A Fault in the Code

Chapter 11

Can you tell me what's going on now?

Jeff shows me his writing in the book, which I have decided to let him keep.

"Apparently this world is made completely of code, and the creator had a brother in which they added into the code to be like a human in here, I guess."

I go on to explain the details of what the voice said to me. During my speech, he writes something down in the book. When I'm done talking, he shows me what he wrote.

How do you know all this?

"There was just this... voice in my head that told me everything. It couldn't have been a dream because I remember it way too clearly. And besides, the voice told me he would 'wake me up', and as soon as he did, I was awake. He also told me that the directions would 'just come to me', and as soon as I got out of bed, they did. Now we're going to the Nether."

The Nether?! It's like the heart of the devil in there. Literally. I've been in there only once, and it's just... ugh, you don't want to go in there. Trust me.

I consider these words, but I decide disregard them. We need to get rid of this guy. This is too important to just ignore.

"Jeff, we need to do this. I believe in you, I believe in me, I believe that both of us can do this. This is too important. We need to go. And besides, what could possibly be in the Nether that makes it so bad?"

His eyes are flooded with fear, and he scribbles down on the paper:

You don't wanna know.

I shake my head and take his hand. "Come on," I say, "We don't need to go much longer. The entrance should be just over that mountain..." My voice trails off as I look at the giant mountains that loom over us, stretching from side to side so far that I can't see the end of them. Jeff and I look at each other with a pained, tired expression, and we start to walk up the rigid mountain floor.

Jeff and I pull each other up steep rocks and help each other slide down slopes. As we near the top of the mountain, which takes hours, the snow starts to thicken, and it is almost impossible to see what's in front of us. The sky is grey, pouring out its frozen tears as if it doesn't want us to keep going.

We push our way through the wind and snow, and eventually, we reach the other side of the mountain, where the snow finally begins to lessen. From what I can see, there's nothing at the bottom that looks too special, and that gets me worried. What if I went the worng direction? No, I followed the map exactly. What if the map was wrong? Should I really trust the man that belongs to that voice?

After another couple hours of sore legs and steep slopes to walk down, we are finally at the bottom where we are able to rest for a while. And we chat while sitting under a little tree.

"So, how do you know English but can't speak it?"

It is physically impossible for my vocal cords to make human sounds. I can only make the noises that you have heard already, or something similar to them. And how do I know English? Well... I just do. I know pretty much every language. I just spawned that way.

"Ah," I say. And then, I suddenly remember about the ender pearls I stole from White-eyed. Pulling them out of my backpack, I say, "So, how do these work? What do they do?" I checked to se how many I had. I have about 24 of them.

Jeff's eyes smile.

Now here's something fun we can do. I'll teach you how to use these, but we have few, so you won't be able to practice many times so you can save them for emergencies only.

I am excited. He said it would be exciting. I hold a pearl in my hand, and Jeff stands next to me. He points to my eyes and them to him, which I am assuming means to watch him. He gets into a position that looks like he's about to throw a football, his right hand up behind him at his head height and his left one in front. I hold the pearl in my right hand and imitate his pose.

He starts writing in the book, and my arm gets tired from holding it in the same place for so long. Then he shows the book to me.

Now try throwing the pearl at that tree over there, and see what happens. Just a warning, it may hurt a bit.

I step forward and throw the ender pearl with all my might to the tree about 10 blocks away. As soon as it hits the ground, I am suddenly standing under the tree I threw the pearl at, right where it landed. Jeff was right, I had a minor body ache for a minute, but nothing compared to what we had experienced earlier, and it's nothing I can't handle.

"Whoah, that was cool." I say, amused. Jeff's eyes smile again as he nods in agreement.

After a couple more teleporting practices, we get up and start moving. I close my eyes so I can see the faint map in my head; we are going the right direction. There is a big dot where we are supposed to stop. I keep my eyes closed until I land right on top of the dot, and the ground beneath my feet changes. I look under me, and I see a small area of the black cobblestone-looking material, and I wonder what it is and what I'm supposed to do with it. I see nothing in my mind that tells me to mine down, so I dont.

What now?

"I don't know... I thought there would be some kind of portal here."

But then I get something. It's another picture, and it's of the black material which is built into a rectangle shape with an opening in the middle. And in the opening is a purple swirly substance.

"Wait, I know." I try picking up the black stuff, hitting it, and everything I could think of to try and loosen it from the ground. Nothing works.

Jeff writes: You need a diamond pickaxe to mine obsidian.

"Diamond?! Aren't those rare?"

Extremely. But you have another option. Anything my hands touch teleports with me, so I can just teleport it into my hands.

"Good idea. Beats mining for diamonds."

I watch as Jeff takes every "obsidian" block and puts it in my hand so I can build the portal. I close my eyes every so often, so I can see the layout of the portal.

4 blocks on the bottom, 4 up on top of each side block and four more connecting the top of those columns. I copy the blueprint one block at a time until I have completed the portal base. But when I do, it doesn't light. I try going through the empty hole, but I just come out the other side.

Jeff looks at me as if he's accompanying an ignorant idiot.

"Don't look at me like that. I haven't been here as long as you have. So how do I light this thing?" I ask, a little more impatiently than it was supposed to.

Don't worry, I got this.

He takes out a piece of what looks like iron and a piece of what looks like flint. He strikes them with each other really fast, and a spark forms, but it's only there for a brief second before going out.

Do that right next to the obsidian and it will light up the portal.

Sitting on my knees, I create the spark. But before it goes out, it falls to the obsidian. And then, a brilliant purple, swirling substance covers the hole. It's transparent enough that I can see through it.

Jeff and I stand there and look at the purple swirls, and take a deep breath.

And then we step in the portal.