Minecraft Forums

What Happened to Steve

By legodom

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Chapter One

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STEVE WAS a normal Minecraft person. He played survival on an un-normal Minecraft server, which had a normal name (Circuit Override PVP). He had a normal Minecraft house, made out of normal oak wood. He had a normal garden behind it that grew normal crops. His house overlooked a normal Minecraft sea. Inside his normal house Steve had a normal gray carpet, made of normal wool from normal sheep. His normal chests were full of normal Minecraft loot. Steve had an un-normal security system to keep all the normal robbers away. He had a normal pet dog named Normal. Steve is a normal Minecraft name, too. Steve came from a long line of normal Minecraft people. As you can see, Steve was very normal. By now you probably want to beat me to death with clubs for saying “normal” so many times. Anyway, Steve is still alive. So why am I using past tense? Because Steve is no longer normal.

Steve was perfectly happy being normal, as a majority of the Minecraft people are. But one stormy, windswept night, not everyone on the server was in his or her beds. As a result, Steve could not sleep. He lay in his bed, waiting for everyone to get to bed. The one person who wasn’t in bed was a robber, determined to get Steve’s emeralds so she could trade with the local villagers. Now, there were approximately twenty-eight thousand five hundred twelve people on Circuit Override currently, so the robber, Susan, could have easily gone somewhere else. But she chose Steve because he was the only person on the server who didn’t have a skin. Well, he did, thankfully, but not a custom one. Now, as you and I well know, people without custom skins are usually assumed to be new to Minecraft by the general public, and thus not as educated in the ways of this wonderful sandbox game. This was a severe mistake on Susan’s part, however. You see, Steve was actually more intelligent than her, having watched tons of redstone videos throughout his Minecraft career.

I said earlier that he had an unusual trap rigged around his house. This is because Steve set it up so that only he himself could get through. Using a command block that an elder on the server had dropped when killed in a fight, Steve typed in the “testfor” command, and wired it up to a hidden dropper full of arrows. So, when the system failed to detect Steve in the set ring around his house, it fired about five arrows per second from all directions straight towards Susan. Luckily for her, she was very swift with the mouse and keyboard, and managed to evade the seeking arrows. But Steve heard the noteblock alarm and quickly grabbed his bow and arrow. Sneaking out onto the second-story deck, which wrapped around the upper levels of his house, Steve placed down a torch. No Susan. Cursing inwardly, he destroyed the torch with a deft click of the mouse and walked back inside.

Maybe she fled, Steve thought to himself, but I don’t think she’d give up that easily.

He, in fact, was right. Susan was hiding in the neatly trimmed bushes around the perimeter of the house, seeking an entrance. As Steve came downstairs to eat a loaf of bread, Susan crept around the house until she was at the rear, facing the back door. Steve now decided to sit at his crafting table upstairs and make a few more pickaxes for his mining trip tomorrow.

Now, in Minecraft, this wouldn’t take long, but for the sake of this story, let’s assume that it took a realistic amount of time.

Seeing her chance, Susan gently pushed open the spruce door. Actually, she slammed it open with a loud unidentifiable noise. But, again, for the sake of this story, let’s assume that she gently eased it open and crept in. Off to her left were the stairs, and to her right were the furnaces and chests. She crept over to one and opened it. Let’s pretend it didn’t make that huge groaning creak that is typical of Minecraft chests.

Inside this chest Steve stored all of his junk, such as dirt, gravel, feathers, seeds, and cobblestone.

Useless junk! Susan thought. Don’t tell me I came all the way over here for this!

Susan then proceeded to search the other chests, not knowing that Steve stored his valuables in a secret compartment upstairs.

By now, Steve had finished crafting his torches, pickaxes, and shovels, and was coming downstairs to turn off the glowstone lamps. Susan decided it would be best to hide under the stairs until Steve went to bed. After he went upstairs and turned the lights off, Susan crept home and went to bed.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Five seconds later, in the morning, Steve strolled lazily downstairs to eat his breakfast. After this was accomplished, he gathered up his mining materials and walked off to the local mine.

This mine was in the main village, next to the town hall, off a large cobblestone street. Steve walked into the piston elevator and pressed the down button.

KACHUNK! WOOSH! KACHUNK! WOOSH! KACHUNK! WOOSH! KACHUNK! WOOSH!

Down Steve went into the massive mine, with the noise of the pistons echoing around his head.

Why did Notch have to make these darned pistons so noisy? He thought to himself as a person with a slobbering lumberjack skin passed him on the opposite elevator.

Down in the mine, Steve took the mine cart to Section A5, at level 20. He was looking for more diamonds to make another diamond pickaxe. Since he was playing in Minecraft 1.8, there was no longer that beloved void cloud that we were all so used to, and he could see that the place had been cleared out significantly since he had been there last time.

Wow! Steve thought to himself. This mine is a popular place.

And it was. Crowds of people swarmed past him to get to their designated mining posts, while spamming the chat with crude, unnecessary messages.

At his mine post, Steve found that someone had been mining there while he was gone, and they had found a cave. Expecting it to be empty, he was surprised to see an abundance of redstone, coal, and iron. After mining all these, and trading with another player who needed some coal, Steve moved on to the next section of the cave. Here there were pools of lava bubbling up all around a small stone island, on which rested eight diamonds.

“Just look at that!” Steve typed into the chat. “Some diamonds!”

This was a big mistake on Steve’s part, because as soon as he said this, throngs of players came sprinting towards his nametag.

Oh no! What am I going to do now?” Steve thought in despair.

Placing down some dirt scaffolding, he quickly made his way towards the precious jewels. And, contrary to his expectations, he made it to the diamonds before anyone could make a bridge across.

Great. Now there’s going to be a fight for these diamonds, He said to himself.

And there was a fight, one that would be remembered by everyone on the Circuit Override network forever. The person in the slobbering lumberjack skin killed Steve. The player that Steve had traded with before killed the lumberjack. Some guy in a hillbilly skin killed the other person. Susan killed the hillbilly. A person with a grass block for a head then killed Susan. Next, a player in a rainbow skin killed the grass head. And it went on like this for some time, until the diamonds ended up with a person in a completely black skin named xPizzA101.

Steve and Susan were now both after xPizzA101, though they didn’t know it. xPizzA101 ran to his iron home with the diamonds in his inventory. He hid them away in his “Safety deposit box”, which was actually something else that I will mention later on in this story.

Now, I’m going to take a quick break from the actual story to say that on this server that I am talking about, if you break a block of a player-made structure, it will be replaced instantly, and you will receive a warning. Also, only the owners, leaders, co-leaders, and elders can access command blocks. Command blocks can be collected by players, but only used for the testfor radius command. And ender chests cannot be crafted or found anywhere. So, if you are wondering why this place isn’t a scene of total chaos, it is because of these strict rules. And one more thing: xPizzA101 has a nickname of Pizza, so that is what I will call him. Now, back to the story.

Steve and Susan didn’t know who had the diamonds now, and even if they did know it was Pizza, they probably wouldn’t be able to find where his house was.

As you can see, they had quite a long, competitive, difficult challenge ahead, one that would eventually involve everyone on the server and turn everybody against each other, one that would be more epic than the Battle of the Diamonds, one that would last for real life years, a war that would last five major updates (1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, and 1.13, a struggle that would be remembered by everyone who played Minecraft, a battle that would leave the developers of Minecraft amazed, a raging war that would escalate to include the destruction of the server and shutting down of the entire Circuit Override network, which is why you can’t join it today.

Anyway, the first thing Steve did was go home and gear up. He smelted his iron. He crafted a diamond sword. He enchanted his diamond armor. He stocked up on food. He brewed some potions. He made some golden apples.

Susan, however, had a different tactic. You see, being a robber, she knew a lot about player habits. For example, she knew that the jewels would be hidden in a clever spot, in an unobvious location. They also would be heavily guarded, and the person guarding them would be the same one who stole them. This guy also had to be a great fighter to be able to defeat 20+ players (who were wearing enchanted diamond armor and had enchanted bows) with a wooden sword and leather armor in a small cave surrounded by lava. So Susan decided to take a more careful approach. She wasn’t very smart with redstone, but she knew all about Minecraft instinct.

So now you can see the very different tactics taken by the two avenging players. Also, Steve was more determined than ever to protect his house, because he knew Susan would avoid the long, tedious, and dangerous process of searching each house on the server and let him do the dirty work. How did he guard his house then, if he was going to go out at night and roam the streets, looking for an empty house? Well, he built seven iron golems, tamed five dogs, restocked his arrows, added lava into the trap, placed tripwires, planted pressure plates, hid some TNT, and created a piston pit full of water (to drown whoever fell in).

That should work a lot better! Steve thought, standing back to survey his seemingly normal house. Nobody should be able to get past that.

Little did he know that someone would get past it, and that it would mean devastation to his entire house.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

The early cluck of his neighbor’s chicken woke Steve the next morning. Actually, it was the automatic response written in code to his clicking on the bed, programmed years ago by renowned (and currently retired and living in a mansion) game developer Markus Persson that woke him. But… lets just say it was the chicken. It sounds more natural.

