"Thump, thump, thump!" Just like yesterday morning, Fang Bie woke up right as the sun rose. Not quite awake yet, he slammed his head into the edge of the bed and grimaced in pain.
But he only grimaced. He wasn't as delicate as he looked. The fact that Fang Bie could live on his own without any assistance and still enjoy playing games in comfort proved that he had what it took to survive in this society.
First, he opened the side window and cautiously poked his head out to check the area. After confirming that none of the monsters that had spawned last night had come near his house, he took out his Stone Pickaxe and prepared to break through the door.
But just as Fang Bie had knocked out the four blocks of Stone at the entrance and was about to break the twelve blocks beside them, a strange sound reached his ears.
"Hmm..." It sounded a little like the noise made when a Nether Portal was successfully built in the game and then lit with fire.
According to the game's official description, it was the whisper of passing between worlds. But all he'd done was use his Stone Pickaxe to break these blocks of Stone, leaving an opening for him to walk through. He hadn't performed any strange ritual.
Fang Bie cautiously tapped the Stone with his Stone Pickaxe. Through the gap in the Stone, he could see the wooden door outside, and no other sounds followed. It seemed as if he'd imagined it. (Picture the shape of a Nether Portal.)
But Fang Bie didn't immediately step outside. He was sure the earlier sound hadn't been his imagination, and it was still echoing in his ears. That meant it couldn't have been just a trick of his mind.
He took a tree branch out of his Backpack and cautiously extended it toward the seemingly transparent entrance. Just as he'd expected, when the branch touched the air at the entrance, it was as if it had entered the surface of a pool. The doorway, which showed exactly the same scenery as the outside, rippled like water.
Fang Bie cautiously walked out. (He opened another doorway in the wall beside it.) He knocked away all the wood around the Stone doorway, then rebuilt the house.
Only then did he get a clear look at the strange doorway's shape. It was unmistakably a Nether Portal made of Stone!
"So... I accidentally made a portal out of Stone?" Anyone who played Minecraft knew what a Nether Portal looked like. Now that Fang Bie was looking at the Stone doorway from outside, he finally realized that it was clearly a Nether Portal. [Note: The Chinese term for "Nether Portal" literally means "Hell Gate."]
Other than being made of Stone, this doorway was no different from a Nether Portal. Fang Bie had been mentally prepared for this ever since he poked the branch through, so he wasn't particularly surprised.
Even so, Fang Bie had no intention of stepping through it just yet. Who knew whether it led to an endless abyss or a terrifying demonic realm?
He was only a little Steve who'd just barely managed to get enough to eat. How could he possibly take on such a terrifying place?
Fang Bie quickly planned out what he needed to do next. He wasn't going to venture outside today; he needed to find a suitable area to farm.
He clearly remembered that, near where he'd mined coal yesterday, there was a patch he'd had some difficulty breaking with his Stone Pickaxe. He needed to go check it out. If he was right, it should be a few blocks of Iron Ore.
Three blocks of Iron Ore could be crafted into a bucket, and in this world, each bucket of water occupied one block. A single block of water had terrifying power; sometimes, it could even flood an entire world.
But he only wanted to scoop up a few buckets of water to build his own farm. He already had plenty of plant seeds, and in a mod like Food Craft, having lots of food would be a great help to him.
He'd also clearly noticed that this was different from the very small food mod he'd encountered before. This seemed to be an extremely modified version of the mod. He could see many plant seeds that only existed in reality, which was pretty good news for him.
By his estimate, if everything went smoothly, he should be able to spend a few hours planting all the seeds he had today.
If his guess was right, it would take these seeds only a few days at most to grow into plants. That fit the rules of the game he'd seen so far.
As Fang Bie mined the Iron Ore exposed on the ground and began cutting into the hillside where he lived to make a path and clear a patch of land, two incongruous voices sounded from the other side of the strange Stone portal.
"I think we should go over and take a look, Yinsen."
"No, no, I think we should stay right here. If the people outside notice we're gone, we'll be in trouble!"
"It's just a nook in the wall. They all know it's the toilet. As long as we're careful and don't stay long, we'll be fine."
"Our lives are in their hands. Are you sure?"
"Two minutes is enough!"
"Fine, but we have to hurry!"
The two voices soon faded, followed by a clattering noise. A piece of iron was tossed out.
"Clang!" The iron piece struck the Stone with a clear ring, but no one nearby heard it. Then a sand-colored trouser leg poked out through the Stone doorway.
"Wow! Yinsen, you never told me the scenery outside this cave was so beautiful!" the man who stepped through first exclaimed.
"Oh, Tony, I had no idea either. But this doorway only appeared this morning. If I hadn't come out of the toilet, I probably wouldn't have noticed it."
"Hmm... But this doesn't look like Earth."
"Hm? What makes you say that?" Yinsen was a bald, formidable man. He held a crude gun made of machinery and cautiously scanned the surroundings.
Tony covered what seemed to be an injured chest and pointed up at the sky. "I don't remember any place on Earth where the sun is square!"
"My God! Praise be to Allah! The sun really is square. Did we pass through a black hole and end up in another universe?" Yinsen rubbed his eyes hard and stared in disbelief.
"Time travel shouldn't be possible in theory. The wormhole theory hasn't been fully developed yet. I don't believe it!" Tony shook his head. He wasn't holding any weapons, but his steps were unexpectedly steady.
"Tony, I think we should go back. We're almost out of time!" Yinsen anxiously checked his watch and tugged at the man in the tattered suit in front of him, trying to lead him back.
"No, I think we can stay a little longer." A faint smile appeared on Tony's face. He tugged on a string at his side, pulling a watch out through the doorway.
"I noticed that after this watch came into this world, it stopped moving. The same goes for the watch outside. Don't believe me? Look!" He pointed at the watch in bald Yinsen's hand.
"This... It really has stopped!" Yinsen had no idea how many times he'd been surprised, but that didn't stop his quick mind from coming up with a question. "You mean... time in our world stops flowing while we're in this one?"
"I don't know about that, but it seems the owner of this place has noticed us..." A smile appeared on Tony's somewhat dirty face as he waved at the boy hurrying toward them in the distance.
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