After imparting some knowledge to Carmen, she seemed to be in a predicament.
Xu Feng anticipated it would take her a while, but to his dismay, she clasped her hands loudly.
"I understand," she exclaimed and turned to him.
"In a sense, we're also the same as the Super Guild, but also not. At the very least, we're not overbearing unless it compromises our interests. In this trial, everyone should have been on a united front to pass the trial. But the system's manipulation of rules forced us to act like a beast."
"Quite the analysis you have there."
Xu Feng was a bit startled that Carmen was more comprehensive than he had thought. In fact, she brought up a very good point that many failed to notice yet.
The so-called system's manipulation.
Indeed, the rules seemed to have dictated a certain mindset into the trial contender's brain that one should become a beast to succeed. From the beginning till now, the trial has been unpredictable and bloodthirsty.
In the first round, the system compelled players to compete against each other in a free-for-all.
Then in the second round, the system decided to give the eliminated players a chance to redeem or avenge themselves. However, it wasn't even much of an opportunity when the eliminated needed to fork out the scarce Resonance Shard.
To summarize, the second round wasn't a redemption or a chance for the eliminated, but served as a stern reminder to the surviving players.
It was to emphasize the significance of the Resonance Shard and that one should gather them.
Overall, that manipulation brought forth the third round in which players were granted a choice. To eliminate or avoid monsters in the field that could drop the Resonance Shard.
Without much debate, Xu Feng understood most players would seek to at least kill one or two monsters along the way. Maybe they wouldn't actively seek them while looking for the exit, but if they were to encounter one, they might really just kill them to save the trouble.
Just when Xu Feng held that thought, he and Carmen suddenly paused their movement.
After all, a monster that resembled the appearance of an elephant emerged in front of them.
Its eyes were already locked onto them. Its long nose seemed to be retracting slightly back, almost as if it was ready to launch an attack."
"Tsk, the system really isn't playing nice." Carmen clicked her tongue and was about to summon her voidlings to swarm at the monster.
"Wait a second!" Before she could make the move, Xu Feng suddenly grasped her arm and shook his head.
She was about to warn him of the attack, but the next scene caused her to be speechless.
Rather than an attack, the monster was actually retracting its long nose to hit a nearby tree for some fruits. Afterward, it munched on the fruit merrily, completely uninterested in Xu Feng and Carmen's presence.
"Eh?"
Dumbfounded, Carmen had to rub her eyes a few times to believe that this kind of scene actually occurred.
Weren't monsters always aggressive?
Don't they attack at sight when encountering any player?
While Carmen was clearly confused, Xu Feng's expression turned solemn.
'Good thing I recognized the species. Brown Fold Elephant, a herbivore type usually displayed in grand-like zoo places in the cities.' He thought to himself.
Many players also mistake its large size and piercing eyes to be a type of aggression, especially when the Brown Fold Elephant attempted to swing its long nose. The long nose emitted a frightening aura, prompting many to attack or defend in retaliation.
However, such action was equivalent to triggering the Brown Fold Elephant's displeasure.
Think of it as a person requesting a spoon to drink some soup at a public restaurant, only for the waiter to bring out a fork instead. Although no harm was done in this mistake, it would evidently annoy the person who wanted to drink their soup before it got cold.
And if the person's mood was already sour or low, the mistake from the waiter could easily escalate. Sёarch* The NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"The monster is probably in distress because of the activities caused by nearby players. It's a good thing we didn't make any aggression toward it." Xu Feng heaved a sigh of relief and explained the matter to Carmen.
A few seconds later, Carmen pursed her lips and realized she had fallen for the devious system's trick.
The Brown Fold Elephant's territory must have been disturbed repeatedly, forcing it to retreat and find food here. And when it spotted Xu Feng and Carmen, it was probably wondering if it was associated with those barbarian-like players. But given its friendly nature, it didn't attack them yet and resumed its business.
In other words, if Carmen actually attacked it, then what they would receive in response would be a fierce retaliation.
Xu Feng had witnessed the Brown Fold Elephant's anger in the past and was thoroughly flabbergasted by its attack power. Its attack power was equivalent to a dungeon raid boss. More importantly, it was very hard to provoke such a monster, much less cause its anger to explode through the roof.
'Fuck, this round is a death zone.' Xu Feng finally understood the secret behind the trial.
The territory in this third round was actually the Brown Fold Elephant's territory. For the moment, its patience was still very high, but with the chaos that players were causing, it would be a miracle if one of them didn't explode in anger.
As soon as one of them exploded in anger. Based on their nature, the Brown Fold Elephants would unite and follow along with their companions' actions.
To summarize, it was a ticking bomb, ready to explode and consume the entire field.
"We need to leave now," Xu Feng declared solemnly. He no longer had the leisure to explain and only rushed her to start using everything in her power to search for the exit path.
He didn't remind idle either and effectively cast Dark Pact to summon Phantom Abyssal.
Realizing that the situation was severe, Carmen quickly reacted and followed the command. She was certain that he must have discovered something. 'This round couldn't be more deadlier than the previous, right?