Anyway, Steve woke up, just the same, and groggily trudged downstairs at the same exact moment as the other twenty-eight thousand five hundred twelve players on the server.

Finding he was hungry, Steve opened a chest and pulled out a loaf of bread. Since there are no meals in Minecraft, we can’t call it breakfast, but that’s really what it was. After finishing his meal (which took five seconds) he began to gear up for his first outing. It would be one of over a hundred that would occur throughout the course of this story.

Steve put on his enchanted diamond armor. He equipped his silk touch pickaxe and diamond sword. He took some golden apples. He grabbed some arrows. He took out his bow. He pulled out a stack of steak he had been saving. He made some torches. He crafted a flint and steel. He roused Normal, the pet wolf, from his sleep.

I, He announced resolutely, am ready.

Slamming open his door, Steve charged out and locked it with his complicated redstone system.

Now, the question was: Where should he start?

There were over a thousand buildings on the server, most of them active and heavily guarded.

He decided to start in alphabetical order. Steve pulled out his Circuit Override manual, which had a section for rules, a section for updates and events, and a section for street names.

Street names?

Yes, street names. The Circuit Override network was unique, and for many reasons. But the main separation from this five-year-old server and the more commercial, boring servers with names like Fun Land and Happy Palace was the street names. Whenever a new street was added, (and this occurred very often, for the increasingly popular server was rapidly expanding), it was named by the results of a poll that went out to all the donating members of the network. This poll was simple, as it was just a list of nice sounding names that were arranged in alphabetical order. So far, every street on Circuit Override had a name, such as Winding Meadows St. or Sunny Side Lane.

A poll for road names

So now, after that rather lengthy speech, hopefully you understand what Steve was doing. He was planning on starting with the first street, West Main Street, and working his way back and forth while travelling east. Sure, this would take several in game days, but it was the most thorough way to do it.

Oh, and another thing, this server uses a recent high-tech plugin called Perpetual Land Generation (or PLG). That random fat guy in the white T-shirt eating a cheeseburger over there coded it. Basically, every time you make a new Minecraft world with it installed, it makes a huge world with more realistic versions of the vanilla biomes.

But here’s the amazing thing. If you travel far enough in one direction, you will end up back were you started! It’s as if the Minecraft world were suddenly round.

So, with PLG installed, Steve had a lot more blocky land to explore and search. Circuit Override currently uses only one thirtieth of the world space. Find that number mind-blowing? Then think of this: Steve had to search that ENTIRE wilderness.

As you can imagine, Steve felt like giving up, but nevertheless, began his intrepid search for justice undeterred.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

At the same time that Steve was making his way towards the entrance to West Main Street, Susan was creeping along like a creeper (pun intended) in the alleys of East Main Street. This street was crammed with stores and shops of all variety on every side. Enchanting, potions, spells, blocks, items, food, materials, they had it all. Shops were started by players with high ranks that had enough stuff to sell for in-game money. Climbing silently over chests full of rotten flesh and slinking around in the shadows, she made her way unseen through a window and into the first shop.

The floorboards hardly creaked (not that they could in Minecraft, anyway) as she snuck past the open doorway that lead to the back room where the manager was doing an inventory check.

Catching a movement out of the corner of his eye, he quickly turned around but saw nothing. Shaking his head, Tommy43oN1 went back to his work.

By this time, Susan was sneaking up the rickety stairs towards the overflow items room. Once inside, she found a large quantity of dusty, unused things like books with useless enchantments, half eaten carrots, sticks, string, worn leather, and old chestplates and pairs of boots.

She then began searching around for hidden levers, buttons, or pressure plates. Nothing.

Time to move on out. She thought.

Slithering out of the building, Susan hurried off to the next store.

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Chapter Two

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MEANWHILE, BACK AT the ranch, Steve was beginning his search of West Main St. By now, it was quite dark outside, and most of the players were inside their houses doing some late crafting.

Peering in windows, Steve looked to see if there were any vacant buildings. When he found one, he walked in and did a thorough search of every nook and cranny. The chat had calmed down somewhat, so it was easier to concentrate on the task at hand.

He busted open doors. He slammed chests. He pressed buttons and pressure plates. He searched every nook and corner in the entire building. The first house being of no avail, Steve moved on to the second.

This house was a huge stone brick mansion, with spruce wood plank stairs for a roof, and brick chimneys. Hedge and iron bar fences encircled the structure. Large spruce doors waited beyond a miniature portcullis. A luxurious pathway surrounded by healthy flowers led through the expansive, neatly trimmed lawn, meeting with gazebos, ponds, and perfectly pruned trees which were encircled by elaborate benches and colorful flower pots.

Wow! Steve marveled. This must have taken ages to complete! How did they do it all in survival?

Then he read a plaque that said:

This is the house of Emenin, the co-owner of the Circuit Override PVP network. Constructed here by the master builder himself, this ancient house has been here ever since the start of this server. It stands here as a beacon to all: We shall always be a community, and out of many, we make one. I don’t know what that means or what a house has to do with this, but it sounds nice, and I need to fill up this plate a bit more so it looks more professional alright I am almost done now ok I’m done bye.

Ah, so Emenin made it. He’s the master builder on this server or something.

Steve knew it would be wrong to invade Emenin’s house, and he could easily be banned if anyone found out, but felt compelled to do so by some unknown force in the Minecraft code.

Now, I’m going to pretend that you can climb iron bars in Minecraft, because that would make everything better for everyone. So anyway, Steve climbed the magic bars of epicness and cautiously entered the yard of doom. Off to his right the path led to gazebo and then turned to the side of the house and meandered to a large pond. Off to his left, a larger path led to a tidy little wooden shed and, like the other path, followed a course around the mansion to the back. To Steve’s front, the menacing doors towered above him. They were taller than many of the houses on the street. Three stories above him, Steve could see very blocky gargoyles, and if you don’t know what these are then get a life. Actually, just kidding. You’re wonderful. Choosing the left path, Steve walked around the house to find a rather large backyard with more ponds, stairs, paths, lily pads, gazebos, bushes, trees, benches, grass, decorative pieces of architecture, and flowers.

Seeking an easy and seamless entrance, Steve carefully examined the situation.

That’s it! He thought.

Grabbing a length of rope from his backpack, he tied it into a lasso, flung it over his head, and watched it wrap around a gargoyle. Tugging on the rope to make sure it was firm, he began climbing.

Minecraft translation: Grabbing a lead from his inventory, he made a dirt tower up to the third floor window and attached the lead to a fence post that served as a gargoyle. He then climbed onto the roof and unhooked the useless lead.

But let’s just pretend it was the former.

Once on the roof, Steve walked to the nearest of the two chimneys and managed to squeeze himself down the hole.

The ashes in the fireplace softly crunched as his feet came into contact with the netherrack.

This really is a nice place! He thought as he walked through the currently empty house, tracking soot everywhere. This guy has everything.

And it was true. Steve came into the dinning room, which sported a long table on top of luxurious green carpets and rugs. To his left was the main hall, which has a grand spiraling staircase set into shinning white and gray marble. Beautiful plants adorned every available surface, which gave the place a tropical, atmospheric feel. One the other side of the main hall was a study and living room. If Steve turned around he saw a huge, sprawling library with every kind of book imaginable. There were plenty of fluffy couches in each corner.

Steve decided that a library would be a good place to hide diamonds or a secret entrance. This course of action would prove to be a mistake.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Now I am going to add a new perspective to this story. Pizza. No, I’m sorry, not the kind you eat. I am talking about xPizzA101. Yes, the guy who stole Steve’s diamonds. Anyway, back to the story before you start yelling at me to shut up.

Ah, it’s nice weather outside today. The clouds in the sky, grass beneath my feet, the wind in my pixelated hair, the sun on my face, somebody in a Rubik’s cube skin staring at me, hackers flying around, and those wonderful horrible people who spam the chat with bad words. Yes, this truly is the life.

Looking down the street, he noticed a commotion. Someone was being chased out of a house. Using Optifine, he zoomed in on the nametag. It read “Susan”. She was being chased by Jate_MC, a friend of xPizzA101.

What is he doing? Pizza wondered.

Giving up, Jate, as we will now call him, trudged dejectedly over to Pizza.

“What was that about?” Pizza asked curiously.

“She was sneaking around my house and probing through my storage rooms! And don’t even ask me how she got in in the first place.” Jate replied, “I lost 15 diamonds, 7 gold blocks, 13 iron blocks, 5 redstone blocks, 4 lapis blocks, and 10 coal blocks.”

Pizza felt sorry for his friend.

“Here, let me show you something.”

