Chapter 1

RUNNING HOT AND COLD.

忽冷忽热。

Prologue Eek could feel someone watching him. First he heard footsteps on the nylium outside their Nether base. Then he saw a shadow moving between the trees of the crimson forest. For just a moment, he saw the sparkle of something silver right in the window! But when he ran to look…it vanished. "Hello?" Eek opened the front door and yelled, "Is anyone there?"

周能感觉到有人在看着他。 首先，他听到了在他们的尼格斯基地外的氖上的脚步声。 然后，他看见一个影子在深红色森林的树木之间移动。 刹那间，他看见窗户里有个银色的东西在闪闪发光！但当他跑过去看时，它消失了。 “喂?”艾克打开前门，喊道：“有人在吗？”

No answer. Outside, a half dozen piglins sitting in boats snorted pleasantly. "Please come out!" Eek said. "I am not supposed to leave, but I would like to meet you!" There! Another sparkle of silver. Someone was running toward their Nether portal! Eek just barely caught sight of them before they disappeared into the portal, headed for the Overworld. They looked like a player. But not like any player he knew. How strange! Eek didn't waste a second: he leapt out the door and ran for the portal himself. A few seconds of loading later, he was standing in a mossy cave. The glow of a lava pool lit a staircase carved into the stone—and on that staircase was a pair of silver feet, disappearing upward, toward the surface. "Please wait!" Eek called after them. "My friends told me to wait for them, but…earlier today I counted every block we used to build our Nether base. Three hundred and fifty-one, if you are wondering!" They weren't answering. The

不回答。外面，六只小猪坐在小船上愉快地哼着鼻子。 “请出来吧！”唷说。 “我不应该离开，但我想见到你！”在那里!又一闪银光。 有人朝他们的幽冥之门跑去了！在他们消失在传送门中，向上层世界飞去之前，埃克勉强看见了他们。 他们看起来像个运动员。 但和他认识的任何球员都不一样。 多么奇怪!埃克一秒钟也没有浪费：他跳出门，自己向传送门跑去。 几秒钟后，他站在一个长满苔藓的山洞里。 熔岩池的光辉照亮了石头雕刻的楼梯，楼梯上有一双银脚，向上消失在水面上。 “请稍等!”周在他们后面喊。 “我的朋友让我等他们，但是……今天早些时候，我计算了我们用来建造Nether基地的每个方块。 三百五十一，如果你想知道的话！”他们没有回答。 的

silver player reached the top of the stairs a few seconds before Eek—but he caught a glimpse of their arm swinging as they dodged behind a tree. "Then I counted them again. "After that, I named every word I know in alphabetical order. That took a little bit longer. Did you know there are a lot of words?" Still no answer, which Eek thought was weird. Didn't everyone love to talk? All his friends did. Maybe this person liked running more than they liked talking. They soon came to a mountain, snowy and covered in spruce trees. The stranger started climbing. Eek followed. "Before I noticed you, I was pretending to be my friends and having conversations with myself. Would you like to hear my impressions?" He didn't wait for an answer. "This one is Morgan: 'Hello, Eek. Great job waiting for us.' And this one is Ash: 'Wow, Eek! You are doing great!'" Eek was pretty sure his impressions were perfect. The player didn't react, though. They

银手比埃克早几秒钟到达了楼梯顶——但他瞥见他们躲在一棵树后，手臂在摆动。 然后我又数了一遍。 在那之后，我按字母顺序说出了我知道的每一个单词。 这花了更长的时间。 你知道有很多单词吗？”还是没有回答，埃克觉得很奇怪。 不是每个人都喜欢聊天吗？ 他所有的朋友都这么做了。也许这个人喜欢跑步胜过喜欢聊天。 他们很快来到了一座山上，白雪覆盖着云杉。 陌生人开始往上爬。 唷。“在我注意到你之前，我一直假装是我的朋友，和自己说话。 你想听听我的感想吗？”他没等回答。 “这是摩根：‘你好，艾克。 等着我们的工作很棒。”这个是阿什：“哇，Eek！你做得很好！’”埃克很确定他的印象是完美的。 但玩家并没有做出反应。 他们

didn't even slow down. "What I am trying to say is: I am glad that you have invented a chasing game for us to play." The silver player wasn't far ahead now. Eek almost had them! Then they spun to the left and disappeared behind a huge spruce tree. Eek turned a moment later to catch up and was suddenly face to face with a bright green mob hissing like a teakettle and blinking white: a creeper about to explode!

甚至没有减速。“我想说的是：我很高兴你为我们发明了一个追逐游戏。” 银牌选手现在已经领先不远了。 我差点就赢了！然后他们向左转，消失在一棵巨大的云杉树后面。 过了一会儿，埃克转身追赶，突然与一群亮绿色的暴徒面对面，他们发出像茶壶一样的嘶嘶声，闪烁着白色的眼睛：一种即将爆炸的爬行植物！