Fang Bie hesitantly touched the arrow in his back. He could feel it lodged in his flesh and feel the pain, but it wasn't too severe.
He quickly ate an apple he'd picked up earlier while chopping down trees on the way. The hunger bar on the right filled up, and the row of hearts on the left began to slowly increase.
"Ugh!" He sucked in a breath and pulled the arrow from his back. The pain was intense, but still within what he could bear.
Fang Bie touched his back. The spot where the arrow had pierced him showed no particularly serious mark, and as he rubbed it, the mark rapidly shrank until it disappeared.
A smile finally crossed Fang Bie's face. Unlike the excitement he'd felt earlier, this time it was a genuine smile.
If before he'd only thought this world wouldn't be as dull as the original, now he could be almost certain that his body was no longer the one he'd had before.
To put it in a famous internet phrase: "I'm done being human!"
In theory, he'd become Steve. He might not be immortal, but having a body rendered in game-like data was enough to set him apart from everyone else.
When he was attacked, no matter where he was hit, he wouldn't feel fatal pain or suffer a lethal wound. That meant he could withstand any attack as long as it didn't kill him in one blow.
Besides, he had access to something even more terrifying in this game world: the Hunger Regeneration effect.
Because of the Food Mod, he'd deliberately calculated how much hunger each food restored whenever he ate. He'd found that the terrifying side effect that came with the Food Mod—the diminishing hunger restoration from eating the same food—hadn't appeared for him.
"Looks like this world is still pretty friendly to me. At least it hasn't added any of those negative mods." Fang Bie sighed. He'd built a wall of blocks around himself; otherwise, how could he have found the time to think about any of this while under attack?
But the constant sound of arrows striking the wood outside reminded him that he was still in danger. For some reason, though, the one who'd been shooting at him hadn't come any closer.
Fang Bie cautiously peeked out from the side, then quickly pulled his head back. A brown Feather Arrow shot past beside his head. He'd only caught a glimpse, but he'd already seen what his attacker really looked like.
Under the shade of a nearby tree stood a trembling white Skeleton. It held a crude-looking bow, and he couldn't see any arrows on its body, yet it kept firing at him without pause.
Fang Bie peeked out again. This time, he wasn't so lucky. A Feather Arrow slanted into his head, and his health dropped by nearly a third.
Still, Fang Bie had gained something from it. He'd seen where the Skeleton Archer was standing: beneath the shade of a tree, sheltered from direct sunlight.
Fang Bie had no armor. He wasn't stupid enough to fight the thing head-on. He ate a piece of Sugar Cane to restore his hunger, and as his health slowly began to recover, he took out a Shovel and started digging.
Halfway through, he realized something was wrong. He touched his head. The arrow that had struck his forehead was still there; he hadn't pulled it out.
Once again enduring the pain, he pulled the arrow from his head. It had been lodged in his skull in a bizarre way, with its tip sticking out through his cheek, yet it still hadn't caused him much pain.
Only then did Fang Bie truly relax. The Skeleton Archer on the other side seemed to have no intelligence at all. Once he'd dug four blocks down, the sound of arrows from above stopped.
Fang Bie recalled where the Skeleton Archer had been standing, then dug out a space underground that was just large enough for him to stand in.
In Minecraft, most solid blocks could float unsupported in midair, without obeying any of Newton's laws. So he didn't have to worry about the dirt above him collapsing.
He took out all the wood he'd dug up earlier, crafted it into Shovels, then began digging from four blocks underground toward the Skeleton's location.
With a Shovel, he dug much faster than before. Two or three stacks of dirt appeared in his Backpack, and just then, he heard the clattering of bones from somewhere above.
Fang Bie dug three blocks upward and listened again. The sound wasn't directly above him, so he continued digging sideways. He widened the space until he finally found the Skeleton's exact location.
He placed some dirt beneath his feet to level the ground, leaving a space two meters high. Then he found where the Skeleton was and placed a block of dirt there.
Most medium-sized creatures in Minecraft were two blocks tall. If the Skeleton fell through the hole above, it would get stuck in the opening. The block of dirt beneath its feet would ensure it didn't fall straight into the space below.
Fang Bie swung the Shovel in his hand. The Skeleton seemed to sense a human nearby; it moved more violently, growing increasingly restless.
Fang Bie held the Shovel in one hand, keeping a block of dirt ready in the other. If anything went wrong, he'd seal off the space and make his escape.
Fortunately, things went exactly as he'd expected. The Skeleton fell smoothly from above and landed on the block of dirt.
It was like a person falling from the ceiling onto a high table, with their feet on the tabletop and their head still stuck above the ceiling. For a moment, the Skeleton was trapped, unable to move either way.
Fang Bie could only see its feet, which were bones just like a human's. He could also hear the crisp clatter of its bones.
Without hesitation, he pulled the sword from his Backpack and struck several times. The Wooden Sword wasn't very powerful, but since the Skeleton couldn't fight back at all, he easily finished it off.
After the Skeleton died, its frame immediately shattered into fragments that vanished in midair, while a bone and two arrows fell to the ground.
Fang Bie looked at his hand. The two arrows he'd pulled out of his body had disappeared. It seemed that was simply one of the rules of this world.
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