Stephan

Chapter Fourteen - Apprehend

Steve placed an upside-down stair, then pulled himself back onto the tower, wiping the sweat off of his forehead from hanging upside-down for so long. He then hurried to climb down the ladder, stepping back to a safe distance to take a look at his handiwork.

A firework going off startled him, and Soulless crashed into the ground beside him. She looked at the castle tower he had been working on, then crouched rapidly and spun in a circle.

"Good?" Steve asked. The player nodded enthusiastically, and he grinned with pride.

The pair had asked if he was interested in helping them build their castle, and he had agreed- hesitantly, at first, but now he was enjoying himself. Soulless seemed to be the architect behind the design, and had instructed him to simply copy some of the tower roofs that she had already built. Steve was no builder, so he did so quite happily, and the girls seemed glad to have help.

Fangirl had offered him an elytra of his own so he could fly back and forth, but he'd refused it. It would hurt him a lot more than it did for them if he slammed into the side of the castle. He was content to climb up and down the ladders every few minutes.

Despite their difficulty in communicating effectively, Steve had managed to get to know the girls moderately well. Soulless' real name was Jess, and Fangirl's was Ruth. They, apparently, were able to talk to each other out loud using another program, which he wasn't able to access. While he hadn't told them his own origin in detail, he had told them that he was an AI who lived in the game, which they seemed to find very exciting. He desperately hoped he wasn't giving too much away.

"Hello!" A voice startled him, and he looked around. Soulless was already running back to her task, and no other player was in sight - not that they could speak aloud anyway.

The call came again, and Steve followed it down to a small cave in the mountain the castle was being built upon. At the very back, beside a lantern placed on a barrel, was a villager sitting in a boat. The miner grimaced, wondering if the girls had put it here.

"Hello!" The villager greeted him again, waving to him. Steve gave a halfhearted wave in return, already starting to turn away. He had realized already that the villagers of this world had no real intelligence. "Excuse me!" The villager's voice stopped him in his tracks. "I seem to be stuck. Could you please help me out of here?"

"Uh-" Steve looked towards the exit, back at the villager. "Yeah, you can talk?"

"Of course I can. You can talk." The villager reasoned. Steve crept closer.

"How did you get stuck down here?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure." The villager crossed his arms. "I was one of those rude, green fellows, I think, and then I woke up down here." Steve blinked. He was a zombie?

Footsteps came up behind, him, and he whirled to find Fangirl and Soulless staring at him from the end of the corridor.

"Wh-why is he down here?" He asked, gesturing to the villager, who waved at the players. Jess crouched, placed a sign.

"We cured him

he's down here so

he doesn't get

murdered"

"you can talk to

mobs???"

"No," Steve responded slowly before the message fully processed. "But he wants me to let him go."

"Yes, please let me out." The villager chimed in.

"you can understand

him?????"