Let's hop to it!
Raiden tapped his fingers against his leg impatiently. He was currently stuck on the (boring) stone podium in a (boring) circle with the other testers. (Or were they tributes now? He didn't know.)
It was a basic Survival Games set-up, with a thick forest to his left. He could see the top of a stone structure over a hill to his right. The Cornucopia was in the middle of a valley, surrounded by the (still boring) stone platforms.
He sighed. Wonderful, a murder game. Just the right way to end the day.
"Hello, remaining Testers!"
Dr. Zuk's voice blared through the room. Raiden was no longer surprised at the fact that there didn't even seem to be a ceiling, let alone a place to put a speaker.
Then again, this was Minecraft, which tended to screw logic on a daily basis.
"Everything has already been explained, so let's jump right to it!
"3...
"2...
"1...
"GAME START."
Raiden chose to head straight for the group of chests in the middle, seeing as there wouldn't be a bloodbath because nobody could die. Unfortunately, it seemed like almost everyone else had had that idea, leaving almost nothing left by the time he reached the chests.
He flipped through the one closest to him, finding pork chops- Someone left food behind?- and a fishing rod. Not great, but it would do until he found a better weapon.
He quickly scanned his surroundings, wondering where to go from here.
Most people probably went towards that stone thing... So, to the forest?
"4 minutes remaining!"
Raiden had an idea.
He causally smashed the dirt he was standing on, going after the lines next to it as well. Soon he had thirty-four pieces, which would hopefully be enough to do what he was planning.
He flipped through the chests, placing down dirt and picking up random items that were pretty much useless -wooden hoe, anyone?- until he ran out of dirt.
He frowned. Not exactly right, but close enough.
Raiden spun around and dashed into the trees, hoping to whatever deity happened to be in Minecraft that some chest was still un-looted.
xXx
"No way, he actually did that?"
"You're kidding."
"No, he did! It's right here!"
Benji, Omega, and Ryder were crowded around a computer screen displaying the most recent antics of Raiden, or Tester Number Ten. Zero watched them, trying to figure out what was going on that they were so excited about.
Reya and Luna were checking some of the other monitors, and Darr was watching Number Twelve with interest. PAX-12 was who-knows-where, probably hiding in a corner waiting for an unsuspecting victim to come along.
Ryder hit a rewind button, fast-backwarding the video to a certain point. "Here! Now watch!"
Zero crept forward to get a better look, the girls ignored them, and Darr pretended the rest of them didn't exist.
The three at the computer burst out laughing. Zero lost his patience. "What is so funny over there?"
"Come over here and look," Benji chuckled. "This kid did something... interesting with the dirt."
Ryder rewound the video again. It showed first-person footage of Raiden, who was at that moment in the footage gathering dirt. He seemed mostly done with it though, as he soon turned to the chests.
"Is he... spelling something?" Zero asked, confused.
"Yup!" Ryder grinned. "Watch!"
In about ten more seconds, Raiden had finished and Zero had fallen out of his chair laughing.
"He... He didn't seriously..."
"He did! Dr. Zuk is gonna be so mad!"
In the chests, Raiden had written-
DR ZuK Suk.
xXx
Marcus smashed his fist against the glass for the umpteenth time. "Why. Won't. This. Stupid. Thing. Break?!"
"The plug-in that keeps players from breaking blocks when playing the game must still be in effect here," Nel frowned, looking at him from his cross-legged position on the floor.
"At least you have something to read," Sky complained. "It's boring in here."
"Didn't you bring anything?"
"I didn't," she snapped, "I only have some blocks left over from-oh. Oh."
"We can't place them, though, so they're kind of useless," Marcus sighed, slumping against the glass wall.
"What blocks are they?" Nel asked.
"Well, I have a command block I was playing around with and forgot to get rid of. It has a heck of a lot of restrictions on it, though. You can't kill or teleport or anything that could possibly be useful."
"Do you have anything to power it with?"
"...No..."
There was a long pause, filled only with the sound of pages being turned. Eventually those noises ceased too, as the second-placer began to get an idea.
"Got it!"
Sky shrieked and Marcus hit his head on the tube wall. "What the heck was that for?!"
"Sorry,"-he didn't sound sorry at all- "But I think I might have figured out a way out of here."
"What?!"
"What is it?!"
"Well," Nel smirked, "How much do you know about coding?"
xXx
Sophie ran up the stairs, her feet making a rhythmic thunking sound. The stone tower proved to have many floors, probably at least fifteen, and her goal was to get to the top first, where all the chests wouldn't have been looted yet.
She could hear someone running behind her, most likely with the same goal in mind.
"Three minutes left!"
A muted swear came from the other player. Sophie was tempted to curse herself, seeing as the only thing she had was a stone shovel and it was rather difficult to get resources to make a weapon inside a tower made only of stone.
