[Main World, Inside the End Stronghold]
After Pengpeng received the information Black Blade sent about Notch, he immediately came to the stronghold.
After arriving at the stronghold, he searched all over for quite a while before finally finding Steve.
Seeing that Steve was the only one standing there, Pengpeng couldn't help feeling a bit confused, and quickly went forward to ask.
"Where did everyone go?"
Although this wasn't Pengpeng and Steve's first time meeting, this could be considered the first time the two of them met while standing on the same side.
Pengpeng didn't bother with any small talk with Steve at all. He didn't even greet him before going straight to the main topic.
Seeing this, Steve couldn't help teasing.
"Which 'person' are you asking about?"
"As far as I know, the only actual 'person' right now is the one standing in front of you."
It had to be said, Steve's words really sounded quite reasonable at first hearing. Among Xu Yuan's men… the ones who could truly be called "people" did seem to only include Steve.
Steve's answer was indeed a bit outside of Pengpeng's expectations. Pengpeng hadn't interacted with Steve many times, but in his impression, Steve was the extremely upright, righteous type.
He didn't expect Steve to have this kind of side in private.
Hearing Steve's words, Pengpeng raised his eyebrows and teased with a smile.
"If the Ender Queen heard you say that, you wouldn't get away unscathed."
Seeing this, Steve looked toward Pengpeng and smiled.
"Don't you go tattling behind my back!"
———
After joking around for a while, their relationship quickly became more familiar.
Seeing that Pengpeng seemed to have something to report, Steve asked him.
"Is it something urgent?"
"They're all in the Item Dimension right now."
"If it's urgent, I can go in and call them."
After everyone received recognition from their respective weapons earlier, Steve had them start figuring out how to enter the Item Dimension.
To enter the Item Dimension, obtaining the weapon's recognition was only the first step, and the most important one.
After gaining recognition, you needed to resonate with the weapon in order to open the Item Dimension.
Resonating with a weapon required complete concentration. In the past, this was pretty easy for Xu Yuan's people.
But with the current situation so chaotic, and with their prior review showing that things were clearly unfavorable to Xu Yuan's side, everyone's hearts were unsettled. It was hard to fully concentrate.
Although after some practice everyone had managed to successfully enter the Item Dimension, they still wanted to practice more.
After all, for them, this was currently the only thing they could actually do.
Hearing Steve's words, Pengpeng shook his head.
"It's not exactly urgent. Let's wait until they come out."
Although Pengpeng was going to report about Notch's situation, it was only information from within the Trial Grounds. It wouldn't affect the main world too much for now, so it wasn't that urgent.
Everyone was busy with more important things at the moment, so there was no need to call them out.
Hearing this, Steve nodded.
"I heard Black Blade already trained Grayfist into total obedience?"
Although Steve had long left the Trial Grounds, he had still heard bits and pieces of news.
After all, Steve's subordinates were still inside. Whenever the Trial Grounds paused, they would report the situation to Steve.
Naturally, Steve had heard about Black Blade storming into Grayfist's camp alone and effortlessly subduing Grayfist, a glorious feat.
But he had only heard the one-sided accounts from his subordinate players, who said that Grayfist seemed like a completely different person at the time.
Steve was a bit curious as to what exactly happened. Since he was free at the moment, asking for some gossip wasn't a bad idea.
Hearing Steve's words, Pengpeng thought for a moment, then suddenly seemed to remember something.
"Right, there really was something like that…"
"Black Blade did mention it. He said Grayfist acknowledged him as his teacher, something like he's already taken Grayfist as his little brother?…"
"I thought he was making it up. Don't tell me it's true?…"
Black Blade had always been the quiet type. Most things he summarized in just one sentence. This time, when reporting the Trial Grounds' progress to Pengpeng, he casually mentioned it as well.
Pengpeng had been focused on the Notch matter, so he didn't pay attention back then.
With Steve bringing it up, he now remembered it was indeed mentioned.
Hearing Pengpeng's words, Steve's eyes lit up, wearing the expression of someone who'd just gotten juicy gossip.
"Tut-tut-tut, who would've thought? Black Blade actually bragged about something like that?"
But at this moment, while Steve was happily eating up the gossip, he didn't realize that he himself had become a target of Pengpeng's gossiping.
Seeing the excitement on Steve's face, Pengpeng muttered inwardly, 'Didn't expect the famous Steve to be interested in this kind of thing?'
Seeing that Steve was quite interested in Black Blade's affairs, Pengpeng thought for a moment and then spoke.
"Don't be fooled by how cold and indifferent Black Blade looks, acting like he doesn't care about anything, he's actually super secretly emotional."
"Black Blade wasn't among the earliest people to follow me. If you count it, he should be part of the third group to join."
"Although he joined relatively late, he was the first, other than me, to obtain the King's power."
"For those of us who follow the King, obtaining the King's power is equivalent to receiving his acknowledgment. Anyone would be excited…"
Saying this, Pengpeng looked at Steve and asked, "You can understand that, right?"
Hearing this, Steve clearly smelled gossip. He nodded vigorously.
"I understand! I understand!"
Then, with his face full of anticipation, he looked at Pengpeng.
"And then? And then?"
Seeing Steve's expression, Pengpeng held back laughter and continued.
"Black Blade didn't show any excitement back then. He didn't try to show off. He acted like nothing had happened."
"But…"
"For that period of time, he was unusually active… joining every event, squeezing himself into crowds whenever he could…"
"He used to never participate in team activity planning, I was always the one making the plans, but afterward, he took the initiative to propose adding a new event, 'discussion meetings.'"
"The idea was for those who had already gained the King's power to share their experience with the others…"
After speaking, Pengpeng feared Steve might not get the implication, so he was just about to explain when,
"Pfft!"
That sound naturally came from Steve, who at this moment was laughing so hard his tears were almost coming out.
"So that's what Black Blade is like, hahahahahaha!!!"