This is quite a short and uneventful chapter. But the next chapter, that's when we will start the stories.  ^^

[NOTE: Information you might find interesting will be found at the end of this chapter.]

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--Zedaph’s POV--

"So let me get this straight. You and Tango were testing out this machine that can turn zombies into zombie infants, but instead turned half of the server's population into kids?"

"Y-Yeah, pretty much," I cracked. 

"And you two didn't think of the possibility of accidentally turning yourselves into babies?" 

"........" 

Cleo pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Zed why?.."

Mutters and whispers were heard from the group of adult hermits. They didn't look too surprised, they just gave me a look of a parent who witnessed their kid doing something stupid again. "Don't worry Zedaph, we've seen worse stuff. And I usually make things worse!" the British hermit exclaimed. 

"Grian’s…. somewhat right. We've dealt with civil wars and life or death games, at least you and Tango didn't create a zombie apocalypse or something," Wels responded jokingly. 

"Yeah but still… It's partly my fault for letting Tango use a contraption for me," I chuckled weakly, "I'm gonna try my best to fix this problem. I'll try repairing the contraption or something, so we can turn the hermits back into their normal selves.."

Worried looks were immediately thrown at me. Stress asked, "Zed Love? I'm no redstoner, but don't ya think it'll be difficult to rebuild a contraption that only 'cute little whittle Tango' knows how to build?" She gestured at the kids. 

"Ah- I don't know!..  Maybe!?." I panicked slightly . I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, I felt a warm on my shoulder gripping tightly. Stress still smiled, giving me a small nod. "I could try studying the contraption.. It may be broken but I can check the redstone parts and see how it

… works," I mumbled softly, "I'll need some help repairing it though. Sooo~, who knows Redstone?" 

A lot of hesitant looks were shared from one another, only one hermit raised their hand and that was Beef. "I guess my genius self can help you," he smirked cheekily." The others kept quiet, sharing more apologetic looks."A lot of our major redstoners in the server are kids now. So only me, Beef, and possibly Doc can fix the contraption." 

"Ughhhhh!! Do we have to include him?" Beef groaned, crossing his arms together. 

" Aww come on Beef, Doc's a good redstoner! But he hasn't been on the server for a while now, so I'll try messaging him about our problem later." 

Beef’s expression softened, letting out a small sigh."Ohh fine…" 

"What about the young hermits? What are we supposed to do with them?" Hypno asked. 

"Take care of them of course!" Keralis squeezed young TFC tighter in his arms. 

"Keralis love, don't suffocate the poor kid-" 

"Of course we're gonna take care of them. But  let me remind you that the hermitcraft server is not exactly a safe place for kids. We have our own tasks and chores on this server, we can't bring the kids to most of our projects, but we can't leave them alone in our bases either. We need a safe place where we can watch all the kids simultaneously."

"Like a play area? Or… A daycare?" 

"Exactly!" Hypno exclaimed, clasping his hands together. 

"Umm- alright… But is there any place in the server that's even big and safe enough for a daycare?" Cleo asked curiously. 

"I suggest anywhere but our bases!" I exclaimed hastily. Everyone silently nodded. 

"Yeah, my house isn't exactly big enough for a lot of kids," Wels sighed sadly, "I can't keep those kids damit-" 

"I live in a construction site!" 

"KID ISKALL NEARLY DIED FROM HIS OWN TREE!!" I cried out again. 

Everyone sent more weird looks at me. "Zed, wha-

" Okay we get it. Our bases are just hell holes. But is there any place on the server that's even safe? Anyone… "

The longer that no one responded, the more we realized. Taking care of these young hermits will be more than just difficult, hermitcraft really isn't safe for them. It's worrying how the hermits are so familiar with the dangers of this minecraft world that we only see an ender dragon as a small bother, but Mumbo with no mustache as a full on nightmare. It's concerning to say the least. 

"Actually, there is one place that might be perfect," Stress mumbled. "Ya know? Grian's boy?" 

"Wait my boy? Me?..." Grian paused for a sec, pondering about something in his head. As soon as he got his answer, his eyes expanded to Keralis', glaring at Stress in disbelief. "Stress No!" 

