There was no trail of movement, no door kicked in—just pure, instantaneous displacement.
"Teleportation."
Steve clenched his fist, adrenaline surging through him as he activated the ability once more.
Whoosh!
In an instant, he was back on his bed, the sheets barely ruffled. He nodded in satisfaction. Spatial abilities were truly in a league of their own.
This is only the initial awakening, he mused. If I channel this through the Fifth-Order Iron Golem...
But mastery of teleportation wasn't his immediate priority. Steve drew a deep breath, feeling the vast reservoir of mental power now at his disposal. The Tier 3 evolution had granted him a qualitative leap in consciousness, making his mental strength several times more potent than before.
"This should be enough."
Steve's gaze grew profound, piercing through the veil of reality to stare into that mysterious, fractured dimension: The End.
In the world of Minecraft, The End was an eternal void—a lonely, obsidian-dark expanse where a massive central island hung suspended in the nothingness. Steve had been careful to build his automated farms and redstone machinery thousands of blocks away from the main island to keep them safe from the dimension's guardian.
On the main island, towering obsidian pillars reached toward the dark sky, the End Crystals atop them pulsing with a rhythmic purple light. Beneath that pitch-black firmament, a majestic, terrifying figure circled tirelessly.
The Ender Dragon.
She was the undisputed sovereign of this realm, the ultimate predator. Her dark scales shimmered with a metallic luster, and every beat of her colossal wings sent ripples of void energy through the air. Previously, Steve could only observe her from a distance; his mental strength hadn't been enough to withstand the sheer primal will of such a titanic beast.
But now, back in the real world, Steve's expanded consciousness crossed dimensions. He cast his mental net, wrapping it without reserve around the flying dragon.
Boom!
Two powerful wills clashed violently within the void. The Ender Dragon roared in fury, her predatory instincts lashing out to break the invisible chains. But Steve's mental grip was as tenacious as the deep sea. No matter how she thrashed, the net remained locked around her soul core. It felt like taming a wild stallion—difficult, but the reins were firmly in his hands.
Gradually, the savage chaos in the dragon's eyes faded, replaced by a calm, tamed obedience.
"Success."
Steve was ecstatic. He could feel a profound, wondrous connection established between him and this void overlord.
"Let's test your strength."
With a thought, Steve commanded the Ender Dragon to open her massive maw. But instead of her usual purple dragon's breath, he channeled his own elemental power through her.
Arctic Void Breath!
Roar!!!
The Ender Dragon let out a heaven-shaking bellow. A terrifying stream of violet-white frost erupted from her jaws, slamming into one of the obsidian pillars below.
Sssss!
Where the frost passed, even the void itself seemed to freeze. The hundreds-of-meters-tall pillar of adamant obsidian was instantly encased in a thick layer of jagged purple ice.
Crack!
The temperature drop was so violent and abrupt that even the supposedly unbreakable obsidian groaned and fractured from within.
"Incredible," Steve muttered, watching through the dragon's eyes. "The Ender Dragon's raw power combined with my frost and spatial abilities... she's a living strategic bomber."
He didn't intend to treat her like a simple fighter jet; she was the Queen of the End, and her potential was limitless.
Still, the resources in this world are becoming scarce, Steve thought, rubbing his chin. Aside from high-grade energy crystals and gene reagents, there isn't much left that would challenge her. I'll have to see how she handles the Wither and the Warden next.
As he pondered his next move, Steve noticed a surprising development.
"Wait... my consciousness is still grounded in the real world?"
Previously, controlling a powerful being would have knocked his physical body unconscious. Yet now, he could perceive everything in the End while simultaneously moving his real body to grab a glass of water.
"A dual-thread operation? My mental capacity must have hit a critical threshold."
He decided to find his limit. He withdrew his focus from the dragon and reached out to the Endermen stationed below. One, two, four... he kept adding units to the link until sixteen Endermen were perfectly synchronized. Only then did he feel a faint sting behind his eyes.
"Perfect control over sixteen elite units at once," he noted, satisfied. "With this level of micro-management, I'm invincible on the battlefield."
Later that morning, at the Biological Research Institute.
Fred drove the black sedan through the gates at high speed, dropping Steve at the entrance. He caught Cooper just as the old scientist was about to enter a link-pod to return to the wasteland for more research.
"Cooper, hold on—I've brought something for you." Steve waved a plain black folder.
The moment Cooper saw it, his eyes lit up. He knew Steve well enough to know that any hand-delivered document contained world-altering technology. The formerly stooped old man vaulted out of the pod with surprising agility, leaving Steve momentarily speechless.
That enhancement liquid is definitely working, Steve mused. Scrawny scientist Cooper is getting sturdier by the day.
Cooper snatched the folder, breathless. "Steve, is this it? The formula that allows anyone to awaken?"
"Not quite yet," Steve smiled, shaking his head. "But we're close. Once we stabilize the wasteland, we'll have the final piece. For now, this is the complete recipe for the Second-Generation Body Enhancement Serum. It's more refined and far more potent than the current batch."
"Excellent! Truly excellent!" Cooper beamed. While it wasn't the awakening drug, a mass-producible serum was a strategic treasure that would elevate the entire national defense force.
"Take your time organizing the team," Steve said, bidding him farewell. "I've got to get to the Communications Institute next."
Steve hurried along, eager to hand over the Quantum Communication and Supercomputing Matrix technology to the next group of researchers. The foundation for an empire was finally being laid, both at home and in the void.