Minecraft: Virtual Reality

The Final Chapter | The Codex

     At first, I felt nothingness. There was no feeling in my body whatsoever. I couldn't think. It was like I was mindless, staring into an infinite darkness. But then, feeling rushed into me. I woke up, feeling things both physical and emotional. I looked around the room, seeing that it was pretty small. There was a couple chairs to my right, and the saline bag to my left. I also noticed I had a tube up my nose, acting as my only source of air. Then I noticed Steven sitting on my bed, waiting for me to wake up. He didn't notice that I was conscious. He was just reading his Naruto manga. I took off the headset. I pulled out all the wires and tubes connected to me, starting to hear a big beep go on and on. Steven put on a face of concern, turning toward me, but he quickly realized that I was fine. I was awake.

    "Mitchell-" he said. But I ignored him. I took off my covers, seeing the hospital clothes. I tried to get myself up. But I couldn't. I was in a constant struggle. I was dehydrated, my throat was dry as ever, I could feel my pulse thumping (very slowly), I was hungry . . . Over all, I felt too weak to get up. I was exhausted just from a virtual reality. "Mitchell," he repeated. "You shouldn't be getting up right now. After you died in the game, you were in a coma. For five months, in fact."

I was shocked by what he was telling me, but I ignored him. In a struggle, I thought to myself, Natalie. Feeling weak, I got up, puling the saline with me. I was exhausted from walking, and I wasn't even out of the room yet. Steven put his hand on my shoulder to stop me from going further.

    "Look, man, you were in a coma! You need your rest. You may have cheated death in the game, but you can definitely die in this world!"

    "Natalie," I groaned, trying to force myself to keep going.

    "What? Mitchell, Natalie's gone!"

    "Natalie," I repeated, pushing away Steven's hand. I walked out of the room, repeating, "Natalie," over and over again. He said she was dead, gone, but I didn't believe it for a second. I was going to find Natalie, and I was going keep on living, just like she wanted me to.

****

     I went into my room, in America. I had been in Sweden during the Minecraft VR incident. I looked around, seeing what was once me. I saw Minecraft posters, actions figures, a bunch of superhero comics and merch. I saw my gaming PC. I saw my old iPhone 4S. I walked over to my desk (that held the computer) where my phone was, picking it up. I saw that same wallpaper, a picture of me and Natalie on our first date. The only reason she went out with me then was because I just kept asking her, and I annoyed her into saying yes. But in a virtual world, we had a more real relationship that we had in this one. She actually said she loved me. Not like, but love. That was more than she had ever told me in real life. I don't know why that is, but I suppose that game brought out the real me. Not the dirty-minded gamer who can't get a girlfriend, but someone who would die for their friends. The more I thought about it, the more sad I got. Soon, that sadness became anger. I held the phone behind my back and chucked it at the wall. The pieces flew all over the place.

I saw the Minecraft VR headset, the prototype, on my nightstand next to my bed. It looked so unprofessional. Usually, the circuitry would be hidden, but you could clearly see wiring and electric panels. Usually, headsets like this would have nice coloring with a cool design, but this was rusty color. When we were first building it, we had to get scrap metal from a car at a junkyard for the material to build it. For all the electric panels we couldn't afford to buy, we would collect a bunch of fools gold and melt it all down into large quantities of gold. And that was just the hardware! The headset worked completely fine, but altering the graphics and gameplay took a long time! Of course, after Mojang made an investment in our product, they fixed all the bugs for us, but the point is we put in a lot of time and effort to complete that. It took staying up until 3 a.m. every night for two years, a lot of coding, welding, and wiring to complete that! And then Notch had to bud in! He cost me a future. Before the Minecraft VR, my career choice was a film-maker, but I missed a lot of school what with working on the Minecraft VR, going to Sweden to present it, getting stuck in Minecraft, and being in a coma . . . I don't have the grades. And getting tutored to get back into school would be like starting over completely.