What is going on?

How did I get here?

What is happening to me?

These are the top 3 questions that I keep asking myself.

The last thing I remember is that I was on my way home together with the next-door kid.

We went to the park to enjoy a nice sunny day and grab some ice cream.

Well. That is not entirely true.

I just want a break from playing Minecraft.

Then suddenly I lost my footing and smack my face in the ground.

Wait. Did I hit my head (or face) too hard?

Am I in a coma?

Is this a dream world? Because there is no way this could be real.

No matter how many times I close and opens my eyes. I still can't believe what I'm seeing.

This place. No. This world. I'm absolutely certain this is Minecraft.

I scan myself then find out that my body is different.

Really different.

Everything is cuboid.

I raise my hands to find my fingers is missing.

WHERE ARE MY FINGERS?!

I began panicking. I immediately check my hands to figure out what is going on.

No matter which angle I check. I can't find my fingers.

I put my hands in my face out despair then grab my hair out of frustration.

As I'm about to cry, I realize something.

Even though I don't have fingers, I manage to grab my hair.

I look at my hands again.

There still no fingers.

The sensation of able to grab things is weird even though I have no fingers.

Then I try pinching my checks.

It hurts. Which means I am not dreaming.

My panic level rose higher even though it is already sky high.

Okay. I need to calm myself down.

Panicking will get us nowhere.

As my programming instructor said "Don't tackle the problem as a whole. You need to learn how to divide and conquer".

Let's start first with how did I get here.

Well, obviously that question only God knows the answer.

Wait a minute.

God.

Did God do this? Or any powerful beings?

You know what. Let's leave for now.

What is this place?

I scan my surroundings.

All I can see are oak trees, grass, and mountains. There is also a pond.

Hmm. Pond. Wait. I need to know what I look like. Which brings us to our next problem.

What do I look like?

I jog toward the pond.

I look at my reflection in the water and was surprised to see my avatar in the Minecraft.

There is no mistaking it. I created my avatar's skin.

Blond short hair. Black eyes. Fair skin. Similar to my real-life appearance.

I'm wearing a green shirt and brown pants. I also have shoes.

I take off my shoes to know if I have toes and to no one's surprise I don't have any.

I immediately put back on my shoes because the ground is hot.

I need to find some shade because the heat of the sun is killing me.

I head to the nearest tree and sit putting my back on the tree.

Oh my god.

I can't believe this is happening to me. What did I do wrong?

Well, I don't know what is going on but if I really going to do this. Might as well be smart about it.

Okay. What is the first thing you do when you started playing Minecraft?

'Press E to open your Inventory.' is the first objective that the game asks you to do.

How do I do this here? There is no keyboard that I can press here.

"Inventory"

I say out loud but nothing is happening.

This is a game-like world so there has to be a way to access the inventory.

I close my eyes. Took a deep breath. Empty my mind and picture the image of inventory in Minecraft.

Then I muttered while exhaling.

"Inventory"

I open my eyes and was slightly surprised to see the GUI inventory of Minecraft.

Hah! My yoga sessions have not been for naught.

Though the inventory is slightly different from what I can remember.

For starters, there is no hot bar. Instead, there is 9x4 storage slots rather than 9x3. Well. This is probably still the same considering that hot bar in the game is still a can be used as storage. There is also no image of my avatar. Rather in its place are the armor slots. Head, chest, legs, and feet. There are also two additional slots. The elytra and I believe a gauntlet. That quite handy to be able to equip both the chest armor and elytra. The gauntlet is useful too. I always ask why in the game all the parts of the body are protected except for the arms. Besides the armor slots, there are 3x3 slots with an arrow pointing right to a slot. There is a word crafting above it. Now, that is super useful. In the game, there is only 2x2 crafting slot and you have to craft a crafting table. Below the crafting slots are two slots with left- and right-hand images. In the game, there is only one and it's called off hand while the hot bar is what your dominant hand is holding. It does make sense to have two considering there is no hot bar. And most importantly. There is no crafting recipe book. Now that is a problem. Before the game added the crafting recipe book. I always forget the recipe for some items and have to open the Minecraft wiki.

It is really strange that the GUI of inventory is floating in front of me.

I tried touching it but my hand went through like it's not even there.

How do I interact with this?

Let's try to gather some wood first since my inventory is empty.

I stood up and face the tree I was leaning on.

In order to gather the wood of this tree, it is to punch it till it breaks.

Now I think about it. Will it hurt if I do this by hand?

There is only one way to find out.

I curl my imaginary fingers into a fist.

PUNCH!

Ouch! It really hurts. But I really need wood otherwise I won't be able to craft tools or items.

