Chapter Text
Welcome to Hidden Life.
In this brand new Life Series, all 18 participants start with a random amount of lives. However, they have no idea how many lives they start with, and it continues that way until they turn red. Just like in previous series, once they turn red, they become hostile, and must try to kill all the other players. And if they die while on red, they are out of the series.
This season also brings back the boogeyman, meaning that every day, one to three people are chosen at random to gain the objective of killing someone before the day ends, or they will be automatically set to their last life. Also, a new role has been added: The Angel. Only one person can be the angel per session, and they gain the power of gifting a life to someone else.
"Everyone understand the rules?" Grian asked as they all gathered in a circle around a wooden platform at spawn.
The group nodded in agreement.
"Alright, 3, 2, 1, go!" He sped through his words and started running. Everyone else immediately followed suit.
Most people went in the direction of the village. Pearl broke some grass in her path as she ran, and got herself a seed or two. BigB stopped to take down some trees as the others went on ahead. Left behind at spawn were Scott, who went for the closest tree to the south, and Scar, who followed him and started breaking its leaves, getting some saplings and an apple. Martyn and Ren had run the complete opposite direction to everyone else, and found themselves struggling to navigate through the cliffs, only to find an open grassland with trees only scarcely spread about, meaning they had to split up to cover more ground.
The village broke out into absolute chaos as everyone tried to loot it as fast as possible before anyone else. Grian jumped down a small cliff into water as he spotted some sugar cane, immediately followed by Etho.
"Noo!" The latter cried out as he realized he was too late, to which Grian responded with a smug laugh. "I bet you can't get to this house first though!"
Etho indeed made it to the house first, where he found some food in a chest. Slightly above the two was Impulse, who'd just found a few pieces of hay in the upper layer. He wanted to reach another house, but it was a bit too far off and he had no blocks, so in a pinch he placed down two haybales in order to bridge up to it. Etho and Grian saw the opportunity and immediately snatched one for themselves each.
"Oh, thanks a lot, Impulse!" said Grian.
"What? Come on, guys!" Impulse chided as the two laughed.
Back in the main part of the village, Tango broke down some dirt blocks and started fighting an Iron Golem, along with Skizz's help. Joel and Bdubs raced for the farm at the highest point in the village. Gem was a tad too late to follow them, so she looted a nearby pile of hay bales instead. Mumbo hit the closest thing to a jackpot this humble village had, finding a chest filled to the brim with apples plus a bundle, then proceeded to join Gem at the hay pile. Cleo was at the house furthest to the north, where she stole all four beds just for the sake of it, then took some bread and apples from a chest and ran off from the village. Pearl didn't find any loot, but she managed to take two pieces of sugar cane out of a river nearby.
"Stop following me!" Lizzie scolded.
"I'm not!" Jimmy retorted. "Fine, I'll go this way then!"
He split off from her and ended up near Mumbo and Gem, only to see them take the very last hay bale.
"Oh, please! Can I have just one? I didn't get anything!"
"Nope!" Gem giggled and ran away, heading north.
"Hey!" He tried to call out to her, but Mumbo stopped him to share some of his.
After the initial chaos subsided, everyone who was still left at the village started breaking down the houses for wood and cobblestone, and crafting tools for themselves.
"Since you helped me out, Skizz, we can share this." Tango said, tossing him a piece of iron.
"How many have you got still?"
"I had three, so I gave you one and now I only have two. Should be enough to at least make a shield, right?"
Skizz immediately tossed back the ingot. "No, you keep that, you know why? 'Cause here's what we're gonna do: you make yourself a pickaxe, and then we share anything that you find with it. How's that sound?"
"Sounds good." He proceeded with making the pickaxe and stealing the village's bell. "Shall we find ourselves a cave, then?"
Skizz agreed.
With all the other players having gone mining elsewhere, the remaining people at the village were Joel, Bdubs, Lizzie, Jimmy, Mumbo and Pearl. They'd gotten a basic set up of tools and began considering their next steps.
"We need to protect the villagers!" Lizzie suggested. "Before any mobs or other players decide that they want to kill them!"
