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The Unstable SMP, known as the largest smp in Minecraft. Saparata liked spending time on the server with his friends, there was so much to see, so much to learn, so much to explore. They had joined the server a couple of months ago, barely making it out of spawn with their strengths combined. They both have been through a lot, but they were together. And that’s all that they needed.
And yet, here they were. Living in the capital city together, it was fine, really. His friend may have nagged him about it all being ‘boring’ and ‘plain’ and all, but in the end, they were safe and together. That was until everything changed… until the king of the server made a terrible choice.
—
Saps never gave the whole ‘king election’ thing much thought, he was busy living out his days together with his friend.
Flux.
Meanwhile, Flux was really interested in the whole election, he fully believed that Lettuce would surely win by a landslide. He had even convinced Saps to vote for him, much to his distain. But in the end, he just couldn’t say no to a friend, could he?
He gave in to Flux’s persuasion, giving his vote to Lettuce. Deep inside, he kinda supported him. Hearing about how he was going to execute the well known war criminal Wemmbu actually made him feel better about everything. He was happy that Flux and him would be safer after Lettuce won.
The whole election stuff came to an end when the atrocities that LettuceK had committed were shown to the public, but that didn’t change Flux’s view of him. Even in the end, they both still voted for Lettuce.
But, he lost. Saps had somehow expected this outcome, but he didn’t care about who won what, all he wanted was to play with his friend. He helped Flux to forget about the whole thing, telling him that whoever the king was, things wouldn’t change.
…
But they did.
After this guy ‘Parrot’ became king, everything turned for the worst.
—
“Hey Saps, it’s your turn to buy food, I’m too tired for today.” Flux rested back into his chair, putting down the book he was reading for a brief moment as he looked at Saps who had just left his room.
“What!? Come on, it’s not my turn!” Saps shot back, he was already tired about not sleeping well last night.
“It is though, don’t try to lie your way out of this one.” With that, Flux got back to reading his book, ignoring the pleading look of Saps.
Saps couldn’t say anything back, he knew that Flux was clearly lying, but when did confronting him ever work? He chuckled in annoyance, grabbing a few diamonds on his way out as he left their home.
They lived in a small rental inside the Capital City. It wasn’t much, but Flux seemed to like the quiet life. Saps rolled his eyes at that, as long as they were both happy and safe, that’s all he cared about.
He finally managed to his find the food stalls, the streets were a lot more crowded than usual. Actually- no… It was abnormally more crowded. There seemed to be hundreds of players walking around the place, Saps was sure that this wasn’t normal. Still, he tried to ignore the obvious eyesore, making his way to the food stalls.
“Hey!” He put his hand on the table, taking out the diamonds he had with him. “How much for a stack of golden carrots?” He asked.
The guy behind the counter looked tired, Saps barely heard what the guy said.
“Sorry, we’re out of stock. All I can give you is like, 6 pieces of bread.” The guy sighed, taking out a bundle of bread.
“Wha- What do you mean you’re ’out of stock’!?” Saps shrieked, getting on his tiptoes to try and see behind the counter. There weren’t as many crates as the day before, which proved that the guy wasn’t lying.
“Well, all these new players just bought out the stock. Like, they took everything!” The man complained, staring at the crowd behind Saps in annoyance.
“Oh. Wh- what’s up with those guys anyways? Did a civilization blow up or something? Refugees?” It didn’t make any sense, how could so many people show up to Capital City in a single day? Either they were all Refugees from a big ass fallen kingdom, or an invasion of sorts.
“Newbies.” The guy groaned, staring at the crowd behind Saps.
“Newbies..?”
“New players.” He answered once again.
There was no way this many newbies players could join the server at once, Saps had never seen anything like this before. But the guys didn’t seem like he was lying. Once Saps took a closer look, he could see that most of the players didn’t have good gear. They were surely the newbies they were talking about.
“But- this is absurd! There’s no way that this many newbies could come at once!” He exclaimed, this was stupid.
