Greek Stalker

Click.

That was the sound my Logitech mouse made when clicking that button. Not the "Create New World" button, not the desktop icon, I'm talking about the big orange button that gives you the game. That's right. I just bought Minecraft. I saw that notification on my phone stating that $20.00 has been charged to my card. This was an exciting moment for me, as this was my first time playing the game. Now, I wasn't a total noob at the game, I have heard some tips and advice from my friends.

It was a good 20 minutes before the desktop icon appeared on my computer. Regardless of the long wait, I was enthusiastic about seeing those cubes make up natural environment.

After experimenting with some complex settings, I found myself in a nice biome, surrounded by trees, grass and a couple of hills. The version of Minecraft (apparently the three numbers displayed on the banner in the program window) read "1.6.4".

Let's focus on the gameplay.

It wasn't too long before I began cutting down my first tree. The thought of wood being broken by bare hands and trees disobeying the laws of gravity confused me at first, but I easily shrugged it off as me overlooking the game. I ended up collecting 6 blocks of wood. Was this the goal all along? Probably not. I've heard something about "diamonds and iron", so there must be some other goal in this game.

I pressed "E", and my inventory opened. Above it, I saw a 2x2 grid of squares labeled "Crafting".

I'm going to skip everything up to the peculiar part.

I was in a cave. I was using my stone pickaxe, almost at breaking durability, to mine some iron. I could only manage to mine, per se, 5 blocks of iron ore before I was interrupted by footsteps coming to my left. These weren't normal animal footsteps, these footsteps were sprinting. And by sprinting, I mean that they were flat-out SPRINTING faster than I could ever comprehend any animal could do. It didn't sound like they were coming towards me, In fact, they didn't seem to originate at my position, It's like they started at the far edge of the cave and ran deeper into it. I turned to my left. It was so dark, you'd practically have to increase your brightness to at least recognize it. I planted a torch. There wasn't anything. It was just a stone wall only leading to more cave.

I refocused on my iron hunting. It wasn't anything too special. I got about 12 more iron ore before my pickaxe broke, forcing me to exit the cave. Perfect timing, too. The sun was going down. The first location I visited was my house. (Well, I didn't visit it, it is my house after all). I'm no building expert, but I would say it's pretty well-made.

Βοήθησέ με. Πρέπει να είμαι εφοδιασμένος με τροφή.

That was the text that flowed through my chat log. This kinda terrified me at first. Luckily, I grew up in Greece, so I knew Greek like the very back of my hand. I translated the text to this:

"Help me. I must be fed with food."

I was confused, now I knew those footsteps coming from the cave weren't there because of either faulty speakers or my imagination. I thought it was an easter egg, refusing to believe that there was a hacker in my world. Oh boy, I wish I just quit at that point.

I made an iron pickaxe. I already knew how to use a furnace, so this wasn't too much of a struggle.

Σταματήστε να με αγνοείτε. Ξέρεις ότι είμαι εδώ.

More Greek? I made out the phrase to be "Stop ignoring me, you know I'm here." I still refused to accept the truth and kept focusing on the game. I was about to open the door to exit my house when I heard those footsteps again. they weren't the same as the ones presented in the cave, they were faster than before, and didn't fade off into the distance. They kept circling my house as if someone wanted me to come outside. I instead did the opposite. I stayed in my house for God knows how long. It was too dark, plus I was too afraid to see out the glass window.

They kept their speed and path, circling my house painfully fast.

"π"

The next thing in my chat log was the character Pi. It may have sounded a bit ridiculous, but I was still freaked out.

"ΜΠΟΡΕΙΤΕ ΝΑ ΧΡΗΣΙΜΟΠΟΙΗΣΕΤΕ, ΧΡΕΙΑΖΕΤΑΙ ΣΕ ΟΡΙΣΜΕΝΗ ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ" "COME ON, I NEED ATTENTION"

Okay. It was clear now. Someone was in the world with me.

The next thing I remember was thunder. It wasn't a single strike, it was actually constant thunder, a strike happening every five seconds. It was getting painful to endure. That's when I snapped. I then rushed outside to make it stop, to confront whoever, or whatever was behind all this. The moment I stepped outside, The footsteps stopped. The thunder stopped. Everything stopped. I was confused. I thought it was all done. What a fool I was.

"Κοίτα πίσω σου..."

As you might have guessed, this chat box was telling me to look behind me. Cliche, right? Well, I proceeded to do my undoing, and what I saw was merely the opposite of what I expected. It was… another player. Strange, I was on singleplayer. I sworn that I clicked the button. It wasn’t just the player I saw. I saw four zombies, all looking dead at me. There were diamond swords in their hands, inside the crater of my hou-

Wait… My house was destoryed??!

Alright. I can’t take this anymore.

I ran down the hill that my house was on. It wasn’t long before I fell to the bottom, merely surviving with four hearts.

“Μου φοβάσαι; Το μόνο που θέλω να κάνω είναι να παίξω.”

Of course I was afraid! What else would you expect?

It didn’t matter about the text, anyway. I was running. I escorted through trees rapidly, I narrowly passed through some hills, I swam through the rivers. I ran. I held my up key for 15 fucking minutes, trying to get away from that player. I ran. I gambled my escape routes with trees and caves. I ran. I ran faster than before.

Dead end.

Oh no...

THis is what I get for taking dangerous gambles. I took my chances with a cave system, and it ended off with a dead end. I landed my hand on the mouse, when all of a sudden… the footsteps start again. They started quiet, but gradually got louder until they were right behind me.

“Έχεις τελειώσει, φίλε. Θέλω να παίξω τα παιχνίδια μου τώρα.”

I finally snapped.

I was more worried than ever to turn my mouse to the direction of the footsteps. That is; right behind me. I knew I had to do it. I had to turn around and face that entity. There was no more running here.

I slowly inched my character’s view to face behind me. The foreboding feeling in my chest grew stronger as I turned closer and closer. Iwas turned around now. And there I saw him. The same player who was stalking me. The same player who destroyed my house. The same player who scared me half to death.

The same player…

That lead me to this story.