Minecraft: One Last Quest

Chapter One

Luck of the Lake

“Come on, Lam! You can do it!”

Lam Đặng looked over his shoulder and flashed a nervous thumbs-up to Mars Berger. He inched his way over to the cliff’s edge. His brown toes wriggled as he stepped out of his sandals, thanks to jitters and maybe a pinch of excitement. Lam was surprised that he didn’t wince once his bare feet touched the ground. The rocks and pebbles didn’t hurt his soles as much as they had at the start of the summer. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to walking around outside barefoot, and he certainly never thought he’d find himself this high up anywhere, let alone a ledge overlooking a glittering lake nestled in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere.

A few weeks ago, if someone had told Lam he’d be standing on a cliff about ready to dive into unknown waters, he would have laughed them out of the room. Cooking, eating, and sleeping outdoors? Daylong nature hikes where you left before the sun came up and dragged yourself back home after sundown? Spotting an abandoned animal den off the beaten path and choosing to explore it just because? Those were the kinds of bone-breaking, toying-with-death activities that Lam was happy to participate in . . . safely behind his computer monitor via the Overworld in Minecraft.

But Lam’s parents had put up a lot of money for this outdoor summer camp, and Lam didn’t have the heart (or the guts) to tell them that he would much rather have stuck around the house all summer with a pair of gaming headphones on his head and a console in his hands. Lam found that sometimes it was easier just to let someone else make all the decisions and simply go along with them.

Most of the time, actually.

Fast-forward weeks later and now Lam found himself in the wilderness being cheered on by Mars Berger, the coolest kid in school, to dive headfirst into a lake whose name Lam wouldn’t even try to pronounce. It wasn’t just Mars waiting to see if Lam would take the leap—there were a handful of other kids from his school that also happened to be at this particular summer camp, and they all crowded behind him. Lam could practically feel their collective breath on his neck.

“He’s not gonna do it,” sneered Gemina Gustafsson, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her freckled nose. Her beach towel was wrapped around her neck as she stood dripping in a pair of foam clogs decorated with various Minecraft charms—a piglin head, a chest, a flaming zombie. “Lam is way out of his element. He’s incapable of doing anything without his band of weirdos around him. He’s a total weenie.”

Hearing those words, Lam stumbled, losing his footing. There were gasps. He quickly caught himself. A few loose rocks rolled off the edge, tumbled in a free fall, and plopped into the cool lake water far below. His heart thundered. That was too close. He’d nearly taken a dip before he was ready. But far worse was the embarrassment he felt that Gemina Gustafsson nearly got the better of him. Especially in front of Mars and the rest of them.

A weenie. A one-word accusation almost made him take an unexpected dive. Although maybe Gemina wasn’t totally off the mark. Lam was a bit of a coward. But the insult was personal. Gemina Gustafsson had it in for Lam ever since the second grade, and he wasn’t about to let her hold this over him all the way through middle school. Gemina was one of the smartest kids in Lam’s school, always in the computer lab—before school, during lunch, after school . . . it didn’t matter. Every summer he hoped that Gemina would skip a grade or two so that he could have some peace, but somehow she always found a way into Lam’s orbit. And it wasn’t just him she seemed to have beef with—whenever Gemina saw him hanging out with his friends Britt, Elias, and Jazz (his “band of weirdos,” as she lovingly called them), she was always quick with a snide remark.

Why did Gemina Gustafsson hate Lam and his buddies? They never bothered her. They were content goofing off by themselves, far away from the rest of the kids so that they could freely gab about their latest Minecraft build, plan their next Minecraft quest, or log into Minecraft to explore. Maybe it was because Lam was naturally timid, and that made him an easy target. Or maybe it was because Jazz had a reputation for bursting into tears over the smallest things (two weeks after the classroom hamster passed away, Jazz had to be sent home after the school nurse couldn’t console her). Or maybe it was because Britt’s hair-trigger temper landed her in detention more times than anyone in the school’s history. Or maybe it was because Elias’s seemingly endless wisecracks got him in the hot seat almost as often. But despite each of their little quirks, they didn’t bother anyone. They were harmless. They never even spoke to Gemina. So why did Gemina have it out for them? Lam didn’t have a clue.

