"How do I make an axe?"
"Uh, you need two sticks and three wooden planks, but you can't do it in your inventory's four crafting slots. Emma, you need to craft a crafting table first. Let me see… you can make one with four wooden planks."
"A crafting table?"
Emma Johnson, clearly new to sandbox games, looked completely lost and confused.
Luckily, her chat was full of eager viewers guiding her through every step. Emma just had to follow their instructions, even though the people helping her were just "cloud players" watching her stream. They could only rely on the information John shared on screen and guide her based on that. One dared to teach, and the other dared to listen.
Emma was so focused on the game that she didn't notice how her stream's popularity had suddenly surged, surpassing her previous peak.
Thanks to her earlier experience of making wooden planks, crafting the table was easy enough.
"Now, place it on the ground. Success!"
As soon as she placed the crafting table, Emma beamed with joy. Her character's blocky face even showed a small smile on screen, reflecting her own.
"Now, to make the axe, place two wooden planks in the top left two slots of the crafting table, and in the middle three vertical slots, put another plank and two sticks!"
"Success!"
After carefully arranging the items, a green axe popped up in the crafting table's result box. Emma excitedly clicked to grab it.
"Wait, the axe came out just like that?!"
"It's done?"
"My God! Is it really that easy?"
"This crafting table is amazing! Auto-production!"
"Honestly, if I had a crafting table like that in the Stone Age, I'd never starve!"
Emma, who had just crafted her first wooden axe, swung it around like a kid who had just gotten a new toy, chopping the air with a sense of achievement.
"Hey, anchor, there's someone ahead of you!"
"Nah, it's a single-player game… wait, is there really someone there?!"
"The anchor is about to get jumped!"
As she swung her axe for fun, it became night in Minecraft, and the game's signature feature—monsters—made their appearance.
When Emma snapped out of her focus and looked up, two green arms were reaching for her character.
"Ahhh!!!"
Startled, she instinctively swung her wooden axe at the approaching threat. The green-skinned creature immediately recoiled.
"That's a zombie!" someone from the chat explained. "They spawn in dark areas."
"A zombie?"
"Wait, did the anchor just smack back the zombie? Isn't it too weak?"
"I mean, with all due respect, that zombie seems dumber than the anchor."
Emma was surprised at first but quickly became excited. "Take my axe!" she shouted, swinging it at the zombie with newfound confidence.
After some effort and multiple swings, Emma managed to defeat the zombie in front of her tens of thousands of viewers, achieving a moment of glory.
But before she could celebrate for long, more shuffling sounds came from the darkness. Not only were there more zombies approaching, but skeletons started spawning too.
In the end, Emma could only watch helplessly as her character was overwhelmed and knocked out by the horde.
"This game is so fun!"
Despite her defeat, Emma's face was full of excitement. It was only then that she noticed her stream's viewership had skyrocketed.
"Welcome, everyone, to my stream! Thank you for the gifts! I'm sorry, I was too focused on the game and didn't notice you all. I didn't expect John to make such a fun pixel game."
Emma apologized, seizing the opportunity to give John and Minecraft a shoutout.
Ding~ "Minecraft" has gained another loyal fan!
"It's okay, anchor! Are you still playing?"
"Anchor, do you want to play multiplayer with us? This game has online mode!"
"Yes, yes! I can help with gathering resources!"
"Wait, are we really offering to be assistants? Also, what's with all the humbleness? For the record, I love being an assistant in games."
"Shameless!"
"Uh, I'll give it a try. I'm still learning, so I'm not good at the game yet."
Reading the chat, Emma felt multiplayer would be even more fun. She returned to the main menu and prepared to select multiplayer mode. But just before she did, she noticed the "Game Mods" option and remembered the modding contest John had announced on his social media. She clicked on it out of curiosity.
[Current Mods: 0]
"It looks like you can use mods to change the game settings?"
Emma entered the Creative Workshop, where some basic mods were already available, including the tree-chopping mod and the basic crafting table mod—things John had asked his team to add for players to try.
"I remember when I first started playing Minecraft, you needed mods to unlock the crafting table. I was just as confused as Emma is now!"
"Huh? A crafting table mod?" Emma said, surprised, and quickly downloaded it. The mod count increased to 1.
"John is so thoughtful! Now I can check crafting recipes directly in the game."
After browsing a bit more, Emma downloaded a few other mods before returning to the main menu and launching the multiplayer mode.
In multiplayer, there were two options: official servers and private servers.
Official servers provided a vanilla experience where all players had equal access and no mods could be added. Private servers, on the other hand, allowed players to tweak settings, add mods, and invite others to join in the fun.
"Okay, I've set up a server. It's called 'House of Vine.' Feel free to join if you want to play together!"
After some trial and error, Emma successfully created her own private server. Within minutes, the server was full.
The game screen showed blocky characters all around—some chopping wood, some digging the ground, everyone having a great time.
This scene in Emma's live stream mirrored what was happening with Minecraft players across the Dragon Kingdom. Most of them went through a period of confusion at the beginning, followed by a sense of discovery and joy. Many players had already started creating their own game mods, not forgetting about the modding contest John had launched.
A/N: Same as always, Enjoy and donate stones.
Also check out my patreon for advanced chapters.
Patreon.com/AncestorX
Thanks ✌️.