This was the same as the original mission of the iron golems possessed by the Void consciousness bodies.

Why wouldn't they be happy to do it?

And they wouldn't truly submit to Annoying Village HIM, they were just feigning surrender under the premise of not violating their mission.

If Annoying Village HIM truly managed to win the trial, the consciousness bodies possessed by the Void could just betray him at the final moment.

Maybe by then, the ones who win the trial would be the Void.

Precisely because of this, the cooperation between the two sides was established.

However, the number of iron golems was only just over 20.

Although their strength was beyond question, the quantity was still a bit too small.

But this problem clearly couldn't stump Annoying Village HIM.

After the iron golem army surrendered, Annoying Village HIM immediately issued an order for the iron golems to look for villagers.

Once villagers were found, Annoying Village HIM also used the rules of iron golem generation.

He grabbed a tool zombie to scare the villagers, thereby generating iron golems.

Although the efficiency of generating iron golems wasn't very high, as time passed, Annoying Village HIM's iron golem army already began to take shape.

The only current problem for Annoying Village HIM was still the problem of equipment.

Iron golems didn't need equipment, but for them to become war machines, a large quantity of iron ingots was needed.

Iron ingots could repair the wounds of iron golems. With a large number of iron ingots in hand, Annoying Village HIM's iron golem army basically wouldn't fall.

After accumulating enough military strength, Annoying Village HIM would definitely look for channels to obtain emeralds and seize them entirely for himself.

Only in this way could he stand in an undefeated position.

———

Tyrant HIM likewise also adopted a cooperation model.

But he chose to cooperate with players.

Tyrant HIM appeared in the trial grounds in the identity of a zombie, so the forces he could gather were also mainly monsters.

Monsters were divided into conscious and unconscious types.

To those conscious monsters, their thinking was actually the same as players'.

They would definitely side with those existences that had a reputation in the monster faction.

Like the leader of the Pillagers, Blue Demon, and the like.

As for Tyrant HIM, this suddenly emerged nameless zombie, the conscious monsters naturally would not choose to side with him.

Fortunately, heaven never seals off all paths, Tyrant HIM encountered a team of scattered players who were rejected by the Nirvana guild.

After killing all but one of those players, Tyrant HIM kidnapped the only survivor.

That's right, kidnapped.

The reason for kidnapping a player was also very simple.

Conscious monsters wouldn't follow him, so to assemble a fighting force, he could only choose the monsters that could respawn and had no consciousness.

And those unconscious monsters would only be attracted and gathered by players.

So Tyrant HIM had no choice but to kidnap a player.

But kidnapping a player to attract monsters was obviously not an easy task.

First, he had to ensure the player wouldn't die.

Those monsters attracted by the player, like skeleton archers and creepers, had to be immediately cleaned up.

Besides that, he also had to take care of the player's hunger level.

And also, he had to always guard against the player escaping.

However, Tyrant HIM's hard days didn't last long.

The kidnapped player, after witnessing Tyrant HIM's strength, seemed to realize his uniqueness.

His mindset gradually changed.

From initially being desperate and begging for death, he eventually decided to cooperate with Tyrant HIM.

After both sides agreed to cooperate, they began proper planning.

The player was responsible for attracting monsters while killing some to acquire equipment, iron ingots, and various resources, and also try to win over other scattered players who had been rejected by those big-name figures.

Tyrant HIM was responsible for handling the player's hunger level and protecting the player from threats from other factions.

Although the two sides appeared harmonious, it was obvious they were using each other.

But precisely because of this cooperation, Tyrant HIM's side progressed quite well.

And because both his military strength and equipment had started taking shape, quite a few lone conscious monsters and lone players let go of old grudges and joined Tyrant HIM's team…

———

From the various actions of Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM, it could be seen that they could accept the cooperation model.

Although Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM leaned more toward a mutually exploitative relationship with their partners.

They themselves clearly understood that the cooperative relationship wouldn't last, sooner or later it would break.

But neither of them would think about how to maintain that cooperation and achieve a win-win result.

