->—{ Feel free to edit this however you want, I just had an idea if D3rlord3 didn't die, but was barely surviving on expired food and smoothies (I refuse to believe he's dead, okay... forgive me for this 🙏🏻}—-<
D3rlord3 wasn't dead, Avery knew it. The same player that he'd been looking for was right in front of him, pushing him off the platform into the void, the slime's last words yelling at the knight; "WAIT—". Only then did he black out again and woke up in his base, not at the yellow gates anymore.
After he typed in chat and got no answer, did he close Minecraft and turned off his laptop, deciding quickly that he'll find D3rlord3 in the real world, if he can't get to him through Minecraft.
After traveling miles upon miles, he finally got to the place where could D3rlord3 be. He doubted that it was there, but he had to try.
D3rlord3 wasn't dead, he couldn't be. But a hopeless thought made it's way to Avery's mind. He's dead, the smoothies in his fridge are expired, his body unmoving in front of his laptop... He shook his head, now was not the time to lose the only hope that made him push forward.
"I'm coming, Derek." Avery said to himself, navigating through the city with his phone, checking every apartment building and hospital, anywhere where he expected D3rlord3 to be.
It was evening now, he spent about 12 hours just looking for him... It's the next day after new years eve. As Avery walked to the next apartment building in a rather quiet side of the city, he asked a few residents of the building if they had seen or heard about "Derek Hutchins", D3rLord3's name...
And they did! Although not in a while, which took him back to the hopeless thoughts. After confirming he's in the building, he took off upstairs, looking at every door and number.
There, door 303. He knocked first, just in case.
"Derek? Are you in there?" Avery called out, worry beginning to take root. After no response, he tried opening the door. Locked. He cursed under his breath, brushing a hand through his fluffy dreads. "Well... Now what..."
A sigh left Avery as he stared at the door. After about 20 minutes of hard thinking and failed attempts, he finally used a lock pick (that was forgotten in his bag). He fought with the lock for about 3 minutes before he got in, the smell of something expired and rotting filling his nostrils very quickly.
Given no time to hesitate, he got in the apartment, closed the door and opened the windows to let fresh air in. Avery's footsteps nearly echoed as he walked around the apartment, the bad smell coming from the bedroom, to which his heart slammed against his ribcage.
He slowly opened the door, his heartbeat quickening with worry and dread.
"Derek...?" Avery cautiously called out, the smell of rot evident. Then... His eyes widened.
A laptop with minecraft opened, it's screen cracked. On the table, there were shattered glasses, same with dried blood and an empty smoothie cup with a plastic straw. Then, his eyes trailed down to the body laying by the table... It wasn't a dead corpse, nor a skeleton... Was Derek still alive? He didn't pay attention in medical class...
Carefully, he stepped into the room, tears in his eyes as he looked at D3rlord3's body, refusing to believe he's dead, he couldn't be. His body would've decayed already, that's basic knowledge.
"Derek..? Derek wake up... Please, you don't get to leave when I just found you..." Avery pleaded, not knowing what to really do, until he decided to do one thing, move your body from the table to the bed, hoping you'll be fine...
He opened the bedroom window and cleaned the room up a bit, despite being strangers to each other. He looked in the mini fridge and his nose scrunched up when he caught the smell of the expired smoothies D3rlord3 survived off.