Chapter 6

Chapter 6 WE ALL SCREAM FOR SCREEN TIME... OR BECAUSE THE HALLS ARE FILLED WITH HOSTILE MOBS! Woodsword Middle School had gone low-tech. Doc still hadn't solved the glitch in the system. Until she did, devices throughout the school were unplugged and powered down. "At least the lights work," Po said at the end of their morning class. "Imagine if we had to do math and reading by candlelight!" Harper nodded in agreement. But her mind was back in the Minecraft desert. Between Jodi's broken gear and Po's poisoning, they'd had to disconnect before going through the portal. If they'd even

第六章我们都为屏幕时间尖叫… 或者因为大厅里都是充满敌意的暴徒！木剑中学的科技含量很低。 医生还没解决系统故障。 在她这么做之前，整个学校的设备都是拔掉电源的。 “至少灯还亮着，”阿宝在早班结束时说。 “想象一下，如果我们必须在烛光下做数学和阅读！”哈珀点头表示同意。 但她的思绪又回到了《我的世界》的沙漠里。 在乔迪坏掉的装备和阿宝中毒的情况下，他们必须在穿过传送门之前断开连接。 如果他们

decided to go through the portal. Harper half suspected the whole thing was a trap. They had used dirt to wall off a little corner of the mineshaft. Then they'd set up their beds. That way, when they returned to the game, they'd be right by the portal and they could decide what to do about how to continue their hunt for the Evoker King. Ms. Minerva had wheeled in an old chalkboard for their morning lesson. As she wiped it clean with a tattered black eraser, Harper sneezed. She had never seen so much chalk dust in her life! Over by the window, Baron Sweetcheeks sneezed, too. "Well, that was adorable," Jodi said. "Harper! Take a video with your phone." Harper sniffled. "Okay," she said. She put her notebook into her backpack and pulled out her phone. She was the first of them to get a smartphone, so she'd become the group's unofficial videographer. The phone was an ancient hand-me-down, however. She'd had to tinker with it to make it run more smoothly.

决定穿过传送门。 哈珀有点怀疑整件事是个陷阱。 他们用泥土把矿井的一个小角落围起来。 然后他们把床铺好。 这样，当他们回到游戏时，他们就会在传送门旁边，他们可以决定如何继续寻找唤醒者之王。 密涅瓦女士推来了一块旧黑板，准备上早课。 当她用一块破旧的黑色橡皮擦干净它时，哈珀打了个喷嚏。 她一生中从未见过这么多粉笔灰！在窗边，甜颊男爵也打了个喷嚏。 “嗯，那太可爱了，”乔迪说。 “哈!用你的手机拍个视频。” 哈珀抽泣著。“好吧，”她说。 她把笔记本放进背包，拿出手机。 她是他们中第一个拥有智能手机的人，所以她成了该组织的非官方摄像师。 然而，这部手机是古老的传家宝。 她不得不对它进行修修补补，使它运行得更顺畅。

She opened the camera app and held the phone up toward the hamster's cage. Ms. Minerva had already replaced the treadmill with the old-fashioned hamster wheel. "Come on, little guy," Jodi said. "Achoo! Achoo!" Harper pressed the record button with her thumb. She held her hand as steady as possible. She was ready to capture the moment Baron Sweetcheeks sneezed again. She was not ready for what she actually saw. "Um. Guys," she said. "You've got to look at this." While her other classmates filed out of the room, Harper's friends crowded around her. By their gasps of disbelief, she knew they could see what she saw. She felt a small sense of relief to know she wasn't imagining things. But only a small one. Because there, on the tiny screen of her phone, was the real-life Baron Sweetcheeks…next to a blocky Minecraft rabbit.

她打开相机应用程序，把手机举向仓鼠的笼子。 密涅瓦已经用老式的仓鼠轮取代了跑步机。 “来吧，小家伙，”乔迪说。 “啊嚏!啊嚏!”哈珀用拇指按下了录音键。 她尽量稳住自己的手。 她准备抓拍甜颊男爵再次打喷嚏的瞬间。 她还没准备好面对她真正看到的。 “嗯。伙计们，”她说。“你得看看这个。” 当其他同学鱼贯走出教室时，哈珀的朋友们围在她身边。 从他们难以置信的喘息声中，她知道他们能看到她所看到的。 知道自己不是在胡思乱想，她感到些许宽慰。 但只是一个小的。因为在她手机的小屏幕上，是现实生活中的甜颊男爵，旁边是一只《我的世界》里的方块兔子。

"Is that a new filter?" asked Morgan. "No," said Harper, starting to get over her surprise. "I…I think it's really there!" "No way," said Jodi. She went over to the hamster cage. She waved her hands around. "You're passing right through it," Ash told her. "I don't feel anything!" Jodi said. On Harper's screen, the rabbit twitched its nose and hopped idly across the room. "Follow that rabbit!" said Po. They all grabbed their backpacks and scrambled out of the classroom. The hallway was crowded with students. Harper had to hold her phone up to catch glimpses of the rabbit as it hopped between kids' feet. "This way," she said, and the others followed. But she lost sight of it as it rounded a corner. "It couldn't have gone far," she said, and she waved her phone around. Its screen showed the familiar hallway, packed with the students… and with Minecraft zombies.

“那是新的过滤器吗？”摩根问。 “没有。”哈帕说，开始从惊讶中恢复过来。 “我……我想它真的在那儿！”“不可能，”乔迪说。 她走到仓鼠笼前。 她挥了挥手。 “你正在穿越它。”阿什告诉她。 “我什么也感觉不到！”乔迪说。 在哈珀的屏幕上，那只兔子抽动着鼻子，懒洋洋地在房间里跳来跳去。 “跟着那只兔子！”阿宝说。 他们都抓起书包，冲出教室。 走廊上挤满了学生。 当小兔子在孩子们的脚间跳来跳去时，哈珀不得不把手机举得高高的，才能看到它的身影。 “这边走。”她说，其他人跟着。 但当它拐过一个弯时，她看不见它了。 “不可能走远，”她说着，挥舞着手机。 它的屏幕显示了熟悉的走廊，挤满了学生和《我的世界》僵尸。

"Oh," she said. "Oh, that is too weird." "Can they see us?" Jodi asked. "Can they hear us?" Po whispered. "I don't think so," Harper said. "They're just shambling around. Anyway, how could they get us even if they wanted to?" "Is this only happening in the school?" asked Ash. "Let's look outside." They passed through the lobby and held the phone outside the main doors. On its screen, Harper could see the schoolyard. There was the flagpole…there were the bushes…and there was a huge ghast floating inches above the lawn. "It's like a window into another dimension," Morgan said. "A window into the game!"

“哦，”她说。“哦，这太奇怪了。” “他们能看见我们吗？”乔迪•问道。 “他们能听到我们吗？”阿宝低声说。 “我不这么认为，”哈珀说。 “他们只是蹒跚而行。 再说，就算他们想抓我们，他们怎么能抓我们呢？”“这种事只发生在学校吗？”阿什问。 “我们到外面看看。”他们穿过大厅，把电话拿在大门外。 在屏幕上，哈珀可以看到校园。 有旗杆，有灌木丛，还有一个巨大的幽灵漂浮在草坪上方几英寸的地方。 “这就像一扇通往另一个维度的窗户，”摩根说。 “一个了解游戏的窗口！”