22 – WHY AM I BEING SUCH A CRINGELORD?

Jacob gave all the people directions on how to build their houses and the tools to use. Basically, it all boiled down to him giving them wood and wooden planks, axes to chop them down from their block form, and then gave each group a piece of land where they could do whatever they wanted. He also set out to craft tables, chairs and bed frames for everyone. It took him longer to place them all down than to craft them.

“This is getting out of hand, since when did I roleplay this hard?” He muttered to himself, mind going back to the speech he gave. If it could be even called that.

“What is roleplay?” Lumia, appearing from seemingly nowhere, asked.

“Eh, it’s hard to explain. Or not, really. It’s just pretending to be someone you’re not, and saying stupid shit while you’re at it. Like I did just now, with the speech and all. Must have been cringe.”

“I don’t know what cringe means, but I assume it’s a bad thing.” Her voice was small.

“Quite.”

“Then why would you say that? You gave us a new name. You gave us a new purpose!”

“Yeah, and did I act even for a moment like I should have? Like any normal person would have, after being whisked away from their home and family and thrust into danger like this? No, I went and just became a messiah or something. This really isn’t me, you know.”

She looked downcast, somehow mirroring how he should have felt. She looked up at him, her face brightening ever so slightly as she took his arm.

“You still saved us. That was a heroic thing you did. You were brave, back there, even after what my mother said to you.”

“You don’t know half of it. I almost went after the beast myself. Alone! Would you even imagine it?”

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“You are brave.” She squeezed herself into him.

“That’s just plain idiot behavior. Anime MC level idiot. This stinks, this all stinks. I get that I just went from one crisis to another, all the while being bewitched by this gamer ability or player or whatever. But now, I gotta sit down and see what’s wrong with me.”

“I don’t think that anything’s wrong with you.” She smiled.

“Yeah, well…” He sighed. “I really hope so.”

They shared a moment together, and after a while Jacob’s inner turmoil somewhat calmed down. He had cried for his family, back at the tree, so why did they all feel so distant now? Why was his mind just going back to thinking about things he needed to do, stuff he needed to try out?

He had people to protect now, he knew. But that was not reason enough. Perhaps this was the escape from life he needed, the fresh start in a world where he truly mattered. Wish fulfillment at its strongest.

Whatever.

The problem was that most of his equipment was still in the basement, but it probably was not worth the effort going back and picking it up. Also, with how this world worked, he probably needed to think up a more creative approach to progression than he would in a game world.

Before all that, however, he had to test something. It was a little detail upon which depended most of what he was planning to do, and if it was revealed to be different than it was in the game, then he would be royally screwed.

So far, he had always placed torched everywhere he went. The fact is, he was scared. The first big red flag was the texture of the little hearts he saw in his field of view. They were darker, much like they would be in hardcore. Then, there was the sheer amount of damage he was taking. While he had no idea how real-world injuries were supposed to translate to heart-loss, he was still losing a lot of health even for a little fall without his feather-fall trinket.

He doubted he would respawn upon death. All this together made him spam torches like a madman, effectively inhibiting hostile mob spawn wherever he went. And the reason he didn’t see any peaceful mobs yet could be because of chance, with him being underground or indoors most of the time.

In any case, he knew that there were animals that when killed dropped mob loot, like the small critter he killed in the forest at the beginning. And he knew that there were skeletons in the ruins, like he found in the jungle temple. All he needed to test out, was natural spawn. And if it was present, how to better exploit it.

All in all, he wasn’t too worried. Even if the experiment failed, he still probably had ways to obtain loot, although they would be much more tedious.