Chapter 403: Starbound

"Does the Book of Ages actually curse at people?"

(TL: SB in Chinese means "Dumb Cunt')

After seeing the gold-covered book through Steve's perspective, Fang Mo was also stunned: "What on earth is SB? Damn, could it be SpongeBob?"

To tell the truth.

Fang Mo did not want to delve into comedic series.

Or any child-oriented worlds.

It's not that Fang Mo dislikes anything in particular, but the combat power in these comedic series is just absurd.

Arale Norimaki can smash the Earth with one hammer, Tom Cat's immortality rivals that of Majin Buu, not to mention a certain blue fatty's bellyband, hiding so many children's dreams... and adults' lascivious thoughts?

If the world connected by that gold-covered book really is SpongeBob.

Then Fang Mo might just take Nya with him, to realign the stars, to awaken Them from the depths of the sea.

After all, among all fan creations.

Perhaps only the horror stories of Bikini Bottom could pique Fang Mo's interest.

Fortunately, after Fang Mo took a closer look at the wording below the gold-covered book, he noticed that the abbreviation SB did not correspond to 'SpongeBob' but to another word he was familiar with, 'Starbound'.

"Um... Starbound, huh?"

Seeing this word, Fang Mo was unexpectedly relieved.

Even without the function of a localization mod, he could easily recognize the original meaning of this word because he had indeed played this game.

Yes, Starbound is a game.

Its Chinese translation is 'Stellar Frontier', a 2D side-scrolling pixelated sandbox game, very similar to Terraria.

However, Terraria mainly focuses on magic and mystery, where players explore ancient unknowns within a world, whereas Stellar Frontier differs in that it focuses on science fiction and the future, requiring players to explore planet after planet in the vast universe and save the entire universe from an ancient god-like entity known as 'Ruin'.

The reason Fang Mo knew about this game was actually due to his partner.

Because they were almost sick of playing on the server, the partner suggested trying a 2D sandbox game for a change of pace, and Fang Mo agreed, thus starting their 2D sandbox journey.

That was a long time ago.

So long ago that Fang Mo has almost forgotten the specifics of the game's process.

But to be honest, he wasn't really that interested in the 'SB' version either.

One reason is that the Stellar Frontier hardly has any powerful artifacts, and on the other hand, it's because... exploring this sandbox world without a partner is just like being in prison, okay?

"Forget it, just shelve it for now."

Shrugging, Fang Mo had Steve put away the Book of Ages.

After securing the Book of Ages, Fang Mo quickly continued to explore the worlds that came with the dimensional gate.

Wild dimensional gates often come with a small maze or some sort of level that encourages players to explore, somewhat like an adventure dungeon but with more difficulty.

Fang Mo spent a little time and quickly cleared this small maze.

And when he had Steve walk out of the dimensional gate again, the original gate had disappeared, replaced by a strange crack on the ground.

It was a semi-transparent black crack, constantly twisting and expanding, soon touching the soil below, followed by a snap, the soil directly shattered and disappeared, replaced by a mass of black twisted material, which Fang Mo had Steve pick up.

"Tsks, this is too little..."

Looking at the world fiber in his hand, which looked like a ball of black wool, Fang Mo unconsciously frowned.

After briefly recalling the process, Fang Mo quickly had Steve find lava and water, and made a stone generator below the dimensional crack.

The cobblestone, as soon as it was refreshed, would immediately be destroyed by the dimensional crack, turning into world fiber, and then immediately refreshed and destroyed again. Seeing this, Fang Mo simply placed a hopper below and then had Steve idle there waiting.

After idling for a while.

Steve collected several sets of world fiber.

Fang Mo used two bundles of world fiber to sandwich an Ender Pearl in the middle, quickly creating something called a Stable Construction, which is a core item in the Dimensional Door mod, a tool that can stably control space.

And after that.

Fang Mo began to endlessly experiment.

But to be honest, the crafting in the dimensional gate mod is quite simple, and since it's a dimensional gate, it's best to test with gates, so it didn't take long for Fang Mo to make what he wanted.

Which is various dimensional door that can create pocket spaces.

"Mm-hmm, worthy of me."

Looking at the brand-new dimensional gate in his hand, Fang Mo immediately laughed proudly: "It seems I'm gradually getting used to the crafting table, and in the future, making endless things by hand is not a dream…"

Due to quickly creating the desired item, Fang Mo's confidence soared, and he directly prepared to try making an upgrade kit for thermal expansion. Then, very swiftly, three days passed.

"Damn it, I'm done!" Fang Mo, completely stuck by the kit, finally lost his patience and kicked the crafting table away in frustration: "If I touch thermal expansion again, I'm a dog!"

After stepping away from the crafting table, Fang Mo took a deep breath and slowly regained his composure. Gradually calming down, he also felt a bit tired, mainly mentally exhausted... So, he simply went back to his room to lie down. The continuous three days of intense trial and error made him feel a bit bored, and he started to miss the parallel worlds, such as X-Men and Marvel.

Of course, it wasn't about pursuing storylines, mainly... he really missed his friends there.

Looking at all the parallel worlds, Fang Mo spent the most time in the Marvel world, so he indeed treated these people as friends. Sometimes, it was quite fun when everyone got together and made a fuss.

And, of course, the most important thing was... the Mantis Woman.

Fang Mo could sleep, but only with the Mantis Woman and the Supreme Intelligence together could he enter dreamland.

Since Fang Mo last attempted to bully the other party in his dream, he hasn't dreamed of being carefree again. At first, he didn't think much of it, but now the damn upgrade kit for the storage bin was indeed a bit annoying. So, Fang Mo thought about whether he could ask about the synthesis list or something in his dream again. Although it was a dream... what if it worked?

And, after giving it some thought.

Fang Mo indeed still had quite a few things to do in the Marvel world.

For example, arranging a funeral for the Ancient One... If people next door could hold a seventh-day mourning pop king contest, wouldn't it be reasonable for Fang Mo to organize a nine-night dark requiem for the Ancient One? Maybe even dig up her thigh bones to make something and offer it at Kamar-Taj... That should at least be considered 'Supreme' bone, right?

Of course, there was another most important thing.

That was the Infinity Gauntlet. Fang Mo had already collected five Infinity Stones. If there were no issues, he should directly collect the sixth stone and snap his fingers next time he went there.

Fang Mo had been waiting too long for this wish-fulfilling machine, and he was almost out of patience now.

However, to increase the chances of success, Fang Mo felt he might need to collect a bit more stuff, as he currently had too little.

"It's a pity I didn't draw into the Fate or Dragon Ball world. Otherwise, I could have brought over the Dragon Balls and the Holy Grail." Fang Mo organized the items in his backpack and sighed with a headache: "Now, I haven't even managed to get the Hogyoku. I always feel like it's going to fail…"