Attack of the Ender Dragon Read online

  “You’re right, I was zapped off, but there was a glitch and I didn’t get there.” Lily picked out cake from her inventory and offered a piece to Mr. Anarchy.

  Mr. Anarchy thanked Lily for the cake and ate while pacing in the cottage living room. “I didn’t summon that lightning bolt. It was a natural storm. This means it’s not my lightning bolts that aren’t working; it must be a problem with the server.”

  Robin climbed out of bed to have some cake. “Do you think someone is controlling the server?” she asked.

  “That’s the only thing that makes sense,” Lily answered. “It might be the same person who spawned the Ender Dragon attacks.”

  Mr. Anarchy paused, swallowed his final bite of the cake and added, “I don’t know about that. Now I’m wondering if there is a larger problem and if it might involve another griefer. But we can’t be sure. I have to go back to my lab and get to work. I promise I will get to the bottom of this.”

  “I hope so,” Lily replied and opened the door for Mr. Anarchy. She looked up at the cloudy sky and asked, “What happened to the sun?”

  Robin went to the door, too, and studied the sky. “It’s going to rain,” she predicted.

  More clouds filled the sky and soon rain started to fall on Lisimi Village. The morning storm was a breeding ground for hostile mobs. A horde of zombies spawned on the hillside, and a cluster of skeletons filled the narrow village streets, shooting arrows at anyone they encountered.

  Warren sprinted toward the cottage. Lily watched him hurry through the rain, dodging arrows and avoiding zombie attacks. Just as he reached the front door, a lightning bolt struck him.

  “Warren!” Lily, Robin, and Mr. Anarchy cried out in unison.

  Warren was gone.

  “I’m sure he’ll respawn soon,” Robin said.

  The storm was intense. Zombies spawned and ripped doors from the villagers’ homes. Lily searched through her inventory for potions to splash on the zombies, but she didn’t have many left. “I wish Ilana was still on this server. I am running low on potions. Are there any other alchemists? Or are we going to have to brew our own potions?”

  “I think we’re going to have to brew our own potions,” Robin replied, “but we don’t have time to do that now. We have to fight. If you need any potions, you can always borrow them from me.”

  Mr. Anarchy still stood in the doorway waiting for the storm to pass. “I thought Warren would have respawned by now. This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Maybe the glitch is fixed,” suggested Robin.

  An army of zombies marched in the direction of the cottage. Lily cried, “I don’t think we have time to analyze the glitch. We have to battle.”

  Lily put on her armor and fearlessly attacked the undead mob with her diamond sword.

  4

  GLITCHES

  Lily was horrified as six zombies spawned clutching diamond swords. “This is going to be challenging,” she exclaimed to Mr. Anarchy.

  “Something is wrong with the coding on this server,” he sighed, and then leaped at a vacant-eyed zombie holding a diamond sword.

  One zombie slashed Robin’s arm, and she cried out in pain. “These zombies are powerful. I’m losing hearts!”

  “They’re vicious,” added Lily as she struck a zombie, but she was hurt when two zombies plunged their diamond swords into her legs.

  Mr. Anarchy grabbed a potion of harming, splashing it on the beasts that were attacking them in the rain. Lily and Robin slammed their swords into the weakened zombies, obliterating three. As Mr. Anarchy battled the remaining three zombies, Robin and Lily rushed over to help him.

  Mr. Anarchy used his final bottle of potion to weaken the three zombies, and Lily and Robin finally annihilated them.

  “Looks like we’re okay, for now,” Lily said in relief.

  “You spoke too soon. Look!” Robin gasped.

  A second group of zombies lumbered toward them, outfitted in armor and holding swords.

  “They have armor!” Lily cried.

  “And swords!” Robin shrieked.

  Mr. Anarchy’s voice shook as he spoke “I don’t have any potion left.”

  Robin scanned her inventory for a potion. She grabbed a bottle and dashed into the storm, splashing the armored zombies’ heads.

  “Help me!” Robin screamed in pain, as the zombies clobbered her.

  “Did the potion work?” Lily called out as she struck the zombies, but they didn’t lose any hearts.

