Isekai Online Game Developer

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“The popularity of ‘Minecraft’ has certainly skyrocketed thanks to the bet between the elves and Sekeunna.”

“It’s a game everyone, young and old, can enjoy. Especially now that they’ve learned the basics, everyone can’t help but have fun. There are still plenty of undiscovered elements, too.”

Rain and I were on our way back to the Tower after doing some shopping.

The streets were completely engulfed in the ‘Minecraft’ craze.

As information about ‘Minecraft’ spread due to the bet between Sekeunna and the elves, the number of users skyrocketed.

“Did you know? If you give a compost bin to a villager, they turn into a farmer!”

“A farmer?”

“Yep! And if you trap villagers and throw them bread, they’ll make babies! Keep breeding them, and if you trap them with blocks…”

“Trap them?”

“You can trade with them endlessly and eventually get golden carrots!”

“Wow! I’m going to try that! Mom, I want to play Minecraft!”

Unlike previous games, ‘Minecraft’ has a reputation as a healing game.

It can also be used as indirect education, which is why parents often let their kids play it.

Because of this, it’s become particularly explosively popular with children.

Of course, totally contrary to parents’ intentions, the kids are doing absurd things like trapping villagers and making them breed endlessly.

It seems that because they’re kids, they have free thoughts and try all sorts of experiments.

From my standpoint, I was glad that various strategies were being uncovered.

“Breeding…? Is that really possible, Rai-kun?”

“Yes. In ‘Minecraft,’ villages spawn randomly in the map. If you give bread to the villagers, they’ll have kids. Naturally, they can breed, but if you forcefully confine them and keep breeding them, you can increase the number of villagers.”

“T-Those kinds of horrifying things are what kids came up with?”

“You can trade with villagers for hard-to-get items. The more villagers there are, the more diverse the trades, so it’s probably an idea they thought of. Isn’t that a kid’s imagination? Hahaha.”

As we walked, Rain was aghast at the kids’ stories.

With my past life experiences, knowing that even more outrageous things were possible in ‘Minecraft’, I merely smiled.

In any case, people were enjoying ‘Minecraft’ smoothly.

Interest in the duel between Sekeunna and the elves was also reaching its peak.

“Did you hear? The elves discovered underwater ruins!”

“Underwater ruins? Does that mean even such things exist in the world of ‘Minecraft’? I remember Sekeunna and his team found an ancient city underground before. Just how vast is the world of ‘Minecraft’?”

Reports about Sekeunna and the elves’ conquests were delivered daily.

Yet, they still hadn’t found any clues about the Ender Dragon.

“But where does that Ender Dragon appear? It’s been a while since the duel began…”

“If you find the End Ruins, you’ll know everything. End Ruins only generate at specific coordinates, so it might be tough to locate. Still, I think they’ll be discovered soon.”

The fun of survival in ‘Minecraft’ begins by crossing dimensions.

And once they find the End Ruins, they’ll unravel the secret of dimension travel.

When that time comes, things will kick off in earnest.

I even prepared events for the elves and dark elves.

“Ugh… I want to hurry up and do it already. Let’s head back, Rai-kun.”

“You still have work to do. If Rain shirks your duties like Tower Master, our tower will collapse.”

I followed Rain as we passed the streets of Trinity and returned to the Tower.

*

[The World Tree is Just a Big Tree]. She was diligently digging in the world of ‘Minecraft.’

Betting against the elves for a second time.

The first to catch the Ender Dragon in survival mode.

To do that, she had to find the End Ruins first.

“Where could it be? I’ve searched the entire world…”

This time, dark elf companions joined in.

They were exploring the world at an incredible speed, but still hadn’t discovered any End Ruins.

They searched the ocean and stacked blocks to reach the sky, but found nothing.

All that was left was underground, and it felt like they had dug up almost all the land.

“I thought it would be easy to win…”

This bet was taking longer than expected.

