System Overload

by Mark Cheverton

  Gripping both his swords firmly, he sprinted through the portal with the entire army close behind him.

  What none of the NPCs noticed before they left was a pair of purple eyes watching from the shadows. Once all the warriors had left the empty zombie-town, the enderman stepped out of the darkness. He gave a chuckle that only the bats heard, but it made the flying creatures squeak with fear.

  “The User-that-is-not-a-user is coming … perfect,” the enderman screeched. “I can’t wait to tell Feyd. The king of the endermen will be very pleased with me.”

  And then the dark creature disappeared in a flickering purple mist.

  CHAPTER 25

  HEROBRINE’S PLAN

  The king of the endermen materialized in a shadowy alcove. It was a huge space, large enough for a couple hundred monsters, as long as they didn’t mind standing close together. This probably had been used as some kind of observation platform during the Great Zombie Invasion.

  Below him, Feyd saw a massive cavern that stretched out far to the left and right, the walls barely visible in the distance. At the center of the cavern was a circle of eight HP fountains, each one spewing sparkling green embers into the air. They floated down like emerald snowflakes, settling on the zombies that stood nearby and soaking into their skin. The monsters all crowded near the fountains, each one hoping to absorb as much of the life-rejuvenating HP as possible. It was the only way they fed, and it was critical to their survival.

  Feyd watched as zombies that were emerging from the portal room pushed through the crowd to get to the HP fountains. Many began to fight amongst themselves as they pushed and shoved to be closer to the precious sparkling green particles.

  The number of monsters in the cavern was shocking. Xa-Tul must have gathered a thousand monsters, with more coming out of the portal room every minute. Soon, the number of zombies would rise beyond the capacity of the cave. Feyd was not sure what would happen then.

  “This is foolish,” the king of the endermen muttered to himself. “With a few carefully-placed explosives, serious damage could be done to that army of decaying creatures. What are you up to, Xa-Tul?”

  Just then, another presence began to materialize next to him. Turning, he saw a mist of purple particles trying to form into a cloud, but they sputtered and flickered. Finally, with difficulty, the lavender cloud was sufficient enough to allow the enderman to materialize.

  “Sire, I have news,” the enderman said quickly. “I have seen him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Feyd asked.

  “I’ve seen him … the User-that-is-not-a-user,” the monster replied.

  “What? Where?”

  “He is traveling with a large army of NPCs. They found one of the ancient zombie-towns. After destroying the company of zombies guarding it, they disappeared through one of the portals.”

  “He will be coming soon … goooood,” Feyd said, his screechy voice echoing off the stone walls. “Bring all our endermen to this alcove. A momentous event will soon happen … the destruction of Gameknight999.”

  “Yes, my king,” the enderman replied before disappearing in a strained cloud of purple mist.

  Feyd waited until his warrior was gone, then gathered his teleportation powers about him. Sparkling purple particles began to fill his vision, but they spluttered and gasped as they struggled to create the solid cloud that he needed to make the jump. Finally, the lavender mist was strong enough and he could feel that familiar sensation in the back of his head, as if he were in two places at once … then he jumped.

  Instantly, he materialized in the portal chamber far below. It was a large room with three dark obsidian rings at one side, the light from the shimmering gateways casting a strange dull glow on the uneven stone walls that shifted from green to purple to pale yellow. Xa-Tul was standing next to the sickly yellow gateway laughing, his bombastic voice filling the portal room. Nearby, two villagers, one older and the other impossibly skinny with long black hair, were digging into the walls of the chamber, slowly widening the entrance so that the nearly-constant flow of monsters from the yellow doorway could exit the portal chamber unabated.

  Pushing his way through the tide of decaying green monsters, Feyd moved to the zombie king’s side.

  “I have news about the User-that-is-not-a-user,” the enderman king said.

  “What? Gameknight999 … tell me, quickly.”

  “First, you must agree to tell me what your plan is here,” Feyd said. “If you do not agree, then I will take my information and go.”

