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After the war I went back to New York. I finished up my studies and practiced law.
Melons. Rekrap had always loved melons. So the most obvious next project of his was to build the largest automated melon farm.
It was his dream. To hoard and monopolize all the melons on the server. He had written out and even drew up diagrams of what he needed, of the farms he needed - multiple iron farms, a slimeball farm, a string duplicator. An absurd amount of resources.
His shulker boxes were even colour coded so he could sort his inventory better.
There was already a manual melon farm up and running next to his base. It was a casual farm, meant for him to start slowly gathering seeds while he worked on resource gathering.
That man is non-stop
“Get… in there!” Rekrap cornered a villager. Trapped by dirt blocks, the villager walked itself onto the boat. “Phew. Easy. Now to get you to the farm.”
Using the boat method made it as easy as child’s play for Rekrap. Before long he already had both villagers in the breeding area. While waiting for the villagers to breed, he dug out the areas for iron golems to spawn and burn to death. Luring zombies into the holes was easy - he was done in one night.
Why do you write like you’re running out of time? Write day and night like you’re running out of time?
The clamour of iron golems burning to death resonated in the area.
Rekrap was found on his knees watching iron golems burn. He had finished transporting the villagers not too long ago, and was admiring the fruits of his labour. At least, that was how Pangi found him.
“Rek, come on. Let’s get you back home.” Pangi placed his hand on Rekrap’s shoulder and led him back home. The latter didn’t resist.
Now what I’m gonna say may sound indelicate
Rumours were circulating about his plans. He had already found a few people glancing at him as he wandered around gathering the materials he needed. Rekrap had occasionally gambled on his wit and charisma to promote melons to them. He launched into voluble discussions about melons, how melons benefit people, to the surprise and confusion of whoever listened to him rambling on about his lofty goal.
“Uh…” Planet and Squiddo listened as Rekrap continued expounding his plan for an automated melon farm.
“I’ve even drawn out what it’ll look like. “
They had randomly found Rekrap as he was clearing dirt to assemble a beacon. By now, Rekrap had half of the beacon structure assembled. That was all he could do, considering how he ran out of iron.
“Hey Rek, what’s next after the beacon?” Squiddo interrupted, hopeful that Rekrap would move along.
“Probably to get ice blocks,” his hand instinctively touches his silk-touch pickaxe. “Still gotta wait for more iron.”
“Go on ahead then, we don’t want to hold you up.”
“See you guys around then!” Rekrap flew off with his elytra. Squiddo and Planet shared a concerned look before going off to do their own thing.
The ice blocks were to water the farm. Instead of transporting an ungodly number of water buckets, he would just let the ice melt exactly where the water was supposed to go.
Rekrap had saved a pair of depth strider boots for the niche reason of picking up the ice blocks faster after he had mined them out. The tundra biome was not too far off either. He reached the frozen ocean in a few minutes and got to work collecting the ice blocks.
‘Pfft, I don’t think anyone else would specifically get a pair of depth strider boots just to get ice,’ Rekrap mused. His pickaxe tore through the ice blocks, sending them down onto the non-frozen layer of water below.
Why do you write like it’s going out of style? Write day and night like it’s going out of style
Another day, another shovel. Rekrap clenched his diamond shovel. It was on its last few bits of durability, another hundred or so dirt would break it. Shaking his head, Rekrap continued on digging dirt. To his surprise, the shovel broke after sixty.
“Huh… Guess I’m just tired.” He shakes his head. “No, I’ll just do something else. I still need to check on the iron farm.” He didn’t want to waste any time. He still had more building materials to collect after all.
The iron and snow farms were working nicely. He would have to do some work to turn the snow farm into a slime farm, but that was for later.
Also for later was a wood farm. Rekrap knew he needed thousands of chests. The farm was supposed to be gigantic after all. Though, his design of a wood farm was semi-automatic at best. He would still have to manually plant saplings and use bonemeal on them. But at least it had a high output per harvest.
He also planned to utilize autocrafters at some point. Thousands of chests and hoppers? There was no way he was manually crafting all of those.
