Chapter 1
Deep within a winding cave in the tallest mountain peak, a gathering of the most morally dubious minds from the Overworld convened—thousands of blocks from spawn, beneath treacherous terrain and icy silence. They sat in a large underground chamber around an obsidian table on a deepslate brick platform hung from the glowstone-adorned ceiling by iron chains above a lava pool. The air hummed with the low sizzle of molten rock, blending with the chatter of the masked diners.
“Yōkai,” a voice sliced through the prattle, silencing the occupants. All eyes were on the fox-masked figure standing by the head of the table, raising a shimmering Potion of Leaping in their blocky paw. “Tonight, we celebrate the completion of our base. The first step is taken! No one expected it to be finished so quickly, and it’s all thanks to our expert builders, The Phoenix and The Wolf!”
Cyra, the flame-headed Mask of the Phoenix, nearly dropped a potato she was baking on her blazing scalp. Faylinn, the Mask of the Wolf who could shift between a pixel-sized form and two blocks tall, transformed in a glittering poof to her larger size and accepted the compliments with a grin and a not-so-modest bow.
“What can I say,” said Faylinn, flapping her glittering, patterned wings. “Gotta use the gifts my mama gave me. Besides, I can’t let any non-flyers build here—don’t want another Grace.”
“I told her the skates were a bad idea,” Cyra muttered, a hint of sadness in her voice.
The table collectively lowered their heads, sneaking glances at the small memorial plaque—a gold block sitting at the edge of the platform, overlooking the pool of lava. On it was a spruce sign that read in glowing ink:
Faylinn shook her head solemnly before turning her attention back to The Mask of the Fox. “But you know, as great as I am at building shit, I’m even better at wrecking it! I wanna go raiding again!“ Faylinn punched a fist into her hand, transforming back to her pixel-sized form and, for the second time, almost scaring the flames out of Cyra’s hair.
“Oho, I know you do, Wolf.” The fox’s painted smile seemed to grow wider. “With the foundation ready, as soon as Badger and T-Devil return from their mining expedition, we’ll have all the resources we need. You’ll get to satiate your blood lust and we finally will turn our grand vision into reality. Everything until now was just the beginning! The Yōkai will stand tall; whoever won’t surrender to our rule, will fall to our claws!”
The table roared with cheers and laughter that only the biggest utter nerds could muster. While everyone was busy hollering and digging into the food that had been patiently waiting to be eaten, the Mask of the Crow sitting beside the Fox leaned over.
“Hey, could I ask a question?”
“What’s your question, soldier?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” the Crow said, lifting her mask as concern flickered in her emerald green eyes. “I’m the last person to deny everyone the joy of… expressing their creativity and interests, but this feels.. erm, well. This is blatantly antagonistic towards the rest of the server. We’re just playing Minecraft, why do all of… this?”
The Fox’s mask stretched into a wide grin, revealing painted, sharp fangs. “I’ll tell you why, dear…“ the Fox paused. They pressed <F1> to re-enable the HUD, focusing on the name above the Crow’s head.
“…lilmonix3?”
“Monika.”
“I’ll tell you why, my dear Monika!” Riolfie exclaimed. Suddenly, they stomped their foot on the table as they stood tall, stretching their arms wide and bellowing at the top of their lungs, letting their voice echo throughout the cave.
Chapter 2
Pepper logged in to the scorched remains of what used to be spawn. She knew what a grief looked like when she saw one. There were wreckages of small wooden homes blown to bits by TNT, and charred remains of others that the griefers didn’t have enough TNT to blow up, so they burnt them down instead. Pillars of lava flowed down from thin air, spreading across the paved dirt road, burning the floating items of recently deceased victims. She wandered to the few that were far enough away from the lava, picking up a bucket of water and half a dozen cooked fish. Can’t risk getting burnt.
…Not that dying in a video game is a huge deal or anything, but the server was on Hardcore. Pepper wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she died in the first ten seconds after joining, unless it was a bit.
That would be kinda funny now that she thought about it…
But there’s no audience, other than her roommates, who seemed way too into the whole thing. Their faces were practically glued to the screens. Besides, she can’t have Ashley, of all people, outlive her. That’d just be embarrassing.
