The Illager Outcast

Author's note:
Most of what I will write here is based on my real experiences in this Minecraft world and in real life (names changed for privacy though!), although I have embellished the story to make it into an actual creepypasta instead of just a bug report with some unusual real-life experiences thrown in for flavor. Anything I actually experienced in this world will be in normal font, while added details will be in bold. Also, I made two YouTube videos detailing my true experiences in this world (with screenshots!!!), you can check them out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSkZuiE70M&ab_channel=DragonGirlStar and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3O-ebva8M&ab_channel=DragonGirlStar. For the first video, though, there is a little bit of incorrect info in it - I was looking at 1.18 facts while playing in 1.17. (For example, when I said that Vindicators can't spawn in patrols, when really they still could in 1.17.) 
Also, the formatting of this is being really really weird, so please correct typos if you see them. Now, on with the stories!
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November 2020
All I wanted was a break from M's pranks, so I created a new Minecraft world on November 19th. We'd shared a world for a while in Education Edition, paid for by our school, and during that time I managed to teach her about Minecraft creepypastas, to which she decided it would be a great idea to pretend she was a ghost haunting our server by using invisibility potions and her admin permissions. So as soon as we got our new school computers, I started a world just for myself. 
I randomized the seed and loaded in, but it was barely three minutes before nighttime. I thought this was odd - don't worlds usually start earlier in the day than that? Anyway, at night I was absolutely swarmed by mobs, again very odd seeing as I had the world in easy mode. Within two minutes of not moving much at all, I was tailed by six zombies, three skeletons, two spiders, and four creepers, so I towered up and boxed myself in to wait for morning. When morning came, though, I saw something that confused and delighted me.
A perfectly rectangular cliff as if it had been purposefully cut that way, perfect for building a house, right next to a ravine that was almost completely covered by dirt, leaving a very small mine entrance at the top. Everything was completely perfect there, so I started cutting trees to build a base out of wood. Of course, this base also happened to be perfectly next to a huge forest and a river, so I quickly got all the supplies I could ever need. Really, everything worked out perfectly. I placed water at the top of the ravine entrance to be able to travel up and down easily. Overall, my world was absolutely perfect, plus or minus a instances of lava touching water and strange world generation. I decided to check the seed to show M so she could make a world in it too. 766387534, if anybody wants to check it out.
The next day
Of course it was too good to be true. It just had to be.
On my second day in this lovely world, I started exploring. I found a village directly behind my new cliff base, about 400 blocks away, but not much else of interest. No lava pools, no structures, and no exposed ravines besides the one right next to my house. Nothing cool within 400 blocks to the right or left of my house, so I decided to go explore in front of my house. While walking, I wondered if maybe my world could be glitched badly in some way, with what I'd already noticed happening. The sun started setting, but at this point I had full iron armor and tools, so I wasn't worried and kept walking. I had been walking for maybe three minutes, and the sun had just disappeared over the horizon, when I noticed something in front of me, floating in a river. I went over to check it out, thinking it could be a mob to kill for loot, but I guess I was a bit luckier than that. It was a full set of completely undamaged, unenchanted gold armor, all in the exact same spot, and I had no idea whatsoever how it got there. I hadn't been in this area before, and my render distance was set to 8 chunks to prevent my laptop from setting itself on fire, so there was no way it had been there before two minutes ago. And even if that wasn't the case, it couldn't have dropped off of a burning skeleton or zombie because it was in a river. So how the hell did it get there??? I decided that was enough exploring for one day, put the armor in its own chest to remember the weirdness of how I got to own it, and logged out, thinking the whole time about what kind of problem with the world generation could cause all this.
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December 2020
I didn't play for a week and a half after the gold armor incident. I mean, I played Minecraft Education, yes, but I did so in a new world I made, and basically only did building in creative mode. On December 1, I logged back on and went mining and exploring. Not much happened, to be honest.
One week later
Okay, I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but when I went to type a command in chat (I think I was trying to change the weather) my font changed. Instead of the typical chat font, which looks kind of like this website's font in Education Edition 1.17,
 it looked more like this.
