Chapter 6: Players are very, very weird

Alex

The internet is beautiful. Every color under the sun swirled around us, mixing and dividing and swirling into gorgeous patterns. A wisp of chartreuse twirled around my arm and ran through my fingers, and I couldn't help but laugh. The noise was absolutely deafening. It was like the roaring of the ocean combined with thousands of people yelling over each other. The chartreuse changed bright red and swirled into a wave of black. It became the head of a massive black dragon with glowing red eyes, and I realized the colors were forming images of people and places. The dragon roared something in another language and ate a knight that charged at it with a large axe. A second one wailed in grief and also charged the dragon. A wave of gray rolled over the scene, and it was replaced with a large city under attack. Large flying machines zipped in between the buildings, blasting each other with fire. If one got hit, it blew up and caused massive damage to the surrounding structures. A tall red thing with strange legs ran through the crowd, alongside a similar creature with blue skin. The blue one was limping from a large burn across her calf.

"N-Nightmare, I don't think I'm gonna make it," the blue one said. She faltered, and grimaced from the pain. "Go on without me. I'll be ok."

"No! I'm not leaving you, Idea! I'll carry you if I have to!" The red one, presumably Nightmare, yelled.

"But where can we go?! Now that they have Neo City, nowhere is safe!"

"I know a guy. He lives in this game called Minecraft, he can help! His name is Herobrine."

"If you say so." Idea winced and glanced down at her burn. "I hope he can help." The scene and the two creatures were washed away by a wave of pale blue. The colors began to fade, and the noise died down. They dissipated, leaving the two of us in a quiet field. The sun shone overhead, and a few mobs wandered around. A chicken stared at us. In the distance, we could see a village and a roofed forest. Steve threw up as soon as the colors were gone.

"That was… not pleasant," he groaned.

"What are you talking about!? That was awesome! I want to do it again!"

"No, it wasn't. It was loud, bright, and made my stomach roll."

"You're such a wimp," I said playfully, nudging him.

He nudged me back and examined our surroundings. "So, which way?"

"We should head for the village. We'll find supplies." Steve nodded in agreement, and we started walking in that direction.

It was very obvious that players had been here. The whole place was surrounded by an oak fence and many of the houses appeared to have been blown up or burned. All of the chests had been looted of everything but saplings and a worn pair of leather boots, and there were no iron golems.

"What the Nether happened here?" Steve asked, after finding nothing but a dandelion in a cartographer's house. The owner of the house was missing.

"A player probably was here first. I mean, after all this isn't our world. There's more than just us two here."

That statement was more accurate than I realized.

"Hey!" An unfamiliar voice yelled. "Who are you two!?" We turned around to find a player watching us. He had brown hair, sky blue eyes, and fair skin. He wore a black hoodie and jeans, and pointed an iron sword at us. Steve and I exchanged glances. This was the first real player we had ever met. Words floated above his head that said, "BlackPanther76".

"Um… hi! I'm Steve, and this is Alex."

The player examined us and raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Starter skins. Lame." He muttered to himself. "So, 'Steve and Alex', who are you with, the Dragonslayers or the COTC?"

We drew a blank. "The what?" I asked.

The player sighed. "Look, I'll make it simple. Who whitelisted you; Rashain or Catlover? I know I didn't, I haven't let anyone in here in months."

"Whitelisted? What's that?" Steve asked. I have him a look. We had to at least pretend we knew what this lunatic player was going on about.

The player rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Rashain!" He yelled. "Ive got a couple of noobs here in starter skins named Steve and Alex, did you let them in or do I need to kill them!?"

"Kill!?" I exclaimed, but the player didn't notice or care.

Another player walked out of one of the village houses. He had sandy blonde hair, blue eyes that matched the first player's, a green t-shirt and white pants. He examined us closely, trying to figure out if he knew us. He didn't. There was no way he did, because we've never met him before. "I honestly don't know. I was playin' with Cow and a bunch of his friends a while back, and I listed everyone there. These two coulda been listed too, I don't know."