  More zombies wearing armor spawned in the distance. Mr. Anarchy’s heart raced as he tried to destroy the current batch of zombies before the others approached. “I hope we can defeat these evil undead.”

  Three skeletons spotted the group battling the zombies and shot arrows at them. An arrow landed on Lily’s arm, depleting her energy bar. She was destroyed and respawned in her bed, and then quickly ran toward the front door.

  “Lily, are you okay?” Robin asked as she entered the room.

  “What happened?” Lily questioned. “It’s not raining?”

  “Yes, the storm stopped,” Robin explained. “Mr. Anarchy went back to his lab to figure out what is happening to this server.”

  “Did Warren respawn?” asked Lily.

  “Not yet.”

  Lily and Robin walked into the town to search for their other friends. They were curious to see if anyone else had been zapped back to the real world during the storm.

  Michael hurried over and told them, “I saw Warren get zapped off.”

  “And he hasn’t respawned, which is a good sign,” Lily remarked.

  They heard a loud noise and saw a blue flash of light.

  “That light and sound isn’t a good sign!” Michael yelled.

  A blue Wither spawned above Lisimi Village. Lily ducked into the library to shield herself from the wither skulls, but one hit her side, leaving her stuck with the Wither effect.

  Simon spotted Lily in distress and rushed to her side with milk.

  “Thanks,” Lily mumbled. She was embarrassed that she was caught running into the library to avoid the Wither rather than fighting it.

  “We can’t run,” Simon said, and he looked directly at Lily. “We have to battle this. We are so close to getting home.”

  Lily could see Michael and Robin tirelessly battling the tricky Wither; she felt a pang of guilt. How could she abandon her friends? “But I have just battled armored, sword-carrying zombies,” Lily protested.

  “So did I.” Simon handed Lily a snowball and took her by the arm. “Come with me,” he encouraged, “we’ll win this battle together.” The duo raced to their friends’ side, fighting the Wither alongside them.

  Blossom dashed into the town loaded up with snowballs. The Wither was unusually weak, and Lily was surprised at how effortless it seemed to battle this challenging flying terror. The Wither exploded, dropping a Nether star.

  “You can have the Nether star,” Michael told Blossom. “Your endless supply of snowballs has been very handy.”

  “Thanks,” Blossom said, and she placed the Nether star in her inventory.

  “You deserve it,” Michael replied with a smile.

  “I wish the star was powerful enough to get me home,” commented Blossom.

  Suddenly, they heard Mr. Anarchy scream from his lab, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

  Michael grinned at Blossom. “Maybe you just got your wish.”

  “I don’t think the Nether star is powerful enough to get me home,” Blossom replied.

  The gang rushed to Mr. Anarchy’s lab eager to hear what he had discovered.

  “What’s going on?” Lily asked as she strolled into the lab.

  Mr. Anarchy was in the back room, but a person with red hair, wearing a yellow shirt and jeans, approached Lily and questioned, “Who are you? … and where am I?”

  “In Lisimi Village,” Lily informed him.

  “Where is that? Am I in Minecraft for real?” He was disoriented and asked, “What’s happening?”r />
  Mr. Anarchy emerged from the back room of the lab. Lily was angry and started to interrogate him. “Did you zap a new person on to the server? How can you do that? You said you’d never do that again. What’s wrong with you?”

  The red-headed man stood silently as Mr. Anarchy tried to calm down Lily. “I didn’t zap him on—”

  Lily interrupted Mr. Anarchy and raised her voice. “Really?”

  “Please let me finish. I meant I didn’t do it on purpose. I was trying to sort out the glitch and I was trying all sorts of experiments and this one involved seeing if I could zap someone on.”

  “Why would you conduct an experiment like that?” pressed Lily.

  “I had to conduct all types of experiments. Now I know that I still have the power to zap people from this server into the game, which gives me hope that I can zap people off again.”

  Lily listened, but she was still angry. As she looked at the innocent man who stood in the dimly lit corner of Mr. Anarchy’s lab, she spotted a pair of red eyes peering out from behind him. She grabbed her sword and lunged at the spider, but the man was confused and thought Lily was attacking him.

  “What?” he cried out and grabbed a sword.

