Reunion

[Kilnareth joined the game]

The spawn area was a large vast plain surrounded by a dark oak forest on the north and an oak forest on the south.

Standing on a hill was Kil's character, who looked like a mage that had his hood cover his face in a shadow. He wore a dark blue robe with a gold trim, brown leather gloves and some brown shoes.

This had been his character skin for six years, and didn't have plans in changing to a different one. He always loved fantasy and magic, and he always did magic mods whenever he did a modded playthrough of the game.

"Okay, I'm in." He thought to himself. "The other guys said they'll log in later. I should probably get things started and get some resources."

In the real world, Kilnareth was a 21-year old office clerk who was starting to feel stressed about his monotonous working life and putting up a facade just so that he would look normal in his work place.

Fortunately, one of his old online friends reached out to him and invited to a game of Minecraft.

To him, this game had a special place in his heart since it was where he met his first group of friends online. This was where he could be himself and really let himself go with no worry. So when he saw the invitation by his old friend, he would be an idiot to decline it.

Although he kept playing the game after he and his friends parted ways, he still missed the feeling of playing multiplayer and goofing around in a world with limitless possibilities.

...

[Joro joined the game]

Kil was in the middle of harvesting wood when he suddenly saw in the chat that a player had joined the server.

After that, he heard the ringing tone of someone trying to contact him in Discord.

"Hello?" (Joro)

The moment he heard that familiar innocent voice, Kil broke into a smile.

"Heyo~" (Kil)

"Hahahaha, heyo~" (Joro)

Kil did his best impression of Steve from the Borderlands series, to which Joro was completely a fan of so he joined in as well. Sounds of laughter filled the voice chat as two friends finally reunited.

Joro was one of the three friends that Kil got to meet on his first time playing on a server.

His skin was the doge meme, which was a cute Shiba inu, and the most memorable thing about him was the way he talked. He radiated purity and innocence, even though he was 19 years old and the most mischievous out of the bunch. It was something about the way he speaks and the occasional voice cracks that would make any random stranger talk to him have the urge to protect something so cute like a puppy. Hell, his Discord profile picture was a cute angry Shiba inu that was baring its fangs.

"Where are you? I'm in the middle of a Plains biome." (Joro)

"Ah, yeah. I'm just chopping down Dark Oak trees and I'm currently making my way back to spawn." (Kil)

Right after saying that, Kil controlled his character to quickly finished chopping down one more Dark Oak tree, collected all the dropped items and made his way back to the spawn point.

"I see you!" (Joro)

In the distance, Joro saw Kil's character running and jumping towards him with a Stone Axe in hand. The moment he saw Kil's character, he also made his way towards him. But when he caught up to him, he began throwing a barrage of punches towards Kil!

"Hahahaha." (Joro)

"Ow! Stop, you jackass!" (Kil)

Even though he couldn't really feel pain through the game, it was just instinctive of him to react whenever he was hit and saw the health bar on the bottom of his screen go down.

He then used his Stone Axe to retaliate, which made Joro scream out in pain while laughing and then backing off.

"Okay, I'll stop! I'll stop! Dude I have three hearts now!"

"Then next time, don't come at me like a maniac while I'm holding an axe."

Kil sheathed his axe and replaced his item on hand with a Dark Oak Log while he looked at the stupid skin his friend had.

It had been six years since he had last seen him, and now here he was.

"Alright, I'm here. What next?" Kil said as he looked at Joro. He was the one who invited him and the others so he was curious what his plans were.

"Dunno. Honestly, I didn't think I'd get this far." Joro said with a clueless tone.

Kil looked at Joro straight in the eyes which showed his disbelief. It was amazing how a game with static characters that can't make expressions can create one without even trying.

Kil believed him, it was just like him to not plan ahead. That's why Kil had to babysit Joro every time they played together.

He just laughed it off, accepting the fact that he was reprising his role as Joro's caretaker.

"Well, for starters, we need beds if we don't want to die tonight." Kil said as he rummaged through his inventory. He quickly found what he was looking for, and then threw it at Joro's feet.

Floating on the ground was a Stone Sword. Joro walked over the sword and it was immediately equipped in his hot bar since he had zero items on him when he spawned in.

"Go get some sheep and collect wool. While you're at it, kill any animals around because we need the food."

"Roger roger!"

Kil imagined Joro doing a salute when he said that before he turned around and went in the forest.

The good thing about an external voice chat was that even if they were far away in the game, the could still talk to each other. Kil decided to catch up with his friend while they wait for the others.