"Yes, we should probably do that." Bdubs nodded. "But how? Do we just place dirt in front of their houses?
"We can probably place a few in boats as well." Joel said.
"Right, let's get on with it then," said Mumbo.
But before they could get started with it, the entire server was interrupted by a message in chat:
[You are about to be assigned a random amount of lives.]
Most reacted in surprise, even though they knew what was coming.
[You have…]
[6/5/4/3/2]
The numbers alternated in quick succession before coming to a halt.
[??????]
…Of course. As per the rules of the game, no one was allowed to find out just yet. This message was more of a formality than anything. After this brief interruption, everyone went back to what they were doing.
Scott and Scar collected some stone and coal near a cave entrance, but the former left after realizing how many mobs there were. Scar stayed behind and tried go a bit further, but was quickly overwhelmed as well. Grian, Impulse and Etho also went into a cave and were bombarded by skeletons, but they pushed through and started a stripmine a little further down. Gem joined Cleo as they found some cows, and used the wheat she'd collected to hide them all in a hole. Further away, Martyn and Ren had just gotten basic stone tools, and managed to reach the snowy peaks on the far west side of the map, realizing they'd already hit the border after climbing it.
"Seems like a good time to start exploring the four corners of the map, as I like to do." Martyn said. "Would you like to join me?"
Ren thought for a moment. "Yeah, sure, dude!" He realized that he had nothing else to do, and it might be fun to try.
"Oh!" Martyn flinched as he noticed the message in chat.
[The boogeymen and angel will be assigned in 5 minutes.]
Ren looked at it as well as he saw Martyn's reaction. "I really hope it's not me, dude. I don't know what I'd do if I got the boogeyman day one."
"If either of us gets it, are we planning on being honest and helping each other out? What are we deciding on here?"
"I mean, sure. We can do that."
Back near the village, BigB had just finished mining some surface coal, and spotted Tango and Skizz leaving the village westward, so he decided to join them. Scott was back near the spawn area, and managed to find two cows. He didn't have anything to lure them, though, so he figured someone at the village must have taken wheat that he could borrow. Up north, Cleo had left Gem to hide the cows while she went and found a ruined Nether portal nearby. She looted some obsidian, iron nuggets, and two golden apples from the chest, then began mining coal and surprisingly lapis lazuli, which she'd found in a hole next to the portal.
[The boogeyman and angel are about to be assigned.]
"Please don't be me." Cleo said to themself. "Usually I'm all down for murder, but maybe not today? That would be nice."
[You are…]
She braced herself while looking at the chat.
[The Boogeyman.]
"Oh no…" She said amidst nervous laughter.
She'd never been the boogeyman before, and now she'd just so happened to get it right on the first day? What was she even supposed to do? How were they even meant to hide the anxiety that was already boiling up their blood? All of those racing thoughts were interrupted as Gem approached.
"I hid the cows, Cleo! Are you in there?"
"Oh, right, yes! Can you show me where they are?"
Gem led Cleo to a spot of dirt marked with a single dandelion, and briefly broke a block to reveal the four cows they'd found inside it, before quickly hiding them again as her eyes shifted around to make sure no one else saw it.
"Safe and sound!" Gem said. "So, did you already loot the ruined portal? I didn't find anything in the chest."
"Yep! I actually found two golden apples." Cleo tossed her one. "You can have it, as a symbol of our new alliance."
"Aww, thank you!"
Cleo framed it as a nice gesture, but in reality they were just trying to earn her trust. They quickly formed a plan in their mind, and it would only work if Gem was willing to go along with it.
"I found an entrance to a cave over while mining on that side, I think we should go there together." They suggested. She had no idea what the two of them would find in there either, but it was bound to present some kind of opportunity.
"Okay!" Gem responded with a chipper tone. "You lead the way then!"
The revelation that the boogeyman had been chosen had put not only Cleo, but the entire server on edge. The people at the village instinctively took a few steps back from each other after the message. Martyn and Ren had been honest, but were still hesitant to trust fully. Deep inside a stripmine, in a dark and cramped space, a group of three holds up their newly crafted shields while waiting for the rest of their iron to smelt.
