Nether Fortress

In the vast, magnificent world of the Nether.

Yang Bo had already collected a large number of Ender Pearls.

"Endermen everywhere. This Warped Forest is way too dangerous!"

After grumbling, he cleared out the Endermen surrounding him. He dared not look up for fear of another ambush, so he had no choice but to switch to his Pickaxe and dig underground.

Thud, thud, thud...

A dozen or so minutes later.

Yang Bo left the Warped Forest behind and climbed out from underground, finally getting a look at the breathtaking scenery.

The Nether Rock ceiling rose over a hundred meters above him, making it feel as though the sky might come crashing down. In the distance stretched an endless lava lake-or rather, a lava sea. Yang Bo stood rooted to the spot and swallowed.

"This is incredible. I never got this feeling when I played the game!"

"Maybe playing Minecraft in VR would give you a little taste of it!"

The Warped Forest had been full of warped fungi, and visibility there couldn't compare to what he had now.

Oink, oink...

A chorus of pig grunts interrupted Yang Bo's thoughts. Many Zombie Piglins wandered across the Nether Rock platform. They were the most common mobs in the Nether and belonged to the passive type.

They were among the most troublesome mobs in the Nether, though only if you provoked them. Accidentally hit even one, and every Zombie Piglin nearby would come after you.

Yang Bo looked at the pig family closest to him: two adult Zombie Piglins and one juvenile, happily playing together. If not for their golden swords and rotting bodies, it would have been a perfectly peaceful scene.

"Whew! Lucky me. No Piglins spawned nearby!"

His sharp eyes spotted a peculiar patch of Nether Rock not far away, flecked with gold. The discovery filled him with delight.

"Nether gold ore!"

With that, he ran toward the nether gold ore, Iron Pickaxe in hand. Suddenly, an inexplicable sadness welled up inside him.

I spent over ten minutes digging just now without finding a single block of nether gold ore. Is my luck really that bad?

He threw the thought out of his head as soon as it appeared. He already had Minecraft as his cheat. How could he possibly be unlucky? Absolutely impossible.

To be safe, he first enclosed himself in Nether Rock so that wandering Piglins couldn't ambush him.

Then he struck the nether gold ore with his Iron Pickaxe. Cracks spread across it until the block shattered with a bang, dropping three teardrop-shaped Gold Nuggets and several colorful Experience Orbs. They were absorbed into his body as soon as they appeared.

Breaking nether gold ore yielded two to six Gold Nuggets, and a Pickaxe with a drop-boosting attribute could yield more. Here was a not-so-obscure fun fact: a Pickaxe with Silk Touch could harvest an intact block of nether gold ore, which could then be smelted in a Furnace to produce a whole gold ingot.

Still, before his transmigration, whether playing himself or watching videos, Yang Bo had never seen anyone deliberately mine nether gold ore with a Silk Touch Pickaxe and then smelt it...

There wasn't much gold ore in this patch, just five blocks, but even so, he couldn't suppress his smile.

"When I get back, I'll ask Coulson or Blade if they know anywhere that buys gold. I'll never have to worry about money again!"

Having transmigrated into modern society, he could solve over ninety-nine percent of his problems as long as he had money.

He obtained fifteen Gold Nuggets in total, not even enough to craft two gold ingots. Poking his head out of his hiding place, he looked around and soon spotted several more exposed patches of gold ore. Yang Bo picked his moment and dashed toward another patch, but his movements still caught the attention of a nearby Piglin.

Whoosh.

A Crossbow Bolt skimmed over his scalp, making Yang Bo jolt in fright. With nimble footwork, he quickly ducked behind a Zombie Piglin. The dim-witted Piglin didn't hesitate at all and fired another Crossbow Bolt straight at his position.

Time seemed to slow at that moment. Yang Bo watched the Crossbow Bolt trace a graceful arc and strike the Zombie Piglin in front of him.

A red glow flashed.

Oink, oink...

The surrounding Zombie Piglins instantly erupted, charging in unison toward the Piglin that had fired. The poor Piglin was torn apart by the mob of Zombie Piglins and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Whew, they're only brothers on the surface, all right. They're not even the same species. They look so friendly together, but once one gets attacked, it's a fight to the death!"

Yang Bo happily walked over to the gold ore nearby, took out his Pickaxe, and began mining. After collecting all the dropped Gold Nuggets, he brought out his Crafting Table and crafted four gold ingots, then made a pair of Golden Boots and equipped them.

"Now I don't have to worry about Piglins attacking me!"

Piglins seemed to have a rather unhealthy obsession with gold. As long as a player wore equipment made of gold, ordinary Piglins wouldn't attack them unprovoked.

He continued collecting gold as he searched for a Nether Fortress. His efforts finally paid off: after more than an hour, a cluster of dark red structures appeared in his view.

"This..."

He had thought the Nether was spectacular enough already, but the Nether Fortress was no less impressive. Towering support pillars rose from the lava sea, standing fifty or sixty meters tall-higher than a twelve-story building in the real world.

Taking out Nether Rock, he rapidly built a path across the lava lake toward the Nether Fortress. All he wanted now was to get there quickly. Searing lava surrounded him, bubbling and gurgling.

He prayed silently, Please don't spawn any Ghasts! Please don't spawn any Ghasts!

Of course, the very thing he dreaded happened. Without warning, a piercing wail reached Yang Bo's ears. It sounded as though it had come from right beside him, sending a shiver through his body.

"Just what I was afraid of!"

"And isn't Minecraft supposed to be a little house-building game? That fucking Ghast cry would be terrifying even in a horror game!"

He glanced around and, sure enough, spotted a Ghast floating in the air, along with a fireball heading straight toward him.

Ghasts resembled white jellyfish. They were enormous and entirely white, their bodies also serving as their heads, with several tentacles hanging beneath them. Found only in the Nether, they floated aimlessly about.

Aside from their unsettling cries and the gaping maws they revealed when attacking, Ghasts were actually rather cute.

The fireball the Ghast had spat out was already right in his face. It wasn't moving all that fast, so Yang Bo adjusted his angle and swiftly swung his Iron Sword into it.

"Go to hell!"

The fireball flew back toward the Ghast in the sky. With a shriek, the Ghast was blown apart by its own fireball.

(When a player deflects a fireball and hits a Ghast with it, it deals 1,000 damage to the Ghast.)