Marcus's hundred-and-forty-seventh death came courtesy of Witherzilla's middle head biting him in half while he was mid-swing on his fourth hit. His hundred-and-forty-eighth death came from the resulting explosion when the wither skull he'd been dodging hit him during the respawn animation. His hundred-and-forty-ninth death came from him spawning directly in front of an angry Titan who apparently had been waiting for him.
Death number one-hundred-and-fifty, though—that one was special. That was the death that made Marcus seriously reconsider every single life choice that had led him to this moment.
He'd finally—FINALLY—managed to land the fifth and final hit on Witherzilla. The Sword of the Cosmos had cleaved through the world boss's obsidian hide one last time, and that magnificent health bar had finally, mercifully, hit zero. Witherzilla had let out a roar that shook the entire world, a sound that was part rage, part disbelief, and part what Marcus swore was begrudging respect. The massive body had begun to dissolve into loot—and oh, what loot it was. Nether stars by the dozen, dragon hearts, something called a "Core of the Apocalypse," modded armor pieces that glowed with enough enchantments to give Marcus's HUD a seizure.
Marcus had been floating there, watching the drops fall like the world's most violent piñata, feeling a surge of genuine triumph that he hadn't experienced since—well, since ever, actually. He'd done it. He'd killed a world boss. A five-million health world boss with a sword that required him to get close enough to smell its terrible wither breath.
He'd been so focused on his victory, so caught up in the moment of actually succeeding at something, that he'd forgotten about literally everything else trying to kill him.
The dragon had come from his blind spot—a Lightning Dragon from the Ice and Fire mod, level 400-something, wreathed in electricity and spite. It had hit him with a breath attack that had somehow chained through his armor, his defensive rings, his absorption hearts from the seventeen god apples he'd eaten during the Witherzilla fight, and had reduced his health bar to exactly zero in 0.3 seconds.
DEATH #150: KILLED BY LIGHTNING DRAGON WHILE CELEBRATING
CAUSE OF DEATH: HUBRIS
SECONDARY CAUSE: TERRIBLE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
WITHERZILLA STATUS: STILL DEAD
YOUR STATUS: ALSO DEAD
THE LOOT: SCATTERED ACROSS A 200-BLOCK RADIUS
GOOD LUCK FINDING IT ALL
MILESTONE: 150 DEATHS
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THIS IS MY LIFE NOW
VIEWER REACTION: MIXED SYMPATHY AND LAUGHTER
MOSTLY LAUGHTER
Marcus had respawned at his bed—or rather, where his bed used to be before his base had been destroyed by the Ant Queen and subsequent mob siege. He'd set up a new spawn point in a hastily constructed dirt hovel approximately 500 blocks from the Witherzilla fight, because after the base destruction, he'd learned the value of backup spawn points.
The dirt hovel was exactly as glamorous as it sounded: four walls of dirt, a ceiling of dirt, a bed made from demon sheep wool that gave him nightmares, and a single torch for light. It was pathetic. It was humiliating. It was survival.
Marcus sat on the bed and put his blocky head in his blocky hands.
"I killed a world boss," he said to the empty room. "I killed a five-million health world boss with a sword that required five hits, which meant getting close to that thing five separate times, and I somehow actually did it."
CORRECT
IT WAS VERY IMPRESSIVE
VIEWER COUNTS PEAKED AT 9.2 BILLION DURING THE FIGHT
YOU'RE OFFICIALLY THE MOST WATCHED ENTERTAINMENT IN MULTIVERSAL HISTORY
SEVERAL RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE FORMED AROUND YOUR STRUGGLE
THERE ARE MARCUS CULTS NOW
CONGRATULATIONS
"And then I immediately died because I got excited about winning," Marcus continued, ignoring the System's commentary about cults. "I died to a random dragon because I forgot—literally forgot—that everything in this world wants to kill me."
TO BE FAIR
THAT LIGHTNING DRAGON WAS PARTICULARLY FAST
AND YOU'D BEEN FIGHTING FOR THREE HOURS STRAIGHT
YOUR REACTION TIME WAS PROBABLY COMPROMISED
STILL FUNNY THOUGH
Marcus checked his current status. Day nineteen. Eighty-one days remaining. He'd made actual progress—he'd killed Witherzilla, collected enough materials to potentially start working on endgame gear, and he'd even found a stronghold during one of his scouting flights (before dying to the Silverfish that spawned from the portal frame, but that was beside the point).
