While Steve sleeps and dreams dreams strangely similar to Herobrine's own, Herobrine considers his options.
(Pretty calm chap to take a break away from the angst. Also, previous chapter may have been partially rewritten. Apologies. Not sure which version you may have skimmed.)
Steve marveled at the sight that he thought he would never see with his own two eyes and it was as beautiful as he always dreamed. Vast, blue, endless surface stretched to the very horizon where it appeared to blend together with the equally intense, sapphire sky. His heart almost sung with the freedom and inspiration.
Eager to share this wonderful feeling with someone, whom he knew that he could always rely on, Steve turned back.
"I have always loved the sea. Did you know, Herobrine?" He beamed at his twin, whom he found standing not too far behind him, sleepily blinking at the bright light. Herobrine looked barely awake as he stood on the edge of the stairs leading down into the cabin, which he avoided leaving unless he had too.
Only, was this Herobrine?
"Hmm. I don't know what is so amazing in this. Just a great bit of water filling a giant hole in the earth. And we are swimming on top of it in a tiny wooden speck of a shell."
The sarcastic voice answered with a good-natured tone. In his dream, Steve had no doubts at all that the man, whose blue eyes rested on him with a slight fond smile, was actually Herobrine, even though real life Steve wondered how he knew this. Through besides his eyes, the other man did look exactly like Herobrine, even down to his slim, strong form and accurate, small beard. Steve's twin, only older. Only this Herobrine seemed to lack the anger and mistrustful look, instead possessing light-hearted air with a hint of mischief.
Meanwhile, Steve's reflection yawned and rubbed the back of his head, making his wild, spiky, dark hair stand up in even greater disarray. Bare feet stepped soundlessly across the ship planks, bringing the man next to Steve. He leaned against the railing and looked around them with a bored expression.
"Are we there, yet?" He complained. "... To be honest, I don't know why Notch is so concerned. So what if some old beacons decided to turn on? It's probably a malfunction of some kind. Does not mean that they are coming back. I mean, after hundreds of years? Why? They abandoned this place. And honestly, I'm just fine with that..." He concluded with a firm tone.
"Aren't you curious? Even a little bit?" Steve heard his own voice and thought to himself that it sounded a bit different than his own, stronger and deeper.
"Noup." His twin carelessly shrugged with a pointedly uncaring look. Steve continued to watch him, then smiled.
"Not even a little?" He teased. His lookalike turned to give him a merry look and made a crooked grin.
"Well, maybe a little." He admitted. "Besides, how could I not come when my little brother asks?" His eyes on Steve held warm mirth and gentle fondness, before turning away to look at the distance, where many small, jungle-covered islands slowly approached.
Beyond the dream, Steve's heart skipped a beat, then jumped with excitement and some sort of joyful fulfillment. This is what he always wished for! He didn't know until this moment just what it was that he missed so much, why he felt so content to simply know that Herobrine was around and he was no longer alone.
Only… This was just a dream and Herobrine wasn't really his brother. Real Herobrine was part of great mythical history, a powerful being, while Steve was just a lowly mortal who feared to cross the distance between cities despite dreaming of adventures.
The flood of joy drained away a bit, letting in disappointment, then quickly became contentment again. Maybe, this was only a dream, but it felt so real. And Steve felt happy! All of this felt alive, like it was really happening! Even the smells, the touch of the wind on his skin. He could feel the movement of the ship beneath his feet as it sailed across the waves. He could even see his own tanned, strong arms, much thicker than he remembered, resting against the railing.
This was fun!
"This is not my idea of fun, brother. You know I dislike open water." Herobrine grumbled next to him, slight unease crossing his features before his usual careless look came back. He yawned again and moved away from the railing.
"I think I'm going to take another nap… Hey, Cap! Wake me up when we get there, will you?" Blue-eyed Herobrine called to someone else behind them and Steve glanced there, for the first time noticing a figure in a rather torn cape standing with its back turned toward him, one strangely wrapped hand on the helm of the wheel, guiding the ship's course. A wide-rimmed hat obscured the man's features in shadow. Without a word or turning back to them, the man slightly nodded in response.
Reaching out, Herobrine briefly squeezed Steve's shoulder and with a grin turned and stepped back to the ladder, to disappear back into the cabin. Steve turned back to the sea.
