But now, his appearance also represents Xu Yuan's position. If he uses force to suppress, then what's the difference between that and what the Void does?
Besides, the Dread Lord definitely could not go talk face-to-face with other factions.
This is also because he represents Xu Yuan. If he went to have talks with other forces, it would seem to lose face.
Not to mention the matter of whether face is lost or not, if the talks go well, then it's nothing. But if the talks fail, and due to the situation he can't use force, wouldn't that make him a laughingstock?
Thinking of this, the Dread Lord also felt helpless. He patted the Wither King's shoulder and let out a long sigh.
"Sigh... let's go back first, then act accordingly when the time comes…"
The Dread Lord really couldn't come up with a good solution, so he could only follow what Entity 303 said, just deal with it when the time comes.
———
[Inside the Trial Land]
Xu Yuan brought six live pigs as a deposit to Fat Cow and his group's base.
Seeing Xu Yuan suddenly bring six pigs, Fat Cow and the others were both excited and a little surprised.
"Goodness, does he really have that many food resources?"
"Did he already know from the beginning that food would rot in the Trial Land, so he stockpiled food in advance?"
"I thought he would directly give us cooked food, since the shelf life of cooked food matches our construction time... He's actually pretty nice…"
At first, Fat Cow and the others thought Xu Yuan would bring them cooked food, since cooked food lasts three hours.
And the time they would need to help Xu Yuan dig the tunnel was also about three hours.
Fat Cow's group absolutely didn't expect Xu Yuan would actually bring them live pigs.
Seeing this, Fat Cow felt somewhat comforted in his heart.
From this, it could be seen that Xu Yuan was not the kind of person who haggles over every little thing or tries to take advantage of them.
In the Trial Land, giving live pigs versus directly giving food is completely the difference between teaching a man to fish and giving him a fish.
"Looks like we'll have to work hard too!"
After slaughtering two pigs on the spot, Fat Cow and the others penned up the remaining pigs underground. Then, after greeting Xu Yuan, they got to work.
Seeing Fat Cow and his group begin working, Xu Yuan didn't sit idle either. He already had his next plan in mind.
After returning again to the edge of the forest, Xu Yuan carefully explored inward along the outskirts.
This time, the only goal of coming to the forest again was to push the pillagers to arm themselves and occupy the entire forest region.
Xu Yuan clearly knew he had simply been lucky to arrive early in the forest and discovered it was suitable for raising animals.
Also, the Pillagers inside the forest had not yet formed a rapid military force, so Xu Yuan had been able to smoothly build his meat farm.
If other players arrived later, they would surely have the same idea as Xu Yuan.
So Xu Yuan had to arm the Pillagers and secure the forest before other players made contact.
Although Xu Yuan knew that right now it would be impossible to fully militarize the forest, at the very least it needed to look dangerous. Only that way might it scare off players.
To reach that goal was actually simple.
Xu Yuan just needed to slowly approach the Pillagers and let them see him.
From the Pillagers' perspective, they were very aware of their advantages and the advantages of the forest.
Even before they had developed, they had already seen a player step into the forest. This would surely make them alert. Xu Yuan believed they would soon begin deploying.
Xu Yuan slowly explored deeper into the forest. After walking roughly over 100 meters, he finally saw a Pillager seemingly gathering nearby monsters.
'Hm? Gathering monsters? Looks like they are already starting to gather strength and arm themselves…'
Seeing the Pillager's actions, Xu Yuan was surprised, but not shocked. After all, this place was ruled by the King of Pillagers. His strength and sense of the big picture were certainly beyond question.
The Pillagers gathering monsters inside the forest must be to arm the forest.
After all, the number of Pillagers who entered the Trial Land was not large, and right now they had no way to obtain equipment. They could only use the map's resources.
The monsters in the forest didn't have consciousness, but they were naturally hostile toward players. The Pillagers could absolutely turn these monsters into their own fighting force.
While Xu Yuan was thinking, he saw the monsters beside the Pillager start to react.
Since Xu Yuan had already entered the monsters' detection range, they instantly sensed his presence.
