Without any mods installed, the items piglins could trade were pretty limited. The most valuable thing, obviously, was ender pearls, one of the main reasons Marcus had come to the Nether in the first place.
A stack of 64 gold ingots disappeared quickly into the piglin trading pit.
He looked at the 34 ender pearls in his hand, genuinely surprised. "Damn, didn't expect the drop rate to be this high."
Normally, a full stack of gold would only net him around sixteen pearls at most. But this time he'd gotten more than double that. Were the drop rates different here somehow?
After thinking it over, he tossed in another 64 gold ingots to test his theory.
Soon enough, another 30 ender pearls materialized in his hands.
He frowned. This was definitely not normal drop rates anymore.
He examined the other items the piglins had given him:
Gravel: 129 pieces
Nether Brick: 305 pieces
Soul Sand: 99 pieces
These three were the most common drops, but their EMC values weren't impressive. Gravel was worth 4 EMC each, Nether Brick only 3 EMC, and Soul Sand came in at 62 EMC per block.
Next up was a full stack of exactly 64 ender pearls, which was weird.
He had studied piglin bartering probability charts before. If the "junk" items above counted as first-tier rewards, then ender pearls should be third-tier drops at best.
But looking at the current rates, ender pearls had basically become fourth-tier common loot.
Obsidian and soul sand should have dropped frequently too, but he'd only gotten 3 pieces total. Then there was string and iron nuggets, also just 3 each. Ten pieces of leather. One Fire Resistance potion.
That was everything.
"Looks like the drop rates really were adjusted," he muttered, converting everything except the ender pearls into EMC. "Still profitable though. But why are ender pearls dropping so much more often?"
He was puzzled but not complaining. He exchanged the EMC for more gold ingots and continued trading with his captive piglins.
In the end, he had collected 84 ender pearls total. He was pocketing them happily when something shiny caught his eye at the bottom of the trading pit.
Crying Obsidian ×1.
"WHAT?"
The moment he picked it up, he nearly dropped it again when he saw the EMC value.
Selling price: 100,000.
"Holy shit! This useless thing can sell for that much? Why?!"
Marcus stared at the block in shock, then started thinking about what crying obsidian could actually be used for. After a moment, it hit him.
Crying obsidian could be crafted into exactly one thing: the Respawn Anchor.
But honestly, that wasn't very useful. In Hardcore Mode, there was no such thing as respawning for him. The anchor was just a spawn point recorder, it couldn't actually bring someone back from the dead.
Or could it?
"Maybe it works differently for regular people?" he wondered aloud.
As for testing whether he could actually respawn, he wasn't about to be that stupid. If he died, that would be game over.
So he immediately sold the crying obsidian, making a mental note of its value. That exact 100,000 EMC could be exchanged for more gold ingots. If he could get another crying obsidian, it would be pure profit.
Feeling like he'd discovered a money-making exploit, he dumped 115 gold ingots into the piglin pit.
Minutes later, he stared at a backpack full of junk drops and felt like crying.
"Gambling addicts never end well," he muttered to himself.
He sighed heavily, consoling himself with the 113 ender pearls he'd managed to collect. After noting that a single ender pearl sold for 896 EMC, he looked at the piglins in their pit.
He raised his diamond sword, then hesitated and lowered it again.
Sure, they were basically scam artists. But what if killing them meant they stopped respawning? Better to leave them alone for now, he might need to trade again later.
Marcus started digging straight up from the piglin trading area. Soon enough, he reached the bedrock ceiling that formed the top of the Nether.
He stared at the unbreakable blocks above him, thinking. In the game, it was possible to glitch through to the top using ender pearls.
But whether it would work here was one question. Even if he got up there, how would he get back down? He couldn't guarantee he'd be able to place blocks on the surface. If he got stuck up there with no way back, that would be ridiculous.
Other bedrock-breaking methods required redstone components he didn't have.