I have no idea how this could even happen. Somebody please explain. After it changed, I decided to just type out "Hello?" to get a screenshot of the issue.
Two weeks later
When I tried to join the game today, the world join buttons were completely off center. I've never seen that before, but I'm sure it's just a Minecraft Education glitch, seeing as Education is the most broken, buggy creation to ever call itself Minecraft. I'm still having fun in the world despite that, and by this point I've gotten myself a diamond pickaxe and an enchanted bow that I use constantly. I play on the world maybe once or twice a week, during study halls or at home. I've been decorating my house, making the floor deepslate tiles and adding a fish tank in the wall for some reason. I have an Illager banner hanging over my door from the time I found a patrol wandering through a cave while mining. No clue how they got there, but hey, I got loot from it, so I won't complain.
The next day
I walk out of my house after loading in and what do I see? A vindicator at my doorstep. By itself, not in a patrol. Strange. I check the location of the nearest mansion to make sure this wouldn't be a permanent issue - I was thinking it could have wandered out from one a thousand or so blocks away, since there were no signs it spawned with a patrol - but the mansion wasn't in sight. Not just that, it was eighty thousand blocks away. I popped into creative, teleported to the mansion, and looted it for fun, although what I got was pretty disappointing: a lot of string, a few treasures, a name tag, one totem, and Disc 13. Great. Out of every disc I could've gotten, I got the boring one. At this point, I've been keeping M updated on whatever happens in the world, and she thinks the lone vindicator is super weird.
One week later
I finally decided to go to the Nether. I've had a portal for a few days, but have been ignoring it. Anyway, I got just about the worst Nether spawn point possible, except for a floating portal: a system of tunnels leading to a soul sand valley. Needless to say, I stay here for all of fifteen minutes before I change to creative mode, pick a direction, and fly in it, and when I tell you things started happening, things were happening. I came across a fortress and went back into survival mode (not before finding a burning floating netherrack cross that looks like it came straight out of a 2018 faked Youtube video about hunting for ghosts in Minecraft, which made me laugh so hard), looked around for a blaze spawner to get powder for potions, and found an empty one. This world generation hates me. Also, I keep trying to turn my render distance up to explore in the Nether, but it's set itself to 5 chunks against my will and refuses to change in this world. I can set it up to sixteen in my creative mode building world. So for now I'm stuck in the fog. Greeeeeat. 
Anyway, I left the Nether after that and explored the Overworld instead, which seemed much more interesting, although I went back into creative mode, because why not. I found another vindicator by itself outside my house, this one floating in the river behind. I also found an empty jungle temple, with no traps to loot for redstone and no chests to loot for items. What did I say? This world hates me so much. Also, when I put the world into host mode for M to join, she couldn't. It kept giving her error messages, even though we were on the same version, which isn't unheard of but still odd.
The next day
I flew around a bit more in creative mode today. I found a lot more weird world generation but nothing exciting.
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January 2021
I've been spending a good bit of time in this world flying around. I have free time at around the same time every day, so I have a schedule for when I join the world every day. And every day, in around the same spot each time, there is a new lone vindicator, and every day I kill it. In the time since December, I've managed to get full netherite armor, sword, and pickaxe, although I never use them. I have two entire chests devoted just to armor I get from killing monsters, so I usually use that. When I have a sword and bow that do as much damage as they do, I don't need good armor. I've made it a joke among a few other Minecraft players in my class that the world is haunted, even nicknaming it "Hauntings" (although the file name is still just My World). Oh yeah, and I got a skeleton horse! I've nicknamed him Magician because he somehow manages to break his rope every time I tie him to the fence. None of my other horses do this. Are skeleton horses bugged?
One week later
I swear my life just flashed before my eyes. My hands are shaking so bad I can barely type this. I don't know if something is actually going on or if something is wrong, but all I know is that something is absolutely up with this world. I'll explain once I stop panicking.
The next day
Okay, I guess I owe you guys an explanation.
I was playing on the world again, like I do every day after school at the same time, and for added effect I was listening to Halloween music in the background - the song was Dies Irae by Rival. Yes, like the ancient death chant. Yes, a modern version. Yes, you should listen to it. Anyway, I was going outside my house in the game to collect a water bucket from the river, and the song is building up to the first beat drop. I sit back from my computer and start lipsyncing with the song-
THUD.
