Chapter 2: I'm Walking on Madness, Woah!

After tidying up everything in his bag and stashing it in his inventory, Steven eventually starts walking.

Especially since its not that there's anything else he could do otherwise. Either he walk and walk eimlessly or he stay put and rot on the same spot he had spawned in.

He mined every Chorus fruits that he passed by as much as he could in case his hunger meter ever go down from all the walking that hes doing.

…randomly teleporting while eating can be quite annoying, but it not like he has any options anyway.

Eventually, when he reached the edge of the massive island he had spawned in, he hit a road block as he realized that he has no way of crossing to the next island.

Its too far for him to hop over and parkour his way through.

Even with his now very long Enderman legs and his stack of Chorus fruits, its just too far for him to cross.

Though, Steven isn't sure if he could actually still do parkour with his balance all shot down with his newly disproportional limbs.

Teleportation would have been a great help.

If he could only manage to get it to work for him cause no matter what he do or try, it just isnt working.

He tried, many, many times, believe him. So much to the point that he wondered if he really is capable of teleporting like other Endermen like the letter said he should be able to.

He sat on the nearest End stone, which is literally everywhere, and sghed.

Looks like he's trap here for good now.

No water, no shelter, limited food, no way to tell time and no other resources other than chorus fruit.

So much for a second chance in life for him.

Whats the use of his reincarnation if he's just slowly going to die in the void right after?

He stashed away his fedora in his inventory as he run his hand through his hair and scratch his head in frustration.

…maybe it would have been better if he did End up as a chicken because at least, he would be in the over world and not in dread filled End dimension with nothing but chorus fruit, Endstone, the void and the passively aggressive and unnerving stares of the Endermen around him.

He doesnt know what to do anymore.

Its not like he could just mine End stones with his bare hands and build a bridge, right? He would need a pickaxe to actually mine one.

And its not like he could pick up a block like an Enderman could…

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Mother of God, I'm an idiot."

After a few trial and errors, he found out that he could mine End stones by breaking them down like one would with a normal block in the game.

Staring at the block at his hands, Steven felt hope and relief bubbled deep inside him.

…Then he realized that Notch actually nerfed the Enderman to limit the blocks it could pick up to a few and that didnt include End blocks.

He wondered what version of minecraft he is in since Enderman could only pick up any blocks in the 2011 prerelease version if his memory serves right.

…though, the End dimension was only introduced at the next version so him being able to pick up End stones doesnt make sense at all.

Maybe its because he was breaking it like a normal block and not actually picking it uplike Enderman does in the game? He doesnt know, since he would need to be in the over world to test it.

Though he did tried picking up the entire block with his hands with out breaking it entirely.

It didnt work, so he really need to be in the over world to test the theory.

That said, Steven is grateful that he could now mine Endstone. Otherwise, he might have been doomed with a slow second death or fall in to madness from solitude, which ever comes first.

If his memory serves right, a player could mine blocks from a distance of four to five blocks away. Experimenting and testing things out of curiosity, Steven found that the distance of what he could remotely mine while standing in one place is at least seven blocks far (about seven meters away since one block is equal to one meter).

Now with the stacks of Endstones in hand, Steven began bridging to the next island and continue his aimless walk through the End Realm with nothing but the deafening void and the low, faded static made by the loitering Endermen.

…Steven hopes that he actually find something before he go mad.

On his way, Steven avoid eye contact with any Enderman at all cost, not even looking at their general direction. It doesn't matter if he bumped on them, as long as he keep his eyes down, he's safe.

They are sentient somehow, Steven could tell. Some follow him sometimes, looking at him curiously, pausing as though finding him weird (To be fair, he is) but moving on doing their own bussiness the moment they get the hint that Steven is avoiding them..

He might know how to fight and defend himself but with his abyssmal control over his limbs and the literal deadly (curious) beings from the void, Steven isn't taking the risk.

Now like it has been established before, clocks, compass, his own smartphone and any electronic gadget most likely, doesn't work in the End Realm.

Meaning, Steven has no way of telling time so he doesn't know just how long he has been in the End and for how long he's been walking around from island to island.

Though he at least he knew that he isn't going around in circle since Steven took it to himself to place markers with End stones and leave the bridges he made is it is just in case.

His new Enderman constitution isn't exactly helping in telling time either in that part.

His biological clock is a mess and he can't even rely on his fatigue since he can clearly tell that he's much more stronger over all and most likely has more stamina compare to that of a normal human as well as his uncle and his friend/colleagues.

At some point, Steven started counting in his head in attempt to time himself and to prevent himself from actually going mad with all the static and white noise.

By the time he finally feel some what fatigued, he already counted at least around seven hours.

Seven.

And its only recently that he started actually counting every second.

…Just how long has it been way before that?

He's suddenly glad that Phantoms dont spawn in the End and Nether.

…Or not, since a phantom spawning would at least tell him that he's been awake for three Minecraft days or more if it does.

Instead of stewing in his own thoughts longer, Steven throw himself in making a place to rest.