The first player did not find this amusing. "Rashain, you're such an idiot. You don't just let any random noob in here just because they were on your team in Skywars! We don't know who these two are! For all we known they could be fifty year old guys looking for kids dumb enough to get in the back of their van! And you fall into that category of dumb kids, Rashain."

Rashain rolled his eyes. "I'm not that dumb. Dumb enough to fall for the old 'bed in the Nether' trick, but not that dumb."

The other player smirked. "If it makes you feel any better, I found a long vein of quartz thanks to your stupidity." Rashain glared at the player. These people were WEIRD. Steve and I exchanged glances.

"Well, whatever. Hello, Steve and Alex. I'm Rashain, and this is my brother Panther."

"Hi," I said. Steve waved.

"So, what brings you to our little server?" Panther asked.

"Uhh…" I hesitated. They probably wouldn't believe, "we're here to kill a white-eyed Glitch who tried to kill us." Why do players, well, play with each other?

"Mining," Steve blurted. I gave him a look. Mining is always his fallback, and the players surely want fall for it.

"Sweet, you guys are miners? We could use some more iron. Rashain wont go into caves anymore because once I installed a mod where creepers just stand behind you until you turn around, THEN blow up. I uninstalled it, but he doesn't believe me," Panther said with a laugh.

"I. HAVE. PROOF!" Rashain yelled, but Panther just laughed. This clearly was an argument that had been going on for a while.

Panther ignored his brother's outburst. "So, wanna see our base? You cant tell anyone where it is, or Catlover's gonna blow it up."

"Ok," Steve said.

Panther and Rashain headed towards the edge of the village, where a large obsidian ender dragon had been constructed. The players completely ignored it, however, and went into a decimated villager house. Panther messed with items in a chest.

"What's with the dragon?" I asked.

"Well, me, Rashain, and a couple of our friends slayed the Ender Dragon, and together we became the Dragonslayers. The statue is a testament to our awesome power. Catlover thinks that it's also the entrance to our secret base (which she's been looking for forever), but honestly it serves no purpose but looking cool."

"Huh. Who's Catlover?"

"Our sister, AKA the leader of the Clan of the Creeper. Naturally, the Dragonslayers and the COTC despise each other. A good old-fashioned sibling rivalry," Rashain said. Panther closed the chest, and one of the planks was retracted by pistons to reveal a long, dark vertical shaft."

"I thought digging straight down was bad," I commented.

Panther burst out laughing. "That's what I told Rashain. And yet, here we are. He's lucky he didn't hit lava." Rashain rolled his eyes at his brother and jumped into the hole.

Rashain hit the ground too hard

From somewhere on earth, Rashain yelled, "IAAAAN!"

Panther was dying of laughter. "Oops." He opened the chest and adjusted something. "I forgot to turn on the water," he snickered.

"Fuck you, Ian!" Rashain yelled.

"Travis, watch your mouth!" A woman yelled. Her voice was faint, so she was probably very far from Panther. He was laughing so hard he was starting to cry.

"Yeah, Travis. Watch your mouth," he said, impersonating the woman.

"Panther, get down here so I can beat you to a pulp," Rashain growled.

Without hesitation, Panther jumped into the hole. When we didn't follow, he called, "it's ok, guys! There's water down here!"

Steve glanced at me. "What do you think?"

I shrugged. "Panther didn't die. It should be safe." Praying I was right, I jumped into the hole.

Herobrine

I think Nightmare only knew one crafting recipe: cookies. We had found a small dead-end cave in the jungle where we were staying and planning. We had been eating nothing but cookies for days now. I don't know where Nightmare was getting all the wheat, or what Dreadlord was eating. Maybe he didn't even need to eat; I don't know.

I examined my reflection in the blade of my sword. White eyes stared back at me, glowing slightly in the dim cave. Sometimes, I try to remember why they look like this, or really anything about my past. But no matter how long or hard I stare at my own eyes, nothing comes to mind. I can never remember anything before I woke up in the middle of a forest in Minecraft, lost, scared, and alone.

