The Hardcore War Read online

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp, Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

  Copyright © 2015 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

  Minecraft ® is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB

  The Minecraft game is copyright © Mojang AB

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp, Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Cover photograph credit Megan Miller

  Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-540-6

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-953-4

  Printed in Canada

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: The Hotel

  Chapter 2: Jailbreak

  Chapter 3: Default Settings

  Chapter 4: Ocean Blue

  Chapter 5: Nethermind

  Chapter 6: Rainbow Rebels

  Chapter 7: Holes

  Chapter 8: Creepers, Endermen, and Zombies

  Chapter 9: Escape to Mooshroom Island

  Chapter 10: Tunnels

  Chapter 11: Discoveries

  Chapter 12: Crack the Code

  Chapter 13: Game Over

  Chapter 14: Help from Old Friends

  Chapter 15: Battle for Survival

  Chapter 16: In the Mine

  Chapter 17: It’s a Game

  Chapter 18: Friends and Fireworks

  1

  THE HOTEL

  Everyone was excited about the opening of the new hotel. Violet had spent months working on the beachfront hotel, located outside of her vibrant and peaceful town. The grand opening attracted people from all around the Overworld. Even some of her old friends showed up. Violet looked into the crowd and spied Will and Trent.

  Violet smiled as she stood on the podium and spoke. “Welcome to the grand opening! This hotel is for you.”

  The crowd cheered. Violet welcomed a steady stream of guests into the new hotel. For the first time in her life, Violet was eager for the night to set in. She wasn’t worrying about hostile mobs that might spawn in the dark. She was too busy watching guests arrive and check in to sleep in the hotel’s beds, which Violet had crafted.

  “We have a huge turnout,” remarked Noah, “and so many of our friends showed up. You were right. This was a great idea. Now we have a place where our friends can stay when they visit.”

  “And we can make new friends by working at the hotel.” Violet loved meeting new people, and she figured creating a hotel would be a great way to do so.

  Noah agreed. “Yes, and with Daniel behind bars, we will finally be able to enjoy ourselves.”

  “Let’s go say hi to Will and Trent.” Violet ran over to her treasure-hunter friends.

  Will and Trent stood in the hotel’s lobby. Will gave a high five to Violet. “You did a great job. What a grand hotel.” Will looked out through the large window toward the blue ocean.

  “Thanks! This is all so exciting!” Violet found the entire day invigorating. She was anxious for morning to arrive, when she and Noah would serve the guests cake and ask them how they had enjoyed their first night in the hotel.

  Trent joined them and cautioned, “Look out the window. It’s getting dark. We should make our way to our rooms.”

  Violet said good night to her friends. Tonight she wasn’t staying in the tree house; she would sleep at the hotel in a comfortable room on the top floor. She opened the door to the room, walked to the window, and watched the sun set.

  As Violet climbed into bed, she heard a loud roar and quickly jumped out of bed. Noah rushed into her room. “Violet! Do you see what’s outside?”

  “Please don’t tell me that it’s the Ender Dragon!” Violet pleaded.

  “I’m afraid so,” Noah replied, and he led Violet down the hall to the stairs. They raced out of the hotel, armed with snowballs and their bows and arrows.

  “Violet!” Hannah called out. “What’s happening? Why is the Ender Dragon flying through town?”

  Ben jogged over and said, “I just checked. Daniel is in his jail cell, so this can’t be his handiwork.”

  “It doesn’t matter who summoned the Ender Dragon,” Violet exclaimed. “We just have to destroy it!”

  The mammoth dragon flew by the hotel. The dragon’s enormous, black, scaly wing struck the side of the hotel, crashing into the lobby window and shattering the glass. Violet was devastated. Hotel guests ran toward the exit in terror.

  “Help!” the guests cried in unison.

  Violet, Noah, Ben, and Hannah staged an attack on the hostile mob from the End. Will and Trent joined their friends in the battle against the Ender Dragon. The fiery beast roared and lunged at the gang. Noah struck the dragon with an arrow, which diminished the health bar of the flying terror.

  Violet heaved a snowball that landed on the dragon’s face. This infuriated the dragon, and it charged at Violet. She fumbled with her bow and arrow, but then the beast flung Violet into the air.

  As Violet flew through the night sky, Noah pounded the purple-eyed dragon with arrows, further diminishing its health bar. Violet landed on the ground, quickly regaining her footing and shooting arrows at the dragon.

  The dragon roared and flew into the hotel, breaking another window. But the beast was no match for the growing number of people who aimed their bows and arrows at it. Violet smiled when she saw the hotel guests join her friends in battle.

  Beams of light flashed from the dragon’s body as the beast exploded.

  “There’s an End portal over there,” Will said as he pointed at the portal and the dragon egg. “Should we go to the End?”

  Noah stared at the portal. He felt conflicted; he wasn’t sure why they should travel to the End. If they did, they’d surely have to battle yet another Ender Dragon.

  “What should we do?” asked Violet.

