What is a real world? Can it really be a concept that's simply tied to what we can touch and feel?
Honestly, that's too hard a question to answer.
Archer_Inferno has created the server.
But for now, a new world is born. A world of possibilities for a lonely woman–
Ortlinde57 has joined the server.
Strawberry_IceCream has joined the server.
Valkyrie_#2395 has joined the Server.
–uh… women.
"Wuuu! Finally connected to the server!" Hildr stated, looking around the new game she and her sisters had started playing.
"What is this world? It looks… blocky," Ortlinde said. When Tomoe had told them she found a new game to play together, the three of them jumped in earnestly.
"It looks boring," Thrúd stated as she walked around. As usual, their elder sister sounded less than thrilled about playing.
"I'd call it peaceful and quiet, don't you think that's better, Thrúd-san?" A new voice joined their midst. Tomoe Gozen made her entrance from behind a tree.
"Lady Tomoe, good to see you," Ortlinde said.
"Likewise. Sorry I couldn't communicate earlier. I was setting everything up," she said over their comms. The only thing they could see from each other where their avatars, each set up to look like them.
"What is this game anyway?" Thrúd asked, serious as ever. "Couldn't we play that other one? The one about the green man?"
"Yeah. That one was pretty good! Killing aliens and fearing nothing!" Hildr answered, chipper as always.
"I would have loved nothing more than that, but Parvati believes that game is too violent for us," Tomoe said. Instantly, a string of insults appeared inside the Valkyrie's inner link.
"Oh that's–!" Hildr began, but Thrúd stopped her.
"Hildr! Language!"
"B-but Drake taught me some very useful words!"
"You need to be respectful, in and outside of battle," Thrúd said.
"And what if it loses me the battle?!"
"Well, in that case…"
"Umm…" the three sisters turned to their forgotten member.
"Lady Tomoe, sorry for ignoring you," Ortlinde stated, blushing in front of her laptop.
"It's okay! Now, let's get to playing shall we."
With that, the three of them began to explore the plains they had spawned it.
In Ortlinde's opinion, it was nothing special save for it's aesthetic. They were in the middle of a plain, with some trees and animals sprinkled about. A mountain north, a forest south. East and west was a continuation of the biome they were in, filled with an assortment of equally blocky animals resembling their in-real-life counterparts.
"So how do we play this game?" Ortlinde asked.
"It's a game about building and surviving. So first, we must collect resources like so!" With that, Tomoe went next to a tree and her character began punching it until the middle block broke and dropped.
"Oh!" The tree sisters exclaimed, mesmerized.
"That's easy! Sei!" Hildr landed a single punch on a separate tree, but nothing happened. "Huh? Why isn't it breaking?" She asked as she punched multiple times with pause.
"You have to keep punching it, Hildr-san," Tomoe replied, voice betraying her deadpan expression.
"I see. Let me," Thrúd said, pushing Hildr's avatar out of the way. "Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora!"
Without pause and with uncharacteristically lively shouts, Thrúd's avatar landed several punches on the tree without interruption and it finally broke.
"That's… a nice way of doing it, Thrúd-san. But the shouts aren't necessary," Tomoe said. Thrúd turned to her.
"Sorry. I was just… no, never mind," Thrúd replied, voice cool as ever. Ortlinde glanced up from her computer. Thrúd was sitting on a desktop setup in their room's desk. Her face was beet red. It made her smile.
"Ok. So is this a game about punching trees? Bunyan would love it," Ortlinde asked.
"No. But first things first. We must craft," Tomoe said.
"The craft in Minecraft?" Thrúd asked.
"Exactly, now open your inventory with 'E'," she did. Instantly, a pop up lowered. It said 'Advancement get! Taking inventory!' immediately, Ortlinde felt her heart skip a beat.
"I… I won! I won!" Ortlinde shouted. She never won anything outside single player games, Hildr and Thrúd where much better than her.
"You didn't win, Ortlinde. It's just an achievement to gauge your progress," Thrúd explained, making Ortlinde deflate.
"Exactly. And we have a long way to go. Anyway, as you can see, you have a crafting grid of four. Here, you can turn wood into planks, like so," Tomoe placed her planks filling the grid, and from there a new block was produced.
"Crafting table?" Ortlinde asked.
"Yes. With right click, you can place it," Tomoe placed it on a dirt block. "And now, we can use this to get a crafting grid of nine. And thus, the fun begins!"
"With two planks, I can make sticks!" Hildr shouted as she experimented.
"And with sticks and planks, we can make tools?" Ortlinde asked as she made a wooden pickaxe.
"Indeed. Now… the sun is setting. We're going to need shelter, food, and materials," Tomoe stated. "Monsters come out at night. We need to avoid them for now."
