Chapter 4

"We have enough wood to last us for a good couple nights worth," Ruben announced. "We can stop cutting trees." Ham, who just finished up chopping down one of the shorter jungle trees. He gathered the pieces, having to manually pick them up instead of the normal step forward and automatically gather, and started arranging his inventory.

"We could have done that much faster by cutting the taller trees," he muttered in obvious disdain. I had forced the group and him especially to stick to the ground while we traveled the jungle biome we had just to escape from. I didn't want any of my players killed, so I had grown paranoid. We weren't doing our usual dangerous endeavors. We would wait and then slowly build our abilities back up.

"We got the wood we needed," Ruben snapped at him. "Quit whining. It's better to get a feel for the game before we go throwing ourselves off the tops of trees."

"We were able to cover more land this way, too," Annabelle pointed out. "It's a shame the game is set to large biomes. It hardly looks like we've gone anywhere…" She checked her inventory and started gnawing on a piece of beef I had cooked the night before. "It sucks that we can't taste the food in this game. I'm really hungry…"

"Knowing my family, they'll probably hook me up to an IV in the hospital," York realized. "I guess it's only a matter of time before that's where everyone who's playing this game ends up." We all went silent at that.

"It will be fine," Scarlet said in her emotionless voice. "If anything happens to us, it'll be by something in this game."

"We need to make shelter." Annabelle stopped us. We all looked towards the sky. the sun was setting, slowly, but it was going to be dark soon. Annabelle looked to me, eyes firm, and spoke in a tight tone. "I know you don't want us to, Marshy, but we need resources. We can't keep wasting time sitting in a house above ground while the night looms. We need to get underground."

"I agree," York said. "The traveling we've done today has separated us from nearby people. We can make a home here until the resources are drained or until something else forces us to move." I sighed through my nose.

"I'll begin working," Annabelle declared. "The rest of you can decide what to do." She pulled out some jungle logs. "Move, all of you. I'm going to need some space." We backed away. The other four members of my team watched her work in patient silence until I spoke up.

"If we want to do this right, we'll do it my way." I faced the others. "Scout out for a mine entrance. Don't enter it, alert the rest of us and we'll go in together. While we are underground, do not stray from the path, the group, or the light." The four of them nodded, then separated. We searched the immediate area and started outwards, chopping away any branches that obscured the ground or patchy areas of dirt that could have hidden a cave beneath them.

I had barely started working when I came across a wall of leaves that was obviously human made. I punched out the first block and was right away greeted by light as it flooded outwards. Afraid that other players were nearby, I held back my urge to call the rest of the group. I punched out two more blocks, making the door large enough for me to fit through. Inside was indeed another player, but his skin hadn't been altered to fit his human self like my team had. He still wore the stock Steve skin, casually cooking some steak in a furnace.

He turned to me. For someone who had a stock skin, it had quite the resolution. Liquid clear purple eyes, jeans that had every stitch etched into perfection, and a shirt that had some leaves on it from working in the secret room. For a second he paused as I stared at him, then returned to cooking.

"Hey," I started, "what are you doing here?" He turned back to me, this time confused. He opened his inventory, and right away I could see that he had access to creative mode. "How are you doing that? The world is set on hardcore." Now his face cleared, as if he had come across an epiphany. He closed his screen.

"You can see me, then." His voice was strong and powerful. Several pixels in the room glitched after he had spoken. I looked around, making sure that nothing was attacking from outside, and turned back to him, silent. He stepped to the side, back, then to the other side. I followed him with my eyes. "I suppose you can." He waved his square hand. "You able to talk, Maria?"

"How'd you know my name?" I asked. My nameplate still read Marshmallow Unicorn. Had he been following us? No, York said that nobody was nearby. And even if they were, the team didn't call me Maria. I looked down to my map.

He wasn't displayed on it.

"What, you don't like being called Maria?" He squinted at me. "Marshmallow Unicorn. That's a pretty girly username." I drew my stone sword.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice low. "Why can't I see you on my map?" Steve paused.

"Trust me, honey," he started, "I'm not here to start anything. I'll leave in a second."

