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cat-26 · 3 years ago

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A Beginner’s Guide to MC Speedrunning

So, you want to watch speedrunners, but have no idea how to start? Why do they do what they do? What are all the weird words they use? Here is my crash course on speedrunning for beginners!

(specifically 1.16 because it’s the category the mostly run at the moment)

Special thanks to @mt-words and @oceantail-oceantail for the help

Disclaimer: I am not a pro in speedrunning, the following is just the information I have gathered from watching streams, some things in here might be wrong! (I don’t watch additional explanation videos, so I only know what commentators and runners explain, and what I infer from runs.)

Also, I refer to “F3 magic” a lot. This is my way of saying “the runner looks at something, makes some sort of calculation, looks at F3, and gets an answer but I don’t know exactly what he does”. I don’t believe you need to know all these magic tricks to enjoy speedruns! (At least, I know I don’t)

Additional thanks to @venmotif and @inoutoftherain (I need to put it under the readmore so that it actually shows up in the post)

1) The categories!

Here I’ll be describing a 1.16+ Any% Random Seed Glitchless (RSG) run, but there are many many more categories in speedrunning.

1.16: They have to use any version 1.16 or up. (Usually runners use 1.16.1, since they have better trades in bastions and no piglin brutes.) The other version categories are Pre 1.9 (1.7), 1.9-1.15 (1.14) and 1.16+ (1.16.1).

Any% means the runner “just” needs to kill the dragon, completing “any %” of the game to do so. By contrast, “All Advancements”, another category, requires completing “100%” of the game (or as close to 100% Minecraft can get), by obtaining all the advancements in the game. Other categories include “All Achievements”, or even “Get All Woods”.

Random seed: The seeds are… well, random. The runners have no idea of what they are before they load the world. The other categories can be “Set Seed” (SSG), which means the seed is known by all players beforehand; or “Filtered Set” (FSG), which means the seeds are “filtered” to get very specific seeds that always have the same items (ex: ruined portal with looting III, exposed stronghold, fastions…)

2) The general parts of a run

All runs are divided into: 1) The Overworld, 2) The Nether, 3) Finding the Stronghold, 4) The End.

In the overworld, the players gather all the resources needed to enter the nether. Then, they get pearls, blaze rods and some other items in the nether. They leave the nether to find the stronghold, from which they enter the end and kill the dragon.

The nether portion of a run has two main components: the bastion and the fortress. The bastion allows the runner to trade gold for resources (like pearls), and the fortress gives them blaze rods (needed to make ender eyes).

3) The overworld

a. What do you need?

Usually, you want to enter the nether with these items:

Wood: The first thing any speedrunner does is punch a tree. They get the wood, make a crafting table, a few sticks, and basic tools. Wood is also useful to make a boat and doors (and to wood light if needed). Boats are useful in the overworld if the run is in the ocean, but also in the nether, because you don’t take fall damage when in a boat so you can go down cliffs with the boat. You can get wood in the nether, but you can’t make a boat with that one.

Iron and flint: Ideally, you want 7 iron ingots. You need an iron pickaxe (3 iron) to mine the gold blocks in the bastion, a bucket (3 iron) to make a portal, a flint and steel (1 iron, 1 flint) to light the portal.

You can get iron multiple different ways: Iron golem, blacksmith chest (which can also have obsidian!), shipwreck, buried treasure…

Some of these can be “skipped”:

No need for the flint and steel iron: you can get flint and steel from a ruined portal (or just flint, or fire balls). If you don’t have enough iron, you can “wood light” your portal, which consists of putting wood around the portal in the lava pool so that the fire propagates through the portal and lights it

No need for the pickaxe iron: You can find iron pickaxes in the blacksmith chest. Also, bastions have iron in them, so you can try to “high roll” and get lucky and get iron in the chests in the bastion to make your pickaxe (note that the other irons are needed to get to the nether, so the iron in the bastion is only for the iron pickaxe). This is dangerous for two reasons: it’s not guaranteed, and it messes up the bastion routes (we’ll talk about these later). No iron pickaxe = no run (except in classic I guess)

Ways to not make a bucket:

There is a strat called “bucketless” to make your portal; not many people do it… So, uh, you just need to know it exists.

Some villages have a small chance of having a bucket in the chests. If so: you get very lucky!

You can also do “cod strats”, which consists of trading with villagers (wheat for emeralds, emeralds for a cod in a bucket). This is slow, but if there isn’t any iron... a strat like any other. Cruel speedrunners kill the cod, and get karma with bad luck in the nether. Nice speedrunners save the cod and are rewarded. This is 100% true, trust me.

If you find 10 obby in the blacksmith’s chest, or a completable ruined portal (aka ruined portal that can be completed, no crying obsidian in the way) with enough obby in the chest, no need for a bucket.

Food: Food = health (and sprint). So ideally, you want food, and if you can get it before the nether, it’s better. The most common speedrunner’s food is bread. You get wheat for it in villages or chests in the ocean. If you find a ruined portal, you can get lucky and get golden carrots aka the best food! If you don’t have any of those, you can light animals on fire (flint & steel, or lava bucket) and kill them for food. When runners enter the nether without food, they can also kill hoglins (usually with a lava bucket) to get porkchops, or get mushrooms to make stew (ideally with dandelions from the overworld; they make the stew have better regen).

Blocks: You’re not required to have blocks, but it is easier to navigate with blocks: tower up, parkour, block clutch, run on soul sand, block up angry pigmen… Blocks are just useful. Wood is a good block because 1 mined = 4 blocks, but netherrack is also a good option (easy to mine, can explode it with tnt), or any blocks you get from trading in the bastions.

b. The village

As I mentioned before, villages are good for a few things, mostly iron and food. You can also get beds from the village (which was essential before bastions were a thing, but now you get string from bastions so no need for extra beds usually).

c. The temple

In temples, you can find iron, gold apples, and string. You also get TNT. TNT can be very useful to blow up hay bells (get food faster), trees (get wood faster), gravel (get flint), netherrack (get blocks), or blaze spawners (“blaze bed”, but without all the fire).

d. The shipwreck

Shipwrecks can have food and iron. If you get a good shipwreck, you can get enough iron to enter the nether, wood from the boat to make doors (usually you already have a boat, made to get to the shipwreck), and enough food (fish or wheat) to enter safely.

I’ll mention this here: when moving in the ocean, you can swim, use a boat, or swim with a dolphin. Speed goes: dolphin > boat > swim.

e. The buried treasure

Buried treasures can have iron and diamonds, so also very good! Before, runners needed to find a map in a shipwreck and use it to get the treasure, which made them a little slow.

Now, they can use “mapless treasure”, a technique that uses the pie chart, render distance, and some F3 magic to find where the buried treasures are buried (you can find more information online, I haven’t looked more into it).

f. Entering the nether

To enter the nether, you can use a lava pool, or a ravine. The lava pool is the “traditional” way to enter. You find a lava pool, and with a water bucket you can make a portal (it requires good placement of the water, and blocks around the lava). Best lava pools are on the surface, of course, but some runners dig down to find one.

