Part I

Begin Simulation

"I've never done a simulation where you don't end up with a king. Kings would happen every single time. Maybe not forever, but at some point in history, you're gonna have kings."

Chapter 1

Ready Player 7,851,202,829

The initial spawning was chaotic. The world was crowded. The colors were almost blindingly vibrant, especially the sky, and especially especially the sun. So much screaming. So much yelling, in so many languages. No one had the faintest clue what was going on.

Jacob was slightly less confused than everyone else. He didn't know the reason for the present predicament anymore than they did, but he knew where he was. A familiar voxel landscape surrounded him, rendering out for a seemingly endless distance. He looked down at the GUI floating in front of him: an empty hotbar, a full hunger bar, and ten red hearts with…

Fear surged through him, but not the kind many around him were very vocally experiencing. It was not a fear of the unknown, but a fear of the known—a fear of an insurmountable challenge he'd only dabbled in on occasion, under which he would inevitably buckle. But there it was, calmly sitting on the left side of his XP bar, as if mocking him.

Ten red hearts with dark red marks.

Jacob emerged from the mine with twenty-four diamonds: just enough for a full set of diamond armor for one person. There were two others to share with though, so for now they'd all have to be content with diamond chestplates.

The sun was risen by about a minute, just enough time for all of the undead mobs to clear out. Oliver and Lewis were outside expanding the wheat farm.

Oliver looked out over the vast plains biome which surrounded the mountain where the three had set up an unassuming base. "The world keeps getting a little emptier every day." he observed. As far as they could see, there were more animals than players—that is, less than a half a dozen of each. The vast majority of the animals had been killed on the first day, and the vast majority of people had died on the first night.

"More room for us, I suppose." Lewis replied, "There were people everywhere at the start. Not a chance we'd've been able to build anything resembling an expansive base with just a small group like us." In the beginning, one could rely on there being at least one other person within fifty blocks, and usually many more, no matter where they were. Now, mere hours later, one could easily walk in a straight line for a long time without hearing a single word from another person, let alone a word they understood.

Jacob opened the iron door which protected the trio from zombies during the harsh nights. "I'm back." he announced.

"Oh good!" said Lewis, "Everyone's been dropping like flies. Good thing you're still alive."

"Yeah, I had plenty of close calls myself. Definitely worth the risk, though: I've got enough diamonds for each of us to have a chestplate, and we won't need to mine for iron again for a good while."

"Brilliant," replied Oliver, "We've been stuck with stone tools since just after you left."

"Help yourself." Jacob tossed them each a generous amount of iron and then went to craft the chestplates. "How many days has it been?"

"Coming up on day ten now." Lewis replied.

"Two people are coming up the mountain!" Oliver shouted. Jacob readied his sword.

Lewis looked down the western slope. "They have a single piece of iron armor between them. We'll be fine."

"We must expect anything."

Jacob came out from the large hidey hole and joined the two. "Maybe they're looking to join a group, or get resources." He gestured to the lack of armor Lewis had mentioned: the person in front was in full leather armor, save the cap; the person behind had a leather tunic dyed light blue and iron leggings.

Just as they entered the edge of earshot, Jacob heard what sounded like an abrupt end to a conversation. The one in front waved in greeting. The one in the back held up their shield. Jacob realized that three people in enchanted iron armor with enchanted swords on the high ground probably looked quite intimidating. He put his sword away and saw Lewis do the same.

Finally the visitor in leather broke the tense silence. "你好,你有多余的食物吗?我们的食物快用完了。" Would've been nice to meet another English speaker. Jacob thought. She pointed to, or rather gestured her blocky arm in the direction of, the moderately sized wheat farm that Oliver and Lewis had been working on.

Lewis switched to the bread in his hotbar and extended it forward. "Do you want bread?" The Mandarin speaker nodded, pointing to the bread. Lewis tossed her a stack. She uttered what sounded like a thank-you and the pair headed off. Oliver put down his shield and ate some bread of his own, still watching the Mandarin speakers intently. The one who hadn't spoken took one last look over their shoulder as they reached the bottom. Finally he spoke. "That went alright. How much bread did you give them, Lewis?"

"Nothing we won't get back double after the next harvest." As the sun set once again, the three retreated into their semi-underground shelter.

"We should put some torches around so we can stay out at night." Jacob suggested, "I have way more coal than we'll need for a while. We could easily light up everything within 100 blocks."

"I'll crack on with that when the sun's back up." Lewis promised before going to expand his room.

Jacob turned around, facing the entrance. Oliver was pressed against the iron door. "You know zombies can hit you through the door, right?" Jacob warned.

"Of course I know that. It's a risk I'm willing to take. If a creeper or terrorist comes by and sneaks above the door, I'd much rather know about it than have us all be blown to bits."

"That seems very unlikely."

"You can't be too careful in hardcore." Oliver was right, of course. Still, there had to be some better way of monitoring the surroundings.

"Couldn't we just have windows?"

Oliver ruled it out immediately. "No, that would make us too easy to spot."

"Oi, give the lad more than no seconds of thought." Lewis called from deeper in the mountain.

"I've already thought about it."

"Well, a window would help inner visibility. And while it would draw a bit more attention, the iron door isn't exactly stealthy as it is. Being moderately more visible from the outside isn't necessarily a bad thing anyway. I understand the gravity of the situation, but I think you're being a wee bit overly paranoid."

"Only the paranoid will survive." Oliver said in a voice closer to monotone than usual. Then he added, "And if it comes down to last man standing, it won't be either of you."

Jacob was taken aback. "Dude, where did that come from? Is that a threat?" The only body language to go off of were Oliver's arms and head, and they were stiff as stone.

"Here, Jacob," Lewis made a somewhat forceful effort to change the subject, "Help me organize these chests, if you please. It takes ages to find anything. Do you still have the coal blocks on you by chance?"

"Yeah, sixty. How many do you need for the torches?"

"How many torches can three people place in ten minutes?"

One coal block gives nine coal, which makes thirty-six torches… "A lot. Here, just take half." Jacob yote thirty coal blocks to Lewis. Fifteen stacks and change is probably more than enough.