MCIM Ch. 147

The Time Stone was the bait. The perfect carrot dangling in front of Mario's face, luring him deeper into the Lucky Block rabbit hole. That was the conclusion he'd reached after getting struck by lightning three times, trapped in an upgraded water prison twice, and accidentally summoning an undead apocalypse once.

But overall? The modded Lucky Blocks were a mixed bag of chaos.

CRACK.

Mario opened another Lucky Block. Two cigarettes spun through the air before landing on the ground. The Lucky Blocks had definitely been heavily modded, they could drop literally anything. So far, he'd gotten everything from Infinity Stones on the high end to ultra-thin condoms on the low end. As for the condoms, his first action was to throw them into the lava pool that had spawned from another Lucky Block nearby.

At least the Lucky Blocks weren't dropping standard Minecraft junk like wooden shovels and dirt blocks. That would've made them completely worthless, relegated to gathering dust in some storage chest.

He glanced at his inventory. Fewer than ten Lucky Blocks remained. He decided to stop opening them himself and save the rest for Tony.

Tony had figured out the basic concept by now. These so-called "Lucky Blocks" were essentially blind boxes. Whatever you got was completely random.

Mario placed another Lucky Block on the barren ground and waved Tony over. Tony had been itching to try more ever since witnessing the Time Stone drop. He flew straight over and landed beside it.

"You're sure the stuff you gave me can save my life?"

Mario nodded with a grin. "Guaranteed. Go on, crack it open."

Tony nodded and reached out to tap the Lucky Block.

BANG.

A burst of fireworks exploded.

"Don't tell me it's another Infinity Stone? The drop rate can't be that high, can it?"

Mario hurried over to look, but reality quickly proved him wrong.

"An arc reactor. And it's a second-generation model..."

Watching Tony pick up the reactor from the ground, he said thoughtfully, "Back when I first met you, this thing would've been incredibly useful."

The meaning was clear, now it was basically junk. Well, expensive junk, but still junk.

Tony showed no disappointment whatsoever. "A reactor like this isn't cheap, you know."

He placed it on a nearby cleared area they'd designated for dropped items. Then he reached out again and started tapping the next Lucky Block Mario handed him. This time, his luck wasn't nearly as good.

BANG.

His entire body was suddenly sealed inside a 3×3 obsidian structure.

This was a classic Lucky Block trap: the water prison. Normally constructed from obsidian and glass with a single water block in the center, it was designed to drown unwary players. In later Minecraft versions, you could swim out by going prone, but in earlier versions, you just died.

Mario's face darkened when he saw the water prison materialize. He was grateful his abilities weren't some kind of system with a sentient AI, or he'd be demanding answers right now.

Why was his water prison made of bedrock and blast-proof glass, while Tony's was just the standard obsidian and regular glass version?

Talk about blatant discrimination.

He pulled out a pickaxe and broke Tony free. For someone in powered armor, this trap was particularly dangerous, using repulsor beams in such a cramped space would be like shooting yourself.

"That scared the hell out of me!"

After escaping, Tony felt his heart pounding wildly.

Mario laughed and asked, "So, want to try again?"

"Hell yes!"

If he managed to unlock an Infinity Stone, even if he couldn't keep it, just taking it back to study would be incredible. Tony's gaze toward the Lucky Block grew even more intense. He reached out and slowly tapped it.

As the block vanished, what appeared in its place was a silver portable hard drive.

Although Mario had mentally prepared himself for all kinds of random drops, seeing a portable hard drive still left him completely baffled.

"Could it be... study materials? Hand me that drive."

He still had the laptop he'd bought in the DC universe sitting in his inventory. Finally, it would be useful for something. Taking the hard drive and plugging it into the computer, his eyes widened the moment he saw the file list. His face filled with shock.

Tony curiously looked at the files displayed on screen and asked in confusion, "What is this?"

"Iron Man 1, 2, and 3... Avengers 1, 2, and 3... Why does a hard drive from a Lucky Block even have Captain America movies? And it's the third one..."

Coming back to his senses, Mario swallowed hard. Luckily, he wasn't the type to get bent out of shape over spoilers, but this move by the Lucky Block was insane.

Hearing Tony's question, he decided to mess with him. "Maybe they're your personal private videos. As for why Captain America's in there..."

