Abandoning their own homes to build in the Freedom Nation's chunk?
"Then what about my chunk? Where do my resources go?"
"If you get all the points, how are we supposed to upgrade our chunks?"
"This isn't fair! This isn't how an alliance works!"
Faced with the noisy crowd, Mark swung his Diamond Minotaur Battleaxe, creating a thunderous boom.
"Like I said, only the strong have the right to speak. You can try to defeat us if you want a say."
"But be warned: if you fail, I will take your head and send you and your entire country to meet God!"
After the show of force, the noisy crowd fell silent.
No one was confident they could take Mark down. Besides, failure meant death, and they'd be gambling with their nations' futures.
They were only here to survive the Crisis; they didn't want to die over these petty disputes.
From Ronan Mountwell to Kapil, Soren Park, and the other contestants, they all bowed their heads. Mark's smile returned.
The rowdy chat fell silent as well, with only the Freedom Nation viewers feeling triumphant.
"Exactly! Only the strong have the right to speak!"
"Mark is the strongest person here, so we should obviously be the core!"
"If you don't like it, get out! We don't need you!"
"Giving you orders is a favor. Who do you think you are, trying to set conditions?"
Just like Mark on the screen, the Freedom Nation audience was now stifling everyone else.
Since Kyushu wasn't part of the alliance, they weren't involved.
However, as the saying goes, 'know your enemy and know yourself.' Headmaster Quill was watching via split-screen.
"They've only just gathered, and there's already this much drama?"
There were only a dozen people, yet they seemed to have a tangled web of hidden agendas.
Currently, it was clear that Samurai Nation was eyeing the Indus Kingdom, the Indus Kingdom was wary of everyone, and Stick Nation was biding its time, seemingly waiting to steal something.
Furthermore, due to their bossy leadership, Freedom Nation wasn't exactly popular with the other contestants...
"An alliance like that won't last long."
Headmaster Quill could conclude this with certainty.
If a leader can't even gain the trust of his subordinates and has to rely on brute force to suppress them, how long can things go well?
But despite the various hidden threats, at least for now, their goals were aligned.
"How do we stop the zombies?"
As they led the contestants into the chunk, any player who entered was automatically added to the alliance list, preventing friendly fire.
The chunk was large enough to accommodate everyone. Mark and Jett began considering the zombie problem.
"The simplest way is to prevent them from spawning entirely!"
Jett had been thinking about the previous civilizations.
Zombies have specific spawning rules. If you break those rules, they won't appear. These rules are related to blocks and light levels.
They couldn't control day or night, but they could fill the island with torches!
He explained his idea to Mark, who found it reasonable.
Of course, this project was limited to the interior of the chunk.
With a dozen extra people, efficiency was much higher, but they still didn't know how many torches it would take to fill such a large area.
They didn't have that much coal or resources. Just being able to stop zombies from spawning within the chunk was already good enough.
"Now, we need to level the chunk and then fill it with torches to prevent zombie spawns!"
"You guys, level the area. You guys, go mine coal and make torches."
Following Mark's orders, the contestants got to work, despite their internal reluctance.
Efficiency was indeed higher; in just a short while, a stack of torches was crafted.
Mark was very satisfied as he directed people to place the torches across the chunk.
Meanwhile, on Sky Island.
Galen Yu returned from the recently spawned area, having mined many good items.
He had found more Redstone, and thanks to the Harvesting enchantment, he had gathered a stack and a half.
He placed it in a chest for the Copper Golems to organize.
Galen fell into thought.
"This can't continue. More and more random areas will spawn, and eventually, they won't just be across the Great Wall."
"Sky Island will eventually be surrounded by them!"
Build a Great Wall on all four sides of Sky Island?
It was possible, but the scale of the project was too large. Besides, the Great Wall alone couldn't defend against that many zombies.
After awakening their climbing ability, even with the Great Wall's slowing effect, they still had a chance to scramble over.
If he wanted to rely on pure firepower, how many Snow Queens and Guard Villagers would it take to hold the line?
For once, his thoughts aligned with Jett's.
"Instead of waiting for death, it's better to take the initiative."
"Solve the problem at the root and prevent the zombies from spawning!"
With a more comprehensive understanding than Jett, Galen knew that zombies required solid blocks to spawn.
Therefore, besides torches, certain other blocks could achieve a similar effect.
While coal was common, Galen wouldn't be able to get such a massive amount of it easily.
He chose to utilize something else.
Taking out sticks and iron ingots, he headed to the crafting table.
His actions piqued the audience's curiosity.
"Everyone else has given up on the Twilight Forest to focus on defense. When is Great God Galen going to start?"
"True. The most important thing during the Crisis is the zombies. Sugar cane farms and regular farms are just secondary."
"Iron ingots? There are only so many things you can make with iron. I don't think any of them are useful right now."
"Holy crap, the Freedom Nation's efficiency is insane. They've already made two stacks of torches!"
"Half the chunk is filled with torches now. It's so bright—it looks pretty impressive!"
"Wait, Great God Galen made... Rails?"
That's right. Compared to torches...
"Wait, Great God Galen made... Rails?"
That's right. Compared to torches...
Galen chose to use a different, more convenient, and effective block: Rails!
They functioned similarly to torches. Placing them on blocks would prevent zombies from spawning, solving the problem at its source.
First, he covered the corners and any overlooked slabs within the chunk.
Then, he turned his gaze outside Sky Island.
According to his observations, these random areas wouldn't be replaced once they spawned, unless they were mined by a player.
Replacing them with slabs would be too tedious, and mining blocks risked triggering more spawning mechanisms.
It would be a disaster if a layer of zombies spawned right over his head.
So, he decided to leave the terrain untouched and simply cover it with rails.
"Let's go!"
Carrying the rails, he headed outside the chunk to begin the coverage.
Realizing Galen's intention, the audience was amazed.
"Good grief, everyone else is laying torches, and you're laying rails?"
"As expected of Great God Galen. His thinking is completely different from Mark's!"
"If they're both being placed on top of blocks, now that I think about it, don't rails and torches have the same effect?"
"So that's how the zombie spawning mechanism works? I think I'm starting to get it."
"Wait, that's not right. Even if rails require fewer resources, Galen is just one person!"
"Including the Architect, there are at most two of them. The other NPCs only know how to fight; they don't know anything about mining or building!"
"There's no way he can compete with Mark in terms of resource gathering efficiency, right?"
"And most importantly, he's laying rails outside!"
Even with a dozen players and peak efficiency, Mark only intended to cover the inside of his chunk.
Due to resource constraints, he hadn't even considered the outer areas!
But judging by Galen's movements, since Sky Island itself was built of slabs and didn't need many rails...
He was setting his sights on the outside!
"Does a single sky island have enough resources to make that many rails?"
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