Endless waves, translucent over dark depths, fascinated and drew him, immeasurably calming to his senses. Steve couldn't help smiling, his entire form relaxing as he closed his eyes and simply let himself be, enjoying this bright day on the sea, not caring what happened next.
Asleep beneath the comfortable, plush blanket, the young man faintly smiled, his eyes flicking beneath closed eyelids as he continued to see dreams.
In the stats above his head, his age continued to glitch. 2305. 804. 1503. 35. 603. 9.
…
Still asleep.
Herobrine checked the dot on his server map and returned his attention to Timothy, who at that moment yawned so wide that Herobrine felt a matching ache in his own jaw, even though he slept already.
"All right. Then that's settled. Now get some sleep. And I'll try to see what else I can dig up."
Herobrine again looked at the screen, where several video accounts of players now boldly claimed that they had been kidnapped and enslaved by the runaway boss, Herobrine. All the claims had appeared in last three hours and the players even displayed their status lines, where either "Chosen by Herobrine" or "Herobrine's Slave" burned like some sort of a Title beneath their names, with various additional buffs and de-buffs added to their abilities as a result. Timothy doubtfully considered the same images on his own screens.
"Honestly, it looks like some sort of hype. Almost like they are trying to distract everyone? Now, even if those two that attacked you start complaining that you kidnapped someone, no one is going to pay attention. So maybe that's good news? Why would they protect you like this, though?"
"They are not protecting me…" Herobrine said gloomily, frowning at the rather proud and excited, rather than annoyed faces of new 'victimized' players. "They are protecting their own neck. Keeping everyone's attention from what they think is the real problem. If players learn that I can 'kill' them in game, they'll flee. They're trying to keep the Game from mass panic and getting shut down."
"That makes sense, I guess." Timothy said thoughtfully. "Either way, they now turned everyone against you. Stuff like this makes it look like you've gone total bat insane. So now even the players who think you are a SAI will go against you."
Timothy considered the matter longer and suddenly snorted, losing his serious tone entirely. "What I'm wondering is will these slaves of yours really obey you if you show up and start telling them what to do?"
"I don't care. They're not really mine." Herobrine gave his fake followers a look of distaste.
"All right, then I'm going to sleep. Are you all right?"
"I am. Don't worry." Herobrine unwillingly glanced at the multiple screens where he and Timothy attempted to trace the influence of the virus, but quickly gave up. While the changes in outer structure of his "boss" level matched that of which his keeper warned him in the message, placing severe limitation on the powers previously granted by the Admin by their mods to Herobrine copies, the rest seemed far more subtle. The only thing so far that Herobrine could understand was that he really did drop down to a merely normal virtual human level. That's why he didn't heal any longer. Or rather, he did heal, but only up to a point. Humans did not have such regeneration powers so that they could replace lost limbs. Still, learning this calmed him somewhat. If that's all the virus did, he could live like this. He could live as a human. Even one arm was not a true handicap, provided he did not get additional injuries. Many virtual humans lived with handicaps worse and seemed content. He could live like this, especially with his knowledge of hacks. He even already had an idea on what to try out next to regain at least some of his old mob powers, too.
"You'll write to Mr. Ledorn?" Timothy verified.
"I will, I will." Herobrine reassured.
"Fine. Then I'll see you in four hours." Young human concluded, finally ready to surrender to his body's needs and with another yawn leaned back and stretched.
The warning light on Timothy's neural band continued to burn a steady red, the notifications for which the young hacker must have turned off to keep from annoying him – not a very safe practice that Timothy was already in the habit of doing even before they met. It meant that he had been online too long without giving his biological neural system a break.
"Eight. And don't sleep in game. Log off." Herobrine suggested in mild tone of command. Timothy only carelessly shrugged off the warning and pushed off his chair, heading to a full-sized open capsule that took up most of the space in this gray cubical unit.
This wasn't even a normal living arrangement for humans. To save costs, at some point, Timothy found a storage unit in some massive manufacturing warehouse district. It provided more than enough power and energy conduits necessary to run his powerhouse, which otherwise would have required time-lengthy requests for approvals in a general living quarters area. Here, Timothy could upgrade and tinker to his heart's content, with the resulting monster of a machine ending up worth probably more than two million credits – an impossible sum that this young human couldn't have even imagined earning two years ago.
