Beyond the strip lands

Hello everyone, my name is Johnathan, and I wanted to share a weird and very chilling experience I had while playing Minecraft.
It started when I went to play with the new 1.19 update, which had just been released earlier this week. I didn't know much about this update, other than a new biome would be added. After getting to the menu screen, I noticed something. . .off. The splash text on screen said the following.
"Are you aware of what lies beyond the Strip Lands?"
It confused me for a few seconds, but quickly shrugged it off as a simple April Fools day thing, since it was April 1st at the time. I created a new world and began collecting resources. Got some iron, built a small house for myself, and started a farm. I had no intention of beating the Ender Dragon yet. Just wanted to play it safe for now. 
5 minecraft days went by, before unusual things began happening.
On the 8th in-game day, I went down into the cave near my house and stumbled on a dungeon in an unexplored section of the cave. I immediately went for the chests to get the loot, but then stopped when I realized something. Turning back towards where the spawner should have been, a single sign was placed there, and what was written on it was the same thing as the splash text from the menu screen. At this point, I was confused. If this was an April Fools prank, then it wasn't a very funny one. With the sign still on my mind, I went back to the chests. The first chest seemed normal, with some iron, a golden apple, some string, and bones. But the second chest was different. The second chest had many different items that I had never heard of. A Reality Orb surrounded by blocks that seemed to be a fusion of bedrock and netherite, which were called Plasmic Cubes. 8 of these surrounded the Reality Orb, almost like it was telling me an unknown new recipe of some kind. While nervous, my curiousity got the better of me. I took the Reality Orb and the Plasmic Cubes from the chest before going back to my house.
Once I got back to my house, I found that some of the blocks had been switched to weird black and white blocks with an unknown name. The blocks didn't seem to do anything, but it still freaked me out. Why was all of this happening? Out of nervousness, I chose to run away from my house and build another one. After 700 blocks passed between my old house and my current location, I saw something, or maybe someone. The figure appeared just like the blocks from my old house did, but with an addition of purple veins growing all over it's body. Once I noticed the figure, my game suddenly crashed and the world seemed to self-delete itself.
When I booted up the game to create a new world, the first thing I noticed was that the splash text had changed. It now said something that made me freeze with fear.
"You say the creature from beyond the Strip Lands, right Johnathan?"
My fear overtook me, and I shut down the game and turned off my computer. Who was that figure? What did it mean by "beyond the Strip Lands?" What did that weird recipe do? I had so many questions.
As curious as I am, I do not wish to return to Minecraft for a couple days. I will update you all once I receive more information.
-Johnathan
Category:Series