It was 2 a.m. on a Saturday. A few windows in the apartment building were still lit, casting a quiet stillness over the night.
In Ian's room, the curtains were drawn tight, and the glow from his computer screen lit up his face, making him look pale.
The rhythmic tapping of the keyboard and the clicking of the mouse echoed back and forth—he was fully immersed in a Skyblock modpack of Minecraft.
Ian rubbed his eyes, reached for his chilled cola on the desk, and took a swig. The rush of cold made him shudder involuntarily.
Lately, he'd been obsessed with all kinds of quirky modpacks. This time, he was trying out one called "Chocolate" Skyblock (PoopSky mod 1.21). True to its name, the opening of this mod was... uniquely off-putting.
The only resource generator on the starting island was a "Chocolate Generator," which was difficult to describe politely. By crouching and right-clicking, the player could produce "chocolate."
All basic early-game materials came from using these "chocolates." (T/N: Trees and ores)
If you ignored how gross it felt, the pack was practically flawless.
First off, the yield was impressive. Eating one "chocolate" restored one point of hunger, and generating one cost only half a point.
As long as you could stomach the nausea—and ignore the debuffs Steve received—you could practically rewind your hunger bar and amass building blocks with ease... if you were willing to endure it.
Even better, "chocolate" could act as dirt for planting and even substitute bone meal to speed up plant growth.
Thanks to the modpack settings, eating "chocolate" had a chance to yield bamboo and saplings, and producing it sometimes dropped redstone dust. Ian had to admit, it was a strangely immersive touch that enhanced the Minecraft experience.
For a casual player, "chocolate" was the ultimate starter tool for Skyblock.
"It's a bit disgusting, sure, but it's not like I'm the one eating it—it's just Steve in the game," Ian reassured himself. With a mischievous grin, he made Steve gobble down two more blocks of "chocolate."
The hunger bar shot up two notches, but immediately afterward, Steve was hit with two debuffs: Poison and Nausea. The screen began to wobble violently.
It wasn't until Steve's health dropped to just half a heart that Ian finally noticed the stiffness in his shoulders. The warped, swaying visuals on the screen made him dizzy.
He stood up to stretch—and the world suddenly spun.
The game discs stacked on the shelves, the Minecraft poster on the wall, even the moonlight outside the window—all twisted into pixelated whirlpools.
He staggered toward the desk to steady himself—only to grasp at thin air.
With a loud crash as his chair toppled over, his consciousness plunged into darkness.
He tried to stand again, to move his body—but the world around him warped like it had been hit with a Nausea debuff.
Ian stumbled and collapsed with a heavy thud. Everything went black.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he slowly regained consciousness. It felt like he was soaking in a warm spring—cozy and relaxing. The air carried the earthy scent of soil and plants.
The comfort almost lulled him back to sleep, but the piercing sunlight on his eyelids kept him awake.
Ian opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself lying not on a soft bed, but on a patch of unfamiliar grass. He glanced around. Aside from the small platform beneath him, there was nothing—just an endless void.
Panicking, he ran to the edge of the land and peered down. He seemed to be on top of a very tall pillar... or maybe a floating island.
He looked up at the perfectly square sun, the blocky clouds above, and the neat, cube-shaped land beneath him.
Ian came to a shocking realization: he had transmigrated—into Minecraft. And judging by the setup, he was right at the start of the Skyblock mod he had been playing.
After a period of stunned silence and confusion, Ian gradually accepted the absurd reality.
He began checking his body and was pleasantly surprised to find that all the little ailments caused by years of poor habits were gone.
He felt great—energized, pain-free, and ready to run a marathon.
"Well, if I've really been isekai'd, at least I've got this amazing body now. Not a bad trade," Ian muttered to himself.
And one more thing—he always had the habit of clearing his browser history. Never bookmarked anything, buried his sites in a hidden file, changed the font color to white, never downloaded movies, and the "study materials" folder actually contained study materials.
Worries: -1.
As for his family—he would miss them, of course—but he wasn't overly worried.
His parents had made some decent money from their business over the years. The family was doing well. Plus, they'd had a pair of twins after him—a younger brother and sister—who were almost graduating high school. His parents wouldn't be alone in their old age.
"I hope Mom and Dad, and my siblings, won't be too sad. And I hope the twins can take care of our parents well." Ian prayed silently.
After sitting in a daze for a while, he gathered his emotions and shook his head. A thought suddenly popped into his mind: "If I'm really in Minecraft now, does that mean I have a game interface too? If not, this whole deal would be a ripoff."
He imagined opening the interface in his mind—and sure enough, a semi-transparent Minecraft UI appeared before him. It looked just like the real game's default interface.
The familiar 2×2 crafting grid, the inventory slots, the health and hunger bars—everything was there.
Seeing that the hearts were fully red and not wrinkled with age lines, Ian let out a sigh of relief.
Phew, at least it's not Hardcore Mode. If I die, I should be able to respawn.
Though... the top-left character portrait wasn't Steve anymore. It was a new, more detailed pixel model—one that looked a lot like Ian himself, complete with similar clothes and features.
All the other settings and configuration options were missing.
That's when he noticed something new in his inventory: three small gift boxes labeled [Beginner's Gacha Bonus].
So generous? A triple gacha pull just for starters? Ian rubbed his hands together in excitement and eagerly clicked the first box.
The moment it opened, a flash of golden light burst out, and a line of text appeared in front of his eyes: Congratulations, you have received...