But he hadn't come here just to sightsee. He activated his Soul Possession ability, feeling his consciousness separate from his physical body.
"Just as I thought, I can phase through bedrock!"
In his spirit form, he passed through the bedrock ceiling and saw exactly what he'd hoped for. The area above the Nether was a vast, empty void, but it was solid enough to support structures.
In this state, he couldn't place blocks, but he confirmed something important: if mushrooms could spawn above the bedrock, that meant Nether Portals could be opened up there too.
Which meant he could potentially create a portal network that bypassed the dangers of the lower Nether entirely.
After drifting around for a while, he finally found some red mushrooms growing in the void space, confirming his theory.
He canceled the ability and returned his consciousness to his body.
"Now I need to figure out how to get up there," he mused. "Should I try the boat trick? Or just go with the classic method?"
He decided to keep it simple. He built a ladder up to the very top of his tunnel, then took aim with an ender pearl.
Just like in Minecraft, the teleportation was instantaneous. One moment he was standing on bedrock, the next he was floating in the void above the Nether ceiling.
"Huh, that was actually pretty easy. So the mechanics really do work the same way."
Nervously, he tried placing a block in the void. To his relief, it worked perfectly, the block materialized and stayed in place.
He let out a long sigh of relief.
"Wait a minute," he said to himself. "I can craft enchanted golden apples and place blocks above bedrock? What version of Minecraft am I even running on? Or maybe all versions allow this? Hm... Whatever, doesn't matter."
He quickly built a new Nether Portal on the bedrock ceiling, using the obsidian he'd gotten from trading. When he stepped through, the world spun and twisted around him, and he emerged back at the ship's Nether Portal.
But something was different this time. He could sense the portal network he'd created, like a mental map showing him his options.
He stepped into the portal again, and this time he felt two distinct choices pulling at him, one leading down to the Soul Sand Valley, one leading up to the bedrock ceiling.
He chose the upper portal and emerged on the Nether roof.
---
Meanwhile, back in the Soul Sand Valley, Nami was sitting on an obsidian block, staring off into the distance and fighting off waves of anxiety.
"Why hasn't he come back yet? Don't tell me something happened to him... Should I go look? No, no, better to find Luffy and the others first..."
A soft cough sounded behind her.
"Who's there?!" She leaped up in panic, spinning around to see Marcus standing behind her.
"When did you get back? I didn't hear you come through the portal!"
"Come with me. I need to run a test," Marcus said, gesturing for her to follow.
Confused but curious, Nami followed him. But the moment they stepped outside the portal area, Marcus gently pushed her back through the purple gateway.
The interdimensional transition hit her hard, leaving her dazed and disoriented. When her vision cleared, she found herself staring at nothing but black and gray stone stretching endlessly in all directions.
"This... where are we?"
"Perfect, so it really does work," Marcus said, more to himself than to her.
By now, he was getting used to his portal abilities. After passing through any portal, a map formed in his mind, complete with markers for every portal location, just like selecting maps in a game menu. He could travel directly to whichever portal he wanted.
And if he wasn't mistaken, his choices also affected other people. Some unseen force told him he could designate specific coordinates for each portal's destination.
For example, he could set the ship's portal to always connect to the bedrock ceiling, while the Soul Sand Valley portal could lead back to the ship, but not the other way around, making it a one-way connection.
The restriction was clear though: he had to pass through the Nether first before choosing an Overworld destination. In short, he couldn't teleport directly between places in the One Piece world, he had to use the Nether as an intermediary dimension.
"Kind of like the Mirro-World from the Mirror-Mirror Fruit," he muttered, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Nami stepped forward cautiously, immediately noticing that the heat of the lower Nether was completely gone. The air here was neither hot nor cold, just neutral.
"Where exactly are we?"
"The very top of the Nether. There's nothing here but empty space and bedrock. Think of it as... the roof of hell, I guess."
Marcus began explaining his discovery while Nami looked around at the strange, desolate landscape above the underworld.