System Overload

by Mark Cheverton

  “Now that you can retreat no further,” Feyd continued, “you will hit me, quickly, or I will destroy you.”

  Panic and fear filled Rabban’s face, but then an expression of resignation filled his eyes. Feyd could tell the enderman had accepted his fate and knew he had no choice. Balling his dark hand into a fist, he punched the king of the endermen lightly in the chest. The nearby monsters gasped in shock.

  Feyd’s eyes began to glow white with anger.

  “I SAID HIT ME!” the king screeched. “Do it again, as hard as you can.”

  Rabban swallowed and took in a deep breath.

  “Do it … NOW!”

  The endermen balled his hand into a fist, and this time, hit his king with all his strength. Feyd grunted with pain and stumbled backwards. His body flashed red with damage, and the king of the endermen could feel his HP decrease. Gathering his teleportation powers, he transported himself across the End. When he materialized twenty blocks away, his vision was filled with a sparkling purple mist, but his HP did not increase. Slowly, the teleportation particles faded away, and then only when the last of the lavender embers disappeared did he feel his HP begin to rejuvenate, but it was half of what it should have been.

  He teleported back to Rabban, and again, the rejuvenation was delayed for just an instant before the healing effects returned and his HP was again at the maximum level.

  All the endermen were completely quiet, unsure what Feyd would do next. Touching the king of the endermen was a crime punishable by death. Feyd, of course, knew this, for he had decreed the law himself. He walked up to Rabban and stared at the monster. Rather than cowering, the creature stood tall, waiting for the inevitable lethal punishment. But instead of striking out at the monster, Feyd took two long strides toward Harkonnen. With lightning speed, the endermen king punched the monster in the chest three times, then shoved him to the ground.

  “Cowardice is worse than any crime,” Feyd said to the monster on the ground that was struggling to breathe.

  He balled his hand into a fist and prepared for one last attack. But this time, Harkonnen glared up at his king, ready for his fate, his fear evaporated.

  “That’s better,” Feyd screeched. “Stand up and stop being a fool.” He then turned to face Rabban again. “You are right. Something is wrong with our teleportation powers. My healing was delayed, just as you predicted. How is this possible?”

  “I do not know,” Rabban answered.

  “Well, General Rabban, you must find out,” Feyd said. “This could be serious. I bet this is some kind of attack by the User-that-is-not-a-user. He has altered Minecraft and is using it against us. He must be found.”

  The other endermen began to screech angrily at the sound of their enemy’s name.

  “We have stayed in the End long enough!” Feyd screamed. “It is time we made our way into the Overworld again and reminded the NPCs why they should fear us. It is now every enderman’s task: Find Gameknight999, so that we can learn what he is doing to the Overworld. After we learn about his plan, then we will formulate our own response, which will destroy him once and for all. Now GO!”

  The dark, shadowy creatures around him began to disappear. They left behind a faint purple mist that sparkled, but it was not as brilliant as before. Now that he knew what to look for, Feyd could see that the mechanisms of Minecraft were under strain.

  “We will find you, Gameknight999!” Feyd yelled to the empty sky of the End. “And when you are finally in my embrace, I will teach you new levels of fear and pain.”

  He chuckled an evil laugh, then disappeared in a cloud of lavender.

  CHAPTER 8

  TUNNELS

  They walked across the savannah throughout the rest of the day and into the night, following the directions of the captured zombie. A few spiders tried to approach the villagers, but the keen eyesight of Herder’s wolves and their incredible sense of smell alerted the furry guards to their presence. The gigantic arachnids never made it near enough for the army to even see them.

  The wolves had become a vital piece of the army, and Gameknight could see how proud the lanky boy was in his furry companions.

  “I don’t know if I’ve said it before,” Gameknight said, “but nice job with the wolves.”

  “Thanks,” Herder replied, blushing.

  Some of the warriors laughed, then patted the boy on the back.

  “Gameknight, you said you have your own Minecraft server in the physical world, right?” Herder asked quietly.

