Fu Zhu hung up the phone with Jing Yuan, his gaze shifting back to the group of Antimatter Legion footsoldiers standing opposite him. The Ender Dragon Egg lay silently on the floor, right between the two parties.
When he had passed through the portal, he had been returned to the place where he first appeared in this world—the Herta Space Station.
After the hard control from the End Poem wore off, he immediately began searching for the whereabouts of the Dragon Egg. He hadn't expected to run into these Antimatter Legion soldiers at the same time he found it. There were quite a few of them, and they looked like they were searching for something.
He didn't need to think hard to guess that they were after the Dragon Egg. What he hadn't expected was for the Antimatter Legion to have infiltrated the Herta Space Station so silently, without even a single alarm being triggered.
"Old Jing and the others had trouble, but they didn't contact me right away. Judging by the timing… don't tell me they saw the End Poem too?"
If his guess was correct, then everyone on the Herta Space Station was likely also force-controlled into watching the End Poem, which would explain why no one had discovered the invading Antimatter Legion.
Perhaps the Antimatter Legion footsoldiers themselves had also been hard-controlled by the End Poem, which was why they hadn't been able to take the egg sooner. That was a bit of good news.
Mulling this over, Fu Zhu started walking towards the Dragon Egg.
The Antimatter Legion soldiers, who were closer to the egg, saw him move and immediately surrounded it, shielding it behind them. A viper-like hiss emanated from their hollow throats, warning Fu Zhu not to approach.
Fu Zhu paid their warnings no mind, instead casually taking out his phone to send Asta a message inquiring about the situation. As he got closer, he saw that the Antimatter Legion soldiers were still stubbornly blocking his path. He glanced up at them with an annoyed expression.
"Move it. Good dogs don't block the path."
A sense of crisis instantly welled up in the hearts of the Antimatter Legion soldiers. They immediately brandished their clawed blades and lunged at Fu Zhu. But just as they were about to reach him, a gentle breeze swept past, blowing them away like dust.
Fu Zhu raised a hand and brushed off the specks of dust that had landed on his shoulder. He couldn't be bothered to physically fight these small fries anymore; it was easier to just use a command.
For some reason, even after leaving Amphoreus, his experience level was still an infinity symbol. Could it be that the Herta Space Station's current location was also considered within the scope of Amphoreus?
For now, though, he had no evidence to prove this point. He decided to put the thought aside for the time being, took out a torch, and carefully collected the Ender Dragon Egg using the method from Minecraft.
A system prompt popped up right after.
[Achievement Unlocked: The Next Generation!]
[Mod Acquired: Dragon Egg Hatching Mod]
This time, there was no achievement point reward. Instead, he was rewarded with a mod. This was both a surprise and a pleasant discovery for Fu Zhu.
It saved him the trouble of picking out a dragon-hatching mod from the mod shop. Once he hatched the Ender Dragon, the Astral Express would have a powerful safety guarantee!
Just as he finished up, he received a reply from Asta.
[Asta: Mr. Fu, we are in the command room of the Master Control Zone. Something big just happened, could you please come over!]
Fu Zhu read the message, which further confirmed his belief that Asta and the others had also seen the End Poem.
[Fu Zhu: I'm on my way.]
He replied, then thought for a moment and sent a simple message to Jing Yuan, telling him to come to the Herta Space Station if he had experienced the same thing.
After sending the message, Fu Zhu put away his phone, and his figure flickered and vanished from the corridor.
In the command room of the Master Control Zone, Asta was anxiously trying to contact Herta and Screwllum, but she received no reply.
Ruan Mei, who was standing to the side, offered some comfort. "Don't worry too much about them. Their physical bodies are on the space station. I'm monitoring their vitals at all times. If anything unexpected happens, I'll wake them up immediately."
Asta pursed her lips and nodded. Just as she was about to ask Ruan Mei for her thoughts on the End Poem that had hard-controlled them for several minutes, Fu Zhu suddenly appeared beside her and gently patted her on the shoulder.
"Asta."
"Eek!"
Asta jumped in fright. She turned her head and saw it was Fu Zhu, letting out a sigh of relief before pouting at him with an annoyed expression and rolling her eyes.
"Mr. Fu, please don't scare people like that!"
Fu Zhu felt a little wronged. It was a quirk of the TP command; when teleporting, you either appeared on top of the target or at a random spot nearby. It wasn't something he could control.
Still, seeing Asta's rattled expression, Fu Zhu decided to concede a little.
"Alright, next time I'll try my best not to pat your shoulder."
Asta opened her mouth, then sighed. "That's not the point… Forget it, let's get back to business!"
Asta quickly picked up a piece of paper from the desk in front of her. It was a transcript of the End Poem she had written down from memory as soon as it ended.
She handed the paper to Fu Zhu, pointing at his name on it. "Mr. Fu, just now, everyone on the space station was forced to watch this text. While watching, it was as if two people were having a conversation, and they even mentioned your name!"
Fu Zhu took the paper and gave it a cursory glance. It was exactly the same as the End Poem. It seemed his earlier guess was correct.
The scope of the End Poem was massive! He just didn't know exactly how far it had spread.
Ruan Mei came over as well, pointing to the latter half of the poem.
"This is very strange. The first part is indeed a dialogue, but the latter part is more like a poem than a conversation. Fu Zhu, can you make any sense of it?"
Fu Zhu casually handed the paper back to Asta. He didn't really know how to explain the End Poem, so he decided to give a high-quality answer.
"Sorry, I don't know."
His reply made the two women standing before him frown.
Seeing their worried expressions, Fu Zhu offered a word of comfort.
"But I can assure you, this poem won't have any negative effects, and the Ender Dragon incident is now completely over. You don't need to worry about it coming back."
The expressions on Asta and Ruan Mei's faces relaxed slightly, but they were still a little worried. After all, anyone who encountered such a bizarre event would be on edge.
Not long after, Jing Yuan and the others also arrived at the Herta Space Station. Fu Zhu repeated what he had just said.
Likewise, the expressions on Jing Yuan and the others' faces were not very good.
Fu Zhu looked at the gloomy faces surrounding him and felt quite helpless.
"Come on, everyone, you don't need to worry so much. It was just being forced to watch a poem, right? It's not a big deal."
"Not a big deal?"
Herta's voice suddenly came from behind the group. Everyone spun around to see Herta and Screwllum, heavily injured, limping over.
Herta's once-pristine face was now covered in burns. Despite looking so wretched, she still managed to squeeze out a smile for Fu Zhu.
"Don't you know, you fool? The scope of this poem's broadcast was the entire universe!"