Sometimes when looking underground, runners will go into “crawl mode”, swimming into a 1x1 tunnel so they only have to mine one block to move, being able to search for lava quicker.

The other way to enter the nether is the ravine. A runner will find a ravine in the ocean that has magma blocks (runners see them usually finding kelp in the water) and use a combination of doors and blocks to make a portal. Ravines usually have gravel around so runners will take this opportunity to get flint.

4) The nether

a. 30 FOV, pie chart, E rays, divine

So now the runner is in the nether! Congrats, they made it! (I’m not kidding, sometimes it takes hours for a runner to actually make it to the nether.)

So now the runner needs both a bastion, and a fortress. Minecraft is coded so that fortresses and bastions spawn in “quadrants”, only one structure on each quadrant, so runners know in general where to look. Before, they would use this general knowledge and just try to find one of those by luck. Now, they have new techniques.

You will often see runners lower their FOV to 30, and look around in a circle with F3 open. This is “E-raying”. In the F3 menu, you can see the number of entities. Bastions spawn with all their pigmen inside, so if you see a spike in entities, you know there is probably a bastion that direction.

Runners usually try to go to a bastion first, but it’s good to know off the bat if there’s also a fortress. To do so, they either go with process of elimination (if one quadrant has a bastion, it doesn’t have a fortress, and quadrants without bastions probably have a fortress), or they use more F3 magic. This time, they use the pie chart. This magical pie chart (bottom right) can show if there is a spawner in the direction you are looking. In the nether, the only spawners are: blaze spawners in fortresses, and magma cube spawners in one type of bastion. We already know how to tell if a bastion is in the direction we’re looking, so usually the pie chart is useful since spawner + no bastion means fortress. (Again, for more detail on how the pie chart works, you can find info online.)

b. Bastions

i. Trades

Usually, runners want to go to the bastion before the fortress. This is mostly because of two things: fire resistance, and pearls.

Bastions are used by runners to get pearls, obsidian, string, and fire resistance. They can also get glowstone, crying obsidian, crossbows, and arrows.

Pearls: Pearls are essential to a run, and not getting the trades for them kills a run. Indeed, pearls are used to make ender eyes, which are needed to enter the end. They are also very useful to travel faster, which is why doing bastion before fortress can be a timesaver: you can pearl form the bastion to the fortress, but you have to run from the fortress to the bastion. Usually, runners get at least 16 pearls.

Obsidian: Obsidian, or “obby”, is used to make nether portals, which you need to exit the nether. Ideally, runners want 20 obsidian, but 10 can be enough. With 20 obsidian, runners will make a first portal and exit the nether. From there, they will throw an eye and find out the direction and distance of the stronghold. (They will use different methods to do this, which I’ll detail in another section.) Once they have the information, they go back to the nether using the same portal, and move to a location closer to the stronghold, where they use their remaining obsidian to make their last portal, ready to find the stronghold.

The reason they travel in the nether and not the overworld is that 1 block in the nether is 8 blocks in the overworld, so nether travel is much faster than the overworld.

In regular runs (not tourneys) they usually only get 10 obsidian, and place a single portal at "good coordinates" (places that are on average close enough to a stronghold). This means they can't do calculated travel in the nether.

If a runner only has 10 obsidian, they can go back to their original portal used to enter the nether if it's not too far away, and do the distance calculation there, and then use their obsidian to make the blind portal.

String: Killing the dragon requires explosives: usually beds, but they can be respawn anchors. A minimum of 4 beds is required, so players will usually need 12 wool (or 48 string), but want more because not a lot of people can consistently 4-bed the dragon; 5 beds, even 6, is safer.

Fire resistance: Fire resistance is really good in speedruns. In the fortress, players need to kill blazes to get blaze rods. Fire resistance allows the players to not take damage when hit by a blaze’s fireball (they still take melee damage though), which makes the fortress split much faster, and uses less food (less damage = less food). But this is not the only reason to get fire res.! The nether is notoriously full of lava and fire, so fire res saves a runner if they fall into lava or get shot by a ghast. Fire res also helps in the dragon fight, since the player is blowing up beds and fire res removes the fire damage from those.

Glowstone and crying obsidian: Instead of beds, runners can use respawn anchors as explosives to kill the dragon (they can use 4 of them, but it’s a little tricky. Most players won’t use more than 2, especially since they usually have enough beds). They are crafted with glowstone blocks and crying obsidian, and charged with one more glowstone. Runners can also use them to hunger reset if they have no food and low hunger. Pigmen can trade both glowstone dust and crying obby.

ii. Bastion types

There are four types of bastions: treasure, bridge, stables, and housing. Some are considered bad, some are great. For example: runners don’t like stables because they have hoglins in them. Bridge used to be considered the best bastion because it has a “chalice” (all the gold blocks are in the same place, exposed), but now others are liked more because bridge routes are not as effective.

Each bastion has multiple “routes” a runner can take. Routes are the way a runner will move and act in a bastion to set up trades and get in and out as fast as possible.

There are many routes, and you can find a guide to all of them online. In general, they all consist of getting gold blocks, gathering pigmen in a hole, and getting the trades, checking chests as you go. Most routes are named after the creator of the route (like the “ninjabrain route”), but not all (example “manhunt” which consists of angering all the pigmen so they follow you and fall into a hole).

c. Fortress

The fortress is a mandatory part of any run, since it gives blaze rods, which are needed to craft the ender eyes to open the end portal.

Runners prefer to do bastion first, because of the reasons I outlined (fire res, pearls), but it’s not mandatory. Whatever the choose, they have to go to the fortress.

Fortresses have “good parts” and “bad parts”. “Bad parts”, for speedruns, is the part where the chests are, that have no blaze spawners. The “good part” has the blaze spawners.

Runners will mine out the floor of the spawner platform to increase the spawning rate of blazes. They won’t spawn more often, but more blazes can spawn each time (so instead of getting 1-2 blazes each time, they can get 3-4). They can use gold pickaxes to mine the blocks, since it is faster. They can also “blaze bed”, which consists of putting a bed on the top of the spawner, and blow it up to break the blocks around it. They can also use TNT instead of a bed, which makes it “cleaner” because they won’t make fire around (fire is bad because a runner could lose a blaze rod to it).

Sometimes, two spawners are next to each other, which is good because more blazes will spawn around the player. However, this can quickly be dangerous, especially if the runner doesn’t have fire res.

Usually, runners will get 6 rods (they can get 5 if they are high-rolling, or 7 if they are playing it safe). They need a maximum of 12 eyes (6 rods), but can bet on getting a portal with 1 or 2 eyes in it. (However, eyes can break! So less rods = more chances you won’t have enough eyes to get to the end)

d. What is a “fastion”?