"Stress Yes! Believe in yer' child!" the female exclaimed back. 

"I'm not even sure if he's ready to see more humans, after your gorgeous campaign!" 

After putting two to two together, the lines connected and I finally understood what the two were debating about. " You're talking about Grumbot, aren't you Stress?" 

"You mean the evil artificial robot that was supposedly taking over the whole shopping district ?" Beef asked bluntly. 

The brit sent the Llama dad  a very quick glare. "He's not evil!" 

"But have you seen Grumbot's virtual world? The design for the room is fitting, it's big enough for all the kid hermits to play in, and it's 99% safe from any mobs. Stress, it's actually perfect," Cleo explained. 

Stress smiled, holding both of her hands excitedly."Fanks!" 

Grian looked like he was about to burst, but somehow kept himself cool. "W-Well. That world is filled with lies and deceit, surely you don't want the kids to be brainwashed by lies and deceit right?" 

"You only lied about winning the mayoral race."

"How about the fact that Grumbot is a robot! As much as I do care about Grumbot, I'm just not so sure if the kids will be safe," his cool was starting to wear off, 

"W-hat if he scares them? Or hurts them? Or breakdown? Or-Or…"

"Grian love. Grumbot didn't even do anything wrong. You should know that, your 'his' creator after all," she says quite coldy. 

"Doesn't mean it's not possible-" 

The two were finally silenced by each other's words. The sudden silence filled so much awkwardness that even the young hermits were staring at us, so innocent and curious.

 "Pssssst XBBBB~~, what is Auntie Stress and Uncle Grian talking about?" Young Iskall whispered loudly through his poor ear..

"I don't know. But they say that we will have a robot!" 

"Oooh! A robot?! Wear?!" 

Hypno attempted a fake cough, catching the attention of the two hermits. "So… Is it okay to use the virtual world as the daycare Grian? It's alright if you say no-" 

"No, no, I changed my mind. You can use the virtual world. Just don't mention anything about the mayoral campaign and we will all be fine," the brit said softly, sighing in defeat. No said anything after that, both him and Stress gave each other apologetic looks before smiling at one another . That was enough to let our shoulders rest from the tense. 

Cleo took advantage of the comforting change of atmosphere and spoke, "Alright, we have the place. Now the last thing we need is a new admin."

"Wait- an admin? Cleo?" 

"Well there has to be someone who needs to maintain the server. I'm certainly not letting little Xisuma hold another gadget thingy majik again. Right False?!" 

The little blonde teared her eyes away from whatever she was looking at, staring at us with a baffled look."Whut?" 

"I think we all know who's perfect for the role," Beef smirked. We all silently agreed before glancing at a certain hermit… 

… 

… 

… 

… 

"Wh-.. Me!?" Hypno exclaimed, pointing his index finger to himself. 

"Come on Hypno, you help Xisuma with a lot of admin stuff."

"Yeah… but I'm usually not alone. I've never exactly maintained the server single-handedly before." Hypno took a short pause for a while, till he spoke again, "But I guess I could… Try?" 

A few hermits cheered joyfully, others nodded for satisfactory, Hypno seemed a bit overwhelmed with his new position now, but he calmly thanked the hermits for trusting him with this. 

"So I guess that's it then. Any questions?" 

Wels eagerly raised his left hand and asked, "Important question! Which hermit is taking care of  which  young hermit?" 

"Ohhh… That," Cleo hastily took a book and quill from her pockets and started listing down the names. "Alright! Umm- Who will take care of little Xisuma?" 

"OOOOH, OOOOOH, ME!! I'll take baby Shashywammy!" 

"I'll take the smart one!" 

"Honestly I'm alright with any hermit-

"Can I take 4 kids?" 

"KERALIS NO-

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Here's the list for which hermit is taking which kid:

Zedaph: (Tango, Impulse) 

Wels: (Cub, False) 

Keralis: (Bdubs, TFC, Xisuma) 

Cleo: (Joe) 

Beef: (XB, Etho) 

Grian: (Ren, Scar) 

Hypno: (Jevin) 

Stress: (Iskall, Mumbo)