Author's Start note: Here we are with Chapter 4! Sorry for the long wait. Schoolwork and life got in the way. But yes, as I said in the End note in the previous chapter, this one will be devoted to the six guys trying to settle in with the world. They will finish reading the instruction manual first, before they get constructing. Anyway, all six boys belong to me, Minecraft characters to Mojang, and let's begin!

Chapter 4: Making the most of it

A few seconds after Samuel died, we could hear a popping noise about ten blocks away from us. We all turned around to face Samuel, newly respawned.

Boy, did he look angry.

He stomped over to us, and upon reaching us, he bent down, grabbed the stick he dropped when he died and started whacking Fred repeatedly over the head with it. Crack upon crack could be heard. When he did, the rest of us were scared out of our wits, since we didn't expect such a violent act coming from someone so naïve and, how do I put it nicely, uh, dull.

We expected Samuel to stop after a few whacks, but things started to get concerning when he continued hitting Fred after ten seconds. I cautiously approached Samuel from behind and pulled him away.

"LET ME AT HIM! LET ME AT HIM!" he yelled as I pulled him away from Fred, who, for a strong and confident guy, was cowering like a baby. Samuel continued to pull away, waving the stick around like a sword.

I grabbed the stick from his hand and snapped it in half. Then I bent down, grabbed Samuel's instruction manual and whapped him over the head with it.

"Samuel! Have you ever heard of the saying 'two wrongs don't make a right'? Just because Fred accidently killed you does not, and I repeat, does NOT, give you the right to kill him. It was all an accident, and unless you two don't shake hands and make up this instance, I will do whatever it takes for me to find a lava pool, and when I do, I will make sure you two are with me and I will push both of you into it! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

That shut Samuel up. Slowly, he lowered his arms and sighed. I looked over at Fred, who was now glowering at Samuel instead of cowering from him. I raised an eyebrow.

"Fred? Did you hear what I just said?"

Reluctantly, he walked over and held out his right hand. Samuel took it, and they shook.

"I'm sorry," they both apologized at the same time. I smiled at them.

"Good! Now that that's settled, I think it's about time we finished reading about why the hell we're here. Do you all agree?"

Everyone nodded. Fred, who no longer had a sour look on his face, smiled at me.

"Starting to take on your leadership role now, eh, Ben?"

"Uh-huh, and you'd better not pull any stunts like you did five minutes ago, or else I'll punish you. Got it?"

Fred scowled.

"Yeah, yeah. No need to be all moody on me. Geez."

"Ahem."

We all looked at Marcus.

"Uh, guys? Excuse me for interrupting, but do you not think we should start building houses? I'm not sure I'll last not sleeping for another night."

I knew he had a point there.

"Uh, yeah, I think you're right. But just wait, okay, Marcus We'll get to that after we finish reading this manual, cool with that?"

He thought for a bit, then held out two thumbs-ups.

"Great! Now, where were we? Ah, yes." I flipped to the page after the introduction.

For Minebencraft321,

You are, as mentioned before, the leader of the group. As the moderator of this world, or Realm, whatever you want to call it, you have the powers to achieve acts no one else in your group can. These include:

- The ability to turn off Mob Grief, such as creeper explosion pits, Endermen taking blocks, Ghasts blowing stuff up, etc.

- Turn on and off Keep Inventory.

"WHAT? That's IT? And to think that being the moderator of this Realm would give me god-like powers?"

I continued reading.

And I know what you're thinking. "WHAT? That's IT? And to think that being the moderator of this Realm would give me god-like powers?"

I sighed, before continuing to read.'

And yes, I did consider giving you all the powers a moderator could have. Until I realized that the mission would be completed before you could say "Diamonds".

Which brings me to the purpose of the mission itself!

I flipped to the next page.

