Herobrine's Message (46 page)

As soon as the Black Hood said the name, a crash of
thunder sounded from overhead. Stan whipped his head skyward. The rainstorm had stopped a while ago, and the sky above them was clear.

“That was him, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied quietly. “He lives in the sky, watching me.”

“Wha . . . what does he do?” Stan asked meekly.

“I'm . . . not sure,” the Black Hood replied frankly. “I don't know who he is, what he is, or what he does. All I know is that, whenever I enter a Minecraft server and interact with the blocks, the mobs, the players, or anything else, the Voice in the Sky tells me to stop. Then . . . if I do not stop . . . my energy begins to rapidly drain.”

The Black Hood paused for a moment to catch his breath. As he spoke about the energy draining from his body, it was happening to him. Revealing his face to Stan had given the Black Hood an adrenaline boost, as he was excited to finally be talking to a player again. However, now, the fatigue caught up to him, and he felt his life force draining the longer that he engaged in this forbidden activity.

“To avoid withering out of existence,” the Black Hood continued after a moment, “I stayed out of Minecraft servers, forever condemned to hang in the void of cyberspace between thousands of Minecraft worlds. I could watch the worlds from a distance, but I could never enter them, interact with them, or wreak havoc in them again without the
Voice in the Sky catching me.

“And . . . yet . . . as I watched these hundreds of thousands of Minecraft worlds from afar, I no longer felt the need to destroy them. I watched the players working together, building together, and creating amazing structures and worlds together. The amazement with Minecraft that I had felt upon first entering the game returned to me, and I realized how wrong I had been. Minecraft is a beautiful game . . . more than a game, really—it's a beautiful world. It allows people to have a place where they can do anything they want, where the only limit is their imagination. I realized that I had been foolish for wanting to corrupt such a marvelous universe.

“However, the damage was done. The Voice in the Sky was still watching me, and every time that I entered a Minecraft world, I could feel my life force fading more and more by the second. The only time I was ever safe was when I floated in limbo between the Minecraft worlds, watching longingly from far away.

“What I saw shocked me. Even though the players in the worlds had nothing holding them back, nothing trying to keep them out, many still found the need to antagonize others. While I saw many players building together in harmony, I also saw countless Griefers, going out of their way to make the Minecraft experience miserable for others. As I watched these players fight, I couldn't help but feel responsible. I was
the original Griefer, the one who introduced the concept to Minecraft. Because of me, Minecraft was no longer a world solely of creativity and wonder, but a world where you had to constantly watch your back, lest you be destroyed.

“Stricken with guilt, I knew that I had to make up for it somehow. I swore to myself, right then and there, that if anything were to ever threaten Minecraft on a large scale, I would do everything in my power to stop it. My opportunity came fairly recently, when my attention was drawn to your Minecraft server, Stan2012.”

“Let me guess,” Stan said with a dark grimace. “You sensed King Kev pulling energy out of other servers to make himself stronger, and realized that it might create a glitch that could destroy Minecraft.”

“Precisely,” the Black Hood replied darkly. “I realized that, if King Kev was not stopped, then his unquenchable lust for power may lead him to unwittingly create a glitch that would destroy his beloved server, and countless others along with it. I knew that, regardless of what happened, I had to stop it.

“And yet, I knew that I couldn't. I was well aware that, if I were to try to tell King Kev what he was doing, the Voice in the Sky would intervene. He would destroy me before I could even reach the head of the Noctem Alliance.

“Therefore, I looked into the history of the server of
Elementia, to try to see if there was some other way that I could possibly prevent this ghastly fate. And that, Stan2012, is where I first learned of your story—the most remarkable story in the history of Minecraft.”

“What?” Stan exclaimed. “How is my story so remarkable? I've hardly done anything!” He thought glumly about how true his words were as he spoke on. “I led a rebellion against King Kev but didn't even have the guts to finish him off, letting him cheat his way back onto the server. If I had stabbed him the second I had a chance, he wouldn't have been able to change the difficulty setting! Then, when I tried to take him down again, he totally wiped the floor with me!”

