The last thing I can honestly remember was a pair of bright white lights coming at me at great speed and the sound of screeching tires and the yelling of bystanders. After that, it was just a mass of black nothingness and the feeling of near-total weightlessness. A feeling so uncomfortable in its sensations that I feared I would never escape its claustrophobic clutches. This, of course, would end with the sound of loud beeping and the sight of a small semi-transparent blue-colored box floating more or less at eye level. Pulling myself off the black nothingness that existed all around me at the moment I eyed the thing with a quizzical eye unsure if I had lost my mind. However, after a good ten or so seconds I had made up my mind that I wasn't insane. Unbelievably confused, yes but insane, no though I doubted highly I was too far off from that. My confusion, however, was only heightened all the more as soon as I pushed the only button I could see on the damnable thing and the box seemed to transform itself from an empty blue box to a black and white text chat room.
"Hello, my name is Aldolay (Al-Do-Lay for anybody who wants to know how to say it). I'm the 127th Galactic president. I'm from your world's year 2774. Now you may be asking what the hell is going on and that part I'm happy to say is quite simple to answer. You're in a video game. More to the point you're in my take on your world's ancient game of Minecraft. A Minecraft that is far less blocky. You'll be free as soon as you kill the Ender Dragon. Until then this will be your new home. I wish you the very best of luck". The man said before the box turned itself into a row of boxes with what appeared to be a 3D representation of myself.
"Ok, so I'm in a realistic take of Minecraft. Ok...so I should find myself a tree and get myself some wood". I said to myself still finding the notion I was in a game hard to fully grasp. Still, my hunt for wood would last for many long hours as it seemed the island I was now on held no trees or even small bushes. By the time I found a tree it was already entering into the evening hours and the light of the Sun was lessening with every passing second. The idea of sleeping under the stars may have been nice back home but here the mere thought only drove me to move ever faster towards the lone tree off in the distance. No sooner had I got to it I began to punch the tree with every bit of strength I had. My reward for attacking a tree with my hands was, of course, a few cuts and the strong possibility that I had a few broken bones. With no luck in acquiring any building materials, I began my hunt for a cave to spend the night. A cave existed a mere 317 feet away and after piling a few loose branches and stones at the cave entrance I settled down for the night. The loud calls of what I would soon come to know as direwolves sounded just outside. A type of wolf that was easily the size of a small horse and who would've viewed me as an easy meal. As it was right now I would have been.
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As soon as the first rays of light entered into my makeshift home I began the task of clearing the entrance to the cave. Once done I decided I wanted to test out a theory I had. After all, in this kind of thing, the person could normally call upon the interactive interface in some way. Calling out a few commands I found that calling out :Help: or :Inventory: seemed to pull up the semi-transparent blue box. Swapping right a few times I saw what appeared to be a list of tools. None were much more than basic sticks and stones but we have to start with the basics. After reading the prerequisites I came to the unfortunate conclusion that punching a tree with your bare hands was an idiotic endeavor on the very best of days. If I wanted to get anything I needed tools. In this case a rock. Looking around the nearby area I was able to pile about ten or so rocks and began the slow and arduous task of working them all to a fine edge.
By the time I was done the Sun was midway across the sky. Pulling myself up to my feet I walked over to the damnable tree and struck it with my hand ax. At first, nothing seemed to happen and so I struck it again and again and again. With each consecutive hit small nearly imperceptible cracks began to form along the trunk of the tree until at long last the sound of wood giving way could be heard.