Nothing special, just a simple three blocks high shelter with a two block tall space inside from ceiling to the ground to avoid Enderman from spawning inside since they needed at least three blocks high space for them to spawn in.

Its a little cramp inside sure but it's really necessary to avoid mob spawning inside while he tried to sleep and its not like he can't crouch inside to move. He may be in minecraft, a literal world of cube, blocks and pixels, but he himself isn't blocky. Something that he is actually grateful despite being reincarnated as an Enderman.

Crawling inside the shelter he made, he made himself comfortable as much as he could. Not an easy feat with the hard rough ground, and dust everywhere. He pulled out his bag and a spare T-shirt from it to act as a pillow and a blanket before sealing of the entrance of his temporary shelter, turning everything pitch black with darkness as he curled to himself and slowly drift to sleep.

Steven wake up and immediately regrets doing so.

His back hurts, his neck hurts, there is dust over and inside his clothes and it feels like a truck hit him, again.

…Not that he remembers being hit by one before in the first place despite it being his cause of dead, of course.

(He isn't sure what he would do if he did remember it to be honest.)

The only thing he had that could relatively be called comfort was his bag and spare T-shirt acting as pillow and blanket.

Also, its only just now that he realized that his bag conveniently act as a shulker box. He could put things in it, in a normal way and not in Minecraft inventory style, then store it to his inventory.

Very convenient.

He yawned, waking in his rather shaddy impromptu shelter for a little stretch from how awful his body feels. With how cramp it is inside and his uncomfortable curled up position while sleeping, it fell short so he went outside.

The End is a really weird place. End stones are dry and a little sandy, yet, it's not hot, nor cold, it's actually just about room temperature that's slightly lean towards slightly cold to slightly warm once in a while. It's really strange but not exactly drastic than one would have expected.

(Steven thought that a place found in the void would be colder, freezing even, since the void and outer space are kind of similar. Good thing he's wrong.)

Yawning, he mined the Endstone blocking the entrance and crawled outside to stretched his back, as well as his neck, his wrists and his legs before twisting his body from left to right to get that satisfying pop from his bones. The ability to mine and destroy things with his bare hands is still pretty wild for him, may be just a little below the reincarnation and being an Enderman thing but he is slowly getting used to it.

Another yawn escaped his mouth.

This is really hard, Steven isn't sure how long he'll be able to live like this if this continue. For how long it will be before he goes insane from isolation and the low static background noise while being surrounded by an Endless void ridden with deadly beings. He hoped that maybe, something good will happen, that with the sudden ability to mine, and with his hands at that, maybe lady luck will finally—

An Enderman stared at him.

Mind still half asleelp, he stared right back.

It stared.

Steven stared.

By the time he became sober enough to realized what he'd done, Steven could blurt out one thing.

"Uhh… hi…?"

What followed that was a loud, unholy, angry screeching and static.

Znnng

"—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!"

Znnng

"—SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY—!"

Znng

"—GETAWAYGETAWAYGETAWAY—!"

Znnng

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLPPPPPPP!!!"

Znnng

Needless to say, being chase around by Endermen—yes, plural, in which Steven despaired at. Because of course, the others just have to join the chase, with unholy screeching and terrifyingly unhinged jaws accompanied by a creepily loud static sounds in the background straight out of a horror movie aren't exactly the cup of tea, or coffee that he would want in the morning.

but boy, did it wake him up.

So he run, rather clumsily thanks to his new height and uncannily long limbs.

At first, it was nothing but a lone Enderman that is chasing him around but by the time he looked back to the Mob chasing him, there's already a bunch of them behind him.

Haunting, he thought suddenly remembering what a group of them is called.

Thankfully, he managed to loss some of them by hiding in a hole he made. He even manage to defeat the remaining ones since they can't follow him at the hole he made since it's only two blocks high and they're incapable of crouching.

He quickly take out the rest of them with multiple swipes with his claws layered with a new found enhanced strength that even he got caught off guard.

(He had training before, his uncle taught him personally with the help of his friends and colleagues when they used to babysit him before. So the moment he swiped his claw, he immediately knew that the speed of the strikes he just did is way more than what he could muster before.)

He now had a stack of Enderpearls because of that.

This sucks…

The being chase by passive killer monsters from the void, not the Enderpearl part.

And on the bright side, moving from island to island is now easier.

The backlash sucks though…

Also he forgot about exp's. Small glowing orbs alternating back and forth from green and yellow color.

They spilled out from the mobs after they died and made their way in to him and float straight to his chest the moment he got close.

He doesn't know if its due to his Enderman physiology, his training or just part of the laws of this new world but the moment he absorbed the exp orbs, he feels like he's being filled with something warm and pleasant and he feels strong all of a sudden.

He is [Level Six] now and perhaps this world use a different game mechanics than the usual vanilla minecraft he suddenly felt stronger the moment he level up.

Briefly, he wonder what else is different here.

That said, he isn't denying a way of getting stronger in case he encounter something way out of his league.