When she first accepted the challenge, Sekeunna believed she would win effortlessly again.

Under normal circumstances, there should have been no reason to accept the bet.

Since Sekeunna had already won the last bet.

According to their promise, the elves were supposed to acknowledge that the World Tree was just a big tree.

Nevertheless, Sekeunna accepted the second bet without a word, knowing full well it wouldn’t be easy for the elves to admit that.

And Sekeunna also knew that the World Tree wasn’t merely a large tree.

Sekeunna’s true identity was Dark Elf Kilia.

The dark elves, being sons of the World Tree, were well aware of its nature.

Still, the dark elves despised the World Tree and elves due to their own history.

Kilia found satisfaction in watching the elves flounder in helplessness and rage.

It was enough for her to see them realize their pathetic and disgusting nature as they lost helplessly.

Of course, she knew that those disgusting elves wouldn’t recognize their defeat.

“Oh?”

While Kilia was deeply exploring underground, she encountered the character of an elf.

‘Riana?’

Her nickname was [Elf World].

Riana was the elf hero and a member of the hero party.

With vast adventure experience, Riana had also taken on the role of exploring the map.

“I was exploring here first, you know? Why don’t you scram?”

“I’ve been exploring from this direction as well. Since there’s no set border, it would be best to refrain from such talk, Sekeunna.”

Tch.

Kilia clicked her tongue once and continued her search.

Riana ignored her and began digging as well.

Both were uncomfortable being in the same space, detesting each other.

Yet, neither of them chose to leave first and continued exploring the nearby underground.

They both knew the last place to arrive would be the one they shared.

If there were no End Ruins elsewhere in the world, it was likely that the ‘End Ruins’ were located here.

‘I need to find it first…!’

‘I mustn’t lose the initiative…!’

The two hastily dug the ground, worried their opponent would find it first.

The underground began to widen at an astounding speed.

“Oh?”

At that moment, the first to speak was Kilia.

While digging, suddenly a brick block appeared.

“…!”

Seeing it, Riana hurriedly rushed over.

“T-This is my find…!”

“Where does it say that? It’s not even claimed land!”

The two smashed the bricks in front of them.

As they broke through a layer, a low-ceilinged room appeared, resembling a prison.

It was filled with cobwebs and inhabited by silverfish crawling on the floor.

“…With no wind blowing, it seems to be completely buried underground.”

With varied building experience, Kilia quickly assessed the space.

Spiral staircases connected rooms in various areas.

It appeared there were multiple layers, each with various types of rooms.

Some rooms seemed to serve different purposes, including a prison-like room and a room storing boxes.

The silverfish seemed to have all crawled out from one place based on their movement trails.

Kilia decided to follow the path from where the silverfish came out.

“Ugh… it seems like this place hasn’t been used in ages.”

“I know that.”

As they removed the cobwebs, they stumbled upon a large room.

In there, was a block that generated silverfish and an oddly shaped hole-riddled block.

There were twelve of these blocks, arranged in a shape like a nonsensical rectangle.

“Something’s stuck in there; is that… an eye?”

As Riana examined the block, she muttered.

Just like she said, a strange green eye was embedded in one of them.

“Could it be that if we insert all those eyes, we can cross dimensions…?”

Kilia formed a plausible hypothesis.

Having surveyed the entire room, Kilia decided to move elsewhere.

There didn’t seem to be any more information to uncover here.

Seeing Kilia leave, Riana also hastily followed her.

Not that she was scared; she had to keep an eye on her rival’s actions at all times.

“Oh?”

While chasing behind Kilia, Riana discovered a half-open door and dashed toward it.

This time, Kilia pursued her.

Kilia wasn’t scared; that wasn’t it.

“A library?”

Behind the door was a library filled with shelves.

Dust covered all the books, and cobwebs were stuck between the shelves.

“[End]…”

Among them, there was a shelf labeled [End].

