I WAS PIXELATED!

In a spurt of energetic pulses and a purple light, Gimmick appeared through the portal into the regular realm. A few villagers were peeking through the windows, noticing that the one who had tried to get them to exit their homes had entered the nether, survived, and came back with a backpack full of treasures. The majority all thought similar things. Who was this man? How did he survive the nether?

Gim walked back to his and his old neighbor's home. He climbed up to his room and put away all his new items. He had killed a withered skeleton on the way out of the Nether fortress. He had also seen a few Ghasts, a white multi-limbed entity, similar to Blazes in firepower, but with a bigger destruction radius. They cried out every time they spit out a fireball, and once Gim had killed them, they dropped their tears in solid form. 

Once he had organized his chest, he went back outside and walked through the village, glancing at the homes. He petted the stray animals that usually walked by, missing his habitual routine. He watered the crops, and spoke with the non-verbal iron guardian. 

"I guess you took care of the village while i was gone huh?" Gim sat on a log near the guardian. The guardian turned around and gave Gim a hard stare, then made a low metallic clunk sound. Gim swore he could hear a tone of arrogance through the metallic groan. He stared at the guardian and smiled. "Sure, if you say so." He replied, hoping he had translated the big guy's words. 

He decided to walk to the blacksmith of the village and knocked on the door. A bald man with a long nose, unibrow, and brown eyes appeared at the door. He had bulging forearms and held an empty bucket in his hand. If he had a few wrinkles, Gim would have thought he was the old man's twin brother. He had a hard expression on his face, and the sound of tiny footsteps approached the door as a smaller version of the man appeared hugging his leg. He pat the boy's head and looked at Gim, giving him a nod.

"Hello, I was hoping you had a few ingots to spare?" Gim requested. 

The man, remained stoic as the boy just giggled at Gim. "Your actions have not gone unnoticed young adventurer." He suddenly spoke. "We have noticed the effort and the care you have put into our village." 

"Viwwage." the little boy repeated, unable to enunciate the word properly.

"I'm only doing what I can to help." Gim replied. He smiled at the little boy then stared at the blacksmith with a hand extended forwards. "I'm Gimmick Stylus, nice to finally meet someone else in the village." He shook the man's hand. "I am Thad." The man reciprocated. "This here is my son Jr." He ruffled his son's hair.

"Juniuh" Jr repeated, grinning. 

Thad noticed Gim's diamond blade by his side. "You are a veteran?" He asked. Gim shook his head "No I just got lucky with the diamonds!" He chuckled. However he didn't tell Thad the truth since he wasn't from the realm, but actually from the USA. How was he supposed to explain that he had over 70,000 hours played in Minecraft? 

"Good luck like that isn't very common. It must have been a sign from the Other Being." Thad assumed. However, before Gim could ask him who or what the Other Being was, he quickly dismissed the topic and gave the blonde player a smile. "Wait right here." A few minutes later, he brought back a small crate filled with iron ingots. "Use them however you see fit, I trust they're in good hands." Art grabbed the crate and nodded in appreciation. "Thank you kindly, and of course I won't disappoint." He said goodbye to both Thad and Junior and walked back to the stone cathedral he had now adopted as his home. 

He decided to list out the steps he needed to take in order to get to the end realm to save Steve The Great. "Okay I've got plenty of Blaze rods, I just need to grind them into powder, combine them with my ender pearls to turn them into Eyes of Ender, then follow the trail. I'm going to need to set up some extra precautions in case I'm gone for a long time." Gim stared at his diamond sword, tightened his grip.

'I'll save you soon Steve'