Four layers. His idea was to have four layers of farmland. With a few hundred chests per layer, it explained the unholy amount of wood needed. The ground was planned to alternate between dirt and moss - at the very least he could build an automated farm to get more moss blocks. Dirt gathering was, unfortunately, manual. And so was the act of actually laying out the farmland. So, four layers of it? That was going to take an ungodly amount of time.
The flying machine was the one that needed the most attention. He had a rough idea on how to design it, but there were too many components. He needed help.
And he knew just who to ask.
Aaron Burr, sir.
“Branzy?” Rekrap had gone to Branzy’s base to search for him. He knew that Branzy was good with redstone and contraptions. And he needed help.
“Rek?” Branzy was lounging around in his base. “ It’s the middle of the night.”
“Can we talk?”
“Do you need something?”
“Yes, and it’s important to me.”
Branzy sighed. “Alright, what do you need?”
“Look, you’re much better at redstone than me. You know how they work, you’re creative with your builds. The project I’m working on needs a redstone master and you’re the solution.”
“What’s the project?” Most of the active Lifesteal folk already knew about his lofty project, but Branzy still had to know exactly what Rekrap needed help with.
“A flying contraption that automatically farms melons on a large scale.”
“No.” Branzy glared at him.
“Hear me out!”
“No way.” Branzy groans.
“I’ll plant a large field of melons, and the machine will go on harvesting the melons and storing them in chests on the two ends of the field! And everyone is free to come and take the melons too if they need it.”
“We don’t need that many melons.”
“I disagree”
“And if it fails?”
“Branzy, we can still have fun!”
“Your plans are a mess.”
“So it needs amendments...”
“We don’t need melons.”
“We can modify the design to fit whatever crop we’re farming.” Rekrap shot back. “We have to start somewhere.”
“No way, good night.” Branzy was just about to close the door when Rekrap stuck his shovel between the door and the frame.
“Why not? What are you waiting for? We’re finally at peace now. What was it all for? Don’t you want to make the most out of it?” Rekrap had let himself inside. “Do you support the peace we have?
“Of course.” Branzy turned around, not willing to manhandle Rekrap out.
“Then make the most out of it.”
“And what if you’re backing the wrong horse?”
“Branzy. We fought, and we killed for the notion of the server we now get to build!” Rekrap grabbed Branzy by the shoulders. The latter merely looked away. “Just this once, take a stand with pride! I don’t understand how you stand to the side!”
Their eyes finally met. Branzy could see the determination in Rekrap’s gaze. It was clear that the latter would not give up. Not that easily, at least.
“I’m keeping my plans close to my chest. “Branzy pushed Rekrap away from him. “I don’t want to put a target on my back. They are restless. I know some of them are eager to shed more blood. I’m taking my time to see what everyone else is doing first, watching the tension grow between everyone.”
Both men continue to glare at each other, one with determination and the other with contempt.
It was Rekrap who, after a long moment of staring at Branzy, finally broke eye contact and left.
I am sailing off to London, I am accompanied by someone who always pays. I have found a wealthy husband who will keep me in comfort for all my days
He was unfazed at the sight of Jumper coming up to him. What caught him off guard was the forlorn smile she had after she hugged him.
“I’m moving far away from spawn, Vitalasy’s coming with me.”
“What?” Rekrap’s eyes widened.
“I’ve teamed up with him. We came up with a new build idea and it will probably take months.” Jumper elaborated. “ He’s not as fun as you, but then again, no one can match your antics.” She gave one last pat on Rekrap’s back before pulling away. “My Rekrap…”
“Jumper…”
“Don’t forget to come visit me.”
Rekrap nearly dropped his hoe as she walked away. He enjoyed her company. He enjoyed having her around to banter with and work together. He knew that Jumper was looking for something new to do. He just didn’t think she’d actually leave.
Look at where you are, look at where you started. The fact that you’re alive is a miracle. Just stay alive, that would be enough
“The fact that you have this much is a miracle,” Pangi muttered as he walked over to Rekrap.