Pepper wandered down the main road, watching the position of the sun in the sky. It was already setting, night was coming. The town was desolate; all its residents likely fled or were killed in the raid. She came across a large, ruined farm, the soiled dirt neatly separated into even plots determined by the color and shape of their yields, each with a sign labeling it. There was the usual Minecraft ordeal of wheat, watermelon, pumpkin, and beetroot. There were also weirder plants that she’d never seen in the game before. Cabbage, star fruit, and strawberry.
Across the farm were remains of pens, wooden fences that were mostly intact. Whoever griefed the place seemed to have gotten lazy at this point since it was barely touched. There were still no animals, though. Except for one.
Bheehhh…
A pink sheep stood across from Pepper, staring at her with its crossed eyes, a lone survivor of the massacre. A few blocks of wool and a piece of mutton would set her off on a good start, but no point in chasing the sheep around and beating it to death with her bare fists. Pepper briskly turned back to the ruined village and entered the first house she could find. The plan was to break off some planks from the floor to at least craft a wooden axe, but a small chest piqued her interest.
She flung the chest open, peering inside to find a whopping two apples, one piece of wheat, and, by sheer luck, an enchanted golden sword! Not ideal, but way better pickings than just a stone sword or something. Pepper grabbed the apples and wheat, intentionally building suspense for herself by picking the sword last.
She could only wonder what kind of enchantment that sword had; Sharpness would be badass. Maybe Fire Aspect, to have that sheep insta-cooked so she won’t have to bother with a furnace. Or maybe—
Amazing.
Pepper sighed miserably, grabbing the practically worthless Golden Sword and putting it in her inventory. It might suck ass, but it at least could kill a sheep. While looking at her character wielding the shittiest sword known to man, Pepper noticed some kind of weird smudge on the screen, right on the crafting menu.
“Ugh,” Pepper muttered, trying to smudge it off with her thumb, but it wouldn’t go away. “Shitty ass laptop…” she muttered, and flipped Faylinn off when she heard her laughing.
Back in the game, Pepper left the house, the blocks behind her catching fire as the house continued to burn. Unfortunately, by the time she was back, the pink sheep was gone.
Walking past the farmlands, significantly more annoyed than she had been a minute ago, Pepper arrived at the entrance of the village, where the road led into a thick forest just as the sun fully disappeared beyond the horizon. The first few stars began to dot the night sky. What a colossal waste of time this was. The entrance to the village was marked by an elaborate wooden arch made of logs, trap doors, and fences. There were signs on it, surrounded by torches, greeting new arrivals:
If Pepper could roll her eyes in the game, she would. “Of course she was the first one on the server.” Pepper thought to herself. The fact that this was still standing pissed her off even more. What kind of amateur goes through all the effort to destroy a village and doesn’t mess up the welcome sign? Especially one that BEGS to be messed with. Pepper wouldn’t stand for it. She had to make things right.
After a brainstorming session of roughly two seconds, Pepper right-clicked on the sign, and shortly after, her masterpiece was complete:
“That’s a bit rude.”
Pepper nearly had a heart attack. She frantically looked around for the source of the voice, which shouldn’t even be in Minecraft, but found no one… other than the pink sheep, standing to her right, and looking at the edited signs.
“I don’t think she would appreciate that,” said the sheep.
“You know you can press <V> to talk, right?”
A moment passed. Then another. One more passed, and finally, following the moment that came after the previous one, Pepper spoke.
“…hing even on? OH there we go, fucking hell— what kinda mod bullshit is this?! No wonder my stupid laptop’s choking on fumes right now,” Pepper ranted, “Who the hell are you? Why are you a sheep?”
The sheep turned to look at Pepper. “I am?” it said.
“I’m this close to seeing if you drop mutton or not.” said Pepper, brandishing her enchanted golden sword.
At that, the sheep suddenly began to contort, squishing into itself like it was made out of rubber before stretching out as a tall, two-block-tall figure. The username appeared above their head.
“I forgot to change back before talking to you, hehe..☆ Sorry for the scare!” they said, crouching as the best alternative to a bow. It was then that Pepper noticed that they had horns on their head and a tail wagging slowly behind them.
“My name is Noa! Nice to meet you!”
“…Pepper. Likewise?” she said after her brain functions caught up with her vocal cords. This was a lot to take in at once. “What the fuck is going on here? How did you– sheep?”
“Oh, didn’t you read the ReadMe file that came with the modpack?” Noa asked, somehow tilting their head in-game, “It’s called ReadMe for a reason!”
“Genuinely who the fuck actually opens ReadMe files.”