"You know, I don't get you, Herobrine," Dreadlord said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "First, we kill the first player we see, now we're hiding in a cave like rats."

"There's a strategy here. We aren't hiding, we're waiting. The player we killed is going to tell all his player friends. There's a good chance that most wont believe him, but news of my presence tends to spread quickly. It'll reach Steve and Alex, and they'll be directed to the jungle since that's where we were spotted. The trick is having them come to us, not the other way around. We kill them, maybe a few players for good measure, and the game is ours." I sheathed my sword.

Nightmare nodded. "Cookie?" He offered.

I was starting to get sick of chocolate. I took the cookie, but didn't eat it. Maybe I could find out what Dreadlord was eating and eat that too.

Steve

I landed in a small puddle, but the water instantly removed any fall damage I could have taken. Alex splashed down next to me, grateful not to have ended up like Rashain. The pistons pushed the oak plank at the surface back into place, so the only light came from strategically placed torches down the hall. A tunnel lead to a large open cavern, with walls made out of white concrete and the floor was a mosaic of different woods. Rashain and Panther were wearing enchanted diamond armor and fighting. Each time one of them hit the other, they flashed red as they took damage. Panther fell to the side and disappeared in a poof of white smoke, leaving his inventory behind. Rashain scooped it up while he celebrated. "LETS GOOOOOOO!" He shouted. "All hail the all mighty god of PvP! Grovel at my feet, my foolish brother!"

Panther came out of a side hallway, and when he saw Rashain boasting, he rolled his eyes. He noticed us standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Come on in! Make yourselves at home. We've got everything, food, armor, a Nether portal, weapons, you name it."

"Uh… thanks," I replied.

"As punishment for upsetting the god of PvP, you must bow at my feet, Ian! Grovel at my feet!"

Panther sighed and quickly bowed at Rashain. He muttered something under his breath, and given the circumstances it probably wasn't anything nice.

"Come on, lets find a place to stay and talk," Alex said. I nodded, and we walked down the hallway Panther came from. Rashain continued gloating as we left.

We found a nice four by four room for the two of us to stay in. Alex rummaged through the included chest, and I flopped on the bed. "What a day," I sighed.

"No kidding. Players are really weird. I mean, they kept going on about a 'whitelist' and 'PvP'. What the Nether is that?"

"I don't know. It's probably nothing important, though."

Alex nodded. Her eyes lit up, and she pulled a cake out of the chest. "Look what I found!"

"Nice!"

Suddenly, a loud, obnoxious noise filled the room. I clamped my hands over my ears. "What is that!?"

Alex pulled out the wristband. It was vibrating and glowing slightly, and clearly the source of the noise. She pressed a button, and it stopped.

"Hello? Alex? Steve? You there?" It was Notch.

"Notch? How are you—"

"I forgot to mention that the wristband can also be used to communicate," Notch cut Alex off.

"Oh."

"So, what's happening? Have you found Herobrine yet? Is he dead?"

"No," I said. "We've only been here for twenty minutes, Notch. Give us a break."

"We met these two players named Rashain and Panther, and we're staying with them," Alex added. "You never told us how weird players are. What is PvP? And a whitelist?"

"Right. Sorry, I should have explained some Player things to you. PvP stands for player versus player. Combat. A whitelist is a list of people who are allowed on a specific server." Notch paused. "Wait a second, where did you hear that word?"

"When we first met the players, they were asking us who let us into the server. They eventually thought that Rashain accidentally whitelisted us."

Notch took a deep breath. "Good. That wristband will let you into any server or world, regardless of that list. Do not let the players know you are anything but a fellow player. Do they know?"

"No," I answered.

"Good. Keep it that way. I'll talk to you guys later. By the way, Jeb says hi."

"Hi, Jeb!" Alex called. The wristband beeped as the call ended.