Читать книгу Quest for Justice - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 6

The hallway of the brick castle echoed ominously with footsteps as a figure ran down the corridor. His outfit was comparable to that of a medieval English king: red shirt, trousers of elegant design and a flowing cloak with white fur around the edges. This man was a player on the Minecraft server Elementia. His tag was Charlemagne77, known informally as Charlemagne.

The hall he ran down was lined with paintings of pixel art. Torches protruded from the walls and gave light to ward off the mobs, terrifying creatures that lurked in the dark. There were arched windows that revealed an expansive metropolis, sprawling as far as the eye could see, beyond the outer protective walls of the castle. All of this was made entirely of cubes, one metre long on each side, with textures that resembled brick, wood, glass and all sorts of other materials.

In this game, Minecraft, the entire world was made of these cubic “blocks,” which stood in formations with textures that were made to resemble the trees of the forests, the water of the oceans, the green grassy hills and the stone and minerals of the underground mines. These blocks also made up the castle and the city, textured as stone and glass. Living things were composed of blocks as well, including Charlemagne and all other people, animals and monsters that inhabited the spacious world.

Charlemagne ran because he was late to the meeting of the Council of Operators (though there were no operators on the council, despite the name). This council was made up of the highest-level players on the server, and was led by King Kev, most often referred to simply as “the King”. The meeting had been called to discuss a most important matter, a matter that, unbeknown to the council, would be the downfall of the King, Charlemagne and so many others. This one decision would be the downfall of the luxurious life that the high-level citizens of Element City enjoyed.

The man finally reached the iron doors and pressed a button on the wall. Five note blocks above his head activated and played a chime that functioned as the doorbell. Moments later the doors opened, and Charlemagne stepped into the council chamber.

There was a round table in the middle of the chamber, the King’s allusion to the mighty King Arthur. Around it sat six of the eight council members. The other two seats were situated at the right and left hand of King Kev, who sat upon a throne, elevated eight blocks above the floor, presiding over the council. The right seat held Charlemagne’s fellow adviser to the King, Caesar894, while the left was reserved for Charlemagne himself. The King looked down at Charlemagne. He changed his skin, Charlemagne noted. The King had, indeed, changed his appearance. King Kev now had on a baby-blue shirt with navy trousers and black boots, and he had even added a blood-red cape. The only thing that remained unchanged was his head: a golden crown perched upon his neat blond hair. But enough of this, thought Charlemagne, I have other things to attend to.

“Forgive my tardy arrival, Your Highness,” said Charlemagne, bowing by looking at the floor and crouching simultaneously with his golden sword drawn. This sword was ceremonial only; all council members and the King had one, though it was an impractical weapon.

“Forgiven,” boomed the King, pointing his own golden sword at Charlemagne in a sign either of welcome or intent to kill. “I trust your lateness has a good reason?”

“Oh, yes, my liege.” Charlemagne grinned. “My lingering among the low-level peasants under a disguise of leather armour took longer than I had anticipated, as I took part in a conversation regarding the local attitude towards certain aspects of the last major law you enacted.” At this, several council members cringed. Like most upper-class players, they were averse to mingling with the commoners.

“The Law of One Death?” asked the King.

“That’s the one, my lord,” Charlemagne replied. “The attitude of the common folk is mixed. Some, mainly those under level ten, say that it is a good law as it gives the game a higher risk factor, while most say that it undermines the superiority of the high-level folk. To be totally frank, I agree with both arguments.”

“You dare to question the reasoning of my law?” bellowed the King. “Have you no respect for my authority? I ought to have you executed at once.”

“Oh, no, Your Highness, that is not what I am trying to say at all!” exclaimed Charlemagne, although he knew the King would do no such thing to him. Charlemagne had enough skill to escape any attempt by the King on his life. Moreover, Charlemagne knew things about the King, dark things, and the King would be a fool to provoke Charlemagne into revealing them to the public.

“I agree with both arguments, but only to a degree. The game is much more … er … exciting now that you can die at any minute and be forever banished from the server, as opposed to simply returning to the last place you slept in a bed as is usual in Minecraft. However,” he continued, “this does mean that the game is harder for those who have worked their way to the top, such as the members of this council. We upper-level players have the best plots of land in the known server, and a bounty of well-earned supplies. If, say, I were to die, I would leave a plot of fertile land and a house full of diamonds, emeralds, gold … well, you get the point, and I would never be able to return and retrieve them. Meanwhile a player who has just spawned could waltz into my home and steal everything I owned, thus becoming rich by doing almost nothing! Well, you can imagine how the people in the city who have worked their way to the top feel about that.”

There was a murmur of agreement around the table.

“Hmmm,” said the King. “You may be right. This new law does undermine the level system that rightfully benefits our upper class – which is ironic, given the circumstances in which the law was imposed – but what do you propose we do to fix this problem?”

It was at this point that Caesar894, dressed as his Roman namesake, stood up. “I have an idea,” suggested the King’s right-hand man.

“Speak it,” replied the King.

“Well, it occurs to me that, within the walls of our city, we have almost no remaining fertile land. The forest beyond the city limits on all sides will not make good farmland. If we are to keep this city up to the standard we are used to, we must take multiple actions. First, we must not give away any more of this fertile land. Second, we must force the lower-level citizens of this city to leave. As Sir Charlemagne pointed out, they are likely to steal from us if we die or, even more likely, rise against us and murder us in our sleep just to take our supplies!

“The lower-level citizens of this city outnumber us two to one,” Caesar continued, “and if they should ever realize this, we would have a serious problem on our hands. We must force them to move from the city. If they do that, this city will have more land to be taken by those who deserve it.

“The Adorian Village can take on most of the outcasts, and there must be a fertile tract of land out there somewhere beyond the Ender Desert, even if our cartographers haven’t mapped it yet. Some of the refugees can settle there. One thing remains certain, however: the lower-levels must go.”

As Caesar894 finished his speech, the council members clapped their blocky hands in approval. The King stood up.

“Very well,” the King said. “The law proposed shall state the following: ‘All citizens of Element City with a level under that of fifteen are required to leave the city within one week of today’s date. After that date, all players under level fifteen found in the city shall be killed and their houses destroyed.’ Those in favour of this law?”

Ten geometrically shaped hands rose into the air.

These ten players on the Minecraft server Elementia had no idea what they had just done. They had no idea just how the people would react to this law. And they had no idea at all what this simple action would do to their way of life, to their citizens’ lives, and to the game of Minecraft itself. Still the King continued.

“Motion carried,” the King announced. “The law shall be put into place at the next Proclamation Day. It is time for the elite of this city to take back the kingdom!”

At that very moment, as the council cheered the King, a new player called Stan2012 appeared on Spawnpoint Hill.