Mission: Minecraft

This mission is a test of bravery, trust and stamina. You will have unlimited time to do this, so it is your choice if you want to stay in the world forever. Rest assured that you will not age in the duration of the mission, so choosing to stay forever ultimately means you are willing to stay in a game for all of eternity. Otherwise, if you have successfully completed the mission, or you decide to forfeit, simply go onto your command console and type in a command. To access it, simply clap your hands two times, and a screen and a keyboard will appear. Pressing esc will exit the command console.

If you have completed the mission, the command should be:

/end mission:minecraft complete

If you have failed to complete the mission and wish to forfeit, the commands should be:

/end mission:minecraft incomplete

Please keep in mind that we will be able to know if you have fully completed the mission or not, so there is no point in lying. Penalty will be loss of your Minecraft account.

No time will pass while you embark on your journey, so there is no need to fret about any panic attacks from parents or loved ones.

It might or might not come to your head that the world you spawned in is the same as your previous Realm. This might sound useless, but it could save your life.

Once the command of completion or forfeit has been submitted, you will all be transported to the exact position you were in before you started the mission.

With all of that said, the ultimate goal of the mission is to

DEFEAT THE ENDER DRAGON

By doing so, it will be compulsory that each player gathers at least one level of experience that the dragon drops before the player is permitted to enter the portal and go back to their world. Not doing so will result in the player being knocked back ten blocks from the portal. But as the dragon drops countless levels of experience, it is assured that it will be no problem in getting at least one level.

Do not bother with trying to remember where the stronghold was placed. All memories of structures, such as villages, dungeons, and especially strongholds, has been removed.

It is of the leader's decision on whether or not a Wither should be spawned. It is not compulsory, but by doing so, the value of the prize increases. Prize options will be listed when the mission is completed.

Before players leave, they are allowed to bring TWO souvenirs with them. This can be done by having the desired objects in both hands.

After completion, you will have the privilege to either keep your Realm as it is, make a separate Realm, free of charge, that contains everything you and the participants has ever done in the mission, including chests, or replace your current Realm with the Realm you have made in the mission. If you have made your decision, send an email to Notch about your decision, and the required changes will be made.

That is all for the instruction manual about the mission. Very unfortunately, any further questions cannot be answered.

We wish you the best of luck, recruits.

As I finished reading the last sentence, I snapped the book shut.

"Welp, that was a heck ton of stuff to read. But now that we're all informed on what we have to do, I think it's about time we started settling in."

"What do you mean?" asked Samuel.

"I mean what Marcus told me before I finished reading this. Start building houses, etc. I think we should start now," I explained to Samuel.

Suddenly, a memory from the book came to me.

"Oh, yes! Hold up, let me try something."

I clapped my hands two times. Immediately, a command console appeared in front of me. Everyone gasped in awe.

I looked at the keyboard. I typed in /gamerule keepInventory true and pressed enter. A text appeared on the mini-screen in front of me.

Game rule has been changed.

I turned to face the rest of the guys.

"So, who's willing to test this out?"

Everyone gasped, except for Samuel, who shrieked.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Calm down!" I exclaimed before clapping my hands twice, exiting the command console. "Now that that's out of the way, I think it's about time we did some constructing. What do you guys think?"

Everyone murmured in agreement, nodding.

"Good! Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started! Hands up if you have an axe?"

Marcus was the only one who raised his arm.

"Well if you wish, Benjamin, I could go make some more," he said.

"Yes, go do that. Now I want you to go pair up with Fred, make sure you both have at least two axes each, then go deforest the forest behind us."

Fred groaned.

"Why do I have to be with the nerd kid?"

I walked over to him and slapped him in the face.

"Do as I say. Go with him and get as much wood as you can. Bring any apples you happen to find. Go now."

Grumbling, Fred stomped over to Marcus, who was patiently waiting at the front of the forest. I faced Daniel and Johnathan.

"You two, you guys are going to be the miners. Can I trust you guys to go get as much stone and iron as possible? Just remember the first rule of Minecraft!"

"Yeah, bro! You can count on us!" replied Johnathan.