But he'd also lost all his current inventory. The Witherzilla loot was scattered across the battlefield, probably being picked over by the remaining mobs. His base was destroyed. His carefully organized storage system was gone. All he had were his soulbound donation items: the Iron Man armor (currently at 15% power), the Sword of the Cosmos, the Ring of Flying Squid, and his Draconic Bow.
It was something. It wasn't much, but it was something.
NEW DONATION AVAILABLE
FROM: KRYPTONIAN_FAN_1938 FROM DIMENSION 52-PRIME
ITEM: SUPERMAN SUIT
FISK'S SUPERHEROES MOD
DESCRIPTION: FLIGHT, SUPER STRENGTH, INVULNERABILITY, LASER VISION, FREEZE BREATH, X-RAY VISION
BASICALLY EVERYTHING SUPERMAN CAN DO
BECAUSE SUBTLE GAME BALANCE IS FOR THE WEAK
MESSAGE: "YOU DESERVE THIS AFTER THAT FIGHT. GO PUNCH THINGS REALLY HARD."
Marcus stared at the donation notification. A Superman suit. Actual, genuine Superman powers in Minecraft form. Combined with his Sword of the Cosmos and his other equipment, he'd be functionally unkillable.
Which meant the universe was going to retaliate. Again. Harder.
"Should I accept this?" Marcus asked the System. "Last time I got an endgame item, Witherzilla spawned and the difficulty increased dramatically."
PROBABLY NOT
DEFINITELY NOT
IT WILL ABSOLUTELY MAKE THINGS WORSE
YOU'RE GOING TO ACCEPT IT ANYWAY
AREN'T YOU?
Marcus thought about it for approximately three seconds.
"Yes," he said, accepting the donation. "Yes, I absolutely am."
The Superman suit materialized in his inventory, and Marcus equipped it. Immediately, he felt different. Stronger. The suit's description hadn't been lying—he could feel power coursing through his blocky body, could sense that he could now punch through bedrock if he wanted to, could fly faster than his ring allowed, could tank hits that would have killed him instantly before.
SUPERMAN SUIT EQUIPPED
POWER LEVEL: ABSURD
DEFENSE: YES
FLIGHT SPEED: MACH 3
STRENGTH: ENOUGH TO PUNCH THE MOON
PLEASE DON'T PUNCH THE MOON
WE NEED IT
UNIVERSE BALANCING PROTOCOL ACTIVATED...
OH BOY
HERE WE GO AGAIN
The world shook.
Not metaphorically. The entire world—all of it, every biome, every dimension, everything—shook like someone had grabbed reality and given it a good rattle. Marcus stumbled out of his dirt hovel and looked up at the sky.
The sky was wrong. Again. But differently wrong this time. There were cracks in it. Actual, visible cracks in the sky, like someone had hit reality with a hammer and the whole thing was about to shatter.
NEW MODS ACTIVATING: MULTIPLE
ADVENT OF ASCENSION: FULLY UNLOCKED (ALL 21 DIMENSIONS)
THAUMCRAFT: ELDRITCH HORRORS ENABLED
ABYSSALCRAFT: GREAT OLD ONES AWAKE
THE BETWEENLANDS: CORRUPTION SPREADING
ATUM 2: PHARAOHS RISING
AND APPROXIMATELY 47 MORE
BOSS SPAWN RATES: MAXIMUM
ELITE MOB SPAWN RATES: MAXIMUM
ENVIRONMENTAL CHAOS: CRITICAL
NEW FEATURE UNLOCKED: HATS MOD
MOBS NOW HAVE A CHANCE TO SPAWN WEARING HATS
THIS IS PURELY COSMETIC
BUT IT'S VERY FUNNY
ENJOY
Marcus watched as the cracks in the sky widened, and things began to emerge. Not just dragons or Titans—though there were plenty of those now—but entities that defied description. Eldritch abominations from Thaumcraft, their forms impossible to fully perceive without going mad. Great Old Ones from Abyssalcraft, beings of cosmic horror that shouldn't exist in a block game. Dimensional horrors from Advent of Ascension, creatures from the twenty-one other dimensions that were now apparently all accessible.
And yes, some of them were wearing hats.
Marcus watched a Shoggoth—a literal Lovecraftian Shoggoth, a shapeless mass of eyes and mouths and tentacles—spawn in the distance. It was easily fifty blocks tall, its body constantly shifting and reforming. And on top of its highest pseudopod was a tiny top hat, sitting at a jaunty angle.