Minecraft. He hadn’t thought about his favorite video game until that very moment Gemina brought up his friends back home. The camp had a strict “no screens” policy, which meant Lam couldn’t even shoot a message, checking in on them to see how they were getting along without him or if they were making any headway on their plans to build out their beloved kingdom on their private server. He wondered if Jazz made good on her promise to craft additional towers and turrets that they had all agreed on to their beloved castle—the centerpiece and crown jewel of their server that they spent hours constructing together. Or maybe Jazz would be content expanding the village and lush farmlands that surrounded the castle, bringing in more villagers and animals to add even more life to their little slice of the server. She was a stickler for proper aesthetic. Britt would have certainly amassed an impressive number of enchanting orbs. She was never satisfied with only crafting or collecting loot, and could always be found experimenting with random enchantment combinations. Elias was the bizarre, unpredictable wild card, probably still trying to make his case that they should finally band together and take down a warden, even though no one else saw any real benefit to fighting an overpowered mob like that.

But the camp’s schedule was so packed with activities, Lam hardly had a moment to think about Minecraft or his friends or anything else, for that matter. Especially when accounting for the fact that he was occupied with avoiding Gemina Gustafsson’s ire and trying not to look like a total goon in front of Mars Berger. There wasn’t a ton of brain space left for what might or might not be waiting for him back in the outside world.

Lam chuckled to himself. It had been only a few weeks ago, but those days playing Minecraft with his old friends seemed like another lifetime. Maybe they’d all moved on. Maybe he’d moved on. Maybe starting sixth grade was the perfect excuse he needed to start over. To make new friends. To become someone new. Like a lizard shedding its skin.

“Look at him! He’s just standing there, grinning like a goon! Are you going to jump or what?”

Gemina’s shrill voice snapped Lam out of his daze. Another fresh wave of embarrassment flushed over him. “Oh. Right.”

“Back off, Gemina,” said Mars. Gemina huffed, mumbling something under her breath, and stepped away. Not even Gemina was brave enough to defy Mars Berger. Mars climbed a rock, using it as a pulpit to look over the crowd of kids. He slapped Lam on the back. “My bunkmate may have arrived at this camp thinking that the cafeteria ‘Bug Juice’ was made from actual bugs—”

A roar of laughter erupted.

“Thanks, Mars,” Lam mumbled. He blushed, but it wasn’t like he was all that humiliated about the joke itself. It was more that he had never been asked to stand up in front of a crowd, let alone share the stage with someone like Mars Berger.

“But after sharing a tiny cabin for an entire summer,” Mars continued, “you really get to know someone. And you all don’t know him like I do! A little drop into this little pond isn’t going to scare Lam Đặng away! Lam’s got this!” Mars leaned closer to Lam, lowering his voice to a whisper. “You do got this, don’t you?”

Lam swallowed a lump in his throat, only managing a nod in response.

“Good.” Mars winked. “Don’t make me look bad!”

There was no way Lam could back out of the jump now. He couldn’t let down Mars Berger. If Gemina Gustafsson was the meanest girl in school, then Mars Berger was her complete opposite. Mars was loved by everyone. It was almost sickening. But nothing Mars touched could ever be considered “sickening.” If Mars Berger believed in Lam, then maybe Lam needed to believe in Lam.

And over the summer, ever since they got matched up together as cabin mates, Mars was at Lam’s side . . . even for the activities that didn’t require a partner. At first, Lam wondered if Mars stuck by him after all these weeks out of obligation, but nothing about Mars seemed fake. As hard as it was for Lam to wrap his head around it . . . Mars seemed to genuinely like hanging out with him. Although Lam wasn’t entirely sure why.