“Looks like that’s all of them. We can enter the fortress now.” Simon walked into the fortress and marveled at its beauty. He had been in countless Nether fortresses while playing the game, but he had never walked into one in real life. He tried to take it all in.
“We should loot this fortress for everything. We are both running low on resources. Everything is valuable,” Simon said.
Lily nodded and reached for a patch of Nether wart growing next to soul sand. She was placing the Nether wart in her inventory when she heard a bouncing noise. “I think I hear magma cubes.”
“You’re right.” Simon spotted the blocky mobs jumping in their direction.
Lily slapped her sword against the beasts, cutting the larger magma cube into smaller cubes, which Simon destroyed.
With a cheer, Simon called out, “It’s treasure time!”
They walked around the Nether fortress searching for chests.
“I found one!” Lily called out.
There was a hallway with two chests. Simon opened the first.
“Diamonds!” Lily was thrilled. “You were right, Simon. This was a good idea. Now we have all of these valuable gems.”
The duo placed the diamonds in their inventory, and Lily opened the second chest. “Enchantment books!” she exclaimed. “These will come in handy.”
As they placed the treasures in their inventory, they kept a lookout for any hostile mobs that might be spawning in the dimly lit Nether fortress.
“We should get out of here,” suggested Lily.
Simon agreed. As they walked out of the fortress, Lily narrowly avoided being blasted by a ghast’s fireball. Just in time, she made a fist and punched the fireball back toward the ghast to destroy it.
“Nice job!” Simon said. “But look, there are more!” Lily saw a large group of blazes flying toward them.
“Do you think Mr. Anarchy knows where we are, and is punishing us for escaping?” Simon asked as he punched a fireball back at a ghast.
“No, this is just how it is in the Nether,” remarked Lily. “That’s why I hate it here.”
She grabbed her last snowball and threw it at a blaze. The blaze exploded, but another blaze was right behind it. She knew there was no way she’d win this battle on her own. She looked for Simon, but he was no longer fighting beside her.
“Simon! Help!” Lily called out as she aimed her bow and arrow at the blazes.
“Over here,” Simon called from atop the portal. “Hop on!”
Purple mist surrounded Simon, and Lily leapt onto the portal, away from the blazes.
13
MOBS AT NIGHT
The portal left them outside of Lisimi Village. It was almost night time, and they hurried toward town.
“We have to get to my cottage before nightfall,” Lily urged.
“I thought we’d find Michael today. I feel so discouraged,” Simon confessed.
“I know. I thought we’d find him, too.” Lily was upset that they’d have to wait even longer to find their friend and the people in green jumpsuits.
“I’m not sure we’re going to make it to shelter before the sun goes down.” Simon looked at the sky. It was growing dark. A bat flew past him.
“I don’t want to spend the night near the swamp.” Lily hated the swamp—there was no better place to run into a witch. “And there’s a full moon, too!”
“We have no choice.” Simon picked out a small patch of grass, “Should we build a small house here? Remember when we built that one in the desert biome?”
Lily just nodded. She didn’t want to be reminded of their past adventures, when they had been playing the game from the comfort of their homes.
Two Endermen walked by, and Lily turned her eyes away too late; one of the lanky Endermen shrieked and turned toward her.
“Not again!” Lily was exhausted. She ran toward the murky swamp water, hoping to reach it before the Enderman reached her. Reluctantly, she jumped into the dirty water, luring the Enderman in after her. As she walked back out of the water, she remarked, “At least we have an easy way to destroy Endermen.”
“We have to finish this house, fast.” Simon chugged milk from his inventory and passed it to Lily.
They finished one wall and placed a torch on it to ward off any hostile mobs. They completed the house in record time, and Lily was relieved when she walked through the front door. She quickly crafted two beds and jumped into one.
“Do you think we’ll find Michael?” Lily was worried about her friend and had a hard time falling asleep.
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy.”
Lily sighed. “None of this has been easy.”