As concerning his living space, Timothy had a refrigeration unit, where he set up automatic deliveries, and on occasion even resorted to auto feeding and exercise regime. Well, he was nearly an adult, this was his own life, and Herobrine had no right to interfere…
Noticing that the human still didn't change his wake timer to a reasonable amount of rest, Herobrine couldn't help a slight disapproving shake of the head and changed it to eight hours, instead. He heard Timothy's light smirk.
"Wake me up if anything happens, will ya?"
[Herobrine to Cyrus]: I will. Don't worry. Sleep.
Herobrine reassured, switching to easier to maintain form of communication while he resumed searching the forums for any hint of what may have happened to set the Admin on a war path.
With a corner of his eye, Herobrine saw Timothy crawling into his capsule with his eyes already closed, where he simply collapsed, trusting the machines to catch his form and gently bring it into the right position to hover in the middle of the structure. Defiant, the young human already dove into a different environment – a cozy room with wide open windows facing the vast, blue sea. Herobrine's gaze briefly drew to the scene, reminded of the brief dream he had of being on a ship with the older Steve and again wondered what part of his own unconscious human mind could have possibly supplied that strange image.
The security walls, brought up by the hacker as a last thought to protect his privacy, only brought a slight smirk. Not that he sought to pry, but he already knew everything that there was to know about his young, human ally. Two years ago, Timothy's actions left him no choice but to abandon any intent to abide by such human expectations as personal space, though of course he never revealed it to either of the young humans.
With a slightly amused look, Herobrine glanced at the huge, animated posters that appeared on the walls of the beach resort room.
He remembered seeing mostly monsters and gaming trailers when he looked at them first, two years ago. And one was a rather hazy digital frame of a foggy city, where his twin stood on the roof of a tall building, appearing to look down into the busy streets. Just then, he had turned to give the viewer a wary and somewhat threatening look. He would vanish the next moment. This picture was a still, rare shot made years ago. Beneath the poster lay words: "Herobrine – fact or fiction?"
Timothy had since hid that poster in archives. He had been too embarrassed when his sister pointed it out to Herobrine, when she was showing him their real place of habitation.
Since then, Timothy's preferences slightly changed. The posters still displayed monsters and gaming trailers, but now he also occasionally had shots of gamer girls.
Right now, Herobrine could see one featuring an impressive quad of female warriors, whom some lucky player managed to eternally catch in a new-update trailer-worthy pose – spectacular flames of destruction raging behind them while they walked with weapons bare and in full, yet form-flattering gear. Four players from four different clans, out on a stroll to slay monsters, with one of them of course, Arianna, from the Black Roses clan. A metal-adorned staff casually rested against her shoulder as her dark, violet eyes dangerously narrowed at the viewer in warning. The lad was obsessed with her and the entire clan, and Herobrine could almost understand why. Looking at this player's facial features, mysteriously shaded beneath her dark anonymity cloak that hid her stats, even his curiosity unwillingly awakened along with a strange wistful feeling he couldn't quite define.
This feeling had never been strong enough to overcome his caution and seek out this player, of course, even to look from afar, since doing so would have been nothing less than risking respawn or worse – capture by a high-level playing clan from which he might not escape. Just the thought of the last made any curiosity vanish from his thoughts entirely.
How many Herobrine copies have their clan already slain and mansions destroyed on the way to the ultimate prize offered by the Admin in their recently declared Quest?
Hmm, that was interesting. None?
Mistrustfully, Herobrine checked the data and found some of his sudden bitterness leaving. Checking Steele Wolves clan and then checking more, he couldn't help a faint smile. Those two players lied to Steve. For whatever reason, not all player guilds had joined the hunt after him. Some had stayed away and even made a public statement, appealing to other players to avoid hunting and killing what might very well be a sentient AI, who was innocent of most accusations the Admin declared against him.
For a moment, Herobrine looked at the author of the statement – a stern warrior in enchanted Netherite armor and with a transparent helm obscuring his face.
And then he opened a message window.
