Here's what I have so far. Expect more on the 13th of next month.



Day 1: Press Start



I slammed my face into the keyboard, and typed a number into the respawn timer: 5 minutes. I turned around and stood up, talking quickly into my mic. To the untrained ears it was a rapid assortment of slang and references. To me though, it was clear and simple.


“They changed the sword recipe? Why would they change the sword recipe?” My voice was slightly higher on the end of my friends microphone, causing him to chuckle and respond.


“Not sure, 2.6 is kind of driving me crazy. I mean, they made the eyes of mobs move, they added over 240 crafting recipes, 12 of which are weapons, and 3 of which have been figured out.” He laughed at himself as a muffled hiss blew through the wall of his house. Chat blared in capital letters. CAYCOLE AND CAGECREEPER DIED IN A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS.


“They also seemed to have removed intelligent death messages, or the fact that creepers can’t activate through walls, or heck! Remember when they added resurrection in the past update? As well as the res timers? Ya, well I ran over to your corpse the first time you died, and I tripped on your sword and fell to my death. I tripped!” My rant was quickly interrupted by my screen flashing, New Mail! Would you like to pause your current conversation? I muted my microphone and sat down. My friend on the other end spoke.


“Hey, did you get an email? It says it’s from Mojang’s Developer Dive program.”


“Ya, ‘You are invited to join the top 10,000 Minecraft players in the first patch into the video realism MSFD, or Microsoft Full Dive. If you accept, you will be sent the hardware, and IP, you and 200 others will be given a unique server to participate on.’ Is this a scam? The button seems a little large... maybe we should look it up?”


“Nah man, I just got offered free game tech, I’m taking it. It only asked for my Mojang account.”


“I mean, ya, I feel like this is cake though man.” I clicked the massive button that said Yes, and returned to my video game. I looted my body quick and ran to my badly-made shack.


“Yo, Cay, I understand what you mean, after that incident last year with the phisherman and your email, you’re more careful. But this seems legit. I checked the Mojang site and it said that it was a new program.”


“I don’t know man, it just seems a little shifty.” I quickly returned my focus to the game, and  attempted to ignore the email sent by Mojang’s development team.



Day 2: A New World



I crawled slowly out of bed, grabbing a bagel and sitting down at the computer quickly. I nibbled on it as I checked my email, and scrolled through youtube looking for background music. I ran down stairs, remembering that I need to drink more water when I have days like this, and retrieved a glass of water.


Thud, thud, thud... thud. I laughed, that was like the original Minecraft tree punching noise. I pulled open the door, and pulled a box inside of the house.


Dear CayCole,



You have been selected for a secret program using our newest virtual reality technology! Please lay down when this is in use, as it straightens the body well enough for all of the connections needed to be made and measured. Good luck!



Sincerely,


Mojang Developer Team




Well, this seems cool, I thought to myself in between drinks of water. I took an exacto knife, and slid it down the tape seal, humming C4-18 the entire time. I ran upstairs, and jammed the machine’s USB connector into my computer. Everything seemed to be blinking and buzzing to life as I sprawled across my bed, and put the helmet on my head. Closing my eyes, I began grinning ear to ear as I turned on Pick a Universe by TryHardNinja, and dived into the game.



Day 2.5: Well, Crap.



I woke up surrounded by people in a blocky world. I turned local chat on quickly, and shouted into the world.


“Well! I’m here Minecraftia!” I laughed and punched a tree, expecting it to start breaking. “Ouch, ow ow ow! Crap!” I pulled my stinging hand back, and watched as cracks left the surface of the wood. I turned around, and saw a sight that blew my mind. Players were PvPing at spawn. Or, they were about to. Two people studded in iron armor were holding weapons, a spear and a mace, and were riding horses.


“Calm down everyone! We know that you can’t logout, it is an error that is being worked on back at Mojang,” a tall man with red hair shouted, his employee cape fluttering behind him. “We are fixing the issue, but we need to remind you, stay calm! The MDelve reacts to what you are feeling and stimulates the release of adrenaline in your system.”


“Jens, these people need to just play, like they came to do in the first place,” this time a shorter man, with a massive mace. Dinnerbone and Jeb, I thought to myself. I hadn’t noticed them at first, but they had extremely thick accents, just as should be expected.


“What happened!” A boy shouted. He looked a little familiar. Other shouts began bursting from the crowd as I pushed to the front.