“I do! ☆” Noa jumped. “Don’t worry, I’ll fill you in! Oh, but we should really get out of here first!”
“What? Why? It’s getting dark, we’ll be swarmed by mobs if we head out. Besides, this place has a ton of crap still up for grabs. Not like the people of Morningwood need them anymore, heh.”
“I’ll ignore how inconsiderate you sounded right now because you are in danger! A lot of danger! The first join message is global: the Yōkai know you’re here! They’ll be coming to hunt you down, and they’re worse than any zombie or creeper!”
Pepper simply stared at Noa, whose concerned, heartfelt warning fell on deaf ears. “…are… are you pulling my leg here or something? What the hell are you talking about?”
“They’re not messing with you, unfortunately.” A third voice interjected. Pepper and Noa turned to the arch, where they could see a man approaching from the burning village. He was wearing a full set of golden armor, or what Pepper assumed to be gold; it had a reddish tint. Instead of a helmet, he wore a mask resembling a lion.
“Your short gamer session is about to come to an end, DopamineDaydream,” he said forebodingly, drawing a sword that was approximately three times the size of the one Pepper found. It was made out of something that was not any of the six options she knew swords could be made of. “Prepare to…die! (die? That sounds a bit violent, no? O-oh, yes no I know it’s a game, but still-),” The man’s voice became quieter, seemingly speaking with someone else in the room.
Pepper squinted her eyes as she began to recognize the voice.
“Dr. Goldman? Is… is that you?”
“What?!” His microphone peaked, “N,No, I am Mask of The Lion, a proud member of the Yōkai here to.. to… um,”
“Torment,” said a quiet voice from Goldman’s mic.
“Yes! I’m here to torment the land, just as we had the former village of Greenwood! And you two,” The Lion raised his Cleaver, “the only ones left for my job to be finished… I can take care of this by myself. Än ‘gärd!”
Chapter 3
Pepper didn’t have enough time to digest the concept of her biology teacher griefing a village built by his students, and attempting to assassinate her in Minecraft. In hindsight, this was fucking hilarious. But the absurdity of it all, at the moment, was so shocking that she didn’t realize he was charging at them to murder them. Not just as a wild hypothetical.
“Run, Pepper! I’ll hold him off!” Noa barked, charging forward with a howl as their body took the form of a wolf, slinking under The Lion’s massive blade. He barely had time to lift his sword from the ground to block an oncoming swing from Pepper’s enchanted sword. “Hah!” The Lion laughed hesitantly, trying not to sound too mean. “Didn’t you hear your extremely confusing friend? You can’t fight me with that!”
Dr. Goldman was right, of course. She was hilariously ill-equipped, and there was no way in hell she would come even close to killing him before he’d reduce her to red, pixelated paste with his compensating-for-something? fuck-off sword. (Something she wouldn’t dare to say in account that this was still her biology teacher and there’s a real life outside of Minecraft. With consequences for saying dumb shit like that.)
“I know,” said Pepper, “I don’t have to.” Behind him, the wolf twisted and contorted into a shambling, rotting zombie and sank their putrid teeth into The Lion. His armored body flashed red once, twice— “How is this doing so much damage?!” The Lion exclaimed before he swung in retaliation, the massive blade clashing into the zombie’s body. They were sent flying against the building Pepper looted, their form reverting to normal as they slumped to the ground.
Pepper winced at the sight, stepping back from The Lion. She guarded herself with her sword, raising it in front of her without much hope, it was a toothpick compared to Goldman’s cleaver— and she expected it would snap like one when he strikes her down, and then she would snap, too.
“I’m almost sorry for you,” said The Lion as he drew closer “…well, actually I really do feel bad about- ow ow ok, alright, stay in character, got it, -Ahem! Yes, I almost feel bad for you! Ha ha! …Ha!” cough “…Your luck has run out! You..! Should feel honored! Yes, you should be honored! To die by a blade of the Yōkai!”
The Lion swung. Pepper’s heart sank as she watched her body get flung into the grass, leaving her barely alive with a measly one heart. She now found something more embarrassing than dying before Ashley: getting killed by her Biology teacher roleplaying (terribly so) as an anime villain. And still dying before Ashley anyway!
While she was contemplating how to break out of E.R.A. so as not to face the humiliation, the cubic, Minecraft sun began to rise from the east, casting a gentle, yellow glow on the ruined village of Bonerwood.
