Chapter 6

Chapter 6 ANITSY-BITSY SPIDER CAUSED A GREAT BIG PROBLEM! It was several days later when Harper and her friends finally had time to put on the VR goggles and enter Minecraft again. They had expected to appear in the cage where the witch had left them. Instead, their beds and their spawn point had been moved to the edge of the swamp. A nearby chest contained a single item: a map, marked with the location of an island.

The kids knew immediately that the island must be the nearest mushroom field—the only biome where mooshrooms could spawn. Clearly, the witch was eager for their quest to begin. All things considered…it didn't get off to a great start. They had only been walking a short while before they were attacked. It was a spider, lunging at them from the shadows. At first, Harper wasn't worried. They had fought—and defeated—more spiders than they could count. "I've got it," Morgan said, and he swung his sword in a wide arc.

The spider leapt, easily avoiding his attack. Then it sprang at Po, biting him. "Ow!" cried Po. "What did I do?" Harper saw her opening, and she took it. Running forward, she attacked the spider while it was still facing Po. Her sword attack hurt the spider. She could tell by the way it flashed red. But it didn't hurt the spider as much as it should have. "We are in so much trouble," she said as the spider turned its angry red eyes in her direction. It was just a normal, everyday spider. It should have been an easy battle for any one of them. But the witch's curse had changed everything.

The spider lunged for Harper. She stepped back, striking it again with her sword. At that same instant, Theo shot it with an arrow. Finally, it fell, disappearing in a pixelated puff of dust. "Whew. That was much tougher than it should have been," said Harper, verbalizing her earlier observation. "IT'S LIKE WE'RE NOOBS ALL OVER AGAIN," said Po. He bit into an apple so that he could regain his lost health. "It's worse than that," Theo said. "This 'curse'…I think it's a DEBUFF." "A what, now?" asked Jodi. "A debuff," Theo repeated. "IN A VIDEO GAME, AN ADVANTAGE IS CALLED A BUFF. Like…when a potion makes you stronger, or a blessing makes you faster. That's a buff." "So a debuff is the opposite," Harper said. "Correct," Theo continued. "IT'S A DISADVANTAGE. Something that makes you less powerful." "There are plenty of buffs and debuffs in Minecraft," Morgan added. "Like Weakness, which makes your attacks less powerful." "I CERTAINLY FELT WEAK AGAINST THAT SPIDER" said Harper, and she picked up the string

and eyeball left behind by the defeated mob. "We had to hit it a lot more times than we usually would." "That's why I'm wearing my special 'chicken pox' skin," said Po. "In real life, I feel fine. But here, I feel totally under the weather. And my pox shows it." Everyone looked at Po, whose avatar today was a chicken covered in polka dots. "Oh, now I get it," said Morgan. "You know chickens don't actually get chicken pox, right?" said Theo. "That virus only affects humans. And apes, I think." Po flapped his feathered arms. "Well, a spotted gorilla would just look ridiculous," he said. "Ba-kaw!"

"I like this look on you," said Harper, and she patted his head. "Careful," Po clucked. "I MIGHT BE CONTAGIOUS." Theo sighed. "Anyway," he said, eager to get back on topic. "I don't think there's anything magical—or even that mysterious—about this so-called witch's curse. It's a debuff—a way of messing with the code." "Then we'd better be careful," said Morgan, and he held up the map for all to see. "Because we've got a long way to go. AND I'M SURE THAT SPIDER ISN'T THE LAST HOSTILE MOB WE'LL HAVE TO FIGHT."