Invasion of the Overworld: Book One in the Gameknight999 Series
ABoUT ThE AUThoR ve come to love playing Minecraft with my son I didn’t get here easily though in fact my son had to drag me there kicking and screaming But i now I love it You see he saw a video about Minecraft on You Tube and of course said he had to have it Over the next month he was persistent in reminding my wife and me that Minecraft was great and that he couldn’t live without it So finally we caved and bought Minecraft He selected his user name Gameknight999 and off he went At first he played it on his own but soon he was calling us into our office so that he could show us what he created and it was pretty amazing He had built a gigantic castle and then an obstacle course with moving parts and then an underground village his creations blew us away As an engineer anything that offers me a chance to build something sounds instantly intriguing So I sat there with my son and let him teach me how to play Minecraft In no time at all I bought a license for me to use Monkeypants271 being my user name and off we went into the digital realm together building towers fighting with zombies and dodging creepers
inVASion of ThE oVERwoRlD xi He loved playing Minecraft so much that we bought a server for him the next Christmas He spent months building things on his server castles bridges underwater cities factories everything and anything his imagination could conceive Next he brought in his friends from school to build some really gigantic structures Of course I helped too partially to monitor what was going on but also because I’m a big geek and like playing the game I was overwhelmed with how proud he was about his creations He made videos showing off his cre ations and posted them on YouTube Well one day some other kids were able to get onto the server probably because my son or one of his friends gave out the IP address These new kids destroyed ev erything that he’d built griefed everything until only a crater was left They leveled everything to the ground obliterating months of work The next time my son logged on he saw his creations de stroyed and was crushed Then to make matters worse these kids posted the video of their griefing his server on YouTube This was the ultimate teachable moment to talk about cyber-bullying I tried to answer my son’s questions about why someone would do this what kind of person would take pride in destroy ing someone else’s creation but my answers just fell flat That was when I came up with the idea of teaching my son through his favorite thing Mine craft I wrote the first book called Invasion of the Overworld and it taught kids about cyber bullying and how it affects others as well as ham mering away at the importance of friendships using Minecraft as the tapestry on which the lesson was written
xii MARk chEVERTon My son and I are still playing Minecraft together and have built structures that appear in Battle for the Nether the next book in the Gameknight999 series Looking ahead I’ve nearly finished writing book three Confronting the Dragon which follows Gameknight and his friends into The End In addi tion a fourth book Trouble in Zombie-town has been started and will see Gameknight999 facing a new Minecraft villain Thank you to all the people who have emailed me through my website www markcheverton com I appreciate all the kind comments from both kids and parents I try to reply to every email I receive but apologize if I’ve missed anyone Look for Gameknight999 and Monkeypants271 out there on the servers Keep reading be nice and watch out for creepers Mark Cheverton
chAPTER 1 GAMEkniGhT’S GAME T he gigantic spider approached his hiding place slowly methodically its multiple red eyes burning like angry coals at the heart of a smoldering fire Gameknight999 knew it was coming but was not afraid his iron armor would protect him In fact he wanted the spider to come closer hoping he had the timing just right Clicking sounds from the spider floated through the forest trees and reached his ears getting louder as it neared Then there were more sounds from its companion two spiders were now tracking him Leaning out to look around the trunk of the gnarled tree he took a quick glance seeing the arachnid pair searching for him the monsters peering into dark hollows and leafy shrubs Moving back behind the tree Gameknight pulled out a torch and placed it on the ground the yellow light casting a warm circle of illumination that would be seen by other users After a few seconds he dug up the torch with his diamond pickaxe and put it back into his inventory That should hopefully attract some attention he thought to himself
