Hearing Fat Cow's words, Yoyo reluctantly agreed with his reasoning, and then asked Fat Cow, "You can understand their language?"
This one question from Yoyo instantly stumped Fat Cow, leaving him petrified on the spot.
After a long silence, Fat Cow let out a heavy sigh and said, "We'll just deal with it when the time comes…"
———
[The Outskirts of the Forest]
After Annoying Village HIM had laid out the offensive plan, the Iron Golems also took their positions one after another.
One portion of the Iron Golems spread out around the outer edges of the forest, roughly encircling the entire forest area, slowly pressing toward the inside.
Another portion of the Iron Golems, as planned, began climbing up toward the treetops.
They were agile and quick, moving upward as if walking on level ground.
However, just as they were climbing with full effort, an unexpected ambush suddenly struck.
All kinds of "hidden weapons" poured down from all directions like a curtain of rain.
These "hidden weapons" were all sorts of things, half-bricks, stones, sticks, buttons… even watermelon rinds.
Although these "hidden weapons" didn't seem very lethal, in this fully holographic game world, any item could cause damage to a character.
At this moment, the climbing Iron Golems were like criminals paraded through the streets, suffering attacks from all kinds of unknown objects coming at them from every direction.
"Who is attacking us?!!"
"Could it be the Pillagers discovered us?!"
"What do we do now? If we leave it alone, we'll just become living targets, won't we?!"
Facing this sudden mishap, the Iron Golems fell into chaos. At this point, they couldn't advance or retreat.
If they let these "hidden weapons" keep hitting them like this, no matter how thick their health bars, they'd be slowly whittled down.
At this moment, all the Iron Golems turned their gaze toward Annoying Village HIM.
Obviously, Annoying Village HIM hadn't been able to avoid the sneak attack of these "hidden weapons" either.
While dodging nimbly from the rain of "hidden weapons" crashing toward him, he observed the whole situation.
"Players?"
"Coming for me?"
Seeing those "hidden weapons," Annoying Village HIM was already certain that the ones ambushing them must be players.
As for why these players suddenly attacked, the most likely reason was because of his villager identity.
But what was strange was, in the current situation, the players were in the dark, while the Iron Golems were in the open.
This was clearly the best moment for the players to launch a full attack.
And also, the players seemed to hold some hostility toward the Void as well.
They clearly could have taken this chance to strike down those Iron Golems.
Yet these players hadn't used any high-damage weapons.
Among all these "hidden weapons," not even a single arrow could be found.
Logically speaking, the players had developed for this long, they couldn't possibly not even have arrows.
Thinking of this, Annoying Village HIM found it all the more strange.
'Saving resources?…'
'No… if they were coming for me, they would definitely go all out to kill these Iron Golems…'
'What they're doing is… delaying for time?…'
———
Behind a small grassy slope on the southwest outskirts of the forest, a group of scattered players kept throwing all sorts of junk they didn't need from their backpacks at the Iron Golems up in the trees, while muttering under their breath.
"When these Iron Golems climb the trees, they're just sitting ducks! Such a good chance, why won't the boss let us use bows and arrows?"
"Yeah, didn't he say we should protect the Pillagers? If we kill those Iron Golems, wouldn't that protect them?"
"Exactly, isn't the boss working with HIM? These Iron Golems are clearly from the Void, and HIM's always been fighting the Void, right?"
"It all happened so suddenly, the boss couldn't decide on his own, maybe he couldn't just rush to conclusions either?…"
This group of scattered players were, of course, from Fat Cow's faction.
The task Fat Cow had given them was to disrupt the Iron Golems, but he had not given the order to kill them.
Just as the players were discussing, in such a sudden situation, though they were facing Void's Iron Golems, even with the upper hand in attack, Fat Cow didn't rashly order them to kill.
After all, Fat Cow still didn't know the identity of that villager leading the Iron Golems, nor why the Iron Golems would obey a villager.
So before clarifying the situation, all he could do was provide a cautious response plan.
Although the players couldn't figure out exactly what Fat Cow was thinking, they still followed orders.
After disrupting the Iron Golems' actions, they quickly shifted positions, hiding in the dark to continue observing the Iron Golems' movements.
———
The events unfolding at this moment left Annoying Village HIM feeling extremely bizarre and confused.
He really couldn't figure out what these players were trying to do. Their actions were unpredictable. Yet the current situation was urgent, leaving him no time to think too much about the reasons.
Because they were now at a clear disadvantage, the players were hidden, while they themselves were fully exposed.
