"Where... am I?"

Sitting underneath a towering, verdant oak tree, Steve gazed around his unfamiliar surroundings with a sense of wonder. His perplexed purple eyes first landed on his tanned arms and light blue top, then moved down to his legs, clad in dark purple trousers and black boots.

"What the hell?" With caution, Steve poked and grasped at his own legs. Each new touch caused his nervous frown to shift into an excited smile. "I can feel that!"

After taking a deep breath to steady his racing heart, he leaned forward and rose to his feet. Steve's momentary loss of balance was quickly corrected as he flailed his arms. Like a child taking its first steps, Steve cautiously moved forward. Each step brought a wave of joy, transforming his once hesitant grin into a vast, jubilant smile.

Steve spent several minutes walking and running through the vast forest. Sweat covered his forehead, and his leg muscles ached from the overexertion. "This is great!" After recovering his breath, Steve blinked and looked around his environment. "Shit. I almost forgot… Where am I?"

Running his fingers through his dark brown hair, Steve squinted up at the brilliant blue sky. With a nonchalant shrug, he set off in a directionless walk. As he traversed the expansive oak forest, he couldn't help but smile at the melodious birds perched in the trees, a sense of discovery bubbling within him.

Reaching the end of the forest, he came upon a large open grassy plain. "Are those cows and chickens?" True to his words, off in the distance, a small group of cows, chickens, and even some sheep aimlessly gathered near one another as they each went about their business. Be it eating some grass or simply enjoying the warmth of the sun. "I'm definitely not anywhere near New York."

The lush green surroundings were utterly foreign to him after living in one of the largest cities in the world. The sprawling forests, grassy plains, distant mountains, and wild animals were sights he never believed he would experience. Steve had come to accept that the only views he would ever have were of various buildings, skyscrapers, city streets, and urban neighborhoods in the Big Apple. The only glimpses of greenery he had expected to see were during the occasional visits to Central Park with his father. But now here he stood, in the middle of a grand forest.

Taking a deep breath, Steve enjoyed the clean air. A stark contrast to the dirty, oppressive air within the city he came to call home. "This doesn't make any sense. How did I get here? Where's the city? And... how am I walking?" He said with a growing sense of anxiety as his left hand gripped his thigh.

Closing his eyes, Steve focused his mind to think back to the last thing he could remember.

"…Steve! What have you done!?"

Within his mind's eye, a blurry figure in a white room roared. Their voice was familiar and heavy with fear and anger. "Help him!" Standing above him were several more figures. Unlike the far-off figure in the back, their appearances were visible and recognizable. One of the figures was a man wearing a white lab coat over blue scrubs, a doctor, while several nurses moved quickly behind him.

"Get him out of here!" The doctor yelled as two nurses blurred out of sight while pushing the frantic, blurry figure out of the white room. "Come on, kid. Stay with me. Don't give up on me!"

The edges around the memory began to darken and quake. The memory focused on an ever-familiar wheelchair standing in a corner; next to it, an empty orange bottle sat forgotten next to one of its wheels. On the bottle was a name that didn't belong to him, while the label for its contents stood out in bold, black letters. Lorazepam.

"Goddamn it. We're losing him!" The doctor huffed as his hands pushed onto his chest repeatedly. "Doris, take over compressions. Charge to two hundred! Clear!"

ZAP!!

With a loud gasp, Steve's eyes snapped open as he fell back to the ground. "W-what? I... Did I…? No. No, I wouldn't!"

Despite his words, he knew it was true. After a lifetime of living in pain and seeing those who loved and cared for him suffer as they watched him wither away each day. He knew he had had enough. It was time to set them and himself free from the pain.

It was an act of selflessness.

Soft sobs escaped him as he brought his knees into his chest. A heavy feeling rested over his heart as he finally remembered who it was that was shouting at the doctor to save his life. The voice belonged to his father. The sheer pain and fear in his yells filled Steve's heart with grief and shame.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

After rubbing his tears away, Steve stood to his feet and gazed out at the scenery before him. Despite the grief and sadness that rested in his heart, he found himself able to smile. He wasn't sure how he was still alive or how he could now walk after a lifetime of being confined to a wheelchair, but at this moment, Steve didn't care. All that mattered to him was that he was somehow given a second chance at life. The relief and hope in his heart were overwhelming.

"It's like those stories I used to read. Dying and getting a second chance at life in a new world. Except, I didn't have to get hit by a random truck to do it." Raising his hands, Steve clenched them into fists. "Those stories usually give the main character some sort of power or a helpful system. I wonder..."

