by Mark Mulle
Chapter 3: Zombies and Iron Swords
Of course she's a hacker. She has to be. I mean, how else could a random player be able to enter another player's single player world?
I stop jumping over the treetops and take a break. I try to collect my thoughts together. Nothing is going to be solved by me ignoring the problem. I have to confront it.
Through a gap in the trees, I notice a small ravine. I leap over the ground foliage and to my delight, I find some exposed iron ore. There's a considerable amount too. I hack away at it happily, then construct a furnace to smelt my findings.
When I get back to my shelter, Tesseract97 is standing beside the lake, fishing. I hide behind the shelter, watching her. What is this strange glitch? Most glitches can be solved by logging out then logging back in.
Without a word, I disconnect myself from the game. A few seconds later, I log back in.
The girl is still there. I feel a bit foolish when the notification comes up on screen, saying that I'd logged out and in.
I walk out from behind the shelter, and stand beside the player. She reels in her fishing line, and a pair of leather boots comes flying out of the water, and land in her inventory. She drops her fishing rod, and puts the boots on instantly.
"Nice catch," I comment.
"Thanks." She replies.
Alright, our conversation has started. So far, so good. Of course, now I don't have a clue what to say.
I don't worry for long, because the player speaks next.
"What version of Minecraft is this?"
"Um..." The question throws me off a bit. "Version 1.7.10? Vanilla Minecraft, as far as I know. No mods."
"Okay." She casts her fishing rod back into the water again.
I'm not going to let the conversation die now that it had got going. "Why were you running from those zombies?"
She turns her head to look at me, as if I'm stupid, then turns back to the water. "I'm not used to them."
"Ah." Odd. "How long have you been playing Minecraft?"
"Every day, for the past five years."
I exhale sharply. "Wow."
She continues. "I've created many worlds in the past. But for the first time in a long time, I wanted to create a new one. And I ended up here."
"... Yeah?" I wait for her to continue as she suddenly reels in a fish, but she doesn't answer.
I figure I've done enough of asking questions. I go into my inventory, and pick out my new iron sword. I throw it at the girl's feet.
She looks at it, before putting her fishing rod away, and picking the sword up. She swings it about happily.
"Consider it a welcoming gift." I say. I'd guessed that the girl couldn't fend for herself very well, so an iron sword should help her out considerably.
"... What should I call you...?" she asks, suddenly. Her eyes travel up to my name tag. "... Ben-in-his-den?"
I silently curse at the name that I thought was so cool when I was eleven years old. "Ben is fine," I answer. "What about you?"
"Tess suits me fine." She replies. "Thanks for the sword, Ben."
"No problem." I want to ask so many questions, but I think it's best to leave things for now. "Hey, I know! I could try changing this world to Peaceful mode!"
I bring up the settings and options in front of me. I stare at my screen for a good minute.
"Huh. Weird." I say, closing down the options panel.
"What?" Tess asks.
"It's really hard to explain, but... Most of the options aren't there. I can't change the world to Peaceful, sorry."
"Strange. No worries." She puts her fishing rod into her inventory and turns to me. "Well, I'm going to go mining now. Will talk to you later."
"Yeah, sure." I watch as she bounds away through the trees.
She seems strange. Not as strange as the situation we're in, though.
As the sun sets, I put the finishing touches on my new shelter. I'm quite proud of it, actually. It doesn't look too bad, considering the short amount of time I had to finish it. I even managed to put in windows, a furnace, and a crafting table.
I'm just finishing putting up a few fire torches on the outside walls, when Tess comes charging past. Without a word, she sprints up to the shelter, opens the door, and runs inside.
There are no zombies, creepers or spiders following her. I sigh, and watch the sun set over the lake. Tesseract97 is either paranoid, afraid of the dark, or simply very weird.
I'm still considering contacting Minecraft support, but I think I'll go easy for now.
I follow Tess into the shelter, and close the door behind me. I turn around, and see Tess standing on the crafting table - and planting dandelions over every block of the grass floor.
"Hey. What are you doing? This is a base and shelter, not a garden."
"Hurrrrrrrr." The moans of a nearby zombie echo through the walls. Immediately, Tess equips her iron sword.
"Hey. It's just a zombie. They're practically harmless." I say. Tess doesn't look convinced.
"Chill out," I reassure her. "What's the worse a zombie can do to you that you can't do to it? It's pretty safe here."
As if on cue, the loud sound of splintering wood bursts into the shelter. I spin around, and see two green arms punched through the door.
"Well. Sometimes they break your door down," I continue, equipping my own iron sword. "But asides from that, there are much bigger things to worry about out there."
With a final moan, the zombie breaks down the door. Tess scurries into the furthest corner of the room, her sword at her side, crouching on top of the crafting table.
With a few swipes of my sword, I beat the zombie backwards into the night. Moments later, it disintegrates into thin air, and a pile of rotten flesh lands at my feet.
"Fancy some rotten flesh?" I throw the pieces at Tess, who is still huddled in the corner, by the fireplace. She doesn't move down from her position, and still holds on tightly to her sword.
I sigh, and put the door back in place. It's going to be a long night.
I punch a dandelion out of the way, and place a torch in the middle of the floor. "Alright then, Tess." I begin. "We have a lot to talk about."