Minecraft: I Am The Demon King

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan added one more line, "After finishing this matter, I will consider a deeper level of cooperation. Naturally, the reward will also be more generous."

This added sentence from Xu Yuan, judging by the current situation, was actually drawing a pie in the sky.

But if deeper cooperation could be achieved, that meant Fat Cow and his group were trustworthy.

If they successfully helped Xu Yuan build the trade chain, then the rewards Xu Yuan would give them would naturally be more generous.

After hearing Xu Yuan's words, Fat Cow couldn't help but be a little stunned. He never expected that Xu Yuan would have them do something like this.

Xu Yuan's request also made Fat Cow start to feel curious about what exactly he was preparing to do.

Fat Cow naturally wouldn't simply think that digging tunnels was just for convenience of travel, Xu Yuan definitely had other intentions for doing this.

While Fat Cow was still thinking, the teammates on the side had already begun discussing.

"Did I hear wrong? He said the reward is enough food supply?..."

"Is he bluffing? We are five people, just in one day we use up quite a bit of food. And digging tunnels makes the hunger value drop pretty fast too. Where would he get that much food to supply us?..."

"Did he stockpile a lot of food? That's not right either, food rots. Could it be he caught a lot of animals?..."

"…"

Hearing the teammates' discussion, Fat Cow thought for a moment, then asked Xu Yuan, "Where does the tunnel start, and where does it lead?"

As for the condition Xu Yuan gave, Fat Cow was undoubtedly tempted. After all, what they lacked the most right now was food. But they also didn't want to work for nothing just for food.

Fat Cow and his group's final destination was to join up with a top-tier player like Steve.

Before they figured out where those top players were, they naturally also had to explore the map bit by bit.

If Xu Yuan's task didn't conflict with their plan, then they could consider it.

Xu Yuan thought for a moment, then said, "First connect this grassland area to the forest area. Just go for the shortest straight-line distance."

Xu Yuan roughly estimated that if the five of them split up and acted separately, they could probably finish connecting this area in about 3 hours.

For them, that workload wasn't too large.

Solving the most troublesome food problem in three hours, this should be quite a cost-effective trade for them.

After hearing Xu Yuan's words, Fat Cow thought for a moment, then looked at his teammates behind him.

"Looks like the workload isn't too big?..."

"If we split into two teams and dig together, it should be done in 2–3 hours, right?..."

"2–3 hours in exchange for sufficient food… seems workable?"

"True. If we went to look for food ourselves, 2–3 hours might even give negative returns…"

Seeing that none of the teammates objected, Fat Cow also nodded and looked at Xu Yuan, saying, "We'll take this job."

After Fat Cow agreed, he was just about to say something, but was interrupted by Xu Yuan.

"I'll send some food over later as a deposit. I'll deliver it in about an hour. You guys get ready first and start work as soon as possible."

What Fat Cow was about to talk about was indeed the matter of food. Right now they were facing an emergency food shortage, and he was a bit worried Xu Yuan would wait until after the work was done before paying the reward.

Hearing Xu Yuan say this, Fat Cow was finally relieved.

"Alright."

After finishing the discussion with Fat Cow, Xu Yuan returned along the original path back to the forest area to begin preparations.

Things on Xu Yuan's side were progressing fairly smoothly. Everything was developing in an orderly and steady manner.

———

At this moment inside the Trial Grounds, Xu Yuan's other two strong competitors, Tyrant HIM and Annoying village HIM, were also making decent progress.

After the Trial Grounds opened, Xu Yuan entered the Trial Grounds with the identity of a player. He originally thought Tyrant HIM and Annoying village HIM would be the same as him.

But in reality, that wasn't the case.

What no one expected was that Tyrant HIM's identity in the Trial Grounds was actually a zombie. More accurately, it was a zombie that used the appearance of HIM from "Fracture."

Tyrant HIM appeared in the Trial Grounds as a monster's clone.

In fact, the reason the real HIM arranged this was to maintain fairness.

