Chapter 2

Chapter 2 There's No Business like Snow Business! Eek wandered the mountain alone. The strange silver player had vanished completely. He couldn't even find footprints! After an hour without locating a path home or even landmarks other than the crater from the creeper's explosion, Eek decided to wander down the mountain. At the base, he finally spotted something—light! Something was glowing dimly, illuminating a few tiny buildings of wood and ice.

As he approached, Eek saw a set of lamps and torches. There was a narrow igloo, a couple of houses, and a tall church. Some part of his programming told him what this place was—a village. One by one, villagers stepped out of their houses into the snow as he watched. Eek was amazed. They looked like him! Well, sort of. The villagers were taller, and their heads were smaller. They had different eyebrows. But their noses matched exactly.

"Hello!" Eek said. "I am sorry to bother you, but do you know the way back to where new players spawn? I seem to be lost." "Honk," honked a villager. Eek nodded. "Honk indeed." That villager wandered off. Behind it, Eek noticed another in a straw hat, holding a hoe. "Ah! Do you enjoy farming as well?" The villager didn't seem to care much about Eek. They focused on tilling their little patch of soil and monitoring the crops. But Eek got a weird feeling. A strange sense that this farmer wanted something from him. Eek reached into his

inventory and pulled out a stack of wheat he'd grown on his own small farm. Immediately the farmer turned to focus on him —and held out a beautiful green gemstone in response! Eek had never seen something so green. He had to have it. The sense Eek was starting to recognize as his programming showed him how to connect with the villager. He focused on it, and a

little window opened with possible trades. The top one was wheat for an emerald. Eek reached out and selected it. His wheat vanished, and suddenly he had an emerald. "Thank you!" he said. "Honk," replied the farmer. As Eek explored the rest of the village, he sensed all sorts of things about the villagers: some were looking for jobs, some had things to trade, and some even wanted children. (Eek chuckled to himself at the thought of tiny villager children.) The other mobs he'd met weren't like this. These villagers needed something, and there was so much he could do for them! And Eek really wanted practice in the game to better help his friends— "Honk?" a villager interupted. "Honk!" Eek answered. Of course he would stay. He had almost a whole day before his friends logged in and he needed to be back at the base. Until then, he finally had something to do, villagers to

spend time with, and emeralds to collect. What amazing luck! His decision made, Eek got to work. The village needed a fisherman, so he made a barrel and gave one villager the job. They needed a leatherworker, so he went mining for iron and crafted them a cauldron. Eek didn't need to sleep. He had plenty of crops to eat, and he could build faster than any human. For hours and hours Eek collected materials, crafted beds and built houses for new villager babies, placed paths down on the ground, added new buildings for every job, and upgraded every building already there. He decorated the streets with little statues of his friends, traded each villager for everything they asked for, and filled his inventory with whatever the snowy plains would provide.