Читать книгу Quest for Justice - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 8

It was dark in the Great Wood. Visibility between the tall trees surrounding the flowery hill was limited; who knew what was lurking in the shadows? The stars were still out, but the white square that was the sun had begun to peek over the horizon, giving the starry sky a faint pink-and-orange glow. The haunting howl of an Enderman pierced the peaceful dawn. It was this striking scene of the Minecraft server Elementia that met a new player who had appeared on Spawnpoint Hill.

This player was clearly new; he held nothing in his rectangular hand and was gazing in wonder at the infinite cubes of dirt, grass and oak wood that composed the meadow hill and forest that surrounded him now. He had dark brown hair, a turquoise shirt and blue trousers, the standard look for a Minecraft player who had not yet changed his skin or appearance. This player had never played Minecraft before. Unbeknown to him, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to join this server. His name was Stan2012.

Wow, Stan thought as he gazed around at the dimly lit morning. This is awesome! Everything’s made out of cubes! The dirt on the ground, the trees, even the leaves! And look at that stream over there. Even the water is perfect cubes! You can pick up these … blocks, and build stuff out of them? But there are blocks everywhere! Awesome! Oh, wow!

Stan looked around. The place where he was standing had clearly seen other players before, though he saw none now. He was surrounded by pixilated torches sticking up out of the ground, and there were signs and what looked like chests. One of the signs told him not to steal any of the torches, and another told him that he was standing on Spawnpoint Hill, where all new players entered the server. But it was one particular sign, which was located next to a chest, that caught his attention. It read: “If you have never played before, take a book from the chest.”

Stan walked over to the chest and opened it. It was sectioned off into compartments. One was full of loaves of bread, another was filled with what appeared to be swords constructed out of wood and yet another held books. Stan took one of these books and walked down the hill with it. He sat down on the bank of the nearby stream, dangled his feet in the water, and was about to begin reading when he heard a shout from behind him.

“Hey, wait up!”

Silhouetted against the brightening blue sky was a figure that appeared to be another player. As he walked down the blocky hill, Stan could see that this player was wearing a simple white tunic and white trousers and dark brown boots. He looked like someone who might make his home in the desert. The player reached the foot of the grass-block slope and stood over Stan.

“Hi,” he said. “My name’s KingCharles_XIV, but you can just call me Charlie. I’ve never played this game before and I have no clue what to do. Could you help me?”

“Maybe. My name’s Stan2012, but you can call me Stan,” Stan replied. “I’ve never played before either; I just heard that it was a fun game, and that this server is a great place to learn to play. The sign up there said that this book would tell us how to play.” He held up the book.

“Well then, let’s read it,” said Charlie. He sat down next to Stan and looked on as Stan read aloud.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Minecraft, new player. This is a very fun game with no particular goal. You can see that the world around you is made out of blocks. You can destroy these blocks with certain tools and place them elsewhere. After you have established a place to take refuge from the monsters of the night, you may work by day to arrange these blocks into fantastic structures. You are now standing on Spawnpoint Hill, where new players such as yourself enter the game. Before you can start building crazy inventions, you are going to want to join a community.

The suggested thing to do is to follow the path you can see. It will take you to the Adorian Village, a community dedicated to the training of new players. It is a day’s journey away, so take one wooden sword and two pieces of bread from the chest. The bread will keep you fed until you reach the village, and the sword can be used to fight off the monsters of the night. If you have not reached the village by dusk, take some blocks from around you and build a wall around yourself to keep out the monsters. If you need to know anything immediately, this book is full of information about blocks, crafting and monsters. Good luck, and see you in the village!

Stan flipped the page. That was the end of the introduction. On the following pages was information about the different blocks and their properties, instructions for crafting various tools and descriptions of a bunch of different monsters.

Stan looked at Charlie. “Did you know that there were monsters in this game?” he asked.

“Well, I heard rumours about this thing called a Creepy or something like that, but I didn’t think that it was actually real.”

“Well, let’s hope we don’t run into any of those, or anything else,” Stan said. “Now, do you see that road anywhere? ’Cause I kind of like the sound of this Adorian Village.”

“Yeah, we should try to find it. But where is the road? I don’t see it anywhere.”

