"Does Soren Park actually make sense?"
"Even so, Soren Park has speculated plenty of times. As for the results..."
"The same old flavor, the same old Soren Park!"
"'Excellent abilities' made me laugh. This is what counts as excellent?"
"Actually, Soren Park himself is decent, but compared to the great God Yu, he's just too low-tier."
Seeing Mark place his trust in Soren Park, many viewers were reminded of the time on Sky Island.
The same Soren Park, the same style, the same logic!
If nothing else, nobody could beat him when it came to getting hilariously slapped in the face by reality.
Unaware of previous events, Mark felt fortunate to have acquired such a brilliant strategist.
Mark opened the rankings and was left speechless for a long time.
"What do you mean the chunk score gap is too large?"
Previously, scores were visible to motivate lower-ranked players to strive and overtake others.
What was the situation now?
As if hearing his confusion, a prompt appeared again.
[SYSTEM: SCORE HIDDEN WHEN THE OPPONENT'S CHUNK SCORE EXCEEDS YOURS BY FIVE TIMES.]
In fact, besides Mark, Mountwell, and the former player Kapil—all top-ranked players.
Many lower-ranked players had already received this prompt and were unable to see Galen Yu's score.
The strong should have their own circles; Mark understood this well.
But what did it mean for Galen Yu's chunk to exceed his by five times?
[SYSTEM: CURRENT INTEGRATED CHUNK SCORE: 71 (MINIATURE CHUNK)]
[SYSTEM: PLAYER RANKING: 2]
"With the Alliance and so many players helping with construction, we only have seventy-some points. And Galen Yu is just one person!"
"His chunk score is over three hundred and fifty now!?"
He had clearly checked just a few days ago, and the gap wasn't that massive.
Because they were working hard on construction, they seemed to be catching up.
In the blink of an eye, he was at least five times ahead?
Mark started to speak, stopped, hesitated, struggled for words, and finally lost his patience.
He let his actions do the talking and punched the block next to him.
"Fuck!"
How on earth did he manage such a massive leap in scoring?
He could rack his brains forever and still not understand!
The atmosphere remained heavy for over ten minutes until Jett broke the silence.
"Alright, Mark. It's time to welcome our allies back."
He didn't understand either, but he was more composed than Mark and didn't lose his cool.
Patting Mark on the shoulder, he offered quiet comfort.
"Like Soren Park said, it's just good luck. I'm guessing it's mostly because of that Wither. That's not a big deal, right?"
"We'll challenge it sooner or later. And right now, we have an advantage Galen Yu can never obtain."
"The SlashBlade!"
Taking a deep breath, Mark knew Jett was right.
A score explosion right after killing the Wither—even an idiot could guess the reason.
It was likely because of that boss.
The Wither wasn't a Twilight Forest monster; it was native to this world.
This meant they would likely have to face it in the future. Since they had to fight it eventually, it was just a matter of timing; they would get those points too.
But the SlashBlade event only lasted one month.
There would only be one winner!
Comparing the two, the SlashBlade was definitely better.
"Mountwell! Oakmoor!"
Seeing the two return from the Twilight Forest looking exhausted, Mark and Jett tacitly avoided mentioning the Kapil incident.
They appeared as harmonious as true allies.
The bullet chat finally regained some confidence.
"True, Galen Yu is strong, but we have advantages too!"
"Soren Park has great deductive reasoning, Mark is powerful in combat, and we have the Samurai Nation!"
"Sneakingly killing Kapil and screwing over an ally was definitely wrong, but it did bring benefits to the Alliance!"
"A month should be enough for the other players to upgrade their weapons. With their familiarity with SlashBlade, they'll overtake Galen Yu easily!"
"The SlashBlade will be ours when the time comes. I have a feeling it's going to be incredibly powerful!"
"Excellent! Our SlashBlade is going to shine!"
In the Black House, the Blonde Elder's face lit up once again.
Reminded by the bullet chat, he agreed wholeheartedly.
"Soren Park's summary is spot on! He's a player with great ideas and ability!"
He had certainly looked like a clown in some instances before, but the Blonde Elder took a longer view.
