The sun was bright, and the breeze was just right.
His boots hit solid ground as he materialized on a stretch of green meadow that looked like it had been pulled straight from a children's storybook.
"Baa—"
The sheep's bleating snapped him out of his daze. He'd been staring up at the perfectly square sun hanging in the sky.
"I finally made it to the Minecraft Overworld. But damn, this art style is something else."
A flock of sheep wandered across the grass. They moved with jerky, blocky animation as they grazed, occasionally lowering their heads to munch on grass.
He pulled an elytra from his inventory and tested it, relieved when the wings deployed properly. "Thank God. If this worked like the End where flying was disabled, I'd be screwed."
He launched himself into the air to get a better view of the surrounding terrain. Luck was with him, there was a plains village visible to the east, maybe two kilometers away. Without hesitation, he angled toward it.
The flight took only a few minutes. As he descended toward the village, his eyes immediately locked onto several haystacks scattered around the settlement, and his fingers started twitching.
Don't do it. You don't need wheat right now. Don't be that guy.
For some reason, every time he entered a village in Minecraft, he felt an overwhelming compulsion to loot everything that wasn't nailed down. It was like a primal instinct.
He touched down near the village center and took in his surroundings. The villagers' characteristic "hmm" sounds echoed through the air.
The villagers themselves were even worse. Each one stood over two meters tall with their arms folded behind their backs. They would've been intimidating if not for the massive unibrow that dominated their faces.
Hmm. Hmm.
"This village is broke as hell. Just some bread, a few apples, and exactly two emeralds."
He emerged from one of the villager huts looking thoroughly disappointed. The village was far poorer than expected, not even a blacksmith shop or a waystone. The most valuable things were probably the seven or eight villagers themselves.
Looking at the oblivious villagers who had no idea their "better life" was about to begin, he imitated their signature sound. "Hmm. Hmm."
"First priority: build an iron farm. Then I'll keep one villager for a raid farm setup."
Iron was something he could never have too much of, especially since it worked perfectly in the real world too.
He found a relatively flat area, pulled out his tools, and began terraforming the landscape. Drawing on memories of countless YouTube tutorials from before his transmigration, he started constructing an iron golem farm.
The principle was simple: use villagers to spawn iron golems, then kill the golems for iron drops. It was one of the most essential farms in any Minecraft playthrough.
For maximum efficiency, he even reserved a spot for a zombie to keep the villagers in a constant state of panic. Panicked villagers would trigger their meeting mechanic and spawn an iron golem every five seconds, increasing the farm's output.
Basically, when villagers saw a zombie, they'd immediately huddle up and discuss: "Oh shit, there's a zombie! Quick, make an iron golem to kill it!"
Building the iron tower itself was straightforward. The annoying part in the game, transporting villagers long distances, was trivial in reality.
He simply hoisted a grumbling villager onto his shoulder, stepped onto his flying platform, and carried them up to a custom-built "VIP room" containing nothing but torches and a row of beds. Even POW camps could learn efficiency tips from his setup.
"Being able to carry villagers is so damn convenient. Having to lay rails block by block would've been torture."
The thought triggered painful memories of tedious minecart systems and broken rail networks.
He tossed some carrots to the villagers. True to their programming, as long as they had beds and sufficient food, they would continuously breed new baby villagers. The phrase "warm and fed leads to lustful thoughts" apparently applied to Minecraft NPCs too.
Suddenly, a bold and somewhat insane idea popped into his head.
Since the Ancient One is willing to trade with me now...
He quickly shook his head and banished the thought. The Ancient One treated him well, he couldn't risk pissing her off with some stupid experiment. If he angered her enough to get exiled to the Dark Dimension to play eternal games with Dormammu, that would be a real problem.
Steadying his thoughts, he glanced at some rubber trees in the distance but didn't approach them. Anna had already purchased massive quantities of latex, all of which he'd converted into Industrial Craft 2 resin. It was enough to last until he'd produced hundreds of Ultimate Hybrid Solar Panels.
"Time to find a Pillager Outpost and convert it into a mob farm."
Mario hoisted another villager onto his shoulder and rode his flying platform straight up into the sky. The villager's eyes, full of what could generously be called "wisdom," stared ahead as they ascended, making confused grunting noises the entire way.
