A Year After the End

In a rundown apartment building, our protagonist, Henry Mitchell, lies sprawled on the floor. Henry, your typical 9-to-5 worker, begins his day with the monotonous routine of work, followed by leisure hours filled with gaming and movies, and then drifting into slumber, only to wake up to yet another day of the same old grind.

But today isn't your typical day. The day before, Henry decided to break free from his usual pattern. Instead of squandering his time on games and movies, he reached out to a few friends, gathered for some beers, and had a great time catching up before returning to his apartment.

As Henry slowly stirs from slumber, a mild headache from last night's revelry nags at him. After a few moments with his eyes closed, he begins to feel better. However, something peculiar catches his attention. With every inhale, he's assaulted by a foul, putrid stench. This is baffling because he faithfully takes out his trash every week, and it hasn't even been a full day since he replaced the trash bag.

Opening his eyes, Henry scanned his surroundings, immediately noticing the appalling condition of everything around him. What was even more disconcerting was the realization that he wasn't in his familiar room; he was in an entirely unknown place.

"Where is this? This isn't my room," he muttered, his voice trembling with confusion.

Driven by a desire to comprehend his bizarre predicament, Henry began searching for any clues that might shed light on his situation. After some time, he stumbled upon a diary.

With a sense of urgency, he decided to read it. As the words unfolded before him, Henry's shock grew with each passing page. He learned that this wasn't the Earth he knew; it was a parallel world, one ten times the size of his own. While much of its history mirrored his Earth's, there were notable divergences, both in events that had occurred and those that had not.

But then, catastrophe struck. A virus known as PathoGene X broke free, catching everyone unprepared. Initially, there were scattered reports of people attacking one another, even biting each other. However, it was after a month that things took a dire turn. Communication with Valora City was lost, and soon after, a massive wave of zombies overwhelmed Everbright City, where Henry now found himself. Most of the population had turned into zombies, and those who hadn't fought relentlessly to survive.

Closing the diary after reaching its final page, Henry's eyes were drawn to a date in the right corner, prompting a haunting question to surface in his mind.

"How long has it been since the outbreak?"

Anxiously, Henry searched his surroundings for anything that might provide an answer, until he stumbled upon a Tactical Military Watch. As he glanced at the date on the watch, he sank to the floor, overwhelmed by despair.

A full year had passed since the outbreak began. Henry's chances of survival dwindled to nearly nothing, for two reasons. First, he was physically unprepared, much like most people in the 20th century. Second, with a year gone by, essential resources such as food and medicine were either plundered by other survivors or had expired due to inadequate storage conditions.

Overwhelmed by the hopelessness of his situation, Henry couldn't hold back his tears any longer. He wept for a while, his sobs echoing in the desolate surroundings. Eventually, he managed to regain his composure, realizing that crying wouldn't change his circumstances.

Henry began to ponder how he had ended up in this strange place, but after extensive reflection, he couldn't fathom a reason. Then, in a sudden recollection, he thought of stories he had read where protagonists found themselves in similar situations, awakening special abilities or some kind of "golden finger."

Feeling that he might be in a similar situation, Henry decided it couldn't hurt to try. 

"System?" he called out, but no response came. Realizing he didn't have a system, he attempted to focus and sense anything unusual about himself. However, after a thorough attempt, Henry didn't feel any different.

Disheartened, he paced back and forth, racking his brain for what he might have overlooked or needed to do. Then, he recalled that in some novels, the protagonist activated their abilities by saying "Status Window" first.

With a glimmer of hope, he spoke aloud, "Status Window."

To his surprise, a luminous screen materialized before him. Seeing the window filled him with excitement; now, he had a potential means of survival, or at the very least, a way to defend himself.

Once his initial exhilaration subsided, Henry took a closer look at the light screen. After a few minutes, a sense of familiarity washed over him, and he realized where he had seen this status window before.

The status screen before him was identical to the one from the popular game Minecraft, with only a few alterations.

