Descent Into Overworld: An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure by Liam O'Donnell Page A

to trip the old geezer.
    Hamid marched beside Jaina. The skeletons were too busy being mindless undead to pay attention to his hushed conversation with her.
    “Why is Whiner helping Slashax and Herobrine?” Hamid said.
    She shot a nervous glance to the front of the line.
    “Long story,” she said in a low voice. “Whiner hates Minecraft. He wants it destroyed.”
    “No surprise there,” Hamid said.
    “Not just deleted from the school computers. He wants the game wiped from existence.”
    “He’s not alone. Herobrine wants the same thing.” The skeleton guard walking next to Hamid turned its eyeless gaze to them at the mention of Herobrine. Maybe they weren’t as mindless as they seemed. Hamid lowered his voice to a whisper. “Herobrine is trapped on this server. He wants to use the seed generator to escape and cause chaos in the real world.”
    “That cage thing with the spinning rock?” Jaina said. She kept her words quiet and her eyes on their skeleton guards.
    “You’ve seen it?” Hamid said. “That spinning rock is a seed. It generates the code behind every Minecraft world. Herobrine wants the seed so he can corrupt the server world codes. If he succeeds, he will be able to move between the game world into the real world.”
    “Like we did because of the swords,” Jaina said.
    “Exactly. And Herobrine won’t be alone. He will send an army of creepers and zombies into the real world.”
    “Using the world’s Minecraft servers as entry points,” Jaina said. “But Slashax has his own plans. He wants the power from our swords so he can defeat Herobrine and be the boss of all Minecraft.”
    “We can’t let that happen,” Hamid said, remembering Yurei’s warnings about upsetting the balance of control and chaos. “We have to get our swords back and the Seed Generator away from Slashax.”
    “Anything else while we’re at it? Achieve world peace? Stop climate change?” Jaina said. Her wry smile held equal measures of hope and doubt.
    They arrived at a set of iron double doors.
    “We’re here,” Whiner said. His square face lit up. Hamid had seen that look before. It was the glow of satisfaction that came before dishing out the punishment. “There is someone in here who is very eager to meet you.”
     
    * * *
     
    Hamid sat in the seat beside Ant. A pair of skeleton hands on his shoulders held him in place on the diamond condenser.
    The whole thing was shaped like the wheel. Hamid, Ant and Jaina sat at three different points on the outer edge of the machine. In front of each of their seats stood a narrow tube. In the center of the wheel stood a single redstone block. Redstone circuitry ran along the spokes of this very strange wheel.
    “They should totally bring this ride to the school fun fair,” Ant said.
    “Not really a time for joking,” Hamid said.
    “No, it’s a time for panicking,” Ant said. “But I’m not giving Whiner the pleasure of seeing me pee my pants.”
    “The liquid might short circuit this contraption,” Jaina said from her seat on the other side of the strange machine. Two skeletons held her in place. “It could be worth a try.”
    Ant closed his eyes and concentrated. He quickly opened them again.
    “Not happening,” he said. “I’m either too scared to pee, or you know, this skin isn’t set up for that sort of thing.”
    Hamid craned his neck around to get a good look at the room. Whiner had called it the Portal Chamber and it was easy to see why. A massive Nether Portal, built on a raised platform, dominated the middle of the large room. The gateway to the fiery realm of Minecraft pulsed an ominous purple.
    Whiner stood near the portal with Slashax. The principal nearly jumped out of his blocky skin when he saw a pair of skeletons emerge from the Nether Portal. The skeletons walked down the platform and across the room.
    “Where did they come from?”
    “Relax, Mr. Whiner,” Slashax said. “They are merely returning from Nether. My soldiers come