A glow that engulfed the Mask of the Lion in flames.
“W,what- why am I, why am I on fire??” the Lion squealed, frantically opening his inventory as his health took a hit one after another from the flames. “I’m- A ZOMBIE?! When did I- no. …My Electi!” The Lion turned around, looking for Noa. They were nowhere to be seen.
“What? Oh, D-Don’t worry, Phoenix, I’ll be fine! I-It doesn’t matter, I have plenty of health, and,” he stammered, pulling out a golden apple. “I could tank this! The armor you made me should-”
Pepper didn’t think twice. She charged at the mumbling Yōkai and swung her pathetic golden sword, in the one in a million chance for it to redeem itself, enchanted by the power of SMITE II. All it took was one strike and-
Pepper stood alone below the Arch of Bonderwood. The Mask of the Lion disappeared into a puff of smoke, and his items spilled to the ground. His Rose Gold Boots flew directly at her, automatically getting added to her inventory. One step forward, the rest were picked up as well.
“Wowie!! Pepper, that was so good!” Noa suddenly chirped in.
“AGH!” Pepper promptly yelped, “Stop doing that!”
Pepper turned around to find Noa standing behind her, perfectly fine. They drank a red potion and then tossed one to Pepper as well.
“Here!” they said, “For a job well done! I’m proud of you! :D”
Pepper’s last remaining heart silently begged her to drink it. So she did.
“I killed him with one swing,” Pepper said, watching in relief as her health bar began filling up. She held out her Golden Sword, a quarter of its durability already gone just from that fight. “…you turned Dr. Goldman into a zombie?”
“Yup! I’m happy you picked up on what I was going for!”
“I’ve been asking you questions all this time, and I still didn’t get a single straight answer out of you. How did you turn him into a zombie? How did you turn into a Zombie?? And the sheep from earlier!”
“Simple!” Noa chirped, “Electi Abilities! It says so in the ReadMe file–” “goddamnit.” “–that you didn’t read! The server hosts spent a lot of time modding the game to add everyone’s powers to the game!”
“So you can shapeshift,”
“Ahuh!”
“And Goldman…”
“Copies other Electi Abilities by touch, so when I hit him as a Zombie..!”
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to spell it out for me.” Pepper chuckled, “Wait, how the hell did you know I found a sword with Smite II?”
“ ‘cuz it’s my house you looted it from!”
Pepper snapped to where Noa’s house stood, now nothing but cobblestone foundations and soot. “…do you, like… want it back, or..?”
“It’s ok, you can keep it! I’m beyond materialistic desires!☆”
“Oh. Um. Alright, thanks.”
They fell to brief silence before Pepper perked up. “Wait, our powers work here?”
“I thought you told me not to spell it out for you :0?”
“Shshshs hold on, where do I..” Audible key presses came through Pepper’s mic as her character moved slightly in place, crouched, then jumped, and accidentally dropped the Golden Sword (Noa kindly tossed it back to her).
“I don’t get it,” Pepper said, “Where… oh. Oh come on.”
“What is it??”
Pepper opened her inventory. The smudge on her screen that she thought was a grim reminder of her laptop standing on its last leg wasn’t a smudge at all. Hovering it over with her mouse revealed that Pepper can, without inputting any items in the crafting grid, craft a pile of salt.
“Oohh…!” Noa was awed at the magic being performed in front of their very eyes. “Infinite salt! Just think of how much effort it cuts from all the yummy foods you could… uh oh.”
“Noa, that doesn’t sound like something you should do to your food.” Pepper snarked, looking to where Noa was looking when they cut themselves off. She should’ve probably listened to their advice and fucked off when she had the chance.
Another masked player was running towards them from Bonerwood. Like before, they were armored in materials she didn’t recognize. They wielded a large hammer and a peculiar, gilded, purple tome. And just to confirm her suspicions, a moment before Pepper voiced them, an orb of light shot out from the tome and flew towards them, and promptly blew up when it touched the ground.
The player, named , charged at them from the smoke, and in a distinct voice that Pepper recognized but had never heard like this before, exclaimed,
“You’re. DEAD.”
Noa and Pepper turned heel and sprinted as fast as their digital legs could carry them, slinking into the large forest outside the village of Bonerwood in a desperate attempt to escape the explosive wrath of Professor Pheonix Mara, Mask of the Tasmanian Devil.
To Be Continued
In Chapter 4