Xu Yuan had always lived in this world, he was very familiar with this world and understood all the factions very well. So no matter what identity Xu Yuan entered the Trial Grounds with, he could easily adapt.

And Xu Yuan had already long since built up his own power. Although everyone started on equal footing when entering the Trial Grounds, as someone who had already survived in this world for a long time, Xu Yuan definitely had a huge advantage.

Since the real HIM wanted to ensure fairness, he naturally couldn't allow the other two contestants from different worlds to start off in a disadvantaged state.

Tyrant HIM, in his original world, was the leader of the undead faction. He had always ruled the world alongside his undead monster followers.

The way monsters think is naturally different from how players think.

Tyrant HIM had just come to this world and wasn't familiar with it. If he were made to participate in the Trial Grounds as a player, it would obviously be unfair to him.

For the sake of fairness, the real HIM let Tyrant HIM appear with a monster identity.

As for the real HIM's arrangements, Tyrant HIM himself was actually quite satisfied. He didn't need to adapt to anything and quickly found his footing.

Someone like Tyrant HIM already had strong leadership ability. Naturally, he quickly gathered a group of conscious monsters willing to follow him.

Right now, Tyrant HIM had already found a place to settle down. He and his monster followers were currently living in the underground mines of the plains region.

But they didn't plan to stay there for long.

Tyrant HIM had great ambitions, he naturally wanted to lead all the monsters in the Trial Grounds. So their next goal was to quickly find more monsters and expand the monster faction.

———

If Tyrant HIM's identity was unexpected, then Annoying village HIM's identity was downright shocking.

Annoying village HIM's identity in the Trial Grounds was actually a villager.

Yes, you read that right, a villager.

In fact, Annoying village HIM's identity wasn't even confirmed until after the Trial Grounds opened.

Because the developments in the main world were something the real HIM hadn't predicted. He didn't expect the Villager Kingdom to be taken over by the Void. And he also didn't expect that only Mustard from the villager faction would enter the Trial Grounds.

It was precisely this unexpected situation that made Mustard, the lone representative of the villager faction, extremely important.

Originally, the real HIM had set it up so that each villager had a defined profession that couldn't be casually changed.

But that system only worked if there was a certain number of villagers participating in the Trial Grounds. If there was only Mustard alone, then using that system would make things far too difficult for the villager faction.

While the real HIM could create conscious villagers inside the Trial Grounds, that action would be meaningless.

Villagers with awareness created within the Trial Grounds wouldn't belong to the main world, making their roles very awkward.

Mustard would have no bond with those villagers, and they couldn't form a real force together.

Creating villagers like that wouldn't push the Trial forward, instead, it could cause all kinds of hidden problems.

But if the only conscious villager in the Trial Grounds was Mustard, then the overall situation would become, whoever wins over Mustard, wins the world.

What's more, Mustard didn't have any combat ability. Even if he could ally with the animal faction, the strength would still be too weak.

That still wouldn't simulate the current situation in the main world, where the villager faction held real power.

So the real HIM gave Annoying village HIM the identity of a villager.

As for Annoying village HIM's strength, it goes without saying. Even without any special powers, Annoying village HIM's gameplay and skills were top-tier.

As long as he had enough gear to support him, he alone was an entire army.

The real HIM was basically using Annoying village HIM to make up for the villager faction's lack of combat strength.

Actually, all these arrangements made by the real HIM were for one ultimate goal, balance.

Tyrant HIM, Annoying village HIM, and Xu Yuan were the candidates favored by the real HIM. He knew clearly that all three were very powerful.

If all three were placed in the player faction, even if the real HIM made many tweaks to the Trial Grounds to connect all the factions, with the ability of Tyrant HIM, Annoying village HIM, and Xu Yuan, they would definitely each form a dominant power.

In the end, it would likely turn into a civil war within the player faction.

Then what would be the point of the real HIM creating the Trial Grounds?

His ultimate goal was for the different factions to find a point of balance and achieve peace. So each faction needed someone powerful enough to balance out the others.

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