SHOGGOTH
ABYSSALCRAFT MOD
LEVEL: 800
HEALTH: 500,000
SPECIAL ABILITIES: REALITY CORRUPTION, MADNESS AURA, TENTACLE SLAM, EXISTENTIAL DREAD
HAT: TOP HAT
HAT BONUS: +10% CLASSINESS
DOESN'T HELP YOU
BUT IT DOES LOOK DAPPER
Despite everything—despite the cosmic horror, despite the world falling apart, despite the fact that he'd died 150 times and was trapped in an impossible survival challenge—Marcus started laughing. The Shoggoth was wearing a top hat. An eldritch abomination of infinite horror and madness was wearing formal headwear.
"Okay," he said, still laughing. "Okay, universe. I see what you're doing. You're trying to break me with the absurdity. Make everything so ridiculous that I can't even take it seriously anymore."
CORRECT
IS IT WORKING?
"Absolutely," Marcus said, equipping the Superman suit fully. "But I'm going to punch that Shoggoth anyway."
THAT'S THE SPIRIT
PROBABLY WON'T END WELL
BUT POINTS FOR ENTHUSIASM
Marcus activated the Superman suit's flight and launched himself into the air at speeds that made his previous flight look like a leisurely stroll. He crossed the distance to the Shoggoth in seconds, pulled back his fist, and punched it with all the super-strength the suit provided.
The impact was spectacular.
The Shoggoth's top hat went flying. Its amorphous body rippled from the force of the blow, and its health bar dropped by a full quarter. It let out a sound that was like someone screaming through a synthesizer made of nightmares, and every mob within a hundred blocks immediately turned to look at Marcus.
CONGRATULATIONS
YOU'VE AGGRO'D EVERYTHING
CURRENT HOSTILE MOBS TARGETING YOU: 847
CURRENT BOSSES TARGETING YOU: 23
CURRENT ELDRITCH HORRORS TARGETING YOU: 6
YOUR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS REMAINS TERRIBLE
The Shoggoth's tentacles lashed out, each one moving faster than something that size should be able to move. Marcus dodged—the Superman suit's enhanced reflexes making it almost easy—and struck back with his Sword of the Cosmos. The blade carved through the Shoggoth's form, and its health dropped to zero.
The creature didn't just die—it collapsed into a singularity of wrongness that made Marcus's eyes hurt, then exploded into loot and what looked like purple mist that quickly dissipated. The top hat survived, floating gently to the ground.
SHOGGOTH DEFEATED
METHOD: OVERWHELMING FORCE
TIME: 8 SECONDS
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THAT'S NOT HOW LOVECRAFT WORKS
LOOT ACQUIRED: ELDRITCH SHARDS, CORRUPTED FLESH, TOP HAT
THE TOP HAT CAN BE WORN
IT PROVIDES NO BENEFITS
BUT YOU'LL LOOK FANCY
Marcus grabbed the top hat and put it on, because why not? He was wearing a Superman suit and wielding a reality-breaking sword while fighting cosmic horrors in a Minecraft world. Might as well look distinguished while doing it.
The remaining 846 mobs reached him.
What followed could only be described as organized chaos. Marcus flew through the horde, the Superman suit's invulnerability allowing him to tank hits that would have vaporized him before. His fists, enhanced by super-strength, could shatter Titans' legs with single punches. The Sword of the Cosmos killed anything it touched. His laser vision carved through groups of mobs like a hot knife through butter.
He was unstoppable. He was inevitable. He was—
NEW DONATION AVAILABLE
FROM: THANOS_DID_NOTHING_WRONG FROM DIMENSION 199999-ALPHA
ITEM: INFINITY GAUNTLET
FISK'S SUPERHEROES MOD
DESCRIPTION: CONTAINS ALL SIX INFINITY STONES
REALITY, TIME, SPACE, POWER, MIND, SOUL
BASICALLY CREATIVE MODE BUT COOLER
MESSAGE: "YOU THOUGHT THE SUPERMAN SUIT WAS OVERPOWERED? HOLD MY BEER."
WARNING: ACCEPTING THIS WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES
SEVERE CONSEQUENCES
APOCALYPTIC CONSEQUENCES
DO NOT ACCEPT THIS
SERIOUSLY
Marcus, covered in mob drops and floating fifty blocks in the air with a top hat on his head, read the warning. He looked at the horde of mobs below him. He looked at the cracks in the sky that were still spreading. He looked at his current situation, which was absurd beyond measure.
