Chapter 214: Hope for a Bright Future
After selecting single-player mode, Sarah was presented with a character selection. The default male character was named Steve, while the female one was named Alex. However, the face could be customized.
Sarah took a look. Although the game was pixel art and the character's head was a block, the eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and nose were quite detailed. The original skins of Steve and Alex were not used.
Sarah created a new character and named her "Master Builder" before entering the game. After all, she had seen promotional content for Minecraft and it seemed that the game would include building a house. Although she was not yet sure how to play, she decided to first think of a good name. After all, having a good name was half the battle.
She even had a name in mind for Mike: "Contractor."
As a master builder, she had designed the house, but she still needed someone to carry out the construction.
Thinking about this, she entered the game when a pop-up window appeared asking her to choose a mode.
There are two modes: "Creative Mode" and "Survival Mode." However, after seeing that Creative Mode was basically invincible, Sarah quickly decided: "Let's try Survival Mode first. It seems it should be a little more challenging."
"This is your first time in Survival Mode. Do you need to learn some basic knowledge?".
After Sarah selected her options, generated a world seed, and entered Minecraft, a pop-up window appeared.
This window is activated when you enter the game with each new account and mainly offers a basic introduction to Minecraft, explaining how to play in Survival Mode and some basic operations, such as gathering materials and crafting tools.
Although Minecraft is a sandbox game, it is possibly the most free sandbox available. This freedom does not mean that a long tutorial is unnecessary, but at least some basic concepts and operations must be explained.
Sarah thought for a moment and replied yes.
Next, the gameplay arrived. Following the system's instructions, Sarah briefly controlled the game: forward, backward, left, right, jump, and run. It was very simple, nothing out of the ordinary.
The game's interface was not particularly complex. It focused mainly on the bottom of the screen, where the inventory was. Currently, it was completely empty. Above it, on the left, there was a red heart that represented the game's health bar. On the right, a large chicken thigh that represented the hunger bar. There was also something that looked like an experience bar, but the game did not seem to have improvements or stat increases, which left Sarah a little confused.
But if she didn't understand it, she just played.
"Now I'm going to chop down trees to gather wood. Without a doubt, no matter what the game is, the saying 'chop down trees to get rich' is a golden rule," Sarah sighed, preparing to follow the instructions and chop down two trees.
She observed her surroundings. She was now standing on a hill, built entirely with countless stacked blocks. Both the hill and the plain were covered with trees, and in the distance, a vast expanse of ocean could be seen.
Without hesitation, Sarah ran towards the trees. She reached one and pressed the left mouse button. Then she saw the pixelated character in the game's right hand rubbing the tree back and forth at a dizzying speed.
The right hand kept rubbing, and at the same time, the game block that was being rubbed soon showed a network of cracks, and suddenly it broke and scattered on the ground, turning into tiny blocks.
She controlled the character to walk over it, and then the small block went into her backpack. And a wood icon automatically appeared in the lower inventory.
Sarah selected the wood from the inventory, and then she tried to right-click on the ground and saw a standard cube appear in front of her.
"This is how things are built in the game!", she exclaimed.
"These grids are the range of construction units."
Looking at the wooden cube that appeared in front of her, Sarah instantly understood the basic rules of construction in Minecraft. She just needs to turn the wood into planks and then make a workbench.
"Then I can start my construction adventure. What's so great about building a house in Creative Mode? Watch me build Lothric City in Survival Mode!".
She cut the wood she was carrying into four planks and placed them on a workbench, her imagination overflowing.
"Hmm, now I can build more things. Sticks combined with planks can create even more tools."
Sarah looked at the system message and suddenly realized something. This was not unfamiliar to her. Just like in Don't Starve, many things require construction. For example, chopping down trees requires an axe. While Minecraft allows you to dig up trees and dirt with your hands, it is limited to wood, dirt, and gravel. Stone and coal can be used, but it takes a long time.
She used the wood to build a workbench and then used it to craft tools like a wooden axe and a wooden pickaxe.
Then, another pop-up window appeared in the game.
'Hey! Is the beginner's tutorial over? Is this game that easy?'.
Sarah was surprised to discover that the tutorial had concluded. Well, it hadn't completely finished, because it reminded her what to do next. There were also some text prompts.
In reality, these were intentional by Alex. He wanted players to understand how Minecraft works and how the different items should be crafted. That was pretty much it.
In addition, there was a built-in workbench.
Of course, Alex did not just show everything to the players. Most were just the recipes needed for the early stages, such as torches, beds, and doors. The more advanced items still required players to gradually unlock them throughout the game.
"At night, monsters appear, so you need a house and a bed. You can sleep in a bed and instantly survive the night. If you don't have a bed, you will have to wait."
"Health and hunger, like in Don't Starve, you eat."
Combining the pop-up prompts, Sarah quickly understood a basic rule of Minecraft.
"First, let's chop wood and build a house before it gets dark," Sarah made a decision quickly.
As for the bed, she saw that she needed wool and planks. The wool, of course, came from sheep. But she looked around and didn't see any sheep, except for trees. She did see some pigs, so she quickly slaughtered several pink piglets and harvested some meat, at least enough not to starve.
Of course, that could be because she hadn't walked much. But for Sarah, the most urgent task was to chop down trees and build a house.
'Lothric City was too ambitious a goal; it would be better to build a cozy home first.'.
After all, big goals always start from small ones. With hope, Sarah picked up her axe and began to chop down trees. Once she had a hundred or two hundred pieces of wood, she could find a good place to build her cozy home.
Upon seeing the wood accumulate in her inventory and the durability of her axe run out, a satisfied smile appeared on her face. She hadn't even considered why she didn't first dig a stone and make a stone axe to be more efficient.
Because right now, she was only thinking about one thing: what kind of house she wanted to build.
Would it be a simple European style, a classic European style, a traditional American style, or a postmodern style?.
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