While Hannah was staring at her building, doubting herself a little,
Zack finally spoke.
"Don't be discouraged. At least it looks like a house. If I'm not wrong, when you built it you were probably copying the Roman Pantheon."
"The eight giant pillars at the entrance, the golden dome… plus, artists like Raphael and rulers like Victor Emmanuel II are buried there. And it's said gods and heroes like the God of War and Julius Caesar rest there too."
Zack sighed as he looked at the building in the game.
"You figured that out?" Hannah listened to Zack and was stunned.
Was she really using the Pantheon as a reference?
She didn't even know it herself!
Besides, she had never even seen what the Pantheon looked like.
"I didn't actually see it, I just guessed. Your building really matches the Pantheon's idea." Zack explained.
"You mean I've got a talent for this?" Hannah still didn't really get what Zack was trying to say.
"No, I mean your house is just as creepy as the Pantheon. A house is only a temporary place to live—your real home is always the box underground. Whether it's the Pantheon or a black coffin, it all ends the same."
"And calling it a masterpiece by ghosts is spot on. I don't see any gods here, but the ghost part really fits. Keep going, you've got room to improve." Zack grinned.
If this were a comic, Hannah's head would have had dark lines over it, with a crow flying past carrying six dots.
She glanced at her awkward-looking house on the screen, then at Zack's sunflower-like grin, and finally burst out with that classic line: "If you can do better, then you try!"
Zack had been watching for a while, and he could clearly feel that building a house wasn't simple. Since she had said that much, of course he had to take up the challenge.
Ten minutes later, Hannah's cheerful laughter filled the room.
"Haha, I thought you could build something amazing! Turns out we're both the same, neither better nor worse!"
Looking at Zack's building skills, which were almost the same as hers, Hannah couldn't stop laughing.
She had expected something impressive, but really? That was it?
"Ahem, houses are only one way to play Minecraft. Forget this, I'll start a new seed and let's play survival mode together. We can call Ben and the others too." Zack coughed twice, trying to change the subject as he looked at his giant fridge-shaped house.
In truth, this was the common experience for many new Minecraft players.
Before buying, they didn't really know how the game worked.
But they all knew one thing: in this game, you could build houses like playing with blocks.
So when they got into the game, whether in survival or creative mode, most players didn't go out to explore the world.
Instead, they threw themselves into building their dream houses.
But soon they ran into a huge problem.
What they built looked nothing like what they had imagined.
Simply put:
Brain: I get it now! That's how it works!
Hand: Wait, what did you just say?
The gap between the house in their head and the one they actually built was massive.
Even though the game had just launched, the community forums were already full of screenshots of players roasting their own creations.
Before building, everyone was full of ambition. After finishing, they realized all they had made were little black matchbox houses.
At first, some players thought maybe it was just because survival mode didn't have enough materials. But then they switched to creative mode and found out—nope, their houses were still just as ugly.
While waiting for Ben, Wells, and Joey to join, Hannah and Zack scrolled through the forums on their phones.
Looking at those pictures, they both laughed in relief.
Because most of those players were just like them—building simple square houses.
Many also ran out of materials halfway, so they just grabbed whatever was nearby, mixing dirt and wood without caring if it matched, as long as the gap was filled.
And then there were players whose style Hannah knew all too well: wherever the person was, that was where the house got built.
In the daytime, people chopped trees, mined, and collected materials. At night, they just dug into the ground and sealed the hole above their heads.
Of course, Hannah noticed some players were more skilled than her.
They could make a bed and a torch.
That way, they could pass the night right away and still see in the dark.
"Building a house in this game is so hard!"
"Yeah! Don't tell me that trailer was actually just bait!"
Seeing that other players online had the same painful experiences as them, Zack and Hannah talked about it.
"It's not that hard. Building a house is actually pretty simple, you just need an idea." While they were chatting, Ben joined their voice channel.
As he spoke, he also shared a screenshot.
On the screen was a beautiful wooden two-story house.
The second floor was hanging in the air. In real life, this would definitely be a high-risk building.
It was supported by just a few pillars, but in the game, that didn't matter.
On the first floor, besides the main house, he had even built a spiral staircase around the center pillar leading to the second floor, along with a fenced yard.
From a distance, it looked amazing.
"Holy crap! Ben, this isn't just some picture you pulled off the internet, right?"
Seeing the house, Zack and Hannah's eyes went wide.
If it was just at first glance, it wouldn't be that surprising.
But since they had experienced their own tiny dirt huts before, the comparison was like the moon versus a firefly.
"Ben, you're insane!"
"My god, Ben, how did you even build this?"
At this point, Joey and Wells also joined in. When they saw Ben's screenshot, they were just as shocked.
Clearly, they had also played Minecraft before and knew how hard it was to build houses.
"It's easy! Building a house is just putting materials on the ground, right? What else could it be?" Ben said, grinning at their praise, while also sounding completely shameless.
Of course, he had his own trick. To him, building in Minecraft was basically like stacking toy blocks.
He would first look up houses that were good for building, sketch them out, then split them into block shapes.
He didn't need to care if the exact size fit the blocks. As long as it looked close enough, it worked.
After all, it was just for the game, not real life.
He worked out how many blocks each part needed, whether to place them flat or upright, and then followed the template like a puzzle.
It was just a bit of extra work. To make sure he could show off, he had prepared everything the day before launch.
But the next moment, his smile froze.
"Ben, since you're so good at building, looks like the job of base building can only go to you!" Zack's voice came from the channel.
"That's right!"
"Ben is awesome!"
"Chief Architect: Ben!"
The other three chimed in.
Hearing them, Ben was at a loss for words.
(End of The Chapter)
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