The Switcheroo Slaughter

**The Switcheroo Slaughter** (a.k.a Denight's Suffering) was a personal tragedy experienced by denightwalker on 27 April 2020.

## Prelude

Following the Tragedy at the Nether Fortress and the Withering Massacre of the Southeast Desert, denightwalker had lost his coveted set of enchanted diamond tools and weapons, which were a necessity for him. Nonetheless, he decided to proceed on a new project: constructing a path that connects his nether portal to the closest nether fortress. The only other players online at the time were ramennnoodle and zirqn (zirin).

To begin his project, denight requested a chest full of stacks of cobblestones from ramen, to which the latter cordially provided to him. Using the cobblestones, denight took note of the coordinates of his nether portal and began paving a path from the nether fortress, across the treacherous lava lakes and through the netherrack mountains, all the way back to his base. Once the mediocre path was established, he then asked ramen where he could get stacks of ice required for the tunnel. Ramen then directed him to follow the railway from their industrial base to the village next to a frozen ocean biome. Denight took a minecart and rode down the railway. He remarked how he "enjoyed" the 55 fps panoramic view along the way.

Once he reached the frozen ocean, ramen then lent him a diamond pickaxe, enchanted with Silk Touch and Efficiency 2, to harvest the ice. Not long after that, denight obtained about 6 stacks of packed ice and 6 stacks of blue ice.

## The Slaughter

Ramen would later log out for the night, leaving him and zirin the only online players on the server. Denight returned to the nether via his nether portal and started placing the blue ice blocks alternately in a checkerboard pattern. Two zombie pigmen were spotted within his tunnel. Thinking that he could easily kill them with the tunnel protecting him from other pigment that might come to him once provoked, he then foolishly attacked one of them. However, he severely underestimated how powerful a zombie pigman is, which led to his eventual death.

As he respawned to his bed by the sea, he returned to the nether, thinking that his death might have pacified the mobs - he was again extremely mistaken. Upon his arrival to the nether, he was again attacked by the only surviving pigman in the tunnel, which had adorned his full set of diamond armour (that he had received from ramen prior) and the sword. Suddenly, he was saved by the skin of his teeth as the rogue zombie pigman suddenly disappeared from his sight. Thinking that the pigman had somehow glitched out of the tunnel and might have fallen into the lava lake down below or went somewhere else, denight didn't think too much of it and continued placing the ice blocks on the tunnel. At one point, he mined through the netherrack wall and revealed a 1x1 lava pocket. He quickly clogged the wall with a piece of netherrack block, but nonetheless, he met his eventual death, sustained from the fire damage.

Denight came back alive on his bed and found a familiar figure by his nether portal - it was the diamond-armoured rogue, sword-wielding, rogue zombie pigman that had attacked him in the nether dimension. As it turned out, the monster hadn't actually vanished in thin air as he had initially thought, but instead travelled through the portal and arrived in the overworld. Denight approached the mob slowly, thinking that it might have become peaceful. But the hostile mob attacks him yet again, killing him in the process. This happened several times as denight kept respawning on his bed and the zombie pigman now in close proximity. Due to his high ping, he was unable to outrun his killer as he kept on dying upon resurrection. The zombie has now camped by his bed. Denight tried using one of his dogs against the madman but to no avail.

Meanwhile, across the world, zirin had received several death messages, announcing denight's death, slain to a zombie pigman over and over again. Curious, they asked denight if he was okay. Denight, however, was not okay but he could not convey his frustration over the attacks. He then resorted to logging out of the server and waited several minutes, hoping that the angered zombie pigman would somehow calm down. He took the time to report the incident in SMPLiv Discord, gaining Polminator's attention.

## Aftermath

Once he thought enough time had passed, denight logged back to the server only to be killed yet again by the zombie pigman. Frustrated by the constant attacks and fearing that his stacks of ice might despawn in the nether, he hatched a plan on using the high ping that caused him to rubberband and lure the violent creature out into the water. This is because mobs would move slower while in water, giving him a window of opportunity upon resurrection to get to a safer place, out of his killer's reach. The plan succeeded and denight quickly climbed over his chest and hid on top of his wall of mob head.

Zirin once again asked what is going on over there. This time, denight managed to reply and requested their assistance to help slay the rogue zombie pigman. Zirin then teleported to denight's base and swiftly killed the pigman, thus ending the constant torture and suffering that he had been facing for the last 10 minutes. He thanked zirin for their bold action and proceeded to continue the 1/4 of the nether tunnel, before deciding to take a break and logging out of the server for the day.