"You sure can! But do you not think we should get a crafting table each first?" asked Daniel.

I gasped in realization. But before I could respond, Daniel chucked two crafting tables at me.

"One for you, one for Sam," he told me.

"Wha- how are you guys so prepared?" I stammered.

"Bro, unlike you, we actually got up and did something useful. We didn't have a nice nap like you did," replied Johnathan.

"So what are you guys going to do while we do all the slave work?" asked Daniel.

"We're going to be marking out where you guys are going to be living. We'll live next to each other," I replied.

"We'll be like a little village!" squealed Samuel.

"Oh my god, Ben! Doing all the easy work while we're sweating our shirts off doing labour! We could die while mining for all we know!" exclaimed Daniel.

"Excuse me, Daniel, but who's the leader here? Who's the guy who has the responsibility of this entire mission on his back? Who's the guy who's trying to organize things the best he can here? Who's the guy tha –"

I was interrupted by stacks and stacks of oak and birch logs being thrown at my feet.

"Hope that's enough. Would've gotten more, but an attempt at mass deforestation using only a stone axe can really tire someone's arms out, you know?" said Fred.

"We tried our best, Benjamin. I'm famished. Mind if I sit down to have a rest?" asked Marcus.

"Sure, go ahead," I muttered. Daniel grumbled and walked off with Johnathan into a cave about twenty blocks away. I got some wood and made six chests, because I had a feeling we might've needed a storage unit each sometime soon, what with all the wood being brought to us. I grabbed two of the chests and put the oak logs in one, and birch logs in the other.

After a bit, Fred and Marcus went back to get more wood. That left me and Samuel to think about where each person's house was going to be. We managed to assign everyone's land when suddenly, screams of two boys could be heard at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, Johnathan and Daniel came running out, shrieking as if they just saw their worst nightmares come to life. They stopped running when they reached us, upon which they sat down, panting heavily.

"Bro, there *huff* were spiders *puff* and skeletons *huff* and zombies! *puff* Lots of them!" wheezed Johnathan.

"Oh my god, I thought we were going to die!" gasped Daniel.

"Oh by the way," added Johnathan, tossing us a huge pile of cobblestone, coal and iron ores. "We managed to bring with us a huge haul of stone, iron and coal."

"Wow! Great job guys! So I guess it's time to get smelting then? I'll make a furnace."

"No, bro, we already have some." Johnathan opened his inventory and took out four furnaces. He passed one to each of us. Once he did, Samuel and I separated the iron ores and cobblestones into two piles while Johnathan and Daniel went smelting the iron. It wasn't long before we had a total of six stacks of cobblestone and one stack of iron ingots. I made myself a chest to store the stone and iron. While we were doing that, Fred and Marcus came back with another huge haul of wood. Once again, I organised the wood into the two chests, completely filling them both. When they came back, the forest that once stood next to us was reduced to nothing but a few trees here and there. Deforestation can do so much to a forest…

"Now," said Marcus as he looked at all the loot we him, Fred, Daniel and Johnathan collected. "Your part of the deal?"

"Yeah, Samuel and I decided on where your houses will be. But, there's a catch. None of you, and I repeat, NONE of you, will be sleeping by yourself. You will choose a partner, and sleep and live with them."

"WHAT?" everyone blurted out at the same time. Everyone, except me, had a shocked expression on their faces. Including Samuel.

"Samuel, I already told you about this, and you agreed."

"Yeah, I know, but I kind of felt it was appropriate at the moment."

"But you- never mind. So yeah, you guys are going to have to choose a roommate for yourself. And since I'm such a nice leader, I'll let you choose your roommate."

Fred groaned.

"Geez, who do you take all of us for? Babies? Think we can't live by ourselves? Think we're going to wake up in the middle of the night crying and wetting our pants? WE ARE MORE THAN CAPABLE OF LIVING BY OURSELVES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Really? From what I remember, you were the one who woke up bawling on our sleepover in Year Six, and wouldn't stop crying until your mum came home. So, yeah."

