On a loud, packed bus, a young man idly studies a glowing phone screen. There is a gentle smile on his face, and amid the chaos around him he softly hums a curious tune. The few people near him who hear it do not consciously recognize it, but their unconscious minds do.
Those who can hear the faint tune he is humming are reminded of a simpler time, of a goofy, and childishly innocent love story, and of a distant school many people liked the thought of attending during their youths. A place of music, sports, and smarts.
The boy himself has many fond memories of the movie set in the school, and so it is on his mind as he mentally readies himself for another grueling shift at his job as a busboy at a local restaurant. It is at this moment that the figure shuts his eyes. Unbeknownst to him, the very second that he does this he unwittingly sets in motion a series of events on scales both bigger than he can imagine and much, much smaller than he can possibly fathom.
The world freezes around him, and his surroundings instantly blur. His body begins to be altered by processes that involve countless esoteric formuli and tremendous modifications to his spirit, mind, and body. These processes begin and end in a matter of attoseconds, and each one confers new knowledge, new memories, and powers to the young man. As they occur, the boy is transferred from one location to another, teleported by esoteric energies and universal winds.
The thing that tips off the boy, barely 17, to the oddities occurring around him is the sudden lack of noise. In the span of the seconds his eyes are shut he goes from hearing chaotic background noise to hearing nearly nothing, and this causes him to open his eyes curiously. What he sees makes him gasp, even as his other senses suddenly catch up and alert him to other oddities regarding his surroundings.
One moment I’m sitting on a bus on my way to work and the next… Well, the next I’m feet away from a forest that stretches as far as I can see in one direction, and an endless ocean the other. I’m sitting in white, densely packed sand, and I can hear and smell the ocean behind me.
I quickly get to my feet, keeping my eyes on the dense line of dark trees all the while. The trees are massive, extending some twenty or thirty feet in the air, and I can see and hear various animals running around on the ground between them. At the same time a strange number appears in the upper middle section of my vision. It reads “5,256,000.60” and it begins to tick downward within a millisecond of appearing.
“That’s… weird. It’s a timer.” I remark, realizing this almost instantly. The instant that I do I get shocked when I hear a soft peal of feminine laughter come out of nowhere and in fact resound from impossibly close by. I quickly spin around, looking for the source of laughter and I get annoyed when I can’t spot it. It takes the source of the soft sound to reveal itself.
“Ah, sorry. I should have introduced myself before I reacted to your remarks. You can’t see me, I’m… a part of you.” The voice explains, causing my eyes to narrow skeptically.
“It’s true! I know it sounds crazy to you, which makes sense, but you are a ‘Rebis’ now. Among other things. And a part of how that manifests is in me, a feminine counterpart to your innately masculine outer self. I am inside of you, and can be allowed to wander, within limits, with a thought. Try it!” The voice explains, causing me to sigh silently. I look around, making sure that there’s no one nearby, and then I try to do as I was told to do.
I envision this… other-self manifesting near me and I openly gasp in shock when a woman actually does appear on the sand in front of me, a bright smile on her face. She is almost intimidatingly pretty, appearing with light blonde hair in contrast to my own dark brown hair and with gentle blue eyes that are noticeably different from my own green ones. She is dressed in a casual outfit made up of jeans and a t-shirt. She is wearing a curious double necklace in the shape of a tiny sword and a small shield.
“Hi! I’m so excited that you were able to manifest me so easily,” She says, cheerily. “Now I know that you’re confused but thankfully I have a bit of an explanation.” She tells me, before taking a breath and thinking about how to begin to explain whatever the fuck is going on.
“Okay, so every soul gradually accumulates energy. Most souls have a very tiny amount that they can safely store, and any more energy they accumulate is harmlessly dispersed around them. Your soul is a bit different.” She explains, cryptically.