That would've been nice to think of earlier.
On about the thirteenth floor, her pursuer, who she had noticed had green hair in a quick backward glance, abandoned the staircase in search of goods on the current landing. She smiled to herself. Now, I can get to the stuff withou-
She was interrupted by a static-sounding crackle, and the loudspeakers coming on. The voice that came out of them, though, was a bit different than the usual doctor.
"Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..."
It sounded distant, like the person was speaking into a microphone a couple feet away from them.
Isn't that one of the boys who won? Why... How are they on the speakers?!
A muffled girl's voice was next, sounding like it was in the background.
"Woah, you did it!"
A muffled guy's voice this time.
"I cannot believe it actually worked."
"Oi, Dr. Zuk, can you hear this? It's Nel-"
"Sky-"
"Marcus."
"And we're still stuck in the test tubes, yes? So kindly come get us out, or I will continue using this to override your systems and say whatever the heck I want. Thank you."
Sophie stared at the ceiling, incredibly confused. Wha...what the heck just happened?!
Well, so the winners were still stuck in the test tubes, or something. That must suck for them.
"I apologize for that." It was Dr. Zuk's voice this time. "I do not know how they managed to get into the speaker system, but-"
"We can continue doing it if you don't get us out. So please do, before Marcus starts swearing over the speakers." Nel interrupted again.
"Well, then kindly get off the speakers, or I won't send someone to get you out."
There was a silent pause, then a click sounded, meaning one (or maybe both) arguers had gotten off the system.
Sophie stood still, dumbstruck. That... was officially one of the weirdest conversations I have ever heard. And I play video games regularly.
She stayed frozen for a few minutes longer until she heard footsteps behind her. Crap!
She took off. Maybe she would make it to the top and the other guy would go for a different floor.
"Two minutes!"
xXx
The AIs were... confused, to put it lightly. Someone had just managed to hack the un-hackable speaker system, which PAX-12 had been trying to crack for almost a year now.
Said glitch, who had appeared in the room sometime during the announcement-argument, was on his own computer, tapping away at the game's command log. Ryder and Zero were watching over his shoulders, occasionally making corrections to the code PAX-12 was entering.
Reya had taken over watching the monitors, as both Luna and Darr had been called out to go deal with the players currently trapped in the test tubes.
Benji had left when he had realized PAX-12 was in the room. He had muttered something about restocking potions, but it was more than likely he didn't trust himself to resist the impulse to strangle the glitch AI on sight.
Omega was spinning around on the office chair, feeling immensely like a security guard bored out of his mind.
"Aha!" PAX-12 slammed his hands down on the keyboard, startling the two behind him. Ryder fell backwards and into the wall, and Zero almost fell but kept his balance. "What?" Zero demanded. "What did you do?"
"Me? Nothing," PAX-12 grinned like a madman, "Whoever did this, though, is a genius!"
"What? What did they do?" Ryder sat up, rubbing his head.
"Woah..." Zero examined the report the computer was giving. "That is... ridiculously simple, actually."
"I know! And no one would ever think of that loophole because if Zuk had finished it right, it would be closed! Genius!"
"Well, what did you expect? Dr. Zuk can't even get one of his programs to calculate correctly." Omega pushed his chair over to the other glitches on the laptop. "What did he do?"
"So, you know how Dr. Zuk put all those restrictions on the command blocks to keep the humans from escaping?" Ryder explained, gesturing excitedly. "Well, turns out he forgot a command, /broadcast_all. He probably didn't expect anyone to guess it, 'cause it's a custom command he made to control the speaker system.
"And PAX has been trying to break through the firewalls surrounding the speakers for ages, but who thought that the easiest way was the most obvious?"
"Isn't that a logic rule or something? Occam's Razor?" Omega frowned, trying to recall where he had heard that term before.
"Probably, but point is, the kid who figured it out is pretty dang smart! Guessing an entirely new command and formatting it correctly, not to mention powering the command block, isn't easy."
PAX-12 suddenly sighed to himself and dragged a hand down his face. Zero noticed. "What's wrong?"
He groaned. "Now that this kid's found the loophole, Zuk will fix it and I'll never have gotten to use it! Just when I thought I was done with the mindless hacking, too..."
"Well, he probably hasn't fixed it yet. If you can find one of those command blocks..."
"Yes!" PAX-12 shot out of his seat with renewed energy. "Going to embarrass Zuk, be right back!"
Everyone stared at the door that was swinging shut, looked at each other, and shrugged.
xXx
"I cannot believe that actually worked."
"That was amazing!"
"Thanks..."
Marcus was currently very confused, Sky was excited, and Nel was just pleased it worked.
~A couple minutes ago~
"How much do you know about coding?"
Nel was met with blank stares.
"Er... absolutely nothing..." Sky confessed. Marcus nodded.