Jeb and Dinnerbone seemed to burst apart, their weapons dropping to the ground, and the horses dieing. A message appeared across my vision, in bright bold white letters, Jeb and Dinnerbone logged out.


My reflexes turned on and I dashed forward, stopping and spinning, all the while lifting the spear dropped by Jeb. I held it high and forward and screamed at the top of my lungs.


“Stop squirming you little bugs! Do what our idols said!” I put emphasis on calling them our idols. Those two men really were at that point, ever since Notch sold Mojang. “The first person that I want to see up by me, is CageCreeper! Can you hear me bro?” My voice was thunder in the now growing silence. People shuffled out of the way as my friend worked his way to the front, hefting Dinnerbone's mace into his hands, and onto his belt.


“Next up are the youtubers! Chimneyswift, Captainsparklez, SkyDoesMinecraft, you know, the lot!” CageCreeper shouted, a grin across his face. Several people came up behind us, worried looks across their faces, as the two teenagers held the weapons against a crowd of other teens and adults.


“Hey, kid! Who put you in charge?” A man, probably in his thirties yelled and walked to the front of the group. I gestured with the spear, bringing it above my shoulder, ready to be thrown. He held his hands up and walked backwards, muttering something to himself.







Day: 3: The Lumber



Night had gone by pretty quick, the mobs weren’t spawning close enough for us to see them, but there were definitely some explosion sounds off in the distance. The hierarchy had definitely began to develope by morning, and consisted mostly of the people who followed me and CageCreeper quickly. So far, CageCreeper, Spongedog01, Pendragxn and her boyfriend AwesomeGamer135, and me. This small council, if you will, was still ramshackle, and not very skilled at ruling over what was worth a small town in people. Our ingenuity and skill with the game didn’t really go beyond walking and jumping around in the new update, so we were at a stump.



*--*


(Perspective, Pendragxn)


I sat, staring at the looming oak tree, which seemed to stretch 40 feet into the air. At the time, AwesomeGamer135 was cross legged next to me, complaining about the drag we were in.


“I can’t believe Billy put us on tree breaking duty. We don’t even know how! The nerve of him. Punching it just hurts my hand, so that isn’t an option. I tried hugging it, but that did nothing. I can’t believe he even suggested hugging the tree.” He chuckled at this, but I wasn’t very happy, so I scolded him quickly.


“Don’t call him by his IRL nickname, it’s bad etiquette. What if I were to start telling everyone that you aren’t even supposed to be here! This is the first time in a year that you used my old account for anything. Or maybe I should tell them all that your name is Ja-”


“Fine, fine. I’ll call him CayCole.” His voice was sarcastic and slightly rude at the time.


I stood slowly, tired of sitting, and rubbed my hand across the tree bark. I wasn’t paying any attention, and was looking around at the other trees.


“Abby, lo-”


“What did I just tell you?’


*--*


(Perspective, CayCole)


CageCreeper and I leaned over a lump of dirt in the middle of the central clearing, talking hurriedly of their situation. There was a massive and slow creak of wood off in the distance, followed by screaming and a loud thump across the ground.


“What in the name o’ Notch was that?”


“I dunno!” My voice was louder and defensive. I turned and dashed across the clearing, where dirt was still lingering in the air, and the massive crowd of muttering people looked down onto a scene I would never imagine to happen.


“GET IT OFF! Please! Get it off Billy, Cay, whatever, get it OFF!” AwesomeGamer135 screamed at me, his leg was audibly crunching under the weight of the oak tree. Spongedog01 was already at the scene, attempting to pull AwesomeGamer135 out from under the tree.


“Pen, what happened? How did you two knock down the tree?” Spongedog01’s voice was commanding, but still calm. He was a little taller than me, and had dirty blond hair down to his ears. He stood as Pendragxn explained the situation, and as she spoke, rubbed the wood above Awesome’s leg. After a moment, it broke, and the leg under it recoiled, and the screams turned into muffled conversation between Pen and Awesome.


I turned away from the scene, and began knocking down more trees for others to break down into logs for crafting. As I did so, the clearing expanded, and when I was nearly done, I heard a noise like a Star Trek teleporter behind me, and words flashed in the chat bar. Bristol24601 has logged on.


“Crap.” My voice was louder than it should have been as my girlfriend entered a world she wouldn’t be able to escape.



Day: 3.5: The Message




I ran over to Bristol, my head started hurting the second I realized she logged on, and everything was too quiet. My feet slamming on the ground were a hollow thud, and the sound my heart made was a vicious thunder compared to it.


