Mobs in the Mine Read online

“There’s no way you can protect yourself from my powerful army,” Mr. Anarchy said with a smile. “Why did you even bother coming here? You knew I would just destroy you.”

  Lily didn’t listen to Mr. Anarchy. She leapt at the evil griefer and struck him with her enchanted diamond sword.

  Mr. Anarchy laughed and shrugged off the attack. “Haven’t we gone through this before? You’re not going to win.”

  “But—” Lily said, but before she could finish her sentence, Mr. Anarchy splashed a potion on her and she was destroyed.

  Lily woke up in her bed in the cottage. She could hear Wolfie barking. “Wolfie,” Lily said to her tame wolf, “I feel like we’re never going to beat Mr. Anarchy. Why is he so mean? I just want to go home.”

  With a sigh, Lily stepped out of her house. She was about to head to the minecarts that lead to the jungle when she thought better of it. Instead, she loped into town and tracked down Ilana the Alchemist. Ilana always had an array of potions. Since the town had gone treasure hunting to restore their resources, Lily knew Ilana would have a bunch of potions on hand. Lily took out a couple of diamonds from her inventory.

  “Ilana, I’d like a potion of invisibility.” Lily handed Ilana the diamonds.

  “For two diamonds, you can get a few more potions,” Ilana said, showing Lily her trunk, which was filled to the brim with bottles.

  “I think I’d like some potions that harm and weaken. I have to defeat Mr. Anarchy.” Lily grabbed the potions and rushed to the jungle biome.

  When Lily finally arrived, her friends were immersed in a serious battle. Mr. Anarchy had increased his army since the last battle, and blue soldiers outnumbered her allies.

  She wanted to help her friends, but with everyone distracted by the battle, Lily realized that this was her opportunity to search for the command blocks and summon a storm. Lily splashed a potion of invisibility herself and crept into the jungle temple to explore.

  The jungle temple was massive, and she searched room after room for the command blocks. Lily picked her way through a room cluttered with blocks of all kinds, looking for the distinctive green and grey of command blocks. But when she glimpsed a bit of green between two other blocks, Lily got careless. She tripped over a block and made a sound, and Mr. Anarchy appeared.

  “Hello?” he called out. “I know someone is there.”

  Lily remained quiet. She spotted the command blocks and snuck toward them, trying not to make a sound.

  “You can’t hide from me,” Mr. Anarchy threatened.

  Lily wanted to place the command blocks in her inventory, but if Mr. Anarchy saw the blocks move, he would know where she was.

  “It’s just a matter of time before you reappear, Lily,” Mr. Anarchy taunted.

  Lily’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t understand how Mr. Anarchy knew it was her standing by the command blocks.

  Then she looked down, and she almost cried out. She could see her hand, floating on its own in the room. Lily’s potion was losing its potency. A moment later, Lily was visible.

  Mr. Anarchy pointed his sword at Lily. She grabbed her sword from her inventory, ready to battle the griefer, when cries were heard in the distance. “Help!” It sounded as though, somehow, Lily’s friends had overwhelmed Mr. Anarchy’s army.

  Mr. Anarchy ran outside, leaving Lily alone with his huge supply command blocks.

  Lily couldn’t believe her luck. She looked around quickly, trying to count the number of blocks and wondering if they would be enough to send the whole town home.

  Just as she was reaching for the first command block to place in her inventory, a whistling sound filled her ears, and an arrow struck her in the back. She cried out and moved to shield herself, but Mr. Anarchy’s guards had arrived and she was quickly overwhelmed. As arrows landed from all sides, Lily was destroyed.

  She respawned a moment later in her bungalow, and though she’d been destroyed, she felt determined. She was nowhere close to giving up. She knew where Mr. Anarchy kept his command blocks, and she was going to retrieve them.

  Lily traveled back to the jungle temple. It was almost dark when she arrived. She emerged from the mineshaft in front of the temple and dashed inside. But she didn’t go unnoticed—as she ran into the building, an arrow pierced her arm.

