2 Nancy Osa dropped and the creature’s eye which bounced on the ground a few times before it could roll away Distrac tions distractions he thought idly wrapping one end of the string around the eye and the other around his hand and batting the eyeball with his palm He realized what he was doing and threw the toy away Think he commanded himself After a bit more work he’d completed a satisfac tory draft It read PIONEARS WANTED New United Biomes of the Overworld cap itle city under construction seeks villagers and players looking to relocate No invest ment nessissary City of Beta offers start-up economy protection from mobs and greifers family-friendly atmisfere Approved immigrints recieve free shelter month’s supply of food and access to jobs Beautiful extreme hills location Apply Beta City Hall What’s that you’ve got there sir asked Stormie She’d left her TNT crafting to see what the captain was
Spawn Point Zero 3 doing The fit dark-skinned young woman appeared capable of providing strong offense or defense with or without explosives Rob frowned trying not to gawk at her black crop top and shorts A cavalry commander’s attitude toward his troops had to be strictly neutral It’s an ad for the new city Private But I’m not sure about my spelling She took the paper from him and read it to herself lips moving Just a few mistakes Captain Sounds good though I’d apply if I weren’t already here Her contagious grin spread to Rob Thanks He took in the camp the battalion was setting up and the larger construction project under way up the hill These settlements were dwarfed by a mountainous slope that rose in stair-steps to the sky behind them Just think of the possibilities Stormie said to the captain At this moment it’s the perfect city Rob wished he could share her enthusiasm There was no telling what type of element his advertisement would attract He ran a tan hand wearily through his shock of black hair City’s only as perfect as the peo ple in it Or the ones behind it Stormie insisted In that case Rob thought wryly we’d better add another coat of paint
4 Nancy Osa Rob couldn’t help worrying about his troopers dedication not to mention his own The cav alry had spent months battling griefers and hostile mobs before the city had even taken shape Now the six players itched to return to their chosen lifestyles Stormie to rambling the globe Frida to solitary jungle survival Turner to exchanging muscle for gems Jools to selling strategies and Kim to raising and training horses on her beloved sunflower plains Rob’s greatest desire lay not in this generated world but in the larger place from which he’d come not so long before a peaceful Western range that he hoped to find again He’d been flying back there from vacation when he found himself tumbling through space into a whole new ballgame Given that his spawn point was a moving airplane above an ocean going home would be problematic to say the least Down in the valley where Rob now stood in his customary chaps vest and cowboy boots spring time flowers had begun to bloom Their vigor and promise seemed to herald the new city This is it then he said We’re nearly open for business Pride and panic washed over him This latest effort would bring either salvation or doom to the Overworld and which one was anybody’s guess It’s a brave new world Captain Stormie said taking in the landscape
Spawn Point Zero 5 At their feet spread a lush vale of flower-specked turquoise grasses crisscrossed by sparkling blue streams that tumbled from snow-fed waterfalls Above them rose the extreme hills precipitous heights touching the clouds dividing the world hemispheres and nearly isolating them From down here the intri cate rock sculptures formed a gallery of cliffs canyons caverns and cantilevers From up there as Rob well knew the unobstructed view created a topographi cal map of every biome as far as the eye could see The already picturesque spot was being trans formed into a site worthy of its purpose the first cap ital city built in the Overworld since the destruction of Alpha in the long-ago war The unified government had operated piecemeal from each of the dozens of world biomes for years During that time dark forces had attempted to wrest the land from its residents until Battalion Zero had ridden in to stop them Now that the opposing griefer alliance had been subdued a central seat of power had become prac ticable Rob and his cavalry were among a handful of hopefuls who debated the idea In the end the Overworld’s defenders had come together to boost the project once their arguments had all been exhausted
