“Look what you have done,” the big NPC said.
Gameknight looked up at the Source and could see the Ender Dragon’s Egg floating in the Source. Shafts of light were reflecting off its faceted surface, hundreds of them, and spreading out across the plateau. Each beam of light was aimed at one of the dark beacons. When they struck the dark cube, it suddenly burst alight as if a switch were thrown. Now, as he looked across the mountain top, instead of a sea of dark blocks, Gameknight saw each beacon lit, their shafts of light reaching high up into the air. It reminded him of the cornfields near his school, the cornstalks standing tall and proud just before harvest. It reminded him of home.
Gameknight sighed.
“All of the server planes are reconnected to the Source,” the light-crafter said, a look of pride and joy on his strange face. Turning, he looked at Gameknight and smiled, his eyes glowing a warm brown as if lit by some kind of light from within. “The User-that-is-not-a-user has fulfilled the Prophecy. Minecraft is safe!”
A great cheer rang out across the mountaintop, the warriors and users all holding up their swords and bows. Gameknight smiled as he looked at the sea of jubilant faces, but then saw a pile of weapons and items on the ground, the inventory of some poor lost soul. This was the place were some NPC had paid the ultimate price and had died protecting Minecraft. Wiping a tear from his eye, Gameknight slowly raised his hand in the air, fingers spread wide, then he looked at the survivors of this terrible battle, his face grim. Slowly the cheering stopped as more hands sprouted into the air, blocky fingers spreading apart like the pedals of a blocky flower. Everyone raised their hands, then clenched it into a tight fist, eyes cast down to the ground as they thought about friends and family, spouses and children, neighbors and strangers . . . all the people that had been lost in this terrible war, and they squeezed those fists until their knuckles ached. Gameknight looked up from the ground and slowly lowered his hand, the solemn salute for the dead complete.
But then suddenly, a purple circle of light materialized on the mountain top; a portal was forming. The purple field crackled and hissed as it formed, drawing everyone’s attention. Then NPCs started running out of the portal. No, they weren’t NPCs but shadow-crafters, their dark hair and dark eyes marking them for their station. He could see one that was colored like a zombie leap out of the portal, followed by another that had tiny black hairs all over his arms and legs. Shadow-crafters of all kinds sprinted out of the portal and ran toward the sea of beacons that were now lit across the mountaintop. They each grabbed a shaft of light and then disappeared into a mist of 1’s and 0’s, the cloud of numbers sliding up the beacon and disappearing into the mechanism of Minecraft.
Nobody moved. All the warriors were shocked at what they had just seen. Twenty seconds later, light-crafters came running out of the portal, these NPCs clearly pursuing those that had already disappeared. They stopped at the edge of the field of light, looked at each other, then grabbed the closest beacon and also disappeared.
Suddenly, a hissing sound came from the corner of the plateau as a new portal formed. As the purple ring formed, a vile, evil looking shadow-crafter stepped forward. Looking across the now lit plateau, the dark shadow-crafter had a hateful look on his face, and when he glared at Gameknight999, his eyes lit up bright white. Taking three steps forward, he grabbed the shaft of light that led to Crafter’s server and disappeared. All of the warriors were shocked at the sight of that shadow-crafter, the glowing eyes being the last thing to disappear as he rode the beacon to Crafter’s server, the entire plateau completely silent.
“The war that has been going on for an eternity still rages,” Woodbrin said. “The shadow-crafters have escaped to the various server planes, but the light-crafters will find them. We will catch them all, eventually.” He then turned to Gameknight and spoke in a low voice. “These NPCs can ride the beams back to their servers just as the shadow-crafters did. Now that Minecraft has been cleansed, they are safe to use.”
“What about me . . . how do I get home?” Gameknight asked.
“Ask him,” Woodbrin replied, gesturing to Mason.