In the world of deduction, making an occasional mistake was normal.
Galen Yu had too much luck and just enough cleverness; it was perfectly normal for someone not to have anticipated everything.
That didn't diminish Soren Park's own capabilities, as evidenced by the wooden boat's mechanics this time.
He really had something going for him!
"Mark has the light machine gun, and the Samurai are the most familiar with SlashBlade. Everything is moving in the right direction."
With so many favorable conditions, the Blonde Elder specifically called his secretary over.
Pointing at the screen, he clutched his belly and let out three loud laughs.
"Ha! Ha ha!"
Baffled by the sudden summons and laughter, the secretary looked confused.
"Sir, why are you laughing again?"
"You said the previous times were because of my laughter—some metaphysical reason. Now that the advantage is entirely ours, I refuse to believe in that jinx!"
"I've already had my laugh. If Galen Yu's SlashBlade progress can still beat ours..."
Pointing at his desk, the Blonde Elder spoke with resounding conviction.
"I'll eat this table!"
Looking at the table and then back at the Blonde Elder, the secretary said nothing and only let out a deep sigh.
Sky Island.
Having obtained the Nether Star, Galen Yu crafted the Beacon at his crafting table.
Glass, Obsidian, and a Nether Star.
However, a beacon by itself was useless; it had to be placed atop a pyramid of other blocks to upgrade.
The most abundant resource in the chunk was iron, so Galen Yu chose to use iron blocks for the upgrade.
Each level required a layer of blocks. To reach the maximum level of four, he would need two stacks of iron blocks—over a thousand iron ingots.
The requirements were massive. Even though he had once hollowed out a mountain's worth of iron, Galen Yu couldn't produce that many iron blocks immediately.
'The iron farm is running. A level four beacon is only a matter of time. I'll just build the basic first layer for now.'
Thinking this, he cleared a spot for the pyramid, crafted nine iron blocks, and then placed the beacon on top.
BOOM!
Under the clear daylight, a beam of light shot straight into the sky.
Emerging from the beacon, it was novel and beautiful, adding another spectacular sight to Sky Island.
[SYSTEM: CONGRATULATIONS TO PLAYER GALEN YU OF THE NINE PROVINCES FOR CRAFTING A BEACON. CHUNK SCORE +50!]
[SYSTEM: THE BEACON IS HOLY AND POWERFUL. WITH THE BEACON AS THE CENTER, ZOMBIES, SKELETONS, CREEPERS, AND SPIDERS WILL NOT SPAWN WITHIN A THIRTY-BLOCK RADIUS!]
[SYSTEM: YOU WILL MORE EASILY GAIN THE FAVOR AND RESPECT OF NEUTRAL CREATURES, EARN REPUTATION AND HONOR BETWEEN CHUNKS, AND EVEN ATTRACT DEFECTORS!]
[SYSTEM: YOU WILL RECEIVE A 30% DISCOUNT ON VILLAGER TRADES AND BE MORE BELOVED BY NPCS!]
[SYSTEM: FIRST-TIME BEACON CONSTRUCTION GRANTS AN ADDITIONAL STAT BUFF: LUCK!]
[SYSTEM: NATIONAL FORTUNE REWARD TRIGGERED: 200,000 TONS OF HYDRA CHOPS. MORE PEOPLE HAVE AWAKENED THE "STEVE'S BODY" ABILITY.]
[SYSTEM: ADDITIONAL NATIONAL FORTUNE REWARD TRIGGERED: TARGET SELECTION AVAILABLE!]
Research Institute.
Fries was dazed when he suddenly felt a mysterious surge of power rising from beneath his feet.
It was warm and surging, making him unable to resist the urge to start running around the vicinity of the Research Institute.
He was both fast and steady, clearly exceeding his previous limits. Even after ten minutes of continuous running, he didn't feel tired.
"So this is Steve's Body? And there's an extra national fortune reward!"
Two hundred thousand tons of meat was a lot. Fries was pleasantly surprised and looked forward to seeing what else there was.
But then he saw Galen Yu's expression on the screen turn strange, followed by an action that caught everyone off guard.
"Select target: Samurai Nation!"
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