Hearing that, the Ender Queen seemed to realize something and then spoke.
"I get what you mean now."
"What you're saying is, that old world from before was actually created by Notch and his two friends, so that's why they had the power to rule over it."
Hearing the Ender Queen's words, Entity 303 nodded, confirming what she said.
"Right."
"The three of them were the founders of that old world. Naturally, they were the ones who held the highest authority and control."
After hearing that, Steve, who had been quiet all this time, spoke up.
"Even though they created that world, they didn't seem able to fully control it, right?"
"From what we know now, that old world seemed to have a lot of unpredictable things they didn't account for."
"For example, beings like the Dread Lord and the Ender Queen were born. And that old world also had players joining it, right? Those players obviously weren't from my world."
"And then there were all those conscious lifeforms, and the real HIM."
"So, if the real HIM managed to gain the power to seal the three of them, that wouldn't really be strange, would it?"
After hearing Steve's words, the Ender Queen quickly nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, that old world definitely had a lot of powers that those three couldn't control."
Entity 303 didn't refute what they said. Instead, he smiled and shook his head, then his gaze swept over everyone before suddenly sharpening.
"That old world did indeed have many things they couldn't control."
"But did they really need to control them??"
Everyone looked confused, and Entity 303 didn't seem eager to explain further. Instead, he turned toward Steve and asked.
"The current Notch also can't control this world, but he can destroy it, can't he?"
Hearing that, Steve felt a chill run down his spine, goosebumps spreading all over. At that moment, he finally understood what Entity 303 meant.
"He…"
"They… can shut down the server…"
Everything happening now was basically turning into a debate.
The Dread Lord had raised the argument, did the real HIM's power to fight those three rulers come from an external source?
The Ender Queen believed the real HIM didn't need to rely on any external power. Even though the old world was most likely created by Notch and his two friends, that world still had many unknown forces. The real HIM having such powerful strength wasn't strange at all.
Just like the current world, it, too, contained many unknown forces.
The real HIM, Xu Yuan, all sorts of factions…
Even as the creator of the current world, Notch couldn't fully control these unknown forces.
Wasn't the Notch of now basically the same as he and his two friends back then?
And now, Xu Yuan was walking the same path as the real HIM once did.
Xu Yuan was constantly absorbing all kinds of unknown power, growing stronger and stronger, his strength now far beyond the limits of the game world itself.
The Ender Queen also believed that Xu Yuan would one day, through his own efforts, gain the ability to stand equal to the Void and Notch.
It was precisely because of all the things happening in the current world that she felt the real HIM back then didn't need to borrow power from anywhere else. The unknown forces that already existed within that old world were enough for him to rival the three creators.
Her reasoning was solid, and Entity 303 didn't argue against it.
However, he presented evidence that even the Ender Queen couldn't refute.
Those three founders might not have been able to control how the world developed, nor the unknown powers that arose within it.
But as the creators, they had the ability to shut the world down.
Everything happening in the current world, Xu Yuan's birth, the appearance of conscious beings, the existence of the Void, all of it were unknown powers within this world.
Even when Entity 303 himself had been an official game programmer back then, he couldn't erase Xu Yuan.
Even when Notch personally tried to deal with Xu Yuan, he couldn't find Xu Yuan's data or delete him.
But was it really that he couldn't erase Xu Yuan?
Of course not. If he had really wanted to, he could've just shut down the entire server.
Once the server shut down, the entire game world would cease to exist.
Even if Xu Yuan had already gained his own domain and could create new worlds within it, his domain still depended on the game world to expand.
Even if, theoretically, Xu Yuan's domain became big enough to sustain a new world on its own, what would be the point? All the beings that had been born in the original game world would still vanish once the server was shut down.
The server had been shut down once before, for an update, the only time it ever happened.
At that time, Xu Yuan had only the Death Knight and the Execution Dragon (before it gained consciousness and fused with the Ender Dragon).
Although Xu Yuan himself didn't vanish when the server went offline, the Death Knight, the Execution Dragon, and everything else in that world disappeared completely.
The whole game world turned into endless void, leaving only Xu Yuan behind.
Even though the Death Knight had gained consciousness because of Xu Yuan's influence, and evolved into what he was, he still vanished when the server was shut down.
Unless the server was restarted, they would never return.
That was exactly why Entity 303 could understand the Dread Lord's question.