Gameknight wanted to ask what he meant, but the light-crafter dove into the beam that led to Crafter’s server, pursuing the evil looking bright-eyed shadow-crafter. Crafter then stood on one of the diamond blocks that led up to the Source and raised his hands to get their attention.
“I’m not quite sure what that was all about, but apparently we can go home.”
A cheer rose up from the army, users patting NPCs on the back. Crafter stepped off the diamond block and moved to his beacon and stood close to the shaft of light, then smiled.
“I can hear the music of my server. This is definitely my server plane. Move through the field until you find your own server.”
The NPCs spread out through the field of light, leaving the users where they were. Shawny walked up to Gameknight and patted him on the back, a younger user, Imparfa, standing next to him. Gameknight looked at all the users that had come to help and saw familiar names, famous Minecrafters and YouTubers, some of the best players in the game had come to help. He was touched and a tear slowly seeped from one eye. Maybe he had friends at last.
“Thank you for coming to help,” Gameknight said to the users, his voice cracking with emotion, then chuckled. The users laughed, but not at the User-that-is-not-a-user, they laughed with him. “Minecraft would have been lost without all of you. You saved Minecraft.”
“No!” someone shouted from the back of the group. Everyone instantly became silent as the dissenter came forward. Gameknight could see the name over the user’s head; it was the famous AntPoison. “No,” he said again. “We didn’t save Minecraft . . . you, Gameknight999 saved Minecraft, and by doing that, you saved all of us a little.”
He stepped up closer and stood right in front of the User-that-is-not-a-user and sheathed his sword.
“You used to call yourself the King of the Griefers, well, not anymore.” He turned to face the other users and then yelled at the top of his voice. “I say that Gameknight999 is no longer the Griefer of Minecraft, but he’s the Savior of Minecraft.” And then he drew his diamond sword and held it up into the air, cheering at the top of his lungs, the rest of the users doing the same.
“FOR MINECRAFT!!!” they screamed, then slowly, one after another, they disconnected from the server and went back to the physical world, leaving Shawny at his side.
Gameknight smiled at his friend, then turned and looked across the field of beacons. He could see that the NPCs had found their servers and were diving into the shaft of light, their bodies dissolving into 1’s ad 0’s as they rode the beams back home. Most of the warriors were from the last server, so they crowded around the one block, leaving only a few NPCs standing near Gameknight999.
“What is the User-that-is-not-a-user going to do?” Crafter asked as he stood near his own beacon.
“I don’t know, I haven’t figured that out, but I will, rest assured. And then I’ll be back to visit you again Crafter, my friend.”
The young NPC smiled as he grabbed a hold of the shaft of light and faded into a cloud of 1’s and 0’s, riding the beam back to his own server. Looking about, he saw only a few NPCs left, Hunter and Stitcher, Herder, and Mason.
“What are you going to do, Hunter?” Gameknight asked.
She pulled curly locks of red hair out of her face and turned to look at him.
“Stitcher and I discussed it, and we think we’re going to start over on Crafter’s server,” she said, smiling. “Besides, I think he still needs some looking after.”
Stepping forward, she gave Gameknight a bone crushing hug. He then felt Stitcher wrap her small arms around his waist as well, the sisters hesitant to let go. Gameknight helped them to go by releasing the hug first, then stepped back.
“I’m going with them too,” Herder said, a gigantic smile on his blocky face. “I think my place will be with my new friends. Goodbye, User-that-is-not-a-user, I will see you s
oon, I know it.”
“You three should be going before another army of monsters decides they want to kill me,” Gameknight said, smiling.
This made the sisters laugh, Herder’s smile growing even bigger.
“Fare well Gameknight999, the User-that-is-not-a-user. I hope I see you again, in Minecraft,” Hunter said as she wiped a tear from her cheek.
Nodding, Gameknight smiled even though blocky tears were now rolling down his face. Stitcher waved, then took her sister’s hand and they both stepped into the shaft of light, dissolving into computer bits followed by Herder and his wolves.
Turning, he found Shawny and Mason remaining.