You’ll often hear runners mention “fastions”. These happen when a fortress and a bastion are very close together, usually visible when entering the nether. This makes the “nether split” of the run much faster. Sometimes, runners can even “task overlap”, where they start trading with pigmen, go get their blaze rods, and then go back to get their trades. (Usually, this is not possible because if they go too far from the bastion, their pigmen will despawn.)

5) Finding the stronghold

The basics are: throw ender eyes to find the stronghold. However, if the runner has no idea of how far the stronghold is, and throws an eye every 100 blocks, he will probably get many eye breaks and might not have enough eyes to enter the end. To avoid this, runners can do a “distance check”. In brief, they throw two eyes and get the angle difference between the two throws (using F3), and using some geometry and math, can estimate how far away the stronghold is. Then, they can just run in a straight line for the approximate distance and throw again, which reduces the number of throws they have to make.

Remember how I said they made two portals in the nether, and used the first one to find the distance and direction of the stronghold? This is where they do the distance check. They can do an “educated guess” and “calculated travel”, which can go from “throw one pearl and follow the general direction a few hundred blocks and hope your stronghold is close to your last portal”, to “precisely throw two eyes and get the exact angle and calculate the exact blocks you need to travel to blind into the stronghold directly”. Again, there is more to this, but this is the basics of what you need to know to start off: throw eyes, get angle, math+F3 magic, “Eye Spy”.

There is also something called “divine travel”. I don’t know much about it, but the basics are that by looking at some specific things in the overworld and the nether at the (0,0) chunk, you can determine where the stronghold is. I don’t know how it works exactly, but there are videos online that explain it. This is the most “F3 magic” there is in my mind, just because it’s all weird, and you can look at fossils in the nether and find the stronghold. Magic.

6) The stronghold and the end

a. Exposed strongholds/portal rooms

By default, Minecraft tried to span the stronghold underground. However, if the stronghold is in the ocean, there is a big probability the stronghold will be “exposed” (meaning you can see bricks from your boat). This is good, since you don’t need to precisely find the chunk the eyes point to. You can even get really lucky and directly find the portal room (which has lava in it and windows, so it can be easy to spot from the ocean it the portal room is exposed because it has light).

However, exposed strongholds are, by definition, in the ocean, which means that all the hostile mobs the game wants to spawn will spawn in the stronghold, which makes the place very dangerous.

b. Stronghold navigation

Once the runner found the chunk to which stronghold is located, they will dig down. The eyes point to the “starter staircase” chunk, which is the dead-end staircase that “starts” all strongholds. The runners will usually use F3 to position themselves in the correct location on the chunk to avoid falling through the middle of the staircase and taking too much damage, which you can hear people refer to as “finding 4,4”.

Once the runner is in the stronghold, they will “navigate” it to find the portal room. While the location of the portal is random, runners have a general idea of how to find it: where it’s more probable to spawn, how “deep” (how many rooms from start) it’s most likely to be… things like that. Some runners are famous for being great at navigation.

Once they find the portal room, they place the eyes in the portal. Some runners prep their inventory before entering the end, like crafting the beds and preparing arrows.

c. Perches and one cycle

Once in the end, the player has to wait for a dragon perch to kill it. A perch refers to when the dragon circles the bedrock fountain, then “hovers” on top of it. The one cycle is when the player gets into the fountain while the dragon is perched, and kills it with beds (or anchors). Before the perch, runners usually place obsidian (or crying obsidian) on the fountain so they can place all the beds correctly during the one cycle. They also have to place the anchors ahead of time, and charge them with glowstone.

If a player misses a one cycle, the run is usually dead, since the crystals are still up so the dragon will get his health back, and the runner has no explosives left. Sometimes, they will run out of beds, but still have enough time during the perch to finish killing the dragon with an axe, sword or bow.

Fun fact: killing the dragon with beds does not give the “Free the End” achievement, since the player doesn’t kill the dragon, the beds do.

d. Half bow

Every time the dragon circles the end, and chooses a new path to follow, it has a 1/13 chance to perch. If the player takes down a crystal, that probability goes up. Because of that, taking down crystals is considered a more consistent strategy.

Runners will do a strategy called “half bow”, in which they enter the end and immediately shoot down a few crystals using a bow/crossbow and arrows.

Some runners will instead high-roll for an “insta-perch”, in which they bet on getting the 1/13 chance of the dragon perching as soon as they enter the end. This is highly unlikely, but can lower the time to kill the dragon by a lot if it happens.

In tourneys, players opt for half-bow strats more often, as they are going for consistency, not luck. In runs, it is a little less common, since they go for the high rolls more often than consistency (since a good run, even more a WR, requires so much good luck in addition to skill).

e. Zero cycle

A recent strat, called “zero cycle” could allow the player to kill the dragon without waiting for a perch. However, this strat is not yet used by runners since it requires too many beds, and a very specific end configuration. It is not yet “ready” to be used in runs.

Edit from Feb. 2022: This strat is now actually viable! Runners found a way to use less beds, and to combine beds and respawn anchors to complete this. (Usually requires F3; no-F3 has been done in a training map by Illumina, by it is much harder to do)

7) Glossary

Reset: Changing the world. This happens when the run is dead, the spawn is not good, the player dies…

PB/WR: Stand for “Personal Best” (best individual time) and “World Record”, respectively

High Roll: Choosing to do something more risky, but if it worked would have higher payout (as opposed to doing the safer route). (Example: choosing to enter the nether faster without an iron pickaxe and betting there will be enough iron in the bastion.)

Hunger reset: When a player is low on food, he can set his spawn with a bed or respawn anchor, and kill himself (usually with enderpearls, flint and steel, or falling from a tower) and then get their items back. That way they get full health and full hunger back. Usually, they die in a hole, so their items don’t fly out in every direction.

Dong: My favorite speedrunning word. This happens when a player goes close to an ocean monument and gets mining fatigue from the Elder Guardian, getting “donged”.

Mapless: A strategy that uses F3 magic, render distance, and chunk borders to find buried treasures.

Split: Refers to the time for each section. “Nether split”, “Bastion split”…

Wood light: Lighting the portal without flint and steel or fireballs, using wood planks or carpet between the lava and the portal. The wood catches fire, and propagates to another plank on the other side of the portal, lighting it.

Completable portal: Ruined portal that can be completed without having to break any crying obsidian. Runners can use lava around the portal, or obsidian from the chest.

Fastion: A fortress and a bastion close together in the nether, that can make the nether split very fast, and even allow for task overlap.

Classic/classical: Before runners started using bastions to get pearls, they would mine gold in the nether, and trap pigling in a hole. This made the trading much slower, and runners usually had to frontload beds since they wouldn’t get enough string from the trades.

Task overlap: Doing multiple things at the same time to save time. For example, getting blaze rods while piglins are trading; building the portal while you wait for blazes to spawn.

Pearl hang: Throwing an ender pearl and immediately lowering the render distance so the pearl "hangs" in the air and doesn't land. When they are ready, put their render distance back to normal and the pearl will teleport them. This saves time when the runnner has to go opposite the direction of the stronghold (for example to go to the fortress), since they don’t have to retrace their steps.

