Mario held the Soul Stone in his palm. Then he looked at Yondu.
"If you're gonna rob me, just get it over with. The suspense is killing me."
Yondu was a Ravager through and through, even if he didn't know exactly what the Soul Stone did, his instincts screamed that anything valued by someone like Mario was worth a fortune.
Mario glanced at his mini-map. Yondu's marker was flickering between white and red.
"You're not gonna do it? Then I'm putting this away."
Yondu hesitated for exactly two seconds before his face split into a brilliant smile. "Rob you? Course not! I'm just curious, is all. I'm the most trustworthy Ravager in the business. I would never rob a paying customer."
Sure you wouldn't. Just like you totally didn't keep that orb from Quill...
Mario pocketed the Soul Stone in his inventory. The moment it disappeared, Red Skull vanished too. He wasn't surprised. Yondu's marker had stabilized back to white now that the temptation was safely out of sight.
"Captain Yondu, thanks for the assist. I'm guessing you sold that vibranium for a pretty penny, otherwise you wouldn't have been so quick to help me find Vormir."
At the mention of the metal, Yondu's grin widened. He rubbed his hands together.
"If you ever got another job like this, you just give us a call. Out in the galaxy, Ravagers got connections everywhere."
Mario smiled warmly and nodded. He broke the bed with a few quick strikes.
"Let's part ways here. I'll be waiting for your good news about that other planet."
He watched Yondu's ship lift off and disappear. The Ravager would probably sell him out in a heartbeat if someone offered a better price, but he wasn't too worried. As long as Yondu thought there was more money to be made working with him, everything would be fine.
"Why overthink it? The universe is full of people. Hell, Thanos wants to wipe out half of them just to achieve his idea of balance."
He turned and calmly stepped through the Nether portal.
---
Mario rummaged through his increasingly cluttered inventory and had an idea. Walking over to a storage chest, he pulled out some ender eyes and obsidian blocks. A few moments of crafting later, he'd created an ender chest.
"Now that's convenient."
Ender chests shared a single storage space across dimensions. Anything placed in one could be accessed from any other, no matter where you were in the multiverse.
He crafted two of them: one placed on the ground, one kept in his inventory. Then he transferred all his non-stackable items into it: such as the Infinity Stones.
"Time to expand the collection. The Ender Dragon's been on my to-do list for way too long."
With the Teleport Cake mod, finding the End was trivial. Just craft an End Cake, fuel it with eyes, and you were there.
He pulled out his boomerang. It was his favorite weapon, especially now that he'd given it the Unbreakable trait. High attack speed, four material slot bonuses, viable from early game all the way to endgame content.
"Let's go kill a dragon."
He focused on the End Cake and activated it mentally.
The world twisted. Weightlessness gripped him for half a second, then reality snapped back. When his vision cleared, he was standing on a small obsidian platform, floating in the void.
He peered over the edge and immediately regretted it.
"I've been in deep space, but this... is kind of scary."
Space at least had stars, the distant glow of nebulas, the occasional asteroid. The void was pure sensory deprivation.
ROOOAAAAAR!
The Ender Dragon's roar snapped him back. A massive black shape swooped overhead, and a purple-black projectile spiraled toward him.
He switched to an ender pearl and hurled it toward the main island. His body dissolved into purple particles just as the dragon's breath exploded where he'd been standing.
"That thing's huge!"
The Ender Dragon was approximately sixteen meters long with an equal wingspan and eight meters tall.
The main island was crawling with endermen, standing in small groups. He ignored them. He had bigger problems.
Twelve massive obsidian pillars rose from the island, each topped with an end crystal. Those crystals channeled healing energy to the dragon through glowing beams. Without destroying them first, the dragon would regenerate faster than he could damage it.
He pulled out a hover platform Ivan had built and tried to place it, but nothing happened. The built-in AI assistant didn't respond either.
"World rules don't allow tech? Seriously?"
He quickly packed it away. The hover platform worked fine in other dimensions, but apparently the End had different ideas about what counted as fair play.
The Ender Dragon burst through end stone. Then its massive wing slammed into him, sending him flying through the air. The impact didn't hurt much, his armor absorbed most of it, but the knockback sent him sailing dozens of meters.
"Is this your idea of a hug?!"
While airborne, he threw his boomerang. The weapon spun through the air and shattered the nearest end crystal. He controlled his trajectory toward the now-empty obsidian pillar, grabbing the edge with both hands. His momentum almost tore him loose, but he held on.
"That was too close."
He pulled himself onto the platform and immediately started throwing his boomerang at the other crystals. From his position, destroying them was almost trivial. The weapon returned to his hand after each throw, ready for the next shot.
One by one, the end crystals exploded.
With all the crystals destroyed, the Ender Dragon's attack pattern changed. It became more aggressive, diving and swooping with increased frequency, but at least it wasn't healing anymore.
