"We're the only ones on the server with it."

Alright. It can be used by anyone, but nobody's really jumping on the chance save for Mapicc and Ro. ...And Spoke, he guesses. Good to have in the toolbox.

"That's good news, then," he says with an easy smile. "Thanks for your time, Ro. And for, uh, sort of taking me under your wing, so to speak. Really appreciate it."

"Of course. No matter what Zam thinks, I'm doing this because I want to make Lifesteal a better place." He sounds genuine, even. "If you ever need help, just give us a call, okay? I still owe you one from earlier."

Word's a valuable currency. He nods. "Thanks, man."

He slips away to trade iron for emeralds and emeralds for experience-- it's only a bonus when experience comes from the villagers, even though it's his armor that drinks it all up. After that, he's... not too sure. He excuses himself with polite firmness and slips back into the nether. Hmm. 

Zam splits from Leviathan because they were duping. Leviathan, in early January, figures out how to stop time. This is already shaping up to be incredibly interesting, and that's even sidelining whatever the hell is happening with Spoke. Eclipse has removed the end, Leviathan have a way to stop time. This server has the kind of pressure that breeds innovation. Same as 2b, but it all feels a little disparate right now. A second opinion is just what he needs.

...This is complicated, though, by literally fighting them just an hour ago. Sigh. It's always more difficult when he's in it, huh? Let's try this:

FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Pretty clean kill on Mapicc there
FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Do you and your team have time to chat?
FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Doesn't even have to be face-to-face

ItzSubz_ whispers to FitMC: sure

He could go for one of the Live VCs, but they're more active than usual right now, and he doesn't know what level of privacy Fit wants for this. New group chat it is; he lets Zam and Vitalasy know they're moving and why. Zam's nervous but agrees that Fit cannot kill him over vc, they just have to not leak anything they don't want other people to know.

"Hey."

Zam is SO NERVOUS!!! "Are you going to try to kill me again? --Hi. I'm PrinceZam." 

(He is not, actually, going to start wandering the nether like he usually does. He starts retracing his steps back to where he's set up, careful to avoid spawn and go for a closer portal. If anything's too open, he makes his own damn tunnel.)

Fit laughs. "Hey, pleasure to meet you guys. No, I'm not looking to try and kill anyone anytime soon. Preserving an allegiance, you understand." Maybe Zam doesn't. He's not saying that. "I'm just doing a bit of personal detective work, you know? Getting a lay of the server."

"Oh. Okay."

"Yeah." What? "Actually, uh, Zam. Mapicc back there, it all felt a little premeditated, you know? What happened there?"

"Uhhhh I dunno! He just likes killing me."

"Mapicc's been killing Zam for a while now. Well, and everyone else, but mostly Zam."

Hm. This is not exactly the same thing as Zam betraying Leviathan complete with tears and ruin and misery. Zam sounds downright sunny through the call.

"Just, for fun? Whenever he spots you guys?"

"Uh, sometimes. I mean, he's sort of got reasons now, I challenged him to a duel and stuff, but I only challenged him to a duel 'cause he kept killing me at spawn when I was just building. Guess that's normal for you, though. With Zam it's personal, Zam he searches out. But I told Zam I'd protect him, so."

Zam is instantly torn between staring at Subz adoringly and crawling into a hole and dying so that Subz will never be in danger because of him ever again.

He compromises by staring at Subz adoringly while saying, in a much more subdued voice: "...You don't have to, you know."

...Okay.

Well, either way, Zam isn't offering the fact that he betrayed Ro and Mapicc. Sore subject, maybe? He's torn between wanting to ask more about it and not wanting to press this early; while he does like digging, he needs a gentle hand if he's supposed to stick around for a while. (Overworld, now. Spawn's that way, so his base is about there-- he starts walking.) He clears his throat. "A little birdy told me that the End's cordoned off? That was you guys, right?"

"That was us."

Oh shit! A third voice has hit the conversation. Finally.

"Am I allowed to ask why? Not every day some friends decide to remove access to an entire dimension." Beat. "Or are you waiting for a big reveal?"

Vitalasy considers and discards a couple possible responses: the story about removing easy access to pearls and xp and obsidian, which is dubious at best; "admitting" to the "bedrock farm"; telling him something else entirely. Ultimately, the safest move is to say nothing. "I can't tell you that. I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't apologize. I respect it." He hopes the grin of his carries over the call. "Just makes me wanna stick around more, right? Everyone's got some big plans."

Is that true? He doesn't think so. But at least two people have big plans doesn't ring the same. Some things, we must make sacrifices for. "Can you tell me how you did it? I've got one idea, but it's a level I don't think anybody's got."

"Mushrooms. You grow them beneath the end portal, it breaks it. Took a lot of work to find every stronghold."

What! Mushrooms. Wait, the blocks from a mushroom would-- it replaces end portal frames. "That's genius," he says, and he means it. "How many eyes of ender were you all flinging around?"

"A lot. But not as many as you'd think--we did seedfinder for some of the inner ring ones, but then it didn't work for the outer ones so I had to, uh, do a bunch of math. I made a theorem! And then the server updated to 1.19.3 and I had to redo all the math for all the new strongholds and--it was a whole mess. But we did it eventually." He sounds kind of tired about the whole thing, except for the math, which he is clearly proud of himself for.

Okay. This guy is the one to watch out for. He doesn't know exactly how many strongholds a world generates, but he knows the number's big; nobody in their right mind is doing and then redoing their math. This is more impressive than Leviathan and their lag machine, to Fit. It's a little terrifying.

"I'll give you props." Leviathan and time, Eclipse and space-- what the hell is next? "Excited to see what comes next, if this is just the first step."

"Phase one of five."

Now that's a headline. "Phase one of five," he echoes. Yeah, this is the guy to watch out for. "Thanks for your time, guys. Really excited to be here."