  Everyone was confused; they weren’t sure what to do next.

  “I don’t think we should go,” objected Trent. “We have to stay here and figure out who summoned the Ender Dragon.”

  “I agree,” Violet replied, as she looked at the broken window in the lobby and realized she had to rebuild part of the hotel.

  The group walked away from the End portal and headed back to the hotel. As they approached the entrance, a horde of zombies lumbered across the sandy beach and plodded into the lobby.

  “Zombie attack!” Will shouted.

  The exhausted hotel guests took out their diamond swords and bows and arrows. The zombies ripped the doors from hotel rooms and lunged at the guests, but the
vacant-eyed undead mob was attacked by a slew of arrows. Violet dashed behind a zombie and destroyed it with her diamond sword.

  When the hotel was free of zombies, Violet told the hotel guests, “Thank you for your help. You saved the hotel. But we must all get to our beds and sleep. We need to rest.”

  The guests nodded in agreement and returned to their rooms.

  “Are you going up to bed?” asked Noah. “Or should we stay up and keep a lookout for hostile mobs?”

  Violet said, “I think we should get some sleep. If we don’t, we’ll never have enough strength to battle whoever is behind this evil attack on the hotel.”

  Violet retired to her hotel room and took a sip of milk to restore her energy. She crawled into bed but couldn’t sleep; she was too restless trying to figure out who had staged the attack on the hotel. With Daniel in the jailhouse, the townspeople had enjoyed a period of peace, but now that was being destroyed. She wondered if Daniel might be able to conduct this attack from his jail cell and if he had access to command blocks.

  As Violet began drifting off to sleep, she heard a familiar voice scream, “Help!”

  2

  JAILBREAK

  Violet rushed out the door. Outside her hotel room, she saw Noah battling Daniel in the hallway.

  “How did you escape?” Violet asked as she lunged toward Daniel with her diamond sword.

  “Like I’d tell you how I did it!” Daniel laughed as he struck Noah.

  Hotel guests opened their doors to see the commotion in the hallway. One of the guests shot an arrow at Daniel. Another guest slammed his sword against Daniel’s armored body. Despite the armor, the strikes weakened Daniel, and he fumbled for some milk. Before he could sip the milk, though, a person wearing a black helmet ran down the hall.

  Daniel called out to the helmeted man, “Come over here, Thomas!”

  “You need help fighting your own battle?” Thomas asked scornfully as he walked toward Daniel.

  “Yes, I do,” admitted Daniel.

  As Thomas struck Noah with his sword, he shouted a warning: “I have put everyone on Hardcore mode. So there is no respawning for anyone. Say good-bye!”

  “What?” Daniel sounded shocked. He didn’t have a lot of milk or potions of healing in his inventory, and he didn’t want to be destroyed in Hardcore mode. If you were destroyed in Hardcore mode, the game was over.

  Thomas’s evil laugh pierced everyone’s ears. “I am going to destroy everyone in the Overworld. There is no saving you. This is a battle to the end.”

  Everyone was surprised when Daniel pleaded with his friend, “You have to change the settings. You must take us off Hardcore mode.”

  “Never!” Thomas screamed. He delivered a final blow to a hotel guest, who disappeared. Violet shrieked in horror. Before she could strike Thomas with her sword, he threw a potion of invisibility on himself. All that remained was a piece of wool.

  “He’s escaped!” Violet called out. “Hey! Why is there a piece of wool here?” She picked up the wool and broke it into pieces.

  “Who was that person terrorizing us?” Noah asked Daniel.

  Daniel stuttered, “Um-m, Thomas—he helped me escape.”

  Violet asked, “How do you know him?”

  “He is a griefer,” Daniel replied. “He also freed the others in the jail.”

  Violet imagined the rainbow griefers sprinting around the town, causing havoc and seeking revenge on the townspeople who had imprisoned them. She feared they’d destroy the townspeople, not realizing the world had been changed to Hardcore mode. Violet’s heart beat fast. She was very worried. She also feared that a naturally spawned hostile mob attack might end her life.

  “We have to change the setting from Hardcore mode!” Violet shouted at Daniel.

  “I don’t have any control over this. Thomas is the one who set everyone to Hardcore mode,” Daniel replied.

  “Where is Thomas?” Noah pointed his sword at Daniel and warned, “If I destroy you with this sword, you won’t respawn. You had better help us. Your evil friend has the potential to annihilate the entire population of the Overworld.”

  Daniel agreed with Noah. “I want to stop Thomas, too, but I don’t have any idea where he’s hiding.”

  The rainbow griefers that were released from prison emerged from the stairway and stormed toward Violet and her friends. Violet was surprised when Daniel ordered them to stop: “Put your swords and arrows down. Thomas set the Overworld to Hardcore mode. We need to conserve our energy.”

  The rainbow griefers listened. An orange griefer asked, “What should we do?”

  Daniel announced, “Drink or eat whatever you can—you need to make sure your food and energy bar is full. We want to be prepared for any type of attack.”