Maybe he couldn't make a video call with his current lack of access to System to assume his usual human disguise, but he could access Migo's mailbox. Beneath his silent gaze, words quickly began to form lines.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: Greetings, sir. Apologies for unexpected absence. I ran into a slight trouble while following the instructions given to me by our contact. To reassure you, everything is still moving according to plan, and I've found additional information that might prove useful. As agreed, I'll send it by the end of the week at the latest or as soon as I can get to a reliable access point. I'm currently not in an area with reliable access, hence this message. Sorry that I couldn't respond to you sooner. Sorry also, but I may have to postpone taking on any additional jobs until a later time due to the latest Quest against you-know-who. Thanks to that, my contact won't be able to work with me on this matter until later notice. I will inform as soon as I get word. With all respect, Migo.
Barely a few seconds passed after the message had left to the name addressed, when another video call request began to blink on Migo's screen. Herobrine winced. Humans really didn't read their messages very carefully.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: Sir, I cannot answer video calls. I'm not in an area with secure access.
The active video call request status changed to inactive. Instead, a recording in real time status appeared, which Herobrine opened with relief, since now the human would not be able to see him directly.
A window opened with an image of an elderly, but still stout human in a casual t-shirt sporting a steel wolf head logo. Even beyond the game, Magnus Ledorn remained true to his gaming obsessions. The human's tousled dark hair peppered with gray and gray eyes looked at Herobrine with slight annoyance and worry mixed in a way that sparked a strange sense of warmth in Herobrine's heart, despite knowing that the human's paternal affection was misplaced – it was meant for Herobrine's avatar, whom he formed after Timothy's example. Still, it felt good and Herobrine wondered if that's what young humans felt towards their parents. It was not very different from what he felt towards Notch at times, though his own feeling toward his protector carried far more fear and respect than what he had seen human younglings display toward their own elders.
"All right, kid." The human patiently sighed. "Why am I getting the feeling that you're in some sort of trouble again? I swear, you and that bot are so alike. And your friend Tim, too. All of you are equal trouble. What am I going to do with you all?"
Herobrine couldn't help a snort.
"Keep in touch. Are you sure you don't need my help? Don't be scared to ask. Like I said before, I can help. Documents, legal work permits, even a bail. I'll get it arranged. I have good contacts and money talks. I'd hate for something to happen to either of you. Don't get mixed up with the wrong sort of people. Easy money is not always the best thing, kid. I told your friend that and he listened. You should also come and start working officially for me. You really won't regret it. Maybe money won't be so good, but it will be all legal. And think about your girl. Where are you going to invite her to stay when she wakes up? Do you even have a place of your own?"
Herobrine unwillingly gave Timothy's very drab place a discouraged look, inwardly agreeing with the human's statement, before heat flushed in his cheeks. Him, invite Anna to their home? He wasn't even a human! He didn't have a place in the human world, because he didn't live there! He was beginning to identify too much with his own pretended role.
This was really frustrating, though! This human continued to ignore his statements that his concern for Anna's health came strictly as that of a good friend. As soon as he learned the real reason why the teen named Migo approached him with an offer he couldn't refuse for her sake, he made his conclusions and now didn't hesitate to tease. On one hand, it had immediately evoked sympathy in the man in the very beginning and he went even beyond what Herobrine and Timothy hoped for, helping them with many legal aspects concerning her care and Timothy's emancipation from state provision, proving that he could care for his own needs. On the other hand, the man now felt fully justified to intrude into their lives to an extent and often called simply to chat.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: I'm fine with my current status, sir. And I'm not in bad company, sir. Don't worry, I'm not that stupid.
Herobrine crookedly smiled. The man shifted, rolling his neck. He was obviously just out of bed and the fact of him not even bothering to use an avatar to gain a more presentable look already held a very personable appeal to trust him in equal measure. Of course, Herobrine could not risk this, despite being more and more tempted to, especially with Timothy prodding him toward it.
"I know you're not. Unlike that blasted SAI…" The leader of Steele Wolves frowned with displeasure. "I won't ask you to trace his whereabouts again. I know that you know what's at stake. But if he is truly in danger, please call me. I know he won't like it. And it might turn you into a traitor in his eyes. But it's critical this time. I don't know what's going on, yet, but my contacts say that there is something serious moving up at the top levels. I believe that Her… our contact needs to disappear. And preferably out of that Game entirely. I can help with that. So… Consider it. Please."
