Pixel Raiders #1: Dig World

by Steven O'Donnell

  Mei dug around in her backpack and

  unloaded some more sticks, the fire stone,

  and some foliage. She wasn’t sure what the

  exact materials were for creating fire in this

  world—in every game it was a different

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  formula. She tried leaves and

  fire stone first. Then fire

  stone and sticks. Then she tried

  leaves, fire stone, and sticks. A

  tiny spark appeared, then died out.

  “TIIIMMMMBBBEERRRR!” Rip

  cried out, and a cube-tree came

  tumbling to the ground. A cascade

  of wood blocks scattered near Mei.

  “Hey—can I have one of those

  blocks of wood?”

  “Sure!” Rip tossed a cube in Mei’s

  direction. It was surprisingly light! It

  looked and felt like wood, but it was almost

  as if the physics of this world didn’t obey the

  normal rules. She bounced the block easily

  between each hand.

  Mei added the wood block to the foliage

  and sticks. As an afterthought she pulled out

  a few more stones she’d collected and added

  them to the pile. She tried the fire stone

  again. Sparks flew, and the pile of leaves,

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  wood, and stone shuddered slightly. Slowly,

  the items began to shift and move until they

  formed a neat little campfire, ringed in small

  stones. And finally—as if by magic—flames

  suddenly sprung to life and burned brightly.

  “Nice one!” Rip cheered.

  “Thanks.” Mei beamed back

  at him.

  This wasn’t so hard, Mei

  thought, feeling more confident

  now she knew the formula.

  “Hey.” Rip tossed her a second axe he’d

  crafted. “Wanna help me chop more wood?

  We need to get this house up. Fast.”

  It was twilight. The cube-sun was sinking

  lower and lower down over the ocean in the

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  distance, and the sky had turned from

  brilliant aqua to a deep blue.

  Rip and Mei were exhausted. From piles

  and piles of wood in their forest sanctuary

  on the hill, they’d built themselves a modest

  but sturdy house. It had four walls, a roof,

  and two small windows—large enough to

  allow light in, but not so big that anything

  unwanted could climb through. There was an

  opening at the front of the house to get in

  and out. Mei had made wooden torches to

  set into the walls of the house for light.

  It was starting to get darker.

  “What else do we need?” Rip asked.

  Mei shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t think

  we have time to add anything fancy. We’ve

  got the basics, and that’s what’s important—”

  THWACK!

  An arrow hissed through the air and hit

  the side of the house just inches from where

  Mei was standing.

  “Rip . . . it’s starting.”

  “Hurry, get inside!”

  Mei grabbed her backpack and ran with

  Rip inside the house. Rip turned around and

  reached for . . . nothing.

  “We forgot to make A DOOR!” Rip cried.

  THWACK!

  THWACK!

  THWACK!

  Three more arrows came whizzing

  through the doorway and into their little

  sanctuary—which was no sanctuary at all if

  they couldn’t keep the monsters out! Rip

  began wildly unloading blocks of wood from

  his backpack. A door. A door! Doors were

  made from wood, weren’t they? What else

  would he need?

  THWACK!

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  Rip felt a sharp bolt of pain in his back.

  “RIP!!!” Mei screamed in alarm, reaching for

  him. But the arrow had vanished.

  Rip grimaced, and the pain subsided. He

  looked down—half a heart had disappeared

  from his wristband. “I’m . . . OK. But we need to

  hurry. I’m on, like, two and a half hearts now.”

  A shadow passed over them both. Standing

  in the doorway was a dark figure, silhouetted

  against the light of the campfire outside. Mei

  swallowed, afraid to move. In the low light it

  appeared to be some kind of goblin, its skin

  tinged green. It let out a low, inhuman growl.

  They heard the creak of a bowstring. Rip was

  fumbling with the wood blocks, trying to

  arrange them on top of one another

  to create a door, afraid to

  turn around and face the

  fearsome creature.

  Mei stood up, suddenly

  remembering her axe.

  “Get OUT!” she yelled.

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  With every bit of strength she could muster,

  she hurled the axe at the creature—her aim

  sharp and true.

  The axe hit its mark; the creature froze in

  place for a moment, its image appearing to

  shimmer slightly. All at once, it disintegrated

  into a pile of colored pixel cubes on the

  doorstep, which dissolved into nothing.

  Mei stood, staring in disbelief, her chest

  heaving, hands shaking with adrenaline.

  Rip held a neatly crafted door in his hands,

  and hurriedly shoved it into the doorway

  where it settled with a click. He

  turned to look at Mei. They stared at

  each other in silence for a moment.