Tony wasn't stupid. If things were really like Mario suggested, did that mean the Avengers were basically some kind of superhero orgy group?

He'd traveled to parallel worlds with him before, so he naturally understood what the Avengers represented in those timelines. With some theories forming in his mind, he fell into deep thought.

But Mario snapped the laptop shut, tossed it back into his inventory, then looked at the remaining Lucky Blocks. "Open the rest first. Later we'll head to Endstar, call Ivan and Banner, and watch these movies together."

---

More than fifteen minutes later, Tony had once again experienced what it felt like to repeatedly brush past death. The remaining Lucky Blocks gave him a collection of random junk. He even destroyed another iteration of Ivan's Whiplash Mark I and received yet another electric whip as a loot drop.

Using the waystone, they both returned to Endstar. The first thing he did was deactivate his armor. Quietly, he stuffed the remaining totems of undying and teleportation scrolls into his pockets. After witnessing how effective those items were in action, there was no way he was giving them back easily.

Clutching his bulging pockets protectively, he looked at Mario and asked, "So where are we going?"

"To the movie theater. I'll contact Ivan and Banner."

The employee recreational facilities on Endstar were fully equipped. After all, once workers came here, they often stayed for extended periods before returning to Earth for R&R.

A short while later, Mario and the others sat in a small private theater that could only accommodate about a dozen people. As the iconic Marvel Studios logo appeared on screen, Iron Man began to play.

Two hours passed quickly. After watching a movie literally about Tony's life, everyone fell silent, and Tony felt the impact even more deeply than the others.

"Is this what you meant by 'the plot'?"

Burying his complicated emotions deep in his heart, he smiled and said, "Figures. No matter what universe I'm in, I'm still the protagonist."

"Alright, stop admiring yourself."

Mario reached out, grabbed the mouse, and started playing Iron Man 2.

Tony, who had just been about to say something witty, immediately shut his mouth and focused intently on the movie he was starring in.

He only looked like he didn't care.

After Iron Man 2 finished playing, he was no longer maintaining his carefree facade. He curled up in his theater seat, trying to sink into the cushions and disappear.

Ivan's gaze kept drifting toward him periodically, making Tony feel like there were knives stabbing into his back. Banner noticed something was clearly wrong, but as a scientist with limited social skills, all he could do was sit quietly in his chair and watch the interpersonal drama unfold.

Tony couldn't stand the atmosphere any longer. He straightened up, turned his head, and met Ivan's eyes directly.

"You should understand. In that situation, I didn't have a choice."

Ivan replied with a ferocious smile stretching across his face. "Of course I understand. If I were in your position, I'd have done exactly the same thing. Probably even more ruthlessly, to be honest. Mercy toward your enemies is cruelty toward yourself."

Very quickly, Tony resigned himself to his fate. It wasn't that his armor was inferior to Ivan's, it was that Ivan didn't believe in fair one-on-one combat. He'd show up with his entire mech legion. And according to intelligence he had gathered, that madman Ivan even possessed a nuclear-powered armor suit.

He reached into his pocket and felt the reassuring bulk of totems. He let out a quiet sigh.

Mario stretched and turned on the lights in the theater.

Although he'd seen these movies before, watching them while sitting alongside the characters from the story was an entirely different experience. The emotional weight hit differently when you knew these were real people's lives.

"So, do we keep going, or should we grab some food first?"

Two movies had taken nearly five hours. He didn't mind, he'd stayed seated and motionless the entire time. His hunger bar hadn't changed at all. He didn't need to eat, but the others certainly did.

They exchanged glances, and Tony immediately said, "I vote we keep going."

Ivan nodded as well. Although he knew his character was already dead in the timeline and there wouldn't be much about him in future films, he still wanted to see exactly how far Tony's journey would take him.

"I also vote to continue."

Banner, however, or rather, Hulk, raised a different opinion.

"How about we eat while watching? Hulk hungry..."

Fortunately, Hulk primarily needed gamma radiation for sustenance; otherwise, Banner would spend every waking moment doing nothing but eating.

Mario nodded slightly and said to Ivan, "Contact the cafeteria staff. Have them prepare food and send it over."

Ordering was simple. Ivan just tapped a few commands on his wrist communicator. Mario nodded in approval. Banner smiled at his side, and Hulk, having heard Mario's words, finally stopped complaining about food.