"None of you are the boogey, right?" Grian asked cautiously.
"I'm not!" Impulse replied.
"Yeah, me neither," Etho followed.
"It would be very easy for one of us to kill one of the others right now. There's not really anywhere to run…"
"Yeah, but then they'd be in a 2v1, right?" Etho added.
"Is that your only reason for not doing it?" Grian raised an eyebrow.
"No! I'm not the boogey!" He defended himself in a panic. "I promise."
"Okay…" Grian still didn't sound fully convinced. "If you're lying to me and I turn my back to you, I'm not letting you off lightly on a betrayal, just so you know."
"Okay, all our iron's done!" Impulse brought the two back on track. "Let's keep heading down, guys."
The other two agreed and went back to mining, though Grian insisted that Etho be the one to go in front. It didn't take long from when they started for the latter to spot a faint light, along with some wooden pillars and cobwebs.
"Oh, there's a mineshaft here!" He informed the rest of the group.
"Let me see" Grian pushed right past him and went inside. "Oh, there is!"
"Okay, we should be careful." Impulse followed and the three settled near the entrance. "We don't have enough to make armor for all of us."
On their way down here, they'd managed to find 11 pieces of iron; three of which had made their shields, leaving them with only eight left.
"How about this," Grian suggested, "Two of us get swords, one of us gets boots."
"Okay," Impulse agreed. "How about… I get the boots since the iron's with me?"
"Hmm, I don't know…" Grian squinted to the side. "I don't trust Etho right now with an iron sword."
"What? Why?!" He asked, offended.
Impulse thought about it for a moment. "Hmm, yeah… he has been acting pretty suspicious, I guess. I hate to say it, Etho, but he's right."
"Dang it… what did I even do to you guys?"
Impulse placed down their crafting table and began making the swords and boots and distributing them as intended. Afterwards, the three carefully made their way through the dark and dusty mines. Grian used his shining new sword to clear away a cobweb that was blocking their way, and Impulse fought a zombie that had found their way over while they were busy talking. Meanwhile, Etho had gone on slightly ahead of the other two.
"Ohh no!"
They heard him from down the tunnel, only to see him running back, being followed by a cave spider.
"Uh-oh! Run, Etho!" Impulse started placing blocks to stop its path, while Grian screamed and ran back towards the entrance.
Once Etho had made it past him, Impulse was able to fully close the blockade. The three were left behind it, leaning against the cave walls while breathing heavily. Luckily, Etho hadn't gotten poisoned. Between the three of them, they didn't exactly have an abundance of food, so if someone took too much damage, they'd have to head back eventually.
"Okay…" Impulse sighed in relief. "I saw a chest down the hallway. We're gonna need to traverse really carefully if we wanna reach it." The other two nodded in agreement.
Back on the surface, Scar was now all alone. Finally admitting that he wasn't ready for caving, he decided instead to hop on a boat and start exploring the server. He began rowing from the water body down south of where he was, and immediately spotted a small island with a little bit of sugar cane growing on it, which he promptly took for himself. A little further were a few sets of stony cliffs, which he figured were a great idea for acquiring minerals without having to go into the big bad dangerous caves full of scary monsters.
Upon climbing on the shore, though, he was immediately stunned by the sight in front of him: an imposing cliffside, dotted with large cave holes, the darkness emanating from them at just the right level to increase its aura of power. On one side of it, a stream of lava could be seen slowly cascading its way down. On the other, a waterfall complemented it, glistening from the sunlight and splashing onto the rocks. Both met together at the bottom, where the true cave entrance fully touched the water. The only way in was by boat. And to top it all off, the area above the cliff was lined with a neat patch of grass and trees, just to give it the final touch.
"Wow! Look. At. This." Scar slowly enunciated every word. "Doesn't that look like the perfect place to make a base in? Just imagine being inside that cave, and extending out the lava to cover the entrance. I could have like a secret way in and out… okay, the ideas are really flowing now! I need to get myself in there ASAP." He mused to himself for a bit before running back to his boat.
