Oli's Diary

## The Silent Expanse

### Monday, Update I

*Tap, tap. Tap, tap. A cyrogenic... frozen... chamber... golem... voluntary coma... The hatch?*

The chamber door was lifted by the bluestone golem. All the other chambers were empty. *Ah, dammit. Must have been last.* *Where am I?*

Although there were multiple chambers, only one was ever used. The other empty chambers were to represent his friends. So if Pixelator's chamber opened, then it would represent him being awake. *Barely remember the crash now...* I looked at the clock. Every second, reflected on that ominous red interface. *2 years... Three moons!* *I hope my chamber landed somewhere good. Perhaps the Emerald Trail? It's too silent for that... How strange. Literally everywhere in Aetheria has ambient music...*

I slowly, cautiously opened the door of the metal bunker. *You've got to be kidding. Out of all the areas I could have landed in, it had to be the Silent Expanse. A level 100-110 area.* Usually such levels could not be obtained, but with a certain quest, non-aberrations could gain such a level. *Well this sucks... hopefully I'm near a town. If so, would any...* I opened my status screen: I had guessed what had happened but... my skills, abilities, levels, and... everything had declined, slowly wasting away. I predictied it would happen, but it was still painful to see my effort and work reduced to a near neophyte's level. *Almost as bad as the Lost Legion... they used to be good. Maybe in the two years they improved?*

I stepped out, looked around. Of course, there had to be nothing. What luck. I considered calling for help, but remembered that the Silent Expanse had been dubbed such a name for a reason. I opened up my minimap. Lucky, I'm not to far from the Border Mountains, Level 25 area. I went from ninetyish to mid thirties... what a scam. The only problem was, well not only. I had a lot of problems:

1. I had to make it to the borderlands, around 76200 blocks away. Yes, that was a small distance, 72km compared to the Silent Expanse that stretched over 700,000km squared, almost as far as the Backrooms.
2. I had to make the journey without encountering a single hostile mob or player
3. All of my good gear (stored in a chest) had requirements like: Must be level 90, or Must have 600+ combat skill. I had no gear or any items I could use
4. Aetheria was over a hundred billion square kilometres and my friends could be anywhere
5. I had no food or water, or shelter. Plus, I had no cold-protective armour, only my 'pajamas'.
6. It was -18**°**C (-0.4F)

The journey on foot, if I sprinted 12 hours a day would take about... well, about 12 hours. *Well, thats not too bad. But I don't have food, and the only establishments in this area are Lutho, and the Eldritch Outlook. Wow, two civilisations in a total of, like 700,000km squared. Maybe I could get the golem to come with me?* I glanced inside. The golem had already de-activated, and would rest there for eternity. In one last desperate hope, he rummaged around in his item chest. *What a suprise! 31 Spellcrush Potions... I guess I did have some stuff... Ah, dammit. Requires Brewing Skill 300+ to administrate. I have some obsidian, through, and... I'll just take everything, if I come across someone I can sell my stuff or bribe them.*

### Monday, Update II

As I was about to leave, something caught my eye. A purple-cyan screen, like a VE interface. *Pentigo.* I quickly tapped in to my account. Over 1000+ messages popped up. I immediately went to my friends group chat. *Need to let them know I'm awake... how much earlier have they waken up?* I immediatly typed a message to my friends.

[[Hey, I... I've woken up]]

My message was immediately responded to by Pixelator:

[[Where are you?]]

[[Silent Expanse]]

[[Uh... I'll get everyone to meet you at the borders. It has the flags '''Protected, Timewarp, Umbral, Spell Void''' and '''???''']]

[[Yeah... about that: I have no gear and my skills are dying]]

[[Oli, check your cryogenic pod, you may find some backup weapons such as electro/tasing staffs or shurikens that were specially designed not to require levels or skill, although experience and skill does help in how one performs with the weapons.]]

[[Thanks. Hopefully meet you there.]]

I stepped over to my pod and found a tazerstaff strapped to the bottom. As I worked unstrapping the tightly-stuck tazerstaff, I reviewed my knowledge of flags. Protected meant blocks could not be placed or broken (often placed around dungeons). Timewarp meant time went slower, and Umbral meant all light was dampened. Spell Void means no spells or abilities could be used/cast, and finally, ???: Unexplained phenomena occur within the biome; this flag was thought to be a glitch. I didn't know much about the Silent Expanse, but the ??? flag jolted my memory, and I remembered that forty-five out of the fifty-one un-named Anomalies spawned here. I took one last look at the metal bunker then stepped out, into the unknown.