"So, how were you doing while you missed me?" Kil said as he looked around the Plains for the foundations of their starter houses.

"Oh yeah! I don't know if you know, but I just got a dog! His name is Mush and he's a good boy."

"Yeah? What breed is he?"

"Dunno, but he looks like a retriever and I like retrievers."

And so the two began catching up with one another while playing the game.

...

An hour after Joro joined the server.

[Unicorn666 joined the game.]

[Hex joined the game.]

"GOOOOOOOOOD MOOORNING GAMERS!"

"Argh!"

"Owie!"

The voice chat was immediately assaulted by a loud shout that deafened Kil and Joro's hearing.

"Fuck you, Uni." Kil, despite feeling nostalgic about that annoying screech, was still annoyed and he knew that was goal of the one who shouted.

"Hehehehe."

Uni just snickered like the goblin he was.

In fact, that was his appearance in-game. The goblin skin he had was the one from Clash of Clans: green skin with pointy ears, yellow beady eyes and wearing brown pants and shoes. He also added in aviator glasses resting the goblin's forehead himself which made the skin his own.

The one beside him was Hex and his skin was pretty much Excalibur from Warframe. He had a black and white body with red lines separating the two colours, a helmet-like head and if one looked closely, there was a horn on his forehead.

Then another tone rang which meant that another person joined the voice chat.

"Good thing I joined last." Hex said.

A brief description of Uni and Hex: they are the agents of chaos. Uni was wild and mischievous who lives to troll others while Hex was collected and controlled, a person who is patient enough to go through with a prank even if it takes weeks or months.

These two were infamous within the group and gained the moniker, The Chaos Twins.

Kil just calls them retards.

"What are you losers up to?" (Uni)

"Oh, we started without you but we're not really that far. We just got a bunch of stone and wood while I made houses for the four of us." (Kil)

"Yeah, Kil's a really good builder now. He did this in like an hour." (Joro)

From the once empty plain that was spawn, now had a small settlement with four small houses that were medieval-themed and a campfire in the middle. Each house was different in design but had similar space so that others won't lose out. There was also a bunch of Path Blocks around the settlement and a bunch of foliage made from leaves and fences.

"Holy crap, you made this?" (Uni)

"You've been busy." (Hex)

When the four met with each other for the first time, they were pretty new with the game but the roles were still the same: Kil was the builder, Joro being the farmer and gatherer, while the Chaos Twins were the miners. Kil's building skill was good, but amateurish when compared to other skilled builders, but after years of playing the game he had picked up a few tricks and inspiration which made him a good medieval builder.

"Well, technically fifteen minutes since we collected the stone and wood for thirty minutes, built the houses for fifteen, and the rest of time we just fucked around and waited for the two of you idiots." (Kil)

"Okay, Mr. I'm-a-good-builder. Fuckin' show off." (Uni)

"To be fair though, this place looks impressive. It fits in with the environment unlike Uni's attempts by flattening out the ground and making a wooden cube for a home." (Hex)

"What the hell, why are you ganging up on me?!" (Uni)

"I'm not." (Joro)

The friends convened around the middle of the settlement, where the campfire was, and finally faced each other.

These individuals, who haven't played with each other for long time, finally got around to play Minecraft.

"I missed you guys!" (Joro)

"I don't." (Hex)

"Says the guy who invited me to play with you guys." (Uni)

"Sh-shut up! I only told you because I thought you might have not received an invite." (Hex)

"Even though I received the DM from Joro?" (Uni)

"Yeah, I sent one to all of you guys." (Joro)

"You're not helping!" Hex said while gritting his teeth. If this was an anime, there would be a visible blush on Hex'a character now.

The three laughed at Hex's embarrassing secret but nevertheless, they all felt the same way. They missed hanging around in the game after school and just mess around and enjoy each other's company.

The sun was beginning to set and Kil looked out on the horizon. The sunset coloured the sky orange while the light casted upon them and their surroundings. With the shaderpack he was using, the scene was beautiful and serene, as if four friends were out camping in the woods.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

Of course, the one to ruin the mood was Uni.

"Dude, the sunset looks beautiful with these shaders." (Kil)

"...?"

The three looked at each other, wondering what their friend was talking about.

"Don't tell me you guys don't have shaders on?" Kil asked after noticing the silence from the three.

"What's a shader?" (Joro)

"..." (Kil)

It seemed like Kilnareth was the only one who didn't give up playing the game.

Kil started foreseeing a headache, a feeling he once felt when they played with each other in the past.