Chapter 9: Take Action Again

"I didn't expect there to be a village even in such a place. As I recall from the game, this location only had a mission NPC! It seems that the shabby novice villages from the game are probably not as shabby in this world." After taking a good look at the village made up of nearly ten thousand NPCs in the not so far distance, Zhou Tian led his team of beastman warriors and slowly retreated.

Having discovered the NPC gathering point, he had already achieved his goal. Zhou Tian didn't think that with his power he could pose any real threat to the NPC village. Knowing this, Zhou Tian naturally decided not to disturb those NPCs.

Afterwards, once he had quietly memorized the NPC village's location in his heart, Zhou Tian led his beastman warriors back into their territory.

"Achievements, rewards!" As Zhang Tian expected, even though killing those NPCs wasn't a significant achievement, when he returned to his territory, the beastman leader still sent people to reward him.

Everything was as Zhou Tian had predicted. For the monster side, the fastest way to increase military power besides regular accumulation was by accomplishing merit. Zhou Tian had only killed about a dozen NPC soldiers, but upon returning to his territory, the beastman leader had sent him nearly two hundred beastman warriors. With such a large influx of beastman warriors joining his camp, the military power under Zhou Tian's command had instantly doubled.

After sending away the envoy from the beastman leader, Zhou Tian began to eagerly inspect the new beastman warriors he'd acquired.

Unlike other beastman warriors, upon receiving new troops, Zhou Tian didn't let them just patrol around the territory.

Other beastman warriors sent their troops everywhere across their territories because they weren't very intelligent and it was the only way they knew to detect the presence of enemies.

However, with Zhou Tian's wisdom, he naturally wouldn't do something so self-destructive.

Since becoming a beastman warrior, Zhou Tian had evolved once, but his strength was not considered strong among all beastman warriors. Under such circumstances, he had to act cautiously. If he were to face an enemy attack, and not have enough strength at hand, he might risk losing his life.

Therefore, except for a small number of beastman warriors sent towards the NPC village to keep guard, Zhou Tian had gathered all of his other warriors together.

For the following time, Zhou Tian didn't do anything else but continued to instruct his beastman warriors to perform some simple tasks over and over again, despite seeing no significant effect from his efforts.

Although progress was slow, under Zhou Tian's unwavering diligence, his group of hundreds of beastman warriors finally remembered a few simple orders.

While Zhou Tian was busy with training, his 'neighbor' once again made a move.

Even though Zhou Tian's attack was swift, leaving those NPCs dead without even a chance to react, the NPC village couldn't possibly remain inactive after such a long absence of their villagers.

Thus, while Zhou Tian was training his beastman warriors, he suddenly got news. A team of about a hundred NPC soldiers had left the NPC village and was slowly heading towards the location where the previous group of NPCs had been killed.

Upon receiving this intel, Zhou Tian didn't hesitate at all, and immediately contemplated engaging in battle.

Compared to the previous situation where he faced a dozen NPCs with hundreds of beastman warriors, the risk was certainly higher with engaging a team of nearly a hundred NPCs. After all, the strength of those NPCs was slightly stronger than their monster counterparts, and they also knew cooperative combat. Even if Zhou Tian were to go all-out with all his military power against them, there would still be a risk of defeat.

However, although there was a slight risk, Zhou Tian still didn't plan on missing this opportunity.

He understands that opportunities like this do not come often. The reason those NPCs left their village was simply they were unaware of Zhou Tian's existence. Once they became aware of him, such dispersed actions would likely not happen again.

Consequently, the NPC team Zhou Tian had just found had become his only opportunity in the near future. If the enemies retreated safely, he had no idea how long he would have to wait for a similar opportunity.

Zhou Tian was not willing to wait forever for a risk-free opportunity before taking action. Therefore, even though he knew there would be a certain risk in confronting the NPC team, after finding their location, Zhou Tian didn't hesitate and set off with all his Beastman warriors.

Due to the large number of NPCs, to ensure a higher chance of victory, Zhou Tian didn't try to capture all of them. Therefore, he divided his Beastman warriors into three groups, only blocking the NPCs' escape routes from three directions and leaving the right side open.

Eventually, once the NPC team was surrounded, Zhou Tian gave the order, and he led his Beastman warriors from their hiding places to attack.

"Roar~" Unlike NPCs, even though Zhou Tian had done some training with his troops, when they attacked, their performance was still a bit chaotic.

Despite their lackluster performance, Zhou Tian's Beastman warriors were still genuine monsters. When they attacked, they frightened the NPC team.

"Why are there so many Beastman warriors here?" The NPCs were astonished. In their impression, while there were Beastman warriors in this area, their number was very limited. Now, the number of Beastman warriors had increased several times, and they even set an ambush which the NPCs found hard to accept.

"Breakthrough!" Although the NPCs were unsure why the previously safe domain had become dangerous, they knew how to cope with Zhou Tian's threat.

Zhou Tian immediately led all his troops to attack, a situation the NPCs didn't understand. Therefore, they were worried that there might be more ambushing Beastman warriors. Under such circumstances, it was clear that their position was extremely dangerous.

As a result, when they felt threatened, the NPCs immediately tried to break through in the direction Zhou Tian left open at his command.

The method of leaving one side open was very common, and these NPCs were well aware of Zhou Tian's strategy. However, considering their situation, the NPCs had no other choices, even if they knew there was danger in that direction. Compared to the other three sides, Zhou Tian's open side was safer. This forced the NPCs to retreat in that direction.

In the end, as the NPCs fled to the right, Zhou Tian led his Beastman warriors to chase and kill them.

Ironically, if the NPCs had decided to fight Zhou Tian, they might not have been victorious, but they wouldn't be at a disadvantage either. It was unfortunate that they didn't want to resist Zhou Tian's arrangement; their team, although not weaker than Zhou Tian's, was now fleeing in all directions.

Of course, while it seemed that the NPCs were in a bad situation, in reality, Zhou Tian, although having the upper hand, had not killed many NPCs. That is, Zhou Tian had gained a little advantage, yet the strength of both sides didn't lose much.

However, Zhou Tian was already satisfied with such a development.