Leading Jate into his iron house, Pizza came to his large spruce wood spiral staircase. Next to the staircase was redstone ore. Pizza punched the ore and a second staircase opened up below them (this is possible, look up how to do it, its neat).

xPizzA101’s endless staircase, of which he was very proud

“Wow, you sure have this place disguised well!” Jate exclaimed as they walked down the lengthy stairs. Each step they took seemed to send them backwards, but never quite forwards and never reaching the bottom, or the top, for that matter, of the stairs, which at this point in time, something I will mention later on in this paragraph, and if you are wondering how I know that, I will swiftly answer your question, I am typing this all out of order, was seeming very infinite, and each step brought them 0.5 blocks closer to bedrock level, but it seemed that each step took them 0.5 blocks back in time, if you will pardon my use of distance as a way to describe the passage of time, which, in this case, was a very valuable thing, as it was obviously finite, as it has always been throughout the existence of the universe, at least as far as our small, dumb human minds know, or even can know, which, quite frankly, isn’t saying a lot here, as I just finished describing, or explaining, if you will, but anyway, it, that is, time, was very quickly diminishing, second by second, no, or nay, millisecond by millisecond, even nanoseconds, if I was to dare to go there, into that realm of confusing sciency things that only people with an IQ of over 150 can fully comprehend, something which is typically hard to do with most things, and I am hoping, as I write this, that that is not an exaggeration, or the opposite, in order to keep up my questionable reputation, meaning I cannot understand the entirety of this subject I am talking, or writing, to you about, and however, I must continue on, so that being said, they, being Pizza and Jate, must hurry if they were to reach the bottom of the staircase and see what marvelous and important secret Pizza had at the bottom in time to defeat the evil menacing enemy, even though neither of them was quite sure who that may be, and by all this I mean that it felt like forever before they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the long, poorly lit, dripping, stone tunnel, and by now, or probably more likely, that is redundant, one sentence ago, you are, or at least were, probably wondering how long one person at a keyboard and computer can go on about staircases, which, as we all know, are mere staircases, at least to us, not considering any strange outside factors, and so, all that being said, I shall stop my seemingly ceaseless, rambling, prattling, if that’s not the improper use of the word, which hopefully it isn’t, paragraph on stairs.

Yes, that all did make sense in my mind. Don’t judge. Anyway, back to the story.

At the bottom of the stairs, Pizza and Jate came to a long, poorly lit, dripping, low stone tunnel, as I mentioned earlier. After continuing on for a while, they finally came to the end of the tunnel, where there was an iron door. Producing a button, Pizza placed it and opened the door. A few blocks away was another door. After that came yet another door, and another, until, finally, they arrived at the last one.

“Whew, that was quite a trip!” Jate exclaimed once they were there. “I’ve eaten 72 steaks so far! How much further do we have to go to get to this important secret?”

“We’re almost there, don’t worry. Hey, I’m out of chicken. Could I have a few apples?”

Searching his inventory, Jate found some apples and began violently vomiting them forth upon Pizza. But for the sake of this story, let’s just say that he calmly handed a few over, and continued past the door. Rounding a final corner, Jate did not expect to see what he saw next.

“WOW!”

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

The library had a comfortable, if slightly musky, feel to it, and Steve carefully and cautiously crept through the large rows of ancient books, wondering what untold secrets might lie within the pages of each book. This collection was probably worth millions in gold nuggets, which was the official currency of Circuit Override PVP. The boards creaked as Steve walked across the first row. He was doing a primary search, looking for anything that hinted the whereabouts of the precious diamonds. However, he could not help being distracted by the beautiful and ornate carvings that adorned every wall and shelf, or the fluffy, oversized chairs that were situated in every corner. Reading lamps sat upon the large, red carpet that covered most of the open floor.

Focus! Steve told himself, as he suddenly heard something. He waited a moment, before moving on.

Seeing the primary search was of no avail, he walked around the perimeter and started again, this time carefully examining every book on the first shelf. This would take a while.

Dictionary, no,

Encyclopedia, no,

A Complete Guide to Every type of Fungus in Minecraftia, no,

The Different Species of Mobs, no,

How to use the End Portal, no,

Four Minecraft Heroes, no,

The Fifth Member, no,

The Order of the Stone, no,

Minecraft Story Mode, no,

Telltale Games, no,

All About Diamonds, A Step-by-Step Manual to Finding Diamonds, no,

Future updates, no,

Wait, All About Diamonds? Steve backtracked, surprised to find something about diamonds so early in the search.

This looks promising, He thought, carefully removing the delicate and dusty book from the shelf. Flipping through the flimsy and yellowed pages, he came to the table of contents. Inside it read:

Table of Contents:

Introduction to Minecraft……………………………………………………...Page 10

Finding Diamonds………………………………………………………………Page 12

Acquiring Diamonds……………………………………………………………Page 15

What to do With Diamonds…………………………………………………...Page 20

Diamond Tools…………………………………………………………………..Page 23

Combat With Diamond Gear…………………………………………………Page 28

Diamond Pickaxe……………………………………………………………….Page 30

Diamond Axe……………………………………………………………………Page 33

Diamond Hoe……………………………………………………………………Page 35

Diamond Shovel………………………………………………………………...Page 37

Diamond Sword………………………………………………………………...Page 39

Diamond Armor………………………………………………………………..Page 43

What to do With Extra Diamonds………………………………………...Page 47

How to Store Diamonds………………………………………………………Page 50

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….Page 55

8

Page 50 it is, Steve said, flipping to the said page. Glancing quickly around the library first, he began reading the first page.

As everyone knows, diamonds are very precious jewels, and need to be very safely and securely stored, especially if one is playing on a server. Here we will look at some of the most effective ways to store your diamonds.

The first, and most common way is to store them in a discreet chest in a back room of your house. However, they can still be easily found. To fool any intruder, you could attach a sign that might say “Junk” to your chest. This would create the illusion that nothing of great value is inside the chest, when, in actuality, it is full of your most prized possessions.

To even further the security, you could move them to a room made of a blast resistant material, such as obsidian. Then attach an iron door without a power source. Then the player will have to have either a diamond pickaxe or a power source of some sort.

Alternatively, you could try hiding them in a secret passage of some sort. This is the most common way on a server, and one of the most effective. Here are some ways you could hide your diamonds.

Pistons. Hide a button behind something and lead a trail of redstone to a piston. When pressed, the button will activate the piston, revealing the hidden diamonds.

Redstone ore. When punched, the ore will do some technical complicated things that somehow make things happen that reveal secret hidden fancy things ok yes IDK.

Shadows. Intentionally leave part of your house dark, so the player can’t see what lies beyond. You could have a passage or chest right there and they wouldn’t notice without searching thoroughly.

If you enter a player’s house, chances are they will have their diamonds hidden in one of these ways.

Well, now I know what to look for, Steve said optimistically, and began by looking for a button of some sort.

Looking through dark old corners, priceless books, and behind large sofas, Steve slowly made his way through the expansive library. All was going fine until Steve heard a bump. Turning swiftly around, he hid behind a sofa. Listening intently, he was able to make out scraps of conversation. A gruff voice spoke first.

“Nah, leave it behind at the dock. We won’t need that where we’re going.

Say, have you seen those shears? I thought I put them right here.”

A light, whiny voice spoke next.

“Erm… I think you put ‘em in the boat, remember?”

The gruff voice spoke again. “Ah, yes, that’s right. Go fetch me a golden apple from the library. You know where I keep them.”

“Yup.”

Whoever it was started coming in Steve’s direction. Crouching even lower, he tried to become one with the fuzzy carpet below him as the footsteps grew nearer.

Blonk, blonk, blonk, blonk, It was the most nerve-racking noise Steve had ever heard, probably because of the circumstances he found himself in.

Floff, floff, floff, floff, floff, they were now on the library carpet. The person was getting closer. Meanwhile, Steve could hear the other gruff-voiced person rooting around in the main hall.

Clink, clunk, clonk, cough, cough, floff, floff, blonk, slam, bump, slap, the mysterious people continued moving around, all the while getting closer to Steve’s hiding spot.

“Ey, where’s the book about diamonds, I don’t see it in the usual spot! Didjya take that too?” The whiny voice spoke.

“No, I don’t think so. Are the golden apples still there?” The gruff guy said.

“Yah, they’re all still here. I wunder why the book ain’t here with ‘em,” Whiny man replied. “Oh, wait, I see it, it’s on the couch. How on earth did it get there!?” He began walking towards the couch where Steve was hiding. Seeing Steve’s shadow in the corner, he peeked around the edge of the couch.

“Ey, Tarlemen, come ‘ere, lookit what I found!” He hauled Steve up and leered into his face.

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Chapter Three

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“WOW!”

JATE HAD NEVER seen anything like it before. It blew his mind that one could have amassed such a vast quantity of anything. He just stared, awestruck, at the amazing sight before him. Diamonds. Hundreds of blocks. Everywhere. A huge room full of diamonds. Jate, who was almost never lost for words, was lost for words.

“Pizza!”

“What?”

“Pizza!”

“What!?”

“Pizza!”

“What’s wrong with you, Jate?”

“Pizza!”

“All of the diamonds?”

“Pizza!”

“There isn’t any pizza in Minecraft, I’m sorry.”

“Pizza!”

“Sharrap, willya?!?!”