“Hey, I didn't think you would log on!” My voice reached her ears easily, and she beamed when she saw me.


“I knew you would, so I thought I should be on too.” She smiled, and there was a tinge of guilt in my heart as I looked at her. “Besides, its not like you don’t want me here, you flirt.”


“Ya, look at me, the big ‘ol flirt, but the thing is, I didn’t want you here.” Her face saddened, and was tinged with anger. “But only because no one can log off, and it is very likely that we will die here and in real life. Ja-, AwesomeGamer’s legs are broke, so I guess that’s a plus.” I chuckled, and she smiled again, but then her face quickly faded to a serious grimace.


“Who’s the leader? Where are they?”


“Me, actually. I picked up a spear and everyone seems to be terrified of me.” I laughed at myself as my spear materialized in my hand. She laughed as well.


“C’mon, Cay, I’m being serious. Who’s in charge? Please tell me?” She made puppy dog eyes, and I felt like my heart crumbled into pieces.


“I told ya, It is me!” I exclaimed heartily, gesturing to myself. “It’s  more like a democracy though.” I slammed the bottom of the spear into the dirt for dramatic effect.


“You aren’t joking? Well then, oh grand leader, what have we figured out?” Her tone was sarcastic, but I answered literally.


“We can break down trees.”




Day: 3.75: The Rest of The Message



The day flew by from then, with people working and digging out building locations, we got the very minimum done. We couldn’t build properly without crafting tools, and we didn’t know how to access the inventory so that we could build.


I sat at the top of a tree, looking at the slowly lowering sun, square and brilliant. As well as yellow. Bristol sat down next to me, with a quick plop, the leaves shifting and moving to keep their blocky shape.


“Why’re you mopin’ up here on the tree?” Bristol looked at me, big brown eyes, and short dark brown hair.


“Because we can’t build or craft anything, and no amount of shouting and screaming into the sky seems to get Jeb’s attention.” I sighed and rubbed my hands through my hair, and looked up. “Jeb you fiend! Help us!” I expected nothing to happen, but was greeted quickly by a man with red hair and a swedish accent.


“Was fiend needed? If you really haven’t figured out how to open the HUD, I’ll show you. Hold your hand out like this.” His hand hovered in the air in front of him. “Then say, ‘Heads Up Display.’”


“Heads Up Display.” My hot bar, hunger bar, health bar, and experience bar came into view, as well as a plethora of buttons for me to mash. Jeb disappeared without saying anything else.


“That was convenient.” Bristol said, chuckling. There was another flashy noise, like someone teleporting, and Dinnerbone appeared.


“He forgot to tell you that the mobs will start spawning near you tonight, and death may be permanent, and cause brain damage in the real world. So. Don’t die.”



Night: 4: The One Man



The YouTubers were the first to volunteer for the night watch. SkyDoesMinecraft was the first, in more ways then one.


“I volunteer as tribute!” SkyDoesMinecraft chuckled, “And, budder n’ stuff!” This was followed by cheers and the volunteering of the other YouTubers. The excitement was quickly quelled by the sound of an explosion in the distance, and a man screaming.


“Bri, Cage, with me. Everyone else stay together, and on the trees if you can manage.” I shouted quickly, pulling my spear from my inventory. CageCreeper pulled out his mace, and walked towards me. Bristol, to everyone’s surprise, pulled out a long bow, and tossed a quiver over her shoulder.


“Did any of you put in your starter item codes that the MDelve came with?” Everyone shuffled around a bit looking at their feet in embarrassment.


“Well then, follow us from the trees I guess?” I began jogging towards the scream and explosion, my head hurting from the recent events, when I heard another explosion sound off, followed by another scream. I reached the clearing, and was not surprised to see several large holes in the ground.


“You, help please! You’re that kid right? With the spear?” A man that I didn’t recognize laid on the ground, a large chunk missing out of his right leg. It wasn’t very gory, seeing as how it was a video game, but I could still imagine the blood and bone.


“Can you walk? What happened?” CageCreeper was quick to ask questions.


“No I can’t walk, boy, I just got my leg blown in half! And, what do you think happened? It was a creeper!” The word was followed by a bright flash off in the distance, and screams and shouts. Other small explosions sounded, and fire could be seen in the distance.


“Oh man, I feel sorry, but you're dead anyway.” CageCreeper talked as he walked towards the man, dropping the mace onto his forehead.


