Mark remembered it clearly.
Back then, he and Jett had teamed up to defeat an Iron Golem. They had thought themselves invincible, unstoppable by anyone.
They had entered Galen Yu's room, intending to 'borrow' some resources, only to find nothing of the sort.
Instead, they found a Witch inside.
A Potion of Harming had been thrown right in Mark's face, nearly killing him.
Because of this, he held a natural grudge against Witches.
He had thought it was just an accident, but who would have guessed the thing that almost killed him was led there by Soren Park?!
"I remember now, that really messed Mark up back then!"
"What an idiot Soren Park is, losing an Epic-grade weapon and nearly getting Mark killed!"
"Every debt has its debtor. We finally found the culprit!"
"I almost forgot about that incident!"
"Soren's going to have a bad time!"
The bullet chat was full of schadenfreude.
Watching Mark suddenly explode with questions, Soren Park looked a bit dazed.
"What Witch?"
He really wasn't clear about what happened afterward, not until Jett explained it.
Soren Park broke into a cold sweat.
It turned out he hadn't just sent Galen Yu a hidden minion back then; he had also sent a Witch, which almost killed Mark!
'Why didn't that poison just kill you...'
"What was that?"
"Cough! It's nothing!"
Having accidentally muttered his inner thoughts aloud, Soren Park coughed dryly to cover his embarrassment.
Fortunately, his voice had been low enough that the two didn't hear him clearly. Soren Park scrambled to explain.
"It's a misunderstanding! I originally wanted to use the Witch to deal with Galen Yu. Who could have known there was magic on that boat and Galen Yu would imprison her?"
"He even has a habit of keeping monsters as pets. You really can't blame me!"
As rivals, Soren Park truly wished Mark and Jett would just die sooner so his ranking could climb higher.
But now they were allies—allies led by them.
He couldn't afford to think like that anymore.
They had the power to kick him out of the alliance at any time if he truly angered them.
He didn't want to return to Mushroom Island to face that neighbor who was scarier than a boss while also looking out for over a dozen alliance players coming to harass him...
Aside from that, the Zombies were also a huge problem.
Flashing a fawning smile, Soren Park continued.
"Everything has two sides. Look at it from another angle—it looks like he used a boat to trap the Witch, but isn't it possible Galen Yu just accidentally swapped her in while he was panicking?"
"Or perhaps—and I've gone back to deduce this—Galen Yu doesn't have that much magic. It's very likely just a mechanic of the block world!"
"He just happened to discover this mechanic by accident while panicking in a fight. This only proves what I said before."
"Galen Yu has some street smarts, but most of it is just luck!"
This chain of reasoning sounded quite plausible, causing Mark to fall into thought.
"A boat... can actually trap monsters?"
The event was long past, and he hadn't actually died. If the theory was true...
Then it meant he had gained a free mechanic of the block world from Soren Park. That wasn't a bad deal.
If it was a lie and he dared to deceive him, he would definitely make Soren Park understand the weight of a Spartan fist.
His previous status was due to the shotgun, but now that Mark had a light machine gun, the value of a double-barreled shotgun wasn't as high as before.
As one of the few modes of transportation in the block world, Mark had researched the crafting method for boats.
He quickly crafted one and found a monster outside that wouldn't burn in the sun: a Spider.
During the day, Spiders were neutral mobs, so he didn't have to worry about getting hurt. He placed the wooden boat next to it.
"It's a mechanic! It really got in the boat?"
Jett's eyes lit up with surprise.
He had thought boats were only for water travel, but they actually had this effect!
Once inside the boat, the creature seemed to be under some sort of restraint. By positioning oneself correctly, one could attack it without taking any damage.
Having confirmed the experiment, all three were astonished.
Although he spoke of it as a deduction, Soren Park himself hadn't been entirely sure if it would work.
After all, the crafting recipes he had learned were limited. Seeing the boat's effect without knowing the recipe made it hard to practice.
Fortunately, his deduction wasn't wrong!
The bullet chat finally understood as well.
"I actually thought Galen Yu was using magic back then. So it wasn't magic?"
"No skills? Just a pure mechanic? Wooden boats are that broken?"
"Holy crap, you can infinitely control any creature. Is the boat the true god of the block world!?"
"The key is that no matter how strong gear is, it has durability. Even a Netherite set will break eventually, but a boat is a tool with no durability at all!"
"Something this powerful, and we're only finding out now!"
"Just think, a long time ago, trapping that monster with a boat was just a casual move for Galen Yu!"
"It was something that simple, and we've only just realized it!"
The audience outside the screen fell silent.
They thought that by following Galen Yu, they had seen many mechanics and tricks. Even if they didn't know everything...
At least they had an understanding of the various principles of the block world and could explain a thing or two.
Reality, however, slapped them in the face time and again.
Despite exerting all their effort to learn, they couldn't even compare to Galen Yu when he first entered the Chunk Civilization!
"Does Galen Yu actually not have any skills?"
"If that's the case, then accelerating crop growth..."
Snapping out of it, Soren Park's mind began to race.
Unfortunately, at that time, he could only see Galen Yu holding something whitish in his hand, but he didn't know exactly what it was.
Whether it was a block world mechanic or Galen Yu's personal skill, there was no way to verify it for sure.
Deep down, Soren Park hoped it was a skill.
Whether it was a block world mechanic or Galen Yu's personal skill, there was no way to verify it for sure.
Deep down, Soren Park hoped it was a skill.
If it were a skill, he could at least say Galen Yu had participated in a civilization before and was a veteran player—it would be normal for him to know so much.
But if he didn't have skills, it proved Galen Yu was a novice.
Where would that leave the rest of them?
They had researched for months, yet their understanding of the game was worse than someone who had been chosen for the first time?
"Haha, don't be nervous, Soren. I just got a bit too excited."
Patting Soren Park on the shoulder, Mark smiled again.
Getting a mechanic for free, especially one related to combat, meant he might be able to use this trick to save his life in the future!
Compared to that, the past didn't matter much.
It seemed Soren Park wasn't entirely worthless. After peeping on Galen Yu for so long, they might be able to get more info from him in the future.
After finishing his polite talk, he declared they were eternal alliance brothers.
Feeling the cold sweat soaking his back, Soren Park felt lucky as he walked away.
He had finally managed to smooth things over!
Once he was far enough away, the smile on Mark's face vanished, and his tone became flat.
"Jett, what do you think of what Soren said? Has Galen Yu really relied entirely on luck to get this far?"
Killing the Spider in the boat, Mark tried putting other creatures inside.
Jett researched while answering.
"No, to get this far, he definitely has some strength. But what Soren said isn't without reason."
"We saw it too; the Witch really was in a boat. Being able to deduce this result without knowing the recipe proves Soren's ability is quite excellent."
"His deduction can be trusted. Galen Yu probably relied on luck to get through many situations."
In other words, their enemy wasn't as terrifying as they had imagined.
The Anti-Galen Yu Alliance still had a chance!
"Yeah, his luck is good, but we have so many players too!"
"Let me see... even if our chunk score can't catch up, it should be close by now..."
Opening the rankings, Mark's face froze.
[PLAYER RANKINGS]
[1ST PLACE: NINE PROVINCES, GALEN YU. THE CHUNK GAP IS TOO LARGE; THE EXACT SCORE HAS BEEN HIDDEN!]
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