Fu Zhu whistled a carefree tune, strolling westwards according to his map. Just moments ago, he had spotted the silhouette of a Nether Fortress on his minimap. It was the perfect opportunity to farm some materials and see if he could luck into a few Wither Skeleton Skulls.
With Wither Skeleton Skulls, he could summon a Wither to help him fight if he ever encountered another Emanator like Phantylia. Even if the Wither was indiscriminate and attacked its summoner too, Fu Zhu would rather deal with a few Withers than face an Emanator of a completely unfamiliar Path. Withers, if you knew the right strategy, could be dealt with easily enough.
The moment Fu Zhu stepped into the Nether Fortress, a system notification promptly popped up.
[Achievement Unlocked: A Terrible Fortress]
[Acquired Achievement Points: 5]
"Not bad, another five points. Next up, Wither Skeleton Skulls and Blaze Rods."
Previously, when Fu Zhu had converted materials from the Luofu into Blaze Rods, it hadn't directly triggered the MC achievement. Evidently, converted items didn't count. That meant he'd have to personally "borrow" one from a Blaze.
Casting his gaze around, Fu Zhu only spotted a sparse few Wither Skeletons and no sign of a Blaze spawner. However, that hardly posed a problem for him.
The Nether was practically his second home; he'd died here hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Finding a Blaze spawner was child's play.
Fu Zhu immediately dashed over, aggroing the few Wither Skeletons, then quickly threw up a simple block outline to trap them.
Because Wither Skeletons were taller than two blocks, simply stacking blocks two high allowed for easy, damage-free farming.
Fu Zhu hummed a cheerful little tune, relentlessly swinging the [Kugutsu] in his hand.
Now that the Phantylia situation was resolved, he needed to start thinking about developing his SlashBlade. The first step was to collect Proud Soul fragments from broken [Kugutsu] swords.
As Fu Zhu delivered the final blow, the three Wither Skeletons before him crumbled. As they died, Fu Zhu was thrilled to see that one of them had actually dropped a Wither Skeleton Skull! Moreover, the [Kugutsu] in his hand had just reached zero durability and shattered, adding a Proud Soul fragment to his inventory.
"A double blessing!"
Fu Zhu delightedly walked over and picked up the Wither Skeleton Skull, immediately triggering a new achievement.
[Achievement Unlocked: Spooky Scary Skeleton]
[Acquired Achievement Points: 15]
Fu Zhu was somewhat surprised that this achievement awarded a full 15 points. But then again, considering the Wither Skeleton Skull's drop rate was a mere 2.5% without a Looting enchantment, such a low probability certainly justified the 15 achievement points.
After tidying up, Fu Zhu continued his exploration of the Nether Fortress, keeping an eye on his minimap for the locations of Blazes.
Wherever Blazes spawned, a spawner was likely to be found.
It didn't take long to find a spawner. Just under a minute later, Fu Zhu spotted three Blazes materializing on his minimap and quickly headed in their direction.
The moment the three Blazes saw Fu Zhu, they immediately ascended and began spitting fireballs at him. However, Fu Zhu had already equipped a new [Kugutsu] and deflected all their attacks with sword swings.
It had to be said, with the SlashBlade, dealing with monsters like Blazes, whose primary damage output came from ranged fireballs, was almost trivially easy. As long as Fu Zhu maintained a bit of distance and stayed out of their melee attack range, he could farm Blaze Rods without taking a scratch.
[Achievement Unlocked: Into Fire]
[Acquired Achievement Points: 5]
In less than two minutes, Fu Zhu had added three Blaze Rods to his inventory. Just as he was about to farm a few more for reserves, a vaguely familiar fire lotus came hurtling from the distance, slamming directly into the newly spawned Blazes.
Fortunately, Fu Zhu had maintained a safe distance from the Blazes; otherwise, the explosion would have likely cost him a good chunk of health.
Seeing that familiar fire lotus, Fu Zhu knew that troublesome Phantylia had arrived yet again.
He turned his head and saw Phantylia, panting heavily, hovering in mid-air. She raised a hand, pointing it malevolently in his direction. Behind Phantylia, in the distance, a large group of Zombified Piglins were queueing up and leaping into the lava.
Evidently, after a few waves of slaughtering Zombified Piglins and realizing they were, as Fu Zhu had claimed, truly endless, Phantylia had simply given up attacking them and resumed her pursuit of him.
"It's you again. You're really, really annoying..."
Fu Zhu was getting seriously frustrated. He desperately wanted to just kill Phantylia. However, given the Nether's terrain, coupled with the fact that Phantylia, even in her weakened state, was still an Emanator, his current damage output made it incredibly difficult to actually kill her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have resorted to this desperate measure of sealing her in the Nether.
"Fu! Zhu!"
Phantylia, her voice seething with rage, charged towards Fu Zhu, her hand outstretched as if to claw at him.
She had had enough of the Nether. She just wanted to leave this accursed place as soon as possible. Even her grand ambitions of overthrowing the Luofu had been abandoned.
