Mysterious Creature of Minecraft

Everything I'm about to disclose is 100% true. Most of you will not believe me, but maybe one or two of you have experience what I have and can offer some help - if there is any to be had. But, for now, let's just get to the story.

I'm a casual browser of several 7chan boards. I'm a fairly normal guy and come for the taste of counter-culture, you might say. I work in an office and have a very routine life which I enjoy. Nothing extraordinary has ever really occurred in my life, until Minecraft.

I kept seeing all the talk of it on varied boards, so two weeks ago I just outright bought the game. Millions of players' collars can't be wrong, right? I immediately became addicted. I played late into the night, despite having to be up very early. I played from the moment I got home from work until the moment I forced myself off. I didn't know about mappers or cheats, so I just strugged on and on, toiling. I eventually put the game on my laptop and started bringing it to work. For a reason I never thought  much into, I was always mining - going deeper and deeper and deeper. I hadn't learned to forge, so when night came - if there was anything remotely dangerous around - I would simply wall myself into a passage and wait out the night. I didn't want to lose everything and had learned that the hard way from falling off a cliff.

One evening, I'd walled myself off and started watching television as I waited for night to pass, with one torch on the wall and a stone sword in my hand. Out of nowhere, something pushed me forward and I died.

When I respawned, I couldn't find my way back to the massive tunnels I'd dug. After nearly an hour, I gave up in frustration, but my addiction pushed me to start again. I started mining again, deep down, finally hitting lava, and hearing the spooky dungeon music. I walled myself off, hoping it would pass. Then, the music changed slightly. It became a series of random, glitchy beeps. As I walked forward to dig myself out, something hit me again, killing me.

This time, I had marked the area I was in with torches, so I trotted back. I found the passage and waited, constantly moving back and forth once I was inside, trying to see if I'd found a glitch. As soon as the music started, I put torches all over the walls. As soon as I paused, I saw it. It came out of the wall, as if the blocks there had come to life. It was just a form made of gravel and cobblestone, with a giant, red circle on its 'head' and a smaller yellow circle in the middle of that. It moved toward me ad my computer speakers hissed like I'd cranked the volume and blasted static. It killed me with one touch.

Frustrated and figuring it was just another monster, I searched everywhere - eventually finding the Wiki for Minecraft - and discussed it with several friends who played. No one had a clue what I was talking about.

So, I started a new world. As soon as I started, I was on an island and...there the thing was. It was across the water, made out of gravel, water, and sand. It had that same eye. When I moved, he mimicked me. I struggled to find a way around him. As night fell in the game, the blocks broke and he fell away.

Now he's hunting me across my worlds, randomly stepping into view and made of the surrounding blocks. He's always there to kill me and he'll kill any other creature around so that he alone can get to me.

Last night, he began to destroy my tunnels and the house I'd built on the island. I watched him do it. I was infuriated. The more I googled, the more I realized that I'm apparently the only one that's seen this thing.

I can't stop playing. I've been on a bender for the last 72 hours - even calling into work - trying to find him. His appearance is random and only the hissing lets me know he's near. I can't sleep, don't ever feel hungry, and I can't stop playing. This wall of text is the longest I've been away from the game in days. It's like he's pulling me in...and I feel more and more addicted every second I hunt him. When I look away, when I walk away for a cigarette, or try to sleep, my mind still thinks I'm building, digging, and trying to hide from this thing.

I don't know if it's truly creepy or not. I just know that  no one else seems to know what I'm talking about and when I try to screencap him, he doesn't show up.

I told  you that you guys would think this was just a story, but it's not. I ended up sleeping a good part of the da away, being too tired to even function. I logged into Minecraft and used my downloaded GPS mod to get my bearings. I headed for the latest mining area I was working in, waiting for circle eyes to pop out. To my amazement, he didn't. However, when I reached the site - which was little more than steps dug straight down, surrounded by gravel blocks marked by torches - I found something amazing. The gravel blocks had been removed, and on the spot was a diamond tower that rose up higher than the clouds. I don't have the tools necessary to break the diamond blocks, so I was forced to mine down around it. I found one of the original tunnels I'd dug, but all the torches were missing. It was pitch black and I knew that was suicide.

So, I make three full batchesof torches and climb down beneath the diamond tower. I throw torches up along the way and nothing seems to have changed - with a few exceptions. Every once in a while, as I'm walking along, one of the bricks in the wall along the path has been replaced by a gold brick. As I follow one of the paths, it seems to go on much longer than I remember digging it (which isn't that big of a deal. I dig so much I often lose track of what I did ten minutes before). However, the gold blocks appear here and there, as if they were bread crumbs marking a path.

Eventually, I come to an area that's just a giant pit, and this one I know I haven't dug; it's too perfectly square to have been naturally occurring. The bottom row of bricks are all gold, and in the middle of the room is a swirling purple disc. I had no idea what it was, so I opened a google tab, searched, and discovered it was a portal. It's not a big deal, but I didn't put it there.

I enter the portal. I'm amazed to get my first view of the Nether. I roam a little, mining a bit, and dodge creeps. I decide I'm going to go back out when it happens again...just as I had forgotten all about circle eyes. This time, he was pure blocks of magma, but with those same circular patterns, and he's standing right in my path, between my miner and the portal out.

He's like a shadow, mimicking my every step again. I move forward, he does. I step to the side, he does. I screencap him, and as soon as I do (which, again, yielded no results. Every time he's screencapped, he doesn't appear in the pastes. I've got an idea on how to sort that out with recording, but that's for some later discussion), he heads straight for me, and this time he's as fast as when you freefall from the top of a mountain. When he's six blocks away, the hissing in my speakers starts up, he touches me, and I die.

When I respawn and head back, hoping to collect what little gear I had, he's waiting for me at the foot of the diamond tower. Frustrated, I say, "Fuck it," and log off. I completely removed Minecraft from my system and then downloaded again, this time on a completely different laptop. I haven't played again since, but I'll see this afternoon, after work, if he's back. If so, then something is up.

You guys probably don't believe this at all, but answer a couple of questions for me anyhow. Humor me.

Is it possible, even though I'm not playing on a server, that someone else has "invaded" my game after changing their miner skin?