### Monday, Update III

I haven't seen much monsters yet. After about thirty minutes of being paranoid and walking, I reached the Toxic Wastes.

It is quite beautiful from above... there is light even in the darkest of places. I saw something out of the corner of my eye… got to be careful.

   More paranoid walking. I'm quite tired... as I was looking for crevasse or a small cave to sleep in, I heard something. (Yes this may sound very normal but when you are in the Silent Expanse...)

*Voices.* *Real... people?* *H...humanity. Rescue.*

I stopped to listen.

*"Wow, that dungeon was real hard. We should leave soon."* A rough, dwarven voice. Quickly responded by a silvery, mystic one*.* *"Oh well, we only came here for the Dernic."* The dwarf (I assume) replied with: "*Something's on my Radar Device*"

I quickly slipped behind a fireblossom, and snuck into a small gap. They may be Terrarians, but they didn't have to be friendly. Within moments, I was asleep.

*Silence.*

*Shadows.*

*Static.*

*Gray.*

*Fading.*

*Lost.*

*An... entity?*

I was walking down a hallway. But it wasn't blocky. *The Otherworld?* Multiple doors. A backrooms article. One of the doors drew my attention. A cold radience. I walked up to it, and as I gripped the door handle memories flashed in front of me, my whole life playing infront of me, like a bad quality old film. As I flung open the door... *a room. My life was like a movie. I watched everything I did, my past life envoking a strong homesickness. All the blunders I made. And at the end... credits?*

### Tuesday, Update I

I woke up to silence. Shadows still played in my eyes. *Shadows...* I blinked. They didn't disappear. *Great. Who doesn't like waking up to an attack by a Nameless Anomaly.* I was totally unprepared, but I had one advantage: It knew I was here, but it didn't know that I was hiding in this exact crevasse. I had two options: to fight a losing battle or win an impossible race. Or just be stuck here for eternity. Something popped up on my minimap, however, while I was considering: *Ruined Olmic City - [Level 100].* Perhaps I could sprint to it. I stared at the minimap, silently calculating. What was that symbol in the bottom? Some kind of voidcrystal the shape of the letter "N". It was closer to me than the Olmic City. Atl east 200, 300 blocks closer to me.

*Crack!*

*Damn, stupid thing-*

The rock broke. I jumped out and ran, hitting the monster with my electrostaff. Its Stun III actuivated and I gained a +3 second head start. I started sprinting- Only 500 to the 'N'

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a message: [[Pixelator: Oli! Keep going, I'm almost there, 8 more minutes!]]. *YES! That was quick.* I threw off my armour, attempting to distract the monster while he spun 90 degrees.

I had made one mistake, however. I quickly realized that with no armour, the jagged landscape of the Silent Expanse might kill me. In a panic, I blindly blundered through spikes and holes, running through a pile of items. *Someone had died*. But this was no time to grieve. I grabbed an ender pearl, and the monster was only 50 blocks away. I could feel it's static, it's cold aura. I threw the pearl.

〔*-16 HP*〕

Ah... I had forgotten that without armour, pearling would do quite some damage. *56 HP left... at least I got closer...*

### Tuesday, Update II

I saw Pixelator in the distance. Just the sight of him restored my mental state... after being away from my friends in the Silent Expanse had really drained me of happiness, and my... sanity, I guess. The monster was gaining on me, and his horse was travelling incredibly fast so-

Nah, I just jumped. Luckily I made it on. "WOO! It's so great to see you again. Fourth moons and fireballs, I thought I was going to be trapped there forever." Pixelator threw a modified TNT, distracting the creature temporarily. Luckily, now that I was on one of the speediest horses known to Aetheria, I should be safe. I haven't had food in ages, so when Pixelator offered me a cinnamuffin... I shoved the whole thing in my mouth *(Yeah, I'm not proud of that.)* I fell asleep soon after.