“Pizza!”

“Okay, I’m sorry I ever showed this to you. Goodbye.”

“But… but it’s simply amazing!”

“I know.”

“How on earth did you ever get these many diamond blocks?”

“Years of stealing, mining, collecting, and hoarding.”

“Whoa!”

“Thanks. I take great pride in my diamond room.”

And it truly was something to be proud of. The huge room was made out of stone slabs, which could hardly be seen for all the diamond blocks piled everywhere. The spectacular collection was stored inside 100 x 500 block perimeters, piled high everywhere.

“What’re we going to do with all these diamonds?” Jate enquired.

“Have you seen how people are getting riled up really easily about this diamond business? Well, I was stocking up for just a scenario. We, my friend, are going to make enchanted diamond gear, notch apples, and lots of food. It’s time to conquer Circuit Override PVP!”

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

“Well, this shure is a good find. What’re ye doin’ in this house, you mizzruble excuse for a player?” The gruff guy, TarlemenUHC, was fat (that’s not possible in Minecraft, but whatever) and looked very mean.

Steve stammered in front of such an ugly looking player.

“I… I… I was… j... just try… ing t… to look for s… ome diamonds that might b… be hidden here.”

“Lookin’ fer diamonds, were you?” The whiny one was skinny and had yellowish teeth. “Well, believe it or not, we’re looking for th’ same thing, though not here. Eh, Tarlemen?”

Tarlemen, as I will now call him, nodded in agreement.

“Aye, we’re gatherin’ up our supplies before we head off t’ the dock to leave. There just ain’t enough diamonds around here anymore. We’re gonna travel far away to uncharted, unexplored islands. Maybe there will actually be a chance for one to make a living there. There just isn’t enough room fer all of us ‘round here.”

Steve, who by now had recovered enough to talk properly, was curious.

“But why are you in this mansion? It belongs to Emenin!”

Tarlemen chuckled; actually, it was more of a deep rumble.

“Huh huh. We could ask ye the same thing, buster.”

“But you need to answer my question first.”

“Not really.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Well, why would I be saying it if I didn’t think it?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. Please answer my question first.”

“What was your question, anyway?”

“By golly, I don’t even remember now. Geez.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. I guess we can never answer it now, can we? Hehe.”

“If you give me some time, I can probably think of it.”

Belry5054, or Belry, as I will now refer to him as, grabbed Steve by his aqua-hued collar. Spittle (if it existed in Minecraft) covered him as Belry raised his voice.

“Look, man, we don’t have time to sit around waitin’ fer you to think o’ some stupid question of yours. The diamonds are running out, and we’re busy people, an’ we gotta go. So there!”

Steve rubbed his neck ruefully, watching the duo stomp off towards the main door. Grabbing a book and quill from his inventory, he jotted down their names. These two seemed suspicious, and he decided to follow them and see what they were actually up to.

Silently sneaking across rooms and behind corners, Steve slowly followed the two.

SLAM! They were outside now. Hurrying to a window, he waited until they were a safe distance away, and tried to open the door. Locked. Steve snuck across the hall, into a side room, and up one of the main chimneys that he came in from. It was no easy task getting to the top. He had to lower his arms down to his side to be able to fit in the chimney and push himself up at the same time. However, in this manner he did eventually make it to the top. Grabbing his sword and working up the nerve, Steve jumped over the edge of the room and into a pond, which was about 30 blocks below.

SPHOOOSHPLOP!

Thoroughly soaked, Steve continued after Belry and Tarlemen. He looked both ways on the street to see if they were still in sight. Catching a glimpse of Belry rounding a corner onto North Main Street, he ran off after him.

Bumping into pedestrians, he ran wildly down the street, knowing the two he was after wouldn’t be able to see him. After rounding the corner onto North Main Street, Steve realized he had lost them. To his right was the town square, or, more accurately, the server square. In the center of the square was a giant fountain, constructed by Emenin himself. Water gushed fourth, splashing and rushing down into an ornate basin and then overflowing into the large pool at the bottom. The fountain was made mostly out of stone but had chiseled stone bricks around the base. Surrounding the magnificent fountain was a good-sized park, full of all types of exotic flowers and shrubs.

Suddenly Steve had an idea. Tucking away his diamond sword, he walked into the garden and rubbed some dirt on his hands. Leaping into the nearest tree, he began scaling it. Once at the top, he looked down at the people below staring up at him.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just looking for someone!” He shouted down. Swaying in the light breeze, Steve felt a little queasy. He had never been a fan of heights. Quickly surveying the area, he was able to spot what looked like TarlemenUHC. He took a moment to nibble on a few emergency carrots, and then scrambled down the tree onto the street.

“Sorry about that. Oops, excuse me. Oh, let me help you pick that up,” He mumbled clumsy apologies as he elbowed his way through the throng. (Actually, it was more like him walking around and typing into the chat, but who cares, right?). Anyway, he bumped into a person with a fairy princess skin, and made her spew stone hoes everywhere.

Eventually reaching the spot where he had seen Tarlemen, Steve looked around. There were fewer people here, behind the central spawn area of Circuit Override PVP. It was poorly lit, too. Steve decided to go to his right. He passed old chests full of rotten flesh and paper, and tramped over what appeared to be potato peels. The smell was abominable. Then he heard a noise. Spinning around, Steve was caught off-guard when he saw who it was.

“Susan! What’re you doing here?” She had a knife, well, actually, a stone sword, to his throat.

“I could ask you the same thing,” She replied.

This seems strangely familiar, Steve thought.

“Well? You’re not going to find any diamonds back here, if that’s what your after.” The knife pressed harder.

Thinking quickly, Steve decided on his move. Kicking Susan in the stomach, he pulled out his diamond sword and put his foot on her. However, he wasn’t fast enough. Susan rolled away at the last second, and the sword struck the stone a fraction away from her with a loud ping, sending waves through Steve’s hands. He now had to use only his left hand, putting him at a severe disadvantage, as he was right handed. Susan leapt up, wielding her blade as they circled each other.

“You should give up now. I have a better blade than you. Just think. We’re trapped in an alley, it’s very hard to escape, and I have full diamond gear,” Steve snarled, hastily devouring a shiny golden apple, which had a slight hint of metallic flavor to it. Steve adopted a very frank tone of voice.

“You’re the one who tried to steal my diamonds. If I kill you, my actions are justified. I won’t have to worry. You technically wouldn’t have any reason to get revenge on me if I killed you. However, if you somehow managed to kill me, your actions would be unjust, and I would have every reason to hunt you down and slay you personally. Now do you see the dilemma you’re in?”

Susan paused. He had a point, she had to give him that.

What am I thinking?! She snapped back to reality. This is the guy that is practically tearing down buildings to find just eight diamonds! He’s never going to let me get away. I have to try to kill him!

“Hello?” Steve was getting impatient. He didn’t have time for this.

SLAM! Steve didn’t expect this. His head bashed against the stone wall behind him as Susan charged him. She used her dagger to fling the sword right out of his hands.

CLANG! Clink! The sword rang out as it struck the ground, while Susan seized both it and the opportunity to escape.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

“Do ya thing he’s followin’ us?” Belry enquired as the dock came into view. The skinny player was with a large, fat player called TarlemenUHC, and they were heading to other distant islands in search of diamonds and emeralds to trade with villagers and players.

“Oh, I’m shure he’s following right behind us as we speak. He didn’t look like one to be dissuaded easily. Ha, ha, he thinks he knows what he’s doin’, but we’re actually leadin’ him right into a trap!”

The dock on Circuit Override PVP was a bustling place, just like the mines. Approximately 573 players swarmed around the area, trading with villagers and players, buying things from the shop, selling fish and old junk, getting on boats, getting off boats, and admiring the large decorative ships, wharfs, piers, quays, ports, harbors, docks, and landings that the Circuit Override Build Team created.

However, the magnificence of the place was lost upon the two as they hastily climbed into their boat, checking all the supplies. Tarlemen did a mental check on everything as Belry readied the boat.

Sail, check.

Food, check.

Shears, check.

Oars, check. (1.9 reference, yay)

Chests, check.
Compass, check.

Emergency boats, check.

Flint and steel, check.

Armor, tools, weapons, and potions, check.

“Well, it looks like we’re all ready, how about you?”

Belry5054 grinned, showing his yellowish teeth. “Yup, ship’s all ready. Shall we set sail?”

“I think so. Off we go!” The two pushed off from the crowded dock, maneuvering their way over several waves and past boats and ships coming in from all directions. Being most skilled with the oars, Belry was in charge of steering, and Tarlemen erected the makeshift mast that was stowed away under the seats. After they were out of the busy area, they checked their compass.

“Right, looks like we’re facin’ southwest, an’ we need t’ go west. Turn ‘er a bit, Bel.”

Using the left oar, Belry turned them until they were facing directly west. Then he kept rowing straight as the headland became more and more distant, until it was a blur on the horizon, and eventually disappeared from view. Belry and Tarlemen were off!

