PVP expert Steve joined the game.
A blocky person appeared out of thin air. Strangely, the color blocks on him looked like they were painted on with a brush, and his entire body? No, the surface of the creature's skin had no protrusions, just like characters in some low-quality games.
But he was an intelligent, thinking creature.
Steve turned his head, his body rotating and shifting, his gaze surveying his surroundings.
Above him was an arched ceiling, with blue glowing light lines everywhere. He turned to look, and the walls of this room seemed to be composed of a computer array. Then he looked behind him.
He saw a triangular device, like a flower petal, facing him. In the center of the device was an inverted triangular glowing object. To the right of this rather large device, a person stood.
"Who are you?" A proud yet somewhat childish female voice rang out.
Steve turned to look, only to see the person move, but her joints had circular rotating shafts. Steve immediately understood that this was merely a puppet.
Steve tentatively used the greeting method all Minecraft players know: crouch, stand, crouch, stand.
This left the Herta Puppet a bit confused.
But Steve saw she didn't react, so he stealthily approached her. His blocky head, with its expressionless color blocks, bobbed up and down as he observed the Herta Puppet.
"Hey, what are you doing? Get away from me!" The Herta Puppet disdainfully reached out to push Steve away, but found her hand inexplicably passed through him (a peculiar little feature of your game).
"?!" The Herta Puppet retreated a few meters, the pupils of her optical artificial eyes constricted, and she re-examined Steve from head to toe.
"What exactly are you?!" The Herta Puppet demanded, looking at Steve, who was still in stealth mode.
Steve tried to type subtitles in the chat bar to communicate with her... «Steve»: ...■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
The chat box appeared in Steve's lower left corner, but the Herta Puppet clearly couldn't see it.
Steve observed Herta's reaction, and after confirming Herta couldn't see the chat box, Steve quietly decided to try and kill this puppet to see what would happen.
All detection devices on the Herta Puppet activated, but what Herta didn't expect was... "New life form?!" Herta narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Steve, but after a long wait, she received no response.
Seeing Steve make no move, the Herta Puppet immediately decided to go offline. Anyway, she'd just tell Asta that there was a strange creature in her office, and Asta would send people to take it away. It wouldn't be too late to study it then.
But Steve suddenly burst forth and, with a strange, blocky running motion, arrived two meters in front of the Herta Puppet. As his blocky arm swung, the Herta Puppet's body glowed red, and she was knocked back one meter.
Herta saw the arm swing a meter away from her, yet she was inexplicably hit.
Anger and curiosity made her want the Herta Puppet to pull out a hammer and retaliate.
But... Steve had the most bugged mechanism in the entire game — [Knockback].
Creatures in a knocked-back state cannot perform any actions against other objects in the air, including attacking. Only players who are also Steve can place blocks and pull out weapons.
Clearly, the Herta Puppet couldn't pull out a hammer to retaliate while being knocked back.
Steve, in his bare-handed state, had no [attack cooldown]. His right hand swung continuously, as if tireless, which resulted in the Herta Puppet being hit repeatedly.
She was even stuck in a corner, feet off the ground, each of Steve's attacks knocking Herta back.
Constantly being knocked airborne, even if Steve's punches only dealt a little damage, this attack speed could clear the Herta Puppet's twenty health points in just a few seconds. As the Herta Puppet glowed red all over, her body toppled to the right, exploding in a puff of white smoke.
Two drops appeared on the floor; two materials eerily floated several centimeters above the ground, bobbing up and down and spinning horizontally.
Steve, long accustomed to such sights, stepped forward and absorbed the two materials into his body... Achievement Unlocked:
— [Open Your Inventory]
... [Puppet Shard * 7] [Puppet Joint * 2]
Steve looked at these two unfamiliar items in his inventory and fell into thought, but he immediately dismissed it, because he had set his sights on the wooden planks on the ground.
His blocky arms began to swing frantically, and he heard
"Lulululululululululululu"
"Dong"
Steve picked up the drops, but they weren't the wooden planks he imagined, but [Impure Composite Plank Shard] * 17.
Steve's curiosity was piqued. He placed the shards into the four-slot crafting grid in his backpack and then obtained a new material.
[Plank Component] * 1
Steve instantly felt incredibly clever. He then crafted the remaining shards and tried placing four [Plank Components] in the four-slot grid.
[Oak Wood Plank] * 1
Steve's curiosity was immediately satisfied, but he was still puzzled. He didn't seem to have installed any strange mods, did he?
Suddenly, he saw the highlighted name of the ground planks: [Impure Composite Plank].
Steve inwardly complained:
"No wonder."
He then proceeded to mine other Impure Composite Planks, and finally, he made a crafting table!
But at that moment, the triangular hatch of Herta's Office opened, and a short, white-haired, dark-skinned boy carrying a greatsword taller than himself walked in, followed by two members of the Security Department wearing masks, and then many more Security Department members.
Steve looked at this lineup and then at his own possessions — he had nothing. A true man knows when to yield, and he immediately conceded.
Steve crouched, stood, crouched, stood, expressing goodwill.
Asta frowned, pointing her greatsword at Steve and saying,
"Surrender, don't make futile resistance!" With that, Asta slowly approached.
Steve crouched and retreated. Asta watched Steve's strange movements, his entire upper body leaning forward about 45 degrees from his waist, his legs leaning back 15 degrees. His hands were also placed at his sides, following the direction of his body.
"What did you do to Ms. Herta's puppet?!" Asta demanded sharply.
Steve quickly shook his head, and [Puppet Shard] appeared out of thin air in his right hand. Then, to everyone's surprise, he threw the [Puppet Shard] from in front of his face, and the [Puppet Shard] floated there, bobbing up and down ten centimeters above the ground.
Steve then also threw out the [Puppet Joint], since he still didn't know what to do with these two things.
Asta looked angrily at the blocky Steve, who showed no emotional fluctuation.
Everyone understood what was happening now.
This blocky person had dismantled Ms. Herta's puppet. Asta even forgot to wonder "Why can this thing float above the ground?"
Asta leaned forward, just about to charge over.
"Wait!" That disdainful, proud, yet slightly impatient voice rang out.
Another Herta Puppet walked in. Herta looked at the blocky Steve, who had no emotional fluctuations.
"You've certainly piqued my curiosity..." Herta walked forward and saw that where there had originally been wooden planks, there was now a square black metal floor, which made her feel a touch of confusion.
"Ms. Herta..." Asta was about to speak up to stop her.
"Wait," Herta said without turning her head, which choked Asta's words in her throat.
When Herta saw the [Puppet Shard] floating on the ground, she slowly walked over, crouched down, and observed it.
The Puppet Shard was pixelated and constantly rotating. But strangely, even though this thing was just pixels, and only had two faces (i.e., flat), for some reason, this floating [Puppet Shard] had a circular shadow beneath it.
Herta's hand tried to grasp the Puppet Shard, and instantly a white light flashed, and the [Puppet Shard] transformed into the Herta Puppet's lower leg.
"Lululululululululululu"
"Dong"
Meanwhile, Steve was frantically digging at the [Impure Composite Plank] on the ground, which also attracted the attention of Herta, Asta, and the Security Department guards.
"What are you doing?!" Asta immediately shouted.
But Steve remained silent. A blocky crafting table appeared in his hand, and then Steve, with a swing of his block-holding arm, instantly made a one-cubic-meter solid crafting table appear on the ground.
Then Steve swung his arm again, and after only 0.5 seconds, a strange brown sword made of pixels appeared in his hand.
[Wooden Sword]
Achievement Unlocked:
— [Time to Strike!]
... ← To Be Continued