Hearing HIM's words, Entity 303 was thinking, but was interrupted by HIM.
"You just said that you originally did not belong to this world. This means that you have always regarded yourself as an outsider."
Saying this, HIM gave Entity 303 a meaningful look and said, "Only when you no longer see yourself as an outsider can you truly understand what you really want."
Hearing HIM's words, Entity 303 was momentarily stunned. He immediately felt as if he had been awakened from a dream with a single sentence.
Just as HIM said, Entity 303 had always considered himself an outsider. Even though he had already traveled to this world, he never thought that he belonged to it.
It was only after HIM said those words that Entity 303 finally realized that he must integrate into this world. If he always kept himself out of it, he would never find his goal or faith.
Even if HIM told him what the next objective was, he would only follow orders and carry them out. Everything he did would just be completing a mission, nothing more.
"Looks like I have to start trying to integrate into this world first..." This could be considered Entity 303's current goal. Only by truly integrating into this world would he know what to do next.
———
At this moment, more than an hour had passed since the Divine Realm Competition dungeon had begun.
The grasslands outside the Divine Realm Competition had just experienced a bloody battle, and the same was true inside.
Within the Divine Realm dungeon, at the very center of the floating island's sky, a massive hot air balloon made of blocks hovered.
Hanging below the hot air balloon was a display screen made of redstone lamps. The top row of numbers on the screen showed the time players had spent in the dungeon.
The bottom row of numbers displayed the current number of players on the island. At the beginning of the dungeon, the number of players had reached five digits.
At this moment, the timer on the screen showed one hour, three minutes, and six seconds.
Meanwhile, the number below had already dwindled to just two digits. In just one hour, tens of thousands of players had perished on this dreamlike floating island.
And at this moment, the competition had entered its white-hot stage.
———
On a plain somewhere on the floating island.
Steve glanced up at the player count displayed on the hot air balloon floating above the center of the island, then turned to Grayfist and said, "There are only 17 people left on the island. The ones who have survived until now are not ordinary. We need a plan."
After forming an alliance, Steve and Grayfist had stuck to their agreement and cooperated until now.
Fighting their way to this point, both were somewhat exhausted. In fact, it was partly their own fault. They had drawn too much attention at the entrance of the Divine Realm Competition, exposing their strength.
As a result, they became the public enemies of the other players.
Whenever multiple factions encountered them, the other players would temporarily join forces to attack them together.
Although Steve and Grayfist were among the top-tier players, the ones who had entered the Divine Realm Competition were no pushovers either.
Even though they had won their previous battles, all of their teammates had perished.
Now, only the two of them remained. Their supplies had also been significantly depleted.
Although only 17 players remained on the island besides them, those who had survived had been filtered through layer after layer of brutal elimination.
They were no longer the weaklings from the beginning. If they encountered multiple factions attacking together again, Steve and Grayfist might not be able to win.
Previously, the two had mainly focused on gathering supplies and had no concrete plans. Now, it was time to seriously consider their next move.
Hearing Steve's words, Grayfist, who was sitting and recovering health, glanced into his inventory.
Inside his bag, he still had half a stack of bread, five cooked steaks, and over ten ender pearls. A slightly worn enchanted iron sword with a third of its durability left, an enchanted golden axe with only a sliver of durability remaining, and some blocks and slabs.
The enchanted diamond sword in his hand still had half its durability left. After thinking for a moment, Grayfist finally spoke. "I don't have much left, and my food supply is low..."
"What about you?"
Hearing Grayfist's words, Steve coldly sneered in his heart. 'So he's already starting to calculate against me?'
Although Steve had allied with Grayfist, he had never fully trusted him. He had always kept an eye on Grayfist's every move. Since they had always been together, Steve had been silently keeping track of how much Grayfist had gathered and used.
Though he couldn't precisely determine how much Grayfist still had, he had a rough estimate.
Grayfist's inventory was still fairly stocked—definitely not as depleted as he claimed. It was obvious that Grayfist was hiding his resources in preparation for an eventual battle between them.
Steve wasn't a fool either—he certainly wouldn't expose him.
Thinking this, Steve put on a troubled expression and said, "Mm... I'm in the same situation. So what should we do next?"
Hearing Steve's response, Grayfist, that old fox, also sneered inwardly. 'The so-called 'righteous' Steve, huh?'
Grayfist wasn't stupid. Although he was the one who proposed the alliance, he had always prioritized his own interests above all.
He knew very well that in the end, the Divine Realm Competition would likely come down to a battle between him and Steve.
The two were evenly matched, and victory would depend entirely on their remaining resources. That was why he had suggested the alliance—to deal with their many enemies.
But another reason was to keep a close watch on Steve's inventory. That way, he would be more prepared when the inevitable fight came.
Naturally, along the way, he had also been keeping track of Steve's inventory. Hearing Steve also conceal his supplies, Grayfist slowly stood up, shrugged, and said, "Since we're both low on supplies, let's find a hidden spot to lay low for now?"
To prevent players from hiding indefinitely, the official rules made the island's ground indestructible. So digging down to hide wasn't an option.
Additionally, staying in one place for too long would cause continuous health loss. So the only way to hide was to keep moving from spot to spot.
At this point, their schemes had essentially become open secrets. Whether to expose the truth or not depended on each of their choices.
For now, Grayfist preferred stability and wanted to maintain surface-level peace. After all, if they turned against each other now, even if he defeated Steve, he would still have to face 17 other top players.
His chances of winning would be slim. He wasn't willing to take that risk.
Steve thought for a moment after hearing Grayfist's suggestion. Although he had already seen through Grayfist, now wasn't the time to confront him.
If he wanted to kill Grayfist, he would have to expend a lot of resources, only to then face over ten other players with depleted supplies.
His chances of winning would be low.
Thinking this, Steve made the same choice as Grayfist. "Alright."
Even though both knew each other's intentions, they tacitly chose not to expose them.
Just as they were about to leave the plains, a sudden chill ran down their spines. Almost instinctively, their muscles reacted, and they rolled in opposite directions.
Two whistling swords stabbed into the blocks where they had just been standing.
Landing safely, they immediately turned around.
A group of players was surrounding them. There were 17 of them in total.
Leading them was a player with the ID "Black Blade"...
Seeing Black Blade leading 16 players appearing in front, Steve and Grayfist were both somewhat surprised.
"HIM also got involved?!"
"These 17 people are probably all sent by HIM… This battle will be hard to fight…"
Both of them never expected that the remaining 17 people actually belonged to the same front.
Steve and Grayfist naturally both knew Black Blade. Although Black Blade was granted power by HIM after Pengpeng, his fame was not lower than Pengpeng's, and gradually even had a trend of surpassing Pengpeng.
Mainly because Black Blade's skills were good. While having top-tier operation, he was also granted power by HIM. When Black Blade was still a zombie player, he had made quite a few expert players suffer losses.
As long as he appeared on the zombie faction's side, it could be described as crushing everything in his path. Basically, the ultimate goal of the players in the zombie faction was to become the next Black Blade.
This was enough to see his status in the eyes of the zombie players.
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