Enter the Minecraft realm - Minekarate? Y/N
The prompt blinked on the display at the virtual karate dojo.
"Are you sure of this Jack?", asked my sensei, Russell.
"I need this edge sensei!", I replied. "The tournament is next week and I feel that I'm not as strong as some of my peers. I need to improve my striking power. This will do it!"
"Very well Jack, just remember to build your bed straight away. You do not want to face the monsters of the night."
"I will heed your words sensei".
I bowed and my sensei returned the bow.
"Best of luck Jack!"
"Thank you."
I turned and regarded the prompt on the screen.
"Here I go", I murmered, as I mentally selected the Y.
Suddenly a white dot appeared in the centre of my vision, as my body froze in place. The dot stretched into a line as tall as me, then across to form a large rectangle. With a lurching sensation I was pulled through the glowing rectangle and appeared in a meadow. A blocky Minecraft meadow!
I appeared about a foot above ground, and I stumbled as I landed. I dropped down to my hands and knees as I was feeling a sense of vertigo, my senses out of whack.
I took a moment to sit up in the seiza sitting position as I observed the world around me. It certainly was blocky. The grassy field was flat, but with contours around the landscape that were about 3 feet high. Looking down at myself I noticed my karate gi had been transformed into a blocky white outfit with a brown belt. I was blocky too.
So weird, I shook my head.
This is when I noticed a wooden sign not far from where I emerged from the portal. Curious, I approached to read it.
Welcome to the Minecraft realm - Minekarate. This realm follows most of the normal Minecraft rules, however you may not use crafted tools for chopping down trees or for combat.
I nodded. I was aware of these rules before coming, but I appreciated having it confirmed.
I had practiced snapping wooden boards in half with my punches, but now I was here in Minecraft I was going to try punching trees instead. I also had a personal goal of finding a creeper and punching it to death before it could explode. This was gonna be so fun!
I looked around me, but there wasn't much nearby except for some red flowers and a cow.
I'd heard cows dropped meat that I could cook. So I punched the cow. It flashed red, mooed in pain and I saw tears in its eyes as it ran away from me.
"Shit". What the hell! I felt terrible. That poor cow hadn't done anything to me, so I felt like a bit of an asshole. I didn't chase it. Maybe I'd go fishing or find apples instead.
This meadow was pretty large, though in the distance to the north I saw a snowy forest, to the west I saw a desert and to the south there was a river and beyond it a steep mountainous area. To the east though, I saw a jungle and I smiled.
Plenty of trees to punch in a jungle after all. So I started jogging and arrived soon after. The trees were massive! Plus there was a lot of vegetation on the jungle floor. For a moment I thought I saw an ocelot, but whatever it was it disappeared into the shadows, hidden by the bushes.
Looking around at all these trees, I shrugged, approached the closest one and assumed the short fighting stance. Clenching my fist and taking a deep breath, I focused my attention on a single block of the tree and launched my fist.
Crack.
My hand hurts, but luckily it wasn't my bones that had cracked. I had made my mark on the tree, but a moment later the mark disappeared.
Confused I punched the tree a second time, the crack came back, but a moment later it disappeared again!
I punched twice in a row and the crack reappeared and widened. Again the crack disappeared.
I had to keep on hitting. Otherwise the damage would regenerate. Squaring up with the tree, I started punching with both fists.
Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crunch.
The wooden block popped out and shrunk into a small block. I picked it up and marvelled at the piece of jungle wood.
"So cool".
I wondered to myself, how do I put this in my inventory, and with that thought my inventory screen appeared and the wooden block disappeared inside to take up a slot.
"Ok that was fun. But I'm gonna need a lot more to build a house!"
So I got back to it and started punching away the jungle tree. I discovered after knocking away the trunk that the rest of the tree hovered over my head.
"Video game logic", I muttered to myself.
I discovered I could punch out corkscrew sections of the jungle trees and climb up the inside of the trunk like a set of stairs.
I was enjoying myself and managed to collect a few stacks of jungle wood, when I noticed it was late afternoon.
My spoils also included a few apples from the jungle canopy. Which was good as I was getting pretty hungry, so I ate the 3 I had in less than 10 seconds.
A new record for me. Ha!
With my belly full, I felt a bit sleepy and then I realised I needed to make a bed and before night too!
I remembered running past a few sheep back in the meadow biome, so I headed back that way.
When I found the sheep the sun was starting to set. I walked up to a couple of sheep I saw and was about to punch one, when I saw a little baby sheep. So cute!
I instantly felt awful. I was gonna kill it's mum and dad to get some wool for my bed. Was I a monster?
I couldn't kill that lambs mum and dad. I had to craft some shears first. But I didn't have iron.
Time was running out and the sun was setting.