“Cage!” I shouted at him as words flashed on the screen. MaizBlazer37 was murdered by a mace. He looked at me, with big hazel innocent eyes. I almost couldn't say anything, he looked like a kid again. "Why did you kill him?"


"He would have died anyway, there was no way we could keep ourselves safe, everyone else safe, and him. Needs of the many." His face was mute, and gave no hint of emotion. He lifted his mace from the corpse, and walked towards me, and a scene like no other played out. He gave me a quick bro-hug, and said, "I'm sorry."


This was quickly interrupted by Bristol, hair messy and sticking out in every which way, jumping down from the tree. Her face was covered in rage. She slapped CageCreeper across the face, then turned to me, slapping me with force equal to the one Cage received. Mine though, was followed by a hug, and muffled sobs from Bristol.


"Hush, hush. He might not really be dead. I'll deal with Cage later. Hush."


"You know I did the right thing Cay. Let's go back." I rubbed Bristol's head, and beckoned her to follow. It was far too late when we got back though. Over 50 names had blared out in chat, and people were pulling charred bodies out of the pits, trying to figure out who they were.


"Billy! Is that you?" Awesome's voice echoed out at me. "Find Pen! She hid me in this tree! I think she said something about a zombie dropping a sword!"  I turned around, and began looking for Pendragxn. As I turned, I saw the true after effects of our lingering with the dead man. Off in the distance, a female shape dragged a massive sword from a creeper’s corpse, and began walking towards us.



*-* Perspective Pendragxn



I hefted the sword from the dead creeper, which twitched and hissed quietly as I turned around. In the distance, by the tree that AwesomeGamer was hidden, I saw three people. They were shouting something. The fires around me were too loud for me to hear anything, so I approached them.


“Pendragxn! Where are you!”


“Over here! I was cleaning up the stragglers!” I picked up my pace, and found myself in front of Bristol, CayCole, and CageCreeper. “I counted 57 dead. How about you?’


“Same. One of which was at his hand.” CayCole gestured to CageCreeper with his spear. Bristol had obviously been crying, and both boys had been slapped.


“Why’d he do it?” I asked, putting my sword back into my hotbar.


“He was going to die anyway, I put him out of his misery, and we got here quicker, to help tend to those that we can protect.”


“We still could have saved him!” Bristol yelled, pushing CageCreeper to the ground. Her rage quickly turned to sadness as she sat on a nearby log and cried into her hands.


“No, we couldn’t have. You know that Ke-... Bri.” CayCole talked, sitting next to her, pulling a small red apple out of his inventory and putting it into her hands.


“Hey! Pen! Can you get me out of the tree now?” AwesomeGamer yelled down at us. I scaled the tree quickly, and found Awesome standing near the edge with his arms crossed. “I’m afraid I’ll get hurt from the fall. Oh, and I can walk now, it must have healed.” I climbed up, and pushed him to the ground, I laughed, and after he hit the ground without taking damage, he laughed as well.



Day: 5: The Goal



*-* Perspective CayCole



I sat, down on a charred log near spawn, and closed my eyes. The day had been difficult, especially with the arrival of the night’s threats. When I opened my eyes, it was noon, and people were putting themselves to work. Spongedog01 was standing on a high hill, shouting orders and goals for the day. CageCreeper was hogtied next to him with a t-shirt gag in his mouth keeping him from talking, and Bristol was on the tallest tree in the grove, keeping her bow drawn and ready to fire if need be. People had axes and weapons, and were either felling trees or guarding those who were felling.


“Spongedog01” I yelled up the hill, “What’s going on? Why didn’t you wake me up?”


“Because you were asleep! It would’ve been rude of me!” He laughed, and I began climbing the hill to meet with him, and deal with the hogtied and semi-nude CageCreeper.


“What in the world did you do to my friend?” I laughed as I saw CageCreeper glaring at me.


"Everyone agreed to tie him up because he was too dangerous. If he gets into another 'needs of the many mood,' he'll be tied up." Spongedog01 looked at CageCreeper, and looked back at me. He smiled, as if everything was normal, and continued talking. “We made a list of everyone who died in the fighting last night. Some YouTubers like ZexyZek, Skyd- wait, no, your girlfriend would freak out if she read that bit, or heard it.”


“So you’re going to make me tell her?”


“Yup. Let’s see. Some other people we didn’t know. It really wasn’t all that bad. There were two hundred people, and now there’s one hundred forty-threeish. A proper cencus would take too long, so we’ll wait ‘till we won’t all die as a result.”


