Episode 3 of Hypermine Vanilla Season 1 is a contest. Basket and Lapis_Lauri go ABBA caving: twenty minutes underground, mining only ore that scores, then a count back at the surface. Basket has watched plenty of these matches but never played one. By the end, one chest makes the result plain, and Basket rides home with the loser's diamond.
The rules
The point values get laid out first. Emeralds are worth seven, diamonds five, gold three, lapis and redstone one each. Rare finds like name tags and horse armor count the same as an emerald, and a golden apple is worth ten. Coal and iron count for nothing. "The loser gets one diamond, the pity diamond."
The two ride out on horses ("grab a taxi if you want to"), drop down past a pillar and land in a big round cave room. That's the starting point. A crafting table goes down, each player gets a chest, and a twenty-minute timer starts. "Ready, go."
Ravines and lava
Basket checks the pickaxe first ("make sure I'm using my silk touch... no, that's the fortune") and throws an ender pearl down into a ravine. It's a busy one. Somebody has already dug a branch mine down here, which nobody expected. There is water in the ravine and lava all over it, and Basket pours water on the lava to turn it to obsidian before crossing. A creeper and a zombie wander into the fire and burn.
An early find on Basket's screen is a wall of gold ore. "Oh yeah, look at this." Redstone turns up a little farther on.
Halfway down
"We've got 12 minutes left." The caves keep running into dead ends and more lava. One ender pearl throw lands in a different ravine altogether. Iron is everywhere, and so is andesite, which gets passed up with a joke that it's "going to be the most precious thing on the server." Torches are a clue too: a lit tunnel means someone has been there first.
With about nine minutes to go, Basket swings the silk touch pick at a patch of lapis.
The last minutes
The timer calls get closer together. Someone finds a dandelion growing underground, baby zombies show up, and nobody has seen a spawner. With a minute left: "Found a tunnel! Found the mining system!" A creeper turns up in the last ten seconds and gets ignored. Then time is called, and the only way out is to dig straight up.
The count
Back on the surface, everything goes into one large chest, best ore first, one row each. Lapis_Lauri's row holds an emerald, 15 diamond ore, 18 gold, 9 lapis and two stacks of redstone. Basket has no emeralds and "no diamonds," and puts in 24 gold, 6 lapis and 6 redstone.
No math needed. "I think I won the ABBA caving, Basket." The winner takes the gold, lapis and redstone and hands the iron back. Basket gets the pity diamond as an ore block, mines it with a Fortune pick and gets three diamonds. Basket offers two of them back. "No, no, those are all yours."
Where it ends
The valuables go onto a mule, Basket climbs onto a mount named Yellow Cab 03, and the last line is "Now we can head back." The end cards follow.