Good gap/bad gap: Term to characterize one type of bastion. You can watch bastion descriptions to find more.

Bastion routes: Different methods to do the bastion split by the runners. Names by their creator, or something that characterizes the route.

Obby: Obsidian

Blaze bed: Using a bed on the top of the spawner, and blow it up to break the blocks around the spawner. (They have to be careful to protect the spawner so it doesn’t break.) They can also use TNT instead of a bed, which makes it “cleaner” because they won’t make fire around (fire is bad because a runner could lose a blaze rod to it).

Blind: Placing the portal “blindly” where the runner thinks the stronghold is.

Calculated/Educated: Methods to determine how far and where the stronghold is, using F3.

Divine: Method that uses elements of the 0,0 chunk to determine the location of the stronghold.

Exposed Stronghold: The stronghold can be seen in the bottom of the ocean. This is good, since runners don’t need to precisely find the chunk the eyes point to. All hostile mobs the game wants to spawn will spawn in the stronghold, which makes the place very dangerous.

Starter Staircase: Staircase to which the Ender Eye points to, which “starts” the stronghold.

8) Okay, but how do I start watching?

a. Tourneys!

Tourneys are great to start watching speedruns, especially when the commentators explain what is happening. These runs won’t be exactly like regular runs because the runners don’t reset, but that means you get a lot of explanations and details! And also a lot of “why they don’t do this normally” talk. (Also if T_Wagz is commentating, you get a lot of “WHY DIDN’T THEY BLAZE BED! WHY DIDN’T THEY USE TNT”)

Edit: I recommend checking out @/mcsr--updates for news about current tourneys and events.

b. Some speedrunners I know and watch

Illumina: Considered by many as the “best speedrunner of all times”. He’s been speedrunning for years. When he started, almost no one in the western hemisphere speedran. For years, he was a notorious “no F3” runner, but he recently started using F3 because the new 1.16 strats all use F3 and he is having fun with them. (twitch, 2ndtwitch / youtube)

Couriway: I think he is the easiest speedrunner to get into speedrunning. He makes funny, easy to understand youtube videos, and streams a lot. He is also a great speedrunner, and held the 1.16 WR for a few months. (twitch / youtube)

Feinberg: He started speedrunning a year ago, and is considered by many as the best speedrunner currently. He is the best at tournaments, and he is currently doing a lot of AA runs. His streams have the best music out there (I don’t take criticism). (twitch, 2ndtwitch / youtube)

PeteZahHutt: If you know MCC, you know Pete! He’s a great speedrunner, but he doesn’t run much lately, since he mostly streams Vault Hunters. (And he doesn’t know all the new strats). (twitch / youtube)

TapL: He started speedrunning fairly recently, but put a lot of effort into it and got a really good time! (17:xx, which at the time was really really good, and still is today even if there are way more 15:xx than before). His streams are usually more high-energy, with a lot of good vibes and fun. (twitch / youtube)

Others: Benex, Zylenox, Ninjabrain (creator of many strats. has a bastion route named after him), Dylqnnnn, k4yfour.

c. Videos I recommend

Couriway’s 1.16.1 WR : Couri’s WR run, that was World Record for a few months. Couri goes through his run and explains his thought process and strats, which might help if you’re new to speedrunning

Illumina’s 1.16.1 WR, No F3: Illumina was notoriously a “no F3” speedrunner, and got this world record without using F3 just before the new strats were making F3 obsolete in 1.16. In this video Illumina commentates it, and talks about his thought process, his thoughts on F3 (at the time), and other relevant topics.

Illumina’s 1.16.1 Real Time WR: Illumina’s recent PB, that almost beat the current World Record. This run illustrates how “lucky” a run needs to be to beat the current WR, and it also uses some recent F3 strats (like mapless treasure), and it goes “fortress first”. Again, Illumina commentates the run and explains what is happening as he goes.

Dylqn’s new 1.16.1 PB with Monument Strats: This run is really nice, because Dylan used “monument strats”, which means he got all his gold from a monument and not a bastion. It is the WR using this strat. You can also see “multi-instancing” in action, which is the new “controversial” strat runners are using to increase reset efficiency.

Korbanoes’s Classic WR: This is a pretty old record, but it uses “Classic” strats (used before bastions came into the picture).

Cube 1337 1.16.1 RSG WR: After months of no new WR, Cube became the new WR holder in 1.16.1. He uses the newly allowed calculators to get into the stronghold, and the new "wall" strat is seen at the start (to have multiple instances of the game running at once to reset faster). (added Feb. 2022)

#mcsr #mcyt #please share i have put a lot of effort and time into this #speedrunning #edit: changed a few things and added a recommended video.#feel free to let me know if you find a mistake or anything i could add :)

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fleursdemeduse · 3 years ago

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Remembrance AU: The First Time

So this isn't the first one I wrote for this "series", but this is the first one chronologically, so I decided this will be the first to be posted. Depending on how well this one and the other two I've written do will help me to decide if this is an AU I wanna continue or not. Feel free to send in asks and stuff about the AU!

Warnings: Violence ; Death

Words: 3.5k

You hated the nether. The thick dry heat choked you in a way that made you feel as if you had stepped into a wildfire in the middle of a desert, but worse. The smell of sulfur seemed to cling to your clothes in a way that made you gag every time. To be honest, you probably wouldn’t even be here if you didn’t appreciate the piglins. You were able to barter with them much easier than the villagers back home, and they had much better stuff. You snorted at the thought, and the large brute before you copied the action.

Home.

The village you had set up base in wasn’t really your home. Just a convenient place that you had set up your bed. A bed which now sat on the other side of the portal you had built on the lower level of the bastion below.

You were grateful to have access to the only thing you really needed in the nether. Trading with the piglins gave you a way to achieve more ender pearls so you wouldn’t have to kill the poor enderman on the surface. You held out another gold ingot to the brute, but he didn’t take it immediately. He was looking at something to the side of your exchange and you turned your head slightly to look too.

The heat of the nether was nothing compared to the warmth that immediately bubbled in your stomach. Everything seemed to fizzle out of existence aside from the large man that had entered the bastion. Which turned out to be your mistake.

Searing pain in your back made you grunt as you were knocked forward into the brute in front of you. You turned to see a ghast behind you that breathed another fireball. The piglin, upset at suddenly being “attacked” started to slice at you with its sword and you hissed at the damage you were taking. You didn’t want to kill the piglin. It didn’t understand that it had been an accident.

You cursed at yourself. You hadn’t realized how hungry you had been all this time, and your health felt dangerously low. Another hit from the explosion of the fireball and a swipe at the brute’s sword replaced the pain with nothing as you died.

You cursed when you woke up in your bed next to the portal. The mattress felt almost too soft as you struggled to remove yourself from it and fling yourself back through the portal. You flew up the steps, your feet taking them two at a time and you hoped your items hadn’t despawned.

You couldn’t help your sigh of relief when you saw Technoblade examining your items. You had been fast enough. You jogged up behind him, a grin on your lips, both relieved for your items and excited to finally meet him. “Hey!”