  “How dare Feyd try to bargain with Xa-Tul!” the zombie yelled.

  Feyd peered into the Xa-Tul’s eyes, then glanced at all the zombies around him. He was completely surrounded. The king of the endermen gathered his teleportation powers in case he had to flee, but the sparkling purple particles wouldn’t answer his command; they flickered around him briefly, then just fizzled out.

  “The enderman king has so much confidence that Feyd does not even prepare to teleport away,” Xa-Tul said as he reached up to rub his square chin. “Interesting … this information must be good. Very well. I agree.”

  “OK, Gameknight999 has gained access to your portal network,” Feyd said.

  “How can this be?!” the zombie king bellowed.

  “One of my enderman saw him enter the zombie-town where you captured that last bunch of villagers,” Feyd explained. “They defeated the pathetic zombies you left there on guard, then went into the green portal. They are likely on their way here … now. My servant tells me that he has many NPCs with him. But you have enough zombies to stave off any threat he can offer. You might lose some zombies, but you will surely destroy that army of rabble that follows him.”

  “No … a battle is not what Xa-Tul wants,” the zombie king said.

  “Then what is it that you want?” Feyd asked. “What is your plan?”

  The big zombie shoved some monsters aside so that he could pace back and forth across the portal room.

  “I was given one last command by the Maker, Herobrine, right before he disappeared through the gateway of light,” the zombie king said. He stopped pacing and turned to glare at Feyd. “His voice echoed in my mind when he told me that I would be the instrument of the ultimate revenge against all the NPCs. He gave me one single command and told me that it was the most important thing I would ever do.”

  The zombie king stepped up close to the endermen so that he could hear him over the din of growling monsters that flowed out of the portal.

  “What did he tell you to do?” Feyd probed eagerly.

  “He told me to bring all the zombies to this server,” Xa-Tul said.

  “Why … are we going to attack?”

  “No,” the zombie king answered. “He told me that bringing every zombie here to this world would destabilize the pyramid of servers. Herobrine told me this would cause the pyramid to collapse, crashing all the servers.”

  “What?”

  “We will destroy all the villagers in one single stroke,” Xa-Tul said, his voice growing louder, filled with excitement and joy. “At the moment of their destruction, the villagers and Gameknight999 will know that this is Herobrine’s last act. They will rue the day that they ever rose up against him. It will be the Maker’s last great revenge.”

  “You fool! Your plan will destroy all the monsters as well!” Feyd screeched.

  Xa-Tul growled and placed his large clawed hand on the hilt of his golden broadsword.

  “Feyd dares to talk back to the king of the zombies like that?” Xa-Tul growled.

  “Don’t you understand? If you cause the servers to crash, then every living thing on the servers will also be destroyed.”

  The big zombie stared back at Feyd with a look of confusion on his face.

  “That means us!” Feyd screamed. “The monsters will be destroyed with the villagers. We will all die.”

  “No!” Xa-Tul snapped. “The Maker would never do that. Herobrine would never destroy the monsters; they are
his loyal servants.”

  “Herobrine only cared about Herobrine, and that led to his final destruction,” the enderman king said. “Now he wants to kill the villagers, even if it means the destruction of the monsters as well.”

  “Xa-Tul does not believe Feyd. The Maker has a plan to save the monsters when the destruction happens. Xa-Tul has faith in the Maker to save us.”

  “The Maker is dead!” Feyd yelled. “I will not allow this madness to happen.”

  This time, the zombie king drew his sword.

  “The king of the endermen must not interfere with Herobrine’s revenge. Leave this place now, while you still have your life.”

  Without waiting for an answer, the zombie swung his sword at the enderman. This time, with the enderman’s full concentration, Feyd was able to gather enough teleportation particles to jump back to the raised alcove.

  “The fool. He will destroy us all,” Feyd said.

  He glared down at the zombies with vile contempt.

  “The zombies are like idiotic sheep. They will follow any command without giving it the least bit of thought. We must somehow control the situation and keep Xa-Tul from killing all of us.”