Suck it up. You need wood and build a home before night comes. I keep telling myself this as I keep punching the tree using my two hands. I use both hands to speed things up.

I really need to build a home before nightfall. Nighttime in Minecraft is the most dangerous time of the day especially if you just started the game. Monsters will start spawning at night. They also spawn in caves or dark areas. Fortunately, there is no cave nearby.

Come on wood. Break already.

As the wood break. Something unexpected happened.

The top of the tree suddenly started falling towards me and I'm about to get crushed.

I immediately jump sideways to evade the falling tree.

This is weird.

In the game, only certain blocks and items are affected by gravity.

The mechanics of this world is different from the game.

My heart is beating so fast I have to do breathing exercises to calm myself down.

Damn. That was close.

I really don't want to find out if I have only one life here or I can re-spawn.

As I am deep in my thoughts, I realize that the wood that I break is missing.

Where did it go?

I was walking around the fallen tree looking for the wood.

When you break or mined things in the game, it usually turns into an item drop. So, where is it?

Did I punch a tree and have a near death experience for nothing?

"Inventory"

I try to open the inventory to check if the wood is there and much to my surprise it is there.

So, blocks or items you break or mine are immediately stored in the inventory.

That's interesting and convenient

Now how do I turn this into planks? Wait. Got to find some shade first. So hot.

I quickly run to another tree since the tree that I was on before has fallen down and sat comfortably.

How do I interact with the inventory?

Using hands seems impossible.

I stare at the wood log and imagining it moving to the slot next to it.

It suddenly disappeared and appeared in the next slot.

Oh. Okay. It seems I can mentally drag items.

I try to drag the log to the crafting grid.

Then after the item disappeared in the storage and appear in the crafting grid, there are 4 planks in the output slot.

Is the crafting recipe here the same in the game?

I drag the 4 planks in the storage.

Hmm. I don't have enough wood plank to create a wooden ax. I really don't want to punch another tree again.

Next, I craft 4 sticks by putting 2 planks separately in vertical then a wooden shovel by putting a plank on top and two sticks below.

It's really handy to be able to craft tools without creating a crafting bench first.

Even though shovel is not a tool for chopping wood at least I'm not going using my bare hands.

Now, how do I equip the shovel?

I try putting it in the slot with the hand picture.

Then suddenly a wooden shovel appears in my right hand.

I head back to the fallen tree and started striking the trunk with the wooden shovel.

A moment later.

I manage to collect 4 oak logs.

I also break to leaves of the tree and manage to get 2 apples and 3 oak saplings.

I plant the oak sapling in the place where the tree was.

Craft all the logs into planks then craft a wooden ax.

How many logs do I need in order to make a starter house?

I should probably gather 20 logs.

Unlike in the game. It is easy to harvest and mined things but here harvesting one tree is already tiresome specially if you are using wooden tools.

I really want to craft a stone ax but I can't see any stone nearby and I don't time to find one. The sun is already on top of my head which means it is already noon.

I started my wood gathering session.

I got hungry in the middle of it and try to eat the apple.

Even though the apple in my hand is flat looking. When I put it in my mouth, it feels like I'm eating a real apple. It feels really strange. And it tastes like a real apple too.

I crafted a bowl to use as a cup to drink water from the pond. I tried using my hands but remembered that I don't have fingers to scoop up the water.

After 5 fallen trees later.

I managed to collect 20 logs, 11 oak saplings, and 5 apples.

I replanted the 5 oak saplings so I can have more wood in the future. Though I don't know how long do the trees grow here.

I look for a suitable place to build a house.

My plan is to have 5 blocks wide 4 blocks high house so I can have 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks high space inside it.

I found a flat area and started digging the dirt in 5 blocks wide area on each side and 1 block deep.

I turn all my logs into oak planks and started to place down the floor of my home in the area I just dug out. Then I place walls 4 blocks high around the edges of the floor. Then I cover the top. I craft an oak door and place it in one of the walls to make it the front of the house.

There. The house is finished.

As I stare at it. It is so flat and ugly but it's a starter house so it works.

I don't want to sleep on a floor but I don't see any sheep nearby to gather wool to make a bed. I also don't have iron to craft shears either.

Now I think about it. I don't see any animals at all.

Do animals exist here?

The sun is almost down. I head inside the house. I don't have any light source so it so dark inside.

I started to think that monsters might start spawning inside but my paranoia is quickly defeated by my fatigue.

I'm really tired of all the work I have done. Even placing blocks is tiresome.

I also eating nothing but apples today. Even though I don't feel hungry I really want to eat meat.

I lie down facing the ceiling.

I ignored all the horrible noises I hear outside and just close my eyes.

It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.