  As those words left Daniel’s mouth, four zombies spawned at the end of the hallway and lumbered forward. Hotel guests ran to their rooms for shelter, but the zombies ripped the doors from their hinges.

  The guests shot arrows at the zombies. Violet and her friends attacked the undead mob. Noah watched as Daniel joined them in the battle against the zombies. Daniel struck a zombie with his diamond sword and destroyed the vacant-eyed creature.

  “We need to find Thomas,” Daniel said to Noah.

  Once the zombies were defeated, Noah said, “Daniel, you have destroyed our Olympic games and our amusement park. Now you expect us to listen to you?”

  “But we must work together to find Thomas,” explained Daniel.

  “Work together?” Noah couldn’t believe Daniel had uttered those words.

  A green creeper silently lurked down the hotel hallway, slinking up behind a purple rainbow griefer.

  “Watch out!” shouted Violet.

  The purple griefer didn’t hear Violet.

  Kaboom!

  The creeper exploded, and the purple griefer was destroyed, too.

  Daniel stared ahead. “We have to do something about being stuck on Hardcore mode. If we don’t, this will be the end of all of us.”

  Violet held her sword to Daniel’s chest. “We will take care of Thomas. You have to go back to jail. We don’t trust you, so we can’t work with you.”

  “I’m not going back to jail!” Daniel yelled defiantly. He was infuriated.

  Ben and Hannah hurried down the hallway. They joined Noah and Violet and surrounded Daniel.

  Noah said, “Daniel, this is our battle. We fight for justice.”

  Daniel realized that with just a few strikes from each of their swords, he could be destroyed. He put his head down and submitted. “Okay, I’ll go back to jail.”

  The sun rose as Daniel and the rainbow griefers left the hotel. They were escorted toward the jail.

  3

  DEFAULT SETTINGS

  The town broke out in chaos as the gang marched Daniel and the rainbow griefers back to the jailhouse.

  Valentino the Butcher emerged from his shop and called out, “People are disappearing and not coming back!”

  Townspeople gathered in the center square and watched as Daniel and the griefers marched into the secure building.

  When the group entered the jailhouse, Violet noticed wool on the ground. She picked it up and noted, “That’s odd. There’s more wool here.”

  Noah led Daniel into his cell and told him, “You’re home.”

  “Very funny,” Daniel remarked. As Noah closed the gates to the jail cell, Daniel said, “You must find Thomas.”

  “We will,” replied Noah.

  “Be honest with us, Daniel,” demanded Violet. “Do you know where Thomas is hiding? We need to know.”

  “I would check in the ocean. He’s an expert at surviving underwater,” suggested Daniel. “But I’m not certain he’s there. He is a very tricky person.”

  Violet agreed. “Thomas must be tricky. He helped you escape from jail.”

  “Yes,” Daniel added. “He isn’t an easy person to fight. He’s very skilled, so you better be careful.”

  Outside the prison, the
townspeople analyzed the situation. They were curious why people were being destroyed and not respawning in their beds.

  Valentino called to Noah, “Why are people dis-appearing?”

  Noah explained that everyone was set to Hardcore mode so they couldn’t respawn. The people began to talk all at once, with no one listening to anyone else. The crowd agreed the situation was awful, and they were scared.

  The townspeople were mad. They wanted to destroy Daniel. One person shouted, “We must destroy this evil menace that set us to Hardcore mode!” They forced their way into the jailhouse.

  “Stop!” Noah called out. “Daniel isn’t the one who put us on Hardcore mode.”

  Valentino asked, “We have another enemy? Who is it?”

  “His name is Thomas. He’s another griefer, and he lives beneath the ocean.”

  “You must stop him,” Valentino pleaded with the group of friends.

  Noah replied, “We are going to travel to the Ocean Biome to search for Thomas. But we want everyone to be careful while we are away. Remember to never let your energy level get too low, and try to stay indoors.”

  The townspeople discussed together how they would stay safe, until one of them cried out in pain, “Ouch!”

  Noah saw two skeletons standing by the street lined with village shops. “Skeletons? In daylight?” he said.

  “Someone must have summoned them,” Violet said as she pulled back and released an arrow at a skeleton.

  “I’m sure it was Thomas!” exclaimed Noah.

  “And look!” Hannah cried out in terror. “There’s a spider jockey, too!”

  A skeleton shot arrows while riding the black, red-eyed spider. Violet shielded herself from the skeleton attack while she continued trying to destroy the spider jockey.

  “Shoot the skeleton!” Hannah called to Violet. “You have him in sight. Do it now!”

  Violet aimed at the spider jockey, but she missed. “It’s moving too fast!”

  Ben bravely dashed toward a skeleton with his diamond sword and destroyed it.

  Hannah noticed his small victory and cheered, “Good job, Ben! Now, please help us!”

  Ben joined Violet and Hannah to battle the spider jockey. An arrow flew with dead aim from his bow, and it struck the spider, obliterating it.