Chapter 43

(Listening... (It's not even been half a month, and the word count has already exceeded 100,000. To stay on the charts longer, I have to slow down the updates. After this, I'll update twice a day, and the frequency will depend on the results. If the results are good and staying on the charts doesn't matter anymore, I'll resume updates. At that time, I won't just update three times a day; I'll be willing to update five times a day. In short, please give me your support!))

In a situation where one does not provoke unless provoked, the monsters around Zhou Tian clearly mostly followed such a principle. Seeing that those monsters acted in such a manner, Zhou Tian had great confidence in his plan to annex them.

As long as the method was appropriate, and given that he was currently facing an attack from the Underlord's undead monsters, Zhou Tian believed that even if he made some aggressive moves, the Blood Moon Sect Leader would not be too concerned. Thus, with no one above him to interfere and Zhou Tian himself having a plan, he believed that no one would care if he annexed any of the monster factions, or even if he unified the entire beginner area.

Regarding the annexation of those monster factions, Zhou Tian immediately had an idea: a surprise attack!

It's not that Zhou Tian couldn't defeat those monsters in a direct confrontation. After all, the half-orcs were already among the strongest in the beginner area. If Zhou Tian truly wanted to deal with a particular monster faction, the other side would likely not be able to handle it.

However, Zhou Tian was currently facing a threat from the undead monsters. In such a situation, with a powerful enemy already present, Zhou Tian had no capacity to open another front. Thus, while he could fight, he could not afford to let the conflict drag on. Therefore, in the matter of annexing the monster factions, Zhou Tian could take such actions, but he had to be more cautious in his approach.

In this situation, after carefully reviewing the information on the nearby monster factions, Zhou Tian found the most suitable target for annexation: the beast race monsters.

The beast race monsters were arguably the weakest in the beginner village. Even the half-orcs were stronger than them. While the lower ranks of both races were similar in strength, the half-orcs had a half-orc leader, whereas the beast race monsters only had minor bosses and no leaders or commanders.

The composition of the beast race monsters was quite diverse. In the beginner area, they were widely distributed, and their territory almost covered all areas adjacent to human cities. In terms of territory size, they were the largest among all the monsters.

Of course, as a relatively weak force, the reason the beast race monsters could occupy such a large territory was due to deeper reasons.

The beast race monsters were composed of wolves, leopards, bears, lions, and tigers, with all members ranging from level 5 to 15. With such strength, new players could kill them for experience. Logically, such a race should not have only that much strength and should not have occupied such a large territory.

Ultimately, the current situation arose because the territories of the beast race monsters were too special.

Being close to NPC cities meant that those areas were frequented by a large number of NPCs and players. As a result, it was easy to imagine that the monsters in those areas would often encounter enemies.

Indeed, this was the case. Originally, the beast race monsters' territory should have been strong enough to be considered mid-level monsters. However, due to their special location, a beast race monster rarely survived for more than three days from the moment it appeared until its death. This led to a situation where a monster group that should have been a mid-level force became a low-level one due to excessive casualties. Moreover, because they could not survive a final boss, they lacked effective leadership and high-level combat power, making them even weaker than the half-orcs.

Now that Zhou Tian had set his sights on them, the beast race monsters naturally had no ability to resist, and they might not even try to resist. The best territories had long been divided among other monsters, leaving the beast race monsters with only the least desirable areas. Even the beast race monsters themselves did not care much about these territories. If Zhou Tian wanted to annex their territory, the beast race monsters would likely not even attempt to resist.

Zhou Tian chose this target precisely because of this. If he had chosen another monster faction, a surprise attack would have been risky. Given his current predicament, Zhou Tian could not afford to take risks. If he encountered any more risks, he could easily fail. Therefore, instead of冒险吞并其他势力，周天不如选择这个毫无难度的目标。

当然，周天现在的选择并非完全没有风险。如果他吞并了那些兽族怪物，那么目前这些怪物所面临的困境也将成为周天未来的难题。如果处理不当，这同样会是一个大麻烦。

不过，对于这个问题，周天也有自己的考虑。

从本质上讲，周天与一般的怪物有很大的不同，行事风格方面，周天从不照搬别人的做法。因此，对于其他怪物来说可能有些困难的问题，交到他手里却不成问题。

领地过于靠近NPC城市？

这没有问题，靠近就靠近了，大不了到时候周天占据那些地区后不再派怪物过去就是了。这样不派怪物过去，自然也就不会有损失。

当然，现在那些高级怪物不断派小怪去送死，主要是害怕它们的领地被NPC占据。但在周天看来，这些怪物的做法相当可笑。

几只小怪能起到什么作用？

难道说NPC真的有什么动作，到时候那几只小怪就能阻止他们出兵？显然这种情况是不可能存在的。如果NPC真的敢出兵，那么不要说几只野兽怪物，就算是整个区域的怪物联手也不见得能抵挡得住他们的进攻。

因此，那些小怪的存在在周天看来，不过是用来表态和监视那些NPC的探子。

如果周天将那片区域空出来，NPC一方即使想要有所动作，也不是一两天内就能展开的。给周天一段时间，等他缓过劲来后，到时候如何处理这件事，他将有更多的选择。

心动了自然就会行动，周天做事从来不会拖泥带水。当他心中有了这个想法后，二话不说便对那些兽族怪物动手了。

事情的发展也基本如周天所计划的那样，当他们半兽人一族出兵后，面对他们的进攻，那些野兽怪物根本就没有抵抗，几乎周天他们打到哪里，那些野兽怪物就在那个时候主动让出那片地盘。这样一番操作，让周天轻松拿下了大量领地。

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(If he had chosen to annex other factions, Zhou Tian might as well choose this target with no difficulty.)

Of course, Zhou Tian's current choice was not without risk. If he annexed the beast race monsters, the current difficulties those monsters faced would also become Zhou Tian's future problems. If mishandled, this could also be a significant issue.

However, Zhou Tian had his own considerations for this problem.

Fundamentally, Zhou Tian was very different from ordinary monsters, and his approach to things was never a copy of others. Therefore, what might be a difficult problem for other monsters was not a problem for him.

Too close to NPC cities?

This was not a problem. If the territory was too close, Zhou Tian could simply not send monsters there after occupying the area. This way, there would be no losses.

Of course, the reason the high-level monsters continuously sent small monsters to their deaths was their fear that their territories would be occupied by NPCs. However, from Zhou Tian's perspective, this was quite ridiculous.

What could a few small monsters accomplish?

If the NPCs really took action, could a few small monsters stop them from sending troops? Clearly, this was impossible. If the NPCs dared to send troops, even the combined forces of all the monsters in the area might not be able to resist their attack.

Therefore, in Zhou Tian's view, the existence of those small monsters was merely a way to make a statement and monitor the NPCs.

If Zhou Tian left that area empty, even if the NPCs wanted to take action, it would not happen in a day or two. Giving Zhou Tian some time, once he recovered, he would have more options for handling the situation.

Once he was motivated, he would act. Zhou Tian never hesitated when he had a plan. After he had this idea, he immediately took action against the beast race monsters.

The development of events was largely as Zhou Tian had planned. When the half-orcs launched their attack, the beast race monsters did not resist. Almost wherever Zhou Tian's forces went, the beast race monsters would voluntarily give up that territory. This approach allowed Zhou Tian to easily annex a large amount of territory.

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