"I'm going to accept it," he said.
PLEASE DON'T
"I'm going to accept it right now."
YOU'LL REGRET THIS
"Accepting it in three..."
MARCUS
"Two..."
SERIOUSLY
"One."
He accepted the donation.
The Infinity Gauntlet materialized on his left hand—somehow fitting perfectly over the Superman suit's glove—and Marcus felt power unlike anything he'd experienced before. The Superman suit was strong, but this was something else entirely. This was reality-warping power. This was the ability to literally rewrite the laws of physics with a thought.
INFINITY GAUNTLET EQUIPPED
REALITY STONE: ACTIVE
TIME STONE: ACTIVE
SPACE STONE: ACTIVE
POWER STONE: ACTIVE
MIND STONE: ACTIVE
SOUL STONE: ACTIVE
POWER LEVEL: DIVINE
CONGRATULATIONS
YOU ARE NOW ESSENTIALLY A GOD
THIS WILL NOT END WELL
UNIVERSE BALANCING PROTOCOL: CRITICAL
ACTIVATING EMERGENCY COUNTERMEASURES...
SPAWNING...
The sky didn't just crack anymore—it shattered. Completely. Like a pane of glass hit by a meteor, reality broke, and through the broken pieces, things began to pour into the world.
Marcus looked up and saw nightmares.
Bosses. Not just any bosses, but the bosses. The final bosses from every single mod in the pack, all spawning simultaneously. The Chaos Guardian from Draconic Evolution materialized in a burst of purple energy, its health bar showing twenty million hit points. The Wither Storm from Cracker's Wither Storm mod tore through dimensions, growing and consuming everything in its path. The Queen from Twilight Forest appeared in a shower of leaves and thorns. The Ur-Ghast, the Naga (a different one), the Lich, all the Twilight Forest bosses spawned at once.
And that was just the beginning.
EMERGENCY BOSS SPAWN: ACTIVE
DREADLORD - LYCANITES MOBS - LEVEL 2000 - HP: 10,000,000
CHAOS GUARDIAN - DRACONIC EVOLUTION - LEVEL 3000 - HP: 20,000,000
WITHER STORM - CRACKER'S MOD - LEVEL 5000 - HP: 50,000,000 (GROWING)
RAHOVART - LYCANITES MOBS - LEVEL 2500 - HP: 15,000,000
THE KING - ORESPAWN - LEVEL 4000 - HP: 25,000,000
EMPRESS OF LIGHT - ADVENT OF ASCENSION - LEVEL 3500 - HP: 18,000,000
AND APPROXIMATELY 47 MORE
TOTAL BOSS COUNT: 53
COMBINED HEALTH POOL: APPROXIMATELY 800,000,000
YOU WANTED POWER
HERE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES
Marcus floated there, the Infinity Gauntlet glowing on his hand, the Superman suit humming with energy, the Sword of the Cosmos in his other hand, and a top hat on his head. Below, above, and around him, fifty-three endgame bosses were spawning, each one powerful enough to be a final challenge in their respective mods.
And several of them were wearing hats.
The Chaos Guardian had a sombrero. The Wither Storm had somehow acquired a baseball cap (sideways, naturally). The Dreadlord was wearing what appeared to be a fedora, which made the demon lord of darkness look like it was about to ask Marcus if he'd heard of Bitcoin.
VIEWER COUNT: 15.7 BILLION
TRENDING ACROSS ALL KNOWN DIMENSIONS
SEVERAL DIMENSIONS HAVE DECLARED HOLIDAYS TO WATCH THIS
BETTING POOLS: COMPLETE CHAOS
ODDS OF SURVIVAL: ERROR - UNABLE TO CALCULATE
MOST COMMON BET: "THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING"
"Okay," Marcus said, looking at the assembled army of final bosses. "Okay, this is fine. This is totally fine. I have the Infinity Gauntlet. I can literally control reality. I just need to—"
The Chaos Guardian fired first, a beam of pure energy that would have atomized a mountain. Marcus raised the Gauntlet and activated the Space Stone, opening a portal that redirected the beam back at the Guardian. The boss's shields absorbed it, but Marcus had made his point.
Then all fifty-three bosses attacked at once.