  “Ahh … yeah, sure, but what does that have to—”

  “Are there a lot of wolves on it?” the boy inquired. “I would love to see it some day. Can you tell me about it? Are there games? What is your favorite one?”

  Gameknight smiled.

  “Yeah, there are games,” he replied. “I think my favorite one is TNT-Run.”

  “What’s that like?” Herder queried.

  “Well, you run over a sheet of TNT. The blocks explode right after you’ve run over them. The goal is to make it so the other players can’t run anymore and they fall through the floor. It’s kinda like follow-the-leader with TNT, but the exploding blocks are doing the following, and if you don’t run fast enough … it’s over.”

  “That sounds fun,” the young boy said with a smile.

  They walked along in silence as they moved through the savannah. Twisted and bent acacia trees dotted the landscape like living sculptures, each contorted in their own unique shape.

  By the time the moon was high overhead, the zombie had reached the base of a large hill, where a dark cave loomed before them.

  “Zombie-town is through there,” the monster said with a moan.

  Gameknight moved to the mouth of the cave and peered in. It was pitch-black in the passage. His imagination conjured up creatures hiding in the shadows, waiting to ensnare the unwary. It all gave him a bad feeling. Stepping away from the opening, he approached Crafter.

  “I don’t like this,” the User-that-is-not-a-user said.

  “I know. Neither do I,” the young NPC said.

  “Why is this monster helping us, anyway?” Hunter asked in a low voice. “The zombies hate us more than just about anything in the world. It makes no sense that this one would show us where the prisoners were taken.”

  “Maybe he thinks there is nothing we can do to help them,” Digger suggested.

  “Or maybe he just wanted to prolong his life,” Cobbler added. He had quietly snuck up behind Crafter and was now standing at his side. “He probably figured that he’d be killed right then and there if he didn’t help. So he led us here to keep himself alive.”

  “We wouldn’t have done that,” Gameknight said. “We don’t murder in cold blood.”

  “It’s just a zombie,” Cobbler said in a low voice. “They probably did something to my village as well. Who cares what happens to it?”

  “I care,” Gameknight snapped. “We aren’t going to murder that zombie.”

  “Great, just my luck,” Cobbler replied. “The zombie lives, while my friends and family are probably dead … look what’s happened to me, again.” The young NPC lowered his gaze to the ground, then sulked and walked away.

  “Cobbler raises a good point,” Crafter said. “It’s possible that the zombie is just scared, and willing to do anything to stay alive.”

  “Well, let’s see how much he’s willing to help,” Gameknight said.

  He stood and walked straight toward the monster. As he neared, he drew his diamond sword. The zombie took a step back, then bumped into the hulking form of Digger; fear was painted across the monster’s scarred face.

  “You got us here, now we don’t need you anymore,” Gameknight said.

  “No, the user is wrong,” the zombie moaned. “Many tunnels down there. Only a zombie can find the correct path.”

  “You lie,” Gameknight snapped. “There are probably zombies waiting for us in that tunnel right now.”

  “No, zombies do not guard the tunnel,” the
monster pleaded. “It is not necessary. This is a secret entrance. Only zombies know about it. There might be spiders and creepers hiding, but this zombie cannot control that. The zombies will not be in the tunnels. They are in zombie-town.”

  “Well, maybe we’ll keep you alive a bit longer,” the User-that-is-not-a-user growled. He turned and winked at Crafter, then glared at the monster. “Show us the way, before I lose my patience.”

  The monster moved quickly to the entrance, then walked into the darkness. Digger had to run forward and grab the end of the rope before the monster moved too far ahead. He yanked on it, pulling the monster back.

  “Wait,” Digger ordered.

  The zombie stopped in his tracks and stood, motionless.

  “Herder, wolves to the front and back of the army,” Gameknight ordered. “Everyone, keep your eyes open. Place torches only on the right side of the tunnel. Let’s move out.”