“I can’t believe we did so well. I thought it was going to be worse.” I nodded slowly to myself, and looked out over the working people. Over the next hour or two, I chewed on wild plants, and instructed the workers down on the field. Suddenly, around two in the afternoon, Jeb and Dinnerbone appeared in front of Spongedog01, CageCreeper, and I.


“I have some news.” Jeb said, his accent thick.


“It isn’t good.” Dinnerbone followed up.


“Minecraft has never been able to update the client while people are playing the game itself, and we can’t shut Minecraft down from a distance.” Jeb said, a nervous look upon his face. “You’re going to have to beat the six boss mobs we have implemented into the game.”


“The Wither, the Guardian Boss, the Ender Dragon, the Steel Golem, the Ancient Entity and its twin, the Newborn Beast.” Dinnerbone spoke in a monotone voice.


“So we have one hundred fiftyish people to wipe out those monsters?” Spongedog01’s eyes were wide, and he was panicked. “You realize that we are all going to die right? If not all, most!”


“One hundred fiftyish? You let fifty people die last night?” Jeb’s face was panicked now. It was quickly replaced by empty space as the two of them disappeared.


“Yup.” I said, looking across the empty field of people. “We’re not gonna live to see the other side of this thing.”



Day: 6: The First Stepping Stone



I crossed my arms and spoke loud, a small group of friends and random people that volunteered for the Guardian Boss. It was early, but not so early that I couldn't teach people how to use a spear underwater. I'm not even sure how I knew, so that was interesting.


"Ok then. First off, always have more than one spear in your inventory, and always make sure you can craft more on the spot." I looked around as the many people began making spears, and equipping them. The next few hours were simple, hunting and killing squids for everyone to eat. When the fishing crew came back with a guardian and several of its eggs, things got a little more interesting.


"Is that a guardian?" Bristol seemed surprised that they had brought one in alive.


"I' better be, this thin' took us n' hour t' wrangle up. I t'were thinkin' we could scramble t' eggs." The man's accent was really thick, it took me a moment to understand.


"No, we need the eggs. I have an idea." Pendragxn spoke up quickly, wrapping the eggs in a bundle of warm and moist leaves.


From there, we undid the netting around the guardian, and it scrambled quickly to the water. For the longest time, it seemed docile, but we needed a target that could fight back.


I dove into the water, and kicked the beast's side. It quickly returned the favor, smacking me in the chest, and spinning to face me.  I returned to the surface, getting air in my lungs as the mob focused its gaze on me.


The beam, thickening and turning darker by the second, was a warm feeling at first. Slowly though, it grew in temperature, and began to burn. I tried to avoid it, but the beam stayed on me. I screamed at the top of my lungs now, as the beam gave a final pulse of strength and heat, I flew against the side of the river.


Blurred and blackening, my vision picked up on my friends impaling the creature.




Day: 6: The Leader



*~* Perspective Bristol




"Hello Bri, how is he doing?" Spongedog said, brushing his hair to the side as he spoke.


"He's moving a lot, but he isn't responding.” I spoke,  fingering the string on my bow. “Bagels.” I chuckled quietly to myself. CayCole moved, seemingly in response. His back arched, and he curled into a ball. Slowly though, he began straightening. When he was calm and still, no longer moving, his breathing steady, I brushed his long and messy hair out of the way of his face.


“He’ll be fine. Chances are, the only thing that’ll happen, is that he’s out for a while.”


“Ya. Probably.”


I stood slowly and followed Sponge outside, where I was greeted by assorted friends and random strangers that CayCole had become friends with.



*~* Perspective CayCole



Day: 19: The Wake Up Call



“Where’d the guardian go!” I shot out of the soft thin stretcher in a tent. “Where am I!” I yelled out, hoping for an answer. I stood, and proceeded to fall over. I was dizzier than expected. I stood slowly, pulling out my spear to stand on. Everything seemed everywhere. I shambled to the mouth of the tent, and looked around. It was bright out, and the colors were assorted blotches and smudges with vague shapes. A green lump walked slowly towards me, and my instincts kicked in. Adrenaline surged through me and my vision cleared. The creeper was approaching, and it couldn’t have been very far away. With what little strength I could muster, I threw the spear over my shoulder and directly at the creature.


Spongedog walked up from behind me, a soft crunch could be heard as he approached and watched the creeper die. My vision was clear now, and I looked out over the landscape. The grass was a vibrant lime green, and the leaves that kept shape as they swayed in the wind were a much darker shade of the green, that still had hints of lime in it.