### Tuesday, Update III

After about three hours, Pixelator woke me up. "Hey Oli, what happened to the others? Did you find any more hibernation pods around you? I didn't. Mine was alone with TARS." I carefully responded: "No, I didn't see any... all of the representation pods were open, so probably everyone woke up. Hopefully everyone is on this continent, though. This continent is MASSIVE, through. The only continent with a 'silent expanse' is Nemract." "Nemract... How large is it compared to Eohune?" I was about to reply when Pixelator glanced down at his life-form scanner. "Huh, 10,000 blocks? That's too close."

"Who?"

"Lucas and Gravel. You'll... see them soon. Their blood..." "Anyway, Nemract... Well, if Nemeract was a continent the size of Eohune, Eohune would be the size of Aetheria City." Pixelator exclaimed: "Woah! That's massive." I gazed off into the landscape when Pixelator tapped me on the back. "Hey, Pix, we should make camp here. Don't wanna run into them at night, whoever you're talking about." Pixelator agreed with me. "Yeah, I'll tell you the story as we set things up. We can dig a base in that small mound of dirt there." "Ah, okay. Nice. So... what happened?" "Well, my hibernation pod fell and poof, I popped out almost instantly. Guess we were shot out at around that time. After getting out, I got my electro staff, drained power from TARS and took some other backup things from the pod. I head over to this isolated structure with a wall. I barge in to the gate because I feared an ambush was waiting inside. Some villager struck me, that villager's name I later found out was Gravel."

Pixelator put down a makeshift brewing stand and started brewing 2 bottles of Soda. "Anyways, he attacks me, and I fight him. A human walks in, Lucas just as I stun the Villager by piercing his shoulder, pinning him and turning to shock to max. I pin him to the wall with a shuriken, we talk as I heal him due to a misunderstanding and the villager attacks me, I beat him up after he hits me and give him a golden apple while apologizing." Pixelator took a sip of his soda before continuing. "I said I'd have to find the others and took off. They were meant to be at the castle, I mean I'd understand if they went exploring but they've been coming closer, as if they were following me."

Pixelator put some sugar in the rest of his drink before shaking it and downing it all at once. He looked at me. "Do you think they're trying to reinforce me if I was in trouble or trying to sneak up on me?" I considered, and carefully replied: “I’m not sure… kind of strange. It seems like there was a… bad start, say. Perhaps they’re checking or observing us? But I really have no idea…”

"Luke was more relaxed and negotiable, less impulsive. The Villager was more aggressive and probably restrained from attacking due to the fact that I would've killed him if he did." “Ah, ok.” I honestly had no idea of what to think of the two people Pixelator had encountered. Pixelator looked around before setting the robot on guard mode. "I'm sleeping, you should too. We gotta wake up before those two get here." He head off to bed. Within moments, I was asleep too.

*A room, so dark, it was like the void. Had I died? I couldn't remember. I walked around, feeling the walls. My hands ran into something, so smooth it was like a piece of wood that had been sanded athousand times. I felt across it. It was a shelf, containing many... tapes? I grabbed one and searched for a player. Eventually, I found it.*

*"It's doomsday. The WMD have been launched, take shelter underground, make sure you have lots of supplies and you are with your loved ones."*

*I quickly shut it off. Were these... my memories? From the Otherworld? I quickly grabbed another one. I now recognized which one it was for touch. Ah, my favorite day. I had met up with many of my online friends, in real life and we were smiling, joking, having fun. Little did we know in around five days our life would be shattered. But why was this my favorite memore? Surely I had friends... I coundn't renember? Was I a loner? An orphan? I couldn't bear to think of it. **Surely I have a family? Someone to care for me?** As I went to the cassette player, I tripped over something. A... hand? The tape smashed on the ground. I was in despair - My favorite memory, shattered, lifeless, dead. I turned around, ready to grab another one, then I saw it- two white eyes and a smile full of sharp teeth, running, disembodied towards me.*