Everyone else sniggered. Fred scowled.

"Now, as I was saying, you will choose a roommate."

Fred groaned so loudly I thought he suddenly got a stomachache.

"SHUT UP, FRED! Anyway, the reason is because unlike back in our normal world, danger lies everywhere."

Samuel raised his hand. I sighed.

"What?"

"But in our normal world, danger still lies around everywhere, like burglars, lightning storms, murderers and rapi-"

"OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH! JUST LET ME FINISH MY SENTENCES! GEEZ! Anyway, danger lies everywhere here in Minecraft. I know all of you have met some by now. Creeper's especially."

"Like tha –"

"SAMUEL! SHUT! UP! OH MY –"

"No, I meant –"

"NO, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WERE MEANING! LET ME FINSIH MY INSTRUCTIONS! LET ME FINI –"

"LOOK OUT!"

A loud hissing noise sounded behind me. I gasped. But before I had any time to say any goodbyes to the world, the hissing stopped. That could only mean one thing.

I spun around, and saw a puff of smoke behind me. When the smoke cleared away, I saw Fred, his sword sticking out. He straightened, wiping his brow with his arm.

"Dude, you've got to stop relying on other people to kill monsters for you. Mind you, I saved your skin this time, but I'm not doing this again. Got it?"

I nodded, still shaking from the second near-death experience. I managed to give Fred a weak smile. He came over and punched me on the shoulder, a crack sounding.

"Still haven't forgiven you for abusing your power and treating us like babies, but I'll get over it," Fred muttered as I rubbed my shoulder. He stood back and gave me the thumbs-up as the signal to keep going.

"Okay. So yeah, in my opinion, you guys will be more safer living with another person. Imagine if a zombie came in. Daniel, get that look off your face. I said imagine it did. Then if you were sleeping by yourself, you wouldn't stand a chance. But if you had another person with you, they could wake up and protect you!"

"And if they don't?" asked Johnathan.

"Well, I – you – urgh, never mind. Look, my point is that there's safety in numbers. If you were living with someone else other than yourself, you would have a greater chance of survival. Do you get it?"

Everyone was silent before they started to nod. I smiled at them.

"Great! Now, I've already agreed to be with Samuel, so he's out. I want you all to be ready to tell me who you want to be with before the sun goes down. Understood?"

Everyone said some form of agreement, and started asking each other if they wanted to be their roommate. While I was waiting, I picked up four stacks of wood, two stacks for me and two stacks for Samuel, and we started turning them all into wooden planks. There seemed to be a significantly larger amount of oak wood than birch wood, so we decided to make our house out of birch, and the other two houses out of oak.

Suddenly, a finger tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw Johnathan behind me.

"Bro, we're done."

"Oh, good. So, who are you with?"

"I'll be with Daniel."

I immediately knew who the next pair would be.

"So you guys are going to partner with the person I assigned you guys to for the wood and stone collecting task?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"Okay, fine by me. So, since I'm the leader, I decided my house would have to be more distinguishable."

Everyone rolled their eyes. I pretended that I didn't see them and continued.

"Since I realized that there were more oak wood than birch, I decided that my house would be made of birch. Any objections?"

It felt like everyone wanted to say something, but it seemed as if they changed their minds, because they said nothing and just motioned me to continue.

"So yeah, I have two chests over there." I motioned at the two chests next to me. "The one on the left is oak, the one on the right is birch. Help yourselves!"

While the four went over to grab some oak logs, I went over to the chest on the right and grabbed a few stacks of birch wood. I went over to a crafting table.

Then I realised that I didn't know how to craft.

I stared at the crafting grid. Three by three. Same as usual. I grabbed one log, and cautiously placed onto one of the squares.

Immediately, the log shrank to fit into the space the grid provided. I gasped. I waited a bit to see what would happen.

Unfortunately, nothing did.

That was when I noticed a little green book attached to the side of the crafting table. I took it off and read the cover.

