He whipped the camera around and froze.
Standing in the shadow of a tree was a tall, bony figure. Its ribs were visible it was beneath pale, white bones.
Empty eye sockets locked onto him from across the grass.
The mob stood motionless for a moment, except for its arms, which were pulled back.
A longbow, made of pixelated wood, was stretched tight in its hands. An arrow was nocked, trembling as it aimed directly at him.
"Oh no. Oh nononono," Zeddy muttered, panic setting in.
The skeleton's feet were planted, its body slightly hunched. Its posture was unnaturally still, like a sentient turret carved from bones.
A soft creak came from the bowstring then.
TWANG!
The arrow was fired, nearly hitting him, luckily he barely dodged to the side in time.
"Is this a skeleton with a bow? A skeleton archer?" Zeddy yelled loudly, his voice rising with disbelief.
Live Chat:
[RonaldoGoat: ZEDDY YELLING SKELETON ARCHER LIKE IT'S A FINAL BOSS]
[SorcererGods: This ain't Minecraft, this is MINEWARFARE]
[CrateJunkie: How come a skeleton had a bow?]
[NoScopeSniper(reply to CrateJunkie): Yeah right, skeletons out here playing Valorant]
As another arrow whistled through the air, nearly striking his chest, he leapt to the side.
Zeddy's reflexes kicked in each time, jerking the camera left as he narrowly dodged the shot.
"WHOA, okay, okay, that little skeleton is serious!" he muttered in a low, tense voice.
He gritted his teeth and sprinted forward, wooden sword at the ready.
"I'm rushing it!" he yelled, jerking closer to the screen like it was a warzone.
TWANG!
Another arrow embedded itself in his character's shoulder, and another heart disappeared from the HUD.
"I—I got hit again?!" he stammered, stumbling backward and quickly backpedaling.
"Okay, now initiate Plan B. We zigzag!"
He began moving left and right, quick jabs of the A and D keys.
The skeleton loosed another shot, but it missed, slicing through empty air as Zeddy sidestepped once more.
[BitcoinTrader: BRO WAS PLAYING DANCE DANCE EVASION]
[NightRaider: Now I'm growing interested in playing this game]
[LikeItRaw: Hurry and kill that skeleton]
[Skeleton: That skeleton Archer seems to have unlimitted arrows]
Zeddy ducked behind a tree to break line of sight, "Alright, you darn skeleton, you wanna fight like that? I got you."
His eyes narrowed. His health was low, but his resolve was only growing stronger.
He had lost four hearts, but he could see them slowly regenerating, one tick at a time.
Another arrow slammed into the tree bark beside him with a sharp thud.
"Running is never an option here. If I have to die, I'll bring you with me," he muttered, his voice low and chilling, enough to send a shiver through his viewers.
Zeddy exhaled through his teeth and made his move. He peeked out and baited a shot as the arrow flew past.
TWANG!
Using the moment, he sprinted left, weaving through trees to break the skeleton's line of sight.
"C'mon, one more miss—"
The skeleton turned slowly, tracking him with its bow. It fired again. The arrow grazed his character's side, and another heart disappeared.
"Yup, he's still hitting at close range. That's illegal," Zeddy muttered.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed forward anyway, charging into melee range. He raised his wooden sword and swung.
CRACK!
The skeleton reeled from the blow but immediately raised its bow and fired at point-blank range, forcing Zeddy to backpedal.
"OH HE'S STILL SHOOTING, HE'S STILL SHOOTING!" he shouted, panic rising as another hit landed.
His health dropped to half, "Bro's not even flinching. How did you even make this??"
He dodged sideways and swung again. The second hit knocked the skeleton slightly back.
Zeddy lunged forward, circling to the side with a wide swing. The skeleton turned, tracking him relentlessly, its hollow eyes locked on.
He dodged left and struck again, another hit.
THWACK!
THWACK!
"Die already! Why are your bones so tanky?!" Zeddy shouted.
The skeleton staggered back, raising its bow for another shot.
