Minecraft (Dark Horse Comics)/OpenPlot

A woman is seen running away from something, but is unable to get over a fence. A creeper then explodes behind the woman, causing the fence to break apart. A man is then seen pouring water on some lava that had breached the moat thanks to the creeper. The woman, now named Sarah, survives the creeper explosion and heads further into the man’s base. The man offers Sarah an apple, but she walks past him, instead being amazed by the base that he had made. The man immediately makes Sarah leave, not before giving her the apple. Sarah attempts to eat it, but asks for help. The man then tells Sarah to right-click to eat the apple, and she happily gulfs it down. Sarah then asks for the man’s name, and the man says that he is named Hector before he asks Sarah to leave. Sarah turns to leave, but then asks Hector if there is anything else that he can give her. Hector says that he can give her a nether star, much to her own amusement. Sarah then looks up information about the nether star, and thinks that she can obtain one by defeating a wither underground. She begins to dig down, but is stopped by Hector, who asks Sarah if he can teach her the basics, and she happily agrees. Sarah then says that her mom bought the game so she could make some new friends, but Hector says that he doesn’t need friends and that he wasn’t actually serious about giving her a nether star. He then reiterates that he’ll just reach her the basics and then ask her to leave, and Sarah agrees, much to her own bereavement. Hector then explains to Sarah one-hundred-and-three rules of Minecraft over several hours before asking for her to leave again. Sarah then asks about the wither, and Hector asks Sarah as to why they would fight something as dangerous as that. Sarah then says that he wants to do something for him after he did so much for her. Hector agrees, simply because he would like to get a nether star, and Sarah squeals in delight.

The next morning, Sarah shows up at Hector’s base. Hector prepares to give her some diamond armor, but she soon leaves, much to Hector’s surprise. Sarah shows up again the next morning, mentioning that she had to leave because her mom came home early from work and bought pizza. Hector then says that he doesn’t think fighting the wither will work out, and asks Sarah to play with someone else, as he doesn’t want the risk of someone bailing randomly on him. Sarah then leaves in a huff, mentioning that she only bailed once (yesterday) and proceeds to dig straight down, much to Hector’s disgust. He then calls out for Sarah moments later, but gets no response. Hector then rushes to the hole and hears the sound of a zombie, followed by Sarah screaming, and he jumps down to check on her. Sarah fends off several hostile mobs before the two escape by breaking the surface, but Hector asks for her to leave again, saying that she is reckless and almost got herself and him both killed. This time, Sarah leaves without incident. Hector then returns to his base, but a creeper explodes directly in front of him, causing the entrance (and part of a structure) to be destroyed. Meanwhile, Sarah eventually walks to a cliff with a forest and river down below, and throws down her shovel in frustration. Back at Hector’s base, Hector fixes up the building as night falls, but he says that still feels broken. Hector then finds Sarah sitting by a campfire in a fenced-off area and apologizes to her about his actions, saying that he is afraid of being left alone. Sarah then goes off in a fit about not letting her explain what happened, and she reiterates that she logged off because her mom came home from work early and bought pizza. Hector then apologizes to Sarah for not listening to her, saying that he was scared and only thinking about his problems. He then says that his mom and dad helped build his base together, which is the only memory he has left of them, and again apologizes to Sarah for taking out his anger on her. The two reconcile as Hector explains that the emerald pyramid at his base is for a beacon, which is why he wanted to find a nether star, but he is considering in leaving it behind to start fresh. Sarah immediately questions this and offers to help him in getting the nether star, and Hector accepts. After gathering some weapons, buckets of milk, food, and potions, the two create a nether portal and go through it, spawning in the Nether. Luckily, they appear close to a nether fortress and climb toward it, not to forget about collecting soul sand.

