Minecraft: The Outsider/4CHP

Chapter 31

A spider, zombie, and skeleton attack Jeremy all at once, and he lashes out at them with his pickaxe, shouting at Valda that there are mobs everywhere. Valda shouts back at him that she told him to not dig down. A slime then attacks Jeremy, and he dodges the hostile mobs the best he could, killing the spider in the process. Valda then jumps down the hole to assist him in killing the remaining hostile mobs. The skeleton is soon killed, but Valda is then surrounded by zombies. A creeper sneaks up on both Valda and Henry, but Valda notices it quickly and equips some flint and steel she had on her, screaming at Jeremy to stay back just before everything explodes.

Chapter 32

Jeremy falls back, coughing to avoid inhaling smoke. He is able to make out the hole that the creeper exploded, realizing that the zombies had been killed. He believes that Valda is also killed, but she appears much to his relief, explaining to him that she purposefully blew up the creeper using her flint and steel and jumped out of the way just before it exploded. The two then mine out the redstone and diamond ore that is nearby, but zombies quickly approach them.

Chapter 33

Valda shouts at Jeremy to run, and the two make it up through the hole with cobblestone stairs back into the other part of the cave. A skeleton then appears, but is quickly killed by the two. Valda and Jeremy then break the surface, with the latter wondering about how the kids would react to him showing them redstone machinery.

Chapter 34

Back at Valda’s house, Jeremy works for hours at her crafting table, taking the raw iron and smelting it into iron ingots, and then using the iron ingots to craft an iron door. He suggests to offer it to the family that lost their door, but Valda believes that the door will end up being a bad influence on them. Jeremy instead replaces the wooden door connected to Valda’s with the iron door, setting up the redstone dust to be connected to an oak tree, placing a button on it. He then heads inside to take care of one more thing before demonstrating the redstone to the neighbors, crafting a diamond sword all by himself to help fend off hostile mobs. Jeremy then heads to the house of the family that had been attacked the night before, explaining to them that he’ll do a demonstration of the iron door in ten minutes, adding to bring everyone over if they could. The mother of the family insists that they don’t need redstone, but Jeremy asks for them to come see it and then decide whether it’d be good or not, adding that it isn’t fair to judge something before getting to know it. Soon after, the whole neighborhood shows up, and Jeremy demonstrates the iron door by opening it with the button on the oak tree, making the crowd gasp. He then knocks on the iron door hard, saying that no hostile mobs can break through it, but someone in the crowd says that it is a trick to make people lazy. Jeremy responds to him to try it for himself, emphasizing that the button and the redstone wire are doing all the work, not the oak tree. The man presses the button, watching the door open on its own, and he exclaims that they will all be safer with iron doors. A woman then asks him if he’ll show them how to use it, and Jeremy takes notices of the kids that bullied him the other day, with their faces stunned and in awe. As the sun prepares to set below the horizon, the entirety of Valda’s neighborhood, except Valda, thanks Jeremy for making their lives safer. They rush to Jeremy with all sorts of ideas for redstone, but as the sun sets below the horizon, they head back to their homes, talking excitedly amongst themselves about the wonders of redstone.

Jeremy then turns back to Valda, expecting her to praise him for being very smart, but she instead turns to him with a dark look and asks "How could you?" before heading back into her house. Jeremy follows her in, finding her in her room surrounded by her pet animals. Jeremy thinks she is in displeasure over the iron doors, but she says that it is nothing at first. Jeremy turns to leave, but Valda says that he is lucky and doesn’t even know it, making him confused. She reiterates that he had already been here for a few days and the people already respect him, adding that she had been here most of her life and she still considers herself an outsider. Jeremy quips back, saying that his family barely notices that he exists, and that no one at his school respects him, before asking Valda if her parents love her. She says that they do, along with her animals, and that no one else does. Jeremy then asks her about why the other people here don’t respect her, and Valda says that the others don’t respect her nor her parents as the others don’t like The City, and they think that the "zombies" are her, adding that she clearly isn’t the mastermind behind it, and that the neighbors want her and her family to leave despite them moving here when she was a baby. Jeremy asks Valda as to where she lived before moving here, and she says that she and her family used to live in The City.

Chapter 35

Jeremy is shocked at the revelation that Valda used to live in the city, but Valda defends herself by saying she doesn’t remember it all that much, aside from her parents working for a company there, but they didn’t Ike their bosses because they thought that they were doing "underhanded things". Valda adds that her father couldn’t hear himself think because The City was loud, and her mother wanted to go back to the old way of living than continue working for the company, hoping that she would be more self-sufficient. Jeremy then asks if the technology that she had that the neighbors didn’t like was redstone, and she says that it was until he showed up, and now they suddenly love it again. The two have a very brief argument about rudeness, but Valda quickly shuts it down, reminding Jeremy that he is only here for the rest of the week. Jeremy starts to say something, but stops, and instead walks out of the room to close the iron door to avoid a zombie entering the house. Valda then tells Jeremy that her blowing up a creeper in the cave was only the second time she had done it, adding that the first time she had done it, she had saved some kids from being killed by zombies at a slumber party (Valda herself was the only one not invited), but a creeper showed up at the doorstep of the house, so Valda quickly blew up the creeper with the flint and steel. The explosion, however, made the neighbors suspicious of Valda and her family, thinking that she had tried to hurt or kill them. Although the kids are all better now, Valda still feels like she doesn’t get recognition, and says straight up that she doesn’t need friends.