Zeddy struck again. Luckily he was just in time. with one final swing.
POP!
The skeleton collapsed, turning into a puff of smoke before disappearing completely.
"I actually thought I was gonna die…" he muttered, still catching his breath.
The way he was sweating, it felt like he was the character itself.
Then, a drop appeared where the mob had fallen. He walked over and picked it up. It shimmered briefly before appearing in his inventory.
[2x Bones] [1 Arrow]
The chats cheered for his win as they laughed at his look that is pale.
Live Chat:
[WizardDragneel: BRO, IT MELEED YOU WITH A BOW]
[HunterGon: To be honest, that skeleton is really tough]
[RobGod: Wooden sword damaged was a tickled to it, LMAO]
[SnackGoblin: The game is very fun, I'mma download and play survival as well]
As the last commenter said this, they searched the name of the application on itch.io.
With views already surpassing a staggering 1 million and still rising, this served as a massive promotion for Jeff's game.
The download count for his app was increasing by the second: 4 → 26 → 7,023 → 18,783. And it didn't stop there, as the number continued to grow rapidly.
All of them opened the game at the same time and chose Survival mode.
There were also some streamers, not as famous as Zekky, but still had a respectable number of followers.
One of them, a grown man around 26 years old, chose Creative mode. He sat in a room, waiting for his world to generate.
His stream had a fluctuating view count, hovering around 38,023 sometimes dipping, sometimes rising.
He was also watching Zekky's stream on a second screen and noticed that the game Zekky was playing felt very different from any other game he had tried before.
It was so unique and looked fun at the same time. Clearly, it was a hidden gem and being newly released, it had the potential to boost his popularity if he started playing it early.
"Hello, chat. Today we're going to play a Minecraft game that was just newly released. Trust me, this game is much more amazing than you think," said TechBlade the name of the streamer, as he adress his viewers.
Live Chat:
[UnkownGamer: What game is he talking about?]
[KillerKing(reply to UnkownGamer): Its Minecraft, a new game that has been released. I saw that Zekky played the game but I just scrolled since I'm not really a fan of Zekky]
[UnkownGamer(reply to KillerKing): Really what's the game about?]
[KillerKing(reply to UnkownGamer): I don't know, I just scrolled and did not bother to look at it, but I saw that the game was called minecraft, and it was a coincidence that when I scroll he explained that the game is newly made]
[GuiltyThree: Can you two chat somewhere else? This is a comment section]
TechBlade glanced at his chat, noticing that some viewers were already hyped, curious to see what kind of game this would be.
When the world finished generating, the viewers were astonished, it was vast, open, and immersive.
But what truly set it apart were the blocky, pixelated structures, giving it a nostalgic yet distinct aesthetic.
"You see it now? This is Minecraft. Beautiful, isn't it? Wait, I'll show you something," TechBlade said to his viewers with a grin.
He moved his cursor toward the inventory and then paused, eyes widening in disbelief as he stared at the screen, completely shocked by what he saw.
"What the… What the hell are these items and blocks doing in my inventory?" he thought, scrolling through each section with growing disbelief.
There were blocks, eggs, weapons, armor, various items, and more, far more than he expected from a newly released game.
Curious, he began placing them into his hotbar, starting with a spawn egg labeled Villager.
Live Chat:
[Aphelious: This game is actually so entertaining, just from the items and different functions alone. Everything was clearly planned and organized.]
[Nolan: What kind of egg is the Villager Egg? Can you try and demonstrate it?]
[NightReaper: I think this game is a building simulator, just by looking at the tons of blocks. This is literally my cup of tea.]
TechBlade didn't dwell on the comments for long, but one caught his eye.
"Sure, I'll demonstrate to you the purpose of this egg," he said, responding with a focused tone.
He right-clicked and broke a dirt block in a single hit.
"Huh, this break damage seems pretty strong," he muttered, clearly surprised by the efficiency.
But he didn't give it much thought. Instead, he clicked the left button and something popped out.