The Beginner's Handbook to a Crafting Table

Crafting recipes included

I opened the book and read the front page.

How to use a crafting table:

Place the required objects into the crafting grid. Ensure that the positions of the items are correctly placed. The items should shrink when placed to fit the grid space.

Double tap the crafting table lightly.

The desired item should appear floating above the crafting grid. If more items were placed on the crafting grid, such as two recipes worth of an iron pickaxe, two iron pickaxes will appear. It is of the user's wish to take them all, or leave them. Any items left will immediately convert back into the items it is composed of.

Any leftover items will remain at the crafting grid. It is of the user's wish to take them, or leave them.

I flipped to the next page.

Crafting Recipes

I immediately closed the book. I didn't need to read crafting recipes. All I needed for now was how to operate the crafting table. I put the book down and double tapped the crafting table.

Immediately, the birch log disappeared into a puff of white smoke, and as it cleared out, four birch planks floated in its place. I grabbed them, and repeated the process until almost all the logs were turned into planks. I ordered Samuel to be lookout, because honestly, I didn't trust him with anything that involves construction. At least he has a loud voice.

I started making the general outline of the house, since I already had plans of how the house would look like in my head. I worked up to make the walls, then made a door and put it down. I then started working on the interior. I decided that firstly, I would make a bedroom. I once again made the general outline of the bedroom, until I realized something.

We had no wool.

For a moment, I thought about killing a sheep for its wool, but I brushed aside the thought. I knew I didn't want to commit murder on an innocent animal, when there was a less brutal method that could be used to obtain the fluffy material they grew. I quickly rushed out of my incomplete house and opened the chest with the iron. I went over to the crafting table and placed two ingots in a diagonal fashion, then double tapped the table.

Immediately, the ingots fused, disappearing into a cloud of smoke. When the smoke disappeared, I took the pair of shears floating on the crafting table, and took a look around.

Very conveniently, three sheep were standing by themselves, staring into the distance, without a worry in the world. I approached them, trying my best not to scare them. When I stood next to a sheep, it looked at me, staring into my eyes. I took out the shears, then stopped.

I didn't know how to shear.

The shears seemed to be in an open position at all times, and I had to squeeze them to make the clips close. Cautiously, I positioned the shears, and clipped a bit of wool on the sheep's side.

Immediately, three blocks of wool popped off the sheep's body. I almost screamed in shock, but stopped myself in time as to not scare the flock away. I picked up the wool blocks. They were very fluffy and soft, but smell like sheep. No surprise there.

I sheared the other two sheep, and in the end, I walked back home with eight blocks of wool. On my way back, I picked three dandelions and three roses to turn them into dye. I walked over to Samuel.

"Hey, do you mind having a yellow bed?" I asked.

His eyes widened in horror.

"Yellow? I HATE yellow! What about blue? I want a BLUE bed, not a yellow one!" he shouted.

"Well, suck it up, there aren't any blue orchids nor Lapis Lazuli anywhere near here. So unless you want to go exploring a thousand blocks away to find a swamp, or go mining to the depths to find some Lapis, you will either do as I say, or go find another flower somewhere near our house!"

He huffed in frustration.

"FINE!"

Then he stomped off into the distance, sword in hand and a grouchy look on his face.

I blinked, then sighed. At least I turned on Keep Inventory. If he did die, which he most likely would, he would respawn close to our houses. I planted the dandelions into the ground, and held the roses in my hand. I pounded them repeatedly until they were nothing but red mush. Perfect for a dye. They even smelt good.

I dyed three wool blocks with the three rose red dyes on the crafting table because I was too lazy to do it with my hands. I made myself a bed, and walked back to my house. I placed the bed down, and finished making the roof for my bedroom. By the time I was finished, it was getting very dark. I got some coal and some sticks, then made myself a bunch of torches. I placed them evenly inside the bedroom, some in the empty spaces in my unfinished house, and then some evenly around my house. The others seemed to be doing the same thing as well. Fred and Marcus's house seemed to be almost finished, with only holes in the walls for windows and doors. Daniel and Johnathan's house was about half done, with no roof and missing walls. I clapped my hands together to signal everyone to finish up, but accidently opened the command console. I dismissed it, and called out to them instead.

