A man woke up in the grassy plains of the Overworld, eyes blinking rapidly, taking in the sheer beauty of everything. He sat up slowly, facing towards the bright, blue sky. His hands dug into dirt soft fertile dirt. The man looked down at himself: a plain cyan blue tunic, rough-spun dark blue pants, and worn boots that looked sturdy, his long, dark, brown hair fell covered his eyes, framing a young, chiseled face.
"What the hell?" he muttered, pressing a hand to his temple trying to think. Fragments of memories flickered, his name was... Ray, Ray Donovan. He remembered fragments of what he used to do. He used to create farms for Minecraft, mega-builds, bases, along with some other unimportant fragments of his past life.
These were the only things he could recall.
A chicken clucked nearby, pecking at the grass, minding its own business. Ray reached out, half-expecting the chicken to run away. Instead, his fingers met soft feathers as he stroked the chicken while thinking about his current situation.
If he was not mistaken, he was in the game "Minecraft". Except everything was not blocky at all and had real world proportions. You may ask how did he know? Well the moment he woke up, he saw something subtle at the corner of his vision. Something that showed up when he focused on it. A nine slot hotbar that came with ten hearts and hunger bars respectively which was a staple of the Minecraft UI.
The problem was that he saw what type of hearts he had. He was in hardcore, one death and he was out, no respawns, no second chances. This knowledge seemed to unsettle him a bit before he moved on, night was coming, which came with numerous monsters that could put an end to his life.
He stood up and immediately went to the nearest tree that he could find, paying no attention to the breathtaking scenery around him. He started punching, fortunately, he felt absolutely no pain whatsoever as he broke the first block of the tree. Surprisingly, the tree fell down which gave him all of the resources that it had.
This was very convenient as it allowed him to deforest trees MUCH faster than he could otherwise. But he wondered if there was some kind of mod installed because vanilla Minecraft did not have this mechanic. He deduced that he was playing Vanilla Minecraft but with more realism which could be a problem in the future.
He paid it no mind however and focused on his current task which was getting a full set of stone tools. Mentally opening his inventory, he gawked at the numerous slots that filled his vision, wasting no further time, he constructed a crafting table in by arranging oak planks in a two-by-two formation.
He placed it down and crafted a wooden pickaxe and sword by mentally allocating sticks and planks to the correct slots. Almost magically, the corresponding tools appeared in his open hands. They seemed pretty simple but sturdy at the same time.
Ray walked around, looking for some exposed stone that he could mine. He didn't want to risk getting buried alive in dirt by digging straight down to get stone so he played it safe.
Before long, he found some exposed stone on the side of a mountain, he mined it carefully, alert in case his mining would de-stabilize the mountain and cause a landslide or something, although it seemed like gravity only affected trees for some reason as he managed to mine a decent area out of the side without any signs of structural collapse.
Ray crouched low as he chipped away at the mountain's exposed stone, his newly crafted pickaxe biting into the rock with satisfying precision. Before long, a metallic glint caught his eyes further up the slope, Iron. He carefully navigated his way up the steep slope and immediately began hacking away at the exposed ore.
It was a decent vein all things considered, he counted five raw iron from that small patch before he got promptly disturbed, he heard a low growl coming from upper right, he looked up the incline, spotting a zombie inside a cave.
The zombie looked human at first until he got a closer look, its skin a dull green and stretched unevenly over stiff muscles and exposed bone. Its face is locked in a slack, lifeless expression, jaw slightly open, with cloudy white eyes that didn't blink. Torn, dirt-stained clothing hangs loosely from its frame, offering little warmth or protection, except for a copper helmet that it wore. It moved unevenly and with aggression, it growled animalistically as it lunged at him, its helmet protecting it from burning in the sunlight.
The zombie lurched forward, tumbling down the slope in a grotesque somersault. Ray sidestepped, switching to his stone sword before swinging it in a wide arc. He barely felt the impact as it sliced cleanly through its side. It collapsed, twitching, before poofing into smoke. It dropped rotten flesh and XP orbs which promptly went into his body soon after, giving him a tingly feeling.
That was Ray's first fight, it went as well as it could have. He didn't freeze or hesitate which was already more than he asked for considering he never picked up a sword in his entire life. He picked up the rotten flesh and threw it into his inventory. Never know when it could come in handy.
He smelted the five Raw Iron he mined before crafting a Shield and an Iron Pickaxe. He made a mental note to visit the cave the Zombie came from before returning to the plains where he woke up.