You immediately jolted to a stop at the sword now placed at your throat, but you could help but laugh at yourself. You should have expected that. You held up your hands in what you believed to be a non-threatening manner as you looked up at him.

“Sorry about that! I’m [y/n].” You watched him slowly lower the blade, eyes behind the mask narrowed at you. He looked both exactly how you expected and not how you expected at all.

“Technoblade.” You couldn’t help the giggle that spilled from your lips as you moved around him to collect your items and put back on your armor. Who hadn’t heard of him?

“Man, I hate ghasts. I worked really hard to save up all those levels, and now I have nothing.” You took a cursory glance at your levels. “Oh, I’m sorry, I have two. Fat load of help that would be. Glad I don’t need to enchant anything for a long while, hm?” You turned back to him once you had your golden boots buckled. You were totally going to take advantage of this opportunity to follow him like a puppy. No one else you had met seemed to actually understand you and the chance at an interaction with someone had you almost crawling up the walls. “Where are we off to, then?”

Techno just stared at you. You were much shorter than he was. At least a foot, if not more. How tall was he again? In this form, about seven feet, he thought. You were very short compared to him. The thought made his lips twitch before he turned, walking in the direction of where he last remembered there to be a fortress.

Chat was going crazy at the discovery of this new anomaly. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t met people he didn’t share a couple lifetimes with before. He had met plenty where they just didn’t meet in a life or two, such as George or Schlatt. But never someone he had shared none with. No one here seemed to speak of anyone new either. It was always the same people, a different storyline. As if DreamXD -or maybe Kristen? He had only met her once, but she had been very kind. Would this be her department, then?- just kept recycling their souls into new realities like a -what did that lifetime call it? A movie? Chat confirmed his thought- played for their own entertainment until they got bored and it was onto the next.

He glanced at you out of the corner of his eye. You were talking again, but the roar in his brain was louder, so he didn’t pay too much attention to your words, despite how the soft timbre of your voice made something bubble in his chest. What were you even doing here? He had seen you trading with the piglins before your death, -you had respawned so quickly, anyone else in this lifetime took two or three days but you seemed to reappear in what felt like seconds- so why were you following him now?

Chat’s whispers echoed through his mind.

I wonder who they are.

They can’t be older than Tommy.

Maybe we should kill them again, see what happens this time.

Wilbur will want to know about this.

They said their name was [y/n]?

Maybe they’re like Phil.

Pog.

Blood for the blood god.

They’re probably closer to Wilbur’s age.

Stab them.

Jump off the edge.

Push them off the edge.

Techno, will you call my friend Rachel a nerd?

All warfare is based on deception.

His fingers twitched around his sword at the thought. Was this all a trick? It couldn’t be.

Could it?

He glanced at you once more, focusing on your words, finally.

“-like they seem to notice, y’know? I just kind of walk into their houses, take from their chests, and move on. Hell, I even put my bed in, I think the library? Not one of them batted an eye! It’s almost scary, to be honest. I can loot their things, sleep in their beds, practically dismantle their homes, and I get nothing but a “Hnn.” in response!” A small pout found its way to your lips and Techno hummed in response. This seemed to be what you wanted to hear because a smile replaced the pout and you looked up at him. “So where are we going again?”

“Fortress.” His words were short, tone clipped, as if he didn’t know if you were gonna shove him into the lava, or if that was what he planned to do to you. It didn’t matter, to be honest. You were just thrilled he was letting you accompany him. Heart soaring at the feeling of interacting with another intelligent being once more. He even seemed to be listening as you rambled! That had to be a good thing, right? You hadn’t really met anyone else on the server yet, aside from distantly watching Dream, George, and Sapnap build the large building that stood in the center of what they dubbed the Dream SMP. A small giggle fell from your lips. That would have been a cute name had one of the members not been named it. Rather, it just felt self-centered because of that. You were mildly afraid of approaching the trio. You were almost afraid of how they would react when they met you.

You edged closer to the bridge to the fortress with Technoblade and you felt your heart speed up a little. Ash floated across your vision and you felt it hard to breathe for a moment. The sweat that made your clothes stick to your skin under your armor made you feel clammy. You had only been in one of these once since coming here when you wanted to try your hand at learning how to craft potions and needed blaze rods.

That.. hadn’t worked out in your favor.

You had only had one set of diamond armor, and you hadn’t even enchanted it at the time. When the wither skeletons had overtaken you and murdered you without a thought, you remembered racing back and trying to get your items back. This had only led to yet another death, however. Your eyebrows furrowed as the question entered your mind.

How many times had you died?

You remember when you first came to this world, waking up next to a river with a chest filled with bread, a map, a wooden axe, and a few other paltry items sitting before you surrounded by torches. The gentle babble of the water easing you awake and the smell of fresh flowers floated through the breeze. You almost didn’t mind the ants that were crawling on the ledge just a tad too close to you. You remember being so confused and the days being so hard at first. You didn’t even sleep the first couple days because you hadn’t found a village yet. The stupid phantoms that had attacked you had made you way more aggressive than you had meant to be. But you were tired and you were frustrated and you just wanted to find a stupid village already. You had been residing in the one you were in now since you had first found it your third day here. The first two deaths happening on your second day. One because of said phantoms and one because you had fallen from a cliff. You were devastated at the lack of supplies and progress when you just respawned next to that river, awaking to a few scattered zombies and a skeleton or two. You had dug yourself a hole and cried in it while you waited for sun-up. Many more deaths had happened since, but you couldn't seem to be able to remember the number now.

You hadn’t planned on returning to a fortress until you had better equipment, fearing another death. Something better than your diamond armor and golden boots and your sole netherite sword, but who were you to miss the opportunity to go exploring with The Blood God? Besides you had a bow with Power IV you had stolen from a skeleton that had been in the village. You didn’t know how durable it still was, but it was better than nothing, right?

The rattling of bones brought you out of your thoughts. Already a couple of blazes and some wither skeletons were approaching. You drew your sword, heart hammering in your chest. This wouldn’t be like last time. You had Technoblade to back you up. The top PVPer. The winner of the potato war. The Blood God. You could do this. You could do this.

A lucky swing from one of the wither skeletons caught you in the arm and you hissed as the wither effect immediately took hold and you jolted at the feeling. It was numbing. You felt nauseated. Another hit and you gasped when you felt your health drop to a dangerous level. You sliced up with your sword, removing its head from its spine with a gnarly “click” and you immediately moved out of fire to drink some milk and eat a couple of the pieces of salmon you had brought with you.

Whilst you were letting your health regenerate, you removed your bow from your inventory, aiming at one of the blazes, only to watch something white hit it first. You hesitated, looking towards Technoblade, only to see him ignoring the wither skeletons that were approaching you and focusing on throwing snowballs at the flaming mob. Your lips twitched. Fine. You’d take care of the skeletons, then.