---
"Finally fucking done."
Half a day had passed, and the sun was already setting by the time Mario finished converting the Pillager Outpost into a proper mob farm. Using the mechanics of raid events, he'd even created a specialized tower designed specifically to farm totems of undying.
In the distance, a fresh patrol had spawned, several pillagers marching in formation, led by a captain carrying the distinctive raid banner.
He walked over casually, drew his cleaver, and with one swing of its massively overpowered blade, instantly deleted the captain's health bar.
The moment the captain died, every other pillager in the patrol turned in perfect unison and rushed toward the fallen banner.
One pillager with a crossbow picked it up, and at that exact moment, a new captain was born.
"Even pillagers are competitive as hell these days."
Mario raised his cleaver and easily cut down the new captain, who'd held his prestigious title for all of five seconds. After that, the banner basically became a death sentence. Whoever picked it up died immediately, yet the pillagers still charged forward without hesitation.
Watching his Bad Omen debuff stack up in his status bar, he smiled. He picked up the captain's banner and planted it in the ground beside him like a flag.
"Ah, power really is intoxicating."
With several layers of Bad Omen stacked on his body, he stepped onto his flying platform and headed back toward the villagers.
"It's starting!"
A boss-style health bar, similar to the Ender Dragon's, appeared in his vision, except this special bar was rapidly filling up rather than depleting.
Landing beside the villagers, a melodious chime sounded through the air.
It's starting!
The totem-of-undying farm was now fully operational.
Monster noises echoed from inside the farm structure. He stood by the villagers, listening to the beautiful symphony of mobs dying behind him while simultaneously crafting various Industrial Craft 2 machines at his workbench.
"Copper. Finally this stuff has a purpose."
Ever since copper was added to vanilla Minecraft, its purpose had been a complete mystery. The world was full of it, sometimes more abundant than coal, yet without mods, all it could make were spyglasses and lightning rods. He had zero use for either.
But times had changed.
Copper, which he used to completely ignore, had become the king of materials in Industrial Craft 2. Everything foundational depended on it.
"I need a Thermal Generator and and Extractor. I've got tons of resin, but that doesn't mean I should waste it. Efficiency is key."
---
BZZZZZZZ...
Industrial Craft 2 was an amazing mod, but some of the machines were absurdly loud.
Especially the Macerator.
"Ugh... I need a silencer block so badly."
At this point Mario couldn't even hear the pillagers spawning behind him anymore. His head was full of nothing but the Macerator's grinding roar. He didn't need to pulverize ordinary ores, but he definitely needed coal dust, diamond dust, obsidian dust, and all those mod-exclusive materials.
"Nope, can't take it anymore. I'll set this to semi-automatic and let it grind on its own. Time to head underground and dig up some tin ore. Copper is shared between mods so quantity isn't an issue, but tin is way too scarce."
As for the totem-of-undying farm behind him stopping when he left, he didn't care. He'd just kill a couple more raid captains when he returned and restart it.
The sun had already set, and everything around him was pitch black. Countless hostile mobs had spawned across the landscape, but he ignored them completely. With a single blink spell, he teleported to an empty spot with no mobs nearby.
He pulled out his tools and started digging straight down without hesitation.
"A real man mines vertically!"
All the Protection enchantments on his gear plus Diamondflesh gave him confidence in his safety.
Thunk-thunk-thunk...
His pickaxe was so efficient that his falling speed could barely keep up with the excavation rate. Blocks disappeared beneath his feet at an incredible pace.
Suddenly, the ground vanished completely. He dropped straight down into a 3×3 abandoned mineshaft tunnel.
"Holy shit, lucky!"
Abandoned mineshafts weren't exactly rare, but some unlucky players could complete an entire world and never stumble across one. Finding it this quickly was pure RNG blessing.
The pitch-black tunnel had no light at all. As far as he could see, only wooden support beams lined the passage. Minecraft's structural integrity system meant nothing would collapse, but at least the aesthetics were on point.
Rails lay scattered along the ground in broken segments. Not wanting to waste anything, he raised his pickaxe and tapped them. A vein-mining chain reaction pulled the entire line of rails into his inventory in one smooth motion.