The book was moved off his lap as Nel stood up, sighing. "All right, then. You know command blocks are powered with redstone, yes?"
"Of course!"
"No duh."
"Can you throw the command block over to my tube, Sky?"
"Sure, gimme a moment to get it out..."
There was the sound of quiet rustling for a few moments, then a thunk as the command block barely missed the rim of the test tube and hit the floor.
"Thanks." Nel held it in his hand, well aware the plugin wouldn't allow him to place the block. He tapped the command input line, causing a mini keyboard to appear in front of him. The boy paused, adjusting his headphones.
"What is it?" Sky asked, watching him through the glass.
"Dr. Zuk probably used a custom command for the broadcast system. We just need to figure out what it is."
There was silence as the other two processed this information.
"You... You want to hack the speakers?!" Marcus managed. Nel raised an eyebrow in an 'I thought that was obvious' fashion.
"Well," Sky said hesitantly, "Maybe something with /broadcast? It's obvious, but also easy to remember."
"That's a good idea, but how would it be heard by every- oh, that's clever."
"What is?"
"I'm guessing he had to change the command block so the restrictions could be placed on it, so he probably made a new code type as well. That's why it wasn't working when I was messing with it earlier."
"You were-" Marcus started.
"Yes, I've been trying to break into the speakers since I found we could use command blocks. Any other questions?"
Silence.
"Good. Now, we just have to figure out what the second part is. I'm guessing it's fairly obvious as well, if the pattern's checking out."
Another short pause as everyone tried to think of something.
"...all? Or something?" Marcus offered.
Nel nodded, typing some word combinations into the command block. There were constant beeps telling him it was incorrect until he finally found the right one.
"Got it!"
"Really? What is it?" Sky asked, standing up from her sitting position on the floor.
"/broadcast_all. Obvious enough that people wouldn't guess it because it was too simple."
"So... We got a command. Now what?" Marcus frowned. "We still don't have a power source."
"I've been thinking about that," Nel answered. "You know how the signs change to show the winners' names on the bottom of the test tubes? Well, redstone must be powering it, and it sends out a type of electric pulse that should hit the command block if we get it close enough. If we were actually playing Minecraft on the computer, this would never work, but in normal Minecraft, I can't input commands without actually putting the block down."
"Okay, how are you going to get it down to the sign?"
"I'm going to throw it over the edge of the glass." Nel said that like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Which it really should have been, considering the situation, but still.
"Um... How do you know that will work?" Sky asked.
"I don't. It just has to be at the right angle and..." He threw it mid-sentence before anyone could tell him not to.
It landed on the very edge of the rim of the tube.
Marcus swore.
Sky shuffled in her bag some more.
Nel considered throwing his headphones at the block to make it fall.
A piece of stone made a high arc in the air, clunking down right next to the command block. The next clipped the edge of the block, pushing it closer to the drop.
A final piece came and pushed it off onto the iron floor below. Thankfully, it looked to Nel like it was still in range of the redstone. They had a minute before it turned the command on, so he looked for the source of the stone.
Sky was grinning madly, holding her last piece of building material in her hand. "You're welcome!"
A buzz and a screech confirmed that the microphone was now on. Nel hoped that it was a very, very strong microphone.
"Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..."
~Present~
There were the heavy clomps of footsteps as the door hissed open, and the thunk of the ladder as it was set against Sky's tube.
The trapped three shared a grin before the girl climbed out.
There had just been a battle, and, however small the victory was, they had won.
And...cut!
So, first off, I've gotta apologize for the super-late update. Life (read: homework) decided to slam down hard last week and I've just been really busy lately, but I made this chapter longer than usual to somewhat make up for it!
For the sake of getting this update out on Monday, which is my personal deadline, I'm not doing review replies this chapter. I love responding, but it takes up a bunch of time that I currently do not have. :(
Spring Forward isn't helping any either. -_-
Anyways, I wanna thank you guys for being patient and understanding and not doing 'Y U NO UPDATE' reviews.
I've heard that they're really annoying, and just... thanks!
A note: Third Cosmic Velocity (thank you, by the way) alerted me that I did, in fact, have an error in my math from last chapter. Nel should have had 4 atoms, which would've changed the standings completely. So, we're just saying the computer that calculated the results messed up, 'kay? :P
So, my answer to last time's QoTC:...Why did I ask this, this is hard. Uhh... I really like SAO and Noragami. I'm also a huge Digimon anime nut, especially season 5. (But not the dub. Anything but the season 5 dub...)(On a semi-related note, I love the Pokèmon games, but dislike the recent seasons of the anime. Ash... No, just no. Fun facts about me!)
New QoTC: Have you ever gotten out of a vehicle while it was still moving? (Shh, I don't know where I come up with these.)
See you guys later,
-Night :3