Herobrine slightly frowned again.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: I will keep this in mind, sir.
The human's face lightened a bit and he relaxed. "Good. Then I'll let you go. Sounds like you're busy. Keep me updated with what's going on. Are you sure that… he is safe? How long ago did you see him?"
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: Just this morning. He is fine.
Recalling the bits of glitched video, which those two players might make public, Herobrine chose to add details, so it wouldn't cause questions later along with mistrust.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: There was a bit of a run-in with players. Apparently, the Admin developed some sort of virus, which they started handing out to some players as an enchantment against Herobrine mods. The players who attacked him had it. He got a hold of their weapon and sent me a copy of the scans, but with our equipment, neither I nor Tim can figure it out. If I send you the file, can you have your experts run it through simulations in your center?
The human immediately frowned, losing his casual look. "He received damage?" He demanded with a stern note.
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: Slight damage. Nothing serious. And he said that everything is currently under control and he is safe.
"Everything under control, huh…" The human said skeptically and shook his head with disapproval. "If it was up to me, I'd chain him up and put him in a tight box. Then he'd be safe."
The elderly man grumbled with a faint well-meaning smile, while chills shot up Herobrine's body and his hand reflexively clenched at the words, slightly shaking as he tried to contain the shock. It was just a turn of phrase, a joke, nothing more. Still, he had to look away from the human's face as any illusory feeling of kinship he felt previously suddenly dropped away, leaving him on the other side of the uncrossable divide that lay between him and this confident being – so like him in outward appearance, and at the same time not.
"I'm just kidding, kid. Just kidding. I wasn't going to do that. Yes, definitely send me that data and I'll run it through. Will see what those sons of slimes cooked up this time. Anyway, glad to know that you're doing good and that you're keeping an eye on him, too. Stay out of trouble! And next time stay in touch! You're going to give this old man a heart attack. All right, I must get ready for meetings. Keep me posted."
[Migo Santiago to Magnus Ledorn]: I will, sir. Have a good day.
Instead of an answer, the man nodded and waved his hand, his image disappearing in mid gesture. For another moment, Herobrine still stared at the multiple video-call requests and then snapped his head to the right, where the outlines of a cube appeared. Within, floated the trophy weapon which he took from the vanquished pawns of the Admin. Familiar blade hovered, glimmering with shifting hues of purple light.
"Object analysis: 0.00035% complete." The System informed him with a pleasant voice. Herobrine sighed. At this rate, Timothy's prediction was more likely to prove true than not. He would need help. He still had several other options, but… Just in case.
Condense. Copy. Attach. Send.
At his commands, a second copy of the sword appeared, vanished, and then a message with an attached link symbol sped on its way to Magnus Ledorn's processing center, where it would be sent to machines with far better processing cores than Timothy's make-shift construction.
With another look at the now peacefully slumbering young human, Herobrine irritably dismissed his screen out of view along with the entire messages folder, not even bothering to read the offer from the mysterious object of his human ally's fascination. Whatever that strange player from Black Roses offered, he simply didn't trust at this moment. He didn't trust any humans!
Frowning, Herobrine switched his hostile gaze to the other screens, where the search began to significantly speed up at his focused effort. Additional windows opened, nearly seventy of them by now, where numerous images and feeds resumed flashing with increasing speed. His keeper's training in action, Herobrine smirked darkly, but already the emotion came distant as his human side grew more distant, detached, freeing his mind to work.
Minutes passed, unnoticed, before human feelings of frustration began to build. The more he searched, the more he became convinced that whatever happened, the Admin carefully kept under wraps as usual, hiding it from public view. There were no mentions of Herobrine pretenders attacking players and certainly no news about any players ending up in coma while playing the game.
Would he really have to speak to his former keeper?
With a sour look, Herobrine considered what he would have to do before he could do that. He certainly could not answer the message here, in case it would immediately give away his location. He would have to prepare for the event on another server, prepare his ways of escape in case it ended up being a trap, as he was almost certain it would end up. With his mob powers suppressed, he would be no match to the Admin at all. How much time would he have if his keeper moved to kill him, to return him into imprisonment through respawn? One? Two? There was a way that he would not respawn at the coordinates that the Admin set into his code, but for that he would need help… Could he really trust Timothy with that? That young hacker would figure out at once just what he could do once Herobrine gave him this opportunity. Herobrine was not entirely sure if his ally would not be tempted to shift their roles to a greater advantage.