He continued deeper into the mineshaft while mining ores from the walls. With vein-mining and stack-size mods active, he wasted nothing. If breaking cobwebs wasn't so inefficient, he would've harvested those too, storing them just in case he needed them someday.
Click-clack. Click-clack.
A familiar sound echoed through the darkness. He recognized it instantly, bones rattling together.
Skeletons weren't even worth calling "weak" anymore. He kept walking without concern, mining steadily.
"Mining in mineshafts really is the most efficient method for ore collection."
Though honestly, for pure ore density, the Hollow Hills in the Twilight Forest were superior. If he wasn't specifically exploring the Overworld and farming totems, he'd prefer staying there permanently.
Whoosh.
From around a dark corner, a skeleton strutted out with its characteristic floaty gait and arrogantly fired an arrow.
It even started doing its trademark strafing dance.
Even though he only lost a sliver of health, the arrow still embedded itself directly in his forehead.
Minecraft was a world governed by rules. No matter if he had hundreds of HP or was in creative mode taking zero damage, you still couldn't pull arrows out of your body. They'd stay embedded until you died or the world unloaded.
He rushed forward and finished the skeleton with a single swing of his cleaver.
Picking up the dropped bones and arrows, he continued mining as usual. Then a minecart tucked in a corner caught his attention, one of those storage minecarts unique to abandoned mineshafts. You could often find valuable items in their chests.
For example, enchanted golden apples. But what he hoped for even more was iridium ore, the rarest resource in Industrial Craft 2. There was no natural iridium ore block in Minecraft; you could only obtain it through UU-Matter replication or treasure chests.
Creeeak.
He opened the chest on the minecart, and his eyes lit up.
Six pieces of iridium ore fragments lay quietly inside. The sight made him genuinely excited.
"Good stuff really does come in tiny quantities. One whole chest can't even make a single full ingot."
He pulled out his ender chest and organized his inventory, stuffing all the loot from the minecart into his backpack.
"Thank God for the stack-size mod. Otherwise even mining would be a chore."
After sorting his items, he continued exploring deeper into the mineshaft. As he walked forward, the dim tunnel suddenly lit up. The abrupt brightness startled him so badly he yelped.
He immediately drew his weapon, going on full alert.
"Damn it... I'm just playing Minecraft. Why does it suddenly feel like a horror game?"
He was half-afraid some creepypasta character would poke their head out from the darkness.
Cautiously approaching the light source, he finally exhaled in relief. It was just a torch stuck into a support beam, probably activated by proximity detection when he came near.
"Whew. Scared the hell out of me."
He wiped away nonexistent sweat.
"These mineshaft torches that only light up when you're right next to them are dirty tricks."
Spotting a patch of green on the wall, he sheathed his weapon, pulled out his pickaxe, and began mining with renewed enthusiasm.
Uranium ore. Just a single block of this stuff would make small nations on Earth bang their heads against walls in envy.
"Now that I've got raw materials, I should have Ivan manufacture some nuclear warheads later. Even in the Marvel universe, nukes command respect."
He kept his head down and focused on mining. With industrial mods added to the world generation, ore density in caves had clearly increased significantly. Every few swings of his pickaxe revealed another new ore vein.
After spending a huge amount of time underground, the sun was already rising by the time Mario climbed out of the cave system.
"Mining time really does fly."
For someone who genuinely loved mining, this was definitely the best stress relief activity imaginable.
As soon as he returned to the villagers' area, the Macerator's noise filled his ears once again.
BZZZZZZZZ...
His expression immediately darkened. Unable to fight the industrial grind, he could only endure the noise in grim silence.
---
Sakaar had only one city.
In the tallest building of that city, the Grandmaster sat in his chair, staring at multiple screens displaying live feeds. On them, countless robots were transporting scrap metal and dumping it into a massive black smeltery.
"Have you made contact with him yet?"
His expression was distinctly sour. As the ruler of Sakaar, it had been a very long time since he'd encountered something this troublesome.
"Not yet..."
The Grandmaster stood up, looking even more displeased. "I don't care what method you use, establish contact with him. I want to know what his objectives are and what he intends to do on my planet."