"Answer my question first," I started, moving myself so I blocked the entrance. "Who are you?" He started to open his inventory, but I had been startled too much to think rationally. I darted forward and slashed at him. I felt a jolting shock run its' course around my body. Lights flashed in my eyes and I found myself on the floor, where my health bar had dropped to half a heart. The pain that followed was nothing short of miserable.

Steve looked down on me. I looked away, ready for him to finish me, but he instead made a clicking sound with his tongue.

"Now look what you did, Maria. You nearly killed yourself." I squinted at him. He had no username, just a the purple words IMMORTAL OBJECT above his head. "Don't do that again. My programming prevents me from killing anybody on accident, so you're fine. But if you do that again, I will have to ask you to leave." He put a hand on my head. A rush of soothing and chilled blood started pulsing through my veins. It was only for an instant, but in that instant my health and hunger fully regenerated. Even my fatigue had been restored. I sat up slowly. "There. You'll be just fine now." He turned away from me and walked back over to his furnace, where he sat, warming his hands to the flames.

I sat there for what could've been a few minutes. He glanced at me once, twice, then on the third time, he faced me, a questioning look in his eyes. He was prepared to ask a question, but I spoke first.

"Who are you?"

"You sound like a broken record," the mysterious man muttered. "Steve. I'm Steve. I'm sure you've heard of me. You bought this game didn't you?"

"No, I mean who are you really?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"I suppose I could give you a fake name like John Smith or Anthony Thomas, but that wouldn't be the truth, and I prefer to keep a limit on my lies. I'm Steve. Is there anything about that name that seems off to you? Do I not look like a Steve or something?"

"It says you're an immortal object." He looked up towards his nametag.

"Oh. So it does." He lifted his hand to it, tapped it gently, and the purple lettering typed out his name in fancy cursive. Muttering under his breath, he erased it and replaced it with normal arial font like mine. "There you go. Steve. Now go back to your friends. They found that mine you were talking about." I opened my mouth to reply, but York's call interrupted me.

"Everyone! There's a mine over here!" I glanced at the door I had punched in, then back to Steve.

He had vanished, and so had his furnace. The leaves he had set up around him started breaking like they did when the tree had been cut away beneath them. I was suddenly exposed to the growing darkness, confused, surprised, and all-around terrified.

What had I just witnessed?

"Marshy!" Ham called. "C'mon! We need a leader!" I snapped to it. I backed out of what was left of the leaf hut and into the growing darkness. Scarlet, Ham, Ruben, and York were waiting not too far away, each holding a torch high in the air so I could see. I pulled out one of my own and approached them. "What kept ya up?"

"Nothing," I said quickly. I stepped forward slowly and peered into the cave that they had found. It started out as a drop into a small crater that was flat at the bottom then dove deep down in direction. From where we were standing, there was no steep inclines to be weary of. There weren't any monsters, either. The sun was setting, however. So we hopped down to the stone floor.

Everyone winced at the slight pain they felt upon losing the half heart from falling damage. They all paused.

"I forgot you could feel real pain in this game," Scarlet whispered. "I can't imagine what it would be like to fall from much higher than that." Oh, it was painful. Of that I was sure.

"Annabelle," I called, "are you going to be alright by yourself?"

"I'd prefer a building buddy," she called back.

"I'll take care of it." York hopped from one block to the next until he was back above ground. He turned back to me. "You four stay safe. I'll keep an eye out for anything above the surface on the radar." Then he turned away and started towards Annabelle.

"Bout time!" she scolded in the background. "You're pretty tall, knock down that block I placed in the tree by accident." I turned to the others.

"Ready?" I asked. Ruben pulled out a sword in one hand and a pickaxe in the other. Ham grabbed just his sword, and Scarlet hers. "Let's go." Them following closely behind, we dove our way into the darkness. I was the first one to set the torch on the wall. Only then did I feel something that was felt often.

I was afraid.

Character Analysis: Scarlet

Username: Sacred Goddess

Special Skill: Assassin

Skin: Stock

Currently In Party With Three Others

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