Chapter 217: Pretty Grim (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Chapter 217: Pretty Grim (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

As Wang Han was staring at her own Structure, beginning to doubt life itself,

Zhang Yi beside her finally spoke up.

"Don't lose heart. At least it kind of looks like a house. If I'm not mistaken, you must have referenced the design of the Pantheon, the ancient Roman building, when constructing this."

"The eight massive columns at the front porch, combined with the golden dome. Great artists like Raphael and emperors like Victor Emmanuel II are buried here. Legends even say gods like the God of War and heroes like Julius Caesar rest within."

Zhang Yi sighed with emotion as he gazed at the in-game building.

"You actually noticed that?" Wang Han asked, slightly dazed by his words.

Was she really using the Pantheon as a reference?

She didn't even know that herself!

And honestly, what did the Pantheon even look like? She'd never seen it.

"I didn't actually see it—I guessed. Your building simply fits the concept of the Pantheon quite well," Zhang Yi replied.

"So you're saying I have talent for this?" Wang Han was still a bit confused.

"No, I'm saying your house is just as grim as the Pantheon. After all, a house is only a temporary shelter— the matchbox is the eternal home. Whether it's the Pantheon or a black box, they both end up in the same place."

"Plus, it's truly ghost-crafted. We haven't seen any gods yet, but the 'ghost' part is definitely on point. Keep going—you still have room to improve," Zhang Yi said with a wide grin.

Listening to him, if this were a comic, a row of dark lines would have appeared over Wang Han's head, and a crow carrying six dots would have flown past.

Glancing at the incongruous house she'd built on screen, then at Zhang Yi laughing like a sunflower, Wang Han finally blurted out the classic line: "If you can do it, you go ahead!"

Having watched for a while and clearly realizing that building houses wasn't as easy as it looked, Zhang Yi naturally accepted the challenge at this point.

Ten minutes later, laughter rang out from inside the house.

"Haha! I thought you were gonna build something amazing! Looks like we're both equally bad—two of a kind, fifty paces laughing at a hundred!"

After watching Zhang Yi's construction methods—nearly identical to her own—Wang Han couldn't help but burst into joyful laughter.

She thought he was gonna be awesome! And this is all he's got?

"Ahem, building houses is just one Gameplay in Minecraft. Forget this—I'll reset the World Seed and we'll play Survival Mode together. Let's invite Old Song and the others too," Zhang Yi coughed lightly, changing the subject as he stared at the house that looked like a giant refrigerator.

In truth, this was a shared experience for many new Minecraft players.

Before purchasing the game, though they didn't know exactly how Minecraft worked,

everyone knew one thing: you could build houses like playing with building blocks.

So, upon entering the game, whether in Survival (mode) or Creative (mode), most players didn't bother exploring the outside world.

Instead, they fully immersed themselves in their great undertaking of building.

But soon, they discovered a major problem:

The structures they built looked nothing like what they'd imagined.

Simply put: Brain: "Oh, I get it! That makes sense!"

Hands: "Brain, what were you just saying?"

The actual house always differed from the mental image by about a billion points.

Although the game had just launched, the community forum was already flooded with images—countless players grumbling inwardly about their own constructions.

Full of ambition before building, only to realize afterward: "Wow, this thing is just a dark room matchbox house."

At first, some players thought it was due to limited materials in Survival Mode. But when they switched to Creative Mode, they found their houses remained just as ugly.

While waiting for Song Ren, Wang Yifan, and Joey to join, Wang Han and Zhang Yi browsed the forum on their phones.

Seeing those pictures, they both smiled with relief.

Because most of these house-building players were just like them—building blocky, square houses.

Many players ran out of materials halfway through building, so they resorted to Using Local Materials—ignoring whether dirt and wood matched, just digging and filling as they went.

And then there were players whose operations felt very familiar to Wang Han: where they were, their home was.

Chopping trees and Mining during the day to collect materials, then at night, quickly pulling out a blueprint and digging downward.

Digging a crater and sealing the top.

Wang Han noticed these players were actually a bit more professional than she was.

Because they'd place a bed and some torches.

That way, they could skip the night instantly and wouldn't be left in total darkness.

"Building houses in this game is so hard!"

"Yeah! Was the trailer actually a misleading trailer?"

Discussing the same painful experiences as other online players, Zhang Yi and Wang Han chatted.

"Not really. Building houses is actually pretty simple—once you grasp the concept," said Song Ren, joining the voice channel just as they were talking.

As he spoke, he sent a screenshot into the voice channel.

A stunning wooden two-story house appeared before everyone.

The entire second floor was suspended in midair. By real-world standards, this was definitely a perilous structure—

supported by only a few columns. But in the game, that didn't matter.

Besides the main house on the first floor, surrounding the central columns was a spiral staircase leading to the second floor, along with a fenced courtyard.

From afar, it looked absolutely beautiful.

"Damn it! Old Song, did you steal this from the internet?"

Seeing the house, Zhang Yi and Wang Han's eyes widened.

If they'd just seen it casually, it might not have been such a shock—"not bad" at best.

But given their own experiences with dark room matchbox houses, the contrast was like comparing the moon to a firefly!

"Old Song, you're awesome!"

"My god, how did you even build this, Old Song?"

Just then, Joey and Wang Yifan joined, and upon seeing Song Ren's screenshot, they too looked surprised.

Clearly, they'd both played Minecraft before and understood how difficult building could be.

"It's simple! Building a house is just placing materials on the ground, right? How else would you do it?" On the other end of the computer, Song Ren beamed with pride, saying something highly inappropriate.

Of course, he had his own secret skill: building in Minecraft was basically like arranging building blocks.

So he'd pre-selected some suitable house designs, sketched them out, and broken them down into blocky forms according to their characteristics.

He didn't worry about whether the area could perfectly divide into blocks—roughly similar was good enough.

After all, this was for in-game construction, not real-world engineering.

Then, for each section, he calculated how many blocks were needed, whether placed horizontally or vertically, and just followed the template like a puzzle.

It was a bit tedious, but to smoothly pull off this flex, he'd specially prepared the night before the game launched.

But the next moment, his smile froze.

"Old Song, since you're so awesome at building, looks like the task of constructing our base falls entirely on you!" Zhang Yi's voice came through the voice channel.

"Exactly!"

"Old Song is the best!"

"Chief Master Builder: Old Song!"

The other three chimed in agreement.

Hearing their words, Song Ren hesitated, wanting to say something but holding back.

<>