### Wednesday, Update I

*An explosion!* I quickly shot up and placed a block of obsidian above myself, in instinct. I heard Pixelator's voice: "AH! Oh, goddamn. That drone will be expensive to repa-". His voice was drowned out quickly by an explosion. "Thieves? Assassin? What the hell?" He checked his tracker. "No... it's them. That son of a $!%@#! There's no way Lucas would've led this, I can calm him down, that stupid long nose has gotta go. He wasn't so keen on allying with me, probably dragged Luke here for backup and shot the arrow himself." I heard more battle sounds outside, explosions, shouts. The ground shook, swords clashed. I started to mine the obsidian. *Damn! I don't have a pickaxe. Right, ten minutes of mining spikey obsidian with your bare hands isn't too- OUCH!* Ten minutes later, I broke out (with a very sore hand). A giant enderman, and three people fighting. I knew what to do. After a full sleep, both my mana reserves were full. I activated my ultimate, dashing forward. A storm of blades, ice, fire, and shrapnel flew towards the enderman. However, this ability was cut short, as I was only level 30, and the mana requirement was too high for me. I still took away a whopping 2/3s of the enderman's health bar. Pixelator continually thrust his spear into the enderman, a cascade of purple ooze flying out with every strike. The enderman howled in pain, grabbed Pixelator's spear and snapped it in half. "*Stupid thing*." The villager which Pixelator dubbed Luke charged in and cried: "FOR STELLA!"

The enderman made an unearthly noise. "***HGRAA!~***" It kicked me a few blocks away. "NO!" I heard Pixelator. "Fine then, might as well." He pulled out 2 cleavers attached to each other on a chain with a semi circle part of them missing on the side of the edge and quickly threw a few compact pearls of gunpowder in the air as he started slashing them and the enderman to create an explosive effect. Void fire and sparks flew everywhere, and with each strike Pixelator landed came a blue blast. “What is that?” Gravel asked. ”I. DON’T. CARE.” Lucas yelled, and charged in. The enderman screamed in pain as Lucas slammed down into him, but unaware of Pixelator attacking at his feet, Lucas was blown away by the explosions. Swing after swing, Lucas charged back, his blades leaving a blue ark as he swung them furiously, at an incessant crescendo, leaving crescents of colour after every jab and slash. Pixelator was knocked back, his health bar a mere centiblock. I rushed to him, ready to heal him when he activated his Ultimate.

『**String Performance**』

He flew forward, leaving behind a multi-coloured trail. He combo'd and p-crit the enderman over and over again, each masterful technique that he had learnt being reflected on his blade. Sparks of fire flew everywhere, every sword movement a piece of art. Firework explosions cascaded out of his blade, until the enderman's health bar was just a silver of purple. “GET HIIIIIMMMM!!!” Gravel yelled, then suddenly released his ultimate, fire streamed from his body at the enderman. “!evil tsum I ,oN” the enderman screamed out as he tried to crawl along the ground away from the group. Gravel finished streaming fire and rested on the ground. Suddenly Lucas ran at the enderman, anger aflame in his eyes. "YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY SISTER!!" Lucas yelled

"OOOOOOOOONNN" The enderman screamed as he vanished into dust. Gravel's face was emotionless, as the EXP surged into him, crystal after crystal. Gravel looked up.

### Wenesday, Update II

”How did that get out here?” Gravel asked. I thought about it for a while then carefully responded: "I... I don't know... strange... it must have come from one of the... corrupted dungeons perhaps? Or maybe the dungeon boss was a replica of a Nameless Anomaly?" "Nameless anomaly... Are those the glitched ones, guardians of the tol altar?" Pixelator looked at me. "Wait, didn't one of those chase you in the Silent Expanse?" “Yeah… I think so… but those ones spawn naturally… No-one has had approval to attack a Tol altar yet, through there was a summit to attack one just a day ago…” "My level is in the mid-80s. My stats have faded around 15%. What about yours, Oli? What level are you at?" I laughed. "Mine? My deterioated af. Level 40ish for me." "Huh? The cryo-chambers should have slowed it down... The silent expanse does have the timewarp flag, meaning that time can go slower or faster depending on the area you are in..." “The silent expanse must have sped it up. It speeds up negative effects and slows down positives. It really is an evil place” Wow. That is horrible. How do we end it? Is it possible to destroy the silent expanse? I mean it is large but, how large is it in area in terms of sqkm?" "I’d say around 700,000 sqkm.” Lucas broke in: "Hey, I hate to break this up but do you mind filling us in on what the silent expanse is?" Lucas asked. "It's a long story." replied Gravel. Everyone turned to look at Gravel. "Wait, you know what it is? How come I've never read about anything like this?" Lucas asked. "You weren't looking in the right places. There used to be tons of information about it. Until Herobrine destroyed most of it." Gravel replied. I decided to interject: "The AEG should have lots of information on it through. And how'd you know that?" Gravel paused for a second, taken aback. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” Gravel replied. Was he hiding something? I remembered what Pixelator told me about him. I decided to be subtle in pressuring him. "K, but any information would be great." Pixelator was more direct. "Gravel, was this information from your home? Before the Herobrine attacks, I mean." "Yes, now go away." Gravel replied, starting to get annoyed. *What is he hiding? Can I trust him?* I tenatively questioned, not wanting to upset or make Gravel mad: "If you don't want to talk about it; it's fine; but any information would be really super important to the AEG and us." Gravel only got more annoyed; so I decided to leave him be. He walked off to brutally thrash a training dummy. I sighed.

