Respawn 404

Ren

When the message first appeared, Ren was the closest to Cleo's base. He had flown over there immediately, hoping that it had just been a glitch, but he saw the body almost immediately. It had just taken longer to recognise it.

She looked... Normal. Pale skin that likely hadn't seen the sun in years, yet red and patchy in some places, looking so different to what he was used to, yet... It was Cleo. Did zombies revert back to their normal form when they died? Or was there more to it than that.

Renthedog: found cleo, definitely dead. cant find a pulse or anything

He sent his coordinates in chat, receiving a bunch of worried messages as he heard cracks of fireworks nearby. Xisuma was first to land, followed by Grian and then Iskall. 

"Wow-" Grian whispered, his eyes widening - it wasn't the first corpse he'd seen, but he'd never seen one like this. It was barely recognisable as Cleo, but it was undoubtedly her, just... Human. 

"How the hell?" Xisuma exclaimed, glancing at her skin and squirming. "That's not possible in vanilla Minecraft, I don't get how- Someone would've had to modify the game code to do that, they'd have needed a mod, they couldn't have installed that, I would've noticed, so how the hell-"

"Whoa, calm down," Grian said hurriedly, placing a hand on Xisuma's shoulder to calm him down. "I'm pretty sure you don't need a mod, just slight alterations to player code, you wouldn't have been able to notice that unless you were looking for it, which you wouldn't," Grian tried to comfort, racking his brain to check if that would work. "Sure a mod would help, but it's not necessary if you're skilled enough in code."

"You have a lot of experience with code, don't you Grian?" Zedaph said quietly, his voice more subdued than it normally was - he'd been like that since Impulse and Tango, and Grian couldn't blame him. He'd probably be worse if Mumbo or Iskall went.

"I mean, yeah? I was admin of a server for a while - it's a pretty essential skill," Grian laughed nervously, glancing at Zedaph. "I'm pretty sure that's how it works." 

"Can you check the logs for any recent changes to the server code?" Iskall asked quietly, Xisuma only shaking his head in response. 

"Whoever could hack into the game code would easily be able to hide the changes, it's pointless checking," Xisuma responded, his voice lacking any hope. "We just have to hope that's the most damage they managed to do." 

"What do you mean?" Ren asked nervously.

"It doesn't matter, the player codes have less firewalls than the server code, it'll be fine," Xisuma said, trying to calm himself and the others down.

"I'll take care of the body," Ren said quietly after about a minute of awkward silence, Grian volunteering to help. The rest of the hermits slowly flew away, leaving just Grian and Ren. Ren noticed Xisuma switching something next to Grian. After about half an hour, they were done, leaving them just standing there awkwardly.

"Chocolate to cure your nerves?" Grian offered, holding out a small silver-wrapped square, giving him a nervous smile. He'd been offering it to everyone to calm people down, as in a book series he read, it had calmed the characters down.

"Sure!" Ren laughed, not questioning it despite what had happened just hours ago, mainly because it was Grian. Grian had never hurt a fly. He accepted the candy and unwrapped the decorated, before putting it in his mouth. He relaxed for a second at the sweet flavour, savouring the taste.

Then it happened.

It felt like his throat was closing up, causing his breathing to become ragged, his eyes starting to water.

"Woah- Ren, you okay?" Grian asked, sounding horrified, but he couldn't fully work out if that's what he meant. Ren's vision blurred and his hearing muffled, doubling over coughing, feeling like the top of his throat and his chest were on fire.

"Oh my god- Ren hold on, I'm going to send out a help message," Grian told him desperately, not that Ren could properly register what was going on. Foam dripped out of his mouth, and he felt his knees buckle.

"Hold on Ren- please hold on," Grian begged, his mind flicking to multiple solutions that would almost definitely fail. Ren could hear the distant sound of chests opening- maybe Grian was looking for a cure? He couldn't tell, but it didn't matter, it wouldn't be done in time.

"G-" Ren choked out. "I can't-"

"Wait, Ren, do not die on me," Grian pleaded, a firm tone in his voice. "Don't you dare. If you die on me, then I swear-"

Ren looked up at Grian through blurry vision and grinned one last time at the impish hermit through the pain, feeling his mind fall further and further downwards before it went completely black.

<Renthedog suffocated>

And that was one more Hermit down.

Thank you @NinjaKitty1928 for all the help with the end bit. Now you get your death Maya.