Free the Game, Beat the End [DreamNotFound]

Chapter 13

"Dream's not a fucking criminal."

"And we know that George." Sapnap sighed. "Everyone does, and yet they continue to hate him. Most of us labeled respawning as a dirty trick only 'they' can do. When we think of it, the first thing that comes to mind is them."

George gritted his teeth in anger tensing up as they walked.

Hating someone for living is a shitty excuse for jealousy.

George recalled the night before, remembering the girl who was exploded by a creeper. She didn't respawn. She died that night, and she probably would've hated Dream too. 

George glanced again at his friend, his eyes filled with sadness and anger for him as he turned around and looked at him, displaying his iconic smiley mask.

The mask he probably used to hide it all.

"What pissed you off?" He laughed as he walked towards them, presumably done with his discussion. 

Sapnap lightly hit both George and Bad on the shoulder, as if telling them not to say anything. "Nothing, what about you?"

Dream chuckled as he recalled the conversation. "Wilbur sent something out to everyone in chat. It was a code and they asked me to decipher it."

George heard about them using the chat before. It broadcasted the messages to everyone on the map though, so they usually communicated in puzzles. 

"What'd it say?" 

Dream smiled, relaxing his shoulders. "That we're not alone, and everyone's coming too."

***

The journey to the fortress was long and treacherous. 

Nights weren't as hard as George had thought they would be. For the most part the entire group would dig into a cave and sleep there, but on the occasional time they had to stay up to fight mobs George didn't have as much difficulty as he thought he would. 

He supposed it was just him getting used to the mechanics and feel of the game, as objectively the nights should've been easy compared to what was ahead of them. 

But although it was tiring, George found some aspects of it fun, like when he forced to squeeze into a boat with Dream or that time Bad's hoodie almost got pulled off. 

He had gotten a lot of practice within that time and before he knew it almost two weeks had past. 

And they were almost there. 

And George just began dreading the fortress more and more, hiding away the fear the managed to creep its way into his mind. 

Getting burned seemed like a painful experience, and he definitely would've liked to avoid it. 

Getting withered seemed dreadful, and he didn't know how it would even feel like. 

And getting killed was something he didn't even want to think about. 

George sighed as he put those thoughts away, listening as their group chatted to one another like they normally would, taking about the potential strategies and plays they could do within the fortress. 

In and out of the nether as fast as possible. That was the plan. 

But all of a sudden they came to a stop, the crowd of people squishing together as people tried pushing past one another to move forward. 

George went on his toes trying to look past him, but found himself just frowning at his height. 

"I can't see anything, what's going on?" He asked, but his voice was muffled by the whispers and chatters of the players around them. 

Sapnap tried pushing past the players but failed. "I can't see either, Dream what is it?" 

But he didn't respond, telling them to see for themselves, as the crowd slowly spaced away from one another, quickly rushing to explore the location.

It was a spruce village, burnt down to the ground, the only things left being the cobblestone bases of the house and the well. 

George stood there in shock at the sight. There was nothing left there, almost seeming like a barren waste land. 

But when Dream looked at it, he almost seemed mournful, as if was a sight he'd already seen many times, but one he would never accept.

"Quick! Set up shelter!" George heard someone yell, and all of a sudden players were quickly building makeshift bases, using the cobblestone bases to speed up the process. 

George looked up at the sky noting that it was afternoon. A little earlier than when they normally would, but from the state everyone was in, it didn't seem like they would have been able to continue walking regardless. 

George glanced at his friend, who had taken a seat on one of the burnt down houses.

And though his expression was covered by a mask George could feel the strange sense of sorrow and fear radiating from here as he processed the situation.

He was about to ask about it when Sapnap came walking up to them.

"The villagers here are different George." He butted in, reading his thoughts. "They aren't like the idiots they are in actual minecraft."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Sapnap furrowed his eyebrows, finding a way to describe it before being interrupted by Dream. "They're like AI's." He explained, keeping his head down as if he was paying respects. "They talk and act a lot like real people. Have you seen the farmers back at the base?" He asked, and George nodded in response. "Well some of them villagers. Here they are essentially just players who can't even fight back." 

His eyes lit up in horror as he looked around once more, this time seeing the disaster in a whole new light. 

These villagers could think, smile and laugh just like them. They were lives too, wrapped up in this mess. 

Meaning this was a mass murder. 

"When the hunters find a village the burn it down so we can't get any pearls from them." Sapnap added. "They kill all them, and they can't switch professions here too, so its as long as the clergy are dead."

So they were calling them the hunters now.

And clergy apparently.

But neither of them pointed it out, too busy making out their situation.

"That's the thing." Dream said, as he stood up. "That means they found this village already."

Sapnap shot him a weird look tilting his head. "Yeah we know that, and?"

"We didn't think they were this far out." Dream cursed under his breath as he reorganized his thoughts. "We assumed it'd just be us against the nether, but the fortress should only be some thousand blocks away from here."  

George shot up in realization, as the thoughts flooded through his mind.

The fortress just got a thousand times more dangerous. 

Because they weren't just fighting the game. 

"The hunters, they're right on our tail."

[A/N]

To all the people asking where Purpled is he's been hanging out with Tubbo and Tommy.

Also sorry if this chapter was a bit short, but next chapter is like 3k words soo...

Last thing, according to my math (not wattpad's statistics because they are broken and actually suck) only a small percentage of people are actually following me so if you think you're following or liked the story pleas-