"There She Goes"! I yelled in utter joy as the tree fell with a loud thud. With that now done I began the task of cutting the limbs off and setting them aside for later use. What that use would be I had no idea but I was sure I would find a use for them soon enough. By the time the tree was delimbed, my stomach began to growl in clear need of some food. This I knew was going to be a right pain as I had zero hunting experience and had no way of doing so easily. Just as that thought entered into my head a light ping was heard and soon thereafter a small brown-colored wrought iron chest dropped down upon the soft earth. Opening it I saw a collection of two bows, 30 arrows, six kinds of meats, and a basic rundown on how to hunt in the wild. All in all, I now had food to eat should this fail but also a very minuscule understanding on how to hunt. Picking up a stick I worked it to a point and placed a small bit of meat upon it and set it aside as I readied a fire. A minute later the sound of wood popping in the small campfire and the warmth of the fire was a godsend to me as I happily cooked my food and ate. When that was done I figured that was a good time to look around my surroundings. Around an hour or two later I had mapped out an area around three miles in all directions. A small river snaked its way in the north, an abandoned village lay to the west, the blue waters of the sea to the east, and lastly the same to the south. Wherever I was I knew one fact. It had game. Sufficient amounts of game that I doubted quite strongly I would ever run out. It was only when I had settled back down next to the now-dead fire that I saw it. A small green seed. Picking it up a box appeared.
:Oak Seed: it read as it slowly rotated in its holographic display. Reading over the info it seemed that seeds grow at a rate of three days and a day and a half with fertilizer so my wood problem should be solved in a few days at most. With that worry now gone I dug a small hole, planted the seedling, and reentered my cave for the night. As I slept a direwolve slowly prowed the nearby area. Its eyes glowing in the pale moonlight.
Three days have passed since I had planted that lone seed and for my patience, I was greeted by the sight of a truly massive brute of a tree standing at nearly 100 feet tall and 20 feet wide on the fourth. It was upon this realization that a prompt flashed before my eyes. One that had I been doing anything but laying on what could be kindly called a bed I may have been a sight to see as I nearly jumped out of my own skin upon its sudden appearance.
"Level 2". It read before what I could only guess was a set of statistics slowly began to rise by one or two decimal places. Why I was leveling up was unclear seeing as I had yet to kill so much as a bug in all my time in this new world of mine and I seriously doubted cutting down a tree or planting a new one was enough to justify such a promotion. Nevertheless, I had done so and with it, a whole new set of skills and tools appeared in the semi-transparent box. The pile of sticks I had took up two of my sixteen boxes, each housing 64 sticks. Seeing no point in not cutting it down I soon picked up a hand ax and struck the tree. However, unlike the last one, this one seemed to take the blow without any sort of damage whatsoever. In fact, I doubted I had even managed to chip off even the smallest bit off of its massive trunk
"Observe". I called out and at once a flood of info appeared before my eyes.
"A supertree requires an iron ax". It said and so I was once more out of luck. None of my axes were iron but instead of lowly stone. The nearest iron deposit was nearly a mile away. That on its own wouldn't have been much of a problem but it was the fact it sat in the middle of a cliff face overlooking the sea. Having no way to get to it I had to go with the second nearest. An iron deposit that was nearly three times as far but far easier to get at. So seeing no point in sticking around doing fuck all I started my three-mile-long trek to the second nearest iron deposit. Once there I began to hammer away at the rockface until at long last I had chiseled away the stone until all that was left was the iron itself. That was when I was met with a problem. I had no way to carry the stuff back home. Thinking fast I called out :help: and soon the semi-transparent blue box appeared before my eyes. Reading over how to make a backpack I soon discovered that I needed three animal skins and some silk. Thus began my multiday long hunt for skins as odd as that sounds. By day three I had won my prize of animal skins and now only needed the silk to bind the thing together. Having absolutely no clue where I could find Silk I once again called out for the semi-transparent blue box. Upon reading up on what makes silk and where one could find silk I came to the unfortunate conclusion that in order to get the silk I would need to kill a giant spider and that meant one thing more than anything else. I would need to enter a cave. A deep wandering cave with many passageways and dead ends. Which meant I would need a source of light and that could be solved by having a ready-made supply of wood. The supertree that now existed outside my small cave would see to my immediate needs for wood and charcoal which if I recall was a faster and a fair bit cheaper alternative to coal. So I was forced to take only the smallest bit of iron I could hold for my trek home. Placing the raw iron inside my stone stove and waited for it to be purified. Luckily that task took only ten minutes and I was soon crafting an iron ax and cutting the supertree down. A half-hour later I had filled an additional three boxes with 64 sticks in each and made a stack of 64 torches. I could only hope that I would be able to find my pray and win my prize before I used it all up.