"Understood. Then," Thrúd closed her eyes, before they opened with newfound determination. "Hildr!"
She stood at attention on instinct. "Yes!"
"Grab your pickaxe and collect stone. Ortlinde, go get wood. Lady Tomoe, please get food from nearby animals. Preferably cows and sheep, since they also drop materials," Thrúd ordered, like she usually did when on the field.
"What about you, Thrúd?" Hildr asked.
"I'll use our gathered materials to plan the shelter. Now go,"
"Yes!" They all shouted.
And so, they got to work.
One montage later…
"Finally, we collected everything," Hildr said, inventory full of cobblestone and coal from a nearby cave, as well as a body covered in arrows.
"What happened to you, sister?!" Ortlinde asked.
"Oh nothing, just met a few skeletons. But I locked them in the cave!" She said, outside the game she gave Thrúd and Ortlinde a peace sign.
"I see. That's very creative," Tomoe said, looking up into the sky. "Night will fall soon. I've got enough wool and food to pass it."
"Then let's go see what Thrúd built us," Ortlinde said, and so, the three of them walked towards Thrúd's location that she told them outside the game, which was far away into the forest. So much so that it changed from the temperate one into a colder one with snow and darker, taller trees.
Near a lake, they found a structure unlike any other. A big box of light brown wooden planks and a door, surrounded by torches.
"Is that–?" As Ortlinde began to speak, a door opened, and Thrúd's avatar exited through it.
"Ah welcome. I've constructed us a home. Come in! Quick!" She said. The three other players looked the house all over.
"It's…" Tomoe said, smile wavering.
"...Perfect!" Hildr finished, happy and jumping in the game. Ortlinde nodded.
"Indeed! Plain, efficient, with no imperfections. You've outdone yourself Thrúd," Ortlinde said. Thrúd smiled at this.
"Thank you. I gave it my all," she said, then turned to Tomoe. "Do you not like it?"
"No, no no no! I do!" Tomoe said, tone nervous and waving her hands. In their room, Tomoe sat near the nightstand on a couch. "It's just… there are some improvements we could make."
"What kind?" Thrúd asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, mostly aesthetic. But Lord Zhuge Liang knows of this a little more than I, so we could ask him later," Tomoe said.
"Or invite him!" Hildr chimed in.
"That too. Let's go to sleep and cook our food. Did you make furnaces, Thrúd?" Tomoe asked as they all went into the house and began cooking their food.
"Indeed. I've also figured out how to make beds," Thrúd said.
"Excellent. Let's get to it, then. Remember that we must all sleep for the night to pass."
And so, the four of them created their beds and passed the night.
Day two came to their little computer world. Hildr was the first to leave the house.
"So night passes faster, huh. That's neat!" She said, looking around.
"Be careful Hildr, according to Tomoe, the monsters don't die instantly," Ortlinde said from inside the house.
"Oh, but I'm–"
*Twack!*
In a second, Hildr's avatar turned red, fell sideways, and then turned into smoke.
Strawberry_IceCream was shot by _BattyLegend_
Ortlinde gasped. "Hildr died!"
"That's not human!" Thrúd shouted, outraged.
"Wait, you two!" Tomoe's warning fell on deaf ears as Thrúd and Ortlinde left the house, collecting Hildr's exp in the process.
Inmediately, they were faced with their assailants. Three avatars clad in dark, glowing armor.
"You are…!" Thrúd said, nearly growling.
"Ho? So it's the three of them! Of course, I expected this," that voice she recognized.
"L-lady Reines? I mean, Sima Yi!" Ortlinde said. Despite not seeing her expression, she could tell she was smiling.
"Indeed," she said.
"And don't forget us!" That voice was from Ganesha.
"And my immaculate shot!" The third held a bow, Hidlr's killer, Osakabehime.
"What are you doing here? What do you want?" Tomoe demanded, exiting the house as well.
"What we want? Your stuff of course! That's what I, the lord of gaming in Chaldea, has decided!" Osakabehime said.
"Indeed. We have allied ourselves and become the strongest gamers in Chaldea. None shall play without our permission," Jinako added.
"You do not hold power over us!" Thrúd responded.
"Well then, guess we'll have to frag you, again and again until you quit!" Osakabehime said, drawing her bow. Ortlinde drew her weapon, a nearly broken stone pickaxe.
"Wait now! Please!" Tomoe said, stepping in the middle of both groups. "This is a peaceful game, where we can create and build. Can't we live in peace?" At this, the three armoured avatars put down their weapons.
"This game has PvP, so peace was never an option," Jinako stated.
"Besides, you chose Survival, did you not?" Reines asked. At this, Tomoe blushed.
"Y-yes," she said, voice growing quiet.