The latter was busy fiddling with his chests. He was transferring thousands of dirt blocks into shulker boxes.
“Thanks Pangi,” Rekrap turned to him.
“You know… I’d be happy if we could spend some time together. You’ve been working nonstop farming melons for the past month.” Pangi took Rekrap’s hand in his.
“That sounds nice.” Rekrap gently squeezed Pangi’s hand. “We can do that after I’m done with the melon farm. I’ve got a plan, and it won’t take long. Hopefully.”
“Alright. I’ll be waiting.” His voice cracked. Deep in his heart, he knew that Rekrap would not stop. Not until he got what he wanted. But would that be enough?
Would he be enough to satisfy Rekrap?
Branzy rejected him, but Branzy wasn’t the only one around.
Rekrap joined forces with Flamefrags and Wemmbu to start building the automated melon farm. The plan was to prepare the four farm layers and have the seeds fully planted, with the work divided equally amongst the three of them. In the end, they had eight layers of farmland and planted all the seeds.
Wemmbu got sick after finishing a single layer.
Flamefrags managed to complete three layers on his own.
Rekrap finished the other five.
How do you write like you’re running out of time? Write every day like you’re running out of time? How do you write every second you’re alive?
Precision. Accuracy. Rekrap meticulously placed the slime blocks and pistons. He placed down the minecarts and activated the mechanism. The device flew smoothly, gathering the grown melons and collecting them in the hopper.
While it was unfortunate that Branzy refused to help, he was glad that, in the end, he managed to somehow get his contraption to work.
The first layer was mostly experimental. He built one unit of the flying contraption and - to his surprise and relief - watched as it harvested melons. Satisfied, he continued on building more units to cover the remainder of the first layer.
Rekrap was happily finishing off the last unit when he saw off in the distance an eerily familiar row of slime blocks. To his dismay, the contraption flew off into the distance past the edge of the farmland. That was when realization sank in, he did not put a stopper.
He toiled away with it for about a week until he found a solution - leaves. Surprisingly, it worked as a stopper. The flying contraption turned around by itself when it touched the log blocks that he placed on the edge of the farm.
It was when he had finished with the storage system on the second layer when another issue arose. A trail of melons was not being picked up by the minecarts on the layer below. He wasted no time jumping down and inspecting the area.
“What the hell…” Rekrap muttered. About halfway along the farm, he spotted a minecart, abandoned by the flying contraption. “It must have fallen off.” He picked it up and all the melons that were inside it.
It took half a day for Rekrap to figure out what had gone wrong with his farm. He managed to figure out the main issue. Lighting. Mobs were spawning and moving the minecarts and dislodging them from the flying contraption. Rekrap had to pause and somehow include jack-o-lanterns into the design as a workaround against mob spawning.
The issue with the minecarts was solved. For now.
They are asking me to lead.
Rekrap was laying out the chests and hoppers for one of the middle layers when Minute approached him.
“They are asking me to lead.” Minute began. “I’m doing the best I can to get the people that I need. I hear you’re making a melon farm?”
“Do you want me to make a melon-themed build?”
“I know it’s a lot to ask.” Minute continued.
“Minute.” Rek tried to interject.
“For you to take time out of your already busy schedule.”
“Minute, do you want me to make a melon-themed build at spawn?” Rekrap finally got through to him.
“Yes, please.”
“Okay.”
Look around, look around, Isn’t this enough? Helpless…
“Rekrap.” Pangi glared at him.
“I have to leave.” Rekrap didn’t even spare him a glance. He had his shulker boxes filled with redstone, slimeballs, chests and a few hoes.
“Rekrap!” Pangi glared at him.
“Look around at the progress I’ve made.” Rekrap gestured to his shulker box. “It’s mostly just the redstone stuff that I need to work on now.”
“Rek, come on. Let’s go do something else.” Pangi leaned his head on Rekrap’s shoulder. “You’ve made a giant melon farm. Isn’t this enough?”
“No. You know I haven’t fully implemented the ‘auto’ portion of the autofarm.” Rekrap pulled away from Pangi. “Minute asked me to help decorate spawn, too. There’s still plenty of work to be done.”
