“Ahh, this is the life.” said Steve. “Chilling on a couch in my mansion.” Steve was quite rich. He started out as a noob, but had gained a lot of wealth (mostly by offering unfair deals to villagers. They were NPCS, so they couldn’t do anything about it) and became on of the richest players on the sever. All of a sudden, he heard a commotion in the city. He opened the window. All around, he could hear chaotic shouting and screaming. Players and villagers were running around and panicking. “What is going on out here? I’m trying to relax.” Steve shouted out the window. “It’s Herobrine! He’s outside the gates!” one of the players shouted back. “Relax, Herobrine is a myth. He doesn’t exist”, responded Steve. He walked up to the city walls and looked over. There was a figure standing in the fields outside of the city. “See? Its just some random noob. Herobrine doesn’t exist.” Then, the lone figure looked up at Steve. It had glowing white eyes.

“How dare you say I don’t exist. You shall pay…” boomed Herobrine. A massive shockwave passed over the city, shattering windows and knocking ceiling tiles loose. A massive crater appeared in the field he was standing on. “Mobs, attack!” Several thousand monsters appeared out of nowhere. Quickly, the archers went to work. Rapidly firing their enchanted bows, they took down several monsters. However, one of the archers noted that their bows seemed to be doing less damage than usual. “I think these mobs are buffed”, he told the other archers. “Send out the swordsmen! Take out the skeletons so the archers can get a clear shot!” the general commanded. The swordsmen engaged  the buffed mobs in a vicious fight. However, while the forces were busy taking out the skeletons, the creepers sneaked by and blew a massive hole in the wall. The zombies flooded through. “Breach in the wall! Retreat!” the general said.

Now, Steve realized things were bad. The general never called retreats! He watched the zombies flood through the hole in the wall, surrounding building to prevent occupants from escaping, then using each other as stairs to get through the windows. “These zombies are a lot smarter than usual mobs”, Steve thought. Suddenly, a creeper flew in through the mansion’s window. Quickly, Steve punched it back out, where it poofed into dust on the ground. He saw a phantom carrying creepers and using them to bomb buildings. Somehow, Herobrine had broken the code so phantoms could spawn even when people slept! Steve knew that it was only a matter of time before the mobs infiltrated the building. Quickly, he headed toward the armory, grabbing his trusty Sharpness IV and Fire Aspect netherite sword, his Power, Infinity, and Mending crossbow, his Unbreaking shield, a Efficiency V and Mending diamond pickaxe, a unenchanted diamond shovel, and his full set of Protection IV diamond armor, along with 3 stacks of cobblestone and a water bucket. He also brought his spare Sharpness III diamond sword for good measure. He raced out of the mansion into the chaotic street. Players were screaming as zombies streamed into houses, and the street was filled with monsters. Weaving his way through the crowd of running players, he spotted the sign pointing to the bunker.

Quickly, Steve ran toward the bunker and activated the lava wall. Thankfully, the mobs weren’t smart enough to avoid the wall and they caught on fire. He activated the note block announcement system and set it to emergency broadcast.  “There. Now it should be activating the emergency beacon for reinforcements. Hopefully the redstone loudspeakers aren’t broken and the players will here the announcement to head to the bunker through the secret tunnel.” Steve said to himself. He opened the bunker hatch and slid inside. Closing the hatch behind him, he sat by the tunnels, waiting for someone to come in. He waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, Steve grew inpatient and went into tunnels. He was greeted by a wall of collapsed gravel. “The creepers must have caused a cave-in!” he exclaimed.

Steve used his shovel to dig through the gravel. He dug for what felt like hours before he finally hit cobblestone. “The cave-in shelter! I found it!” he joyfully shouted. He dug through the cobblestone and found a single player inside. “Finally, someone has found me!” the player inside said. “What’s your name?” Steve inquired. “I’m DinoCool611, but you can call me Dino.” the player replied. “Dino, do you know what happened to the other players?” Steve asked.  “Only me and a few others managed to make it into the tunnels. We had to block it off because creepers were chasing us. Most of them got caught in the cave-in, but me and another player managed to get into this shelter. The other player dug out of the shelter a while  ago, but he hasn’t come back. The trail he left collapsed again so I don’t know where he is. There’s also another player in the 2nd shelter a bit back. He was hiding and refused to come out of the shelter. I’m not sure if he survived though.” Dino said.

Steve and Dino were startled when they heard a digging sound coming from the walls. A hole appeared in the side of the shelter. A player came out. “Hey, I’m back!” the player said. “That’s the player I was talking about earlier! You’re finally back! What took you so long?”, Dino asked. “Oh, run in with some zombies, fell into a cave, and explored a small mineshaft. By the way, I’m MrMine69. Just call me Miner for short.” the player responded. “Let’s go search for that player who was hiding in the 2nd shelter”, Miner suggested.

Steve, Dino, and Miner got to work digging to the 2nd shelter. After an hour of digging, they finally hit the cobblestone shelter. As they cautiously headed inside, they heard the sound of rattling bones. “Take cover!” Steve screamed. The skeletons inside instantly spotted them and started shooting arrows. Steve pulled out his shield, and they made their way to the group of skeletons, with Dino lighting them on fire with flint and steel, while Steve blocked their arrows. Miner used his pickaxe to hit the skeletons, finishing them off. However, even after poofing all the skeletons, they still heard a rattling sound. “Why is there still a rattling sound? Are you sure were got all of them?” Dino asked. Suddenly, a giant skeleton leaped from the shadows. It was holding a Punch II and Power V bow. “Herobrine must be modifying mobs to be stronger!” Miner said.

They immediately got to work trying to defeat the skeleton. Steve distracted the skeleton and blocked the arrows with his shield, while Miner did melee combat with his enchanted iron pickaxe. Dino tried to light TNT to destroy the skeleton, but it was too risky, as he might accidentally blow up himself. However, despite all the damage they were doing, the skeleton just wasn’t dying. Steve’s shield was starting to crack, and Miner couldn’t keep up his attacks without getting hit. Dino tried his best to light the skeleton on fire, but his flint and steel wasn’t lighting. They were slowly losing.

Just then, there was a flash. The skeleton turned red. There was another flash. And another. The skeleton was losing hp, and it turned its head around in confusion looking for the source of the attacks. A ninja, emerged from the shadows, his figure barely discernible in the dimly lit area. With each flash, his sword found its mark, whittling away at the skeleton’s health. As the final flash poofed the skeleton, the ninja stepped forward.

“I am Villager #294. You saw me hiding here earlier, right Dino? I know you probably think i’m a NPC, and you’re right. Somehow, when Herobrine attacked the city, he made me intelligent. Unfortunately, the rest of the intelligent villagers got killed by the mobs or turned into zombies.” the ninja said. “Villager #294 is quite a mouthful. Can we just call you Mark for now?” Miner asked. “Yeah, sure”, came the reply. “How did you manage to fend off that giant skeleton for 2 hours?”, Dino told Mark. Mark replied, “Somehow, when I became intelligent, I also became able to use the Sharpness II iron sword I offered as a trade.” Steve looked quite embarrassed, as he had scammed many villagers in the past.

As the group introduced themselves and discussed their situation, they realized that they needed to head out of the bunker to gather supplies, as their only source of food was the bunker’s emergency supply, and many of their tools needed to be repaired on an anvil. Mark suggested they try to contact any remaining players who might have survived the attack.

They decided to head back to the main bunker. Once they reached the bunker, they found some food, spare weapons, and armor to replenish their resources. They also gathered some redstone and TNT from the chest. Their plan was to regroup with other players who might be hiding in the remains of the city.

MORE TO COME SOON . . .