  Lily kept running. As she traversed the halls, she didn’t see her friends or the blue soldiers. In fact, it was eerily calm, and this made her nervous. As she walked further into the temple and reached the room full of command blocks, she heard a voice. If someone stepped into the hallway now, there’d be no place for her to hide. She had to get to cover, so she kept running until she reached the room she’d been caught in earlier. As she crossed the threshold, an arrow struck her leg.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” said Mr. Anarchy.

  Lily stood frozen in terror, her leg throbbing. Mr. Anarchy and his army were pointing their bows and arrows at her.

  “Your friends are in prison. And that’s where you’re going, too,” Mr. Anarchy announced.

  Lily put her head down. She remembered the jungle temple’s prison cells all too well from her last visit here, when she and her friends had been held for days.

  Mr. Anarchy escorted her to the prison cell. Though Lily was sad about being trapped, she was also relieved that she’d see her friends again. But when Mr. Anarchy opened the door, she was shocked to see the prison was empty.

  7

  MR. ANARCHY STRIKES AGAIN

  Lily’s heart was pounding. She was alone in the prison cell. “Michael! Warren! Simon!”

  She heard only silence.

  “Someone? Can anybody hear me?” Lily looked up at the ceiling. She recalled the last time she was trapped in this prison cell. Mr. Anarchy had created a hole in the ceiling, where he’d watch his prisoners battle hostile mobs. To Lily’s surprise, there wasn’t any light emanating from the ceiling now. Maybe he didn’t watch his inmates battle anymore. With that concern out of the way, Lily had to plot her escape.

  She searched through her inventory. She didn’t have enough obsidian to craft a portal to the Nether. She had a pickaxe, but she imagined knocking down the wall would draw attention to her, and then Mr. Anarchy would probably pay a visit. Lily was feeling helpless. She stood in the prison and ate an apple to regain her strength.

  The prison door opened and Mr. Anarchy called out, “You have a roommate.”

  A woman wearing a black sweater and pants walked into the room. She stared at Lily.

  “Who are you?” asked the woman in black.

  “I’m Lily,” she replied quietly. “And you are?”

  “I’m Robin.” She looked shaken.

  “It’s okay,” Lily comforted Robin.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Robin remarked. “Am I actually in the Overworld? It can’t be.”

  “Yes,” Lily sighed. “This is the Overworld.”

  “But I was just playing at my house and I was zapped into the game,” Robin cried.

  “Was there a storm when you were playing?” asked Lily.

  “Yes,” Robin was shocked Lily knew there had been a storm outside when she was playing Minecraft on her mom’s laptop.

  “We’re all trapped in here,” Lily informed her. “But I know a way to get out of this server.”

  “How?” The woman was eager to hear how she could escape from the Overworld.

  “We have to summon a lightning bolt, but we need command blocks,” explained Lily.

  “Do you have command blocks?” asked Robin.

  “No, but Mr. Anarchy does, and we can get them from him.” Lily paced in the small room. A cave spider crawled on the floor, and she grabbed her diamond sword from her inventory and slammed it against the insect.

  “But we’re trapped in here,” Robin reminded Lily. “I tried to survive in the Overworld, but he caught me within a few minutes. It’s very hard to live here in real life. It’s not like the game at all. I had a skeleton attack me. As I watched the arrow fly toward
me, I realized this was a lot more hardcore than playing at home.”

  While Robin spoke, the door opened. Mr. Anarchy smiled. “Did somebody say ‘hardcore’?”

  Robin paused. “No,” she stammered. “I wasn’t talking about Hardcore mode, if that’s what you mean.”

  “And Lily, you’ll never get my command blocks. And I just might use those command blocks to put you on Hardcore mode.” He closed the door.

  Lily wanted to ask him where her friends were trapped, but she didn’t have time. She looked at Robin. “Don’t worry. He’s threatened to put us on Hardcore mode before. I think it’s just a threat.”

  “How do you know?” Robin’s voice quivered.

  “I just do.” Lily thought for a minute about why she felt so sure that Mr. Anarchy’s threats were hollow. “I think if Mr. Anarchy were going to destroy us, he’d have done it by now. For some reason, he wants to keep us around.”