“This is not a unique anomaly by any means, but it is important that it be dealt with. Creatures with unusually massive souls are capable of surviving inter-universal travel unaided, though not unchanged. At the moment that you closed your eyes you hit your apotheosis-point, the point wherein your soul absorbed all of the energy it could safely absorb relative to the mundane universe you were in. You were shunted to this world, a world of some magic and various monsters, where humans are a rarity but not an impossibility, and where your soul can absorb much more energy safely before you are again shunted elsewhere.” She tells me, dumping a lot of information on me at once. I look at her, curiously when she finishes talking, noticing she hasn’t explained… her whole deal.
“Okay, let’s say that I buy that… That doesn’t explain you.” I reply, even while glancing at the forest, and keeping my eye on it. She nods, and I can feel her noting the intelligence of my remark.
“That’s a good ear. That’ll help you survive. When you were shunted from one universe to another the inter-universal energies that touched you and left you changed awoke your innate connection to ten different arcane and esoteric arts. The ten are the art of the alchemist, the art of the bard, the art of the clergy, the art of the culinary warrior, the art of the dimensional traveler, the art of the enchanter, the art of the hedge mage, the art of the merchant, the art of the style warrior, and the art of the tamer. I am a complex manifestation of one of the higher end skills of the art of the alchemist.” She informs me, her lips tilted upwards in a broad grin.
“There are strict limitations that apply towards me, for now, but with the decade we have here we have all the time we need to begin to work towards overcoming said limits.” She says with a smile. My eyes widen when I hear her say that.
“A… decade?!” I remark, stunned by what she has just revealed. She giggles.
“Yep. That’s how long it’ll take you to accrue enough energy from this universe to be shunted to another one. In the meantime the knowledge that I, as the supernatural half of you, possess will gradually leak from me into you. I can guide you in how to utilize the full slate of powers we possess anyway, but it’s better for you to fully internalize it.” She tells me, a smile on her face. She falls silent and turns to glance at the forest behind her. I watch her tense up and am surprised when she grabs her necklace and unclasps it.
I hear a faint groaning sound, one that sounds quite some distance away, and the woman in front of me idly taps the bottom of the stylized dual-accessories on her necklace. The things morph into full-sized versions of what they were stylized versions of: a sword and a shield.
Behind where she’s standing a strange figure emerges from behind a distant tree. My eyes widen in fear when I realize that I’m seeing a large, shambling corpse. The distant figure is lazily exploring its surroundings, but its definitely mobile and it has dark green skin and empty eye sockets. It is shrouded in the shade provided by the massive trees that tower over it.
My companion darts back until she is only just in front of me. She grimaces as she studies the creature.
“This is bad. It is dark enough in the forest for monsters to spawn. That’s potentially cataclysmic news. I need to get you up to speed fast.” She tells me, and when I hear her say that monsters are “Spawning” in the forest I glance at her.
“Like… in Minecraft?” I ask, and she smiles but she doesn’t say anything. When she next speaks she does not answer my question.
“I need you to focus. Picture a vault in your mind’s eye and envision it opening in front of you.” She says, and though I keep my eye on the distant zombie I do as she says. When I behave as instructed I am surprised to find that my mental vault is filled with items already.
“Look for the necklace. When you see it, reach out and grab it with your hands. Like it is actually there.” She tells me, and it takes me a beat to spot the necklace but when I do I follow her instructions. As I do the vault closes and the objects are in my hand, but in the fully manifested form hers took when she tapped them.
“Okay, at least you’re good at this.” She says, a smile on her face. The zombie begins to turn, this time in our direction. When its head is facing us I get to see the previously neutral expression on its face turn into one of hatred and rage, and the creature begins to bound towards us even as it gutturally roars in anger.
I steel my arm holding the shield and I grit my teeth but nothing could prepare me for what occurs the instant that the zombie runs out past the shade provided by the trees in the forest. The instant that the massive creature darts past the leaves blocking the sun’s rays the thing bursts into flames. I sense my companion begin to smile as she leaps forward and swings her sword at the beast we are facing. The creature is struck by the blade and its whole body flashes red as it seems to be blown fully off of its feet by the force of the blow.