*Should I tell them? Maybe Gravel knows already... but would he tell us if he knew? It will cause widespread panic; the AEG were correct. Is it better to tell my friends; or will that make them worry? I don't know... but the AEG must stop it; they HAVE to! We can't just row off into a different contident; that's impossible... if the situation happens; the only exit is the LC Waypoint!*

I shook my head. *No; I'll wait...*

”C’mon, me should head for civilisation instead of spending the night out here…” Gravel glared at me, sighed and responded “Where then?” I looked at my minimap. “Elmglow is pretty close… only two thousand.” “Sure.” I climbed onto the back of Pixelator’s horse. Lucas said something to Gravel, then they were on their horses. We rode off at a slow pace, following the sunset. Soon after; we arrived at Elmglow.

### Wenesday, Update III

Elmglow was not unlike Owl’s reach, except it had been clearly made for travellers. It was much more welcoming, and as our horses went through the front gate we were greeted with a collection of cabins, each emitting it’s orange-yellow glow. Most of the cabins were under a moss-covered cave, a waterfall falling over it. Vines draped and dotted the landscape everywhere, and roughly carved stone steps, almost ancient led us to the cluster of tents set up for travellers. “Those… look really small.” Pixelator remarked. Another traveller nearby overheard us and laughed. “You kidding- never been in a expandable tent? Don’t worry, each one of these could house multiple families- and more!” *Is he drunk?* I was unsure about Elmglow. It seemed very friendly; but after being in the Silent Expanse I felt more like I was an introvert; almost tsundere, and I didn't want to talk to random people. The place gave me wierd vibes. I was overwhelmed by town- on one side it was tranquil and quiet and the other was like a popular inn. There were too many people. "I'll camp outside." Gravel huffed. "I'll come." I added. *An excuse to leave without being rude...*

I set up my tent afew decablocks away from Gravel's. *Give him some space; I suppose.* I scoured my inventory for food. Only some cold chicken that Pixelator had handed me on the horseride to Elmglow. I quickly ate it, and lay down my sleeping mat.

### Wenesday, Update IV

*Cold. Dark. Empty.*

*My body was surrounded by a thick, watery, jelly-like substance. I couldn't see; almost couldn't breath. I heard something behind me. I spun around with suprising ease; considering the thick substance I had thought that would hinder my Agility. Nothing. Still the black, empty, void. So SILENT, the SILENCE so strong it hurt. Nothing, nothing made a sound. The SILENCE was loud. It echoed throughout the expanse, this non-Euclidean space, like radio static. I attempted to walk in one direction. It was like walking in honey. I squinted, and saw something in the distance.*

*A metal door. I stepped forward, taking a moon-walk like step towards it. Yet it seemed to move away, either that or I was moving. With all my efforts, I was still unable to get a single centiblock closer to it. The SILENCE grew louder, to a point where I couldn’t bear it. It was sapping my sanity away, screeching with nothing. I bent down, covered my ears, anything to prevent that dreadful sound of emptiness and isolation reach me. It continued to grow louder, expand, and I was in utter torture. My ears were dying, even with every effort to stop the sound of SILENCE.*

*SILENCE is so powerful. It shuts down words, communications, separates us, kills our opinions, puts us in nothing.*

*And SILENCE, pure SILENCE ran through my body, each second more painful then a thousand hot knifes stabbing at me. Then it shattered. Now it was nothing. Much better then SILENCE, but still terrible. Nothing was here? Was I stuck here forever? A voice whispered in my ear, “Stop.”*

*I turned armour. It was Entity, His beautiful white cloak draping over what seemed like a black nothingness. An empty void.*