The two (Sarah and Hector) soon arrive at the nether fortress and start walking through it. Sarah is soon attacked by a wither skeleton, but it is killed by Hector, who says that going through the fortress won’t be easy. He then notices that Sarah was inflicted with the wither effect and asks for her to drink some milk, which she does, curing her of the effect. The two soon come across a blaze; Hector kills it and obtains the blaze rod that it dropped, but inadvertently makes Sarah fall to the floor below him. Sarah then walks around to find Hector, but soon reaches a dead end. Upon hearing the sounds of a wither skeleton, Sarah then takes out some dirt and creates a wall in-between herself and the wither skeleton. She then takes out a block of dirt for curiosity, only to see three wither skeletons on the other side. Sarah then stabs her diamond sword through the hole in the wall and kills two of the three wither skeletons before going up against the last one by herself. Meanwhile, Hector is looking for Sarah as he kills a magma cube nearby, but Sarah soon rejoins Hector and shows him a wither skeleton skull that she got, much to his excitement. Hector then gives Sarah an apple to help her regain health, while also acknowledging her skills and thinks that he himself is a "scaredy cat". Sarah then says that it isn’t true and that she only acts brave the whole time as it’s easy to do so when she isn’t alone. Hector then says that he feels the same way and states that he wouldn’t have come down here again if she weren’t here. The two then prepare to head back to the nether portal, but come across several wither skeletons. They decide to retreat as Hector fires an arrow at one of the wither skeletons, making it drop its skull as it is killed. Hector then places some cobblestone blocks on the ceiling of the area they are in so the wither skeletons can’t attack them, but says that they need to get the wither skeleton skull before it despawns. Sarah then uses some cobblestone to make a path on the side of the walkway, before mining through the wall so Hector can get the skull. He is able to do so despite being attacked by a wither skeleton, and the two soon make it out of the nether fortress.

On the way back to the nether portal, Sarah considers fighting the ender dragon once she and Hector get back to the Overworld. She flails her diamond sword to mimic attacking the dragon, but she inadvertently hits a zombified piglin, causing her and Hector to take cover underground just over a lava lake. Sarah then notices the nether portal on the far side of the lava lake and begins placing down gravel so it can fall to the lava below. Hector wonders as to why she is doing this, and Sarah says that it is safe. She then falls through the hole onto the gravel pillar with Hector following suit, but they are soon attacked by a ghast. Sarah mines out the pillar and then uses the gravel to make a path toward the portal. Hector then uses his last arrow to kill the ghast just before they go through the portal. Back in the Overworld, Sarah and Hector repair their tools and armor and replenish their supplies before they decide to fight the wither. They end up finding a pit with stone at the bottom and then place down the soul sand in a T-shape, followed by placing down the wither skeleton skulls, which spawns the wither. It isn’t long before the wither is killed, and Sarah and Hector use the nether star that it dropped to craft a beacon. Hector then places the beacon on the emerald pyramid at his base, having finally completed his task. Sarah then prepares to leave, but Hector says that there is one more thing that they can do together. He heads into his house, but soon reappears with TNT, saying that he forgot about what really mattered about Minecraft when he put up walls to protect himself. Hector then blows one of the walls to his base. Sara asks why, and he says that he wants to open up the base to everyone. Hector then places down a sign at the entrance which reads "TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD ANYTHING".

Sarah is excited about finally being able to use a carved pumpkin head for decor at her house, with Hector jokingly saying to her that she is more excited about it over the golden apples that they had collected. Sarah places the carved pumpkin head above the fireplace, wondering as to what she and Hector should do next. Hector suggests going to a couple of places to max out their stats, but Sarah suggests that they try something new by meeting up with more players. Hector is hesitant at first, but quickly warms up to the idea, hoping it would help them cover more ground in the long run and to also help them get better weapons and tools. Sarah points out a house with an overlook in the middle of a nearby forest, hoping that whoever lives there would be open to teaming up with them. As they run through the forest and arrive at the house, Hector is pushed into a birch tree by Ziah, who says to him that he nearly stepped in a trap, and offers him an apple to heal. The three are then joined by Olivia who had set up the trap. Sarah asks Ziah and Olivia if they had been playing together for a while, and Ziah says that they had only recently teamed up, with Olivia pointing out tips and tricks. He then asks Sarah and Hector about their history together, and the former says that they’ve been on a ton of adventures despite going through a few hurdles. Hector then asks about teaming up with Ziah and Olivia, and the latter is very interested. Ziah asks Hector if he has a complete set of netherite armor, and Hector says that he does, adding that he is working on enchanting it. Ziah says that he has a full set as well, and starts to ask another question before Sarah interrupts and says that everyone is in agreement to team up.