I immediately realize that this… must actually be Minecraft. In my whole life I’ve never seen anything other than Minecraft where monsters spawn from nothing in the dark, where zombies burst into flames in the daylight, and where a hurt creature flashes red the instant that it is harmed. The second I realize this I grimace and dart forward, my own sword being thrust in front of me as I roar in anger.
“I’m in fucking MINECRAFT?!” I roar, even as I slash out with my weapon. The thing feels incredibly light in my hands and somehow holding it fills me with confidence I reach the massive, flaming zombie and strike it clean in the neck with my sword which makes it flash again and sends it further back.
My companion darts to my side and follows up on her initial strike, and hits the zombie in its shoulder. This time the blow hurls the creature back and when it lands it collapses and disappears, leaving behind green experience orbs, a haunch of floating, almost green, meat, and to my surprise a ripped piece of blue fabric, like from “Steve’s” default outfit.
“Oh hey, a trophy! That looks nice.” My companion says, as she darts forward and grabs the thing. As she touches it I feel a curious sensation wash over me and I sense vague memories fill my mind.
I “remember” things that I know I don’t actually remember, such as a distant part of the forest I cannot see from where I’m currently standing, and the general sensation of the zombie’s slow movements.
“Whoa, that’s… weird.” I mutter, as I look over at my companion and sigh.
“Minecraft? Seriously?” I ask, even as the full weight of this begins to crash over me. A decade in Minecraft… The figure I’m looking at nods sadly at me.
“A decade. In Minecraft.” She tells me, affirmatively. She then glances at the piece of fabric in her hand intently and then the thing vanishes. I sense it enter the “vault” I seem to be in control of. I glance at my objects and I focus on willing them to shrink down. A split second after I begin to focus the objects vanish and become one necklace that comes into being around my neck, making me smile.
“Huh… I also have superpowers. I guess that helps.” I remark, causing my companion to smile.
“You do. It does. But by itself you’ll still be in danger. We should start setting up a shelter of sorts,” She tells me, to which I nod. “Fortunately you have something which massively simplifies that. Go ahead and open up the vault again. When you do, look for a blue cube.” She instructs me, which I do without complaint or hesitation. I find it and immediately replicate the actions that allowed me to grab the necklace and this time a blue cube appears in my left hand. She smiles when she sees the thing in my hand.
“That is a ‘Portable Cabin’ and it tremendously simplifies the work of building a shelter.” She informs me, a bright smile on her face as she proudly talks about the object.
“All you need to do is select a place to put the thing, and then press the button on top of the cube. It’ll take a minute or so once you’ve pressed it, but it’s effectively an instant house. You can move it, by pressing on a button in any of the rooms in the house. Once pressed the house will deform and return to a cube-state, which you can pocket and then place elsewhere. It’ll even retain any changes you made inside of it!” She tells me, proudly. My eyes widen when she finishes speaking as I gaze at the object.
I study the beach I’m on, which I almost unconsciously realize should only be about two dozen “Blocks” wide, before selecting a spot in the middle of the beach and placing the cube on the ground near it. I tap the button on the top of the cube and I smile when I watch the cube light up and begin to spin of its own accord. Seeing this further cements the bizarre reality of the dangerous new world I’m in, even though this object is not a “Minecraft” object.
“Okay, so no time for fooling around. I need to go and figure out how to make this place safe, fast.” I remark, as I study my surroundings. Ahead of me are trees that are both the source of some of the dangers I’m facing and a part of the solution.
I begin to walk towards one of the trees and my companion follows behind me, a curious look on her face. I reach the tree and realize that I’m about to test how committed to the idea of “Minecraft”, quirks and all, this place is. I close my fist and begin to punch the bottom of the tree, and I mentally note that the tree doesn’t feel particularly hard when my fists impact it.