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

The first thing Steve felt when he awoke was pain. Throbbing, consuming, fiery pain arced through his head. His first plan of action was to clutch his head and moan. So he did.

“Wooaarrghh, ugggh, yowow, ooch, ohah,” was all he could do for several minutes until the pain began to subside. By then, he reckoned, Susan, Tarlemen, and Belry were probably far away, and he still had to recover more before even daring to stand up.

“Wuggy oogoog, haha lichemy,” was his second attempt. But eventually, he was able to speak and think clearly, and his headache had calmed to a dull throb. Removing his hands, he felt something warm and sticky. Looking down, they were covered in his own blood.

“Well that’s just wonderful. Now what am I going to do?” This sure was a dilemma.

Steve decided to peel off some moss that was growing on the stone bricks across from him. After removing a sizable portion, he doused it and his wound with some of the water that he packed. Then he wrapped the moss around his head and secured it with some string he had collected. It wasn’t the best, and he would need to be careful, but it would do for now.

I probably look like a complete idiot right now. I’m sure everyone will laugh when they see this, Steve said with dismay. However, he did not have time to work up courage. The three players he was after were getting further away every second, and there was hardly any way he could track them.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

The sneaky Susan slunk off down the street with her shiny new sword, admiring it. It was a well-made weapon. The blade was carefully and precisely cut to the millimeter, from only the purest diamonds. Its leather-bound hilt and bright red pommel stone gave it a majestic feel. The sword was extremely sharp and enhanced with powerful enchantments long ago. Whoever made it was a true craftsman. Susan doubted Steve would be able to construct anything so magnificent on his own. She refused to give him credit for how smart he was, as he had the default skin. He simply couldn’t be good, right? Wrong.

Nevertheless, Susan continued to observe every detail of the blade, testing its perfect balance, edge, swing, and weight. Outstanding. The eight diamonds she was after were temporarily forgotten as she walked home to put away the sword. Feeling more confident, Susan even ventured out into the middle of the crowded street, something she normally didn’t dare to do. She was famous around the server for her thieving ways. A few people recognized her, and shot contemptuous glances her direction. But none dared to attack, seeing the fine blade she possessed.

This is great. Not only can I walk right down the street, but I have a good weapon to use in combat if need be!

Yes, those diamonds would soon be hers, and many more!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Chapter Four

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

TARLEMEN AND BELRY were making good progress. Belry continued rowing and Tarlemen checked his map occasionally, marking their progress as they went along. After glancing at the sun’s position, Belry stopped rowing at about midday.

“We should stop here, my arms are aching. Get the food out.”

Tarlemen tossed him the food sack, taking out his own as well.

“Well, let’s see what we have here. Apples, cheese, an’ some bread.” (I hope you don’t mind my use of cheese, as it isn’t in Minecraft.)

“And I have some cake-“ Belry was rudely interrupted by Tarlemen.

“Gimme some o’ that. Who said you could hog all the cake fer yerself?”

“I did, just now.”

“Oh ye did, do you? Well, I never heard you say that!”

“Well, it was implied. Besides, I packed this cake meself!”

“You liar! It was I who found it in the first place, tucked away in a chest.”

“No you didn’t, I made it yesterday!”

“No, you made the cookies, remember? Oh, and if I recall correctly, you were the one who ate all o’ them!”

“Well, I was entitled to them, wasn’t I? It was me that made ‘em in the first place.”

“Is that what you think, huh? Well, ye mizzruble player, I have news for ye. We’ll split the cake!”

“Now there’s a sensible idea! Why, I was just thinkin’ that meself. You know, that’s the first good idea ye’ve came up with in a while!”

“Oh ho, insulting me now, eh? I just solved all our problems and you’re sayin’ I’m stupid!”

“I did not!”

“Yes ye did!”

“Didn’t!”

“Did!”

“Okay, lets just split the stupid cake and get this over with. Here’s your piece.”

“Gee, thanks, you actually listened to me for once.”

“Oh, shut up.”

The two munched sparingly on their food in silence, glaring at each other. They had made good progress together, but they still didn’t get along very well. After a few minutes, Belry packed his food up and hauled up the anchor, which was actually a large block of iron attached by a lead.

“Well, I think we should get going again. Hoist the sail. I’m tired o’ rowin’.”

While Tarlemen smoothed the small sail, Belry took the map and compass, making sure they were heading the right direction.

“Sail’s up. Say, that’s some pretty good wind we have ‘ere!” Tarlemen noticed they were going a lot faster than rowing, and was pleased that the wind was in their favor.

“Aye, we should reach Arelimen Island by nightfall tommorer,” Then Belry adopted a dramatic tone of voice. “Assuming nothing comes up that would prevent us.”

Tarlemen was curious. “Like what?”

Belry lowered his voice as if someone were close by. “Well, for one, there are sea monsters out here.”

Tarlemen, who had heard of sea monsters before, but never in great detail, was enraptured. “Wot kind o’ sea monsters? What do you mean?”

Belry was in his element now.

“Oh, they’re horrendous. One eyeball, sharp spikes, long tails, and they’re capable of shooting short blasts of water at over a hundred and fifty miles per hour. Yeah, we’d do good to avoid those.”

Tarlemen was becoming nervous. Out in the middle of the vast ocean, in that rickety old tub of theirs, nothing could be done if a sea monster decided to attack. They would both be goners.

“W… what kind o’ things are these monsters? They don’t sound like anything’ I’ve ever heard of.”

“Well, they’re known by many different names. Some say they’re a sort of cross between a fish and a dragon. Others call them the ‘Hunters of the Ocean’. Yet others say they can’t be called anything other than Doombringers. But most insist they are called Guardians. No one has gotten close enough to know what they really are. Most believe they are the cause of many mysterious disappearings. Mythology has it that they guard a huge underwater temple, an Ocean Monument, that contains a valuable treasure at the very middle, guarded be the ruler of all sea creatures. Aye, these are things to avoid at all costs!”

The words sent a chill down Tarlemen’s spine. He peered over the side of their small little boat, into the infinite depths below. What could possibly be down there?

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Steve was not having any luck with this search. After thoroughly searching the spawn, Steve could not find TarlemenUHC or Belry5054 anywhere. He was on the verge of giving up and going after Susan when he realized something.

Hey, I know where they’re going! I overheard them in Emenin’s house. They said they were going to the harbor, or somewhere around there!

Checking his Circuit Override PVP map, he sped off in the direction of the harbor, gnawing on some carrots as he went.

Down East Main Street, over the server spawnpoint, past the server square, Portview road, which lead to the Harbor. After munching on a few carrots, Steve admired the magnificent area. Then he remembered why he was there. Looking around, he was unable to find any trace of the two players he was after. He remained determined, however. Steve could tell those two were lying.

Searching through the crowd, he scoured every pixel and every corner in search of Tarlemen and Belry. Five minutes later, he realized they were gone!

Nooo! Why did I let myself get here so late? Steve thought in despair. I’m never going to find them now! They could be anywhere out at sea!

Then he thought of something. Hey, they said they would go to faraway, uncharted Islands. So I could go straight out to the north and then slowly go down south, checking each island as I go. Then, if that didn’t work, I could go even further out to the west, working my way up north again. I might eventually find them!

It wasn’t a very hopeful idea, but Steve pretended that it might work, walking home to gather up supplies for his journey.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Meanwhile, Susan was having fun. Lots of fun. The TNT cannon had worked perfectly. It had fired off missile after missile straight at Steve’s house. Susan had always loved TNT. It was so fun to light and watch explode. Especially if it was inside an enemy’s house. Seeing Steve coming down the road, she quickly mined up the cannon and hid in a nearby bush, anticipating his reaction to the crater that was once his beloved normal home.

No. No! Nah. That’s not acceptable. Nope. I don’t think so. That’s not very nice. How rude. HOW MEAN! WHO WOULD DO THIS?!?!? WHY, THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Susan grinned as he threw a major fit about his devastated house.

“SUSAN, I AM GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS!!!!”

Suddenly the situation sounded very threatening. Susan quickly scurried away to her own house, seeking her new sword.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Steve was homeless. His house had been destroyed and was now a heap of ashes and wood planks. This is what had happened as a result of his mindless pursuit of diamonds, criminals, and justice. He had forgotten all else. To gain eight diamonds he lost thirty-two, and many more items. His house. His dog. His tabby cat, Ralph, who was scarcely ever at home but was when the house was blown up. His diamonds. His emeralds. His coal. His iron. His redstone. His lapis. His cobblestone. His wood. His sand, gravel, dirt, and mob drops. His food. His tools. His weapons. His peaceful garden. Life on the Circuit Override PVP was hopeless now. He might as well delete the server from his list and never relog. It just wasn’t worth it anymore. Steve would go hide in his pathetic little singleplayer worlds, messing around with redstone and command blocks, never to enter another Minecraft server again. Then he saw Susan sneaking away.

What am I thinking!? He must have been completely mad to even consider leaving these people on Circuit Override PVP for a second! They must be stopped immediately!