If he tried to carry out the plan from earlier, the players would surely do everything to stop it.
Obviously, the plan to enter the forest from above was no longer viable.
Even though he noticed the players didn't seem to have killing intent, they were already fully exposed. No matter what they did, the players would interfere.
The most important thing now was to reverse this passive position, to change the disadvantage of players in the dark, themselves in the light.
Only by disappearing from the players' sight could there be a chance to plan the next move.
Thinking this, Annoying Village HIM kept dodging the occasional "hidden weapons" flying his way, while decisively giving the order for all Iron Golems to retreat into the forest depths.
"Everyone enter the forest! Go underground!"
"Rendezvous at coordinates (xxx,xxx,xx)!"
Annoying Village HIM naturally knew that having all the Iron Golems enter the forest would surely alert the Pillagers.
He wasn't foolish, so he didn't send them deep inside. Instead, once they stepped into the forest, he ordered them to temporarily conceal themselves underground, then gather at an underground location.
After arranging everything, Annoying Village HIM led the way into the underground forest area.
At this moment, while the Iron Golems hadn't yet regrouped, Annoying Village HIM kept thinking rapidly as he waited.
'Their actions just now… were clearly to delay our attack plan…'
'Why delay?…'
'Waiting for reinforcements?…'
'No… they were already in the advantage, no need to wait for reinforcements…'
'Their actions seem to be protecting the Pillagers…'
'But stopping our attack is already the best protection, isn't it?…'
'What exactly are they trying to do?!'
"…"
Annoying Village HIM's mind was spinning rapidly. That scene just now nearly fried his CPU.
He just couldn't figure out why the players acted this way.
In fact, from the moment the players appeared, Annoying Village HIM had already been suspicious.
These sudden intruders had actually managed to intercept his plan at the exact moment he launched it.
This meant that these players must have been secretly watching this forest the whole time.
Their purpose wasn't hard to guess, it was most likely for the Pillagers.
Annoying Village HIM had even thought, could it be the Pillagers had already fallen into the players' hands?
But thinking carefully, the answer was obviously no.
If that were true, the players had no need to stop him from entering the forest.
Normally, players wouldn't choose to settle in such a dark place prone to monster spawns.
If they really had captured the Pillagers, they'd have moved them somewhere safer. Then why would they fear an empty forest being attacked?
If it was just an empty shell of a forest, there'd be no point in blocking it.
But if the Pillagers hadn't yet fallen into the players' hands, then the players' attack made sense.
Maybe because the forest was so complicated, the players were still working out their own plan of attack.
Then Annoying Village HIM's group just happened to beat them to it.
Annoying Village HIM had been observing closely, based on the "hidden weapons" thrown, he could roughly judge the number of players.
It wasn't a large group. And the accuracy of those "hidden weapons" was pretty average.
It was clear enough, the players' strength wasn't very high.
The reason they didn't use lethal weapons was probably because they wanted to save resources to deal with the Pillagers later.
With their strength, facing the Pillagers was already tough enough. Now another group of strong Iron Golems showed up trying to steal the prize.
So, that stance of theirs was very likely just a bluff, to scare Annoying Village HIM into backing off.
Though this explanation was weak, Annoying Village HIM really couldn't think of another reason.
Even though Annoying Village HIM still couldn't untangle the relationship between the players and the Pillagers, one thing he could confirm.
The Pillagers must still be inside the forest.
Even with this little hiccup, the players didn't pose much of a threat to him.
At most, they were just like pesky flies buzzing around, unable to stir up a real storm.
Now that he and the Iron Golems had gone underground into the forest, the players couldn't do anything to them.
Once the Pillagers were dealt with, he could deal with the players later.
The priority now was to quickly adjust strategy and prepare to face the Pillagers.
'Looks like I'll have to make a new plan…'
Though Annoying Village HIM still hadn't completely figured out the situation here, since he had come, he was determined to capture the Pillagers.
For him, this move was like an arrow already on the string, he had no choice but to release it. It was a step with no retreat, a decisive battle by the river.
After all, the trial grounds had been ongoing for so long, and all other factions were secretly competing and rapidly developing.
Now Annoying Village HIM held a powerful army, strong in force. But if he wanted to achieve a true transformation in military strength, he had to firmly grasp the Pillagers.
If he failed to capture them, then with his current military state, it would be hard to last until the final battle.
Therefore, even though the best chance to capture them had already been missed, he still had to do everything to plan the next move.
Just as Annoying Village HIM was racking his brain over the follow-up plan, the Iron Golems began arriving one after another, gathering together in this place.
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