I strike it with one hand at first, before I begin to both speed up and vary my assault by adding my other hand to the mix. It takes about half a minute, but the chunk of wood I’ve been assaulting eventually shrinks down and becomes a floating cube. The rest of the tree is not affected by this, and now it simply hovers over the ground with no connection to the floor of the forest. I reach down and grab the cube, and as I make contact with the cube it vanishes and a blue text box appears in the middle of my field of view.
[Alert: Quest-Mode Interface Installed & First Quest Completed
Congratulations [Jumper], you are the recipient of an experimental method of power acquisition, as dictated by the omniverse itself. This interface is known as the [Quest-Menu] and it is a system installed onto your soul to help you manage the burgeoning powers you are discovering within yourself, and also powers you will acquire over the course of your journey.
You have already noticed something important. The [Cosmic Timer] you can see in the upper-middle section of your field of view is a timer that is keeping track of how much energy your soul has generated. When it finishes its countdown you will be shunted to another universe, and your soul will be updated to cement the abilities you’ve gained here and to empower the objects you’ve found that resonate with you. In the meantime, your goal is or at least should be, to survive.
New powers can be acquired by completing [Quests]. Some [Quests] are quite simple, such as the one you’ve just completed [Basic Introduction], and others will be much more complex. Nonetheless, all quests, when completed, afford you with certain rewards. The quest you have just completed affords you the ability to utilize [Minecraft Physics] when doing so would be convenient to you, as well as access to the very basic abilities possessed by the archetypical [Traveler] and [Crafter], ‘Steve’ himself. Additional rewards can be found in your [Portable Cabin].]
This screen remains visible for a split second after I read it, and then vanishes. I turn to look at my companion and she shrugs at me.
“I know what you’re thinking. Literally. I didn’t know that would happen. Uh… That said, I can go inspect the cabin while you continue to work here, okay?” She asks, and I chuckle and nod at her. The cabin, meanwhile, is now translucent but visible. It is a decently large space, about eight blocks long in each direction and at a glance I can determine that there must be more than one floor.
I turn back to face the tree and begin to punch the next section of it, which starts at about my neck and proceeds upward for a bit. As I begin to physically assault the thing I hear the door into the cabin open and then I am surprised when I begin to see something wholly new: the inside of the cabin.
My vision has been bifurcated somehow. It’s like I’m watching two people play a co-op, split screen video game. One half of my vision remains as it should, with me seeing the tree I’m assaulting, and the other shows me what I instinctively know is my companion exploring the cabin.
As the second part of the tree I’m assaulting begins to crack under my unending assault, I study the living room section of my cabin. Tucked away in a corner is a small Minecraft-style chest that my other self immediately wanders towards. When she reaches it she kneels down and opens it, only to gasp when she spots numerous beginner items from this game.
I scan the contents of the chest and immediately notice several loafs of bread, a complete “Stack” of torches, numerous wooden blocks, several packets of seeds, iron tools, and a full set of leather armor. I chuckle when my companion touches the armor and seems to just… will it onto herself, which works and leaves her outfitted in light but serviceable armor. She proceeds to touch and simply will each of the other objects in the chest into our shared “Vault”, and I sense them entering our shared space. When she is done she closes the chest, and I sense her thinking. I can now hear her idle thoughts, and they are filled with observations about what she has just witnessed.
She eventually shakes her head, right as the part of the tree I’m assaulting breaks under the rough ministrations I’m administering. I pluck another cube, and watch as my companion begins to explore the rest of the cabin. I then reach into the vault and equip one of the iron tools the chest in the cabin held: an iron axe. As soon as I equip it I sense some of my new abilities activate for the first time.
The entire bottom tenth of my field of view is suddenly filled with various symbols and icons. One of them is a row of hearts, on top of which is a series of icons of haunches of meat, depicting my health and my hunger. Not far from those icons is a long “Hotbar”, a series of boxes filled with items I can instantly equip. On top of my hotbar is a series of icons of iron chestplates, but they are currently black indicating that I am not wearing anything classified as armor right now. When I’m done studying the familiar symbols I glance back at the world around me and chuckle when I see faint lines defining each “block” around me.