The dragon roared and spat another breath projectile. He dodged easily, those things moved in predictable arcs, and countered with his boomerang. Each hit chipped away at the dragon's health bar.
But as the dragon's HP dropped below a quarter, a problem emerged.
The Ender Dragon refused to land, circling overhead just out of reach. Meanwhile, several endermen that he had accidentally hit during the fight were now chasing him.
"This is bullshit."
Mario sat down by the exit portal frame and waited. The dragon would have to land eventually for its perch phase. He just needed patience.
Several minutes of dodging breath attacks and angry endermen later, the dragon finally committed. It tucked its wings and dove like a bomber making a run, heading straight for the portal frame.
He gripped his boomerang, ready to finish the fight. But he wasn't the only one excited. The pursuing endermen saw their opportunity and charged forward.
The Ender Dragon didn't even acknowledge them. One wing flap sent all of them flying like bowling pins. Two unlucky ones sailed completely off the island, plummeting into the void.
As the dragon swooped toward him, Mario threw two boomerangs in quick succession. Both hit the dragon's head dead-on, draining the last of its health. A sound like firewood crackling came from the dragon's body as it flapped its wings and collapsed onto the portal. Then it exploded into experience orbs.
Hundreds of glowing green spheres rained down like confetti. He walked through them, listening to the satisfying ding-ding-ding of rapid level-ups.
When the light show ended, he approached the portal. The dragon egg sat there. He smiled but didn't touch it. "I'll leave you here for now. I don't have any mods that use dragon eggs yet. When I need you, I'll come back."
He scanned the area around the main island and quickly spotted the newly generated end gateway. The end gateway serves as a portal for traveling between the central island and the outer islands.
Carefully placing blocks under his feet, he approached the gateway. Normally, the easiest way to use the enclosed portal was to throw an ender pearl right into its center.
But now, he had a better method in mind.
He slid his hand into the gap between the bedrock blocks, and immediately felt a strange power wrap around his body. The scene before his eyes shifted, and in the next instant, he found himself standing on a brand-new floating island in the end.
"Beautiful! If only I could build these warp gates freelythis thing's even more convenient than using the Tesseract."
Mario looked around the end island. There was no Ender Dragon here, nor any obsidian pillars, but plenty of endermen still wandered about, along with some purple plants.
"Chorus fruit!"
Chorus fruit was unique to the End, possessing a special property: after eating it, you'd be randomly teleported to a nearby safe block.
Even if someone fell into the void, eating a chorus fruit could teleport them safely back onto the nearest solid surface.
---
An hour later, Mario soared through the End's sky, a pair of wings strapped to his back. The elytra from an end ship allowed flight, not just gliding. He twisted and banked, getting a feel for the controls.
The end gateway approached fast. He didn't slow down, he shot through the narrow opening at full speed.
"WAHOO!"
The portal spat him back onto the main island. He walked to the exit protal.
Warmth enveloped him. Ethereal singing filled his ears, but no matter how hard he tried to focus, he couldn't make out words. Just beautiful, meaningless melody.
---
Manhattan.
Mario materialized in a dark alley between two apartment buildings. He looked around at the depressingly familiar surroundings and sighed.
"This really has become my spawn point, hasn't it?"
He examined the dry brick wall, the same one he'd pissed on months ago when he'd first been dumped into this world. The place looked exactly the same.
"Well... since I'm here anyway..."
The sound of running water echoed off the alley walls. He shivered, zipped up, and walked out into the street.
BANG. BANG.
"Ah!"
A scream echoed from somewhere in the distance.
He took a deep breath. "Ah, Hell's Kitchen. That special blend of freedom, gunpowder, and marijuana. There's no place quite like it."
A motorcycle came roaring down the street. The moment the riders spotted him, the bike screeched to a halt.
The passenger hopped off and approached with a smile.
"I'm sure you wouldn't want to see someone starve to death on the streets just because they can't afford a loaf of bread, right?"
Mario looked down at the pistol pressed against his stomach, then up at the young guy wearing a gentleman's smile.
"Of course not. I'm a generous man."
The mugger's expression brightened. He reached toward Mario's pocket with his free hand.
"Thank you! Just relax and stay still. I'll handle this myself."
Hell's Kitchen really does breed professionals.
Mario was impressed. This guy had a good routine, polite patter, and confident movements. He'd clearly done this before.
Then everything changed in an instant.
A red figure dropped from above, planting a flying kick in the mugger's chest. The impact sent the guy sprawling across the pavement.
His accomplice on the motorcycle didn't hesitate. The engine roared and the bike shot forward, leaving his partner behind without a second thought.
Mario stared in disbelief.
He didn't even throw out a tough-guy one-liner before running. What kind of half-assed criminal is that?
---
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50 Advance Chapters!