“You're right, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied. Stan stared at him in surprise. He had expected the Black Hood to contradict something that he had said, and tell him just how spectacular he really was.

“Hardly anything that you've done matters in the long run,” the Black Hood continued. “You were held back by your own mercy in the tower of Element Castle that day, and that did allow King Kev to escape and found the Noctem Alliance. And the moment King Kev turned into Lord Tenebris, and was no longer afraid to use his operating powers, you never stood a chance against him. However, Stan2012, there is one thing that you aren't giving yourself enough credit for.”

“And what's that?” Stan spat bitterly.

“You never stopped fighting,”
the Black Hood replied. Stan was floored to hear the incredible passion in his voice. “So deeply did you believe that the lower-level players of this server did not deserve to be oppressed that you never gave up, and you never surrendered, even when you had impossible odds stacked against you.”

“But none of it worked!” Stan cried. “So what does it matter that I tried if I didn't succeed?”

“Stan2012, you must realize what you managed to do,” the Black Hood continued, his voice still enriched with passion. “You managed to rally an entire country around you during your fight to take down King Kev, and even if you failed to destroy the King himself, you succeeded in taking down his kingdom. For the first time in years, Elementia was a place where people of all levels could live together in harmony.

“Do you think that your people are ever going to forget what it feels like to live in a country of happiness and equality? Do you think that, now that they've experienced what true freedom is, they will ever stop fighting to get it back? Of course not! And all because
you
, Stan2012, were brave enough to take a stand against the injustice you saw around you. It takes a special kind of person to take a stand when injustice is the law, and you, Stan2012, are one special person.”

Stan hesitated for a moment before responding.

“Okay, let's say you're right. Let's say that I'm so special and that long after I'm gone, people keep fighting back against King Kev. It's not like they're going to win! King Kev is the only operator on the server. He's never going to be taken down! My people will just keep on fighting back until they're all dead!”

“And then King Kev will be right back to square one,” the Black Hood replied triumphantly. “He'll be in charge of an empire of misery and despair, just like he was when he first defeated Avery007. Remember that all King Kev really wants is power. He doesn't care who he has to step on to get it. And through your example, Stan2012, your people will let King Kev know that they won't be stepped on without a fight.”

For a while, neither Stan nor the Black Hood said anything. They simply stood in the clearing as the fog swirled around their feet, becoming lighter and lighter as the sun began to rise.

“Stan2012, I would like to thank you,” the Black Hood said, and Stan was shocked to see a tear streaming out of his radiant white eye and down his face. “For the longest time, I believed that I had ruined Minecraft. I thought that, through my chaos and destruction, I had set an example for Griefers and tyrants all across the countless servers of the game. Your story showed me, though, that however bad things may get,
there will always be those who are willing to stand up for what's right.

“I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . thank you, Stan2012, for doing the right thing, no matter how hard it was,” the Black Hood replied, as he gave Stan a gracious smile.

Stan took a deep breath and let it out. He knew that the Black Hood was right. He had never failed to do what he thought was best for Elementia, and he couldn't stop now. Stan clutched his axe tightly in his sweaty palms and looked at the sky. The celestial lights of the sky were beginning to fade, and a light pink glow was starting to illuminate the eastern sky.

“I've got to go back there, don't I?” Stan said gravely, as he turned to look northward, toward Element City.

“Yes,” the Black Hood replied. “Element City needs their president now more than ever.”

Stan reached into his inventory and pulled out the enchanted golden apple and the Potion of Harming. It seemed like eons ago that Lord Tenebris had stood before him in the wreckage of the Adorian Village, offering both of the items to him. Stan looked down at the two items in his hand, and in both the shiny gold curve of the apple and the red-tinted face of the potion bottle, he saw his reflection. He saw the face of a brave, proud player who had never once turned his back on his country, and would fight to the death
to defend it and the ones he loved.