No matter how powerful the real HIM was, those three creators definitely had the power to snuff everything out at the source.
The real HIM's strength could never truly shake the three creators.
If chaos really broke out in the old world, and the real HIM truly posed a threat to Notch and his two friends, they could have just shut down the server to end it all.
But from what we can tell, those three didn't choose to shut it down.
If they had, Notch's two friends probably wouldn't have died in the real world. They wouldn't have been sealed in the Void.
The Ender Queen, the Dread Lord, and everyone who still retained memories from before probably wouldn't exist either.
And the real HIM certainly wouldn't exist.
Hearing Entity 303's and Steve's conversation, the Ender Queen finally understood.
After thinking for a moment, she looked toward Entity 303 and asked.
"Among all of us, only you come from the outside world. You understand more than we do."
"Tell us your theory."
Entity 303's identity was special. He could view things from both inside and outside the game world. He could analyze everything from both perspectives.
And judging from the way he'd been explaining things, so clearly, so logically, it was obvious he already had a solid hypothesis in mind.
Hearing her request, Entity 303 nodded.
"My theory is that among those three founders, the one who truly possessed absolute authority and power was only Notch."
"This game was developed entirely by Notch himself. He should be the core of all authority."
"His two friends might have had high privileges too, but when it came to making final decisions, it was always Notch who had the last word."
Hearing that, Steve nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I looked it up before. Notch first released the early prototype of the game about twelve years ago."
"At that time, he was the only developer."
Entity 303 nodded and continued.
"We don't know exactly what happened in that world that made the real HIM start a war against the three founders…"
"But what's certain is that when it came to handling that war, the three of them must have disagreed."
"Judging by what the Void has become now, Notch's friends probably wanted to crush everything with force."
"But from how things turned out, it seems Notch didn't follow that plan."
As he said that, Entity 303 looked around the group, his expression suddenly serious.
"Though I don't know what decision Notch ultimately made…"
"I can't help but feel that some of the real HIM's power and authority… might have come from Notch."
When Entity 303 said that, everyone froze.
"???? Did I hear that wrong or did you just slip up???"
"What? The real HIM's power and authority came from Notch?!"
"No way!! Those two founders were his friends! Why would he help the real HIM?!"
Entity 303's guess was just too wild, no one could accept it. What he was implying was that the real HIM of the old world had only managed to win the war and seal away the two other founders after receiving power from Notch.
But judging from everything they knew about Notch, that theory was impossible.
First, based on the information provided, Notch and his two friends had an extremely close relationship.
Notch and Brother Jiang's bond was already one forged through life and death, and his friendship with those two was even deeper.
Otherwise, why would Brother Jiang, after Notch lost his memory, never dare mention those two friends?
That alone showed how important they were to Notch.
Also, it was already confirmed that there were three consciousnesses within the Void, the two friends of Notch, and a fragment of Notch's own spirit sealed there.
If Entity 303's theory were true, that would mean Notch had given power to the real HIM, allowing him to defeat and seal Notch and his two friends.
But logically, that made no sense at all.
At that time, the world must have been in total chaos. Notch surely faced a terrible choice.
Would he side with his friends, or try to save all the living beings of that world?
Even if he chose the latter, to save everyone, he would never have done it by granting the real HIM the power to kill him and his friends.
Even if we assume Notch was that selfless, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good, his plan would've been something like risking himself alone to save the world, not dragging his two best friends into it too.
Besides, if the real HIM's power really came from Notch, that would mean Notch's power was even greater than the real HIM's.
If that were the case, he could've just used his own power to suppress the situation, calm the real HIM and his friends, and find another solution.
So no matter how you look at it, what Entity 303 said just couldn't be right.
At this point, even though everyone knew Entity 303 had a broader understanding than them, none of them agreed with his analysis.
"Honestly, if you said the real HIM's power was given by some cosmic creator god, I could buy that… but Notch? No way…"
"Yeah, that's way too far-fetched… Even if he were selfless enough to sacrifice himself, he wouldn't drag his friends down too, right?…"
"If he had that much power, he wouldn't need to give it to the real HIM to fix things…"
Hearing everyone's reactions, Entity 303 shrugged helplessly and sighed.
He didn't immediately try to argue his point again. Instead, he looked at them and said.
"The real HIM isn't dead. He's still out there, carrying out all kinds of plans."
"The space where our King was trapped before, the appearance of the two other HIMs, the Trial Grounds…"