  Robin stood by the wall. “Do you hear something?”

  Lily paused. She walked over to Robin. There was a muffled voice coming from the other side of the wall. “I think there’s someone back there,” she said.

  Robin grabbed her pickaxe and banged it against the wall. A few pieces of the wall crumbled to the ground. She called out, “Do you hear us?”

  There was no reply. Robin and Lily turned around when Mr. Anarchy opened the door and yelled, “There is no escaping. How many times do I have to warn you?” He was infuriated. “I am going to punish you!”

  Mr. Anarchy slammed the door shut. Two skeletons spawned in front of the girls.

  “Help!” Robin called out in terror.

  Lily leapt at the bony skeleton, diminishing its health bar with her diamond sword. Robin stood next to Lily and didn’t fight.

  “You have to help me, Robin!” Lily called to her new friend. “You can’t let the skeletons destroy you.”

  Robin fumbled with her diamond sword, striking the weakened skeleton and destroying him with a single blow.

  “Good job!” Lily exclaimed as she splashed a potion on the other skeleton and destroyed it.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Robin looked at Lily, distressed.

  Lily remembered how she and Simon had last escaped this cell, and she asked Robin, “Do you have any obsidian?”

  8

  NETHER AGAIN

  As the two quickly crafted a portal to the Nether, Lily could hear the voice coming from the other side of the wall. It was growing louder, and Lily could recognize who it belonged to: It was Michael. She wanted to help her friend, but she was surrounded by purple mist. Within seconds, Lily was no longer in the cell, but rather in the fiery Nether biome.

  Two blazes shot past them. “Maybe they didn’t see us?” Robin said hopefully.

  “I hope so. Being in the Nether is very challenging for me. It’s not like playing at home. This is the one place that I will never fully master,” Lily confessed to Robin.

  The two trekked through the red Nether landscape, avoiding falling into a stream of lava while dodging blasts from the blazes.

  “I knew they’d be back,” Lily said as she grabbed her arrow and aimed at the yellow mob with black eyes.

  “Bulls-eye!” Robin called out when her arrow struck the flying mob.

  “Wow, you’re a skilled fighter,” Lily remarked as she tried to destroy the blaze.

  “I was a known fighter in the Overworld. In fact, I was invited to this server to be in a battle,” explained Robin.

  “Someone invited you to join this server? Who?” Lily asked.

  “I don’t know them very well. Their screen name is Leon.” Robin replied, and then pointed out four ghasts that were flying toward them.

  “I’ve never heard of Leon.” Lily wondered who this player was and if he lived in Lisimi Village. She wanted to know who would be evil enough to recruit people on this server that trapped you in the Overworld.

  The ghasts approached the girls. They made chirping sounds as the flying white mob shot powerful fireballs at them.

  Lily used her fist to hit the powerful ball, and it destroyed the ghast. “One down.”

  Robin was able to seamlessly destroy two ghasts with her fists.

  “You make it look so easy.” Lily was impressed.

  Robin annihilated the final ghast. “We should go back to the Overworld,” suggested Robin.

  “I agree, but I think we should try to gather some supplies while we’re down here. Our entire village has been on mining trips to replenish our supplies. Nobody has traveled to the Nether, and we need to get Nether wart to brew potions.”

  “But that means we have to find a Nether fortress,” Robin exclaimed. “That’s almost impossible to find!”

  “I know, but we’re going to have to try,” said Lily.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Robin wanted to leave the Nether.

  Lily wondered if Robin was right. Her thoughts were preoccupied with Michael. She knew he was trapped in the Mr. Anarchy’s prison, and she wanted to help him escape. She said, “You’re right, Robin. Let’s get back to the Overworld. We have to help my friend, Michael, escape from Mr. Anarchy’s jungle prison, and we also have to get our hands on those command blocks.”

  The girls were about to hop on a portal back to the Overworld when they heard a familiar voice in the distance.

  “Michael?” Lily said, and she ran toward the voice. Robin followed closely behind.

  They could see someone behind a pillar, but when they reached the pillar, the person disappeared.

  “Where did they go?” asked Lily.