Checking his personal scoreboard, Steve saw that he still had a lot of tokens left. Tokens could be traded for physical money over at the shop. Then the player could trade with players or villagers, or look around the shop for overpriced items.

Realizing all was not lost, Steve walked down Portview road to the central shopping area. He would get his revenge!

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Susan scuttled off, snickering to herself. That was great! Steve was without anything except for a few useless potions, some disgusting carrots, and a set of half-broken armor. He was no longer a threat! Now she wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore. She could focus completely on finding those precious diamonds! She now had a new strategy. Essentially, it was a hodge-podge of strange maneuvers designed to get anyone off her tail and cover the most ground in the quickest way. She would work through the first few streets systematically and stealthily, making sure it looked like there was a pattern. Then, one night, she would veer off and start in a totally new area, the location still to be decided. All the while she would check off the places she had already been to. After this, she would jump back to the obvious spots, along the main streets and server spawn. By now whoever was following her, maybe Steve, or Tommy43oN1, would be sufficiently confused.

And just to spark your memory, Tommy43oN1 was the shop owner who had been robbed earlier in the story. He actually does come into the plot more thoroughly later on in the book, so I will now call him Tommy from now on. How exciting, a new character. Yay.

Anyway, Susan did still have to be relatively careful. That was merely a fleeting moment of exhilaration. So she continued on, carrying out her plan.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Some ingame weeks later, the search continued. Susan hadn’t had any luck so far with her quest for riches, nor had Steve with his quest for justice. Tarlemen and Belry’s quest for freedom had not succeeded yet. In fact, I’ll show their point of view fairly soon. Tommy’s quest hadn’t really even started yet, though he was starting to, in some ways, get involved with the quickly escalating scenario. And by the way, Minecraft 1.9 came out! (In the story, not real life, sorry.) Circuit Override PVP had to shut down for a bit as they upgraded, regularly posting news articles on their website, www.circuitoverridepvp.com, which is a cool place, you should go check it out. They have lots of useful information and tips on redstone, survival, combat, updates, and creative, and their own forums. Anyway, they had to adjust their mechanics, command blocks, etc. And with the new Elytra, they had to change the flight detection thingy, whatever you call it, that kicks people for flying. Their end was changed, and their custom enchants, and much more. All the players waited patiently, checking the website daily for any updates. Susan, Steve, Tommy, Tarlemen, and Belry were especially concerned, because they were anxious to get on with their assorted missions.

Yes, things will get more complicated very soon, don’t you worry. More characters, more action.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Chapter Five

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

CIRCUIT OVERRIDE PVP opened again, finally!

End Crystals placed everywhere, Purpur block buildings, End Bricks galore; the main lobby had been updated.

New flight detection mechanics, an End reboot, new gear, fresh trading systems, and many other things made playing in 1.9 possible.

Remade rules about PVP zones, new shield options; Circuit Override had them all!

Anyway, back to the story.

Steve had almost completely restarted his life on the Circuit Override network, harvesting new items, exploring new terrain, and even traversing part of the End. He crafted more powerful and better weapons, made shields, and gathered Chorus fruit as well as Beetroots. He did not have the Elytra yet, but hoped to get one soon through the updated trading system. Currently, and unenchanted Elytra at full health would cost about thirty-five emeralds plus seven diamonds and four gold ore. Phew! Steve still had quite some trading and mining to do before he could acquire this famous tool.

Despite this, Steve was slowly making a comeback. Now that he had re-established his position as a pro, Steve could continue his search.

Now I’m going to switch over to Tarlemen and Belry’s POV.

“Hey, Tarlemen, do you see that thing down there?” Belry enquired as they made their way west further.

Squinting over the side of their little craft, Tarlemen was unable to make anything out.

“I don’t see anything. I think someone might have had a little too much cake recently,” He said quizzaciously.

“No, you just need to use your eyebells. Lookit, right over there to the southwest. That big dark blob there!” Belry said, pointing into the water.

“Oh, yes! Now I see it. What do you suppose it is?”

“Dunno, maybe an Ocean Monument,” Belry added in a dismissive tone.

Tarlemen was shocked at his friend’s carelessness.

“An Ocean Monument? Have you gone mad?!” He almost stood up in the boat, causing it to rock back and forth precariously. “Do you even realize what will happen if we get too close? For heaven’s sake, steer us away! Get us out of here!”

Belry was still relaxed.

“Chill, man. It’s fine. I doubt it’s even a monument. I don’t see any lights, do you?”

At that moment, they drifted in front of the object, and thousands of lights turned on, revealing a very clear Ocean Monument.

“Welp, Tarlemen, I think we’d best be getting out of here now. Unlash the tiller and I’ll unfurl the sail,” Belry said after swallowing, with some difficulty, an abnormally large lump in his throat. Pulling the oars in, he hastily stowed them along the side of the craft and tended to the sail.

And get out of there they did. Tarlemen controlled the tiller, skillfully navigating them in an arc around the legendary Ocean Monument. Once the two thought they would be safe from any sea monsters, they slowed progress.

“Whew, I think we’re safe now. That was close,” Belry was very relieved.

“Yeah, thanks to you we nearly died back there!” Tarlemen was still recovering from the experience, and wanted someone to blame.

“Alright, the last think that needs to happen right now is us getting in another argument. Let’s just sit here a while and calm down.”

The duo sat in silence, thankful they escaped. The peace didn’t last long, however, and was soon shattered by Tarlemen’s frantic voice.

“What’s that?!” He shouted, pointing to a sleek dark object moving rapidly through the water in short bursts of insane speed.

“Oh no,” Belry’s voice was filled with dread. “A Guardian!”

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Tommy43oN1 didn’t really know what he was doing. Trying to appear confident, he strode down South Main Street in search of Susan. She had taken a number of items from him, and had fired a TNT block at his house before making her getaway. Nobody did that to him and lived to tell of it. Although he wasn’t exactly sure where he was going, one thing was for certain: he would get her.

Tommy had a general idea of where Susan may have gone, having seen her before. She usually went straight to her house and unloaded her supplies, so this is where he decided to go first.

Tommy43oN1 was walking down South Main Street when something strange happened. He heard a loud ding and in the chat was an announcement. It read:

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

All players please use /serverspawn 1 to get to the server hub. We have an important announcement to make there. All players will be equipped with a knockback II stone sword and 16 bread upon arrival. Again, this is very important!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Huh, Tommy thought as he typed in the command, That’s strange. I don’t remember them ever doing anything like this. Maybe it’s just a new thing they’ve started.

Seconds later, the server spawnpoint was packed with players. Thousands of them crowded around each other, all holding knockback II stone swords in their offhands. Among them were Steve, Susan, Tommy, Pizza, and Jate.

The chat was going wild with speculation about what might be happening on the server. Many players seemed to think it was going to be a Survival Games round, while others thought this was preposterous. After several minutes the chat was still packed with useless messages, but now they were about when something was going to happen. Some players started leaving out of disgust. Then something happened.

All players were given a server resource pack that would download automatically. Then there was another pause as the resource pack downloaded. The chat was silent for a few precious seconds as the pack download was completed. The something else happened.

You see, the server pack had changed the soundfiles to the sound of a robotic voice. Then the server used /playsound, and the sounds came out to the players as an announcement. It said:

Thank you for coming to the server hub. The reason for this announcement is to state that we have made a change to Circuit Override PVP. We have now added a new game within our Survival World. Once every ingame week, at ingame midday, all players will be given the option to teleport to the hub. Once here, the countdown will begin. When the countdown is up, your gamemode will be set to adventure. You will then be released to fight. You must only use the items currently in you inventory. Countdown starting!

This was exactly what he needed! Now he could find Susan and kill her, and it would all be part of the game! Tommy was overjoyed at this sudden turn of events, but had to stay serious. This wouldn’t be easy. Thousands of other players would be after him, and he only had baked potatoes, iron armor, and a diamond sword, no enchants.

10!

9!

8!

7!

6!

5!

4!

3!

2!

1!

GOOOO!!!

The players had been released!

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

“Get us out of here, Tarlemen! Get us out, I say!” Belry was scrabbling frantically for his diamond sword as Tarlemen fumbled around with the tiller.

“It’s not working!” He screeched as he tried to untie the knots, “The tiller’s jammed! Why? Why now?”

Belry leapt over to the aft seat, shoving Tarlemen out of the way.

“Gimme that, you fool! You really can’t untie a knot!?”

Then he realized his sword was still sliding around in the bow of their little ship.

Belry ran back, tripping over Tarlemen and banging his head on the side of the boat in the process.

“Gimme my sword, Tarlemen!” He yelled as the Guardian spotted them.

“Why should I? I don’t have a good weapon, and besides, a bow would be better!”

The Guardian was getting closer to the bobbing craft. “Well then why don’t you get it out!?”

“We don’t have a bow, remember?!”

“I thought you were in charge of making sure we had everything we needed!”

“No, that was you!”

SLAM! SPLASH! GLORP! The Guardian hit the boat, causing it to capsize completely.

