A fire.

Its invention was the single biggest step humanity took.

It could be used to ward off beasts of the night or its shadows. A first step to freeing the species from the day and night cycle… Or, on a much deeper level, their first step to controlling energy.

Which, as it just so happened, was the way in which scientists conceived the idea of civilizational growth.

It was never about something as flimsy as culture or society.

For the ultimate goal of every possible civilization would be to control energy and constantly expand their level of doing so.

The difference between a barbarian and a noble technocraft could all be boiled down to how much energy they had at their disposal. And harnessing fire was the very first step on this path.

For the problematic part, it wasn't all that easy to conjure fire in the dim, damp cave between the dirt and the stone of the deep underground.

"I could try with the sticks, but…"

Theo was well aware of how hard it would be for him to spark fire with what he had on his hands.

That is, if he was limited to just what a normal person could do.

"Let's try… this."

Theo took a look into his inventory.

The one block of wood he got from that dangerous tree turned into four blocky planks.

'Not enough, after all.'

With only four blocks, Theo couldn't build the thing that he wanted. Even if in the original game, four blocks would be enough, filling in the two-by-two inventory crafting window, it fell short when it came to creating a ring within Theo's current three-by-three crafting grid.

Still…

'I wonder if this will…'

Splitting the stack of the icon of the rounded wood he got when directly chopping the tree. And after a moment of consideration, he moved half of his survival wood into the stack of its blocky counterpart.

And just like that, the numbers in Theo's inventory changed, providing him with just enough to craft the one essential item.

'Craft the crafting bench.'

Finally, after much effort and danger, Theo took a simple yet solid step ahead.

'And now…'

His goal remained the same as before.

To light his temporary cave. And for that, he needed fire. Yet, with no coal to make torches with, he could simply build a furnace.

Only for the stone he gathered as he cleared out the place to come in handy. Or rather, all that stone would come in handy if not for the five-minute timer.

'Ugh…'

This was surely a first. Yet, regardless of how short of a delay it was… it annoyed Theo more than any of the obstacles he faced before.

Just waiting for something to happen… didn't feel right.

Thankfully, the wait wasn't all that long. And a few moments later, Theo finally got his hands on his long-desired item.

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The crafting bench.

He didn't afford himself any time to celebrate, though, instantly placing it down into the darkness.

A wave of strange feelings struck across the young man's body.

As if the rules of the world itself suddenly all broke down, only to be remolded in a new and weird, imperfect way.

The change that followed, however, couldn't be more obvious.

For Theo's crafting grid now expanded to five by five, once again proving not to follow all the systems Theo was familiar with during his time back on Earth.

Now, to fill it with the stone…

Out of the fifty blocks of stone Theo had in his inventory, he quickly filled the edge of his crafting space with a total of sixteen blocks.

And once again, Theo's gut feeling proved him right.

For the stone now vanished, replaced by the five-minute crafting delay. And a few breaths later, Theo finally placed yet another familiar block just a single block of floor away.

"And now, let there be… fire."

This time, rather than the world changing around him, Theo felt as if he suddenly took a quick plunge into another dimension governed by some slightly different circumstances. And after splitting his remaining wooden planks he crafted from the wooden chops and blocks, he mentally moved them over to both spots within the inventory of his second important stationary tool.

The wood at the bottom of the device served as fuel, while the remaining planks at the top baked in the furnace's upper inventory.

The moment it happened, he turned the last of his planks into sticks before firing them directly into the now-burning belly of the recently crafted furnace.

Even though just the furnace was enough to light the entire cave up… Theo pulled out a burning stick from the bellows of the blocky oven, only to then close his eyes and take a breath.

'Recall that feeling…'

The moment when he just… merged half of his survival wood stack into the blocky wood, allowing him to change the type of his items on the go.

And just like that, the burning torch in Theo's hand became but another of his blocky-type items, now turning into an item famed for never needing any sort of refuel.

However, between the light of his furnace and his newly made infinite torch, Theo could finally see the effect of quite a bit of manual labor.

On one hand, it was the most crude five-by-five-by-four one could imagine, sunk into the border between the layers of dirt and rock.

But what would be a shameful display of one's building skills in a game turned into a pinnacle when applied to the real world.

Theo stood in the middle of a spacious, perfectly well-shaped cave.

The slight amount of smoke from the furnace rose up along the way Theo used to reach the depth, forming a sort of natural chimney. Right by the furnace stood… a wooden cube with some sort of pattern just drawn on it, imitating maybe some tools or blueprints.

Still, by mere proximity, this simple piece allowed Theo access to a much greater variety of designs, some of which already started to pop into his head as they formed up in the library of the crafting he could easily access.

"No matter how big this step is, however," Theo muttered to himself as he finally dropped down to the cold, stone floor and rested his back against the side of the crafting cube, allowing the warm fires hidden in the bellows of his furnace to slowly fight off the chill that seeped deep into his bones.

Or was it the residual terror from when that damned oilrat nearly got its claws on him?

In all honesty, Theo… couldn't really tell.

"Okay. Now I have a basic base, some barebones resources, and relative safety. What is it that I'm missing? What would be the next logical step? What's urgent, and what can wait?"

Theo allowed his voice to wander as freely as his thoughts.

And then, he condensed all of his thoughts, all of his ideas, all of his leisurely inspirations, pooling them all into a single pile that he then threw all of his intelligence at.

The memories of when he played all sorts of games.

The potential routes to follow, development paths to put into use and invest in.

'It's way too early to look for any answers, not when I'm but a rat burrowing in its hole in fear of the big bad wolf or, in this case, the actual rat.'

Theo breathed out.

"Well, no matter what, defeating that rat is an absolute priority," the young man sighed as he slowly grew more and more aware of the herculean degree of the tasks ahead.

In the face of what he absolutely had to do, what happened up until now faded into obscurity.

"Only by clearing this area can I gain access to more resources. But stepping into the forest with that rat roaming around? Yeah, I can forget it. And the longer I'm blocked out of the woods, the further my thirst and hunger meters drop down."

Theo muttered to himself, fully aware of the survival clock ticking in the background.

This rat stood in his way. It was also the greatest threat to Theo's life and safety.

And so, it had to die.

"How do I do it, though?" Theo sighed again as he slowly allowed himself to sort through his inventory to figure out what he should craft next.

Then, Theo froze, as his eyes took on a weird look.

"What's the easiest way to solve such an issue in any of the applicable games?"

For but a moment longer, Theo held his breath. Then, the corner of his lips twitched slightly.

"It's that obvious?" he smirked before breathing out a single bout of laughter.

"I need to cheat."