Over the next couple of minutes, Steve began to say several keywords and made various motions. All in an attempt to activate or turn on his own supernatural power or abilities. Unfortunately, nothing he said had the effect of activating the secret ability he thought he possessed. "I guess I don't have a system or an ability. That sucks." Despite seemingly not acquiring any powers, Steve was happy that he was at least given the ability to walk. An everyday privilege he lost when he turned ten years old. With a smile on his face, he pressed onward and began exploring the forest he found himself in.

"Still, I wonder where I am." As he walked, a soft rumble in his stomach gave him pause. Rubbing his stomach, Steve looked around with a frown. "Better find some food first."

With hunger at the forefront of his mind, Steve traveled deeper into the forest in search of any signs of food. Be that berries, fruits, or even any edible mushrooms. Unfortunately, he found nothing so far.

After jumping over a downed tree, Steve's ears perked up as he heard the soft, rushing sounds of water. "A stream?" Using his hearing, he tracked down the sounds and quickly came upon a long flowing stream of water. Leaning over, he stared into the water and saw a few swimming fish. "Great! Now, how do I catch them?"

Looking to the side, Steve quickly saw several branches strewn around the ground below some trees. Like his ancient ancestors before him, Steve quickly thought of creating a spear out of the fallen branches. However, with no other tools to create a sharp end, he had the idea to snap several branches until one of them held a sharp enough edge to act as a spear. With his new plan in mind, Steve strode over to a branch and made to grab it.

"Huh?" Right before his eyes, Steve watched as the tree branch briefly disappeared and reappeared in his hand with a light pop noise. "That was... odd." Disregarding what happened as a trick of his hungry state, Steve walked over to the next closest tree branch. Only for this branch to disappear completely. "Okay. What the heck is going on? Where's the other stick?"

As if in response to his question, a familiar grey screen appeared in front of Steve. Blinking in disbelief, his purple eyes scanned the game-like menu. The screen was divided into four sections. In the top left, there were four small boxes stacked vertically, along with a black box that housed a miniature, blocky version of himself. Next to that, a 4x4 menu displayed an arrow pointing to a single box on the right. The middle section featured a 3x9 array of empty containers, while a 1x9 horizontal section contained the two branches he had recently picked up.

"It can't be." Turning away from his inventory screen, Steve looked around the world he found himself in and saw that it was, in fact, not made up of blocks. "Is this... Minecraft?"

As if to double-check that he wasn't crazy, Steve turned on and off his inventory to make sure that it was, in fact, real. With shaking fingers, he moved his two sticks up into his inventory and watched as the stick in his possession vanished. "Shit. This is real." With a pensive hum, Steve turned to a nearby tree and stepped up to it. Raising his fist, he arched a brow and punched the tree lightly.

After feeling no pain from his light punch, Steve applied more strength to his next punch, and still no pain came. With a shrug, he continued punching the tree until a small block broke off. Just as Steve was about to grab the block of wood, the tree did something he was not ready for. The tree began to fall forward toward him.

"Shit!" Rolling to the side, Steve narrowly avoided being crushed by the large oak tree. A loud crack flooded the forest as the tree crashed onto the ground. Shaking the earth and scaring off any nearby wildlife. As he lay on the floor, Steve tried to calm his fast-beating heart while he blankly stared at the fallen oak tree. "Okay... physics still applies here. Is this really Minecraft?"

With a heave, Steve pushed himself up and inspected the fallen tree and the large stump on the ground where it once stood. The break from where he punched the tree was clean as if it had been done by a highly accurate saw. Floating above the grass floor was a slow-spinning oak wood block. Closing the distance, Steve observed the block fly toward him and disappear. Looking down at his hand, he saw a small, hand-sized wood block. Ready to be used.

Steve pursed his lips and placed the wood block down next to him. He watched as the missing chunk of wood from the tree crashed onto the ground. Despite what he expected, the chunk of wood was not a perfect block. It still resembled the tree perfectly and followed the laws of physics as it tittered back and forth. With a curious hum, Steve punched the chunk of wood repeatedly and watched it shrink into a small floating wood block.

"The physics of this world seem to be like my own, but the world itself still follows the rules of how Minecraft works." Raising his hand, Steve placed the oak wood block into the 4x4 crafting menu and watched as four oak wood planks appeared in the results block. With a tap of his finger, he confirmed that he wanted to craft the planks and watched as four oak wood planks appeared in his hot bar. "Just as I thought."

After having placed one of the oak wood planks on the ground, instead of a large plank block appearing, a 6-foot long 2x3 oak wood plank sprang to life on the ground.