Chapter 36

The next morning, the other people in the neighborhood crowded around Jeremy in front of Valda’s house while she is busy tending to her daily chores. Hours pass by as Jeremy answers questions about redstone and iron doors, writing down steps in numerous book and quills. A woman thanks Jeremy, who asks her if Valda’s parents had talked to her about Redstone before. She says that they have talked about The City before, and Jeremy says that redstone should only be used for some things, not everything. The woman then leans in to Jeremy, whispering to him that Valda and her family are a "strange bunch", warning him to "watch out". Jeremy felt a little shiver down his spine as the woman nodded a serious nod and moved on. After the rest of the neighbors leave, Valda briefly discusses with Jeremy about the woman before Jeremy suggests that they go fishing. Valda eventually agrees, and the two are soon back out in the ocean in Valda’s boat. Jeremy is able to catch a fish, and when they get back to shore, they notice the turtle eggs starting to crack, with Valda saying that they could hatch by tonight. The kids from earlier then arrive, thinking that Jeremy and Valda are tricking the adults into using redstone, and that Valda’s parents are getting some others from The City to continue to "steal" resources from them. Jeremy then goes on a long argument about judging something that they don’t know about, even mentioning that Valda saves their lives with the flint-and-steel trick on the creeper. He also says to the kids that they hate everything right away just because they are scared of anything new or different. Jeremy also acknowledges that he is surrounded be people all the time, and that every area in the Overworld is a dangerous place to live, letting the kids note that if they continue to harass him and Valda instead of learning to survive, they wouldn’t last. Valda eventually gets the courage to shout that she is tired of being harassed when she is being nice to people, and the kids suddenly turn and run. Valda then has Jeremy follow her to another cave along the shore, brining him down to an opening lined with glass so she could watch the sea life underwater. Jeremy steps in to get a better view just as a zombie lurches in front of him.

Chapter 37

Jeremy bellows in shock, and his mind flashes that Valda lured him down here for a zombie to attack him, but Valda says for him to relax, reminding him that it can’t get through the glass. This makes Jeremy realize that the zombie is not a zombie, but is actually a drowned. Valda that reiterates that she likes to look at the stars as well as the ocean as Jeremy notices squid and dolphins swim by, saying that it is beautiful. Valda then says that she made this last summer, and no one else nor her parents know about it. She was hopeful that the other kids would hang out with her here, but she knows that it’ll never happen. Jeremy reminds Valda that she has this beautiful world to live in, adding that he could stay here forever, before immediately correcting himself, knowing that he needs to go back to The City. He then asks Valda as to how often she comes out here, and she says that she does a few times a week to get away and have her own space. Jeremy then says to her that she is sure she’ll get to the bottom of the zombie problem, but even he is unsure if it’ll be solved.

Chapter 38

That night, after eating cod for dinner, Valda decides to check on the turtle eggs. Jeremy wonders if doing so is risky as it is dark out, but she insists on doing so, saying that the eggs looked like their were close to hatching. She then heads off to the beach with her diamond sword in tow. Jeremy considers following her at first, but figured she can take care of herself. He checks a few of the books in the house and looks up at the stars in Valda’s room, before Valda bursts through the front door, saying that the eggs are starting to hatch. Jeremy rushes out of the house with his diamond sword, and the two hastily make it to the beach, suddenly seeing the eggs burst open to several baby turtles. Valda and Jeremy help the baby turtles into the water and then watch them from Valda’s little spot in the cave. The two sit there for a long time watching the mobs in the ocean as Jeremy thinks about his family, wondering if he could take them down to the ocean someday. Valda then says to Jeremy that they should go home, and he doesn’t hesitate, hurrying back to the house as it starts to rain. Valda then gasps at what she sees, and Jeremy notices the "zombies" tearing down trees while others protect them with their swords in an enclosed circle, making her realize that Valda was right all along.

Chapter 39

Jeremy cries out that those are zombies, and Valda rushes at them as she lets out an angry roar. Jeremy reaches out and grabs Valda’s hand, causing the two to tumble to the ground. He then pulls her behind a tree as she asks as to what he is doing. Jeremy says that they can’t take on fifty zombies by themselves, and he begins to think. He considers the "zombies" tearing down to be zombie villagers, but the zombies don’t resemble villagers at all. He blips out in a panic to warn the rest of the neighbors, but thinks some more, and he eventually says that they should brew potions of Invisibility.

Chapter 40

Valda asks Jeremy as to what he is talking about, and Jeremy says that if they capture one of the zombies while they are under the invisibility, they could bring it to The City to convince the people there that they are telling the truth. He understands that they can’t kill them all at once, and Valda concurs, adding that she is sure that she has the right ingredients to make a potion of Invisibility. The two rush back into Valda’s house, brewing a potion of Night Vision with a golden carrot and an awkward potion. They then craft a fermented spider eye and mix it in with the Night Vision potion to make a potion of Invisibility. Understanding that the potion will only work for three minutes, they drink them down as fast as they could, taking note to remove their armor and hide their weapons so they can’t be seen. Heading outside, Valda assists a male neighbor with fending off some of the zombies, as Jeremy scours the area before locking on a zombie to capture.