  The army moved forward with the zombie at the head of the formation, wolves on either side. The monster led them through the twisting and turning passage. It intersected with different tunnels and passed through many large caverns, each with multiple exits. It was like a labyrinth; Gameknight half-expected to find the Minotaur waiting for them, but thankfully, that was Greek mythology and not Minecraft. He now understood why they didn’t bother to guard it. Without the zombie, there was no hope that the villagers would have ever found the correct way down.

  As they moved through the maze, the smell of smoke began to grow in the air. Gameknight knew this meant they were getting close to the level of lava. Soot and ash started to cover the ground more and more as they made their way deeper underground. With every step now, tiny little black clouds puffed up into the air as their feet disturbed the dark coating on the floor. The ash bit into their throats with every breath, making the air taste sour and acrid. But Gameknight knew they had to push on.

  Finally, they reached a tall chamber with a stream of lava pouring out of a hole in the wall. The molten stone oozed downward until it flowed across the ground, merging with a trickling stream. A sheet of black obsidian formed where the two liquids clashed. Across the dark plane, an unusually flat wall stood tall in the orange light of the boiling rock. But looking closer, Gameknight could see that it was not completely flat; there was a single block of stone that stuck out.

  “There … the block,” the zombie moaned. “Push it.”

  Gameknight remembered this kind of entrance from when he had rescured his sister, Monet113, from the zombie-town near Crafter’s village.

  Moving to the block, he pushed on the stone. It moved just the slightest bit. Instantly, the walls begin to shake, and the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. Slowly, a section of the wall began to slide sideways, revealing a dark passage that led into another chamber.

  Gameknight ran forward before the rocky door was done moving, dashing through the dark tunnel as soon as he could fit through. The orange light from the nearby lava stream provided just enough light to see the ground, making it possible for him to avoid any holes that might be just out of sight in the darkness.

  When he reached the end of the passage, he stopped and hid in the shadows. Before him lay a gigantic cave filled with homes of different sizes and shapes. Each seemed as if they were built from different materials. Likely, every kind of natural block was represented here in zombie-town.

  “I always wondered what endermen did with the blocks they stole,” Crafter said at his side. “Likely, they brought them to these zombie-towns.”

  Gameknight grunted and nodded his head.

  The small houses lined the edges of the cavern and crept inward toward the middle of the cave, stopping short of the center. A clear space was formed in the center: their gathering area. In the middle was a platform made of obsidian. Gameknight couldn’t tell how large it was, but he could still remember the zombie king, Xa-Tul, standing on one similar to that, right before he rescued his sister.

  Sparkling green HP fountains dotted the perimeter of the gathering area, the green embers splashing on the ground, then disappearing. Gameknight recalled seeing these fountains in the other zombie-towns, but for some reason, these ones didn’t appear as if they were working correctly. Instead of a constant stream of emerald sparks cascading up into the air, these fountains sputtered and faltered, like a squirt-gun without enough water. Gameknight was just about to mention it to Crafter when a sorrowful moan echoed through the chamber.

  “Keep that zombie quiet,” Gameknight whispered to those behind him.

  “That wasn’t our zombie,” Digger said. “It came from somewhere in the zombie-town.”

  Gameknight gazed across the chamber. He could see movement near the far wall. Zombies were coming out of a tunnel that descended into darkness. A handful of the monsters shuffled up the stairs, then moved to the nearest HP fountain. The decaying creatures stood within the emerald shower and absorbed the green sparks, rejuvenating their HP. After a few minutes, they moved back into the dark passage and disappeared from sight.

  “Come on,” the User-that-is-not-a-user said. “Leave some guards here with the zombie. Make sure it stays quiet, or else.”

  Digger nodded, then assigned some of the villagers to watch over their prisoner. When he returned, the army moved down the stairs that led to the floor of the chamber. They ran between the buildings that seemed randomly placed across the cavern floor. Everyone was on edge, expecting monsters to jump out of every doorway or come charging around every corner. But surprisingly, they encountered no attackers as they wove their way through the disorganized community.