  “I’m sorry,” Lily tried to explain, but she was busy pounding her sword against the creepy spider. “There was a spider behind you. I didn’t have time to warn you. I had to destroy it before you were poisoned.”

  “Thank you, I guess,” the man replied.

  Mr. Anarchy said, “I’m sorry I zapped you into the game. I will try to get you back home as quickly as I can.”

  “What is your name?” asked Lily.

  “Oscar,” he said quietly.

  “Hi, Oscar. I’m Lily,” she said with a smile. “It’s going to be okay. You came at a good time. We are just figuring out how to leave here.”

  “I don’t want to be here at all,” Oscar demanded. “Send me home now.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Mr. Anarchy explained.

  “Mr. Anarchy,” Lily informed him, “there is a crowd of people outside waiting for you to make an announcement again. Everyone heard you exclaim “I’ve got it” and they think you’ve finally discovered the glitch.”

  “What am I going to tell them? Look at how upset you were when you discovered I zapped Oscar on to the server. They might attack me. I’m so nervous.” Mr. Anarchy’s heart raced.

  Thunder boomed outside, and Lily headed for the exit. Oscar followed closely behind her as a lightning bolt flashed in front of them. Oscar vanished. Mr. Anarchy was relieved, but when the storm ended, he’d still have to answer questions from the townspeople.

  On the other side of town, another lightning bolt struck Peter.

  “Peter!” Michael called out, as the clouds disappeared and the sun came out.

  5

  BACK TO THE LAB

  “Is Peter coming back?” Michael searched the grassy area in front of Mr. Anarchy’s lab in hopes of finding his friend.

  “No,” Mr. Anarchy replied, “I think he’s back in the real world just like Warren.”

  The townspeople crowded around Mr. Anarchy as he spoke. They interrupted him, asking him questions about getting zapped back to the real world: “Have you discovered the glitch? Can you get us home? Is there another griefer that’s spawning the Ender Dragon?”

  “I’m not sure I can answer all of your questions,” Mr. Anarchy stated nervously. “I didn’t have anything to do with Warren and Peter getting zapped off the server.”

  “Who was the man with the red hair?” one townsperson questioned.

  “He was accidentally zapped onto the server,” Mr. Anarchy confessed.

  “Accidentally?” another townsperson called out.

  Mr. Anarchy started to shake when a townsperson wailed, “He’s a griefer again. Mr. Anarchy is a griefer.”

  Lily stood in the center of town and defended her friend. “He is not a griefer. He’s working with us and we’ll all get zapped off soon.”

  Another townsperson called out to Mr. Anarchy, “Prove you’re not a griefer. I want you to zap someone off right now.”

  Mr. Anarchy didn’t know if he could pull this off, but he knew he had to try. He ordered, “Everyone write your name on a slip of paper and place it on the ground.”

  The townspeople followed his orders. Mr. Anarchy asked Michael to choose a name from the pile on the ground as he excused himself with, “I’m going inside to summon the lightning bolt.”

  Michael leaned down and picked up a name. His eyes filled with tears when he read the name aloud, “Lily.”

  Mr. Anarchy didn’t hear Lily’s name called. He was already in his lab working on the command blocks, trying to successfully summon a lightning bolt to zap the chosen person off the server, so he wouldn’t be attacked by the townspeople. He worked very carefully as he summoned the bolt and then hurried outside to see if it had worked.

  “Lily!” Simon called out.

  “She’s gone,” Michael said as he looked at Mr. Anarchy.

  The crowd let out a collective cheer. Mr. Anarchy’s lightning bolt had worked and Lily was back home.

  “I want to go next,” one of the villagers called out.

  Mr. Anarchy looked down at the ground. He couldn’t answer. He was devastated that Lily was gone. “I’m glad it worked,” he sniffled.

  “Now we can all get home,” Michael said to cheer up Mr. Anarchy, but it was hard. He also was sad about Lily leaving Lisimi Village.

  Robin smiled. “I miss her, but I’m happy for Lily.”

  Simon wondered aloud, “Will she tell my parents that I’m here? They must be so worried.”

  Before anyone had a chance to respond, Pablo appeared in the center of Lisimi Village.