"Then the laws of nature apply here. The strongest rule, and unless you plan to beat us to death with stone tools, you have no power. So… unless you wanna die… gives us your stuff."
"And your base!" Osakabehime said, before looking over the house Thrúd had built, and snorting.
"W-what?!" Thrúd asked.
"Oh nothing! It's just…" Unable to contain herself, Osakabehime began laughing. Hard.
"It's efficient! It's perfect!" Thrúd shouted, grabbing her computer screen outside the game.
"It's tasteless!"
"Indeed. No architecture either, just a box. You could have looked up some tutorials on ServantTube or something," Jinako muttered. At this, Thrúd's rage took over.
"Why you…! Prepare to die!" Thrúd said, drawing her stone axe.
"Hold on! There's no point in fighting!" Tomoe stated, stepping in front of the two still living Valkyries. "We can't beat them, and we'll lose our accumulated XP. Let's just leave for now, find Hildr."
Thrúd clicked her tongue, and put away her weapon.
"Very well," Ortlinde looked back at the three raiders, snickering amongst themselves.
The three players were left to wander the wilderness, with only their stone tools and XP left.
From nearby, hurried rustling was heard.
"Made it!" Hildr said, dropping down from a tree with the sound of broken bones. "Where are the attackers!"
"They were too powerful. We cannot beat them as we are," Ortlinde said, lowering her head.
"Waaaah?! That's so unfair! What happened to our base?" She asked.
"They took it, along with everything else," Ortlinde muttered.
"Nooooooo!" Hildr cried into the skies.
"Sorry, you three. I forgot to turn off PvP. It's my fault, blame me if you must," Tomoe said, lowering her head.
"It's alright, Lady Tomoe. We didn't expect visitors," Thrúd said, lowering her headset to talk to Tomoe in real life. Tomoe looked back at her, and nodded.
"Now what?" Hildr asked.
"We should leave it here. Our two hours of playtime are over," Thrúd stated.
Valkyrie_#2395 has left the Server.
"Awwww. Well, thank you anyways, lady Tomoe," Hildr said, before her avatar disappeared.
Strawberry_IceCream has left the Server.
With a sigh, Ortlinde closed the game as well, along with her computer.
The four of them decided to enjoy what free time they had left on the cafeteria, but still, the previous events hung over their heads like a rain cloud.
"I was having so much fun," Hildr lamented.
"I don't see those three anywhere," Thrúd commented, head wings rotating like radars. "Are they still playing Minecraft?"
"Must be…" Ortlinde commented.
"Minecraft, you say?" A new voice asked. The four of them turned to a new arrival. A tall man in a black suit, the vessel for Zhuge Liang.
"Lord El-Melloi," Tomoe muttered.
"May I sit?" He asked, smoking his cigarette.
"Of course. Join us," Tomoe said, moving a chair. He nodded, and took a seat.
"Do you play Minecraft? Want to play with us next time?" Hildr asked. At this, Waver closed his eyes for a moment.
"I'm more of a single-player man myself, however…" he said, puffing his cigarette and looking at the three of them. "… it seems something happened."
"Yes. We were attacked–"
"By Reines, Ganesha and Osakabehime," he finished. The four girl's eyes opened why.
"How do you know?" Thrúd asked, narrowing her eyes.
Waver sighed, adjusting his glasses. "It's perhaps my fault. I taught Reines how to play, so Gray would have some company, including all the tricks on the wiki, and soon after, she joined forces with Jinako and Batty to take over Servers, speed-running to get the most powerful weapons and armour, as you probably saw. They are unstoppable," he explained. All four girls narrowed their eyes.
It made sense. They joined their open Server, and quickly became too powerful. But that still didn't explain something.
"Why are they doing it?" Tomoe asked.
Waver shrugged his shoulders. "That's how Reines is, I guess. But the important thing is, no one can play Minecraft together unless they are stopped. And it seems you four are determined enough," he said, looking at the group.
"I'd love nothing more than to take them down in glorious online battle. But why don't you do it? You are the most knowledgable when it comes to gamers," Thrúd said, leaning on the table with her elbows.
Once again, Waver sighed, closing his eyes. "Reines is using my computer. I can't get her out. So I'm afraid I'm powerless to stop her."
Thrúd grunted, but said nothing else.
"They are too strong. How are we supposed to stop them? We have no idea where to get those items," Tomoe said.
"Don't worry. I'll assist you, should you want my help that is," Waver said. "I'll give you access to my private Server."
The Valkyries, and Archer, nodded in unison. "Alright. But how do we get stronger in Minecraft?"
Waver adjusted his glasses, a dark aura surrounding him.
"You must go deeper."
A/N: Why did I write this? Cause I'm bored and love the Valks. That's it. May do other games, may do more minecraft, may do nothing else. This is for fun.
Thank you for reading!