"While the rules of Minecraft apply, the results from whatever I craft translate to their real-world equivalent. At least, that's what it seems like right now." Steve said, breaking the plank to bring it back into his inventory. With practiced ease from playing Minecraft for hundreds upon hundreds of hours due to not being able to live his life like a normal kid, Steve crafted a crafting table. Within his hands was a perfect copy of its in-game counterpart, but after placing it on the ground, the blocky crating table expanded and resembled a crafting table one could find within a woodworking workshop. Hanging off the sides of the countertop were a few tools. A hammer, saw, chisel, crowbar, several screwdrivers, and a pair of pliers.

"This is so cool," Steve grinned and turned back to the fallen oak tree behind with excitement. After several minutes of punching the entire length of the remaining tree, Steve now held 12 oak wood blocks. Which he quickly crafted into oak wood planks. From there, he crafted several sticks and crafted his first tool. A pickaxe.

Upon crafting his pickaxe, an odd occurrence happened to him. After confirming that he wanted to craft his pickaxe using two sticks and three oak wood planks, Steve's body began to move in autopilot and began to craft the tool right before his eyes. With skills that he knew he didn't have, Steve quickly created the pickaxe using the tools he had available from the crafting table and, in no time at all, ended up with a professionally made wooden pickaxe.

"That was odd. But I guess that's how crafting more complex items or tools will work here." Steve smiled, inspecting his large wooden pickaxe. As he appreciated his hard work, Steve's stomach growled loudly. Reminding him of his hunger. "Right. Food." Turning to the crafting table, Steve's face contorted into wonder. Tapping on the crafting table, he looked at his 6x6 crafting menu and placed several sticks diagonally. "I was right!"

Unlike the vanilla version of the game, Steve saw that he had the option to create a wooden spear using his sticks. A tool not found in the game without having mods installed. "I wonder what else I can make?" Crafting the spear, Steve shelved those thoughts for another time as his stomach rumbled in hunger once more. With his spear in hand, Steve walked over to the stream where a few swimming fish could be seen. Raising his spear, Steve tried to skewer one of the swimming fish.

Before he could stab the fish, Steve hesitated. The fish swam aimlessly, completely unaware of the danger it faced due to his hunger. The spear in his hand shook as he closed his eyes and pushed the guilt away. After taking a deep breath, he steeled himself. "I have to do this. If this is Minecraft, I don't know when I'll get another chance to find food. I need to do this!"

Steve opened his eyes and aimed his spear at the swimming fish. With careful aim, he launched his spear. Initially, he was unsuccessful, but after a few more attempts, he finally managed to spear one of the fish on his tenth try.

"Okay, let's make a campfire."

Steve placed his dead fish in his magical inventory and quickly scanned his surroundings. He discovered a small cave nearby. Using his wooden pickaxe, he began to mine a stack of stone. Although he was curious about exploring deeper into the cave, he decided against it, realizing he lacked the torches and gear necessary to search for more valuable items. For now, he knew it was best to play it safe.

As Steve gathered stone, he was fortunate enough to find a small vein of coal. With his new resources, he crafted a set of stone tools, including a pickaxe, axe, sword, dagger, and shovel. Once he returned to his crafting table, Steve used wood blocks, sticks, and some coal to craft a campfire.

Now equipped with a roaring fire, Steve fumbled around, trying to gut and clean his fish using his stone dagger with the vague knowledge of how to do so after watching so many hours of Bear Grills's survival shows. Once the fish was free of its entrails and blood, he used the flowing stream to wash his fish before skewering it with a stick to hold over the campfire. "This must be what camping is like," Steve muttered as he watched his fish cook over the campfire. Turning up to the sky, his eyes quickly grew wide when he saw the skies begin to darken into a reddish-orange hue.

Night was coming.

Jumping to his feet, Steve felt a wave of concern as memories of what happened at night in the world of Minecraft flooded his mind. Images of zombies, creepers, spiders, skeletons armed with bows, endermen, phantoms, and many other enemy mobs raced through his thoughts. Although this world wasn't made of blocks and operated under the physics of his original home, it still followed the rules of Minecraft.

Steve was uncertain whether enemy mobs would spawn at night here. Nonetheless, he wasn't willing to take the risk to find out.

"I have to make a shelter!"

——

AN:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first chapter of my new story. This is a project I've been working on for the past few weeks. I hope that those of you who enjoyed my previous story, "In My Hero Academia with a Jujutsu Kaisen System," will give this new work a chance. I aim to entertain you just as much with this story!

Let me hear your thoughts, and leave me plenty of comments on what you think of this chapter!

Until next time!