“Well, I guess I’m outa here,” Shawny said. “Hopefully, I’ll see you soon?”
Gameknight shrugged then watched Shawny disappear. Sighing, he turned and faced Mason.
“What are you going to do after all this chaos?” he asked the big NPC.
“In the midst of chaos, there is always opportunity,” Mason said.
I know that saying . . . it’s from Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War.”
“You aren’t an NPC . . . you can’t be. I’ve heard that saying before, it’s from Sun Tzu. My teacher, Mr. Planck had it up on the wall of his classroom. All of those wise sayings you’ve been spouting have all been from The Art of War. Who are you?”
Mason smiled.
“WHO ARE YOU?!”
Mason closed his eyes for a moment and froze as if he were AFK (away from keyboard), then his skin changed from the big, strong stone cutter to a smaller, bald NPC with a small mustache and beard ringing his mouth. In one hand he had a dark hat that looked something like a fedora, a characteristic hat that only one user wore. And then he noticed the letters floating over his head, the server thread stretching high up into the sky. The name was just five letters, but they formed the name of the greatest Minecrafter of all time, N . . . O . . . T . . . C . . . H.
CHAPTER 37
RIDING THE SOURCE
“You’re him . . . I mean you’re . . . I mean . . . you’re Notch,” Gameknight stammered.
“Yeah, I know that.”
“But if you’re him, why didn’t you just stop the war and save everyone?” Gameknight said, and then he started to get mad. “Why did all those NPCs have to die! Why didn’t you just make it stop . . . after all, you made all this.”
“Well, you see, something happened to Minecraft a while ago. A virus entered the system.”
“A virus?” Gameknight asked. “What kind of virus?”
“An artificial intelligence virus.”
“What does that mean?”
Notch stroked his dark mustache then turned and looked out across the plateau that was now shining with a thousand shafts of light.
“You see, Minecraft is based on its own artificial intelligence software. That’s what it uses to create the landscape and the villages, and the animals, and the . . .”
“The villagers,” Gameknight interrupted.
“Correct,” Notch answered. “But before Minecraft was released, another artificial intelligence segment was introduced.”
“The virus?”
“Yep, the virus. It merged with my AI code and created something unexpected . . . a glitch in the software. When my AI code tried to compensate, everything went crazy and we started to lose control of the system.”
“Why didn’t you just delete the software and reboot?” Gameknight asked.
“Because I realized that small segments of the software had become self-aware and sentient.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
Notch stroked his mustache again then took a step closer to Gameknight, then spoke in a low voice.
“They became alive.”
“The villagers?”
Notch nodded.
“So I couldn’t shut down the system . . . I didn’t have the heart to do that. We put in patches and upgrades to try to contain the virus but it kept escaping, causing havoc wherever it went. I tried to put my own AI anti-virus program into Minecraft, but that just made things worse. After a while, I realized that I couldn’t completely control the system . . . all I could do was try to help where I could and do as little damage as possible.”
“But why didn’t you tell the villagers who you were?” Gameknight asked.
“I did once, a long time ago, but they all kinda freaked out and knelt on the ground and treated me like a god. The villagers can’t function when they know it’s me, their Creator. So instead, I move amongst them as one of them . . . someone from a distant village.”
“You mean Mason.”
Notch nodded his head again.
“You should know that Minecraft would not have been saved if it were not for you,” Notch said in a solemn voice. “I have watched you for a long time within the game, and was very displeased with what I had seen in the past.”
Gameknight lowered his head and nodded.
“I know . . . I did terrible things to other people.”
“Yes you did, but look how you grew. You put others before yourself. You helped people you didn’t even know, and you filled all of the NPCs all across Minecraft with hope.”
Gameknight raised his head and looked up into Notch’s green eyes.
“The NPCs of Minecraft needed Mason to lead them to the Source, but they needed the unexpected bravery, creativity and problem-solving of Gameknight999. You raised their hopes and made them believe that they could be stronger than they ever realized they could be. Gameknight999, the User-that-is-not-a-user made the NPCs of Minecraft more alive.”