“Blame the king for that, he opened up the spawn, tidied it up like he was expecting guests at any moment.”
“Oh.” Saps became quiet. The spawn was made for natural selection, survival of the fittest! This new king was ruining the system of the server, and for what!? He didn’t know.
“Fine, i’ll take the bread.” He placed 2 diamonds on the table, more than what he owe.
The man gave him the bread, looking at him sadly.
“Look, i know you and your friend shop here often so I hope you guys can manage all ‘this’.”
After the conversation he had with the seller, Saps began paying more attention to the crowds. It was really hard to move around the streets, he kept on bumping into one player after another. Finally after a while, he made it to the door, entering the house in a daze.
— —
“Finally, what took you so long?” Flux reached to Saps, looking at his near empty hands.
“W- why’d you buy bread?” He asked, looking dumbfounded.
Saps was panting hard, it was so crowded outside that he couldn’t even see his way.
“Did you see the stuff going on outside!?”
“What.?” Clearly, Flux had no idea what was happening.
“It’s that Parrot ‘king’ dude, he- he opened up spawn!” Saps exclaimed.
“W- What..?” He stared at Saps, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
“Capital City, it’s filled with new players outside. It’s like, super crowded.”
Flux sighed, grabbing a piece of bread from Saps.
“Well, what’s the big deal?”
“…” Saps didn’t say anything, staring at Flux who had started munching on the bread.
“Yeah, you’re right.” He mumbled.
”Just get better food next time.”
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
“I think we should leave.” Flux had already collected most of his stuff, he was looking at Saps.
“What do you mean leave? W- we can’t leave, this is our home!” Saps shot back, they couldn’t just abandon the place they’ve called home for months.
“There isn’t enough food here anymore, we can hardly eat! It would be better if we just found somewhere else to make our own food farms.” His counter argument shot Saps up. He knew deep down that they’d starve if they stayed in the Capital city.
Over the span of a week, the city had gotten so overpopulated that there were hardly any food left for people. They only had one piece of bread left, Saps was planning on letting Flux eat the last one.
“You’re right… I’ll pack my things too.”
…
It would be for the best, they could live better outside. Without the trouble of finding food.
Yeah…
They would.
…
He began thinking inside his head as he collected his things. How could the king be this stupid, if he was going to get so many people onto the server he had to get enough food. The king was stupid, this was stupid.
But it didn’t matter at the moment, they would be fine.
Fine, just fine.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
They finally found a place to stay. After searching around for a few days, they both agreed on setting up a camp here.
They were at the outskirts of the kingdom, finally at peace. Flux had taught Saps how to make a few kinds of food farms, they weren’t sleeping hungry anymore.
They would sometimes see new players walking around, asking for directions. Saps usually tried ignoring them, which worked. They were happy and at peace, no more noise from the crowds, no more worrying about if they could eat or not.
It was actually fine, it wasn’t as bad at Saps had thought it would be. They would fish in a small pond, cut down trees to build a little cottage. The food farm worked quite well, despite being an eyesore next to the house.
Saps spent his days decorating the surrounding area. Making small paths in where they usually walked, planting flowers, decorating the farms. It looked way better than their old home. (According to Flux.)
They spend their days together, making a place they could call home. It was fun, exactly what Saps had wanted.
To play with his friend.
…
———
“Hey, look at this!” One guy yelled at his friends, walking over to their house.
Saps immediately called over Flux, who was sitting inside at the moment. These guys had diamond armor, but it was clear that they were just a bunch of new players. There seemed to be 6 of them, each holding a sword in their hands.
“What do you guys want?” Flux walked over to them, trying to be as polite as he could.
“Woah, is that food!” One guy from the back yelled, pointing at their food farm. Most of the guys were staring at the farm.
Saps did not know about the current situation of the Capital City, nor the other ones. He just hoped that these newbies would go away.
“Guys, go to that farm.” The guy at the front yelled, the two in the back started walking towards the farm.
So, these guys were bandits. Saps hated these types of guys, just doing whatever they could because well… they could.