  Finally, the NPC army reached the far side of the cavern. Gameknight moved along the rough-hewn wall and approached the dark passage where the zombies had emerged. He could hear their growls and moans down in the shadows, but he couldn’t tell how many were there. Some of the warriors moved to the front of the tunnel, ready to charge down, but the User-that-is-not-a-user waved them back. He wasn’t sure of the size of their force and didn’t want to take any chances. He knew they had a sizable force with them, but he still wanted to be careful.

  “I’ll go and see how many zombies are down there,” Gameknight whispered to a group of NPCs. “Everyone be ready and stay quiet.”

  Crafter nodded his head, then turned and whispered to Digger, who relayed the message to the next, and so on down the line. Gameknight patted his friend on the shoulder, then headed towards the stone stairway, his diamond sword in his hand. But after descending three steps, he felt a cold, wet nose nuzzle against his left hand. Looking down, he saw a wolf at his side. Glancing over his shoulder, he found Herder grinning a massive smile. Gameknight chuckled, then headed down the stairway, the wolf with him for protection.

  He walked down a dozen steps into darkness. The moans of the zombies grew louder as he descended; their sorrowful wails filled the air with a sadness that bespoke the agony of their lives. These were creatures that only knew despair and misery, and wanted all creatures to share in their anguish.

  As he grew closer, Gameknight began to identify individual monsters in the growling echoes. Gripping his sword firmly, he followed the passage as it turned to the right, then continued as it plunged downward.

  The end of the stairway was now visible. Apparently, the steps led into a large, well-lit room, though the color of the light was strange. It was a mustard yellowish-brown illumination, as if it were a mixture of multiple flickering light sources.

  Gameknight moved to the end of the stairway and peered into the chamber. He saw three large obsidian rings, each filled with a different sparkling color: one purple, another green, and the third a sickly yellow. Standing near the portal were fifteen zombies, each covered in gold armor and holding a shining gold sword.

  Before he could stop it, the wolf next to him growled, then let out a loud, angry howl. The zombies instantly turned toward the sound and glared into the shadows, their dark eyes filled with hate. And then, all fifteen charged straight toward Gameknig
ht999.

  CHAPTER 9

  FANGS AND FUR

  Gameknight gripped his diamond sword with his right hand, then drew his iron sword with his left.

  “I need some help … NOW!” the User-that-is-not-a-user yelled.

  He could hear his shout echo off the walls as it flittered up the stairs. The sound of boots thundering on the stone steps above him echoed back, but he knew they would never reach him before the zombies did. He could retreat from the monsters, but something inside him refused to do that. Maybe it was pride, or courage, or just stupidity, but he was tired of running from his fears. Gripping his swords tight, he charged forward, the wolf at his side.

  Suddenly, a wave of white dashed past him and slammed into the monsters. All of Herder’s wolves charged into the battle. They crashed into the green zombies, snapping at rotten legs and tearing deep gashes into golden armor as their sharp teeth sought zombie flesh. The monsters cried out in surprise, then turned away from Gameknight999 to face the wolves.

  That was their first mistake.

  Gameknight leapt into the monster formation, his swords carving a terrible path of destruction. The golden armor, nicknamed “butter armor” by some Youtuber, shattered quickly under his attack. As soon as the metal coating from one zombie fell away, Gameknight turned to attack the next one, leaving the wolves to finish it off.

  Shouts of pain and terror came from the zombies, mixed with the growls of the wolves. The monsters were starting to panic. Sensing their peril, they tried to flee the portal chamber to escape their fate.

  That was their second mistake.

  As they ran out of the room, they met the NPC army. Soon, they were trapped between the villagers and the wolves, with Gameknight999 slashing away in their midst. The zombies lasted only a few minutes before all were destroyed, their armor and XP the only evidence that they had ever existed.

  “Gather the armor,” Gameknight said.

  “It stinks of zombie,” Hunter complained.

  “It can be cleaned and will help protect our friends,” Gameknight said. He then turned to Digger. “Bring the zombie prisoner.”