They all charged toward Xu Yuan's direction.
The Pillager also naturally noticed Xu Yuan. Seeing Xu Yuan appear suddenly, the Pillager didn't immediately join the monsters to attack. Judging from his eyes, he seemed a bit hesitant.
Seeing he had already drawn the attention of the Pillager, Xu Yuan had achieved his goal.
Seeing the monsters about to attack, Xu Yuan turned around and left.
The Pillager had still been deciding whether to give chase, but unexpectedly, Xu Yuan just left.
However, he didn't feel happy because Xu Yuan left.
"Sakuraas?! (A player invaded already?!)"
In fact, shortly after Xu Yuan first stepped into the forest, the Pillagers had already begun working on arming the forest.
This was naturally an order from the Pillager chief. The chief clearly understood how important they were in the Trial Land.
Whether it was their ability to obtain emeralds or the forest being an ideal farming zone, these two traits would make them the target of all.
The Pillager chief also clearly knew that although this information hadn't yet spread, it was only a matter of time.
To ensure everyone's safety and to win this trial, the Pillager chief had to militarize the forest and their own forces before the news spread.
But currently, arming themselves was still difficult, so they could only arm the forest first.
Fortunately, the forest had the advantage of being in shadow, and many monsters spawned in the area.
The Pillager chief also told his subordinates to gather these monsters as much as possible and temporarily restrict their movements, keeping them trapped.
Basically, they were stockpiling military strength.
Though the monsters wouldn't obey the Pillagers' commands, they were naturally hostile to players. As long as players came near, the monsters would naturally attack.
Although the monsters didn't have high combat power, there were a lot of them.
It wasn't expected they could form a real army, but at least they could cause interference. If players attacked, and monsters were released all at once, it could totally catch the players off guard.
———
After discovering Xu Yuan, the Pillager quickly reported it to the chief.
Hearing the report, the Pillager chief thought for a moment and then issued another order.
"Sakurisarus! Surisaku! (Search the entire forest and bring all animals inside for containment! Continue gathering monsters!)"
From what the Villager said, that player left immediately after spotting them.
Although the chief didn't know what happened at the time, he could at least judge that the player probably had no intent to attack yet.
And according to the Villager, there was only one player.
That most likely ruled out the possibility of it being a scout from a group of players.
After all, exploring a whole area, especially a dangerous one like a forest, would never be assigned to just one person.
Even if they split up, it was unlikely they would split into solo units. So it could be judged that this player probably came for food.
The Pillager chief was also aware of the issue that food rots in the Trial Land. So he gave this new order.
He was still operating by the same principle as with emeralds: he didn't have to use them himself, but he would never let the players benefit.
Rounding up and locking away all the animals in the forest was essentially blocking the players from using this place for food supply.
Also, these animals were natural bait, if players were seen occupying areas near the forest, they could release some at the right time and ambush those players.
The Pillager chief's strategy was indeed clever. In a time of scarce manpower, this method was the simplest way to reduce risk.
But it must also be said, the one who benefited most from this was still Xu Yuan.
At first, Xu Yuan just wanted the Pillagers to arm themselves to prevent other players from using the forest for food.
He didn't expect that the chief would go further and monopolize the food source just like him.
This was undoubtedly the result Xu Yuan most wanted to see.
Although the Trial Land had yet to see a single gun fired, the resource war had already quietly begun.
At this moment, the Trial Land had been open for nearly 11 hours.
According to the rules, every 12 hours, all contestants would be forcibly teleported back to the preparation room to rest for one hour before the trial resumed.
The players were all very clear about this rule.
After these 11 hours, the various factions had already taken shape, and players had done enough exploration and understanding of their zones.
Now, each faction was acting in perfect understanding and had already begun planning what to do after the one-hour pause.
[🎉 Shoutout to—Kearnsy8, Greysubzero, Lanterny, ທ້າວບຸນປະເສີດ, Incapable_Baker, Natthan, Derrick, Farhan, VS, Karnto—for joining patreon. Thank you very much.🤗]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y