  Rip managed a wry smile.

  “Mei . . . that was amazing. You are amazing.”

  But Mei’s face remained somber.

  “Rip . . .” she said slowly, her hands still

  shaking. “What do you think happens when

  these hearts on our wristbands are all

  gone?”

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  reinforcements

  T

  he goblin fight had been unexpectedly

  tough. A few hours had passed and Rip

  and Mei were both still a little shaken. Distant

  howls and cries of monsters had filled the air

  at times, but none had come bashing on the

  wooden door of their tiny square house.

  Rip was at the window, staring into the

  night. He’d been on high alert since the attack.

  “I’ve fought a LOT of goblins in games before.

  But I’ve never had a fight like that,” he said,

  still scanning the horizon for movement. He

  then relaxed as the sky started to lighten.

  “Not that I was scared or anything.” Rip turned

  to Mei. “Just, you know . . . it was intense.”

  “I know what you mean,” Mei said, looking

  up from the floor where her backpack was

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  open and the inventory was spread out.

  There were a handful of wood cubes, a few

  stones, and some vines. They both knew it

  wasn’t enough to build anything useful.

  Rip moved from the window, satisfied

  they were safe for now, and sat down in

  front of Mei.

  “I wonder how weird we look to my mom

  right now. You know, in my room with all this

  VR gear on,” he said. “I bet we look quite silly,

  waving our arms about and jumping up and

  down.”

&
nbsp; Mei thought for a moment and said, “Oh no!

  What if she’s taking photos of us and posting

  them online!” Rip raised his eyebrows and

  Mei’s face dropped. “She wouldn’t, would she?”

  “Of course not.” He smiled.

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  They both giggled and relaxed a little more.

  Being connected to a completely different

  world for so long was starting to feel

  strange. They were both thinking about

  DIG WORLD

  less like a game and more

  like real life. Neither of them was ready to

  admit it out loud.

  “Seriously though, I want to see this game

  through,” Rip said. “I can’t be called a

  NOOB,

  Mei! Ever! We have to beat this game!“

  “Well I’m sorry to disappoint you, Rip, but

  we were already total

  NOOBS last night. We

  should’ve been more prepared,” Mei said. “I

  think we can get through this if we just focus.

  We need to come up with a plan.”

  She started to pick up her materials and

  slide them into her backpack. As each block

  touched the pack, it

  disappeared into it, like

  magic.

  “Agreed,” Rip said,

  nodding. “We need

  more materials. Stronger materials. And

  better weapons.”

  “Oh, we also need more space and a panic

  room.”

  “Good idea! Then we can retreat if things

  get out of hand again,” Rip said.

  “And we should stock up on some food,”

  Mei noted, looking at her wristband. “We need

  to replenish our health—I’ve lost half a heart.”

  “Me too. I’m down to two.”

  A column of light shone through the

  window. Rip opened the door, and they

  cautiously stepped out into the dawn. The

  square sun rose over the horizon.

  “Hope we’ll be safe until nightfall,” Rip said.

  “We have a lot of work to do today. Let’s get

  digging!”

  Rip and Mei grabbed

  their backpacks and

  headed into the

  forest.

  “I’ve made an iron

  pickaxe!” Rip said,

  holding up a shiny

  pickaxe. He

  immediately started

  hammering away at a

  nearby rock. Cubes

  and cubes of different

  colored rocks flew out.

  It was much more

  efficient than

  collecting stone, and

  the tougher grades of

  rock might make for

  stronger craftables.

  “Excellent.” Mei

  grinned.

  They were deep in

  the forest now. Huge,

  blocky trees rose up

  around them, and there were plenty of giant

  rocks that looked like they’d been placed

  there on purpose. Mei looked up and saw the

  sun was just about above them. “Nearly

  midday,” she yelled to Rip.

  Mei had spent the morning harvesting

  more wood, and between the two of them

  they’d made excellent progress. They’d built a

  crafting table first, which allowed them to

  fuse more complex combinations of materials

  together. Now they had plenty of reinforced

  wooden planks, a stone door, enough torches

  to see them through the night, and more.

  Mei arranged some cubes of wood and

  stone that Rip had fished out of the

  rocks into the outline of an axe and

  waited for the objects to fuse together.

  “What’s missing?” she wondered. “Vines!”

  Mei spotted some bushes nearby. She

  went over and pulled and pulled until she

  had a decent bunch of straight, cubeish

  vines. When Mei added them to the axe

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  shape on the table, they fused together

  instantly and made an axe with a dark-

  brown wooden shaft and a sharp black top.