To put it bluntly, they still cared too much about winning and losing.

Once the desire to win was let go, all problems could actually become simple and transparent.

But then again, if everyone could see through it, the trial grounds wouldn't even need to exist.

———

In the rainforest, after Blue Demon finished assigning many matters, he took a few monsters and two parrots and set off on the journey into the forest with Xu Yuan.

The equipment on Blue Demon and the few monsters could be considered the entire inventory of the rainforest at present.

You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child, if Blue Demon, the "middleman," didn't have something good on him, how could he convince the Pillagers to exchange emeralds for equipment?

As for the two parrots, their role was naturally to deliver messages, one to Barbeque Sauce, one to Xu Yuan.

The reason Xu Yuan traveled with Blue Demon was, first, to help Blue Demon get familiar with the underground passage he had built.

And also to check on how Fat Cow's work was progressing.

Not long after Xu Yuan and Blue Demon left, many players gathered at the border of the rainforest and grassland.

"Our supplies were traded here…"

Ping Pong explained to Steve while approaching the chest with the signpost.

After seeing that the trade information on the signpost had changed, he frowned and continued.

"But the items traded before weren't these, it seems they've been changed…"

After saying this, Ping Pong called over the player previously assigned to keep watch and asked, "While we weren't here just now, someone moved the signpost, did you see who it was?"

The watch player nodded and reported, "Some of the signs were indeed swapped, they were made by players."

"I don't remember the others well, but that figure in all black… seems like…"

Before the player finished speaking, Steve interrupted.

"All black…"

"Was it Black Blade?…"

The player on watch nodded.

"You're sure you didn't see wrong?" Steve asked again to confirm.

Hearing Steve ask again, Ping Pong followed up, "Shouldn't be mistaken. A few of the recently joined scattered players said they'd run into Black Blade heading toward the rainforest earlier."

Hearing Ping Pong's words, Steve lowered his head and pondered for a moment.

Seeing Steve silent for a while, Ping Pong grew a little anxious.

"Boss, what should we do next?"

"Should we try to negotiate cooperation, or just leave each other alone and get the materials first?"

After another long moment, Steve finally spoke.

"From what I know of Black Blade, there's no way all of this was his idea."

"Black Blade doesn't care about players, he'd never go out of his way to help them."

"This must be HIM's doing."

Hearing Steve's words, Ping Pong couldn't help but be surprised.

"HIM?!"

"What's he trying to do? His intentions have always been hard to figure out. There's probably a lot of trickery going on, right? We need to be careful, don't get played…"

Hearing that, Steve nodded, then shook his head.

"He really is hard to figure out, and there definitely are tricks involved, but I don't think he's trying to manipulate the players."

"He really is complex. But just from how he instructs his subordinates, you can tell, he has no intention of harming players."

At this point, Steve let out a long sigh. "I was the first one to meet him."

"I don't know what spell I was under, but ever since then, I've tried to see through him."

Steve let out a couple of bitter laughs, then continued.

"Obviously I've failed, it's been so long, and I still can't see through him."

"But after all this time, I haven't gained nothing. The only thing I can be certain of now is, he and I are the same, we both love this world deeply."

"Or rather, he loves this world even more than I do."

Steve's words were a bit disjointed, leaving Ping Pong stunned.

But Ping Pong was used to it, Steve had always been like this. As long as the conclusion made sense, that was enough.

Seeing Ping Pong's expression, Steve also realized he might've been talking over his head again, so he finally summed it up, "Although I don't know what his goal is…"

"I think… I'll agree with his views."

Hearing Steve's words, Ping Pong was immediately confused.

"Boss, you mean you want to cooperate with HIM? You've heard the rumors too, whoever wins the trial grounds will gain great power…"

Although Ping Pong was a top player, he, like others, couldn't resist the temptation of becoming stronger.

Naturally, he also couldn't let go of his desire to win.

Ping Pong didn't say it directly, but the meaning was obvious.

Steve, however, didn't care.

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