I freeze. I pause the song. That had to have come from my desk, right? How is someone below me right now when no one entered my room? (For reference, I have a loft bed with a desk underneath, and I sit on the bed part to play Minecraft on my laptop. I can't see the desk from on the bed.) I walk back inside my house in the game, closing the door to make sure nothing attacks while I'm away, and message the first person I always go to about all of this.
M HELP
Is it about your world
I was just playing Minecraft in my spooky world and something fell off my desk below me! I'M IN BED
Yo what? That's creepy OMG
Yeah I know, I was listening to spooky music too (just for vibes) it happened right on the beat drop
OMG-
I tried to continue playing without worrying, but I was still pretty concerned. I put up a sign outside my house saying "Hello? Is anyone there?" just in case.
The next day
The sign I put up is gone. In its place is a totem in a frame. I, of course, freaked out at first, then took the totem, leaving a sign saying "Thank you! Would you like a gift in return?" I guess we wait for a response now. Whatever left that, it doesn't seem too hostile, if it left me a present.
Three days later
A fire randomly started outside my house, but I put it out before it could destroy too much. Two trees lost their leaves, but other than that it didn't do any damage to the surroundings. I thought I saw a skeleton in broad daylight walking in the fire, but my eyes are probably messing with me. I also managed to capture a vindicator and put it in a glass box to show my friends if they ever join the world. I gave it a nametag so it wouldn't despawn, its name is Spooks.
One week later
I found a pillager captain outside, killed it, and started a raid on the village behind my house. I wanted to see if anything unusual would happen. The only thing there was that I thought was odd was when the counter of how many mobs were left briefly flicked up to six after a long time with only five, and then changed back so quickly I couldn't even manage to get a screenshot. Only one villager is left alive, and I've barricaded it in its house so it doesn't get into trouble.
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March 2021
The world has been shockingly normal since the raid. I've just been playing it like a normal survival world, and I haven't seen any vindicators since then. I thought I saw one, but there was nothing there when I ran over. I've started on two new building projects, because my old house under the rectangular cliff is functional, but not pretty. Both are very small builds, as I prefer to build things that are tiny and detailed rather than spending months building a 500-block-wide castle that I'd get lost in immediately. Anyway, the first project is called Blazing Dawn Estate, a fancy name for a house made of various types of stones with lots of crimson planks and stained glass. The house has a main room and two bedrooms. One is bright and ornate, with a huge stained-glass window of a sunset that takes up the whole wall, while the other is Nether themed, complete with lava lighting the room from behind glass. The second project is a small base filled with armor and weapons and designed to look like a geode. I built it in case I ever decided to do a raid again, to see if I could catch what that sixth mob was supposed to be. I haven't found any captains since then though, which is annoying.
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April 2021
Did doing the raid undo all the haunted-ness of the world? I left another sign asking who had given me the totem, but I still don't have a response. I've finished both my build projects, and I'm now trying to upgrade my gear as much as possible. Education Edition seems to only let you get three enchantments on something with books, so I had to find something that spawned in with four enchantments in order to upgrade. I managed to get four on my bow by finding a good one dropped from a skeleton and combining them, but I doubt I'm ever going to find a netherite sword with four enchantments already on it, so I'm out of luck. The world is still being oddly normal, and I haven't encountered anything weirder than flying water blocks and my shockingly-low render distance. I still don't understand why it won't let me change it in this world. Oh yeah, and one time the sky went dark and wouldn't light up again until I left the world. I tried changing the time and weather, but it stayed dark. I managed to record this and upload it to Youtube.
One week later
I don't like this anymore. I think I saw a player in my world when host mode was off, right in front of Blazing Dawn Estate. They had a nametag above them, but they were far enough away that I couldn't see what it said. It might have been a mob with a nametag on, but I didn't put a nametag on any humanlike mobs other than Spooks, and it's still in its tube. I sent a message in chat asking who was there, but when I closed the window there was no one. I didn't get a screenshot because I assumed the mystery figure would still be there after I chatted. WHO WAS THAT AND WHY ARE THEY IN MY WORLD????? At least nothing else is happening in my bedroom right now. I'm logging off this world. I'll come back when I'm ready.
