Minequiz.exe

It all started on one cloudy day. The sky was literally covered with puffy gray clouds. There was not one gap in the blanket of clouds, no sight of the blue sky for miles. It was cold, and wind caused the perceived temperature to go even lower. I predicted that a storm was about to begin in a few hours. As such, all my friends were inside, most likely playing on their electronic devices, chatting on their phones or with their family, or simply relaxing inside.

On this particular day, I decided to boot up Minecraft for the first time of that summer. It has been roughly two weeks since my summer holidays began, and I hadn't played my favorite block game since then. I was too busy going out with friends, exploring the local neighborhood or just doing other things.

I opened up my PC and clicked the grass block icon as fast as I could. Minecraft started booting up. I logged up into the Launcher and pressed play. After a few seconds of silence, the game loaded. The very familiar Mojang logo appear on the screen, followed by the title screen. The Minecraft logo, a pulsating splash text, and the scrolling background world. All very familiar things to me.

I decided to play some multiplayer. And so, I pressed the "Multiplayer" button. I scrolled through my moderately long server list, until I made my decision to play on a certain creative server. I double clicked the server, and in a few seconds I was in it's main hub.

From there, I warped to the server's 1000x1000 plotworld and decided to create a castle on one of my emptier plots there. I warped to my plot, and observed my previous creations I had constructed there. I spotted a skin competition. some houses, a head shop, and a few random structures like an AFK Pool and other small things.

I quickly flew over to a distant location on the plot and readied my blocks. Stone, cobblestone, all kinds of stone bricks, cobblestone walls, wood, wooden fences, iron bars and buttons. I was ready to start building. However, before I could have placed down a block, a chat message sparked my attention.

uwuwn2827727 > www(dot)minequiz(dott)net - BEST MINECRAFT QUIZ - HARD QUESTIONS - PROS ONLY!

The message seemed interesting. I have played a plethora of Minecraft themed quizes in the past, however none offered the questions I wanted. The quizes I played were all just plain easy, with beginner questions and little to no challenge. This one promised hard questions for "pros only"... I so desperately wanted to boost my ego by beating the game.

On the other hand, I did not really want to go to that link. I was well aware that most spam-advertisers were advertising shit such as phishing websites. I did not want to be that one idiot who falls for a scam.

After carefully thinking for a few minutes, the pros outweighed the cns for me and I decided to go and try out the game.

I opened up my Google browser and swifty typed the link "www.minequiz.net" into the search bar. And - to my surprise - the link actually worked, and I was sent to a webpage.

The page was very plain. The top displayed a header, with the words "MineQuiz" written in the Minecraft font, with three clickable buttons, one saying "About", the other one being "Contact" and the last one displaying the words "Terms of Service". The background of the page was a dark brown color, similar to the color of dirt blocks. On the bottom was a footer, displaying the simple message "Copyright MojaSoft(C) - 2010 - 2017"

In the middle was a short paragraph. It said "MineQuiz, a game of speed, knowledge and power! With five lives, survive through 50 questions about the game of Minecraft, with each question harder than the previous one!". Below this text was a green button that said "Download".

I was set. I wanted to try this.

I moved my cursor towards the Download button and pressed it. Immediately, a download for a file named "minequiz.exe" started. Right there one thing caught my attention. The file was 6.1 GB big. What could have made a quiz game so huge. However, I decided to shrug the file size off and continue with the download.

When the entire thing was on my computer, I swiftly double-clicked the game icon and MineQuiz booted up.

First thing was the logo screen. It simply displayed the words "MojaSoft" in the Comic Sans font with the color being yellow. Afterwards, the title screen popped up. It was pretty well designed. The top contained the same words "MineQuiz" as the webpage, the background being a scrolling one made out of Minecraft dirt blocks, with the occasional stone and coarse dirt blocks appearing too. In the middle was just one button, simply saying "Play Game".

I had nothing to wait for. I pressed Play Game.

I heard a pop sound, and the screen faded to a black one. After a few seconds, the screen faded back in, this time to the first question.

1. Can Lava be used as fuel for furnaces?

A: Yes B: No, but Lava Buckets can C: No

This was a simple one. I was well aware that lava was usable in furnaces as fuel. I was just about to press option A, but then I thought about the question. I looked at option B. I just then realized that this game was going to be filed with tricks meant to make me lose. I pressed option B, and a text saying "Correct!" in green color flashed on the screen along with a generic hooray sound effect. Then, the screen faded to black and to the next question.

2. What is the most useful block?

A: Diamonds B: Stone C: Wood

I was aware of the trick this time. I knew that C was the correct answer, since without wood getting diamonds or stone is not possible. Therefore, I selected C and I was rewarded with the same hooray sound effect and text saying "Correct".

The next ten questions flew past like a breeze. Here they are, with the answer I selected in square brackets.

3. Do creepers explode?

A: No B: Sometimes [C: Yes]

4. Who is Notch?

[A: The creator of Minecraft] B: The person who bought Minecraft C: The enemy of the creator of Minecraft

5. Can you find Smooth Stone Slabs in natural structures?

A: No B: Only using mods [C: Yes]

6. How many kinds of Wood Logs are there?

A: 5 [B: 6] C: 7

7. How many times bigger is the Minecraft World compared to the Planet Earth?

A: 7x [B: 8x] C: 9x

8. What can you breed Ocelots with?

[A: Fish] B: Wheat C: Potatoes

9. How many End Portal blocks can be found in a Minecraft World?

A: 12 [B: As many as there are Strongholds] C: 2092

10. How many different flowers are in Minecraft?

[A: 16] B: 14 C: 17

11. How do you breed baby squids (PC Version)?

A: Using ink sacs B: Using any fish [C: You can't]

12. What is the blast resistance of a Sponge block?

[A: 3] B: 4 C: 5

So far, everything was good. The only questions that stumped me were 10 and 12, but I managed to finish them too. However, everything changed with question 13.

13. Are you playing this game?

A: Yes B: No C: Maybe

This made me stop for a second. What kind of question even is that? "Are you playing this game?" Obviously I am? I selected Answer A and just as expected, I passed with a big hooray and a text saying "Correct".

Question 14 was even stranger than the previous one.

14. What are you going to do after this game?

A: Die B: Live C: Other

This question stumped me. The question itself wasn't even that strange, merely unrelated. But the answers disturbed me. I was going to die, live or... other? I really hoped that I did not get myself into a creepy haunted game like in the stories where it tells you that you are going to die. With my hopes low, I pressed option B. Lucky me, a hooray was heard and the green "Correct" flashed across the screen in my big letters. I was not going to die. I would stay alive and not die. That was going pretty good.

The next few questions were just Minecraft related ones, escalating in difficulty. By the time I got to Question 40, I was dealing with things that barely even the coders of Minecraft could answer, such as:

38. What is the binary data value for an Armor Stand?

[A: 110100000] B: 101100000 C: 110001000

To be continued...