Ian thought unlocking JEI meant he'd found the key to unlocking more mods, but after poking around for a while he still couldn't make sense of it. The Transmutation Tablet fell silent again after announcing the new feature.
"Sigh! What a pity— I really thought I'd found a way to unlock more mods."
"But even if I don't figure it out now, it doesn't matter. With the Ultimate Transmutation Tablet on my side, there's plenty of time. Besides, there are better things waiting right in front of me."
Ian rubbed his hands together like a kid with a new toy. He eagerly opened JEI to the Equivalent Exchange section. Item names flashed by line after line until his eyes nearly crossed.
Eternal Fuel, Klein Star, Red Matter Set, Watch of Flowing Time, Soul Stone, Life Stone, Igniter, Black Hole Band, Archangel, Harvest Goddess… and on and on.
The sheer number of artifacts made Ian dizzy — he wanted them all now. But one look at the required recipes and EMC values and his mood plummeted. He'd thought himself somewhat wealthy, but he couldn't even make a single Dark Matter.
"Never mind, forget it. Better get practical for now." Ian sighed and closed JEI. He was tempted by those powerful items, but he knew you eat a meal one bite at a time and walk the road one step at a time.
Also, those artifacts weren't truly out of reach: he suddenly remembered a function of the Philosopher's Stone he'd seen in a video.
By using the Philosopher's Stone on any creature and spending EMC, and then pressing some button, he could convert it into another creature in Minecraft.
He'd forgotten the exact key combos, but luckily he could manipulate it with thought now — no need to remember buttons.
As a wheelchair player, Ian hadn't used many mod features. After people crafted certain artifacts they were often just for collection, not real study. He'd been busy stacking numbers without learning how things worked. Now he felt a little regret, but the immediate priority was earning EMC. Once he had plenty, he could reverse-engineer the artifact functions later.
He began building a mob farming platform.
It didn't take long to finish. After capping the platform he waited quietly for spawns.
Whether spawns were slow or something else was wrong, nothing showed up for a long time. Ian started to wonder if his world had been set to Easy Mode.
Not willing to be defeated, he built several more platforms nearby—some for general mob spawns, some for specific creature generation. He refused to believe that not a single creature would appear.
Then he sat down to wait.
While waiting, Ian wasn't idle. He pulled some string out of the Transmutation Tablet, turned the string into wool, made beds, sold them back to the Tablet, and sent a few to his chat friends.
[Super Block Man] sent a Red Packet to [Starving Platform] [Freezing Cold] [Boiling Alive].
[Freezing Cold]: "Wow! The boss sent Red Packets again, thanks! Hehe, let me see what it is."
[Starving Platform]: "Wow! The boss sent Red Packets again, thanks! Hehe, let me see what it is."
[Boiling Alive]: "Wow! The boss sent Red Packets again, thanks! Hehe, let me see what it is."
[Freezing Cold]: "By the way, why do you two keep repeating what I say?"
[Super Block Man]: "Humans are basically repeaters." (T/N: even you Ian???)
[Boiling Alive]: "Humans are basically repeaters."
[Starving Platform]: "Humans are basically repeaters."
[Super Block Man]: "I sent you beds."
[Super Block Man]: "But these aren't ordinary beds — they're MC beds. They let you sleep instantly and restore stamina quickly."
As for beds resetting spawn points, Ian suspected resurrection was a Minecraft feature or an ability of Block People. Beds are just anchors and probably can't resurrect someone, so he kept quiet to prevent anyone from trying something reckless.
Ian then glanced at a torch habitually stuck near his foot and had an idea: if he sent this torch into another world, maybe it would burn forever there. If it worked, it would be a miracle for Molly's world.
In Minecraft, torches emit endless light; a torch won't wear down even after ten thousand years.
Torches can also melt snow in a radius and act like sunlight to help plants grow.
Thinking that, Ian took a stack of torches from the Tablet and stuffed them into a Red Packet.
[Super Block Man] sent a [Red Packet] to [Freezing Cold].
[Super Block Man]: "@Freezing Cold, this is another artifact from our world — an endlessly burning torch that probably doesn't need air and can't be extinguished by normal water. It melts nearby snow and substitutes sunlight to promote plant growth. It should be perfect for your world — try it and see."
[Freezing Cold]: "Wow, that's amazing! Thank you, big shot. I'll test it right away."
[Freezing Cold]: "If it works, I'll fill my extra storage with torches. We had furnaces before, but they needed frequent coal — too much hassle."
Molly hurriedly took the torch, stuck it into a small pit before her, and something magical happened: the area around the torch warmed up.
Her test recorded the radius at a pleasant 26°C — the ideal comfortable temperature for humans.
She also found that the frost and snow in a circular area near the room's doorway had vanished quickly. Instead of slowly melting due to heat, the ice on the walls simply turned into flowing water.
"Wow, this thing actually works. If we had a lot of these torches, our apocalypse would be a lot less terrible."
While Molly experimented, Ian checked his mob platforms again — still nothing. Discouraged but determined, he went to the last platform.
After mechanically scanning the area, he was about to turn back when he suddenly spotted a Chicken on the grass.
(Patch: Molly's stockpile doesn't have eggs.)
"Ahhh, Chicken-bro, you finally came. Do you know how hard I searched for you?" Ian hurried over and scooped up the curious, wide-eyed chicken.
Holding the chicken, an impish thought sprang to his mind. The chicken seemed to sense his intent and squawked wildly.
"Chicken Bro, don't be afraid. A little pain is normal. You help me this one time, and when I get rich, I'll erect a statue for you."
Ian concentrated, and the chicken in his arms vanished. It worked — he'd successfully bought the chicken into the Transmutation Tablet.
'Woohoo! We're soaring!'
He hurried back to the spawn island where he'd prepared small stalls for creature transformation.
At each stall, with a thought, chickens appeared.
"Transform, activate."
One transformed into a cow — keep.
A creeper — convert quickly.
A wolf — keep.
A cat — must keep.
Finally, a trembling translucent green cube appeared, bouncing in place, its soft body quivering.
"Bro, you finally came. Do you know how long I waited?" Ian gazed at the slime with unexpected affection. For the first time, he found a slime kind of charming; its soft touch sparked a fleeting immature thought.
He tried to sell the slime, but the Tablet didn't respond. With a heavy heart he drew his knife and struck.
After a few slashes, the Slime burst apart, and several small Slimes and Slimeballs jumped out from inside the large Slime.
And so, the last piece of the puzzle was finally collected.
Infinite Resources: Engage.