You grabbed your sword once more and began attacking the skeletons in front of you with reckless abandon. You were growing mildly frustrated. Your arm hurt now and Techno seemed to be leaving you on your own to fight off the horde that was slowly amassing. There had only been four of them at first, but now four more had sprinted over to join the fray when they saw the two of you. Now, minus the one you had already taken care of and the two Technoblade had killed within the first ten seconds of their approach, there were five. You winced when you heard the sound of both blazes being taken care of and you hadn’t even killed one more.

‘-so she throws this apple, she just chucks this apple and says like, only the hottest goddess can take this apple.’ Chat loved it when he told them mythology stories, despite them being there when he had read it.

Greek mythology pog.

Semi-demi god for the win!

Speaking of discord, how’s the new person doing?

Persephone is definitely the hottest.

At the mention of you, Techno turned his attention to the sound of metal hitting metal and was surprised to see you still standing there, despite being crowded by wither skeletons. Just another thing to tack onto the list about you. He watched you kill another one, followed by a yelp as you took another hit, the wither effect turning the flesh around your wound a purplish black before you killed one more. You backed up on the bridge, drinking more milk and eating another piece of fish. He could see how the action pained you, but you were resilient.

They’re stupid.

Look at them wave that sword around, do they even know what they’re doing?

They haven’t died again yet?

They can’t be one of Schlatt’s people.

Save them.

Technoblade, wasn’t Eris the daughter of Zeus?

He decided to wait and see what you did. If you died, there was more for him to loot. If you didn’t, then it was a lesson. Either way, he wouldn’t have to worry about protecting you further into the fortress. His nose twitched at the smell of your blood and of rot that seemed to ooze off the skeletons. He still needed more wither skulls.

The remaining four attacked you again, despite your low health, and you felt as if you were going to cry. You hated the nether.

Two more were dispatched a lot faster than the first ones had been and you swallowed. Adrenaline coursed through your veins and you felt just the slightest bit more confident in yourself.

Two more left.

You ducked at a swing, movement still slow. You only had one more milk left, and that scared you. You couldn’t, wouldn’t, get hit again with their stupid swords and their stupid wither effect. You sliced with your sword, hooking the metal into the rib cage in front of you and sending the skeleton careening into the other just as it swung down, making the attack miss.You flinched at the sound of metal hitting stone, but you recovered faster than the skeletons in front of you. You could do this.

Another hit, your sword cutting through the skeleton’s vertebrate and killing it. You could do this.

One more.

Your sword was met with metal as you blocked its attack and you grunted, knocking it back. You could do this!

A downward slice had you throwing yourself back onto the side of the bridge as you dodged. You couldn’t die. Not here. Not now. Not in front of Technoblade again. You shoved another piece of salmon into your mouth as you backed up. You really hoped there weren’t any more blazes around. Or more skeletons waiting for you. You shoved yourself off the wall, hitting the wither skeleton with your shoulder to knock it back again before you struck once more, across the neck, beheading it.

The sight of three wither skulls in your inventory made you fall to your knees and you let out a sigh in relief. Your arms ached. Your wounds ached. Your head ached. Your vision doubled for a moment. Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath. You felt great, despite how dizzy you felt at the moment. You looked at Technoblade, hoping to find him still there.

He was leaned against the wall of the fortress, watching you with crossed arms.

Was he waiting on you?

The thought made you perk up and you scrambled to stand, rushing to him while holding the skulls. “Here! I got them all!”

He merely blinked at you as you handed him all three skulls you had gotten from your fight, placing them into his inventory after a moment. He didn’t speak, just turned to descend further in. Were you supposed to follow him?

You did anyways, feeling proud of yourself. He had waited on you!

The rest of the fortress had been like that. You continuously fighting wither skeletons, blazes, regular skeletons, zombified piglins, and magma cubes, only to turn over your loot to the large warrior who would patiently wait for you. You kept a few of the bars of gold, some diamonds, and one of the saddles you had found, but ultimately, you were just spare hands to help him. The experience you were gaining was more than enough, especially since he seemed to be listening to you ramble on and on. He’d occasionally hum or grunt in response, but not much more than that. It was still such a sweet sound in your ears, despite the constant crackle of fire that just filled the nether.

He didn’t speak when he decided he was finished, just started walking back the way you came and you immediately fell into step next to him when he walked past you.

Despite your exhaustion and the pain you felt, this trip felt more than worth it.

When you returned to the bastion where you two had first met, you grinned up at him.

Techno felt his breath catch in his throat at your smile. That smile almost made the sweltering brightness of the nether feel cold and dark. He had never had someone, aside from Tommy, smile at him with such warmth. No one had a smile like yours. They were all weighed heavy with the memories from lifetimes no longer in reach. But you? You were so tired from accompanying him, still wounded from fighting for him. Aside from the couple small treasures you had hidden away, you had given him everything. There was really no reason for you to have gone with him when you received virtually nothing in return. And now you smiled at him like that? You were-

TechnoSIMP.

Look at how cute they are.

They’re stupid.

Take them back with us.

You should give them something for helping.

Hug them.

Awww look at them!

All warfare is based on deception.

He stopped that thought before it could fully finish.

“I should get going. I don’t know how dark it is and I want a bath.” He nodded at you. “I’ll catch you some other time, alright? Don’t be afraid to come by sometime if you need a buddy again, okay?”

He only hummed in response and watched you glide down the stairs of the bastion to a portal he had never noticed before.

A buddy? You weren’t a buddy. What did he really know about you?

You respawned faster than anyone else he had met. There hadn’t been another chance to test that, but you seemed unphased with your death. When you held up your hands, he couldn’t see the usual hearts on your wrist that they all shared. Even when normal members lost a life, he’s noticed that the normally red hearts are cracked and black. Phil himself had one on the center of his wrist. But yours were bare from the mark. You weren’t immortal, were you? Had he come across a god?

He chuckled at the thought.

Such a tiny god compared to him.

For now, he had to return to Pogtopia. He had to tell Wilbur about you. Perhaps write to Phil and ask if he knew anything about people with no or unlimited lives. He would repay your kindness at a later date.

He only hoped you wouldn’t be on the other side of this war.

#RemembranceAU #dsmp au #dream smp au #dsmp x reader #dream smp x reader #technoblade x reader #platonic!technoblade x reader #mcyt x reader #unsure if this will be a series or not?#if it does end up as one #might post multiple non canon romance options #tw: violence #tw: death

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hangezoeenthusiast · 4 years ago

Text

Minecraft

m!reader

pronouns:he/him

fluff

person: sapnap (im not going to use his real name, since he is uncomfy with people using it)

words: 1530

warnings: cursing, yelling

you were at sapnap's house on his bed, watching him stream and play minecraft. he was trying to speedrun minecraft. "hey babe, what'cha doing?" he asked. "just watching you." you replied.

"you wanna come over here?"

"but what about the face cam."

"chat could give less of a shit, or i too."