  It looked even stronger than Rip’s! “This will

  do nicely!”

  She made another one for Rip and placed

  them in her bag, along with the remaining

  materials.

  “OK, I think I have enough stone and iron

  to reinforce the house,” Rip said, throwing his

  own bag over his shoulder. “Let’s get back.”

  The door was open.

  “Did you leave the door open?” Mei asked Rip.

  “No, did you?” he replied.

  “Of course not! I would never leave the

  door open.”

  “Well neither would I!” Rip said. “Someone

  has been inside. They might still be inside.

  Let’s be careful.”

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  “Catch!” Mei said, as she pulled

  out the new axes and threw

  one to Rip. They approached

  stealthily along the tree line,

  trying not to be spotted.

  “Your house is boring,” said

  a voice behind them. “You

  don’t even have a pool.” Rip

  and Mei spun around, axes raised to the

  ready.

  “Angela?!” Rip shouted. What was she doing

  here? She was covered in heavy leather

  armor and had a bow and arrow drawn,

  pointed right at them.

  “A pool is a pointless addition to a survival

  house,” Mei said, lowering her axe. Rip didn’t

  lower his.

  “Lower your weapon, Ripley. I’m in full

  heavy armor, and I have iron-tipped

  arrowheads. You won’t even get close.”

  Angela snickered. “Where’s your armor?”

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  Rip looked embarrassed. He hadn’t even

  thought to craft protective gear! All he could

  think about was reinforcing the house.

  “I don’t want armor,” he lied. “It would just

  slow me down.”

  Mei lowered Rip’s axe. “Angela, we’re not

  your enemy; we’re trying to survive the

  night. Just like you,” she said.

  Angela let go of an arrow and it whizzed

  past, inches away from Rip’s head. It hit their

  house and knocked a few blocks out of the

  wall, exposing the interior.

  “Ugh!” Rip growled. “Leave

  our house alone!”

  “Ooooo,” Angela said

  mockingly, “sharing a house are

  we? Are you married now?”

  “WE’RE NOT MARRIED!” Mei

  yelled, a little too loudly.

  “With a tiny house like that,

  good luck. My place is massive.

  See!” Angela pointed off into the distance.

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  Even from here, Rip and Mei could make

  out a massive wooden castle-like structure.

  “I’ve built an entire castle. I’ve even got a

  moat,” she gloated.

  “Did you make the whole thing out of just

  wood?” Mei asked.

  “Yep, isn’t it awesome?” Angela replied. “It’s

  the biggest castle I’ve seen so far. And I can

  see everything from the top.”

  Rip looked at Angela. “Is it really ALL made

  of wood? Haven’t you reinforced any—” Rip

  stopped himself. Then he said casuall
y, “Wow.

  That sounds like a great castle, Angela.”

  “Yep, it’s pretty neat. Lots of big spaces to

  kick back and sit these three days out,”

  Angela said. “Well, this conversation is as

  boring as your house. I have much better

  things to do. Later, losers!” Angela swung

  her bow over her shoulder and

  disappeared back into the forest.

  Rip turned to Mei. “That castle

  isn’t going to hold. Wood is great

  when you’re starting out, as a base. But big

  creatures, or anything that explodes, are

  going to tear a hole right through it.”

  Mei nodded.

  “OK. Let’s get to building,” she said. “I’ve

  been thinking some more about the layout.

  We need lots of rooms. A room for some

  beds, a main living room for weapons and to

  keep watch, and a treasure room for our

  spare materials.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Rip replied. “I’ll

  reinforce the safety room with double stone

  and make some stone doors as well. And we

  should add a second layer to every other wall

  in the house. That’ll be one more layer

  enemies would have to bash through.”

  Mei nodded. “Plus, if we get an explosive

  breach, it’s less likely to be catastrophic.

  Let’s do this!”

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  The sun was just slipping to the edge of the

  horizon as Rip and Mei placed their last blocks.

  Their four-room house was now a tough little

  fortress. The living room had a stone door

  and a variety of axes and spears at the ready.

  “It just looks so boring,” Rip said.

  “Rip, when it comes to house construction,

  looks aren’t everything,” Mei said.

  It was a good, functional, and practical

  structure for a variety of situations, which

  was all that mattered right now.

  “I’ve got it!” Rip said. “I’ll be right back!”

  “Rip! The sun is about to go down!” Mei yelled

  after him as he ran off toward the beach.

  Mei went inside and triple-checked the

  walls and weapons. Everything was set. They

  were secure.

  “OK! Come outside!” Rip called out.

  Mei stepped outside to find that Rip had

  built a low wall around the front of their