"Okay, guys! That's it for today! Do you all have beds?"

They all nodded, which surprised me. They seemed to be more productive than me, in terms of getting stuff done and not wasting time.

"I see you all put down torches, which is good! I think it's about time that we –"

Samuel suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of me. He was holding what seemed to be a whole bouquet of blue orchids.

"So, you actually found a swamp?" I asked.

"Yeah! It's actually not that far away! Just go into the forest, walk straight for a bit, then boom! Swamp!"

I patted him on the back.

"Well done, then! But how did you -?"

"Oh, a skeleton killed me."

"Oh, okay. So while I tell everyone what to do, go make yourself a bed. Crush three of the blue orchids into dye, craft the dyes with three wool blocks, and then make a bed. If you forgot how to make one, just read the crafting manual. Got it?"

Samuel nodded. I gave him three wool blocks and three birch planks. He took them and then trotted off to the crafting table.

"Okay, anyway, yeah! I think it's time to sleep! Go make yourselves some doors, then go to bed. No excuses. Goodnight!"

I was just about to open the door, when Fred stopped me.

"Hey, Ben, mind if I have six birch planks?"

"Why?"

"Uh well, you see, you know how oak doors have, you know, holes in them?"

"Okay?"

Fred took a deep breath.

"I want a door that doesn't have holes in them."

I suppressed the urge to laugh.

"Why? You scared?"

Fred punched me on the arm.

"Just give me the planks, dammit!"

I gave him six birch planks, and entered my house. I was just about to open the door to my bedroom, when the front door burst open. Samuel came rushing in, panting.

"There were zombies outside! I managed to make my bed, though!"

I gasped.

"Quick, get in! Close the door!"

"But they'll –"

"Just do as I say!"

He quickly rushed in, then slammed the door shut. A second later, the sound of zombies groaning and fists banging against the door echoed through the house. Samuel whimpered.

"Come on. Zombies are too stupid to open doors. They think that repeatedly banging on doors will open them. But in Minecraft, wooden doors will never open without fully turning the handle."

"Are you sure?"

I wasn't sure to be honest, but I didn't want Samuel to freak out, so I nodded instead.

"I'm a hundred percent sure. In the situation we're in, there's something I like to call Minecraft magic," I told him as we went into the bedroom and closed the door behind us. "Everything in this world has Minecraft magic in it, including us. How do you think we can open inventories, or punch down trees?"

I put down Samuel's bed, which had a nice aroma to it. I took off my shoes, which were a part of my Minecraft skin, but now that I was an actual Minecraft character, I could take off clothing. I took off my shirt, and put it on a wooden bench I put in while building my bedroom. Samuel did the same, but didn't take off his shirt.

"Don't worry about the zombies. They'll get bored after a moment or two, and will walk off to do whatever they do. Don't worry about them. Just go to sleep. Tomorrow's a busy day."

I climbed into my bed, pulled the sheets over my body and snuggled into my pillow. The pillow, the sheet and the mattress were so soft and warm that I wished that I could never leave the bed ever again. The pillow, sheet and mattress smelt softly of roses, it's soothing, sweet smell drifting me off to sleep. Samuel did the same, also seeming to enjoy the comfort of his new bed. I opened one eye and smiled.

"Goodnight, Samuel," I muttered out.

"Goodnight, Benjamin," replied Samuel.

Then we both fell asleep, the world of dreams enveloping us for the night.

Author's End note: Wow! This chapter not only took longer than expected, but it was five times longer than expected! So yeah, apologies for the late update, I'll try to update more sooner from now on. Next chapter will be about the guys finishing off construction, and they'll probably go exploring or some other cool stuff.

As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye!