Reborn with Steve Stand

Chapter 702: Holy Crap!

"This... huh?"

Hearing what Alex said, Fang Mo was momentarily stunned.

Dimension realization was indeed his strongest trump card, and calling it a cheat was not an exaggeration. Previously, in battles against the likes of Dormammu, Captain Marvel, and Saitama, Fang Mo had used the power of dimensions to gain the upper hand.

However, to be honest.

Fang Mo had mixed feelings about this ability.

It's important to understand that he was a combat and adventure gamer, not one of those synthesis players who could get dopamine hits from just scraping table corners or workbench edges.

He really enjoyed fighting.

For instance, during his fight with Boros in the One Punch Man world.

Both he and his opponent were enjoying the battle, so he didn't use his dimensional power.

To Fang Mo, this was akin to casting a spell. If he wanted to cast a spell, he first needed to find the right materials, then proceed with the casting, gradually getting excited and reaching a peak, eventually leading to a satisfying climax.

But if he cheated in this process.

It would be like having a button that, when pressed, would make him burst into ecstasy instantly. It's not that Fang Mo thought this was bad, but the issue was...

How empty would that be?

In summary, Fang Mo's attitude towards his dimensional power was similar.

In short, his rule for himself was to avoid cheating in fights he could win and to fight seriously with his own strength. Of course, if he encountered someone he couldn't defeat, it meant the opponent was being disrespectful, so he would let them experience the despair of facing a cheater.

Currently, Fang Mo's strength was more than sufficient.

Looking across all the worlds, aside from a few monster-level beings he couldn't beat, he felt he could handle the rest.

As for his partner's idea.

Namely, making all the Minecraft dimensions real.

Fang Mo had actually considered this long ago, though he had no knowledge of any Mystcraft crystal gate.

His idea was to use the dimensional door mod items to link the Overworld, Nether, End, and Twilight Forest dimensions, and then make these portals real.

Just like he had previously made the Pure White Dimension and the Pure Black Dimension real.

However, considering his current strength was sufficient, and he didn't want to endlessly experiment at the workbench, he had subconsciously put this matter aside.

"Emmm..."

Watching Alex mining crystals in the distance, Fang Mo pondered for a moment.

But soon, he shook his head. Since the little guy was willing to tinker, he might as well let her. It was like she was upgrading his cheat code, and since he controlled its use, he just needed to exercise restraint during fights.

Of course, there was one very important point.

That is... Fang Mo was also curious about what the Overworld would look like if it were made real.

If Alex truly made all the dimensions real, wouldn't he be able to control both the game and the real world? A real-life version of Minecraft sounded interesting. He could move everyone on Ego to the Overworld, making the Pure White World obsolete.

At that point, the Minecraft natives...

Would probably bully characters from other worlds, right?

What expression would Hayakawa Aki have if he found villagers trading a loaf of bread for three emeralds? Would he want to have a snowball fight?

So, with these thoughts.

The two of them began exploring this strange world with their respective goals.

Alex continued mining crystals to build portals.

Meanwhile, Fang Mo, adhering to the principle of never flying empty-handed, filled a bucket with molten liquid glass and explored the map, hoping to find an otherworldly village, but to no avail.

So, he reverted to his old profession.

He controlled Steve to dig a tunnel on the ground and started mining.

After about half an hour, Fang Mo noticed some details, such as the underground minerals in this otherworld being the same as in the Overworld, with no significant differences in abundance.

Some rarer minerals from smaller mods were even absent in this world.

So soon.

Fang Mo decided to control Steve to leave.

But just as he turned around, a wall beside Steve inexplicably collapsed in front of him.

Yes, it collapsed, just like gravel or flint blocks with gravity, but this was stone, which shouldn't be affected by gravity. Yet, the entire wall collapsed for no reason.

"Hmm?"

This strange scene left Fang Mo stunned.

And while he was in a daze, a stone block beneath his feet suddenly began to sink and disappeared.

"Huh..."

Seeing the ground vanish before him, Fang Mo frowned, a bad premonition rising in his heart.

This eerie sense of déjà vu.

He seemed to have seen it before while playing games.

To verify his suspicion, Fang Mo immediately controlled Steve to walk towards the cliff.

Steve could now fly, so there was no risk of falling into the void. Even if the ground collapsed, there would be no danger. So, he looked down after reaching the edge.

And at that moment.

Fang Mo immediately saw the culprit below.

It was not a biological entity but a block situated near the bedrock, emitting a large amount of smoky particle effects.

This block appeared twisted and dark purple, somewhat resembling the corrupted blocks from the Mystcraft mod but far more profound and terrifying, like some aberration capable of obliterating everything, as if it could erase all around it.

"It really is this thing..."

Upon seeing it, Fang Mo felt his memory stir, recalling scenes from when he used to mess around on the server: "Is this the Decay Factor?"

Yes, this was none other than one of the few blocks in the Mystcraft mod that Fang Mo knew about.

The Decay Factor, as its name implies.

This is a block capable of destroying worlds.

As previously mentioned, the Mystcraft mod is an exploration mod that includes fertile worlds full of minerals. Where there are rewards, there are also risks, such as some decaying alternate worlds.