  “Do you think we’re being tricked?” Robin was suspicious of everything since she arrived on this new server.

  The voice called out again, “Help! Over here!”

  Lily looked up. “Where are you?”

  Robin stared ahead. “Do you see that? It looks like a Nether fortress!”

  The two sprinted toward the fortress. “Do you think he’s in here?” asked Lily.

  “Help!” The voice grew louder.

  “I think so,” replied Robin as she destroyed the blaze that guarded the Nether fortress.

  Michael’s voice wailed, “I’m in here! There are magma cubes!”

  A half-dozen large magma cubes surrounded Michael. Lily and Robin struck the cubes, but they broke into smaller cubes. The trio was battling numerous cubes, and they were losing hearts quickly. Lily wanted to grab milk from her inventory, but she didn’t have time.

  Robin skillfully destroyed two magma cubes and the smaller cubes.

  Michael obliterated the final cubes, and Lily offered all of them milk.

  “How did you get to the Nether?” asked Lily as she took a sip.

  “I was trapped in the cell with a person named Leon. He acted like he was my friend, but once we got down here, he tried to destroy me. I think he’s working with Mr. Anarchy,” said Michael.

  “Leon!” Robin shook with fury. “That’s the name of the player who invited me to join this server and got me trapped here.”

  “We have to watch out. He might be here. I was able to win the battle and destroy him, but I think he might be looking for me here.”

  “I wonder if that’s who we saw appearing and disappearing when we heard you calling for help,” Robin said.

  Michael walked through the fortress, inspecting each room for Leon.

  “Where are the others?” Lily asked as she picked Nether wart that grew near the staircase.

  “Simon and Warren were able to escape. I thought you were with them. I assume they are back at Lisimi Village.”

  “I was the only who was destroyed. I respawned there, and they weren’t in the village,” said Lily.

  Michael gasped. “Then we have to find them!”

  “And we have to destroy Leon.” Robin wanted revenge on the person who trapped her on the server.

  “Did I hear someone say my name?” A man dressed in orange appeared in the entrance of the Nether fortress. He splas
hed a potion of weakness on the trio.

  “Leon!” Michael was weakened by the potion, and used what little strength he had to lunge at the orange griefer.

  Leon shielded himself from Michael’s sword and splashed another potion on Michael. He grabbed his sword and destroyed Michael with one strike.

  “Michael!” Lily cried.

  Leon looked at Lily. “You’re next.”

  9

  RESCUE MISSION

  “Never!” Lily reached into her inventory and splashed a potion of invisibility on Robin and herself.

  Robin was invisible. She didn’t know where Lily was, but she used the opportunity to escape from Leon. She sprinted out of the fortress into the Nether landscape. Two zombie pigmen walked by her as she began to reappear. She looked for Lily, but no matter how many times she called her name, she didn’t get a response. Robin was beginning to lose hope, when she heard Lily call out, “Robin!”

  “Where are you, Lily?” Robin couldn’t find her friend.

  “I’m over here.” Lily ran to Robin’s side and pointed out, “There are three ghasts flying in our direction. We have to get out of here before they attack us.”

  “Or before Leon returns,” said Robin as she quickly constructed a portal and they hopped on. The purple mist surrounded the duo, and they emerged in the center of Lisimi Village.

  “There’s a big roller coaster over here, right?” Robin looked at the familiar landscape.

  “Yes. We are the ones who built it. Once we win this battle, we can ride the roller coaster,” Lily said.

  Lily hoped that there would be peace and they could ride the roller coaster one more time before they returned to the real world. The only highlight of being trapped on the server was being able to ride the crazy-fast coaster in real time.

  Lily was jolted back to reality when she spotted seven ghasts shooting through the sky. The white, blocky mobs opened their red eyes and unleashed a series of chirping sounds as they shot lethal fireballs at a group of helpless townspeople, instantly destroying them.

  “We need to help!” Lily sprinted toward the ghasts and used her arrow to destroy two of them.

  Robin annihilated the remaining ghasts as Juan the Butcher ran toward them. “Those villagers who were just destroyed were my friends. We have to check on them,” he said.