“Glurrble slup blorb!” Tarlemen emerged, “Phaww! Help! I can’t swim very well!”

But Belry was more concerned with his own safety at the moment. “It’s right next to me! The Guardian! Halp!”

SLLOOOOSSHHHH! BLOOOOMMM! SPLARSHHH!

The Guardian leapt out of the water, aimed for Belry, and dived down upon him with a deafening crash. Tarlemen was horrified.

“What the- Help! Wharrgh! I’m gonna be eaten alive by a sea monster!”

Fortunately for Tarlemen, the Guardian was full, and swam away to its underground lair to digest its meal.

Tarlemen clung onto the remains of the small boat for several minutes, staring wide-eyed at the foaming spot where the huge Guardian had just submerged. After a while he recovered sufficiently and was able to scramble up onto a wet splintery piece of wood that was once part of their craft.

Whaw! That was close! He thought, Poor Belry. Oh well. I don’t have time to stop and think about him. All the ships supplies fell into the ocean.

Tarlemen was in a fine pickle now. Not only was his food at the bottom of the ocean, but he was clinging to a small piece of driftwood in the middle of a vast uncharted ocean. Just when all seemed lost, and he was about to use /serverspawn,

Tarlemen noticed two pieces of string in his inventory.

Ah-ha! He thought, Now I can use these to make a fishing rod for food. I can also use this little bit of leftover wood to make another boat!

Things were looking up now. Tarlemen would be able to built a boat to take him to the nearest land, and he had a way to fish for food.

He quickly began to construct a boat using the remaining materials. Once it was completed, he jumped in and started making a fishing rod. After this was accomplished, he salvaged the sail, which had been floating on the surface of the water. Then he attached it to his new boat, and off he went into the sunset, literally.

After several minutes, he decided to take down the sail. It had dried enough to act as suitable bedding material, and Tarlemen slept fitfully the entire night.

Early the next morning, as all the other players got up, Tarlemen set up his fishing apparatus. (That word reminds me of “asparagus”!)

To make the contraption, Tarlemen mounted the fishing rod to a stick and let it dangle over the side. He then attached an iron ingot to the underside of the fishing rod. After that, he put another iron ingot underneath the fishing rod. That way, if the rod was pulled, he would hear the two ingots clinking together and hopefully get to the fishing rod in time.

Obviously, none of this is possible in real Minecraft, but hey, let’s just be fair. This story would be LA-ME! if everything was completely Minecraft-oriented.

Anyway, back to the story (from here is sort of a timeline, as it would be tedious to record each day and every detail of that day).

Tarlemen used a half-broken wooden shovel he had packed earlier as a paddle, and made good that morning. At around midday, however, he began to get a bit hungry, and took a break for a bit to check on the rod.

Let’s see what we have here, He said, walking over to the rod, Nothing? I’m getting hungry though. Cummon fishies, you can do better than this!

At that moment, he heard a tink-tink-clink that announced the arrival of hungry fishes.

“Yes, gimme that! He said, reeling in the line, which had hooked a medium-sized fish, “There we go! Thank you fish. I will now cook and eat you.”

He was able to craft a small furnace in the bow of the ship using the last of his cobblestone supply. He then made charcoal using some soaked, less-than-ideal logs he had stowed away in the aft compartment (which was actually a chest).

After cooking the fish, Tarlemen chowed down hungrily upon it. He hadn’t eaten properly in several days.

He continued to make steady progress until nighttime. Taking down the sail, he used it as a bed again. He woke up in the morning hungry. Checking the fishing system he had created, Tarlemen found several fish ensnared in the line. They weren’t big ones, just small anchovies, but enough to satisfy him. Tarlemen had to use the oars again, as it was very foggy and the air was mostly stagnant. As the fish were cooking, he noticed a dark blur in the distance.

Could it be land? Surely not! Had he really drifted that far during the night? If so, would there already be players there? Could he trust them?

These thoughts crossed Tarlemen’s mind as he stowed the oars, hastily ate the hot fish, and grabbed his new diamond sword (the one he had taken from Belry).

Careful not to make any noise, Tarlemen waded through the shallows once he was close enough. He pulled the boat behind a large rock and took anything valuable out of it, doing his best to make it invisible. Armed with the sword, he walked cautiously along the bank. Everything seemed fine so far. Tarlemen began trudging up the steep bank. It was made of wet, dark shale (or clay, if you want to be true to Minecraft) and he slipped once or twice, but was otherwise completely silent.

The thick, dense fog had begun to lift slightly, and Tarlemen was able to see better. Once he reached the top of the hill, what he saw surprised him. The island was not empty; a small homely little cottage sat on the middle of a large moor. Smoke was rising from the chimney, telling Tarlemen someone was inside. It didn’t look threatening, but he didn’t want to just charge into a strange house in the middle of nowhere. One had to be cruel or dangerous to some extent in order to survive; it was harsh out here in the unknown lands. He needed a plan.

“Thinking of destroying my home, are you? Well, I don’t think so.”

THOCK!

Tarlemen fell into a pit of senselessness, stars bursting around him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Chapter Six

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

SWORDS CLANGED. PLAYERS typed. Noobs sprinted. Villagers cowered. Buildings crumbled.

It was a unique experience for Steve. Circuit Override had never done something like this before. Usually the Survival Games were separate from Factions.

I guess they were just desperate to get everyone involved, He thought as he whirled around like a deadly tornado.

One thing Steve didn’t know was where the diamonds had gone. The griefer couldn’t get away with this! He suspected that those two ominous players he met in the library of Emenin’s house, TarlemenUHC and Belry5054, were involved with this somehow. There was no time to think about this now, however, as a player called quizzaciously6297 was upon him, hacking away furiously with her enchanted iron sword.

CLANG! BANG! PING! SLEESH!

The two battled, each trying to push their opponent down so they could get in better hits. quizza, as I will now call her, was obviously an experienced player. She dodged blows nimbly and returned them with lightning speed. quizza had been playing Minecraft since alpha, and was exceptional at pvp and building.

Steve could see she was gaining the upper hand. She landed blow after blow across his sword, keeping him pinned down, unable to make any moves. If he did try to attack or maneuver his way out of it, quizza would nimbly dodge the sword and use the temporary break to her advantage.

I don’t know if I can do this much longer! Steve thought frantically, It’s almost as if we’re fighting in real life or something!

Then the unexpected happened.

SHULTZ!

A player named xXRalphJ09Xx crept up behind her, something not very hard to do in the din around them, and stabbed her right in the middle, killing her with one hit. Steve had just enough time to spring up and hastily devour a golden apple before Ralph advanced upon him.

Actually, he flew towards him.

He’s hacking! Steve thought, I can’t fight him!

And so Steve started running away. He could feel Ralph coming after him. Right when Steve thought it was over, and he would have to start all over again from the start…

POP!

Ralph disappeared. A message came up amidst the frantic chat that said

Player xXRalphJ09Xx has been kicked for suspicious movement.

Whew, Steve thought to himself, That was too close!

Just then, the resource pack voice announced that there were only a few seconds remaining.

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

STOP!

A buzzer sounded and everyone stopped battling. They were teleported back to the main hub and the barriers were removed.

Thank you all for participating, you may now leave!

The robotic voice sounded. And just like that, it was over. Steve had survived the server battle.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

TarlemenUHC woke with his head throbbing. Pain pulsated through his head, forcing him to ignore all else for several minutes. When the pain had finally subsided, Tarlemen was able to take in his surroundings. He was in a cold, dark, wet cage and felt as if he was underground somewhere, in a basement perhaps. The iron bars that trapped him were rough and rusty, probably from the water drops that were plopping down from the stone ceiling above. Looking through the bars Tarlemen noticed a faint glow of flickering amber light. It provided enough illumination for him to see the area in which he was held. The cage sat in a small, cluttered room, probably underneath the cottage. Books, scrolls, maps, and papers were strewn about everywhere, like some mad person had been down here staring at parchment for too long (kind of like what happens when I do too much math).

Tarlemen stood shakily up and shook the bars a few times. They were solid. He shook even harder in an attempt to alert whoever was holding him captive. Still nothing. He moved around the confined space, looking for anything to help him escape. He felt the entire cage, but the lock was solid was well. The bookshelves and desks and crates were also too far away for him to reach. Then he heard something stirring upstairs.

Scoot! Thump. Clonk, clonk, clonk.

Someone was ambling slowly towards the door.

Clunk, clunk, chek, creeeackkk.

They were now opening the old door at the top of the shabby wooden stairs. Yellow light flooded the room, causing Tarlemen to squint at the sudden light. He remained silent, however, and waited for the person to descend.

Eeaac, clomp! Eeaac, clomp! Eeaac, clomp!

They were coming down now. Tarlemen could now see better and noticed what the person looked like.

Wait, what!? He was astonished. It was not a player, but a NPC (non-player character)! Huh? I didn’t know they could build things!

The NPC looked old, sour, and unused to trading with players, as if he had lived in this isolated lonely little home all his life.