Riana pulled out a book titled ‘Ender Dragon’.

“The Ender Dragon resides on the central island of the End World…”

It was filled with information about the ‘Ender Dragon’.

Even from just reading, it was clear it was an overwhelmingly powerful monster.

Riana felt it had strength that surpassed the dragon she had encountered in the past, or possibly even more.

To deal with the ‘Ender Dragon’, she needed complete preparation and then some.

She felt a tension similar to her time with the ‘Zatume Expedition’.

Once she finished reading about the ‘Ender Dragon’, Kilia pulled out a book labeled ‘End World’.

“To move to the End dimension, you must insert all the ‘Eyes of Ender’ into the End portal. ‘Eyes of Ender’ can be made by combining ‘Ender Pearls’ and ‘Blaze Powder’, and both materials can be obtained from the Nether dimension.”

This book contained the methods to reach the End World and a comprehensive explanation about the End World.

The two elves thought, “Then we just need to travel to the End World and defeat the Ender Dragon.”

To do that, they also needed to gather materials for the Eyes of Ender from the dimension known as the Nether.

Now they were looking for information in the shelf labeled [Nether].

They found out they could obtain the ‘Ender Pearls’ from the Nether’s residents, Piglins, and ‘Blaze Powder’ by defeating a monster called Blaze.

“Arranging obsidian in the following shape will create a portal leading to the Nether…”

Lastly, they learned how to pass into the Nether dimension.

They had pretty much figured out everything they needed to do.

Having read that far, Riana and Kilia exchanged glances.

Now that they knew how to meet the ‘Ender Dragon’, finishing the process quickly was crucial.

Having reached a conclusion first, Kilia made her move, and Riana followed her.

Kilia exited the End Ruins and dashed towards an area with flowing lava nearby.

She intended to create obsidian immediately to open the Nether portal.

‘If I go back to the main camp, it’ll take too long. I can tell my companions about it outside the game, so it’s best to head to the Nether first and secure information. If possible, I’d love to get the materials right away.’

That was the thought process.

Both Kilia and Riana were equipped with top-tier gear.

Also, based on what they had just read in the book, it seemed like they could handle the monsters in the Nether alone.

However, being a second late could lead to losing the initiative and a swift defeat.

At this point, confirming the Nether was the right tactic.

Riana had the same thought and headed toward the lava area.

“Why don’t you go talk to that so-called queen instead of following me?”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous for you? Are you sure about that?”

The two expertly fetched water and poured it onto the lava.

Adjusting the direction appropriately, they cooled it into a rectangular shape, creating obsidian.

As the obsidian formed into the portal they saw in the book, the space between it began to shimmer.

It was the first moment they discovered a portal to another dimension in ‘Minecraft’.

Gulp—

Riana and Kilia instinctively swallowed dryly.

Although they had rushed through the creation, the ominous flickering purple portal evoked an unknown dread.

‘Should I tell her to go first? Since danger could unfold right away…’

‘Should I concede and let her go first?’

Both were merely reading each other’s minds.

Then Kilia, having made up her mind, dove into the portal.

“Ah…!”

Riana hurriedly followed suit.

With an unpleasant sticky sensation and a reversing view.

A rush of intense heat blew as the Nether dimension unfolded.

“Grrr?!”

What awaited Riana and Kilia there were numerous Piglins wielding weapons, sporting pig-like faces.

The Piglins destroyed the portal the two elves had just come through.

“Oh?”

“What the…!”

Then, endless hordes of aggressive Piglins surged forth.

They managed to defeat a few but ultimately, the two elves began fleeing to escape.

There was only one path that could help them avoid the Piglins appearing from all sides.

At the end of that path lay a dark space.

Clang—

“?!”

“Wait… no way.”

As they entered that space, a clanking sound echoed.

Turning around, they found the Piglins had locked the door behind them.

No matter how much they struck the prison walls, they wouldn’t break.