The screen displayed a Minecraft version of Henry, mirroring his every movement. It featured the familiar four armor slots, 27 storage slots, and 9 hotbar slots, with even the mini crafting grid at the ready. Everything he saw on the screen was identical to his recollection, with one notable exception—there was an additional option labeled "Transfer."

Curiosity piqued, Henry decided to click on it. As soon as he pressed the button, a brief flash enveloped him, and suddenly, his surroundings transformed. He was no longer in the dilapidated apartment; he found himself in the midst of a cubic forest.

Taking in his cubic surroundings, Henry realized that everything was shaped just like Minecraft. The trees, the dirt, the sun, and even the sheep and cows that grazed nearby—all of it resembled the iconic game world.

A rush of excitement surged through him as he comprehended the button's function. It had transported him into the Minecraft world.

Eager to make the most of this newfound opportunity, Henry wasted no time. He began by following the typical player's path in a new world: chopping down trees, converting them into planks, and crafting a basic set of tools—a pickaxe, a shovel, and an axe.

With his tools at the ready, Henry placed his wooden axe, pickaxe, and shovel on his hotbar. Approaching a tree, he selected the wooden axe and began to chop. Time seemed to blur as he continued this repetitive task, chopping down tree after tree.

Nearly two minutes for the first tree turned into hours of work. Three hours passed in what felt like a mere moment, and in his inventory, Henry had amassed a staggering seven stacks of wood. The once-wooded area around him had been stripped bare, leaving only the empty spaces where trees once stood.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the Minecraft world into twilight, Henry realized that it was time to secure shelter for the night. He swiftly set to work constructing a basic, beginner's Minecraft house. With wooden planks, he fashioned a small abode complete with a wooden door, a crafting table, and two double chests.

The construction of his rudimentary dwelling didn't take long, but by the time it was finished, the sun had already set, and darkness enveloped his surroundings. It was then that Henry noticed a significant omission—he had no bed, and there were no sheep in sight to gather the necessary wool for one.

Henry pondered his options, knowing that a sleepless night in the Minecraft world might bring unforeseen challenges and dangers.

With no other viable option, Henry quickly accessed his status window, and the option that had previously read "Transfer" now displayed "Back." He recognized the significance of this change and knew that it was his way to return to the real world. Without hesitation, he pressed the button.

In an instant, the familiar flash enveloped him, and Henry found himself back in the rundown apartment room. He glanced out the window and noticed that it was also dark outside. This realization led him to deduce that time in the Minecraft world and the real world were synchronized.

After returning to the apartment room, Henry spotted the bed and decided it was time to get some much-needed rest. He laid down, closed his eyes, and almost instantly drifted into a deep slumber.

The following morning, Henry was eager to continue exploring the intriguing aspects of his Minecraft tools. As he grasped the wooden axe, something extraordinary happened. The once pixelated and blocky object transformed into a tangible, real wooden axe in his hand. This new development only deepened the mystery of his connection to the Minecraft world, leaving Henry with a sense of wonder and curiosity about the possibilities that lay ahead.

Henry was utterly fascinated by this newfound ability to interact with the real world using tools from the Minecraft world. Eager to explore the extent of this power, he decided to conduct an experiment. With his wooden axe in hand, he began to strike at the bed.

At first, the axe seemed to have no effect, but after a few more hits, something incredible happened. The bed vanished, leaving nothing but empty space. In its place, a miniature version of the bed materialized, floating in the exact position where the full-sized bed had been.

The revelation that his Minecraft tools could interact with the real world filled Henry with a newfound sense of hope and excitement. With this ability, he realized he had endless possibilities at his fingertips, allowing him to navigate the world using Minecraft logic.

After conducting a few more experiments to familiarize himself with his newfound powers, Henry made the decision to return to the Minecraft world. He opened his status window, selected "Transfer," and in an instant, he vanished from the apartment building, reappearing in the Minecraft world once more. Henry was ready to continue his extraordinary adventure in this blocky realm.