What followed was less a fight and more a natural disaster given sentience and told to destroy everything. Marcus used the Time Stone to slow the Wither Storm's growth. He used the Reality Stone to turn the Dreadlord's fireballs into butterflies (which then caught fire because this was still a hellscape, but the gesture counted). He used the Space Stone to teleport around the battlefield, appearing behind bosses to strike with the Sword of the Cosmos.
The Superman suit kept him alive through hits that should have killed him a thousand times over. The Infinity Gauntlet gave him options that shouldn't exist. And somehow, impossibly, he was holding his own.
BOSSES DEFEATED: 8
REMAINING: 45
WITHER STORM SIZE: GROWING
YOUR POWER LEVEL: ALSO GROWING
THIS IS ESCALATING RAPIDLY
Marcus punched the Queen from Twilight Forest (who was wearing a tiara that also counted as a hat, apparently) with super-strength enhanced by the Power Stone. The impact created a shockwave that knocked back several other bosses and created a crater where she'd been standing. Her health bar—all eight million of it—dropped by half.
He followed up with the Sword of the Cosmos, removing another million health with each strike. The Queen fell, dissolving into loot that Marcus didn't have time to collect because The King from Orespawn was charging at him riding what appeared to be a giant robot girlfriend (yes, really, Orespawn was weird) and wearing a crown that was also somehow a hat.
THE KING
ORESPAWN MOD
LEVEL: 4000
HEALTH: 25,000,000
MOUNT: ROYAL GUARDIAN ROBOT
HAT: CROWN (MAJESTIC)
SPECIAL ABILITY: SUMMON GIRLFRIEND ARMY
YES, REALLY
ORESPAWN IS STILL THE WORST
The King summoned his girlfriend army—literally an army of hostile girlfriend mobs, because Orespawn's creator had issues—and Marcus used the Mind Stone to turn them against their summoner. The girlfriends immediately attacked The King, who looked betrayed (as much as a blocky mob could look betrayed) and started fighting back.
While they were distracted, Marcus flew toward the Wither Storm, which had grown to the size of a small mountain and was consuming everything in its path. Its health bar showed fifty million hit points and climbing. If he didn't stop it soon, it would consume the entire world.
Marcus channeled the Power Stone through his fist and punched the Wither Storm's core with everything the Superman suit and Gauntlet could provide.
The explosion was visible from space. Probably. Marcus didn't actually know if this Minecraft world had space, but if it did, the explosion was definitely visible from there.
CRITICAL HIT
DAMAGE: 25,000,000
WITHER STORM HEALTH: 25,000,000 REMAINING
IT'S REALLY ANGRY NOW
The Wither Storm roared—a sound that made Witherzilla's death cry sound like a polite cough—and its tentacles lashed out, grabbing Marcus mid-flight. The Superman suit's invulnerability kept him from being crushed, but he was held immobile, being pulled toward the massive maw at the Wither Storm's center.
Marcus activated the Time Stone, slowing time to a crawl. In the frozen moment, he could see everything: the Wither Storm's tentacles moving in slow motion, the other bosses continuing their assault, the mob armies below still fighting. He could see the cracks in reality spreading further, could see new bosses beginning to spawn in the distance.
He used the Space Stone to teleport out of the tentacles' grip, appearing above the Wither Storm. Then he raised the Infinity Gauntlet, channeling all six stones simultaneously—something he probably shouldn't do, but desperate times and all that—and brought his fist down on the Wither Storm's core.
WARNING: CHANNELING ALL INFINITY STONES SIMULTANEOUSLY
THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
EVEN WITH THE SUPERMAN SUIT
YOU COULD LITERALLY UNMAKE YOURSELF FROM REALITY
PROCEED?
Marcus didn't answer. He just brought his fist down.
The impact created a sphere of absolute nothing that expanded outward from the point of contact. Not an explosion—a sphere of pure deletion. Everything it touched simply ceased to exist. The Wither Storm, the surrounding terrain, several nearby bosses who'd been too close, all of it just... stopped being.
WITHER STORM: DELETED
COLLATERAL BOSSES DELETED: 7
TERRAIN DAMAGE: CATASTROPHIC
NEW CRATER DEPTH: 200 BLOCKS
NEW CRATER WIDTH: 500 BLOCKS
YOU'VE CREATED A NEW GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURE
CONGRATULATIONS?