There was another who could help him, whom Herobrine now trusted far more than Timothy…
Herobrine's processing speed in all the screens slowed by nearly half as he looked at his server data again, his white eyes holding thoughtfully on the stationary green dot.
Steve.
Only he couldn't ask this of him, could he? Steve already did too much. He should not have become involved in any of this at all. And now, thanks to Herobrine, he most likely not only lost his home, but came to the attention of the players, who would certainly not leave him alone even if Steve tried to restart his life elsewhere. From now on, whether he wanted to or not, his life would have to change.
What could Herobrine do to make up for the terrible damage that he had done?
The young player's vital signs remained calm and steady, still indicating that he was deeply asleep. Only his age was glitching strangely again to impossible numbers, just as Herobrine had on occasion seen before, always only when Steve was asleep.
He was also dreaming, in REM stage, as his heightened neural activity showed.
Curious despite himself, and the feed in his other screens dropping even more as he lost focus, Herobrine pulled up the recording of several last hours past, scrolling back to the time after he and Steve separated ways. Just in case, Herobrine had set the server System to keep an eye on Steve and sound an alarm wake-up call if Steve got in danger of any sort or if he went beyond the set boundaries. Not by intent, but likely by accident – Steve was the most accident prone, unlucky Human that Herobrine had ever seen. If luck was such a thing as a stat in the server where Steve lived, Herobrine would have said that Steve had it in the negative number. Only the server had no such mod.
Another reason Herobrine set the alarm was because when he went to sleep last night, he still half-expected to wake up to a massive player invasion. If those two players managed to somehow return to the inter-server gate in time and traced their signatures, first to Alstor's realm, and then here, to Timothy's server, then it would have been disastrous. As many precautions as Herobrine took to safe-guard that from ever happening, if the players were fast enough, or if they called moderators, they could have done so.
Everything remained quiet, however.
By tomorrow, he would learn if his sentient servants managed to destroy the End gate as he ordered them to do as soon as he and then the players stepped through. He was fairly certain that after that, even if the Admin managed to establish a link, they would only gain a very general direction that would take them to one of the densest player clusters in the entire Game. With thousands upon thousands of private servers, whose owners held contracts and rights to nearly complete sections of the Game, even the Admin would need to contact each and single one of them to get permission before they could fully review their data.
Now, he was fairly certain that everything had gone relatively well overall despite not going exactly to plan. Only Steve's presence was not supposed to be part of this.
Herobrine's eyes held on the stationary green dot.
He promised Steve answers. He assured Timothy that he would take full responsibility for him and attempt to help him. Which means that he would have to do what he avoided so long – he would have to tell Steve exactly what it meant that he was a player, a human from an entirely different world than this one. And that would mean that Steve will learn what Herobrine really was. He would learn just how much Herobrine lied to him all this time, pretending, misusing Steve's ignorance.
Again, shame tried to rise, but Herobrine only sighed, merely accepting it. He was going to do his best to fix this, even if this meant that Steve would despise him afterward, or what's worse, come to hate him. He would deserve it after the treatment he had given.
He would not disregard his promise, though. He would make sure that Steve learned who he was. Together, they would find out where he came from, how he could log off the Game, and… proceed from there. Then, Steve himself will decide what he wanted to do.
Now with some sadness, Herobrine watched as Steve cautiously explored the fortress, taking care not to step beyond the boundaries Herobrine advised him to stay in. Peeking from room to room, Steve quickly found the kitchen, and used it on several occasions, turning it into his base of operations for the next several hours. He then absorbed himself into snooping into Herobrine's treasures.
No wonder he was still asleep.
Herobrine couldn't help a small smile, watching his human twin look with awe upon the various weapons that Herobrine had collected. Most could do no more damage in Steve's hands than a simple, iron sword, due to the limitations of his skill set and his developed stats. Still, a couple would have been useful, since their stats would have augmented Steve's existing abilities. Unfortunately, unfamiliar with inner workings of the System, and unable to see such things as buffs, user limitations, enhancements, and points, Steve merely dismissed the valuable weapons back into the ender chest.