Today was the day. I was going to find myself a cave and hunt down an oversized arachnid all for the sole aim of obtaining its hair-thin silk. To say I wasn't at all looking forward would have been the understatement of the millennium. While I was by no means afraid of spiders I was afraid of never seeing the light of the Sun or the sensation of the wind blowing upon my face. But if I wanted to mine out that iron I would need a way to carry larger quantities of iron back to my campsite. A campsite that had been for days now my new home. Otherwise, I would be at this all week long. A prospect I didn't at all want to have to do. So with my stack of torches and a healthy dose of willpower and fortitude I set forth to find myself a cave.
My hunt for a cave wasn't a particularly long one as I was able to locate one after only ten whole minutes of looking for one. Still, the opening was small and hard to get to but at least it was relatively close. Grabbing ahold of two small tree trunks I hoisted myself upwards. A fair few times a loose rock would fall or a tree would nearly come undone but I was always able to right myself before anything worse than a micro heart attack could happen. Even so, it took nearly ten minutes to get to it and begin my hunt. Placing my first of sixty-four I walked deeper inside. It wasn't long before the air became moist and foul-smelling. The smell was easy enough to pinpoint. A dead cat with what appeared to be two bite marks upon its neck. I was by no means an expert at identifying bite wounds but even I was able to tell this was a spider bite. But finding a dead cat wasn't what I was after so I pushed forward now even more mindful of the sounds all around me. The near-total darkness didn't at all help me feel safe. If anything it made me feel even less safe. Placing a few more I soon came upon an area that seemed to branch off into several different directions. Two seemed to arch upwards as if heading to the surface. Seeing as that wouldn't at all help me I dismissed them soon thereafter and looked to my left. It seemed to be fairly level for several hundred feet before falling out of the light of the torch. But it seemed to be void of anything living so I dismissed it as well. Eyeing the last one I lit a torch and walked inside. The cave walls seemed to enclose and at points, it was hard to push myself through the small openings of the cave. By this point, the faint sound of running water drove me deeper inside the cave. The occasional drip-drop telling me I was nearing it. It was when I rounded a corner that it happened. An unseen stone slid underfoot and before I knew it I was falling down into the darkness. My stack of torches soon falling into the water and disappearing from view. Seeing no real choice I walked alongside the water hoping beyond any reasonable level of hope that I would somehow be able to find my lost torches.
But as it turned out I had no need as the cave soon opened up to a field of wild sunflowers and a modest village. The people upon seeing me all rushed over talking in a language I had no hope of ever understanding. I would soon come to understand it as Minedoeas, the sole language of the world. For the next few days, I rested. When I was well enough I helped plow the fields and learned various crafts. In doing so I once again leveled up to three and like the last time I saw various statistics slowly begin to rise, only now it was in the areas of blacksmithing, farming, and oddly enough animal husbandry. Why I gained animal husbandry I had no clue but took it as an added prize. With all the helping I had done a few of the villagers gifted me iron and seeds and a few goats and cows. When I told them I had no place to house them they again gifted me an abandoned dilapidated house on the outskirts of the village. It was far from a proper house but a roof and four mostly stable walls was a definite upgrade from calling the cold hard stone floor a bed. While I still hadn't gained any silk I guessed that could wait. For now, I would need to make my way back to what I guessed was now my old home to pick up what little I had to my name in this new world of mine. Afterwards, I would work on fixing up my new home and start making a name for myself.
Meanwhile in a land far, far to the north a king sat on his throne impatiently tapping upon a map of the world. His hand moving slowly southward until it landed upon a land called the Southern Isles located in the Southern Sea. His cold ember eyes held not the smallest amount of love or compassion but instead of utter hatred and malice. He was the king of all that walked or swim or flew. He was king Astrid Von Oakenshield better known as Astrid the dragon rider or even Astrid the skull crusher. Needless to say, my life was about to become a hell of alot harder for both me and my newly made companions for you see we sat upon the last bastions of free land in all of Minecraftia. A land the king wanted all his own.