At this point, nearly everyone on the server had already done at least some amount of mining. The only exception was the village group, who'd just realized that they'd spent their whole time so far breaking down the houses and moving around the villagers.
"Okay guys, we need to actually start planning to do stuff!" Bdubs called everyone together.
"How about…" Jimmy gave it a thought. "We split evenly? So, some of us go mining, and the rest stay here and farm, or build a base and whatnot?"
"Okay, sounds good." Joel said. "Uhhh… I'll go mining with Jimmy and Pearl, so Lizzie, Bdubs and Mumbo, you guys stay here I guess."
"Hey, why can't I go mining as well?" Lizzie asked.
"Oh I'm sorry, I just chose at random. Did you want to come with?"
"No, it's fine. I can stay here." She resigned.
"Actually, how about you go just the two of you?" Pearl looked at Joel and Jimmy. "I've been wanting to explore a bit around the server. We might find something useful as well."
"Yeah sure, we can do that." Joel shrugged. "Alright, everyone, set off!" He yelled out and ran down the cliff, followed by Jimmy. Everyone else also scrambled to start their assigned tasks. Pearl ran up the cliff nearby towards the other side, but the farming crew had barely managed to get started before they were approached by Scott.
"Hey guys! Does anyone have some wheat I can borrow?"
"Oh, I have some!" Mumbo perked up. "Do you have anything to trade for it?"
"Not right now, sorry…" He looked through his pockets. "But I just need one piece, because I just found some cows back there, and I wanna take them somewhere where I can start a proper base. I'm gonna make my own farm later so I can breed them."
"Okay…" Mumbo considered the request. "And will you let us have some of the cows after you breed them?"
"Yeah, sure." He responded without hesitation.
"Oh. Well, here you go then." He gave Scott one piece of wheat as agreed.
"Thank youu~!" He made his way back towards spawn in small hops.
On the other side of the mountain, Pearl found a patch of trees, though it was smaller than it could have been thanks to the world border being right there. As she chopped each of them down, she began considering her situation, and how committed she truly was to this crew she'd found herself in the midst of.
It wasn't a very strong alliance to begin with; it ended up forming only because those people happened to be the ones left behind in that same place, and they started working together simply out of convenience. She worried about there being an argument at some point, and it causing people to start fighting over access to the villagers. Or worse, someone deciding to kill all of the villagers in retaliation for something petty. She wasn't intending on betraying them for no reason, of course, but she wanted to at least consider a few more options before committing to this group. After all, it's also not that unlikely that one of them was the boogeyman for today, which could affect group dynamics depending on who they decide to make their target.
Unbeknownst to her, the real boogeyman was down in a cave somewhere, currently trying to collect iron and other materials alongside Gem.
"Phew! This cave is way too big. How much food do you still have left, Cleo?"
"Uhh…" she looked through her inventory. "Enough. We can keep going for a little bit."
"Do you wanna go at least until we find diamonds, and then we leave? I was looking around for a bit and saw a way further down, but I didn't see how we could actually get down there. It was just a hole with no walls nearby."
"Okay. I've just smelted some more iron, so we can get a water bucket." The place Gem had described lingered in Cleo's mind. Depending on how deep the hole was, it might be just the chance they were waiting for.
The two gathered the water as planned and Gem showed the location. It wasn't that deep. It would hurt, but definitely not kill. And Gem had just finished placing the water. Damn it, not quite yet. It would have to wait until a better time.
"Creeper!" Gem yelled as they made it down the water stream, carefully fighting it off as she reached the bottom. "I got it!"
"Ope, and I see diamonds!" Cleo cheered as she pointed down into the cave, but she instantly regretted bringing it up. According to their agreement, that meant they would have to leave now, which would mean throwing her chance away. She couldn't just straight up strike Gem while in this hole and engage her in direct pvp, no, she'd probably lose. Whatever method they used, it would have to rely on the element of surprise. But there wasn't time for that now, because while they were lost in thought, Gem had already finished mining and was heading back.