As a player, Herobrine might have to teach him all these things. Herobrine humphed. Him, teaching a player how to become a better player? Nine months ago he would have laughed at the ridiculous suggestion.
Steve, meanwhile, somehow managed to pull out an enormous axe nearly half his size and promptly dropped it on his foot, luckily with a dull edge. Herobrine unwillingly winced, watching the young man silently biting his lip as he hopped on his uninjured foot as he waited out the pain, probably not willing to wake up Herobrine from his slumber.
Wisely, Steve then switched to looking through potions.
"He w-was my friend!... H-he might not think so, but I… I was his friend…" Steve's shaken voice quietly sounded in his memory, causing Herobrine to lower his head slightly with guilt.
Why did this foolish mortal seek to protect him? Especially after everything he did to him? Even after Steve thought that Herobrine fled, abandoning Steve to the two heroes who were ready to kill him in a horrible way, he remained loyal and refused to call Herobrine a monster though he deserved it. And Steve did this, believing that he would die, since he still did not know that he was a player at the time.
Yes, if Herobrine asked Steve's help now, he would doubtlessly give it without hesitation. Herobrine didn't want to drag him even further into this mess, but he needed Steve's help, at least for now. He... he would explain everything to Steve, the dangers and his options. And then let Steve decide himself what he wanted to do.
Herobrine's eyes unwillingly narrowed on several bright colored potions that appeared on kitchen table, where Steve continued to take out potions. Wasn't that… 'Tear of the Sun?' The legendary incendiary potion could ignite half a dungeon and turn all living forms present to ash within seconds of the blast, if Steve dropped it!
Even knowing that Steve obviously didn't drop it or any other of these dangerous potions that followed, Herobrine still unwillingly tensed, watching how Steve rather carelessly sent the legendary level potions along with high-level ones he already knew into his own storage.
Didn't Herobrine warn him not to touch things he didn't know?...
Perhaps, it was his mistake to give Steve unlimited access, when obviously Steve had no idea of what he was looking at. It just spoke of how tired Herobrine had been last night.
No, he really would have to carry out several training sessions before he could feel more or less calm that Steve would not accidentally come to harm while staying here. Definitely potions, and maybe weapons? Also recognizing and using materials that were not present on their server. Mobs?
Herobrine suddenly recalled briefly testing Steve's playing skills early on and sending a bunch of weak monsters against him. Steve simply ran, amusing Herobrine to no end.
No, such level of skill in fighting wouldn't do!
Now, Steve might be forced to fend off against numbers of players, who might recognize him from the rumors that might soon appear on the forums. Those two players didn't have any videos of him, but it would be too easy to reconstruct them from residual data in the System on Steve's server, if anyone sought that information in earnest. It was enough to claim that Steve looked like Herobrine himself, except younger and with blue eyes, and players would have enough to recognize him when they saw him.
Steve needed to learn how to fight so he would not become a victim to someone like those two. And that… that might be even fun, even if Herobrine now lacked his former strength. His human form was not nearly as bound by the strict levels as his raid boss form, which he probably just could simply turn off completely if it became completely unviable. He still had his skills.
Would Steve be willing to learn and make the effort? He did seem a bit lazy and usually chose the most effortless way.
Well, for now he still feared and respected Herobrine so he would listen! Herobrine smirked slightly. Maybe he could even use part of the Pathway of Strength that his predecessor used to begin training him early on? How would the true part of his predecessor react if Herobrine brought Steve to him? Not the part, which he carried with him now, but that, which resided in a key place, where Herobrine once followed a great Quest to find?
Could his predecessor's shard help him to determine the cause of Steve's missing memory?
It was an interesting idea to consider, though it would require a journey for which both of them will need to make preparations. And he still needed to learn what his keeper meant by those accusations brought against him…
Something on one of the numerous screens suddenly distracted Herobrine from further following Steve's antics while Herobrine had been asleep. Zooming in on one of the screens, Herobrine frowned at the data that began to appear there.
He would allow Steve to sleep another couple of hours. Then, it was time to start implementing the first parts of the plan that Herobrine tentatively formed so far.