Gameknight smiled and looked down again, embarrassed.
Notch reached out and patted him on the shoulder, and for the first time, Gameknight actually felt like he deserved the praise.
Maybe I’m not just a kid . . . maybe I can be something more, he thought, then looked back up at Notch.
“So now I know your story,” Gameknight said, “who you really are and what this was all about, but what now . . . what about me . . . how are you going to help me?”
“That is an interesting question,” Notch replied, this time moving his thick fingers through his neatly trimmed beard. “But the real question is . . . do you know who you are?”
“What?”
“I can just disconnect and go back to my home in Sweden, but you . . . you are now a part of the game. Look, still no server thread.”
Gameknight looked up over Notch and could see the thin line of light that stretched from his head and extended up into the sky. But over him, he saw nothing . . . no server thread.
“You are part of the code that runs Minecraft now, Gameknight999. You could go back to any server here, but will still be stuck in Minecraft.”
Gameknight looked across the mountaintop at all the glowing beacons and shook his head.
“I want to go home.”
“Then I’ll ask you again, do you know who you are?”
“Of course, I’m Gameknight999 and I want to go back home to my parents and my annoying little sister that I miss very much. I just want to go home.”
Notch walked up to Gameknight and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you sure you want to go home?”
“OF COURSE I DO!”
“You must be confident, because I don’t know what will happen when you step into the Source beam. The Minecraft code has changed in ways that I can no longer understand. It has created things that I never intended.”
“What do you mean?” Gameknight asked.
“Like the shadow-crafters and light-crafters . . . I didn’t create those . . . the Minecraft code did. The AI segments within Minecraft have taken on a life of their own, and are doing unpredictable things. I don’t know what the AI will do when you step into the Source. For you to get home, you’ll have to hold yourself together when you’re in the beam. I suspect the process will test every ounce of courage and confidence you have in yourself. If you have the smallest sliver of doubt in yourself, then I think you w
ill not survive.” He paused to let the words sink in, then continued. “I’m sorry all of this happened to you, but it is what it is.”
He looked at Gameknight with a curious smile on his face and then quoted Sun Tzu for the last time.
“Know your enemy and know yourself.” And then Notch, the Creator of Minecraft disappeared leaving Gameknight alone.
Looking about the plateau of server beams, he turned and faced the Source.
“Know your enemy and know yourself, that’s probably the most famous of the Sun Tzu quotes . . . but what did he mean by that?”
Gameknight walked around the Source, then took a step up. The heat of the Source caused small cubes of sweat to instantly form on his forehead, his unibrow keeping them from his eyes. He could feel fear and uncertainty growing within him. When he’d placed the Dragon’s egg into the beam, it had only been his arms, but now he needed to put his entire body in the Source.
He climbed up another diamond block, moving closer to the blazing shaft of light.
Know your enemy. He thought about this . . . his enemy, that was Erebus, but no, it was not just Erebus, it was anyone that ever made him feel bad about himself. His enemy was every person that made Gameknight doubt his value or self-worth.
“But I used to doubt my own self-worth . . . I used to be my own enemy.”
Know your enemy and know yourself.
“I won’t doubt myself,” he said as he took another step closer to the Source, the blazing head instantly drying the beads of sweat that were forming on his face. “I know who I am, and I’m the best person that I can be.”
Know your enemy and know yourself.
He took another step up. “I won’t worry about what-if. I won’t be afraid to try.” He went up the last step and stood right next to the Source. “I’m Gameknight999 and I want to go home!”
He closed his eyes and stepped into the beam. Instantly he was overwhelmed with pain as every nerve was ignited. But instead of retreating, he wrapped his arms around himself and held on.
I can do it . . . I believe that I can do this and survive. I’m Gameknight999.
Confronting the Dragon Page 27