  And then an idea came to him. It was a dangerous idea, but these were dangerous times, and right now, he had no choice. With his eyes glowing bright white, Feyd teleported from the chamber and began to put his plan into motion.

  CHAPTER 26

  ESCAPE

  Herder slowly moved along the wall, digging into the stone and dirt wall as he went.

  “Bookman, this way,” the skinny NPC said in a low voice.

  The village’s librarian, Bookman, glanced up at the lanky youth and nodded, then slowly walked toward him, carving into the stone with every step. It was slow to move like this through the chamber, but the zombies didn’t seem to care where they went, as long as they were digging.

  Carefully, the duo dug their way along the jagged walls until they were out of the portal room and in the main chamber.

  “Did you hear what the zombie king said?” Herder whispered.

  Bookman nodded his boxy head.

  “If he is able to crash the pyramid of servers, it will destroy everything,” Bookman said. “I once read something called The Virus in one of the libraries in a stronghold. It was a story speculating about how Herobrine came into the server, and how none of the villagers or monsters or anything were alive before his entrance.” He paused to push his gray hair out of his face, then wiped his brow on his white sleeve, now tattered and stained with dirt and sweat. “If they crash the servers, who knows what will happen? Likely we will all die, and without Herobrine and his virus in the system, we will not respawn.”

  “You mean … “Herder said, but couldn’t finish the sentence as his mind filled with dread. Bookman nodded.

  “Yes, everyone and everything will go back to just being computer code. Our bodies might respawn, maybe, but there will be no mind within our heads, no thoughts, no ideas … nothing. Essentially, we will all be …”

  “Dead,” Herder breathed.

  “Exactly.”

  “We must warn the others,” Herder said, a scowl creasing his unibrow.

  “You mean the other prisoners?” Bookman asked.

  “No, Gameknight999,” Herder said. “He will know what to do.”

  “What are you …” Bookman started to say, then quickly stopped. “Shhhh …”

  Quickly, both villagers went back to digging as one of the meaner zombie guards walked nearby to check on their progress. They had learned that this one was called Ma-Kul and was especially vicious. The zombie didn’t mind raking an NPC’s back with his razor-sharp claws if he didn’t think they were working hard enough.

  “What are these two pathetic villagers talking about?” Ma-Kul growled.

  The two villagers remained silent and continued digging. Herder and the other NPCs had learned that if they answered, then it meant they weren’t digging, which meant instant punishment from the guards.

  “Keep digging, or else,” the zombie guard growled, then walked toward one of the HP fountains. Herder realized he had been holding his breath and finally exhaled as the monster passed.

  “Follow me,” the skinny boy said.

  With their pickaxes ringing against the stone walls, the pair of villagers moved to a dark corner of the cavern. They knew there was a deep tunnel there, but the diggers had eventually hit lava and abandoned digging in that direction.

  “Come on, we need to dig,” Herder said.

  “But there is lava all around here. If we break a stone block that is next to a lava lake, the molten stone might flow onto us.”

  “Then we’ll have to be careful,” Herder replied. “Besides, the zombies won’t be looking for us over here then. We must get out of here and warn Gameknight999 of the zombie plan.”

  He moved to one wall that was lined with dirt. “Let’s start here.”

  Reaching into his inventory, he drew his enchanted shovel that he’d been keeping hidden. It had the Efficiency II enchantment on it—a gift from Crafter. Herder tore into the brown cubes, making them disappear with just a touch of his shovel. He dug straight into the wall, not even bothering to make a hole two blocks high, but instead just tore into the blocks that were at face height. The iron shovel drilled a hole four blocks deep without hitting any lava. He then dug the blocks out at his feet so that the hole was now two high by four deep.

  Moving to the end of the mini-tunnel, he repeated the process. But after digging up two more blocks of dirt, he hit lava. The orange liquid lit the tunnel with a warm light. Quickly, he pulled out a block of cobblestone and plugged the leak.

