The Unnamed World Type

So there I was, a little kid who didn't know better, staying up late in my messy room playing Minecraft. I know, very cliche, but bear with me here, okay? I just got it for my 12th birthday (november 2014) and naturally, I was very excited. At the time I already knew a lot about the game, since I've been playing it nonstop for at least a week. Suffice it to say, I haven't touched it since the incident.

I clicked on the "Create New World" button and wanted to start fresh. I heard online about some sort of Easter egg, where if you hold shift while selecting a world type, you could access "Debug Mode".

Essentially, Debug Mode is a world type in which every single block in the game is displayed in a grid. I thought that it was pretty cool at the time, so I played around in it for about a minute and then got bored.

I was quite curious at the time, so I wondered: "Is there another hidden world type like this?". I held shift again, but went past Debug Mode. The game immediately crashed. "I guess the developers overlooked this bug", I thought to myself and I opened Minecraft again. I wasn't back at the title screen so that I could continue playing, however. I was still at the World Type select screen.

This time, the selected World Type was simply called "PLACEHOLDER". "Uhh... I guess I wasn't supposed to find this. I should contact Mojang about this", I thought to myself.

But... I was naive. A curious kid.

The chunks loaded up and I was in what appeared to be a superflat world with random cobblestone chunks poking out of the grass, similar to the old, "cave game" versions of Minecraft. I walked around, broke a few blocks but nothing was really happening so I eventually decided to leave the world and continue playing.

I should've deleted it, but instead I just created a new survival world and forgot about it.

A few days later, when I already got a bunch of diamonds, I kind of got bored of the new survival world. I was about to make a new world, when something suddenly caught my eye. The PLACEHOLDER world.

I immediately felt this urge to go back to the world and discover more. So, I trusted the feeling and I clicked on the world again. The chunks loaded like before (slowly as I had a horrible PC), and lo and behold, the same exact world from before. Well, sure, I wasn't really expecting anything different.

I looked around the grassy field and of course, nothing happened, so I just decided to walk around for a bit. As I continued walking, I started seeing silhouettes of a player from the corner of my eye. It was pretty late at night, so I thought I was maybe just starting to see things and that I should rest. So, I quit the world and went to sleep.

The next morning, I was excited to start up Minecraft as usual and continue playing. Excited to make a new world and start fresh. So, I went straight to my room and started playing Minecraft. My parents were kind of worried for me now because I basically played Minecraft all day, even during weekends like that morning. I didn't really have an answer for why. It was just really addicting. Maybe if they played it, they would understand too?

Anyways, I booted up my PC and the fans started whirring. I turned on Minecraft and pressed Play Singleplayer. I went to make a new world, and then I saw the familiar PLACEHOLDER world again. "No, not now", I thought to myself, trying to get rid of the urge to press it. "Nothing special would happen anyways".

I somehow managed to not open the PLACEHOLDER world and instead make the new survival world. I simply called it Survival 3 and played on it for a bit. I haven't even found iron yet, and already, that urge went back, stronger than ever. Open the world. Open the world!

I closed out the new survival world I've been playing on for half and hour and went straight to the PLACEHOLDER world. The chunks loaded, even more slowly, but now, something changed.

I knew I wasn't alone when I saw a house, obviously made by a real player, in front of me. First I thought it was just some auto generated house that's always there, but something started to feel organic about it. I wasn't sure what.

I looked at the house in front of me for a few minutes. Purely made out of cobblestone, two block high ceiling and moderately long. Something seemed so familiar about it.

"Maybe I'm just looking too far into it, it's probably just part of the world type", I thought to myself. I went into the house and there was a single chest in it and nothing else. I opened the chest.

Wait.

This.

This is my old loot.

This is my first house.

I started taking damage ingame. I didn't have the guts to turn around. I expected to see myself, from the past, attacking me, from present time.

But the silhouettes I saw. They didn't look like a normal Minecraft skin. They looked different. The skin was just one plain colour and they were basically the size of an Enderman. Right before I died ingame, I saw them again. There were multiple. There were many.

I turned off the game and ran back into the living room. My parents asked me what was wrong, but I said it was nothing and I just wanted to take a break.

---

It's been five years now. I can still feel that urge to come back to the world appear once in a while, stronger than the last time. It's almost overwhelming.

I still have the old directories in my computer. Should I open it?

I have to.

I need to find more.

If I don't, nobody will.

''A/N: I'm thinking about doing another part. What do you think?''