"The fog is the zombies' best protection."
Galen Yu stood on the Great Wall, gazing into the distance.
Previously, he could easily see dozens of blocks away from this vantage point, but now his visibility barely reached ten.
More importantly, the foggy weather blocked out the sunlight.
For players, the challenge had become significantly harder!
Compared to the physical strain, the mental torment was far more difficult to bear.
Not knowing when a zombie might appear kept nerves constantly frayed; one might break before even reaching a desperate situation.
The fear of the unknown would crush a person first.
After seeing the new variants from Mark's perspective, the audience shifted their gaze back to Galen Yu.
"This wave of zombie evolution is intense; a dozen people in the Alliance are all scrambling!"
"Lava is completely useless now—they're airlifting them in!"
"Even if the 'airlift' only looks like a block or two, many obstacles can be bypassed directly..."
"In that case, will Great God Galen Yu's rails also be breached?"
"After all, those things count as flying mobs; it shouldn't be hard to jump over a couple of blocks, right?"
"Holy crap, did the new mutation just render the defenses of both Galen Yu and the Alliance useless?"
"Doesn't Great God Galen Yu have other defenses? He should be able to handle it, right?"
"What defenses? You mean those obsidian gates? Those count as defense?"
"They're just portals; how can they defend against zombies!"
"They're for teleporting, not defending. In my opinion, wasting obsidian like that is a crying shame!"
"If they were used to build high walls, they might be useful, but now... sigh!"
Upon closer thought, the audience gasped.
Many fortifications relied on height differences, but the arrival of the mutant zombies had shattered that paradigm.
No player would be spared!
At the research institute, Headmaster Quill was observing the new mutation.
"This difficulty... it's too high!"
Although the name was the Anti-Galen Yu Alliance, at its core, it was because the Crisis was too difficult.
It forced players into an alliance, a first across all civilizations.
"It will only get harder from here. Galen Yu likely anticipated this, which is why he built the Nether Portals."
"Fries, what do you think?"
Fries's expression was grim, and his tone was no longer as confident as before.
"That's just a portal; logically, it has no defensive effect."
"I'm not sure if the zombies have other traits—whether they'll destroy it or just fly over and ignore the portal."
"I hope it works."
They continued watching.
After leading the villagers behind the Nether Portal, Galen Yu had built a small house in advance.
He had long since placed torches and covered the area with rails, so there was no need to worry about mob spawns as he stood on the second floor.
He had been working on the Nether Portals for days, finally finishing them before the thirtieth day arrived.
He left only one entrance, enclosing the rest with glass to serve as a gateway.
He had carpeted the chunk with rails, so no mobs appeared for a short while.
Not a sound could be heard from zombies or skeletons.
Until half an hour later, a whirring sound drifted over.
The audience held their breath.
"What was meant to come has finally arrived!"
"I told you, the rails couldn't stop them!"
"Is Great God Galen Yu going to fall too? Will Sky Island become a zombie playground?"
"Not likely. He just set up his firepower; at most, it'll just be a heavy drain on resources."
"The zombies have been buffed too! It's hard to say before the actual clash!"
"Damn, I'm so nervous. The Anti-Galen Yu Alliance better not actually succeed in taking him down!"
"Hearing the zombies slowly approach... I'm scared too..."
Looking down from the upper floor.
Galen Yu saw the new product of this Crisis beyond the fog.
Flesh Ball Blimp Zombies!
That wasn't quite accurate; to describe it better, it was a cluster of zombies bound together.
It looked similar to scenes in zombie movies where a horde drags down a helicopter.
He didn't know which mod this was inspired by to produce such a warped monstrosity.
It was definitely an Elite Mob.
'They're both Elite Mobs; I wonder which is stronger, this or a Warden?'
For no reason, the image suddenly popped into Galen Yu's mind.
'An Elite Mob with five hundred health points—it was almost comical when he thought about it.'
Pushing those thoughts aside, Galen Yu refocused his gaze outside.
Since it was technically a flying mob, it could indeed bypass the rails and ignore certain obstacles.
But whether it could fly past the Nether Portal, he didn't know.
If it just leaped over the portal and landed inside, that would be awkward.
As he pondered this, the Flesh Ball Blimp gradually approached from the distance.
Due to its size, its movement was slow; every block it moved...
...made the audience's breath hitch.
"Five blocks left! It's almost here!"
"Is he really hiding behind the Nether Portal? That's too risky!"
"The Nether Portal is massive; it can definitely fit that thing."
"But is it actually useful? I remember portal materials being very fragile!"
"Won't it just shatter the portal if it crashes into it?"
"Three blocks! Getting closer!"
"Last two blocks, and it still hasn't taken flight!"
"One block... it touched the portal!"
The collective breath of the crowd stopped. In the next moment...
The massive Flesh Ball vanished, instantly teleported into the Nether!
Ten seconds passed; it didn't return or appear on the other side.
Half a minute passed, and it remained calm and peaceful.
After five minutes, the audience could finally be certain.
"Holy cow! It really was instantly sent to the Nether. It's never coming back!"
"It's not destroyed! Great God Galen Yu didn't waste his effort!"
"Nether Portals can teleport zombies too? Is that even a thing?"
"With a structure like this, what the hell is there to fear from zombies!"
"The Infinite Rail Machine was already broken, but this Nether Portal is even more unbeatable!"
""
"With a structure like this, what the hell is there to fear from zombies!"
"The Infinite Rail Machine was already broken, but this Nether Portal is even more unbeatable!"
"The zombies didn't even get a chance to fight back. Terrifying!"
After a brief silence, an uproar erupted outside the screen.
At first, no one had high hopes for Galen Yu's plan.
Many were skeptical whether building such a massive Nether Portal was even possible.
Whether it was the Nether or the Twilight Forest, portals were usually just a few blocks wide; nobody had ever seen one this big.
Besides, a portal was just a portal—it was meant for dimension hopping. Making it bigger seemed impractical.
Until Galen Yu integrated the Nether Portal into his defenses.
Using a portal as defense?
Inertia of thought dictated that a portal was just a door; what could it possibly defend against?
It turned out they had fallen into a logical trap.
Game mechanics were game mechanics—why couldn't a door be a defense?
"Even mutated, they're still zombies at heart. It works!"
Seeing the success, Galen Yu relaxed.
He had been worried that the thing might explode or have some other messy effect, but fortunately, it didn't.
As one was sent to the Nether, whirring sounds echoed from the left and right again.
More Flesh Ball Blimps appeared, slowly closing in on their position.
Galen Yu felt incredibly lucky.
His hard work over the last few days hadn't been in vain; with this Nether Portal...
...he didn't have to worry about the zombies at all!
Furthermore, this was essentially just a prototype Galen Yu had built to test the effects.
Besides players, zombies also saw villagers as hostile targets to track and lock onto.
When the time came, he could build more structures like this at the four corners and place villagers inside to draw aggro.
It seemed like a brilliant idea!
The zombies would all be lured by the villagers at the corners, then teleported into the Nether to be burned to death by lava.
'Doing nothing and just AFK-ing through the Crisis?'
As these thoughts occurred, the audience outside the screen suddenly grew excited.
"It's not over yet! Blocks are spawning in the distance!"
"Wait, how did that thing suddenly spawn? Holy crap!"
"That's truly insane. It's got high health and high damage, but most importantly, it has a ranged attack!"
"If it blows up the Nether Portal directly, Galen Yu loses his defense!"
A health bar appeared before Galen Yu's eyes.
[UR-GHAST]
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