"Back late again, huh?"
"Same as always. Busting my back at this crappy job, barely making any money… and it's killing me."
"Yeah… I feel you, man."
After a brief exchange with his roommate, Xu Yuan shuffled into his room, every step heavy with exhaustion.
It was already past 2 a.m. Lately, that had become his "normal" time to get home.
A month of relentless work had ground him down to the bone.
Most nights, he'd crash into bed without a second thought. But tonight… for some reason, though his body ached, sleep wouldn't come.
He thumbed through his phone for a bit, but the endless scroll quickly lost its charm.
With a sigh, he sat up, powered on his computer, and stared at his desktop—row after row of game icons staring back at him.
None of them sparked the slightest excitement—he'd played them all to death.
"Eh… forget it. I'll just shut down and crash."
He was about to turn off the computer when his gaze landed on a small icon in the corner of the screen.
A pixelated dirt block. Beneath it, the familiar letters: Minecraft.
A strange thrill rippled through him. For Xu Yuan, Minecraft wasn't just a game—it was his youth.
It had been by his side for eight years. The very first PC game he'd ever touched as a kid… was MC.
This simple little sandbox had given him more joy than any other game in his life.
There's an old saying among players: Once you join the world of Minecraft, there's no going back.
For him, that pit had been eight years deep.
There was always somewhere new to explore.
Always a more complex redstone contraption waiting to be engineered.
Always another wild, mind-bending mod to uncover.
Always another colossal structure begging to be built.
In MC, you could be anything.
A traveler, roaming across breathtaking landscapes.
An adventurer, diving into mods packed with strange and terrifying monsters.
A farmer, tending to fields while animals and crops thrived around you.
An architect—if you had the patience, you could even rebuild the Great Wall of China block by block.
A scientist, wiring up intricate redstone circuits—if you were skilled enough, you could make a working computer inside the game itself.
And that's what made MC unlike any other game:
It was a world that never truly ended.
For Xu Yuan, it was also a world full of memories.
He had watched friends grow up—from kids to parents, from gamers to tired adults worn down by reality—until one by one, they stopped logging in.
Eventually, he too drifted away from his perfect little world.
Since starting his job, he'd barely had time to play. But that tiny blocky icon had never left his desktop.
It had been nearly two years since he last set foot in that world.
"It's been a while…" he whispered.
"…Let's see what's left of my old save."
After a round of updates, the game finally launched.
Xu Yuan stepped into his old world, wandering through the familiar landscapes.
It was exactly as he remembered.
"That ugly stilt house… can't believe it took us a whole month to finish back then. Guess our building skills were terrible."
"Still no wool on Sheepy's back? Really?"
"And these villagers… still the same old swindlers as ever!"
He strolled through the blocky streets, each building and vista stirring old memories.
Then—movement. A flicker of a shadow deep inside the old mineshaft.
Curious, Xu Yuan quickened his pace, heading into the tunnel to check.
Sure enough, there was a player up ahead, back turned toward him.
The skin was one he knew well—classic Steve.
"Could it be… Xiao Wu?"
Among his friends, only Xiao Wu preferred using the default Steve skin.
He was about to send a message when, without warning, the figure vanished.
"Logged out?" Xu Yuan muttered.
But before he could make sense of it, a face suddenly filled his screen.
Steve's face—but the eyes blazed with a blinding, white light.
Every MC player knew this image. Those white eyes, that default skin…
It was him.
The phantom king.
The legend whispered across servers.
HIM.
"Holy—?! HIM?!"
The sight sent a jolt of terror through Xu Yuan.
Before he could react, his vision went black.
…
He didn't know how much time had passed before the muffled sound of voices reached his ears.
"I've been playing for a week and these monsters still scare the hell out of me. Full-dive mode is insane!"
"Of course! They say Minecraft took over ten years to develop, and the open beta had over a billion players online the first day!"
"Yeah, it's fun, but at night it's just too damn creepy. Monsters everywhere—you can't get anything done!"
"No kidding. But hey, the 'dig-three-fill-one' method still works like a charm. Otherwise we'd be dead already."
"Shhh… keep it down. There's a ton of mobs up there…"
He woke to whispers.
"…Been playing this game a week and it still scares the crap out of me. Full-dive mode is insane."
"No kidding. I heard Minecraft took over ten years to develop, and the open beta had over a billion players on day one."
"Yeah, but it's terrifying at night. Monsters everywhere—you can't get anything done."
"True. Still, the three-down-one-up mining trick saves lives."
"Shh… keep it down. There are mobs right above us."
Xu Yuan's eyes opened.
This wasn't his room.
He was lying in the middle of a grassy plain, the moon hanging bright in the sky.
"…What the hell?"
He jumped to his feet, patting his waist—still intact.
Relief lasted only a moment before dread took over.
"…Zombies?! Are you kidding me?!"
A pack of rotting corpses was shambling toward him, arms outstretched.
Their stench hit him even before they did.
Panic set in.
"Who am I? Where am I?!"
"This has to be a dream!"
He pinched his thigh. Pain shot up his leg. Not a dream.
The zombies kept closing in.
Blue shirts. Purple pants.
"…Wait. Why does that look so familiar?"
And then it hit him—
It was the exact color scheme of the Minecraft zombie skin.
Except these weren't blocky mobs.
They were real.
His mind flashed back to the last thing he'd seen in-game—HIM's glowing white eyes.
Don't tell me… I've actually been transported into Minecraft?!