Minecraft, but Manhunt is getting real [DreamNotFound]

5

Clay breathed out all of a sudden and as he opened his eyes, he realized all of the pain in his body was gone. He wasn’t hungry anymore, and his body didn’t hurt anymore. He was just standing in the field. The sun was up in the skies. He could feel the warm sunbeams on his skin, and the breeze of the wind stroking his hair, just like it used to at the beginning. The beginning of a new Minecraft day.

Clay looked at his hands. Still the same. Not injured. His tool bar was empty. He ran to the closest river, as he first did when he arrived in the world. The view of his reflection made him feel so much relieved he had to fall on his knees. It was him. It was still him, him and his stupid freckles and stupid wavy-ish blonde hair. He touched his cheeks while chuckling, relieved to see he was still alive. He was still alive. Alive and breathing.

Still alive. I died and I am alive, but I am still stuck in this Minecraft world. The relief he felt was short. His eyes darkened and the young man sighed, stroking his hair nervously. He still didn’t have a way out. This game was definitely broken. Everything was so broken. Clay touched his stomach gently. He wasn’t hungry anymore and it didn’t ache. He definitely died, and now a new life has started for him. He was full life and full hunger. Clay stood up and looked all around him. The cows. The ravine. The village. He knew where to go, now. If he wanted to get out of this stupid VR game, he had to win this game, or at least he could try.

Clay sprinted and found his way to the ravine he fell when it was night time. Now that it was the day, he could acknowledge how deep it was and he immediately found the exact place he died. Fortunately, his stuff was still there. Usually, in a Minecraft game, Clay would let himself fall to the spot, but now he was cautious. He had died from a skeleton, but mostly because he hadn’t been cautious when leaving his tunnel. Clay gathered multiple blocs of dirt to help him go down the ravine, and managed to have his stuff. Good step. He looked all around him, but no skeleton in view.

Maybe I just should stay in the ravine longer and get more iron, thought Clay. This ravine was the best occasion for him to find iron without putting himself in danger, especially because it was clear at day. After all, Clay wasn’t sure if he really wanted to explore a cave after what he just experienced. With a lot of care, Clay made his way in the ravine, now perfectly aware of everything that was around him, thanks to the light of the day.

After leaving the ravine, Clay had almost a full iron armor and felt quite heavy walking around. Maybe it was protecting him, but gosh, it was so heavy he could hardly breathe. He decided to take it off, waiting for a real occasion for him to wear it. At day, he didn’t have much to worry about. Clay walked calmly to the village. It was so strange to feel at ease when he spent the last night crying and shaking. But he was in a VR Minecraft world right now, and he was unable to quit, and the young man felt like none of this was normal anyway.

When Clay entered the village, it was so big he had to stop for a while, impressed just by looking at how big the houses looked like, and how many there were. He could see some villagers walking around. They were not so pretty, with a big nose and a mono brow, with their tan skin and their large coats, and without any hair on their heads, but they looked like Clay expected. He could recognize the features of a farmer passing by, and searching for others. He felt like walking down a medieval village.

He noticed the wheat and went to take it. He didn’t feel hunger yet. Maybe he was one, or two hunger low. Gathering all the wheat was impressive. It was so much larger than in the game, making a huge stack on the ground, bigger than Clay. The young man was relieved to think he was safe for now. He had armor in his inventory, and now he had protection and food from the village. After gathering all that wheat, Clay sat on the ground and sighed. None of this was real. He had to accept that. None of this was real, yet it ached when he fell, yet there were bruises on his arm when he was low, yet his stomach was painful when he was starving. The reality was hitting so hard, even though none of this world, none of what he was felt right now, the grass, the wind, the sun, was real.

Clay snapped out of his thoughts by hearing a cat meowing. It was a black cat with some white strips and green-eyed. It was just next to him, and was looking at him with big, curious eyes.

“You never saw a human, huh? C’mere.” Clay clicked his tongue, hoping that the cat would come to him. But the cat immediately went away, running in the opposite direction.

Clay let out a giggle.

“Should’ve expected that.” He had a cat, too. A real cat. Patches was there, maybe in the same room as him. The food distributor was thankfully automatic, but his cat may be worried for his human that was stuck with a VR headset without moving an inch. Or maybe he was not, but Clay was torn about the thought of his cat somewhat lonely in his apartment. He squeezed his hand against the other.

“I’m coming home, I promise.” His voice was breaking. It was only the second day of his obliged Minecraft life and Clay was already feeling so lonely.

Clay stood up to craft on his crafting bench, and made breads out of the wheat he gathered. A stack and a half. It was enough for now. Clay hesitated, but as he felt the hunger coming, decided to eat the bread. It was just a simple, dumb bread, but the feeling of eating and being alive, the feeling of not being hungry anymore was just overwhelming and the young man felt his eyes itching, ready to spill out tears. I’m alive and I’m eating, he kept saying to himself. The memories of last night, lying on the ground, starving and shaking, were such bad ones. But at least it made him appreciate the bread of today.

He just finished his bread that something just flashed in front of his eyes. He read it without a hesitation. The chat box. But it did not say what he expected it to be. Instead, it was written, in capital, red letters:

YOU ARE NOW HUNTER

Both fear and confusion were growing in Clay. He looked all around him. That must mean that someone must have joined the game. Was it George? Or was it someone else? Why did the chat box didn’t show that someone joined, then? It doesn’t activate the codes until you actually activate them. Maybe Sapnap, or Bad, has joined the server and it activated? No way. That’s not how it works.

But Clay had to forget about all of these speculations when he suddenly heard the footsteps of someone. There were only villagers around, but none near him. He could perfectly hear the footsteps of someone, lights footsteps, walking around, hesitantly. There was nobody around him.

The mutant mod.

Clay squeezed his hand against his ear. Now he could clearly hear the cows’ moos in the distance, but he couldn’t normally hear them where he was. That was it. For sure. It was the mutant’s abilities. He could hear and track his prey.

Clay took his sword in his hand. If he couldn’t beat the Minecraft game, now a new game had come to him. A game he knew very well and that he had played so many times he could easily come up with plans to eliminate his opponent. Maybe if I win, this time, I’ll be able to exit this stupid virtual reality. He shouldn’t keep his hopes too high, but it was like he had a sudden reason to live. He wanted to get out of here. He had a prey, and he was the hunter. Now it was getting real.

“Let’s do this. If I win, it will be the end of the game. The end of all this.”

He was ready to get started.