Chapter 42

First, Zhou Tian dealt with the issue of manpower. Given the current situation of the half-orc clan, it could be said that their number of members was relatively small. Originally, Zhou Tian had planned to address this issue after annexing the Skeleton Clan, but he did not expect that such a change would occur.

Now, for one, their clan members were already too few, and secondly, there was also the need to compete with those undead monsters. Zhou Tian needed to solve the issue of manpower first. Only with sufficient troops would Zhou Tian have the capital to fight against those undead monsters.

And getting enough troops was not a difficult task.

As long as enough NPCs or players were killed, the Blood Moon Overlord would most likely send new members to their clan after the players or NPCs were killed. Being in Zhou Tian's current position, as long as he had the intention, he did not need to worry about who took action. As long as he planned well and made his subordinates, the half-orcs, earn credit, the troops rewarded would naturally be under his control.

In that situation, Zhou Tian naturally targeted the players without hesitation.

Why target players? Naturally, it was because Zhou Tian had more advantages when fighting players. Although killing NPCs was less troublesome, as a force that had been opposing monsters for many years, one could imagine how strong they were. Zhou Tian had to exert a lot of effort to deal with a single village back then. Now, with a powerful enemy nearby, Zhou Tian did not need to provoke such an opponent.

Thus, compared to NPCs, dealing with players became Zhou Tian's best choice.

First, Zhou Tian could use his abilities to maximize the numerical advantage of the monster side. With the help of ambushes, as long as the players' strength was not too outrageous, they would hardly have a chance to turn the tide when encountering Zhou Tian.

Moreover, players did not stick together as much as NPCs. After dealing with a group of players, although retaliation would come, it would not be from the entire player community. In this way, targeting just a part of the players, Zhou Tian could focus on them as his main targets.

Finding targets was not difficult.

Although players were not easily seen by the natives of this world, due to the large number of players in the game, Zhou Tian quickly found a few groups of players who had come to the half-orc territory to fight monsters.

Naturally, there were no surprises afterward. Zhou Tian did not even need to show up; with just a few minor tricks, those players were all killed by the half-orcs under Zhou Tian's command.

Thus, things ultimately progressed as Zhou Tian wished. After a team of players died, the guild to which those players belonged would naturally send people to deal with Zhou Tian. However, due to Zhou Tian's numerous advantages, no matter how many people the player guild sent to their territory, they all ended up being completely wiped out.

However, what surprised Zhou Tian was the players' reaction.

In most games, when a guild and a BOSS had a grudge, unless the strength difference was too great or someone stole the kill, most player guilds would still organize people to kill that BOSS. This was to unite their guild members and to obtain equipment from the BOSS.

But in this case, even though Zhou Tian did not show too much strength, the player guild gave up after a few losses. This situation forced Zhou Tian to cancel many of his plans prematurely.

After killing those players, Zhou Tian did not expect that the Blood Moon Overlord would not give him any other rewards. All the credit he earned was directly converted into the maximum number of troops.

When Zhou Tian took over the new half-orcs, he immediately understood what was happening, and for a moment, he did not know what to think.

Clearly, the Blood Moon Overlord was already aware of Zhou Tian's situation. What Zhou Tian could not understand was that although the Blood Moon Overlord was not as strong as the Nether Lord, he was certainly not weaker. With the current situation of the two territories being adjacent, could the Blood Moon Overlord really pretend nothing had happened? Or did the Blood Moon Overlord and the Nether Lord have some kind of understanding from the beginning, or was Zhou Tian's situation merely a small bet in their eyes?

Regardless of which situation, it was not what Zhou Tian liked. However, with his current low status, even if he saw this as a chess game, he was just a pawn on the board. Instead of thinking about how to become a chess player or eliminate the chess player, it was better to think about how to strengthen his own power.

With this thought, Zhou Tian began to think hard about ways to develop.

In terms of adaptability, Zhou Tian might be quite poor, but given enough time to consider, he was not bad at coming up with schemes.

After annexing a Skeleton Cave, Zhou Tian's half-orc clan could now be considered one of the strong races in the beginner area. In this situation, Zhou Tian was quite confident in expanding his influence.

It must be said that although high-level monsters were difficult to deal with, the monsters in the beginner villages were not much of a match for Zhou Tian.

The main issue was that the intelligence of the monsters near Zhou Tian was too low. Given what Zhou Tian had done, the monsters should have been more alert. After all, Zhou Tian had already annexed the Skeleton Clan, his ally. If he really had his eyes on their territory, how could he possibly let them off?

But even in that situation, the monsters near Zhou Tian continued to live their lives as usual, as if nothing had happened. Based on their behavior, if Zhou Tian did not provoke them, they would not start a war.