Since they weren’t in the Capital City anymore, they didn’t have any kind of protection. Only their own raw power. And, you couldn’t say that Saps was the best at PvP.
“Hey, that’s ours!” Flux shouted, blocking their way. The guys sneered.
“Okay, we’re not dealing with this again. Just kill these two.” The leader of the group rolled his eyes, taking out his sword.
One of the guys tried to attack Flux, he protected himself with his own sword at the last second. After realizing what was happening, Saps immediately pulled out his weapon as well.
“Can’t you guys just leave us alone!?” Flux shouted, swinging his sword at the guy in front of him.
…
No one gave an answer, they just kept attacking recklessly, violently, pointlessly.
________
After a few minutes of battle, they could both realize that they were outnumbered.
“Saps, you just go, I’ll hold them!” Flux told Saps to flee, kicking the guy away from him.
“NO-“ Before Saps could do much, Flux kicked him away into a bush nearby.
Saps groaned in pain, he had a few bruises and slashes on his leg thanks to the bandits. He tried to get up, but he couldn’t do much but watch.
It seemed like the bandits were too focused on Flux, they hadn’t noticed him falling into the bush. He wanted to get up and help him, he was getting cornered by them near the farm. Saps tried to push himself up once again, inevitably failing.
His leg was slightly bleeding, but he couldn’t manage for now. He had to help Flux, somehow…
“Hey, his friend ran away?” One of the guys laughed, watching as Flux finally fell down to the ground. He was battered and bruised, bleeding at various spots on his body.
“Just finish it.” The other demanded, causing Flux to panic.
“W- wait!” He barely forced out the words. “Can’t we just tal-“
Swoosh
…
All Saps could see was Flux’s body falling to the ground. He couldn’t make a sound, maybe for the fear of being noticed, or maybe he was in shock.
He didn’t know.
——
He watched as the bandits ravaged through their farm and home. Taking everything they had, especially the food. They didn’t forget to grief it all before they left the place in shambles.
After making sure the bandits left, Saps still couldn’t move. He still hadn’t processed what had just happened. With tears at the corner of his eyes, he pushed himself up with all of his strength.
Making his way up to the house, all he could see was junk. They had taken everything.
After looking around for a minute, he finally spotted Flux.
Or, what remained of him.
He was on the ground, unconscious. Saps immediately knelt down next to him, trying to wake him up.
…
It was useless.
There was blood on his clothes, and in the ground near him. Saps teared off his own clothes, trying to bandage Flux up. He couldn’t accept it, it couldn’t be true.
Saps could feel how soft his arms felt, they’d taken all his armor, even his sword.
He grabbed Flux, trying to get him to stand. Only after he fell down did Saps give up.
His eyes burned, was he crying..?
…
Yes…
Flux’s body didn’t feel cold against Saps’s touch, it was still warm. He held onto the small glimpse of hope, he wished so hard for it to be true.
But there was no heartbeat, no pulse.
He stood next to Flux’s body, not even feeling his own injuries anymore.
He was gone.
Flux was dead.
Fluixon was dead.
How could this happen, why had this all happened..? If they hadn’t left the Capital City, maybe they’d still be protected. But they would have starved, one of them would still die.
Why.
Why had this all happened.
Saps froze, as realization hit him.
The bandits, they were all newbies. New players.
It was their fault.
If the new players hadn’t came, there would be enough food in the Capital City.
If the new players hadn’t came, no one would have raided their new home.
If the new players hadn’t came, Flux would still be alive.
And why had the new players had poured into the server..? Why were there so much of them.
…
The king.
…
Saps carried Flux’s body next to their house to bury him.
He slowly walked away from the place they both once called home, his heart burned with vengeance.
They had taken his best friend’s life from him.
They had took his peaceful life from him.
They destroyed his home.
They took everything from him…
…
Saps forced a smile on his face, wiping away his tears. He shook in rage as he stared at the ground.
They had taken EVERYTHING from him.
So, he’d take everything from them.