The word of the day is: Anondyne (serving to alleviate pain)
The World of the Day is: Minecraft
Xantheum 6
This would be nothing like Xantheum 3. He knew this as absolutely as he knew the snug fit of the headset would result in neck pain if he didn’t log off in under four hours. These were truths. Xantheum 6 felt right. Of course Xantheum 4 fel right as well. She’d even said so on that first day. By the 18th week her resolve had hardened into something else entirely. The world didn’t last long after that.
Xantheum 6 started him at -198, 64, 123. He considered going for 0, but the way the sun was creeping towards the horizon told him to hunker down, find some sheep, and manage to sleep through the night.
Gregory’s worlds were built on the principle of one life one world. Once a character died that world died with him. Xantheum 1 had lasted two years in this fashion. Xantheum 2 was where he found her, and they thrived for a long time–even after the update that added raiders to their virtual world. Xantheum 3 hadn’t worked the same. This world, however, felt promising. Already he’d found a vein of coal that would power light through the gloom of evening and on through the next day.
As Gregory hacked through his fourth tree he felt a gentle buzz fill his temples. A message filtered through his console. It read: Are you playing again? –Alena. He didn’t respond. This world would certainly be different. Off at the edges of his vision he could see the block outline of a jungle biome. That was promising. Even if he didn’t find an abandoned Temple the wildlife alone created opportunities he hadn’t seen in many worlds.
The buzz filled his head again. Another message: Can I play? –Alena. He deleted this along with the first. Afterwards he set a pile of dirt into a circle shape. He used the wood he harvested to manifest a door and a worktable. This left space for a bed and a small clearing within the raised circle for the beginnings of a staircase into the earth. The roof remained open to the night sky and he ringed the circle with torches.
3rd message: Please? — A.
He didn’t bother to delete this one. Instead he lay in his newly crafted bed staring at the night sky. There were shapes moving up there among the clouds and anodyne dots of light masquerading as stars. He thought about each of those dots, how each of them could be seen as a new world; a new Xantheum. The beauty of these worlds was that they could become anything he wanted them to be, so long as he remained in control.