  Turning to the right, he dug in a new direction. After going a dozen blocks, he hit lava again. After each collision with the deadly melted rock, he changed direction and continued to tunnel, creating a random, zigzag path through the stone and dirt.

  “We aren’t getting anywhere,” Bookman whispered, his voice echoing off the walls of the dark tunnel. “And I can’t see anything.”

  The old NPC pulled out a torch and was about to place it on the ground, when they heard a scratching sound, like claws gouging into the stone ground.

  “Quick, put out the torch,” Herder whispered. Bookman put away the torch, plunging them into darkness again.

  “This zombie saw something in this tunnel. It was some kind of light,” they heard a zombie say.

  Herder could hear the razor-sharp claws clicking on the stone floor as guards moved through the circuitous passage.

  “Co-Zir is crazy,” said another zombie.

  “Something was there,” Co-Zir growled. “If something is found, Co-Zir will be promoted and will no longer be a ‘C.’”

  “Crazy zombies are not promoted,” the other zombie laughed.

  “Er-Tom will not be laughing when Co-Zir is promoted to an ‘F.’ Perhaps this zombie will be named Fa-Zir with this discovery,” Co-Zir said.

  They were getting closer. Herder could now hear their animalistic breathing. The stench of their rotting bodies was beginning to fill the passage.

  “Get back,” Herder whispered, pushing Bookman against the wall. Quickly, he pulled out two blocks of cobblestone and sealed the tunnel, separating them from the zombies. “Hopefully, they will think there is lava beyond those blocks and just go away.”

  Bookman did not answer; he was terrified beyond the ability to speak. If they were found back in these tunnels, they would surely be killed, and both of the villagers knew it. Just then, a fist pounded on the cobblestone block. It shook with the strength of the blow, causing dust to fall from the walls and ceiling. Herder started to shake, then accidently dropped his pick. It clattered to the ground, the iron tool ringing like a struck bell.

  “What was that?” Co-Zir growled.

  “That was nothing. Just an echo,” Er-Tom replied.

  “No, this zombie heard something,” the first zombie insisted.

  “Co-Zir is welcome to stay, but thi
s zombie is going to continue the patrol. If the expansion to the other side of the cavern is not complete, Ma-Kul will punish us.”

  Herder could hear the zombie walk away, his heavy footsteps fading way.

  “Come!” shouted the monster.

  “Co-Zir knows there was a sound,” the zombie muttered to the stone, then turned and walked away, his scratchy, pounding footsteps slowly fading away.

  Herder waited for at least five minutes before daring to remove the cobblestone. But when they opened their tiny cell, they found the tunnel again empty.

  “That was close,” Bookman said.

  Herder nodded.

  “We need to hurry,” the lanky boy said.

  Swinging his pick at the stone wall, he started to dig again, moving to the left and right as he continued to skirt the edges of the underground lava lake.

  Stepping up to a new wall, Herder dug up four blocks of stone at head height. Then the last block shattered, and light streamed into the narrow passage. They both jumped back, thinking the light was from deadly lava, but when the hole did not fill with molten stone, they moved forward again. Both villagers stared into the hole. A torch was visible in the distance, illuminating what looked like a thick wooden column.

  “What is that?” Bookman asked.

  Herder looked at his friend and smiled.

  “It’s an abandoned mineshaft,” Herder said, his voice bubbling with excitement.

  “That means the minecart network will be nearby somewhere,” Bookman added.

  Herder nodded his boxy head again, causing his long black hair to fall across his dirty face. Suddenly, the sound of more clawed feet echoed off the passage walls.

  “They’re coming! Hurry!” Bookman said.

  Herder tore into the stone, opening a passage to the abandoned mineshaft. The sound of zombie feet was getting louder.

  “Hurry,” he pleaded.

  When they reached the empty shaft, Herder could see minecart rails stretching out into the distance. Wooden beams held up the walls and ceiling, and torches were placed here and there to provide just enough light to see.

  “Quickly, we have to go,” Bookman said.