Marcus floated in the center of the massive crater, the Infinity Gauntlet smoking on his hand. His health bar was at half—apparently deleting things from reality took a toll even with god-tier items. The Superman suit was sparking, its integrity at 67% and dropping.
And there were still thirty-eight bosses remaining.
REMAINING BOSS COUNT: 38
THEY'RE REGROUPING
THEY'VE APPARENTLY DECIDED YOU'RE THE PRIMARY THREAT
IMAGINE THAT
COORDINATED ASSAULT INCOMING
The remaining bosses—everything from the Chaos Guardian to the Dreadlord to The King (who had finally defeated his girlfriend army and looked very upset about it)—all turned to face Marcus simultaneously. They began channeling their ultimate attacks, their most powerful abilities, all targeted at the same point.
Marcus checked his resources. Superman suit integrity: 67% and falling. Infinity Gauntlet charge: 40% after that six-stone deletion blast. Sword of the Cosmos: fully functional but required melee range. Health: 50%. Food: running low. Sanity: questionable.
Thirty-eight endgame bosses were about to hit him with everything they had.
Marcus smiled. It wasn't a sane smile. It was the smile of someone who'd died 150 times, been chased by a grudge-holding insect queen, spawned world bosses through his own hubris, and was now wearing a top hat while wielding god-like power.
"Bring it," he said.
The bosses fired.
Thirty-eight ultimate attacks converged on Marcus's position. Energy beams, explosive projectiles, reality-warping magic, physical projectiles moving at hypersonic speeds, all of it hitting the same point at the same time.
Marcus activated the Time Stone, slowing everything. He activated the Space Stone, opening portals around himself. The attacks entered the portals and exited behind the bosses, their own ultimate abilities hitting each other. The battlefield became chaos as bosses were struck by attacks from their allies, health bars dropping rapidly.
Marcus didn't waste the opening. He flew through the confusion, the Sword of the Cosmos in hand, striking at every boss he passed. The Chaos Guardian fell. The Dreadlord fell. The King finally went down, still looking betrayed by his girlfriend army's earlier treachery.
BOSSES DEFEATED: 47
REMAINING: 6
VIEWER COUNT: 23.9 BILLION
YOU'VE ATTRACTED VIEWERS FROM PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN DIMENSIONS
THEY'RE VERY CONFUSED BUT VERY ENTERTAINED
The remaining six bosses were the strongest: Rahovart (the fire demon still wearing its ridiculous fedora), the Chaos Guardian's second form, the Empress of Light, and three others that Marcus didn't recognize but that had health pools in the twenty-million range.
They didn't rush in. They'd learned. They hung back, coordinating, waiting for Marcus to make a mistake.
Marcus's Superman suit integrity was at 45%. His Gauntlet charge was at 25%. He was running out of time, running out of power. He needed to end this quickly.
He had one shot.
Marcus raised the Infinity Gauntlet and channeled all six stones again. Not to attack—to rewrite the rules. He used the Reality Stone to declare that the six remaining bosses' defenses didn't exist. He used the Power Stone to enhance his next attack beyond all reasonable limits. He used the Space Stone to position himself perfectly. He used the Time Stone to ensure he had enough time to execute. He used the Mind Stone to predict their movements. He used the Soul Stone to—actually, he wasn't sure what the Soul Stone did in Minecraft, but he channeled it anyway.
Then he swung the Sword of the Cosmos in a wide arc.
The blade cut through reality itself, creating a slash in space that extended for hundreds of blocks. It passed through all six remaining bosses simultaneously. Their health bars, despite their millions of hit points, dropped to zero in the same instant.
ALL BOSSES DEFEATED
METHOD: REALITY MANIPULATION + SWORD
TOTAL FIGHT DURATION: 47 MINUTES
DEATHS DURING FIGHT: 0
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GOD SLAYER
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ONE VERSUS ARMY
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THIS SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE
VIEWER REACTION: STUNNED SILENCE
FOLLOWED BY ABSOLUTE CHAOS
YOU'VE BROKEN SEVERAL INTERDIMENSIONAL LAWS
CONGRATULATIONS
Marcus floated in the center of the devastation, surrounded by more loot than he could possibly carry, his suit and gauntlet sparking and failing, his health at critical levels, and his top hat somehow still perfectly positioned on his head.
Then the backlash hit.
Using all six Infinity Stones twice in less than an hour was, apparently, not recommended. Marcus felt reality itself rebelling against him, the Gauntlet burning on his hand, the Superman suit's systems failing catastrophically. His health bar began to drain, not from damage, but from the sheer strain of wielding that much power.
