Malphegor
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MCIM Ch. 03
🕑 Added 2025-08-29 00:53:55 +0000 UTCThe lighter's pathetic flame was the only thing standing between Mario and complete darkness. He held it steady, studying the earthen walls around him.
This is the real world. What if I dig too deep and suffocate myself down here?
The thought made him pause. In Minecraft, you could dig straight down to bedrock without worrying about oxygen. But this wasn't a game anymore, this was reality with game mechanics slapped on top.
He released the lighter's trigger and stood perfectly still, counting seconds.
One minute.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
No shortness of breath.
"Well, shit. I don't need air anymore."
He flicked the lighter back on and took a deep breath. The earthy scent filled his lungs, but it felt more like a habit than a necessity. Like his body was going through the motions without actually needing the oxygen.
If he didn't need oxygen, that opened up a lot of possibilities. Underwater exploration. Sealed spaces. Hell, he could probably survive in a vacuum if he had to. Not exactly useful in Manhattan, but good to know.
Maybe the Minecraft blocks generate their own atmosphere? It wasn't the craziest theory. In the game, you could place a single door underwater and create an air pocket. The physics were already fucked six ways from Sunday.
With his new confidence in not dying from asphyxiation, he started digging deeper. His fists broke through the soil easily enough, but as he worked, he started hitting weird shit embedded in the dirt.
The first bone made him jump.
"Okay, that's not creepy at all."
The bone went straight into his inventory, so he kept digging. More bones. And then, embedded in the wall, a human skull stared back at him with empty sockets.
He stopped digging and stared at the skull for a long moment. Someone had died here. Someone had been buried beneath what was now Central Park, probably decades or even centuries ago.
"I don't know who you were or how you ended up buried here," he said to the skull. "But thanks for the contribution to my survival efforts. I promise to put these to good use."
The bones from the skeleton yielded eight individual bone items, better drop rate than most Minecraft mobs. He carefully removed the skull, placed it back in its original position in the wall, and sealed it up with a dirt block.
Show some respect for the dead, even if they're helping you gear up.
As he continued digging, his thoughts wandered. If game resources could be found in reality, what else was possible? Diamonds? Gold? Or was he limited to the basic materials that actually existed in New York soil?
Probably shouldn't get my hopes up for finding diamond ore under Manhattan. But iron... iron might be doable.
After what felt like hours of digging, though it was impossible to tell time down here, his fist finally struck something that didn't give way immediately. Gray stone.
He tapped it. Cracks appeared, but they spread much slower than they had with dirt or wood.
"Hardness level too high for bare hands. Time to break out the tools."
He pulled out his wooden pickaxe and struck the stone properly. This time, the cracks spread with satisfying speed, and after a few hits, the stone block popped loose and zipped into his inventory as cobblestone.
"Finally! Welcome to the Stone Age, motherfucker!"
Stone tools were a massive upgrade from wooden ones, more durable, faster mining, and they opened up access to higher-tier materials. He set to work expanding his underground space, carving out a proper room instead of just a hole in the ground.
The mining went faster now. Each stone block gave way after four or five strikes, and he quickly established a rhythm.
Strike, crack, collect.
Strike, crack, collect.
He reinforced the ceiling with cobblestone blocks to prevent cave-ins. Nothing quite like being buried alive under one of the world's most famous parks to ruin your day.
The wooden pickaxe lasted exactly as long as it should, 59 uses, just like in the game. He mined stone until the tool was down to its last point of durability, then tucked it away in his inventory. Waste not, want not. That thing would make excellent furnace fuel later.
With his crude mining operation complete, he had carved out a space roughly ten feet by ten feet, with a seven-foot ceiling. It wasn't luxurious, but it was a start. More importantly, it was completely hidden from the surface world.
He placed his crafting table in the center and got to work on the essentials. Two stone pickaxes for mining. A stone sword for protection. And most importantly, a furnace.
The furnace materialized as a gray stone cube with a dark opening in the front. When he focused on it, an interface popped up, three slots, just like the game. Input, fuel, output.
He glanced at his hunger bar. Five drumsticks left. Food was becoming a serious concern.
He placed his nearly broken wooden pickaxe into the fuel slot and fed three wood blocks into the input. The moment the materials were in place, the furnace roared to life. Flames flickered out of the top vent.
The warmth soaked into his bones, and for the first time since arriving in this world, he felt truly comfortable.
Ten seconds later, he had charcoal. He combined it with sticks to craft twelve torches, then placed them around his underground room. The warm light was way better than the lighter's glow.
"This'll do for now. Not like I'm planning to go mining for diamonds anytime soon."
Real-world minerals weren't randomly distributed like they were in Minecraft. If he wanted to find ore deposits, he'd have to leave New York and head for abandoned mines in places like West Virginia or Colorado. That was a problem for future Mario.
Using his newly acquired cobblestone, he crafted a full set of stone tools. He gave it a few practice swings.
Time for the real test.
He expanded his room, carving out a larger space with higher ceilings. In one corner, he placed dirt blocks and pulled out the oak saplings he'd collected from the tree above.
"Let's see if I can grow trees underground."
He planted the saplings in the dirt, then stepped back to examine it. The ceiling was just barely high enough for a full-grown oak tree. It would be tight, but it should work.
From his inventory, he pulled out the bones contributed by his unnamed benefactor upstairs. The crafting interface let him break them down into bone meal, eight bones became thirty-two uses of the white, powdery fertilizer.
He held the bone meal and focused on one of the saplings. Green sparkles appeared out of nowhere, swirling around the tiny plant. But nothing happened.
"Come on, work with me here."
He tried again. More sparkles, but the sapling remained stubbornly small. He frowned and checked his inventory.
Third time's the charm.
Another application, more green sparkles, and still nothing. He was starting to worry that the underground environment might prevent tree growth.
Fourth try. He applied the bone meal with more concentration this time. The sparkles appeared again, but this time they seemed to stay longer, swirling around the sapling.
Then, all at once, the magic kicked in.
The sapling erupted upward in a burst of growth that made Mario stumble backward. Trunk, branches, leaves... the entire tree materialized in seconds, growing from a tiny plant into a massive oak that nearly scraped the ceiling.
Mario stared up at the tree. The branches spread wide, creating a natural canopy. Individual leaves were perfectly detailed, and the bark had realistic texture.
But more importantly, it was renewable food and materials. He raised his stone axe and got to work harvesting.
The tree exploded into blocks just like the one above ground. Wood blocks scattered across the floor before zipping into his inventory. More saplings fell, guaranteeing future harvests. And something else, a bright red apple that rolled to a stop near his feet.
"Finally, some fucking food!"
He snatched up the apple and examined it in the torchlight. It was perfect, flawless red skin, ideal size and shape, with a small green stem on top.
He bit into it without hesitation.
The taste explosion was intense. Sweet and tart in perfect balance, with juice that ran down his chin. The flesh was crisp and white, and the flavor was so concentrated that it made his eyes water. It was the most delicious apple he had ever eaten.
Next step: figure out the Vampirism mod. And maybe see if I can find some scrap metal around the city. If I can smelt it into iron ingots, things will get a whole lot easier.