  “Pablo,” Michael rushed over to him. “Have you heard anything about Lily?”

  “Yes,” Pablo replied. “She made it back to the real world. I’ve already sent her a message explaining how to enter this server as a player without getting zapped on. It’s quite tricky. I know Warren was having issues signing on.”

  “Warren is safe, too?” asked Simon.

  “Yes,” Pablo said as he walked over to Mr. Anarchy. “I think this is your chance to get everyone off the server.”

  “I know,” Mr. Anarchy replied, but he worried it wouldn’t work. There was something unpredictable about this server, and he wasn’t completely confident.

  Pablo added, “I can tell there’s something on the server that’s making it have glitches. There are times I can’t get on to this server at all. It’s very frustrating.”

  “That’s true,” Mr. Anarchy agreed with Pablo, and he walked back into his lab to work on the command blocks.

  Suddenly, there was a loud explosion. Kaboom!

  Mr. Anarchy flew out of the lab. “It’s my lab! Someone destroyed all of the command blocks with TNT.”

  Michael was furious. “Who would do that?” he shouted.

  “It has to be someone here.” Simon glared at the townspeople.

  “It can’t be.” Robin was so shocked she questioned, “Who would want to trap us here?”

  A tearful Blossom wailed, “Now we’ll never get home.”

  Mr. Anarchy didn’t want this to break him. He had suffered losses before and had always come back strong. Fortunately, there was one person who believed in him and led him to his small victories. That was Lily. Without her, Mr. Anarchy felt lost.

  Mr. Anarchy mustered up enough strength to address the crowd: “We need command blocks. If anyone has some for me, I will begin to summon the lightning bolts.”

  As the townspeople searched through their inventories, a voice called out from the crowd.

  “Mr. Anarchy!” the voice called.

  “Lily?” Mr. Anarchy smiled.

  6

  HOMESICK

  Lily met up with her friends Michael and Simon. “I can’t talk now, guys. I was zapped home, but we’re in the middle of the storm. When everything is settled, I’ll c
ontact you. But hopefully you’ll be back in the real world soon.” Lily then disappeared.

  Pablo said, “I’m going to go, too.”

  “Is there a storm by you?” asked Blossom.

  “No,” Pablo clarified, “when you get zapped back, you enter the real world at the same minute you left. I arrived later though, and that is probably because I live in another part of the world. That’s the cool thing about these types of servers. They connect people from across the globe and we can communicate with each other.”

  Blossom said, “I never thought about that. You’re right. We might all be from different parts of the world, but in Lisimi Village, we’re all the same.”

  Pablo excused himself. “My little sister needs the computer for her schoolwork. I have to go.”

  Pablo vanished, but as he disappeared another explosion was heard in the distance.

  “What is that?” Blossom cried.

  “It sounds like it’s coming from the center of town,” Michael exclaimed.

  Everyone rushed into town to see what was damaged. Juan the Butcher raced over to them, his eyes swollen with tears. “The library! Our precious library! Someone destroyed it!”

  “Who would do that?” Michael was devastated.

  “I don’t know,” Juan cried out.

  Emily the Fisherwoman hurried over. “Luckily, the librarian wasn’t in there or it would have been even worse.”

  “Who is blowing up all of these places in Lisimi Village? First, we watched the lab get blown up and now the library,” noted Robin. While she spoke she thought about potential suspects, but couldn’t come up with any names.

  Michael said, “It has to be someone who wants us trapped on this server.”

  “Or someone who doesn’t want to leave,” added Simon.

  “That’s insane. Who wouldn’t want to leave this server?” questioned Michael.

  Robin wondered if Dylan had returned like Pablo and Lily had and was terrorizing them. “Next time we see Pablo and Lily, we have to ask them about Dylan. Maybe he’s back.”

  “I don’t even want to think about that,” Blossom said.

  Mr. Anarchy was listening to everyone’s theories. He didn’t even care to find out who was destroying Lisimi Village. He just wanted to leave the server and get back home. They had overstayed their welcome in Lisimi Village and it was his fault. He knew that he was responsible for everyone being trapped on the server, and he just wanted to get the people off.