"ok then babe, let me just get some water."

you went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, then went back to the room. you grabbed one of sapnap's extra chairs and sat next to him. "hey chat, how you doing." chat spammed y/n so many times, you could barely see anything else in there.

"hey my boyfriend, how you doing." a dono said

"im doing good y/nismyboyfriend, good name btw, how are you?"

"heyyyy, your MY boyfriend." sapnap whined. "it's ok baby, im yours and your mine." chat spammed simp, then sapnap buried his head in your heck. "y/nn, make chat stop bullying me." "chat stop bullying my WONDERFUL boyfriend." you emphasized.

after that little situation, you just sat in your chair, zoned out, and just watched. "babe, hey babe, baby are you ok?" sapnap asked. you jumped at the sound of his voice, "sorry, i zoned out, what were you saying." "damn, im not that important to you then that you zoned out." sapnap pouted. "oh shut up you big baby."

"excuse me, don't make me fight you bitch." "sapnap, do you realize i took karate as a kid right?" "that was years ago." "so sapnap, i can still beat your ass with a blindfold." he looked shocked and amazed at the same time. "ok then." he said shyly.

you looked content (like this face 😏), "so what you needed sapnap?' "oh yeahhh, do you want to play minecraft on here?" you were absolutely shit at minecraft, you already tried once, you weren't going to try again. (flashback to the conversation you had with sapnap the first time you ever played minecraft)

"sapnap, how do you move on this thing, this is so complicated" "it's just because your a boomer y/nnn, here, its wasd." "EXCUSE ME SIR IM NOT A BOOMER, APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW." "NO I WON'T APOLOGIZE, YOU APOLOGIZE." "WHY DO I HAVE TO SAY SORRY, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WRONGED ME." "AHHHHHH" you guys are so weird :/ /j

"no, im not, im shit at it, you made fun of me plenty of times, no, no times infinity." "come on baby, that was what, like 1 time." "YEAH, ONE TIME TO MANY." "pwease, for me." he whispered. you looked at his pouty face and didn't crack (MOMMA DIDNT RAISE NO SOFTY /j). "ok then, but the second you make fun of me, i will beat you up so bad that-" sapnap interrupted you, "THANK YOU SO MUCH BABE, but i wont guarantee that i won't make fun of you." he got up, put you in his chair, and standed behind you. "now y/n, the last time you played, you sucked absolute balls, so NOW i will guide you through everything, yaknow, be your sensei." you made a straight face, and looked behind you, seeing him look at you as well.

you had a staring contest. both eyes were locked, eyes squinting, trying to withstand the others. his blinked first, "YES I WON, WHAT'CHA GONNA DO SNAPCHAT, WHAT'CHA GONNA DO?"

"just forget everything that happened in the last 10 seconds, let's do this thing." he guided you towards everything, like moving around, crafting, fighting zombies and skeletons, and even breaking blocks. you were doing fairly well, but there was one, no two, no three things you absolutely sucked shit at that you HAD to master. one was mlg watering, two was building a nether portal, and the last was fighting the ender dragon.

you goal was to beat the game and make new records ;), well, you did, but not without some challenges.

1. mlg water

you crafted a bucket and went to the nearest river/sea. you filled up the water bucket. "hey sapnap, what do we do next?" "next, my darling y/n, we shalt try to mlg." "so what do we do?" "we first, tower up." you pulled out your stacks of blocks, and stacked all the way up to the sky. "so what do i do next?"

"so pull out your water bucket, and then when you almost hit the ground, place the water on you." you jumped of the tower, and failed mlg. it was so ridiculously bad, that goddamn satan wouldn't let you in hell for that little stunt. "NOOO, WHAT THE FUCK, I PLACED IT BELOW ME." "You didn't do it good enough." "SHUT THE FUCK UP SAPNAP."

2. nether portal

obviously if you failed mlg, you would SUCK at making nether portals. "since you fucking sucked at mlg, lets try making a nether portal, it's kinda easier, but still hard. so what you do is make that shape there" "oh no, do it there." "nooo y/n, you're doing it wrong, do it that way."

you made a nether portal, but you obviously messed up, there was cobblestone everywhere. you pickaxed it, but that didn't come with a good thing. "NOOOO, FUCK, WHY WAS THERE LAVA." yeah, that's right, under the cobblestone was lava, and you fell in it, barely salvaging any of your items. well that attempt went horribly

3. ender dragon

after getting to the nether, getting blaze rods and converting them into blaze powder, trading with hoglins to get ender pearls, not having enough ender pearls from the hoglins, killing endermen and dying from them while getting ender pearls, crafting eye of enders, finding the stronghold, placing the eye of enders in the stronghold frame, while dying along the way, you finally got into the end.

finally all this suffering and mocking from sapnap would end, and you would finally beat the game. but, obviously, with you having little to no minecraft skills, it came with A BUNCH of problems, like destroying the crystals, making sure you wouldn't anger endermen, avoiding the dragon of dealing damage to you, and flying into the void.

1. destroying the crystals

sapnap ordered you, "use your bow to destroy the crystals." you aren't and weren't no minecraft god, so you couldn't destroy all the crystals, but you did one of them tho 👍

so he gave you another try, to use blocks to climb the side of the pillars, and destroy the crystals that way. you died, to put it shortly and bluntly. "AHHHH," you screamed. you got exploded by the crystals. that happened with EVERY. SINGLE. CRYSTAL you happened to try to destroy.

but eventually, you destroyed all the crystals.

2. endermen

after you destroyed the crystals, you had the task off not angering the endermen by eye contact. that went horribly wrong. sapnap had the courage to tell you that you couldn't look them in the eyes, and that you would anger them if you would. "WHY ARE THEY CHASING ME," you shouted. "y/nn calm down, just kill the ones that are angry at you."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ALMOST ALL OF THEM ARE CHASING ME." you overaggerated. "no, it's almost 3 dude, just kill them."

you killed them, and then you had the task of the dragon.

3. the dragon dealing damage

sapnap took control of shooting the dragon in the air with the bow and arrows. when the dragon would come down to the middle, you would hit their head (im doing the enderdragon as nonbinary, yaknow, they are a lesbian, nonbinary lesbians are vaild :D).

4. the void

the last thing you had trouble with in the end was the void. the darkless pit that leads to nothing except death. the dragon was throwing you around like a little puppet, you doing nothing except being flung around the place. "FUCK, FUCK YOU DRAGON," you screeched. the dragon was getting on your last nerve.

after all the trouble,and death, you finally beat the dragon. "YESSS, YESS, FUCK YOUR DRAGON, SUCK ON MY 10 IINCH DICK." sapnap cheered you on through your little victory speech. "bye chat, imma stop streaming now, since it has been 6 hours, we need to go to sleep." "bye, chat, love you guys."

you and sapnap ended the stream, feeling exhausted. you went to do your skin care routine, and found sapnap waiting for you in bed. "how was the stream y/n, did you enjoy it?" "yeah, i enjoyed it, only the dying part i hated."

"it's ok, babe, we can try it another time, maybe next time you won't die as much, at least you made a new record."