“But you have to admit that finding the diamonds was pretty awesome,” Simon said. He thought about all the gems that filled his inventory. He was excited to share them with Michael.
They both drifted off to sleep, but were awoken when an explosion shook their small house.
Kaboom!
“What was that?” Lily asked as she jumped out of bed.
“I don’t know.” Simon raced to the small window, but he couldn’t even see smoke.
“Should we stay in the house? It’s dark and it’s probably too dangerous to go out. And you know I can’t stand the swamp. What if we are attacked by slimes and witches?” Lily paced around the small house.
“We have to find out what happened, and see if anyone needs help.” Simon put on his armor.
“Of course. What was I thinking?”
“I know why you’re nervous. We’re not sure if Mr. Anarchy used command blocks to place us on Hardcore mode.”
“Yes, that’s true. I don’t know what will happen to us if we’re destroyed.” Lily bit her lip, and her eyes welled with tears.
“The stakes are higher, but we can’t let that change who we are. We love to help people.”
“You’re right,” said Lily, nodding and putting her armor on. Then she paused. “Do you hear that?”
There was a muffled sound outside their door. It sounded like someone was talking.
“Do you think someone is trying to blow up our house with TNT?” Lily ran to the door.
Simon followed Lily. When they rushed into the dark swamp, they saw a person standing near the swamp water.
“Lily! Simon!” the person called out to them. “Help!”
It was Michael—and a witch was just about to reach him.
14
STRUGGLE IN THE SWAMP
Lily’s fear of witches left her frozen. The witch darted toward Lily, but she stood paralyzed and panicked.
“Michael! Help!” Lily called out.
“I can’t!” Michael replied.
Lily looked over and spotted a man in a brown suit standing next to Michael. He was pointing a sword at her friend and Simon was rushing to his side. She knew she must overcome her fear of witches. She had to battle this one alone.
With a deep breath to calm herself, she sprinted toward the witch and swung her diamond sword at the purple-robed witch. She had only fought witches in the game, and now she had to battle the mob in real life. The witch appeared even more sinister and frightening as Lily struck her again with her diamond sword.
The witch splashed a potion on Lily, which weakened her. As she stood in front of the witch, her eyes locked with the evil mob’s. Lily wanted to plead for the witch to stop, but she knew it was pointless. Instead, Lily gathered what little strength she had and clobbered the witch. With a final blow from Lily’s sword, the witch cried out and then vanished, destroyed.
Lily felt empowered from the battle. She would never be quite so scared to battle a witch again. She felt like she could face any foe in the Overworld without panicking. With a small smile, she ran to help her friends, Michael and Simon.
Simon was aiming his bow and arrow at the man in the brown suit. “You’re going down.”
“Never!” He said with a laugh.
Lily recognized that laugh and yelled, “You’re Mr. Anarchy!�
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“No, I’m not!” The man dodged the arrow and leapt toward Simon, clobbering him with his diamond sword. Simon was losing hearts.
Lily sprinted to the man in the brown suit and plunged her diamond sword into his chest.
“You should have worn armor,” Lily said as she struck him again, leaving the man incredibly weak. “You know better than that, Mr. Anarchy.”
“I’m not Mr. Anarchy,” the man said weakly. “Look behind you.”
“I don’t fall for those sorts of tricks, Mr. Anarchy.” Lily held her diamond sword against the man’s body.
A voice boomed from behind Lucy. “That’s not Mr. Anarchy.”
Lily cringed. “What?”
Simon raced to Lily’s side and called out, “I’ll get him.”
“Which one?” Lily was confused. She didn’t want to turn around and look at the other Mr. Anarchy. She didn’t want to give this man in the brown suit the opportunity to drink a potion that might help him regain his strength, since he only had one heart left.
Lily didn’t know if she should deliver the final strike or question him. “Who are you?”
Michael called out. “Guys. There are two Mr. Anarchys. They work together. Destroy this one right now.”
