I woke up to sweet sunlight hitting my face, and the calming sound of the lake behind me. I kept my eyes closed, worried about what I would see when I opened them. But my ears had already confirmed my suspicions—I’m still stuck inside Minecraft.

I opened my eyes to see the blocky lake ahead that had saved my life last night. I struggled to stand back up, and my stomach immediately grumbled like a hungry puppy. I felt exhausted.

My hunger meter is probably running low, I realized.

I looked around to see what kind of options I had for a meal. There was a bunch of loot from the mobs that I destroyed last night, but rotten zombie flesh and skeleton bones aren’t exactly my idea of a balanced breakfast.

Getting a meal in Minecraft was going to be harder than ordering a pizza from an Italian restaurant or asking my mom to make me pancakes. I was going to have to hunt. To become a hunter, I first needed a weapon.

“I need sticks, and stones,” I muttered out loud. Thankfully after having blown up my wooden cabin, I had plenty of wood left. I grabbed a bunch of the wood lying around, and made myself a new crafting table. I put two blocks of wood inside, and out came four sticks.

“Now onto the stones…” I looked below me and started punching down at the dirt.

After last night, I had become somewhat of an expert at punching blocks. It just came naturally to me now, but I hoped it wouldn’t become a habit. I couldn’t imagine accidently punching the concrete walls of my classroom to avoid going out the crowded front door. Now that would be painful.

After a few layers of dirt blocks, I reached stone. I mined two cobblestone blocks and headed back to the top. One stick and two cobblestone blocks went into the crafting table, and out came one stone sword.

“How does that saying go? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but…a stone sword would do a lot worse…or something like that,” I swung the stone sword up and down and side to side, getting used to the weight of it.

“Wait a second…” I realized. “I’m talking to myself…this is just like that movie with Tom Hanks who gets stuck on an island by himself, goes crazy with loneliness, and becomes best friends with a volleyball. What if that happens to me? What if I go crazy because I have no one to talk to expect monsters and inanimate objects?”

I looked over at a sand block next to me, the closer I looked at it, the more I could make out a face in its pixelated design— “Wilson?”

“Impressive work,” the block replied.

“Oh no, it’s too late for me! I’m hearing blocks talk!”

“I’m not a block, you blockhead.” I realized the voice wasn’t coming from a block, it was coming from behind me.

I quickly turned to see two figures approaching me. One of them was a villager, and the other looked like she had a player skin. The villager looked a little familiar. I rubbed my eyes and got a better look at him. He was the glitch I had seen earlier, the fat villager.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You’re the bug I saw before,” I stated as I stepped forward and looked at him a little closer.

“Bug? No, I’m not a bug. That is a bug,” the portly villager said, slightly annoyed, as he pointed over to a dead spider.

Then he looked over at the girl that was standing next to him. She didn’t look like a villager; she didn’t have the trademarked long nose—she looked more like me—a player. She had bright blue hair, and blue eyes. And a black ribbon in her hair.

Cute, I thought.

“See, this is what I get for giving a compliment,” the portly villager continued. “I get called a block and then compared to a spider mob.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I did not mean that kind of bug. I meant like you look different than other villagers’ kind of bug,” I explained as I brushed off the sand from my clothing to make myself look more presentable.

“Different, how?” he curiously asked.

“Ummm…” I stalled as I thought of something inoffensive to say and tried hard not to stare at his almost round belly.

“That doesn’t matter now. We have more important things to do,” The girl interrupted and saved the day.

“Yes. Exactly,” I agreed. “Who are you guys anyway?”

“I am Emma, this is my partner, Jack. We were told to bring you to our leader,” Emma revealed.

“I’m Michael, and I’m not from here. I also have no idea how I got here,” I explained. “I come from a different world.”

“Nice to meet you, Steve. I know you are confused, but our leader Dionysus will explain everything you need to know,” Jack stated.

“No, not Steve. Michael,” I corrected him.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Steve.”

“Michael. Like M-I-C-H-A-E-L.”

“Yeah, I know how to spell Steve. S-T-E-V-E.”

Emma looked back and forth over at me and Jack—confused. I looked over at her wondering whose side she was on. After questioning my sanity for a second, I decided to give up.

“You know, never mind. Steve it is. Let’s get going,” I said as I began walking. A sharp pain went through my legs as I took my first step. The arrow that hit me last night was still sticking out of my feet, and it was throbbing with pain.

“You guys wouldn’t happen to be doctors or have some kind of medication?” I hopefully asked the duo.

“I’m a crafter, she’s a builder,” Jack replied as he went through his pockets and pulled out a piece of cooked porkchop. He tossed it over to me and I looked at it uncomfortably. “Oh, don’t worry. I keep my pockets clean. No lint on that porkchop guaranteed.” He unsuccessfully tried to reassure me.

“I don’t think this is going to help,” I told him, looking at the porkchop. “I’m hungry, but I’m pretty sure I need medical attention.”

“Just eat it, trust me,” Emma encouraged

I closed my eyes and tried not to breathe as I ate the pocket porkchop. I looked down at my feet as the arrow slowly disappeared and all the pain went away.

Woah, now that’s insanely cool.

Fighting monsters, no doctor appointments, living inside a game. You know what? I think I can get used to this.

The walk to the village was long and hard. Emma and Jack told me that they had to keep the village as hidden and the road to it as difficult as they could make it. It was all to make sure that the village could be as safe as possible.

I didn’t know what the big deal about hiding a village was, monsters in Minecraft spawn anywhere, no matter where you are. But something told me what they were hiding from was much worse than regular old Minecraft mobs. That something definitely not being Jack and Emma who were quiet as a mouse the whole journey.

I would much rather have been lying in bed watching cartoons, but instead, I was walking in a virtual world with two weirdos. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I was ready for anything. If I could survive my first night, then I could survive whatever is coming next.

After climbing mountains and going through multiple smelly swamps, we finally arrived at the village.