“Rekrap!” Pangi shouted, but he could only watch as Rekrap left. “Why…” He held back a sob.
He will never be satisfied.
“That man…” Jumper mumbled. She was building a blaze farm with Vitalasy. “He won’t be satisfied.”
“Who?” Vitalasy asked. “We’re out here dealing with blazes and you’re distracted?”
“I’m just thinking of Rekrap. I’m worried about him. And for Pangi.” Jumper paused, turning to look at Vitalasy. “That man is obsessed. He’ll stop at nothing to farm melons. He’ll break Pangi’s heart at this rate.”
Vitalasy placed his hand on Jumper’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “They’ll be fine.”
Look around, look around/ He will never be satisfied/ Why do you assume you’re the smartest in the room?
Hopper, hopper. Chest, chest. Rekrap realised he made fewer mistakes placing them. It was the sixth layer - he had been placing chests and hoppers non-stop for the past few days.
It wasn’t just muscle memory though - Minute had gifted him a swift sneak enchantment book. Not only did it allow him to safely -i.e while sneaking - place blocks faster, the effects were added on top of his beacon’s effects. A different player building a small farm could do without it, but given the scale of Rekrap’s project, it was a godsend.
He found himself done with the storage within a week for that layer, a personal best for him.
He only noticed something was wrong as he went back to his base to grab his redstone shulker box - which was deliberately dyed red. The bottom layers, once again, had melons just sitting out on the farmland. A quick scan of the area did not show any abandoned minecarts this time. That confounded him, he was certain that abandoned minecarts were the source of this issue the last time he faced it. His next instinct was to check his chests.
He had underestimated his storage system. Melons were clogged up in the hoppers. Given the insane rate of melons being harvested, the hoppers could not keep up. Many ended up despawning on the farm. The first few chests of that layer were filled to the brim, while the chests further down the storage system were still empty.
“Oh no…” Rekrap groaned. He took a deep breath and started breaking hoppers. “Time to become a human hopper.”
The next day was spent manually breaking hoppers and transferring melons into the chests.
And considering the sheer number of additional chests added on each layer, he was once again grateful for the autocrafters.
Just you wait
He did it. It took a long time, but the farm was finally completed. All of the flying contraptions were working properly. The melons were trickling into his extended storage system at a decent rate.
At this rate, he quite frankly was perfectly fine with the few melons that were not caught by the hoppers. All he had to do now was to let the machines do their job as time passed.
In the meantime, he gathered the melon slices from multiple chests and crafted them up to melon blocks. The melon farm was complete, but there was no time for Rekrap to exult in his achievement. His mind was already brimming with ideas on fulfilling Minute’s request. He was already imagining it - a melon temple, a melon statue, and a small decorative farm only meant for aesthetic purposes.
Branzy watched from afar as Rekrap outlined the temple. Was it for the sake of posterity? An attempt to encourage the others to worship melons the same way as him? The melon temple was not a coincidence. Branzy ascribed it to Rekrap’s subtle cunningness - the man was as smart as he was loud with his ideas. The choice of making a temple was deliberate.
Barely an hour later the temple was fully outlined with melons. Branzy scoffed and walked away. He wasn’t interested in seeing Rekrap building at spawn. No, he had better things to do, his own projects to complete.
So why did he turn around to look at Rekrap once move? Why couldn’t he take his eyes off him?
I will not throw away my shot
Oh. Their eyes met.
Oh. The way Rekrap gazed at Branzy. It reminded him of the night when Rekrap requested him to help with the redstone. But there was hunger, a flicker of madness in his eyes.
Branzy shuddered, finding himself rooted on the spot, unable to walk away.
To Rekrap, the statue was a statement. The temple was the nest, to nurture anyone and everyone’s budding interest in melons. Every Lifesteal member would know him as the melon guy. Of the significance melons hold in the server - after all, it was still a crucial ingredient in potion brewing.
And as Rekrap stood on top of his (outlined) melon temple, Branzy knew there was nothing that could stop Rekrap.
That man was unstoppable.