Seeing the Group submit, HIM also continued speaking. "Each of you possesses infection ability. What you need to do now is go infect more people."
Hearing HIM's words, the Group also, without hesitation, quickly agreed.
"Okay!"
"Yes!"
"We will definitely work hard to infect more people!"
Seeing the Group was now obedient, HIM waved his hand, and the Group instantly disappeared from the original place.
The Group, who disappeared from the gray space, appeared the next second on the grassland of the Divine Competition.
The moment the crowd appeared on the grassland, they felt an intense burning sensation on their skin.
They thought they must have said something wrong again and angered HIM, but when they looked up, they realized they had already left that gray space.
Seeing this, they quickly found a place with shade and hid. Once in the cool shade, after rolling on the ground a few times, they finally managed to put out the flames on their bodies. Only then did the Group finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"What now?"
"I really don't want to play PVP! I just want to farm and build stuff!!"
"Why do I feel like HIM is really strange? He didn't used to be like this, right??"
"True… before, HIM would always appear openly to infect players. Now why is he hiding in some dark corner?"
Only now did everyone realize something felt off. The HIM they just encountered and the HIM they knew before were completely different in personality.
That HIM just now clearly gave off the vibe of a tyrant.
While they were discussing this, they noticed Bai Lou was silent off to the side.
Bai Lou was basically the leader among them, so everyone looked at him, ready to ask for his opinion, when Bai Lou suddenly shouted loudly.
"Who the hell wants to be a zombie?!"
"Damn it! I refuse to obey you!"
Bai Lou's sudden outburst immediately stunned the crowd of players.
"Brother Bai… are you okay?..."
"Did he get tortured into stupidity??"
"What the heck! Brother Bai, what are you doing?! We finally got out!"
Hearing Bai Lou's words, all the players were terrified, afraid HIM would pull them back for another round of inhuman torture.
Everyone's hearts were in their throats. But after a moment, they realized that the situation they feared didn't happen.
Seeing this, Bai Lou suddenly let out a long breath and said, "You all noticed something's off with this HIM too, right?"
"Although we don't know what exactly happened, we can at least be sure. He probably can't leave that space right now."
"Most likely, he can't control us from inside there!"
"And, he probably needs to rely on infecting players to escape."
Bai Lou had basically tested this with his own life. He had actually pretended to submit back then just so he could leave that space.
The moment he made contact with HIM, Bai Lou felt something was seriously wrong. The actions of that HIM just now were completely different from the HIM they all knew. The HIM they knew always appeared aboveboard, and never forced players to obey him.
Although Bai Lou didn't know exactly what happened, one thing was certain, this HIM was currently trapped in that space.
And the task he gave the Bai Lou group was to go infect more players. Which reasonably led to the conclusion that he needed to rely on infecting players to escape.
After hearing Bai Lou's words, the players suddenly understood.
"Sounds kind of logical?!"
"HIM @#@#￥##!@￥@#@!#, if you've got guts, come torture me again!!!"
"So if we don't go infect other players, he can't get out?"
"Wait a second, are we holding his weak spot?"
Hearing the other players speak, Bai Lou gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"There are others besides us. He will definitely infect more people. Can we guarantee others won't go out and infect people like we're doing?"
After hearing that, the players also realized that made sense.
"So what do we do?"
"Just what's going on with this HIM? I keep feeling like he's not the same one we knew before."
"..."
Hearing the players' words, Bai Lou also nodded. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Let's try contacting Pengpeng first. Let's figure out what's going on before we act."
The Bai Lou group didn't want to get involved in the wars between various factions and camps. They just wanted to play the game in their own way. Now that they had become zombie players, of course it came with many inconveniences.
First, obviously, was the fear of sunlight, they had to wear hats during the day.
But zombie players couldn't craft tools. Which meant, when it came to gear, other than their own stockpile, they could only get it from other players.
This meant they would have to kill players. Infecting players would be directly helping that tyrant HIM escape from the gray space.
After all, that tyrant HIM's infection ability was different from the one players knew before. Tyrant HIM's infection ability was like the zombies from Resident Evil.
One infects ten, ten infect a hundred. Everyone infected becomes a carrier and can infect others. And players infected by tyrant HIM didn't need to worry about dying and turning into normal players again.
Once the infection started, the spread would be terrifyingly fast.
Most likely, it wouldn't be long before tyrant HIM could break out of that gray space. And once he escaped, infected players like Bai Lou and his group probably wouldn't have any freedom left.
Even though Bai Lou didn't want to take sides, he also didn't want to play a game while being shackled.
Also, a lot of them in that group were builders. Zombies couldn't use crafting tables, couldn't make tools, couldn't even craft blocks like slabs or stairs.
How could builders even play like this? That's basically the death of builders.
So no matter what, if Bai Lou's group wanted to keep building and tinkering with redstone in the future, they had to get to the truth.
If the HIM they met just now wasn't the same HIM they knew before, then they would absolutely have to seek out help from the HIM they used to know.
And if it really came down to choosing sides, they would definitely, without hesitation, side with the HIM they knew before.
No matter what, the HIM from before never interfered with players' choices, never used his power to threaten or tempt players into submission.
The players all nodded after hearing Bai Lou's words.
"Let's see if we can reach Pengpeng offline."
"Everyone lay low for now, try not to infect any other players by accident."
"Yeah, don't move around much these days. Let's wait until we get in touch with Pengpeng."
Bai Lou's group and Xiaodao's group should be considered representatives of most players who get infected by tyrant HIM in the future.
Xiaodao's group submitted to HIM for the pursuit of power.
Bai Lou's group stayed true to themselves, unwilling to yield to brute force, and prepared to resist.
In the future, there would probably also be players who got forcibly infected. They wouldn't be able to contact HIM, but couldn't change their identity either, and would passively choose to infect others just to survive.
But among the people tyrant HIM infected, no matter the faction, there probably wouldn't be many who truly believed in him.
Because the ones he infected were from the player faction.
And players, as the "Fourth Calamity," had always lived in a world where they reigned supreme.
They played the game, the game didn't play them.
Even Xu Yuan, who had built up such a strong presence and won so many people over, couldn't make the players submit. Let alone this tyrant HIM, who just appeared in the world and tried to control players through extreme means?
———
Not long after the Bai Lou group left, tyrant HIM finally set his sights on Mustard.
The moment tyrant HIM looked at him, Mustard immediately saw a murderous aura in his eyes.
Seeing that, Mustard instantly knelt down in front of tyrant HIM.
"I… I'm willing to follow you! Please don't turn me into one of them…"
Mustard was very smart. He had great perception and could read the situation well.
He could tell tyrant HIM seemed to be planning to do something to him. He had just seen what those players went through. Once turned into a zombie, there was no turning back.
Of course Mustard didn't want that to happen to him, especially since he still had more important things to do.
As Mustard was thinking, the tyrant HIM in front of him opened his mouth and said, "What I need is someone of value."
"A powerless, uninfected villager, what value can you offer me?"
Tyrant HIM's meaning was very clear.
Just like Bai Lou had guessed, right now he really couldn't leave that space. He needed to gain control of this world, the more he gained, the faster he could leave.
That was exactly why he wanted Xiaodao and Bai Lou to go infect as many players as possible.
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