„He's alive!" freeZe yelled, still with invisible tears running down her cheeks.

Fire's friend raised a thumb, walked down to the bars, threw an ender pearl through and disappeared. He reappeared next to Fire and inspected his wound with a worried face.

He said: "He will need a stronger regeneration potion than this one if you want him to survive. He's quite weak from the year he spent in the quarry." freeZe was about to say something, but got interrupted by Fire's friend: "We need to bring him to the quarry, now."

He pulled another vial with a white liquid in it out of a pocket and drank it, he cleared his throat and spoke with potion-amplified voice: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to explain some things, the loser of this battle, our Shop Guy here got challenged by Fire. In the months before he gave Fire unfair treatment only because of his personal hatred against Fire. Fire won, but look at the price he had to pay! You heard what he said, it was the truth. Do you agree with this, qofrghz122, head member of the hacker group?"

After a short delay a message appeared: "Yes, Fire won, we will expel the Shop Guy, he will no longer be part of the group, Fire will get his money, a thousand per diamond."

The people on the ranks cheered but Fire's friend had a strange look in his eyes that was hard to read from.

Another message appeared on the screen: "I will warp you back to the quarry."

They stopped at their fireplace, Fire was still lying on the ground. Fire's friend was already running to the tents to get some wool to make a somewhat comfortable place for Fire to lie on. Everybody stared at him when he arrived there, he was still wearing diamond armor after all. He walked over to Fire's tent and began taking it down first, the others' tents followed. He put them into his inventory and sprinted back to Fire, freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen.

Fire opened his eyes again, everything was a bit blurry, his wound was still there, it still hurt a bit but it was way better than in the arena, the ends were starting to grow back together and it had stopped bleeding, courtesy of the regeneration potion. His vision slowly turned normal, he was still tired and the only part of his body he could control were his eyes, he noticed someone next to him, he couldn't see who exactly it was but it seemed like Ambigious. Fire seemed to be lying on an improvised mattress that was made from folded together tents.

"Are you okay?" Ambigious asked.

Fire only managed to produce a low, extended grunt, then coughed.

"I will count that as yes." He stood up and called the others: "Hey, he woke up!" Then he said in a quiet voice: "Looks pretty bad, that wound, does it hurt?"

Fire had fully woken up and recovered his voice. "It's not that bad, the potion has a large part in that."

The quiet was broken by the others arriving, asking questions and talking at the same time.

"Shhhh!" Fire's friend and Ambigious said simultaneously.

Fire leaned on his healthy arm and said: "Okay, now we will have to tell you about it, you start Brad."

Fire's friend started talking: "Okay, first of all let me tell you my name. I am Brad, I was one of the first players to join the server. The admins were still figuring out their integration code, which caused some… interesting bugs like your arms or legs disappearing spontaneously, fun times. Then the server got more and more popular, not really popular but there were at least a hundred people playing at a time, which was a lot for this server at that time, nothing compared to now but for the time it was a lot."

"Wait a minute!" freeZe interrupted Brad "How did you even hear about this server?"

"The admins went around the internet or in person to recruit suitable people, then gave them their site's address. The people would go to the site, register and agree to the terms and conditions. That included things like not to tell nobody about it, except their direct relatives or close friends, there are also some harsh consequences for breaking those terms. Then they are told the server IP so they could log in. If you aren't registered and try to log in it will just kick you out."

Fire continued: "It was only a matter of time for hackers to find the server, there have been many attempts to hack the server. The hackers we have now took a completely different approach, they didn't attack the server, they attacked the admins and made them unable counteract their following direct attack. After that they had more than enough time to take over the server as well. They spread the IP and disabled the login system and also took over everything else Minecraft related, the only thing they couldn't figure out was the code of the software that makes the connection to the brain possible, it's way too complicated for anyone except for the admins. That and it is currently tied to Minecraft, which they don't want."

"What do they want?" Unchosen, who had kept himself in the background, asked.

"They want to sell the software to the highest bidder, they hope that they get rich from it. From what I've heard some private military organization already showed interest."

TehLulz asked: "How are they going to sell it if they can't even separate it from Minecraft?"

"They want to force the admins to give them the code in its raw form."

"How?"

Fire took his time for the answer: "By killing us."

Everybody except Brad jumped: "What?"

Fire's voice was perfectly calm: "Time doesn't stand still outside, eventually everybody in the quarry will die of dehydration, I will probably die as the very first one, I have been in here for six real time days, after seven survival is very unlikely."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" freeZe asked.

"Yes. Remember what I said is the only thing the hackers can't understand and therefore a good place to hide a way out?"

Everyone's eyes widened in realization: "The code…"

"Yes, exactl…" Fire's words were interrupted by a spasm going through his body.

"Fire, are you alright?" Ambigious asked.

"Brad, regen, quick!" Fire pressed out between his lips.

Fire's body was shaking uncontrollably and intensely.

Brad pulled another regeneration potion out of a pocket he could access with his armor on, this time a big bottle.

Fire opened his mouth and drank the potion very quickly, he felt again how the potion dispersed into his blood and then focusing on the wound, the pain was still there but it was getting better and better with every second.

"Wow, what was that?" Ambigious asked.

Brad answered: "All pain blocked by the potion got unleashed in one moment, which is what happens if the potion wears off before the wound is completely closed."

Fire continued explaining as if nothing had happened: "They hid numerous artefacts around the server map. Even though there are a lot, only a few are actually relevant to escaping. I only know about three." He collected his breath for his next sentence: "Now I have to ask you something, I need you to help me free the server from the hackers."

Unchosen asked: "How?"

"I want you to help me gather the artefacts. I am warning you, it will be difficult, more than that, almost impossible."

"We will help!" freeZe said before anyone else could answer. "We won't just let you die."

Ambigious asked: "Wait a second, as far as I know you aren't blocked from using the menu, why don't you just log out?"

"Because I am an anchor, my presence here acts as some sort of a safeguard for the server. As long as I'm online I create interference and they need to actively keep the server under control, which allows them to be tracked eventually. I can't leave the server or the hackers will fully take over and basically have an infinite amount of time to kill people undetected and use that as a means to pressure the admins."

"Oh, I see…" Said TehLulz and added a question: "What are we even looking for?"

"We are looking for… The Ban Hammer."

Everybody from the firegroup stared at Fire.

"The what?"

"The Ban Hammer, it is backdoor put in by the admins if no other way out is left. It gives the one holding it absolute control over the server."

"Where is it?"

"I don't know, I only know for certain where one of the artefacts, the Ultimate Base Potion, is. I will tell you more about it when we find it. The other artefacts I know of are the Ender Dragon Egg and the Axe of Eric the Viking."

"And why are the hackers not just collecting them?"

"They don't even know about them! They wouldn't be able to use them anyways, the Ban Hammer can only be used by an anchor."

"What is the plan?" Ambigious asked and then added: "It is time to show those hackers who is the boss!"