They glanced around. They didn’t see a road, but Stan noticed something else. In the shadows of the trees was what looked like another player. The figure was the right height and had the right figure, but Stan couldn’t see his face.

“Hey, Charlie, look down there! Do you think he knows where the road is?”

“Maybe. Let’s go find out.”

The two walked down the hill and towards the figure. It was dark; the green foliage above them provided shade from the sun. As they got closer to the figure, he suddenly turned and walked towards them, arms outstretched.

“Great, he sees us! Maybe he’ll give us directions!” Charlie exclaimed.

“Yeah …” But something didn’t feel right to Stan. The player completely ignored them until they got close and then walked straight towards them with outstretched arms.

“Charlie, look out!”

“Stan? What’s your prob—Oh my God!”

The figure walking towards them had just walked under a patch of light. It was dressed like Stan was, but it had rotten green flesh and empty eye sockets. It smelled like death, and it was making soft moaning noises. The figure was still walking towards Charlie, who was immobile and wide-eyed with panic. Stan charged at the monster and did the only thing that he could think of.

He clubbed it over the head with his book.

The monster stumbled backwards a few feet but stayed upright, and again began to walk, this time straight at Stan. Stan started to run, but the monster was right behind him. He ran out of the woods, across the field, and suddenly stopped. He was standing in front of a ravine that he hadn’t noticed before, which cut straight through the field. It was deep; he couldn’t make out the bottom. He was trapped, with a fall to his death in front of him and the monster behind him. Afraid that he was about to die before he had even started playing the game, Stan balled his fists and turned towards the monster, ready to fight. Then he stared.

The monster had stopped chasing him. It was running back towards the woods, away from him and not towards Charlie. But the strangest part was that smoke was rising off its skin; Stan caught the putrid stench of burning flesh. The monster was making loud moaning noises and Stan was sure that it would be screaming if it could. Suddenly, the monster keeled over and burst into flames. It writhed on the ground until it had burned out of existence, leaving nothing but a small piece of rotten flesh in its place.

Charlie walked out of the woods, staring in shock at the small piece of flesh on the ground. Stan wore a look of equal bewilderment. Charlie turned to Stan.

“What was that thing?”

“I don’t know man, but it definitely was not a player.”

“Maybe it was one of those monsters that were mentioned in the book. Maybe it was a Creepy, or whatever you call it.”

“Let me look.”

Stan flipped open to the section of the book describing monsters, and on the first page he found what he was looking for. He read the description written next to an illustration of the monster they had just encountered.

ZOMBIES

Zombies are hostile mobs, or creatures, that spawn at night or in dark areas. They are the easiest hostile mob to defeat as their attack pattern consists of simply walking towards the player and trying to attack. They will burn when exposed to direct sunlight. They are also able to break down doors, and are the main attackers during a siege on an NPC village. They drop rotten flesh when killed.

As Stan finished the passage, Charlie said, “So that was a Zombie? And those things are supposed to be really easy to kill?”

“Apparently so,” replied Stan. He picked the flesh up off the ground. “Do you think this stuff is safe to eat?”

“I doubt it.” Charlie frowned, staring at the rancid lump of green and tan meat. “Check the book.”

After a little searching in the Items section, Stan found the page describing the flesh.

ROTTEN FLESH

Rotten flesh is an item dropped by Zombies and Zombie Pigmen and found in Temples. It can be eaten, but it is inadvisable to do so as it has a high chance of giving you food poisoning. It is not, however, poisonous to dogs.

“So, I guess we shouldn’t eat it unless we’re really, really desperate,” said Charlie.

“Yeah, you’re right,” agreed Stan. “Besides, we each get two pieces of bread from that chest up there, plus a sword. That sword should be helpful for fighting off any more monsters that turn up.”

“Agreed. So let’s get the stuff and go! It’s still morning; we’ve got an entire day to get to this Adorian Village before more monsters come out tonight.”

The two players walked back up the hill to the chest, where they each took two pieces of bread and a wooden sword. They then went to the top of the hill and looked around until Charlie spied the path. Bread in their inventories and swords in hand, Charlie and Stan started on the road to the Adorian Village.