"what record sap?"

"the record of dying the most in minecraft." you slapped him around his head, not finding his joke funny. "hey, don't hit me, i'm fragile."

"sorry you big baby." you responded. you both got under the blanket, and snuggled (i don't know why, but the word snuggled is enchanting), huddling together, and basking in each others warmth. even if you died 4,234 times in minecraft, at least you had your favorite person at your side while doing it.

#mcyt x reader #mcyt #dream smp #dream smp x reader #dsmp #mcyt x y/n #mcyt x you #dream smp x y/n #sapnap #sapnap fluff #sapnap x reader #sapnap x you #sapnap x y/n #louistommosnesquickmilk writes #louistommosnesquickmilk

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queensparklekitten · 3 years ago

Text

You wake up in a world. You don’t remember anything, but you know who you are. You are the player. You know this world. You know to punch a tree. It’s the most logical and important thing to do. That tree. It’ll give you apples. You don’t question why you know this. You just know it.

Place three rocks in a row at the top and two sticks down the middle column on the crafting table. There. That’s how you make a pickaxe. Now you can mine iron. You need the iron to proceed. You don’t question why you know this. You just know it.

Darkness is dangerous. Monsters appear in the darkness. You’ve never seen one, but you know what they look like. You need to take wool from sheep, 3 should be enough, put it in a row on top of a row of wood. And then dye it red. They used to only be red, now they can be any colour, but to dye it red is a sacred ritual, a mark of a veteran. You don’t question why you know this. You just know it.

As you create and adventure, you know everything of what you run across. You’ve never seen a temple like this before, but you know there’s treasure inside, and you also know that the blue square is a trap, that you shouldn’t break it.

Place the furnace and the crafting table next to each other to officially turn this place from your house to your home. Wear the carved pumpkin on your head to protect yourself from the endermen. Don’t sleep in the nether, the bed will explode. Water will stop falling from hurting you. They all come naturally to you. You don’t think twice, no matter how strange it seems. But it’s not strange, is it? It’s how the world works, it’s how it was always meant to work.

The nether has had its forests and its volcanoes and its porcine inhabitants long before you came along. But you remember when it didn’t. There was no plant life, no blackstone, none of the ancient debris you use TNT to uncover underground at level 15 and fuse with gold to create the strongest material you’ve ever seen. It’s your first time in the nether, and it was like this upon your arrival, the decayed bastions making it clear it’s been like this a long time. It should make no sense that you have memories of it being a barren wasteland, yet it does, and you give it no thought.

There is a dragon. The Ender Dragon. It lives in the End, where the endermen come from. You need to kill it, to free the end. You’ve never seen any evidence of its existence, anywhere in this world. But you know it’s there, and that killing it is your ultimate goal. It’s controlling the endermen. Killing it won’t change anything about how the endermen behave, but they’ll be free. The endermen are your enemies, but they are not evil. You have to kill endermen to free the rest of them.

You combine the pearls with powder from blaze rods, and make something new. Eyes Of Ender, that’s what they’re called. Follow them. They will lead you to the portal room.

Your final arrow hits the dragon, and rays of light begin to emanate from it as it disappears in a spectacle of purple and white light. You hear the sound of the dragon’s death, and the sound of a cascade of experience points falling around you, and as you collect the egg, you realize you’ve won this world.

The bedrock sparkles with starlike pinpricks of light in the void, and you desperately want to jump in, but you know not to do it yet. You need something. An elytra. You climb up to the new small portal and throw in the pearl. It takes lots of searching and a long trail left, but at long last, you find the elytra, guarded by a shulker. You take it, loot the chests, and leave. No need to stay here any longer. You follow the trail back and jump into the bedrock portal.

You can’t see a thing, but you can hear two things. One of them is music, just like the music you hear so often, that always brings a tear to your eyes. The other is two voices. You can hear them perfectly despite the music. It feels almost more like you can see them than hear them.

“I see the player that you mean.”

The player… yes, that’s you. You’re the player.

“It thinks we are part of the game.”

Game. That word never came to your mind, but it makes sense to you. Game. Maybe that’s why you’re called the player.

“And less terrifying than staring at the reality behind the screen.”

Screen. Screen… Yes, you can see a screen. And a keyboard, a hand on the keys that control where you walk, a thumb on the space bar that makes you jump, another hand on the mouse that makes you look around, interact, place and break things.

You are a player because you are in a game. That is your entire world, simply a game for someone who lives beyond your world.

“But what true structure did this player create, in the reality behind the screen?”

That’s right. The reality behind the screen. Being a game does not make you and your world any less real. These beings that speak, they are the true creators of your world. A world they created just for you. Your world, and the countless others you’ve inhabited, some years ago when the nether was barren and all beds were red and now long gone, some visited just a few days ago, all real, all the lives you’ve lived, sometimes as a godlike being that uses its powers to make buildings, sometimes as an adventurer much like your current incarnation.

You remember all those worlds, and you remember watching videos of worlds inhabited by other players like you, and you remember reading books about hypothetical worlds, and you remember listening to songs about adventures set in worlds like all of yours.

“Player of games.”

“Good.”

“Take a breath, now. Take another. Feel air in your lungs. Yes, move your fingers. Have a body again, under gravity, in air. Respawn in the long dream. There you are. Your body touching the universe again at every point, as though you were separate things. As though we were separate things.”

And you do. And when you feel the air in your world, you truly see yourself. You look so different than you do in the game, but you’ve always looked like this, in fact, you have since before you woke up in this world. No, not this world. You’re not in that world right now. You’re in the world of the being that plays the game as you, because you are the being that plays the game as you. You are not controlled by an entity living beyond your world- you are that entity. When you hide in a wall and stand still for stretches of time and know it’s in order to do something, what you’re doing is moving away from the keyboard for a few minutes. Your entire world is a game for yourself, but so much more than that.

You see the screen, with the words on it, and the device that displays it, your window into your other world. You continue to read the words, seeing them from inside your home, on a planet so much smaller than that of your other world, but in a universe so much larger.

The shapes you see around yourself are alien, they don’t belong in your world, they look nothing like anything you’ve ever seen. But you barely even notice- after all, you’ve been surrounded by such shapes your whole life. Circles and ovals and curves are not native to your world, but they are as commonplace in the world as squares if not more so.

“And the universe said you are not alone

And the universe said you are not separate from every other thing

And the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code

And the universe said I love you because you are love.”

“And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.

You are the player.

Wake up.”

As you look around yourself, standing up to fetch food while the list of names scrolls on the screen, passing by the calendar and thinking of everything soon to come- the season of freedom and warm weather, the arrival of the items you purchased online recently, and even more things to explore in the dream, lush caves full of plants and soaring mountains with new animals and terrifying monsters with no eyes but great ears, and as you taste the food and listen to the music, you know you’ve done exactly that.

When your new dream begins, you know how to fly the elytra. Make fireworks, which can be made using paper and gunpowder.

You don’t question why you know this. There’s no need. You know why.

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