'I'm sorry, but I need sustenance,' Ray thought grimly as he slaughtered an entire family of pigs for food. They put up no fight whatsoever aside from running frantically in random directions. 'Minecraft coding I see.'
He also killed an entire herd of Cows and Sheep for their drops, Leather was needed for enchanting while Wool was good for crafting beds, carpets, banners, and more.
The mobs didn't seem to have any sign of intelligence which made him feel justified in killing them.
At this point, the sun was already setting and he still had nowhere to sleep so he constructed a "house" which was just essentially a wooden cube made out of planks, and plopped down a crafting table, furnace, bed, and all of the essentials before turning himself in for the night.
The next day was full of goals and plans that Ray wanted to achieve. Since he had nothing better to do, he thought that it would be best to progress into the game as much as possible. He cooked all of his meat inside a smoker he crafted inside the house and organized all of his things before preparing to go on an expedition.
The Cave.
The Zombie that Ray killed on his first day shambled its way out of a cave. Best case scenario was that the cave would be full of minerals that he could collect to progress himself even further.
Before long, he packed all of his gear and put all of the unneeded stuff inside a chest before making his way towards the Cave. The journey was uneventful but the beauty of the Overworld was always a sight to behold.
He spotted the cave after several minutes of walking and pulled out a torch, he made some Charcoal beforehand by burning logs in the furnace which he used to craft them.
Ray slowly descended into the cave, placing the occasional torch, always on the left side of the wall in order to not get lost.
The torchlight flickered against the damp cave walls as Ray descended further, the air growing thick with the scent of mildew and stone. Before long, he heard a dry rattle of bones clacking against stone. A skeleton appeared from the darkness, arrow already nocked into its bow. He raised his shield in return, the projectile bounced off of it harmlessly a moment after.
'Can't let it get any more shots off' Ray thought calmly as he charged with his shield raised trying to defeat the Skeleton swiftly.
He hit it once with his Stone Axe, dealing a huge chunk of damage on his first hit before switching to his sword and finishing it off with an overhead swing.
He didn't have time to celebrate. A guttural screech echoed from deeper in the tunnel, followed by the unmistakable scuttling of spider legs. Ray backpedaled as a cluster of glowing red eyes emerged from the darkness. The black, hairy, and far too large spider leaped at him, fangs glistening. He dodged to the side, feeling the rush of air as it sailed past, but not before its leg grazed his shoulder. A sharp sting bloomed across his skin, but the pain faded almost instantly, the hunger bar in his vision dipping slightly before replenishing as he swallowed a bite of cooked pork.
He dispatched it a few seconds after with a few well placed swings with his sword and some blocks with his shield.
Pressing forward, he found a vein of iron embedded in the wall. Thick, glinting, and plentiful. He mined it greedily, the metallic *clangs* echoing through the cavern. By the time he'd cleared it, his inventory had seven more Raw Iron, but before he could let his guard down, he heard a *hiss* behind him which immediately filled his heart with dread that only Minecrafters could understand.
He turned as fast as he could, raising his shield in front of him before the world turned white.
As the Creeper exploded, the shockwave travelled throughout the entire cavern as his arms went numb. An entire five meter long crater appeared where the Creeper once stood. His shield's durability took a massive hit but otherwise, he was fine.
Boy, how overpowered shields were early game.
Ray made his way deeper, fighting off entire groups of mobs while greedily mining all the resources that he could find. iron, coal, copper, and even gold was found in his mining expedition. No diamonds yet unfortunately, those gems rarely generated in stone. Most of them could be found only in deepslate.
His wishes were answered only half an hour later though as he stumble upon a massive deepslate cavern that was at least one-hundred meters wide glowing with the light of multiple valuable ores. He could even spot the distinct sky-blue glow of diamond from his current position. Unfortunately, along with the ores, he spotted an insane horde of mobs that spawned due to the darkness. There were zombies, skeletons, creepers, spiders, and even a few witches scattered in there.
Greed immediately clouded his mind but rationality won out in the end. He was low on food from fighting mobs so it was extremely dangerous to enter the cave as his regeneration could run out halfway through. Ray promised to himself that he would come back more prepared, with a full set of Iron Armor and Tools and enough food to feed an entire city.
By then, he would be able to mine to his heart's content.
Authors Note: Thanks for Reading! First time writing so feel free to give some advice in the comments. I would really appreciate it.