Today I created my own Minecraft server at aternos.org. It is a PurpurMC
server with neither plugins nor mods installed. I created the world with
a random seed and got greeted by a vast view of a cherry blossom biome.
It was located at a mountain and riddled with many ravines going deep
into the earth. I quickly cut down some cherry blossom trees and set up
base at the foothill of the mountain.

Unfortunately, a human error (by me) was made when setting up the server.
It was accidentally set with the hardcore mode on. I only realized some
2 hours into the game. What is done is done. I quickly did what I need to
do such as setting up a wheat farm, a tree farm, and mined some stacks of
stone and made furnaces and chests inside the starter base.

Some time later, my friend (who lent me his elytra at another friend's
server) joined my server. It was dark at night when he spawned in the
server. Fortunately, I quickly supplied him with the coordinates of my
starter base and he got there safely. I gave him an iron ingot so he
could make a shield at the very least.

The next day in Minecraft, I tended to my farm and with the help of some
wheat, persuaded some cows and sheeps to the pen I had prepared. They got
in without much hassle and by then our food source was secured. I kept
tending to those farms and it started to seem like our life in this new
server was starting to be comfortable.

Curiously, the back of my base is on a cliff facing one of the ravines.
I extended the floor a bit so it was harder to fall to our deaths. But
it was not enough. My friend, who did not heed my warning not to stand
too closely to the edge of the floor, fell some blocks into the ravine
only to be greeted by creepers and skeleton.

Fortunately, he survived this ordeal and remembered the importance of
safety, especially in a hardcore server. Without much thinking, I quickly
put up a barrier on the floor in order to keep people from falling. It
blocked the mesmerizing view into the ravine but safety is paramount.

Some time later, my friend, who has been reading my gopher blogs lately,
started to show some interest in gopher and pubnix systems. I directed
him to SDF and told him to create an account using the ssh method. He
picked a name just like the one he used for his Minecraft account. Some
typing later and his account was created.

At first, he is not very apt at using the command line, but as time goes
on, he started to get used to it. He explored the SDFmud game and created
his character. He even succeeded in communicating with another SDFmud
player who happened to be playing. I also told him to run the mkgopher
command to create his gopherhole.

Back at Minecraft, my friend mined away at the basement of our starter
base and met a skeleton. He managed to get away from the skeleton, but
he didn't get to kill the skeleton. I went there to check on it myself
but then disaster struck. My friend who also went back to the skeleton
suffered injuries that resulted in his untimely hardcore Minecraft death.

Thank you for your heroic and honorable sacrifice, my friend. Your actions
will forever be remembered. I will think back to this moment where you,
with your bravery and valor, fought the ordinary skeleton to the bitter
end. You, with your superior weapons and a shield, troubled with your
short-sighted decisions in the engagement with the skeleton, suffered a
tragic, yet comedic death.

Well, after his death, I asked him to use an NBT editor on our world file
to remove the hardcore mode and allow him to play in the server again. We
will see if that's possible. In the meantime, no more play sessions until
the hardcore mode is stripped out of the world file. Until then, hope is
what keeps this server alive.