I saw a hill to the south and it looked like there was a cave, so I ran that way. Maybe it would have iron.
With the sun setting I'd need shelter. When I arrived at the cave. I used some of my jungle wood to block off the entrance, leaving only a small gap for the dimming light.
I quickly slapped together a crafting table, and used it to split some sticks and make myself a wooden pickaxe.
That's when I heard the first spawns. I heard a clacking sound and some groaning. The gap in the wall suddenly darkened and a zombie arm poked through.
Crap, I thought to myself. But then I shrugged. I'd be safe. My wall was pretty sturdy. But then the zombie moved aside and a skeleton took it's place. Before I knew it, the evil mob lifted it's bow, aimed an arrow through the gap and shot me!
Ow! I saw 2 hearts of my health disappear. Then the bony bastard shot me again. I lost 2 more hearts. It was then I realized I better run away. I quickly dived towards the wall away from the hole. So I'd be out of the firing angle.
I used another piece of jungle wood to block the hole. There was no light now and the mobs outside had no way of getting in.
It was then I noticed that my health hadn't regenerated and I was hungry.
How was I going to survive the night?
I couldn't risk going outside. So I decided to explore the cave.
First I equipped my wooden pickaxe and mined 8 stone blocks , which I then crafted into a furnace. Using game logic again I placed a whole log and a block of wood in the furnace and made a stash of charcoal which I was then able to craft into a pile of torches.
I placed my first torch and instantly the gloom of the cave was pushed back. I breathed out, not realizing I had been holding my breath for a while now as I had been working anxiously in the dark.
Equipping my pickaxe I crept down the winding passage of this cave. I needed food. But I also needed to place torches around each corner to avoid monsters spawning in my cave.
As I placed my latest torch I noticed a pinkish tinge to the stone blocks at the next turn to my cave. Iron blocks!
Excited I ran up and started mining the wall. It was loud work and the progress was frustratingly slow! What was going on?
A loud groan came from nearby, then several more groans in quick succession. My mining had attracted a pack of zombies - crap!
I backed away and saw about 10 ugly green zombies. They lurched towards me and I just knew I couldn't take on so many zombies at once!
A plan came to mind.
I dashed back a few turns down the cave tunnel and quickly set up a wall using jungle wood, leaving an opening for one zombie to come through at a time.
I waited on the other side of the gap and observed the zombies stumble around the corner. A collective groan sounded when the zombie pack saw me. They shuffled towards me and as I predicted they got in each other's way at the opening of my wall.
One managed to get through. But I was unafraid, waiting for it in long fighting stance. Timing it correctly I surged forward with 3 fast punches and a kick to it's head. It was disgustingly effective. Each punch squirted rotten body fluids everywhere and my kick took off it's head. It was a stinky mess, but I still had 9 more to go.
Five minutes later, I was exhausted and stinking. There was gore everywhere. Yuck!
I had used up so much energy, my hunger bar was flashing, though I hadn't lost any more health to the zombies. I was only one step away from black belt anyway, so I knew how to look after myself.
Reviewing the events that led up to this I face palmed when I remembered that my wooden pickaxe wouldn't work on iron ore blocks. I'd need a stone pickaxe!
I quickly reassembled my crafting table, mined a bit of stone and then crafted my stone pickaxe. I was now ready!
I returned to the corner with the iron ore. Set up some extra torches to illuminate the area and then got to business mining the iron ore with my stone pickaxe this time. Much more effective!
It was quite a large vein so I got plenty of iron. There was also a vein of coal next to the iron that I collected too.
Gathering everything I jogged back to my furnace to convert my iron ore into new iron.
I crafted a set of iron armor and some shears for gathering wool tomorrow. I also made an iron pickaxe because I could.
With low health, a hunger bar nearly depleted and a few hours left of night I considered my options.
I could go delve the cave and hope for a treasure chest with bread, or go outside and search for food.
I decided to try my luck outside. Crafting a few more torches first. I then punched down the wall I had made over the cave entrance and emerged into the night.
Placing torches periodically, I retraced my path to the jungle.
Along the way I clobbered a few zombies, rushed a skeleton archer and played tag with an enderman that kept teleporting with each hit. My karate was getting awesome!
When I arrived at the jungle I had no time to waste. I placed blocks beneath me, jumping each time, to make a tower of block to lift me into the jungle canopy. I started smashing through the leaves and got lucky with an apple. I quickly scarfed it down and then found a few more apples. Each one filled my hunger meter till finally my health regenerated.
It was then the sun rose and I knew I had survived my first night.
I then climbed back down to the forest floor. With the sun up I knew that the farm animals in the meadow would respawn.
I walked in and soon spotted some sheep. Smiling I equipped my shears and said "Thank you sheep. You are going to help me make a bed!"
The End.