Lily struck the man and destroyed him, as the other Mr. Anarchys. screamed, “No!”
“So that’s how you’re so powerful. You’re two people?” Simon questioned as he threatened to splash a potion of weakness on him.
Michael, Lily, and Simon cornered Mr. Anarchy. He replied. “Maybe there are even more of me.”
Michael asked, “Where are the Prismarines?”
Mr. Anarchy remained silent.
Michael asked again, “Tell me what you did to the Prismarines. Where are they?”
Mr. Anarchy still didn’t say a word.
“Lead us to those people,” Michael demanded.
“Maybe he really doesn’t know where they are. Maybe the other Mr. Anarchy was in charge,” suggested Lucy.
The remaining Mr. Anarchy grabbed a potion from his inventory. The group jumped back to avoid it. They were stunned when he splashed the potion on himself and disappeared.
Once Mr. Anarchy was gone, Simon and Lily turned to Michael. They led him to their small house, where they barely had enough room to craft a bed for their friend.
“What happened to you? We were so worried,” said Lily.
Michael explained how the man in the brown suit, who claimed to be Mr. Anarchy, had entered their house with the group of blue soldiers. They’d splashed potions on everyone, depleting everyone’s hearts. He had kept them captive in an abandoned mine. The group was exhausted, but they used their pickaxes to break down the wall together and escape from their cell. “We didn’t know what to do,” Michael told his friends. “Spiders were spawning, and we barely had enough energy to destroy them. But we made our way through the dirty mine, trying to find our way out. Just as we spotted the exit, I overheard the other Mr. Anarchy talking to the blue soldiers. I stopped to spy on their conversation, and when I looked up again, the Prismarines were gone. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran as fast and as far as I could. It was getting dark and I was in the swamp biome. That’s when I spotted the cottage. But before I could approach the house, Mr. Anarchy appeared and began to threaten me.”
“I can’t believe there are two Mr. Anarchys. This is going to be a tougher battle than we thought,” remarked Simon.
“I know, it’s awful,” Lily said, and then she suggested they all get some sleep. It would be morning soon, and they needed a place to respawn together if they were destroyed.
“If we respawn at all,” Simon reminded her. “What if we are still on Hardcore mode?”
Michael said, “No, there’s good news! That’s what I heard the other Mr. Anarchy talking about: he said that he was going to use command blocks to put us on Hardcore mode, but he hadn’t done it yet. The soldiers said that the other Mr. Anarchy had also threatened it, but didn’t do it either. So we’re not on Hardcore mode—or, not yet.”
Lily let out a sigh of relief. At least they could be destroyed and simply respawn. Although she wanted to get out of the world of Minecraft more than anything, she was happy to know that she wasn’t going to be destroyed forever.
The trio fell asleep. When the morning arrived, Lily bounded over to the window. “It’s a sunny, nice day. Let’s get back to town. I want to get away from the swamp.”
The group raced toward the village. As they reached the rows of houses and shops, Juan and Fred approached them. Both of the men spoke fast and at the same time.
“Stop,” Simon exclaimed. “We can’t understand what you’re saying.”
Juan spoke first. “The Prismarines. They—”
Fred cut him off. “I think they did something awful.”
Michael was shocked. “What?”
“Come, we’ll show you.” Juan ran toward the roller coaster.
The gang reached the grand coaster and stopped. Half of the ride had been destroyed by TNT.
“Who did this?” Lily cried out.
Fred replied, “Brett and Greta.”
15
THE LUCK OF THE DRAW
Lily stared at the rubble in disbelief. All of their hard work had been destroyed. “Isn’t it ironic that we got trapped in this game because we were trying to protect this roller coaster, and now it’s been destroyed anyway?”
“I can’t believe that Brett and Greta did this.” Michael shook his head. “I really thought they were our friends.”
“We have to rebuild the coaster,” Simon announced.