Olivia then lets Sarah and Hector into their base, decorated to the brim with a brewing stand cordoned off in the center of the main room. Sarah explores a bit before she is noticed by Ira, Ziah’s younger sister, who mistakes them for trespassers at first. Ziah introduces Ira to Sarah and Hector, and Ira becomes excited to go on adventures with them, but Ziah says to Ira that she can’t come along due to conflicts with real-life after-school classes. As an alarm goes off in the real world, Ira leaves the server in a huff. After Ziah apologizes, he asks the others as to what they would want to do first. Olivia suggests going to a dark forest, Sarah suggests crafting a new weapon, and Hector suggests improving his home base with obsidian. Just then, a server-wide message appears, saying that it is from Arismet of the Endbound Realm, which says that someone must seek and gather "five relics most rare" scattered across the land to be rewarded with a pair of elytra. The group decode to be all in for the quest and head out, soon finding the Heart of the Sea buried inside a flower made of diamond blocks underwater; Ziah becomes the one to collect it. Next, they head down to the deep dark to collect echo shards, narrowly avoiding a warden as Hector picks some up. Then, the group head into the Nether to find the "pigstep" music disc. Though they all wear gold armor to avoid being attacked by piglins, they accidentally trigger an explosion to provoke them. After killing them, Sarah collects the music disc.

The group then head back to Ziah and Olivia’s base to rest and recharge, knowing that they still have two challenges remaining. Olivia asks if the others if they had noticed anything weird about the challenges so far, and Ziah says that there has definitely been a surprise for each one, thinking that Arismet made them to make the quest more difficult. He then suggests that they be extra safe with the last challenge, with Olivia quipping that they would have to go to the End. Ziah asks as to what they need from there, and Olivia says that they need a bottle of dragon’s breath and the dragon egg, adding that the expedition will need lots of studying to prepare for it. Sarah then heads back to her base with Ziah to gather supplies, while Hector stays with Olivia to make potions and arrows. On the way back to the base, Ziah asks Sarah if she goes on adventures with Hector all the time, and she says that they do, though it took a bit more convincing for Hector to come along. Ziah asks as to what that means, Sarah says that Hector wasn’t initially open to playing with someone who played differently from him, but he eventually warmed up to the idea, knowing that it feels like a whole new game if they stopped worrying about doing things the "right way". As the two arrive at the base, Hector is assisting Olivia with brewing potions. He says to her that it is great that she got the tips and tricks for potions from the books she read, and she says that it is, but that it doesn’t always feel useful, adding that she always likes knowing as to what would happen despite having to be prepared for the unexpected. Olivia adds that she freezes and panics in those moments, feeling like she isn’t ready to be an adventurer. Hector adds that he understands how it feels to be intimidated to step out of his comfort zone, adding that he learned to gain strength from those around him when he got scared. He thanks Olivia for her booksmarts as he goes back to crafting glass bottles. That evening, Sarah returns with Ziah, having gotten everything they need, and the group head out early the next morning with eyes of ender in tow.

That evening, the group find the stronghold, place the remaining eyes of ender in the end portal, and jump in, reaching the End. As they make a path to the main island, they put carved pumpkins on their heads so the endermen don’t attack them, and then go up against the ender dragon. While Sarah and Olivia take out the end crystals, Hector catches some dragon’s breath in a bottle as Ziah attacks the dragon with arrows. Eventually, Sarah and Olivia make it to the last end crystal which is protected by a large diamond block. As they mine away at it, Hector is attacked by an enderman, but he protects himself by making a two-block tall crevice and kills it. Sarah and Olivia are then attacked by the ender dragon, but Sarah saves herself with a bucket of water. She gives Olivia a potion of slow falling, who drinks it and fires an arrow at the end crystal, making it explode. As the dragon becomes weak, Hector and Ziah fire a barrage of arrows at it, eventually killing it. As the dragon egg spawns atop the exit portal, Sarah has everyone freeze as pressure plates are set up around it. Ziah then makes a bridge over it to get the dragon egg, and by touching it, it teleports away from the portal. Olivia then mines around and under it, placing a torch beneath it, and mines the block above the torch, collecting the dragon egg. Back in the Overworld, the group admire over the work they had done and prepare to head out to get the pair of elytra. Just then, a hooded figure watching them flies away with a pair of elytra.