“Minecraft. But in real life. Wild.” I mutter, trying to take this in stride.
For the next forty or so minutes my companion and I pass time with idle but important tasks. I busily farm my surroundings, while occasionally getting coached by my other self in the usage of some of my abilities, including one that lets me repair objects with my mind, she carefully surveys the cabin. We both note, with delight, the fact that there is a modern bathroom and several bedrooms, as well as a full kitchen, and we are both overjoyed to see a crafting bench, which my companion immediately chucks into the vault, and an alchemical workstation in one of the rooms.
At one point during the nearly-hour-long terraforming session I place the crafting bench on the beach not far from me and I transform some of the oak blocks I have made into planks, and I begin to place torches in the immediate vicinity of the cabin. Doing so is easy, but during this time my companion tells me she has run out of energy for the moment and vanishes, leaving me alone, before mentally reappearing inside of me and explaining that in time, with training, she’ll be able to function for longer and be more independent, but for the moment she can at most survive outside of me for an hour before needing to recover within me and only be a fairly short distance.
I quietly accept this, thankful that she is still safe and in fact conscious, and continue the labor of transforming my immediate surroundings until the sun begins to descend. When it does I quickly retreat to my cabin, aware of the dangers of the dark in Minecraft, entering the cabin shortly before darkness begins to creep towards my new home.
When I enter the cabin I immediately turn on the lights in the living room, the room right behind the door leading in and out of the cabin. I glance at the symbols near the bottom of my field of view and note that none of the symbols have begun to decay.
“That’s because you don’t need to eat. You’re an alchemist, but one with a body that has innately mastered alchemical rituals and incorporated properties. You can eat for the heck of it, or to speed your regeneration, or to grow in power and intelligence thanks to your nature as a ‘Culinary Warrior’ but it is not necessary for you to eat to survive. Your ‘Hunger’ will only ever go down if it is used as fuel for your regeneration.” My companion reveals, causing my eyes to widen in delight. Right as I am about to cheer I hear the sounds of distant, and loud monsters.
The sudden reminder of where I am tempers my excitement. I walk over to a nearby window and look through it, facing the beach and the ocean. For several minutes nothing happens as the sun completes its swift descent and the moon distantly begins to rise up, seemingly out of the ocean itself.
I can see for miles, and while there is a lengthy “Safe” zone that I have constructed using torches to keep monsters from spawning, there is still many miles of coast further down and I watch zombies come into being, along with bow wielding skeletons, all of whom form out of nothing but the darkness itself.
“Huh… Just creation out of nothing huh? That hardly seems fair.” I grumble, as I begin to patrol the whole cabin. I look through every window to make sure nothing spawns in my safe zone, and I do so for a whole hour before I am content enough to move to one of the bedrooms. When I reach the thing I sit on the bed and take in the craziness of the last few hours.
“Minecraft… but for real.” I say, as I attempt to wrap my mind around the very idea, on even the most basic level, of what has just happened.
“Fucking A, man.” I complain, as I begin to put together various ideas and form a cohesive understanding of my situation.
“A decade here, in a post-apocalyptic world, with powers I don’t understand… And the ability to get Minecraft powers and items if I complete ‘Quests’. Okay. Probably not THAT bad, if I just keep my cool.” I mutter, even as I relax and lay on the bed. My thoughts are punctuated by the distant sounds of the roars of monsters. The monsters always seem ready to interrupt me whenever I get a big head. I chuckle and shut my eyes.
In moments I feel my consciousness drifting away. It takes a matter of minutes, less then five, before I manage to fall completely asleep, but as I do my last thoughts are of idle musings and me wondering if maybe I’ll wake up back on the bus, having simply doozed off. The voice of my companion is the last thing I hear, and she warns me that that won’t happen and that this is real. Not exactly a reassuring sort, that one…
Luvin’ this!