Banner looked at Mario curiously and asked, "Do I get any scenes in these movies?"

"You're about to make your entrance right now."

As he spoke, Mario opened The Avengers.

This confused Tony slightly. "Shouldn't it be Iron Man 3? Why are we jumping to The Avengers?"

"We're going by chronological timeline order."

The plot began playing on the big screen. Compared to the Iron Man films, The Avengers had a much tighter, faster-paced narrative structure. After it ended, Ivan was the first to voice his thoughts.

"I didn't expect you to make that choice, Tony. And those politicians in your government are truly pieces of work."

As an American citizen, Tony found himself completely speechless at Ivan's accurate assessment.

Banner nodded in agreement and added, "The military brass aren't exactly saints either."

Then Tony's paranoia kicked in again, and he asked, "Mario, if I'm remembering correctly, both the Mind Stone and the Space Stone are in your possession, so where exactly did the Chitauri invasion force go?"

Mario smiled kindly and said, "They're currently helping with infrastructure development across this universe. Building projects, mining operations, that sort of thing."

After seven straight hours of movies, he felt restless. He shut the laptop and said to the others, "Let's watch the rest in a couple days. Watching too much at once is bad for your eyes."

Even Tony, who possessed the weakest baseline physiology among them, had reached Captain America-level physical conditioning after using the enhancement serum. A mere seven or eight hours of screen time was nothing to any of them. Seeing the looks of lingering dissatisfaction on their faces, Mario sighed dramatically.

"We must learn self-restraint! It's an important life skill. Whatever. You guys watch on your own if you want. The chronological order continues with Iron Man 3, Avengers 2, Captain America: Civil War, then Avengers: Infinity War. Ivan, you're in charge of playing them. I'm going out for a walk."

He stood up and walked straight out of the small theater. After seven hours indoors, it was already deep night on Endstar. The celestial body possessed two small moons, though both were quite tiny and provided minimal illumination.

"If Tony can unlock movies about himself, can other people also unlock their corresponding storylines from the multiverse?"

As soon as the thought occurred to him, he decided to test the theory.

"I've already used up all the Lucky Blocks I had on me, guess I'll need to craft a few more."

The materials required were all basic items. With Thanos leading his massive army through endless Minecraft mining operations, Mario had long since achieved complete material freedom. Resources were essentially infinite.

With his enhanced night vision, he headed straight for the warehouse district. The massive structure was packed full of storage chests organized by material type. He located the ones storing gold ingots, despite each stack having a storage limit of 10,000 blocks, the chests were still crammed completely full.

The mob farm he'd constructed in the Nether primarily produced gold nuggets that could be crafted into ingots. Compared to other materials, this particular resource was much easier to obtain in bulk.

He crafted an entire stack of Lucky Blocks.

"These should last me for a while. If not, I'll just make more batches."

He stuffed the Lucky Blocks into his inventory and left the warehouse, pondering which person would be the most suitable test subject for this experiment.

At that moment, lights from the transportation department nearby caught his attention. The warehouse was positioned right next to Erik's laboratory, which made logistics convenient for transporting experimental materials. Although they had waystone teleportation technology, sometimes the Tesseract-powered portals were still more practical, especially for locations where Mario hadn't established waystone anchor points yet.

He frowned slightly. "It's this late at night and he still hasn't gone to bed? Why is everyone working themselves to death around here?"

He walked toward Erik's laboratory. As he approached, he could vaguely hear the doctor's excited voice emanating from inside the facility.

"Is it in?"

A young woman's voice also rang out in response.

"It's in... oh my God..."

"Alright, I'm going to speed it up now. Get ready."

"I'm ready!"

Mario glanced at the laboratory's exterior walls, and his first immediate thought was: The soundproofing in this lab seriously needs to be redone...

His second thought: Erik really knows how to live dangerously...

"No, that's impossible. He definitely isn't the type of person who would abuse his position to take advantage of his student assistant. And he's even less likely to do something like that in a laboratory just for the thrill of it."

After a brief pause, Mario muttered quietly to himself, "Although... He does have that documented history of running around naked in public..."

At that precise moment, the woman's voice came again, higher-pitched and more urgent: "It's full... it's completely full... stop, stop right now!"

After hesitating for exactly half a second, Mario made his decision. He activated Disguise, and slipped inside to take a look.