Still, that doesn't mean that he's gonna start hunting Endermen all of a sudden. Nope, avoid, avoid and avoid. Stay safe, thats what he's gonna do.

(Steven doesn't want to purpusely hunt sentient beings for resources when he could do with out it anyway.)

Enderpearls, in Steven's opinion, is a huge game changer.

Before, he had to bridge his way over to move from one island to another. Now though, he could just Enderpearl his way over the the next island as long as their not very far.

Though he still do bridge if the island really far away.

(he could vaguely hear the voices of his friends whispering inside his head (they sounded rather demonic for some reason if you asked him) for him to ignore his morals and just set a trap so he could farm for more later on due to how usefull they are.)

He still doesn't like the recoil that the pearl does with every use though.

Which means that he really needs to learn how to teleport on his own as soon as possible.

With a plan set for the future, Steven continue his walk and begin singing out of boredom.

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming—"

…his voice is still horrifying though, like someone put it in a cheese grater before putting it in a paper shredder.

But he's not giving up! He will sing until he manage to get his voice up to standard or at least acceptable level!

He will not accept having a butchered eldritch horror voice for the rest of his entire second life!

Walking, walking, walking aaaaand more walking.

Oh, and singing, that too.

Steven practice singing as he walk and walk and walk for more, taking a break for both once in a while to eat and sleep.

…and taking a dump too.

(He never thought that his friend's kleptomania would one day be a big help. He doesn't now what he would do without tissue in this place. He's also surprised that he still needed to take a dump from eating chorus fruit since, you know, pixels.)

He also trek hills of Endstones sometimes while singing, which is really troublesome with him still being slightly off balance.

(He's been practicing katas that his uncle taught to him when he used to live in UK as well, partly to get use to his new body and to get himself in fighting condition. In case he accidentally trigger another haunting attack or some thing dangerous that would require him to fight or defend himself.)

Speaking of singing, his voice exercise has been going really well. In fact his voice doesn't sound like it comes from a meat grinder any more! Though it still has echo and a slight robotic edge in to it, kinda like autotune to be honest.

Which is fun to mess with.

So he sing songs that are mostly autotuned or techno while he trek the Endstone hills in a particularly large island.

It also help get his mind of somethings that he's not even gonna try to think about right now.

So right, singing!

"—It's gonna get a little weird,

Gonna have a good time!

I ain't from 'round here,

I'm from another woo-hoo!

Yea-ah!

I'm talking rainbows,

I'm talking puppies.

Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puuuhh—WAAAAAAAAAH!"

He tripped.

And fall down the hill.

Ow.

Again.

Ow.

Again.

Ow.

And again.

"Uugh."

He fell to the ground face first sprawling in to the ground.

He's hating his new height more and more.

Groaning from the pain, Steven picked himself off the ground and dusted off his clothes. He really needs to get used to his height quick because it's getting really really annoying. He adjust his clothes and his bag and notice something strange from a distance.

He immediately run towards the thing, his frustation over his height forgotten at the sight he saw.

'No way,'

He jumped down, skidded and Enderpearled his way to the other island.

'No way,'

He stumbled down, grunting in pain from the recoil.

He look up and his eyes widen at the sight. He smiled so wide as hope and joy made themselves show.

Finally, finally!

A forest of Chorus plants, a tall complex structure reminiscent of a branching tree, assortment of pale yellow and purple brick like stones illuminated with a slightly dimmed light in contrast to the lghtless void around.

Right in front of him is a—

"A End City!"

Steven felt like crying at the sight.

Finally! Something other than Endstones and chorus trees! It may not be something that could out right help him go to the overworld, but it has loots that he could use to help himself!

Enchanted diamond swords and pickaxe, potions, elytra, End rods, chest, Enderchest, purpur blocks, Endstone bricks and obsidian!

If he ever became desparate, those loots will be a big help in, he shudders, defeating the Ender Dragon if he didn't find a way to the over world.

(He's really hoping to find a way to the overworld that would not involve fighting a Nigh Invulnerable Giant Fire and Poison breathing Eldritch Death Dragon Ruler of the Void. Something, anything that won't involve untold amount of pain and agony and most certainly, death. Nope, not planning to die the second time. Certainly not in one of the most violent ways possible.)

Steven shakes his head and put aside the possibility of fighting the dreadful dragon. What's important is the city in front of him now.

Steven adjust his bag and put on his fedora as he walk forward the End City.

He has a city to loot.

[A/N:

Words: aproximately over 3000 words.

Its been a loooong time, since I've been here my friends.

And i'll tell you all about it when I post something again.

Lol, I've been busy with work and have been very distracted with Danny Phantom fandom.

Tumblr and AO3 had me hostage at this point.

Anyway, a new chapter! I don't know when i'll be able to write the third one, maybe next year or so lol!

I also feel like all my progress in writing, grammar and tenses got rusty and got way worse than it already was but…

Anyway,

Thanks for reading, Favorite, Follow, Review.

Schwarz out.