“I think that’s the last thing we should worry about now. We have to figure out how to stop both of the master griefers and get back home.” Lily couldn’t believe how fixated she had once been on building this roller coaster, and how little it meant to her now. However fun that first, thrilling ride had been, that was only a brief enjoyment. She knew now that there were more important matters.
Juan said, “You must find these evil griefers. Not only did the Prismarines destroy your ride, they began to terrorize the town. They splashed potions of harming on innocent townspeople, totally at random.”
Fred said, “And they stole crops from my farm. They simply picked a bunch of carrots and placed them in their inventories.”
“We have to find the people in green jumpsuits and question them.” Michael studied a map as he spoke.
“Where do you think they’re hiding? What’s on that map?” asked Simon.
“I bet they are working with Mr. Anarchy,” Michael said. “I want to head to the jungle temple. There needs to be a showdown.”
Lily paused. “Maybe they aren’t working with him at all.”
“What are you saying?” questioned Michael.
Before Lily could answer, the sky turned dark and a loud roar boomed through the village.
Emily the Fisherwoman raced toward them. “There’s a zombie invasion, and someone summoned another Ender Dragon and a Wither.”
The Ender Dragon flew toward them with the Wither following closely behind. The powerful dragon let out a roar and banged its scaly wing into the roller coaster, crushing the side of the ride.
“Oh no!” Lily cried out, and she grabbed her bow and arrow from her inventory to aim at the dragon.
Michael dodged Wither Skulls that the Wither shot at them from its three heads. “This is an impossible battle.”
Simon reminded him that it could be worse. “At least we’re not on Hardcore mode.”
Lily thought the Ender Dragon was a lot scarier in real life than it ever had been on her computer screen. The fire-breathing dragon lunged toward her. Simon pelted the beast with a snowball, infuriating the master of the End.
Townspeople rushed to their side to help battle the two mob bosses. Arrows and snowballs flew through the dark, rainy skies.
A horde of zombies and skeletons approached the group, but they couldn’t turn their sights from the incredible flying
mobs that ruled the Overworld.
Michael aimed another arrow at the Ender Dragon.
Simon shouted, “We have to get the Wither, too.”
A townsperson shot an arrow at the Wither. Simon and Lily used up every resource they had in their inventory to destroy the three-headed beast that shot Wither skulls at them.
Lily was in the middle of aiming an arrow at the Wither when she heard familiar voices. Brett, Greta, and the Prismarines were back.
Brett grabbed snowballs from his inventory and threw them at the Wither.
Michael felt his muscles tense with anger at the griefers who had ruined their coaster. With a scowl, he aimed his arrow away from the Wither and shot Brett instead.
Brett was shocked. “Why are you attacking me?”
Simon moved to Michael’s side and shot an arrow at Greta.
Greta cried, “What is going on?”
Brett and Greta didn’t fight back. They were too stunned that they were being attacked to retaliate.
The other Prismarines didn’t notice Brett and Greta being attacked; they were too busy battling the powerful Wither and the Ender Dragon.
As the Ender Dragon flew close to Brett, its muscular wing hit Brett’s shoulder and he lost a heart. Greta shot an arrow at the Ender Dragon, while Michael shot another arrow at Greta.
“What are you doing?” Greta yelled, just as Lily used her last arrow to annihilate the Ender Dragon.
Kaboom!
Lily grabbed the dragon egg that it dropped. As she placed it in her inventory, she realized her inventory was completely empty. She had to replenish it, but she didn’t know how. Lily looked over at Michael and saw that he and Simon were grappling with Brett and Greta.
“Stop!” Greta pleaded as she dodged Wither skulls. “Can’t you see I’m trying to destroy this powerful, three-headed beast?”
“You destroyed our roller coaster,” Michael yelled at her.
“No, we didn’t,” Greta defended herself.
Juan said, “I saw you do it. You blew up half of the roller coaster with TNT and then terrorized the town.”
Fred added, “You stole from our town.”
Trapped in the Overworld Page 5