When they rushed to within a hundred meters of the wall, everyone suddenly froze in place, and the momentum of the charge instantly collapsed. In front of them, the base of the wall was surrounded by a wide lava moat.
Scorching lava churned and surged in the trench while emitting pungent white smoke, and orange tongues of flame licked the wall's foundation.
The charging players were caught completely off guard. Several in the front row couldn't stop in time and stumbled directly into the lava moat, instantly swallowed by the flames. Only a few shrill screams marked their passing.
"We can't get closer at all! Shit!"
The players retreated in panic while staring at the insurmountable lava barrier before them.
Someone tried placing blocks to cross the moat, but the wooden planks were instantly ignited by the lava and turned to ash.
"Are you an idiot? Don't use wood, use dirt!"
Jose had already joined the siege team by this point.
While quickly stacking dirt blocks along the edge of the lava, he leaned forward and charged ahead. He didn't forget to urge those behind him.
"Keep up! Build a path across, and once we're over, we'll put some holes in that wall!"
"Everyone, look at the sky."
Everyone instinctively looked up and saw a burst of brilliant fireworks on the horizon. Over thirty shadows were gliding rapidly toward them with elytra, propelled by the firework rockets.
All members of the development team had been deployed at once, using nearly infinite fireworks to propel their flight.
Wearing enchanted armor, they rushed quickly toward the massive number of players.
"What kind of equipment are they wearing? Why can they fly?"
Some of the attacking players had already begun marveling at the sight.
"I know what that is! That stuff is made of netherite. I've played this entire time and only gathered enough ancient debris for a single sword. Why do they have full sets of equipment?"
"What's the deal with those wings?"
"They're coming! Ah!"
Over thirty development team members in endgame gear descended like angels of death and carved through the unarmored players with devastating efficiency.
With netherite swords enchanted with Sweeping Edge and Sharpness, one swing could kill several people at once.
Relying on overwhelming equipment and mobility advantages, they rampaged through the charging ranks and instantly shattered the formation.
The player group completely broke apart as people screamed and fled in all directions. The scene became utterly chaotic.
Their stone swords couldn't penetrate the enchanted armor at all. Hitting the opponent's protection was like scratching an itch!
However, there were very few development team members after all, so they only caused localized chaos rather than a complete rout.
On the other side, some players appeared much more composed. They didn't follow the crowd in charging but instead buried themselves in grinding and developing properly.
Boshita led a team deep into the caves to mine and directed everyone to prioritize collecting iron ore.
"Don't be impulsive like those fools! Without a full set of iron armor and sufficient supplies, you can't break through the lava defense line at all. Make iron pickaxes and iron armor first, then stockpile enough blocks. Once we're fully geared, we'll join forces to take it down in one coordinated push."
On the plain, the attacking players were still attempting to breach the wall.
Jose ignored the flying development team members and built a bridge to the edge of the wall. Looking at the lava waterfall, he directly filled in blocks to create a contained space that prevented the lava from flowing out.
The players behind him immediately swarmed forward in a jostling mass as they charged.
"Faster, faster!"
"Don't push me, damn it!"
Because the crowd was too congested, many players were actually pushed directly into the lava and instantly lit up and died.
"Ah!"
Screams rang out everywhere around them, and this disorderly attack resulted in massive casualties before they even got close to the wall itself.
As the wall was finally breached, the surging crowd pushed Jose directly inside the opening.
"Who the hell pushed me?"
"Wait! It's actually hollow inside!"
The players who just entered were stunned to discover the wall wasn't solid. They felt overjoyed at the discovery.
"Brothers, keep going! We've taken the first line of defense with ease, now let's push even further beyond!"
But at this moment, Alto watched from the top and let out a knowing laugh and pulled a lever with one hand.
The sound of cogs and gears turning clicked as the redstone circuits lit up throughout the wall. Dispensers built into the wall's interior began activating, each one filled with arrows.
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!*
A dense rain of arrows poured out from the dispensers like a black tide and shot toward the players flooding into the hollow interior.
Jose, his face full of excitement, picked up a stone pickaxe and started digging.
"Thinking this level of defense could stop us is simply a joke! Hahaha!"
"Ah!"
Before his laughter even faded, several arrows accurately hit his vitals. He didn't even have time to process what happened before the arrow barrage sent him away in a beam of white light to respawn.
All the players who entered had no armor whatsoever. They were as fragile as paper and were instantly wiped out by the trap.
The players outside the wall knew nothing of this massacre and were still frantically squeezing through the gap.
As screams continued coming from inside, more and more people fell one after another.
This single wave eliminated nearly a thousand players.
Some who realized what was happening shouted warnings.
"Stop charging! It's a trap inside! There's an arrow barrage! Fall back!"
"Why is there a trap like this? How was this even built?"
"Quickly use blocks to plug the dispensers!"
Someone had a flash of inspiration and immediately thought of a solution.
Unfortunately, Alto didn't give them time to react.
He pulled another lever.
This time, the TNT launchers outside the wall activated, and flickering TNT blocks fell outside the wall like an explosive barrage.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The cries and screams of terror were drowned out in the chaos and buried by the sound of shattering earth.
The bridges the players had just built were blown to pieces, and all the players crowded outside the wall were sent back to spawn instantly.
This clearing of the battlefield was like cold water poured over the players who had been so eager to attack.
They had intended to take it all in one confident rush, but they hadn't expected to be unable to even pass the first wall.
"This is brutal! I was eliminated before I could even react..."
"Impossible! Where did they get so much TNT?"
"Don't lose heart. This time, we were unprepared and got ambushed by the development team. Next time we'll be more careful, and we'll definitely be able to charge through."
A large number of players continued trying different approaches as time ticked away.
"Ok, the front way won't work. Wouldn't it be fine if we just dug a tunnel and went underneath?"
"Holy shit, brilliant idea!"
Another large group of players immediately rushed forward with renewed purpose. Then they began digging holes downward near the wall's foundation.
"Haha, these development team guys definitely won't expect this! Building a wall in Minecraft based on real-world logic is stupid! Today we'll teach them a lesson!"
A massive group of players grabbed their tools and began digging down.
Jose was currently holding a pickaxe and digging vertically downward. He had been careless before and gotten caught in the trap.
This time, he was definitely going to show those underhanded development team members what he could do.
He excitedly broke a block of stone beneath his feet. This would be his path to victory.
Then his feet were suddenly dangling in thin air.
"Huh?"
"Oh shit!"
Jose's echo drifted up from the abyss below.
His body lost all support and instantly plummeted into the lava sea at the bedrock layer far beneath.