These worlds are usually the result of some conflict.

Due to the long passage of time, Fang Mo couldn't remember the specifics, only vaguely recalling something about contradictory settings.

For instance, if a book simultaneously had the settings of 'eternal night' and 'perpetual day', it would likely collapse because this contradiction cannot be resolved within the code. Besides setting conflicts, some worlds also inexplicably collapse on their own.

At the core of these collapsing worlds, closest to the bedrock, something called the Decay Factor emerges.

According to the Minecraft setting, bedrock supports the foundation of the world; all material and life in the Overworld are built upon it. Hence, this can be understood as the world's foundation or its wall.

The Decay Factor gradually attaches to the bedrock.

Then, it slowly corrodes and destroys these fundamental elements of the world.

When the Decay Factor replaces the bedrock, everything supported by it above will be mercilessly thrown into the void.

Meanwhile, these Decay Factors will grow and spread exponentially, like a terrifying virus, eventually overtaking the entire world. Everything will fall into the void, ceasing to exist.

"This thing..."

Recalling its settings, Fang Mo frowned.

Although with the Mystcraft mod, these randomly generated alternate worlds are numerous, encountering a decaying world was still annoying to him.

After all, in a sense, these alternate worlds were also his assets as a block person.

Unfortunately, this decay is part of the mod's settings. Even Fang Mo couldn't change this unless he stopped loading the Mystcraft mod entirely, which was obviously not possible.

So, shaking his head, Fang Mo decided to notify Alex and then return to the Overworld.

But just as he was about to speak in the chat.

From Steve's perspective, his hunger bar inexplicably dropped by one unit.

This was normal since Steve hadn't eaten after mining for so long.

Normally, Fang Mo would have made him eat a steak.

Or, while mining, he might have controlled Steve to eat some useless blocks like andesite or diorite, turning waste into treasure, solving the trash problem and restoring hunger.

But it was precisely this idea of 'turning waste into treasure'.

Fang Mo suddenly had a realization, a spark flashing in his eyes.

"Right..."

A look of understanding appeared on Fang Mo's face as he looked at the Decay Factor below: "I can make Steve eat the Decay Factor!"

Although the Decay Factor is a major problem in the Minecraft world, Fang Mo can bring things into reality. Given its in-game power to destroy dimensions, it might be capable of world destruction in reality.

It's a pity the Mystcraft mod can't interact with the Tinkers' Construct mod.

Otherwise, Fang Mo would have made a sword out of it.

Regardless, Fang Mo's hands didn't stop moving, controlling Steve to jump into the void.

Just as Steve was about to fall into the void, Fang Mo made him stop suddenly at height zero, level with the surrounding bedrock.

Upon closer inspection, Fang Mo noticed that the bedrock around had been heavily corroded by the Decay Factor. All he could see were dense, terrifying purple-black blocks, like an unsolvable virus eroding the entire world.

Carefully controlling Steve, he approached a Decay Factor.

With a thought, Steve opened his mouth and began chomping on the Decay Factor.

With a bizarre burp, the twisted, chaotic Decay Factor was swallowed by Steve, even refilling his hunger bar.

"The Eating mod is really awesome..."

Seeing this, Fang Mo couldn't help but exclaim.

Since he had already eaten one, Fang Mo didn't hold back, controlling Steve to eat more, spitting them out and then picking them up to store in his inventory.

After collecting about a stack of Decay Factors, he finally stopped.

The collapse factor is indeed quite hard, Fang Mo felt that this thing... was even tougher than the original bedrock.

He had only worked on it for about a group of time.

As a result, a large area of bedrock around him had already disappeared, and the entire land above had fallen into the void, completely vanishing without a trace.

Fang Mo looked at the devastated world.

He directly input a command to leave this hopeless collapsing world.

After leaving this chaotic alternate world, Fang Mo shared his recent experience with Xiao Yao. Fortunately, Xiao Yao had collected a lot of crystals and left early. After discussing it, they temporarily shelved the exploration activities of this alternate world.

The little guy dove into the laboratory and started tinkering with that crystal portal.

During the time the other was working on the portal, Fang Mo, out of boredom, controlled Steve to explore the map in the main world.

It must be said that with the combat tower module, obtaining dungeon reward boxes became much more convenient. Before long, Fang Mo found three or four golden books.

Fang Mo glanced at them briefly.

He found his luck this time to be quite... strange.

These four golden books were respectively: "Hellsing," "Prototype," "Stardew Valley," and "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid."

"..."

Fang Mo looked at these books. To be honest, he didn't know how to react.

The first two seemed quite normal, in fact, he was a bit excited. After all, whether it was Brother A or Uncle A, they were Fang Mo's favorite type of dark anti-hero characters. But what about the last two? Especially that "Star Fury... uh, Stardew Valley," what could he do in that place? Farm?

Although he kept complaining about this book in his mind.

His hands didn't stop; he continued to control Steve to explore the map.

But just as Steve discovered a new combat tower, killed the tower guardian with one strike, and opened the reward box... seeing the golden book inside with the letters 'DNF' on it, Fang Mo was completely stunned.

"Holy crap, it actually dropped!?"