A Blessing and a Curse || A Hermitcraft/Watcher AU

Chapter Fifteen

One by one, the hermits began noticing the moon's unusual size, and within just a few days it was clear that it wasn't just their imagination. It would be untrue to say that the server erupted into chaos, because most of the hermits were more confused or even curious than scared. Xisuma, however, was a little more than alarmed. When he'd first received word of the phenomenon, he'd practically locked himself in his little office with his books spread in an impressive array of mess across the floor and his communicator screen permanently open.

It had been easy to find the altered code because it was such a massive block that had been changed and it stood out like an unsettlingly camouflaged sore thumb. The problem was that he didn't know how to change it back. The code was strong, really strong. It was perfect; not a fault in it, efficient, like whoever had written it didn't need to translate its complexity to know what the commands meant. It was like Notch Himself had written it. When he tried to type on it or even near it, the keyboard wouldn't work; it was like the original game code had been changed, surrounded by a firewall as strong as bedrock.

He didn't know what to do. He'd messaged Xavon more but received no reply. He'd messaged a couple of admins from different servers and found no advice, only other admins as puzzled as him. He'd looked in every book and done research online for anything similar, but found nothing. Not one lead or clue, and nothing on how to fix it. Maybe Xavon hadn't been joking, maybe they really did have a hacker on their hands.

Xisuma leaned back against the shelves and sighed. But... how... how was the code so perfect? He looked over to the communicator screen on the other side of the room; it was simply perfect. If he didn't know how it was meant to be, he might be fooled that the changed was the original. It was written miles beyond his, an accomplished admin's, ability and any other admins' he knew. It was better than if they'd got a group of a hundred of the very best together to write it. A hacker's code was usually sloppy, or relatively easy to break, but this? This was... he'd go as far as to say that this was the work of a genius. It was incredible, the writing just... worked. It flowed. It was perfect like a four-dimensional puzzle piece that fit into place with accuracy on the scale of atoms. Despite it opposing the server, he somewhat admired the skill in the full knowledge that he probably couldn't fully comprehend its brilliance.

But there was also another how. One that Xisuma was more scared to question than the other. That if Xavon wasn't joking, then how did he know? The first thing, with the iron and gold and netherite, could've easily been a weird glitch, so how would Xavon be sure? It could just be a guess, but Xavon seemed to be ominously clear.

He was probably overthinking this, maybe Xavon had been joking and it just happened to be true. Maybe it was a guess. It surely didn't mean anything. None of what had happened recently was related, probably. Hopefully. He was being paranoid. He should trust his brother. The itch that Xavon somehow had a part of this was probably just lack of sleep. Yes, just lack of sleep.

I really should get more sleep, shouldn't I? He thought as he stood up and went over to the desk to continue working. He glanced down to the Admin's Guide to WATCHERS that had been in Xavon's base. It wasn't related. It was physically impossible for it to be related.

-|-|-

EX's enormous wings carried him through the bright sky, through the white clouds, and he looked down on the buildings he used to call home. He couldn't tell whether he felt oddly connected or disconnected to them. Maybe both. They were gone from his view quite quickly, and he found himself gliding over the Big Eyes next. He was embracing his inner Watcher; he'd decided to have a look at what the hermits were doing (while invisible, of course). Also he had been bored. They seemed to be quite normal from what he'd seen thus far, but they were aware of the change in planetary positions. He wondered how they would react when the moon continued to grow. How they'd react when it destroyed the server in about a month.