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September 2021
I downloaded the world onto my computer, as well as all my other significantly-less-played-on worlds, just to be safe. I'm going to start playing on the world again after ignoring it all summer. I want to see what that player thing was.
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October 2021
I've been playing on the world a lot, and besides a pillager patrol I fought despawning mid-fight, absolutely nothing has happened. I've been playing it as normal survival, and I like it a lot. I don't think any of my friends are really going to play on the world, though. I wish they would. Anyway, the vindicators are back, but only about once a week rather than daily. I'm worried that I offended whoever else is in my world with me. They gave me a totem, and I killed every odd-spawning vindicator that showed up. I'm not sure if I should have done that. I left a sign asking if the other person is okay, but still no response. I'm a bit sad, honestly. They might have meant for me to do that, though, so I guess we just wait and see.
One week later
I got another sign today. 
Thank you.
Thank you for what, I wondered. Was I supposed to kill the vindicators? Is that why they appeared there? Who keeps leaving these signs??? Are they actually as friendly as they seem?????
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September 2022
I didn't play for most of the summer or the rest of last year. Minecraft Education won't open at all after I updated it to 1.18. This isn't a Hauntings thing, but more of a computer problem, as plenty of my classmates have the same issue. I guess I won't get to play in the world until this gets solved. Maybe I can get a loaner computer to do elective activities.
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October 2022
I'm in Minecraft elective again for the first trimester of this school year, so I have another month or so to play with the loaner computer I got. It's a crappy Chromebook that I can barely sign into, sure, but I get to see Hauntings again. I tried opening the world in Java Edition in 1.18 once but nothing odd happened. I tried the same on my Nintendo Switch, to no avail, except for that one part with the entire forest of beehives. (There was one on every single tree. Is that a thing that happens or is my world broken again?)
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November 2022
The elective is over, I'll try to do it again in spring. I only managed to play on Hauntings once, and nothing odd happened at all. It's kind of sad.
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April 2023
I signed up for Minecraft elective in Trimester 3. I got another loaner Chromebook, this one even older and chunkier and slower than the last, and immediately entered the seed, which I'd had memorized for a year and a half at this point - basically since I started the original Hauntings.
Something pretty quickly went wrong. No matter what I did, my hunger didn't decrease for at least a half hour after joining the world. And even with this completely full hunger bar, I never regenerated health. I had to set up a command block to give me permanent Regeneration 1, because there was literally no other way to get health back at all. I mean, I would leave the world and come back with the same 4 hearts I left the world with, and never got any more than that. I haven't seen any Vindicators yet, but there are tons of creepers here, so it's still pretty dangerous. I built a small house into a cliffside, with windows to look down. Overall it's a fun world to play in, plus or minus a bit of tweaking to make it work.
Two weeks later
I got an odd message on Discord earlier today, from a user called o_u_t_c_a_s_t#1119. No profile other than that, no badges or status or anything. Join date November 19, 2020. I basically immediately thought this was odd, as we had no servers in common and all they'd sent me was an image and a bit of text, and immediately went to block them as soon as I opened the message.
I stopped, though.
The image was a totem again, and the message was another "thank you" without any clear direction.
I asked who I was talking to. No answer. I asked what was going on. They responded only with "you know." I asked what I was being thanked for. They responded with one of my own screenshots, which was disturbing, but since they didn't seem to mean harm I wasn't all that concerned. The screenshot was of me holding my diamond sword back in the beginning of Hauntings, facing a vindicator, about to kill it. I asked if they led the vindicators to me so I could kill them. No answer. I asked if they were what made the world so glitched. No answer. I tried to ask if they had left me the gold armor back in the beginning, but got a notification instead, saying I could no longer chat with the user. Blocked. Odd.
So, Outcast, if you're reading this, which you very well might be, thanks for entertaining me for two and a half years. I still don't know who or what you are, but thank you. I miss you.