"Aww man… I only found one. Do we still head back up?"
"Umm…" Cleo was brought to their senses. "We should have one last look around. It is a pretty big cave, so it shouldn't be that hard to find more." She was determined to try one more time, but she had to make it count. The moment Gem found out her secret, the one advantage she had would be gone.
They wandered around the cave a little more, and found great amounts of iron, but no more diamonds. At one point, they stopped by a lava stream flowing down into a hole. Cleo considered pushing her down into it, but she started worrying; would it be enough? What if she got out, or fought back? And what would happen to their newfound friendship afterwards? Well, none of that mattered, because by the time they were done overthinking, Gem had already stepped far enough away from the ledge.
"Yeah, let's not go down there."
"Oh yeah, we probably shouldn't," Cleo chuckled awkwardly before following her. Having still not found anything and noticing that their supplies were running low, the two eventually agreed that they really should go back to the surface now.
They weren't the only ones struggling in caves, though. Tango had nearly died while exploring with BigB and Skizz, and Scar had found a nice spot to settle underneath the mountain, but which also had a huge cave underneath. He'd planned on exploring it further, but realized as he was taking damage from all the mobs around that he didn't have any food, so he set out to find some. He settled on exploring another cliff nearby which had piqued his curiosity. Unfortunately, it was a rather grueling climb, and he only just barely managed to drag himself to the top, huffing and gasping for air.
"Oh geez… That was way too steep of a climb! Let's hope it was worth it…"
Thankfully, the answer immediately proved to be yes as he looked around and saw chickens, pigs, sheep and even cows all scattered around. Not being able to hold his stomach grumbling anymore, he got to work right away and started slaughtering some of them for their meat. As he placed down a furnace and waited for it to smelt, he decided to keep exploring around for a bit until he reached the very edge, from where the original cliff was visible.
"You wanna know what? I think… that this might be an even better place for a base. You see these cliffs? No one's gonna be climbing up here that easily. And even if they do make it and start raiding my base, all I need to do is jump down straight into the water. I can even place a boat down right here before going, and I can just start rowin' away and no one can catch me!"
He paused his out-loud thinking to munch on some of the food that'd just been ready.
"Yeah, I could start working on that later, but right now I wanna see what everyone else is up to, because I haven't seen anyone all day besides Scott, and it's been real lonely here! Alright, let's go." He did as he said, gathering up his stuff before jumping down the cliff.
Back on the main island, Scott had gotten himself somewhat of a start, gathering up two cows in a hole, and a couple of chickens in another. He was in the middle of chopping down wood and outlining where his main base would be when he noticed three people practically stumbling out of the caves.
"Help!" It was Tango's voice. "I'm hurtin'!"
He followed the voice out of concern, and stopped close enough where he could be seen.
"Please! I need food!" The pleading continued, now noticing that there was someone around who might help.
"I haven't started my farms yet, but there's some pigs around you could kill." Scott said.
"Thank you, Scott," Skizz said on behalf of Tango. "C'mon, buddy, let's get you some grub."
"And how are you doin'?" BigB asked. "Is there anything at all we can help with?"
"Well, I have been in need of a bucket so that I can start planting some wheat…"
"A bucket!" Tango interrupted himself in the middle of slicing a pig. "Yes, we have iron! Here, I'll do it." He reached the nearest crafting table and got to work.
"I could also use some bone meal…" Scott said as he fumbled through his pockets to see what else he was in need of.
"Oh yeah, we fought some skeletons as well!" Skizz perked up and tossed him some bones. "Here ya go, buddy."
"Ya want some coal as well, for the meat? We got a bunch of those." BigB placed half of all his coal directly into the furnace nearby.
"Wow, I'm just getting everything right now—oh." Scott interrupted himself when he saw the messages that had just popped up in chat.
InTheLittleWood has made the advancement ["We Need To Go Deeper"].
renthedog has made the advancement ["We Need To Go Deeper"].
"Damn, already?!" Tango laughed.