WARNING: INFINITY GAUNTLET OVERLOAD
WARNING: SUPERMAN SUIT CRITICAL FAILURE
WARNING: REALITY INTEGRITY COMPROMISED
YOU'RE DYING
AGAIN
BUT THIS TIME IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT
MOSTLY
Marcus tried to remove the Gauntlet, but it was fused to his hand. He tried to deactivate the Superman suit, but its systems were locked. His health bar dropped to three hearts. Two hearts. One heart.
The world went white.
DEATH #151: COSMIC OVERLOAD
CAUSE: USING MULTIPLE GOD-TIER ITEMS BEYOND THEIR LIMITS
SECONDARY CAUSE: HUBRIS (AGAIN)
TERTIARY CAUSE: YOU NEVER LEARN
RESPAWNING...
Marcus respawned in his dirt hovel, gasping. He checked his inventory. The soulbound items were still there—the Superman suit (integrity reset to 100%), the Infinity Gauntlet (fully recharged, somehow), the Sword of the Cosmos, all his rings and equipment.
But he'd lost all the loot. All of it. Fifty-three endgame bosses' worth of drops, scattered across a battlefield hundreds of blocks away, probably being picked over by respawned mobs.
He'd defeated fifty-three endgame bosses and died from the victory.
Marcus started laughing. Again. That same unhinged laugh that was becoming his signature response to absurdity.
"I killed fifty-three bosses," he said to the empty room. "I used the Infinity Gauntlet twice. I deleted a world boss from reality. I created a crater the size of a small town. And then I died because the items I was using were too powerful."
CORRECT
THE IRONY IS DELICIOUS
VIEWER COUNT PEAKED AT 31.2 BILLION
YOU'RE OFFICIALLY THE MOST WATCHED EVENT IN MULTIVERSAL HISTORY
SEVERAL ACADEMIC PAPERS ARE BEING WRITTEN ABOUT YOUR FIGHT
THE CONSENSUS IS: "HOW?"
Marcus looked at the Infinity Gauntlet on his hand, then at the Superman suit he was wearing. With these items, he was essentially unkillable. He could fight anything, defeat anything, survive anything.
Except, apparently, himself.
"What's next?" Marcus asked, almost afraid of the answer. "What could possibly top fifty-three endgame bosses? What's the universe going to throw at me now?"
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK
THE UNIVERSE HAS NOTICED YOUR POWER LEVEL
IT'S... ADJUSTING
NEW DIMENSION UNLOCKED: THE NOWHERE
NEW BOSS SPAWNING: REALITY ITSELF
NEW DIFFICULTY MODIFIER: COSMIC
NEW HAT VARIETIES: 47 ADDITIONAL TYPES
THAT LAST ONE IS JUST FOR FUN
THE OTHERS ARE SERIOUS
VERY SERIOUS
YOU'VE ESSENTIALLY BROKEN MINECRAFT
AGAIN
ENJOY
Marcus stepped outside his dirt hovel. The world was different again. The sky had new colors that shouldn't exist. The terrain was shifting, changing, adapting. In the distance, he could see something that looked like a hole in reality itself, and things were emerging from it that made the eldritch horrors from earlier look quaint by comparison.
And yes, some of them were wearing hats. A reality-devouring entity from beyond space and time was wearing a baseball cap with "WORLD'S BEST ELDRITCH HORROR" written on it.
Day nineteen. Still day nineteen. Somehow, impossibly, it was still the same day.
Marcus equipped his Sword of the Cosmos, checked that his Infinity Gauntlet was charged, adjusted his top hat to a jaunty angle, and prepared to face whatever fresh hell the universe had decided to spawn.
VIEWER COUNT: STABILIZING AT 28 BILLION
CURRENT STATUS: MOST WATCHED CONTENT ACROSS ALL REALITIES
MARCUS MERCHANDISE NOW AVAILABLE IN 47 DIMENSIONS
PROFITS GOING TO... UNCLEAR
PROBABLY NOT YOU
GOOD LUCK
YOU'RE GOING TO NEED IT
AGAIN
Marcus flew toward the reality hole, the Superman suit's power thrumming through his body, the Infinity Stones glowing on his hand.
Day nineteen wasn't over yet.
And based on how things were going, he was going to die at least a dozen more times before it was.
But he had a top hat now.
That had to count for something.