeling in my gut, like it was vital information that I needed to learn.

As I got out of class, one of the ninth graders knocked me to the ground, making me spill all of my school supplies. His buddies laughed while I tried to pick up my scattered notebooks and school supplies without getting my hand stepped on. If only he knew how many hundreds of people thought I was one of the coolest people in the world.

As I went home, I noticed it was starting to rain. Fine. I didn't care about the storm. A couple of griefers invaded my server. The server on my beloved game, Minecraft. I love that game. I love it because of the overwhelming and limitless possibilities there are in the game. I could just wander around a kingdom whacking zombies with my sword or I could build a replica of the Eiffel Tower, complete with a flaming Hindenburg. But as I walked into my house, I found my laptop on the edge of a countertop. I picked it up and logged on. I walked over to the living room, my usual playing spot, and went online. I was moving up on the server pyramid little by little, but eventually getting to the top.

Unfortunately, as I logged on to my server, a virus popped up. I put a really secure PitBull firewall on there! How did it get on? Then, my screen crackled a little, and then my computer shut down. "Dangit!" I shouted.

Goodbye, Minecraft.

…

I opened the laptop. I clicked the mouse on my repaired computer. It had to be repaired and almost reprogrammed thanks to that stupid virus. I was without Minecraft for a month. A MONTH! I kept on forgetting things, basic details about it. But, eventually, my computer got fixed. I logged onto the server I owned in the game. Suddenly people flooded in. In the com system, lots of comments such as, Minewalker! You're back!, and Hey, Minewalker, started filling the screen. I was back to playing Minecraft.

I was in the living room again. I was lying back on the leather recliner, with a 72" widescreen TV in front of me. I looked around. Up on one wall was a painting that my mom had done. I liked her. While she could be irritable, like all moms, she was nice. She did a painting of me, when I was younger. It must have been worth hundreds, but it was priceless to me. After a good long look around, I went back to my game.

I killed another spider. Those things were giant. They were about the size of a German shepherd and about as powerful as one too. Luckily, this was a computer game, so none of this was real.

A door opened, most likely my mom coming home from the store. "So, Nikolai. You like your computer so far?" she asked as she walked in.

"Yeah, mom. Got my server operational." I replied with some happiness in my tone.

"What are you doing right now?"

"Monster-hunting."

"Why don't you make a new world? All you ever do now in Minecraft is play on that server of yours." Mom went upstairs to talk with Dad on her phone.

The idea made me perk up. I need to set up a new world! Maybe I should call this world "Celebration." So I went over to the singleplayer menu and clicked the New World button. I found myself naming the world "Digging Straight Down." Fine with me. I clicked the button that would generate the world, and found a spark coming from the mouse. I jumped a little, but another spark leapt out of the keyboard. I stepped back as more and more sparks jumped out of various electrical appliances: the TV, the laptop, the microwave, and so on. On the laptop were the words, "Clearing Aperture" where "Generating World" should have been. I ran away from the computer as fast as I could. But I wasn't fast enough.

Suddenly, a fierce lightning bolt leapt out of the screen and blasted the middle of my back. I was covered with blinding light and the smell of smoke. I started to lose all feeling and my eyelids were becoming heavy. I tried to stay awake, but another bolt of energy hit me.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was my mother racing down the stairs.

I woke up in a strange, grassy plain. To my right, I saw a forest. To my left, there was a mountain range, and behind me I saw a small pond. This place was strangely serene. There were sounds of multiple animals and there was the sound of leaves rustling. The sun hurt my eyes a little, although not as much as usual. I felt soft grass beneath me. I almost fell asleep, except I had a nagging thought that told me something was wrong.

I tried to get up, yet my legs felt wobbly. When I looked down to see what was the matter, I fell back down. My legs were in the shape of a prism. When I looked at the rest of my body, I found that it was all blocky. I wore hiking boots underneath my block jeans. I looked at my shirt and saw a creeper face seemingly painted onto its surface. As I examined myself, my cubic hands, legs, and body in general, my realization and dread moved up rapidly.

I had just been sucked up into Minecraft.