Miner's Life

Chapter 1: The First Night

It was 9:00 PM and I was sitting in front of my computer, playing my favorite game, Minecraft. Today was the day I would finally graduate from vanilla into modded Minecraft! The only thing was... Which mod would I install first? I scrolled down the list.

I wanted to start off with a simple mod that wasn't too in depth like Orespawn or Ars Magica. Somethi-Ah! Let's do this one, I thought to myself. Mob Talker... It looked intriguing enough. I looked through the mod description and soon clicked download, going through the steps swiftly.

Suddenly, a window popped up. "What? Get out of here," I mumbled as I clicked the little x in the corner, only for it to return seconds later. "Fine, we'll see what this is about..." As I examined the window further, I realized it was a simple update to Minecraft. "Not how I usually get updates, but ok..." Hesitantly at first, I decided to click the ok button at the bottom of the window. In the downloads window I had open, it started downloading, along with my mod. Let's see what we have in store...

"...Huh?" I slowly rose from a hard surface, with the sun blinding me from the sky. "I must have fallen asleep while it was down-" I held my tongue, literally. As I took in my surroundings, I realized I was no longer in my apartment. I turned onto my hands and knees and felt the grass beneath me, stretching out over a wide rolling field. And by 'rolling' I meant 'blocking'. Or something like that. The point was, I was inside the world of Minecraft!

I made sure to pinch myself just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and got to my feet. One hell of an update... The grass felt real, I could move around freely, even the warmth of the midmorning sun felt good on my skin. I looked at myself and discovered I was wearing my school uniform, which I'd fallen asleep in. Oh! I should have a map too!

Beside me was my school bag, empty from the last time I'd cleaned it out. Inside however was a blank sheet of weathered paper. It's supposed to automatically fill in right? I waited for the pixels to start appearing on the map, and even shook it around a bit, but nothing happened. How do I use items without a mouse?

Regardless of whether or not I had a map, building a house was my first priority. To my left, which appeared to be east, was a forest biome, so that'd be the place to start. Walking up to the first tree at the edge of the forest, I raised my fist and punched it. "....OOWWW! HOLY CRAP!" I hopped around, holding my bloodied knuckles and kicked at the tree. "It hurts! It hurts, it HURTS!"

For a few minutes, I remained at the base of the tree, cursing at it and still holding my wound. Suddenly, I heard a sound from behind me, a low hissing sound. What?! Not a creeper on the first day! What happens if I die?! "Who are you?" I heard a girl say. Looking behind me, I saw her: just a cute girl in a creeper themed hoodie.

"...Michael," I said slowly. Is this Mob Talker? "Can I help you?"

"...I don't need your help."

Jeez, you don't have to sound so annoyed. "Well then can you help me take down this tree?"

"...I don't like you." And then she just walked away!

"W-wait!" I ran after her into the forest, watching my uniform as I dashed under the low hanging branches. "I just need some wood!" The creeper-girl didn't respond. "H...hold up..." I started to get winded after a couple minutes. "Wait... Wait a minute..." I finally collapsed on the ground, rolling over onto my back. That girl's as fast as a pig!

...I must've dozed off again. This time though, I was... moving? As I opened my eyes and looked through the moving branches above me, I could see the moonlight peeking through. It's night time?! I bolted upright as much as I could manage and could see two figures dragging me along the ground towards a soft orange light. Part of me believed this could be a good thing, remembering my encounter with the creeper. As the fire began to light up the ragged clothes and pale skin of my assailants however, this hope soon faded.

When we arrived, I was harshly thrown towards the fire in the center of a clearing, nearly falling in. I stood up and fastened my bag across my shoulder. The zombies in the circle stared back at me. "What do you guys want with me?" I asked.

Who I supposed was the leader of these zombies stepped into the open. To my surprise, this was a big male zombie, despite all the mobs being supposedly female in the mod. Beside him was that creeper girl, she sold me out! "We don't know how you ended up in these woods, but frankly, we don't care. You looked tasty, so we took you."

Wait, I'm gonna be eaten?! "Hold on! I'd say looking tasty is hardly grounds for kidnapping don't you think?"

"No," he said quickly.

Well, I guess there aren't laws here. "Well..." I wracked my brain to think of more things I could offer them. "I could help you guys!" The leader seemed intrigued. "You guys are hungry, so let me bring you food!"

"You did. You."

Wow, that backfired. Wait... "Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day!" The assembly once again stood at attention. "Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime!"

"What nonsense is this? What are you talking about?"

"If you eat me, you won't get another meal for quite a while I'm sure. But if you keep me alive, you'll eat like kings every night! Think about it: bacon, porkchop, steak! It'll be all you can eat!" My persuasion skills seemed to be working it's magic, and the leader looked to be swaying in my favor. Thank you law school!

He leaned on the nearest tree. "...I suppose it could be worth a try." Yes!! "But be warned of these two conditions: You must deliver at least thirty steaks every night, or you die, and if you try to rip us off, you die. Those are my terms."

"Alright! It's settled! Oh, but can I ask for a favor?" My heart was pounding out of my chest. "Can I have some wood?"

The assembly fell silent. Bad idea? Probably. "Why should I now owe you a favor?"

"Well I can't deliver food to you guys if I can't get started can I?" Nice recovery!

"..." The assembly tensed once more as their leader thought it over. "How much?"

"One log at least."

"..........You have a deal. Throw him a log!" he ordered. Instantly, a huge block of wood came hurling at my head, and I barely caught it before toppling onto the ground. "Now get out of here!"

"Y-yes sir!" I dashed out of that clearing as fast as I could.