Fu Zhu heaved a long sigh, directly opened his system interface, and began typing one of the few commands he had unlocked.
/gamerule keepInventory true!
Keep Inventory, on!
[Keep Inventory has been enabled]
With Keep Inventory active, Fu Zhu couldn't resist turning his head and flashing a wicked grin at Phantylia.
For reasons unknown, Phantylia felt a sudden chill, a tremor of unease. "What... what scheme are you plotting now?!" she stammered.
Fu Zhu hummed nonchalantly as he walked to the very edge of the Nether Fortress. Directly beneath his feet was a vast, bubbling pool of lava.
"Phantylia, if I were to fight you, whether I'd survive or not might be a bit uncertain. But if I want to die, not even Jesus coming here in person could stop me!"
With that declaration, Fu Zhu leaped directly into the lava pool below.
Phantylia was instantly aghast. Could it be that her pressure had been too intense, and she had actually driven Fu Zhu insane?!
Otherwise, why would any sane person choose to seek death at a time like this?
Although she couldn't fathom why Fu Zhu would suddenly choose to commit suicide, Phantylia certainly wasn't going to let him die so easily. If he died, that would be a relief for him, but what about her?!
She had absolutely no intention of becoming a permanent resident of the Nether!
Fu Zhu was falling rapidly, but Phantylia was even faster.
Fu Zhu, noticing this, immediately turned and flung the Ender Pearl in his hand towards the wall of another section of the Nether Fortress.
The very instant the Ender Pearl left his hand, a dark lotus bloomed beneath his feet, its petals closing in to trap him securely in place.
Phantylia, seeing Fu Zhu successfully rescued, let out a sigh of relief. However, she was still somewhat puzzled. "What was that thing you just threw?" she asked.
Fu Zhu spread his empty hands, a playful smirk on his face. "Guess?"
The next second, Fu Zhu vanished from within the lotus. By the time Phantylia reacted, spun around, and located him again, he was already plummeting at high speed from a different location. And, as luck would have it, directly beneath Fu Zhu was a single block of Netherrack, floating in mid-air in complete defiance of physics.
"Goodbye."
Fu Zhu gave Phantylia a mock salute, then slammed heavily onto the Netherrack.
CRACK~~~
By the time Phantylia drew near, all she heard was a sickening crunch, like bones breaking. Fu Zhu, who had just impacted the Netherrack, dissolved into a wisp of green smoke and vanished.
[Player Fu Zhu fell from a high place.]
Fu Zhu opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted him was an unfamiliar white ceiling. This made him pause.
"White? I don't recall the guest rooms at the Luofu guesthouse having ceilings of this color!"
Fu Zhu immediately sat up and looked around. He quickly realized he was now at the Herta Space Station, lying in the exact same spot where he had first appeared in this world. The only difference was that Xing, who had initially been lying beside him, was now absent.
"Right, I was probably in Hardcore Mode before, which is why sleeping in a bed didn't set my respawn point."
Fu Zhu stood up, a hint of resignation on his face. Respawning at Herta Space Station was unexpected, but not entirely unacceptable.
After becoming a Nameless, Himeko had educated him on a lot of Nameless-related knowledge. Among these was a convenient tool called a "Domain Anchor," which allowed Nameless to travel quickly between various planets.
This so-called Domain Anchor was remarkably similar to the Waystones mod in MC; both facilitated travel between two identical linked structures.
And Herta Space Station, being a frequent stop for the Astral Express, naturally had a Domain Anchor established by Himeko and the others. Later, he just needed to use the Domain Anchor to teleport directly back to the Luofu.
But since he was already here...
Fu Zhu turned and headed into the Curio Collection Room behind him. The last time he was here, he had been too busy meeting up with March 7th and the others, and besides, he had just transmigrated and was completely unfamiliar with the place, so he hadn't dared to linger in the Curio Collection Room.
After leaving Herta Space Station, the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he had missed out.
The things Herta collected were obviously unique. Who knew if there might be something among them that could be converted into a powerful MC item?
Fu Zhu stood with his arms crossed, carefully examining the description plaques hung below each display case, one by one. He stopped in front of a curio named the "Rating Pistol," his curiosity piqued.
According to the plaque, this Rating Pistol would assign different scores to people, but to this day, no one understood what these scores actually represented.
Fu Zhu stepped in front of it. The eyeball on the Rating Pistol suddenly snapped open, its gaze unsettlingly sizing Fu Zhu up and down.
A moment later, a mechanical screech echoed out.
[Cannot measure! Cannot measure! Bzzzt——]
The Rating Pistol began to emit black smoke, then completely ceased all activity.
Fu Zhu blinked, bewildered. He hadn't done anything, had he? What on earth did this Rating Pistol even measure? Could it possibly be... body hair count?
Fu Zhu shook his head, speechless, and turned towards another display case on the opposite side. Inside, a pair of black wings was stored. Between them was a small buckle, looking as if they could be equipped onto a person's back.
As Fu Zhu looked at it, an inexplicable sense of familiarity washed over him.
"Isn't this... an Elytra?"