He raised the golden apple to his mouth and swallowed it in three bites. Instantly, a surge of energy shot through Stan's body, coursing from his head through his core and spreading to his limbs. He felt as though he were under the effect of ten Potions of Swiftness at the same time. Stan glared hatefully at the Potion of Harming in his other hand and, in one motion, he pitched the toxic potion as hard as he could into the woods. Seconds later, in the far distance, he heard the shattering of glass.

Stan clutched his axe as the rising sun illuminated the right side of his face. He took yet another breath and let it out in a determined grunt. Stan knew that, within the hour, he was going to be dead. Lord Tenebris was going to do horrible, horrible things to him before destroying him in front of his people, along with the rest of his closest friends. However, Stan knew that none of the people who had followed him would ever forget their sacrifice, and although he might die, his spirit of rebellion never would.

Stan turned back to face the Black Hood one last time. The glitch player's eyes still shone brightly in the rising daylight as he looked proudly on Stan, the player who had given so much to Elementia, and was prepared to give more than could ever be repaid. The Black Hood sighed and looked Stan in the eye.

“Stan2012, I have tried to do all that I could to help your cause without jeopardizing my own existence,” the Black Hood said carefully. “I have helped each of your friends in numerous ways, but I have still failed to do anything to help you.”

“That's not true,” Stan replied with a bittersweet smile. “You helped me realize what I can do to save my people, and you risked your life to do so. I can never thank you enough.”

“Still . . . ,” the Black Hood continued slowly. “I feel that I owe it to you to do something for you that might help you . . . in a different way.”

“That's okay,” Stan said darkly. “Where I'm going, I won't need any help.”

“It wasn't a recommendation,” the Black Hood said simply, and with that he reached out his hand toward Stan.

Instantly, Stan felt himself being pulled forward toward the Black Hood and being forced to his knees. Stan recognized the horribly familiar sensation of being held in Lord Tenebris's psychic grip. Stan was just about to let out a shout of terror when the Black Hood reached out with his free hand and put it to Stan's head.

Suddenly, Stan wasn't terrified anymore. The power from the golden apple coursing through his veins seemed to amplify, expanding further and further until finally, Stan felt as though he were exuding energy from every pore
of his body. The power continued to grow and grow, until finally, the energy reached its peak. Stan fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, shaking as he tried to contain the sheer power that he now felt inside himself.

“What . . . what did you do to me?” Stan managed to get out as his entire body twitched with spasms.

“You'll see in a moment,” the Black Hood replied as Rex began to wag his tail beside him.

“Stan! Stan, answer me right now!”

Stan looked up with a jolt. Of all the things that he might have anticipated at that moment, Sally's voice, ringing out of the ether with no static, clear as crystal, was not one of them.

“I'm here, Sal,” Stan replied, looking at the ground as he tried to focus on her voice. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can hear you!” Sally replied. Stan was amazed at how clearly she was coming in. “Stan, did you just do something to Elementia's code?”

“What? No!” Stan exclaimed. “Why? What's happening, Sally?”

“I'm not sure,” she replied. She sounded excited. “All I know is that somehow, I have no idea how, a hole opened up in the defenses of Elementia's coding.”

Stan's heart skipped a beat. “Wait . . . really?”

“Yes,” Sally replied. She paused for a moment. Then . . .

“Stan . . . I think that I might have just given you operating powers.”

Stan said nothing in reply. His heart was racing as he dropped his diamond axe to the ground and held out his right hand. He took a deep breath and, not believing that it was possible, he focused as hard as he could on the hand, imagining a diamond helmet.

There was a faint pop, and a diamond helmet appeared in his hand.

Stan's mouth hung open, and widened further and further into a smile as he spawned in more items—bowls of mushroom soup, flint and steel, jungle-wood blocks, gravel, end stone—the pile of random items on the ground below him grew larger and larger. Stan drew back his fist and, taking aim at a nearby tree, he fired off a punch. Instantly, the tree exploded as the invisible burst of energy hit it. Laughing wildly now, Stan took a deep breath, jumped into the air . . . and floated in place, held aloft by his newly acquired operating powers.