“Well, well, well,” He croaked in a scratchy voice, “I see you have woken. Had a nice nap, I suppose?”

Tarlemen just glared at him as he approached bearing a lantern.

“I’m Larkitium. I don’t get much company here, as you could probably tell.” He grinned, showing crooked, disgusting teeth. Tarlemen also noticed something strange. Unlike most NPCs, Larkitium had both arms free. This was probably how he had built the house.

“And guess what?” He leaned close to the cage, his stale breath covering Tarlemen like a blanket. “I don’t care about your name. What do you think of that, eh?”

Larkitium straightened, glaring at Tarlemen. He seemed to not know what to do with him.

“So, what are you doing here, huh?” Larkitium asked.

“None of your business, I think,” Tarlemen replied.

“Ho really? I think I ought to know. Let’s see,” He began counting off his fingers, “You are on my property, you look suspicious, you scared away all my fishes I had gathering in the bay-“

He was rudely interrupted by Tarlemen. “Wait, what? You have fish gathering? What does that mean?”

“Ahem, If you had allowed me to continue, I would have told you. Now anyway, that’s why I’m asking you what in the yellow blazes you’re doing in my territory!”

“I’m looking for a place to settle, if you must know.”

“Okay. Now, let me tell you. I’m a fisherman. Not the regular kind that you have back at your place, the stupid oafs. No, I live with the fish. Over the years, I have learned their behavior and mentality. I have become one with the fishes of the seas. Even guardians won’t attack me.” That brought back memories of that terrible day to Tarlemen, and he shivered.

“I know all their secrets and traits,” Larkitium continued, “I don’t hunt, kill, or eat them, I help them. To me, they are friends, not small stupid things that swim around waiting to be slaughtered by dumb players. That is why I have fish gathering in the bay.”

Tarlemen had another question, however.

“How did you get way out here though?”

“That doesn’t concern you right now,” Larkitium said, glaring at him. “What is more important is why you were trying to destroy my house. I personally don’t believe your ‘Oh, I’m settling here’ story.”

“I already told you, I wasn’t trying to harm you! I was just passing through when I saw your house and was debating whether or not to go knock on your door! You’re the one with explaining to do, sir, putting me in a cage like this!”

Tarlemen was now frustrated and found he had been almost yelling at the sour villager. He waited for Larkitium to make a decision.

“Well, errr, alright. Fine. I’ll let you out, give you food and supplies, and you can even stay the night if you want, but by tomorrow morning you had better be gone, or I’ll use my club on you again.”

He then started digging around in his large, overstuffed pockets. Tarlemen heard a cacophony of different noises as Larkitium pulled finally pulled out a keychain. Selecting a rusty old key from it, he opened the cell door.

CREEEAKK! AAAARKC!

It was almost deafening as the wet door swung outward. Tarlemen immediately scrambled out of it into the warm, inviting amber light from upstairs.

“Alright, up you go,” Larkitium instructed as if talking to a two-year-old, “I don’t have all day for this business.”

Ooaacs, hawrk, ooaacs, hawrk, ooaacs, hawrk!

The stairs groaned in protest and discomfort as the two trudged up them. Upon reaching the top, Tarlemen saw the place was very similar to the basement.

Items were strewn everywhere, books were in every corner, dust covered most surfaces, rough, hand-made furniture that was probably fashioned from driftwood was shoved in odd places. While it didn’t look the greatest, the home did provide shelter from the howling winds outside.

Larkitium weaved his way through the maze-like jumble by heart, suggesting that nothing had been moved in a while.

“Here is my food storage.” He said, rummaging through items. “You can have the apples, bread, and pork. Nothing else though.”

Without waiting for a reply, he moved on to another room of the small house. They entered a slightly cleaner, but smaller room. Inside were some chests, a crafting table, and two beds.

“Luckily for you I have an extra bed sitting here.” Larkitium said, gesturing to one that looked like hadn’t been washed in its life.

Sitting on top of it was a mangy, scrawny cat with bright, golden eyes that was clearly very upset by something.

“Oops, I forgot.” Larkitium started stroking the cat to calm it. “This is Kilmi, my cat. Beware, though, she doesn’t like strangers. Hates them, in fact. Make room for this player, Kilm!”

The grumpy feline yawned, stretched, leapt off the bed, and strutted away as if she had far more important things to attend to, completely uninterested in the current situation.

“Anyways, that’s that,” Larkitium said, “I’m going to sleep now. If you need anything, don’t ask me because I won’t care. Now goodnight.”

And with that, he promptly collapsed on the bed, curled up, and was snoring uproariously within moments.

Quaaanck! Hark! Phrewwwwz, clapp.

Tarlemen, seeing no further reason to stay up any longer, did the same.

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

“Well, I was a bit apprehensive at first, but this is really turning out to be awesome!” Jate_MC was with his friend, xPizzA101, in a huge secret underground room full of blocks of diamonds. The two were crafting diamond armor and swords.

You see, the Circuit Override community annoyed them. All the players on the server and on the forums had been getting really worked up lately. Several diamonds were stolen, various robbers had been creeping through and trashing people’s houses, friends had turned against one another, players had been conspiring, and people had been leaving the main islands in search of a stable, plentiful place to start their new Minecraft life away from all of it. Several players had even left the network completely (such as Belry5054) out of pure disgust. People had become excessively negative on the server forums, and a simple remark about diamonds could get you yelled at. (Although most places are already like that in real life anyway.)

So Pizza and Jate had decided they were done with these dumb people. Pizza had been hoarding all the diamonds he ever collected and was now sharing them 50/50 with his friend. Their plan was to gear up, enchant, stock up, fortify, and attack. They would pick on small groups of players who were leading the rebellion against the server. For weeks now Jate had been observing their behavioral patterns in secret. He noticed the prominent players would discuss their woes in groups of three to four people to maintain inconspicuousness. On the forums they did the same thing. Jate had reported his findings to Pizza, who then arranged their strategy from there.

The two would hit where it hurt then run. Hit and run, hit and run. Speed was everything here. They had to avoid being detected, so they had positioned small bases here and there throughout the main streets. Their ultimate goal was to punish these players for making the experience less enjoyable. Pizza had held many conversations with them on the Circuit Override Forums, but none were fruitful. It was time for them to act!

Jate was currently making some diamond armor. Pizza was enchanting his. They had already stocked up on golden apples and tamed several wolves. Things were coming along smoothly, and Jate had confidence that they would be able to eliminate at least a few small clusters of annoying ringleaders. And if they somehow didn’t succeed and got killed, it wouldn’t be that bad. They could always come straight back here to Pizza’s secret diamond storage room.

In order to maintain secrecy, both players had stopped typing in the chat or sending private messages. They were now using Skype to communicate more efficiently.

“Okay, my armor is done,” Jate said from his frigid, cluttered basement in Illinois. “Are you almost done enchanting your stuff?”

“Almost. Why don’t you go cook some beef for us? I’m getting kinda hungry.” xPizzA101 lived in Saskatchewan, and I don’t even know why I am mentioning this, as it is completely irrelevant to the story. Oh well.

“Okay. And I’ll craft a few shields while I’m at it.”

“Sounds good.”

Everything was going smoothly so far. But the two players had made a fatal mistake. They had let it slip in the chat once that they were going to “teach a few players a lesson”. quizzaciously6297 had seen this and warned her fellow ringleaders that they had two suspicious players on their hands.

They were preparing for the attacks as well!

-=<:o0({[MINECRAFT]})0o:>=-

Tommy43oN1 had seen Susan in the hub battle! He had also noted the direction in which she was going, and was now hot on her trail. He was still resentful that Susan had invaded and raided his shop, and was now on a mission to hunt her down. I mean he didn’t have much else to do anyway, so… why not?

Tommy saw Susan start running off down South Main Street. He had followed her but got lost temporarily in the midst of so many players. Tommy was soon able to get to higher grounds (the top of a villager’s trading booth), and saw her nametag continue off of the street and on to Parkbridge Avenue.

The road was named Parkbridge because it went over Harkeline Creek that went through Emenin Park. It had a nice view most of the way, lit by sea lanterns and with a wide stone brick path, but became disgusting, small, and poorly lit at the end, where a small, dirty cul-de-sac waited. This was where Susan lived.

Quick break from the story: most places mentioned in this story will have slightly weird names as they are mostly named after the owners, co-owners, and admins of Circuit Override PVP. All right, back to the story now!

Tommy continued along this scenic road until he reached the cul-de-sac. He stared in disgust. How could anyone live comfortably in this place? Maybe it was Susan’s instinct as a thief to hide and become as invisible as possible. Tommy had to admit, the place was pretty obscure and discrete. It undoubtedly provided excellent cover as there were only two houses there: Susan’s, which he just saw her enter, and another less shabby but equally small one. He had no clue who would want to live this close to Susan, as the was know throughout the network as a thief. Then Tommy realized: maybe the other player was a thief as well! He had to watch his back, be careful, be silent, be quick, and use his plan if he was to have any chance of revenge upon Susan.