Darkness.
When he opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness. He tried to feel his hands, his body—anything—but there was nothing. It felt as if he had always been this way.
Jack tried to recall what had happened: the party… the drinking… and then, on the way home, someone shouting, "Hey! Watch out!" And then—darkness.
He floated in the void for what felt like forever. Time blurred. Just when he thought he would remain there for eternity, a flash of light appeared—a tiny dot in the distance.
Hope flickered inside him. He crawled—or floated—toward the light, desperate for anything. After what seemed like hours, he reached it.
It was a glowing cube.
He stared at the otherworldly object for several seconds. Then, with trembling hands, he reached out. The moment his fingers brushed it, the cube burst into blinding light, and he lost consciousness.
---
Unknown Location – Desert
Jack felt as if he were strapped to a roller coaster, his body jolting as though in a seizure. His head spun, and waves of heat scorched his skin.
Slowly, sensation returned. The dizziness subsided. He opened his eyes to a blinding sky and endless yellow sand.
"Where am I?"
He staggered to his feet, still sore but grateful to be alive. As far as he could see, there was only desert, dotted sparsely with cacti. But something was strange—the cacti were square.
"What…?"
Where in the world did square cacti grow?
Convinced he wasn't hallucinating, he trudged toward the nearest plant. He wore only a black shirt and jeans, his clothes from the night before.
As he approached, faint numbers appeared at the edge of his vision.
"Huh… What's this?"
He focused, and a gray-white interface flickered into view—a character exactly like him stood in an armor grid with a nine-slot hotbar and a twenty-seven-slot inventory.
Jack froze.
"This… this is the Minecraft UI! What is it doing here?"
He looked down and saw his own hands—blocky, pixelated. His mind went blank.
When he'd first awakened, he hadn't really examined himself. Now, staring at the inventory screen and the square cactus before him, he realized the truth.
He had died—and been reincarnated into a Minecraft world.
At the bottom of his vision glowed three bars:
[Health: 20/20]
[Hunger: 14/20]
[Thirst: 12/20]
His hunger and thirst were already low, probably from walking under the sun. He needed food and shelter before nightfall.
"Let's see if I can find anything useful here in the desert."
---
He moved from one dune to another, scanning the horizon for anything. Along the way he found a dried bush. Breaking it yielded only a few sticks.
Further on, a shape rose out of the sand—a dilapidated shrine-like structure.
He remembered the latest Minecraft update he'd played before his death. It had added ruins and temples, though this one looked larger and stranger than anything he'd seen.
The structure was tall—at least thirty blocks high—and made from sandstone, andesite, and diorite. Its squared silhouette looked familiar, yet alien.
Inside, it wasn't quite a desert temple or a jungle temple—more like a hybrid of both.
Jack stepped carefully, scanning for traps. A faint tripwire glinted in the dim light. He leapt over it, heart pounding, and spotted what looked like a dispenser camouflaged under sand. One wrong move could have ended him.
This wasn't normal Minecraft. In the game he knew, dispensers didn't spawn hidden like this.
Rusting iron bars and broken tripwires littered the hallways. Some mechanisms were still active; others had long decayed. The place felt old, like a forgotten ruin rather than a generated structure.
Drawing on years of Minecraft experience, he moved cautiously, avoiding pressure plates and suspicious blocks.
Deeper inside, the traps became fewer and the rooms larger. Yet everything was eerily empty.
Jack searched desperately for wood or other materials—anything he could craft into a weapon or tool.
Finally, in one shadowy chamber, he spotted a chest. It looked remarkably well preserved, untouched by time.
He hesitated. Trap chest? He circled it, checking carefully. No red markings. Satisfied, he opened the lid.
An inventory screen appeared—twenty-seven slots, some filled with items.
Inside were:
5 Bones
3 Rotten Flesh
7 Sticks
1 Canteen
2 Apples
9 Planks
3 Stones
The assortment looked like standard random loot—except for the canteen.
He clicked on it. A small bar appeared showing ten water marks and a "drinkable" tag.
Jack's heart leapt.
He dragged the canteen into his hotbar and began to drink. Cool water flowed down his throat. He stopped after replenishing only three bars of thirst, saving the rest for later.
Now with water in his system, his mind cleared. He felt energy returning to his limbs.
Weapons. He needed weapons and a shield—if he could find iron, even better.
He glanced around the ruined temple once more, determined to push deeper and uncover its secrets.
first night survival), or keep this as a finished prologue?