Due to certain special circumstances, Zhou Tian couldn't track the players and with too many variables, he knew that killing them would yield significant gains, yet he could still only set them aside. With that in mind, he turned his attention to the NPCs.
Despite their limited numbers in the game, every single NPC was incredibly powerful. The gatekeepers, for example, were virtually invincible. Even if some monsters approached the city, they would usually be taken down with ease. Against such nearly invincible opponents, Zhou Tian theoretically stood no chance of winning.
However, the current world is not identical to the game. Given the considerable difference between the situation of the monsters and the game, it's only natural that the NPCs would not be as formidable.
Though Zhou Tian had not received much NPC-related information, some fragmented bits allowed him to get a general idea of the NPCs' circumstances.
In contrast to the game where they stand against hordes of monsters, in this world, while it can't be stated that the NPCs are completely suppressed by the monsters, it's fair to say that they are not faring particularly well.
The world that Zhou Tian currently resides in is very vast, with an estimated area no smaller than the landmass on Earth. In such a vast continent, 99% of the territory is occupied by various monsters. While the NPCs have been continually fighting them, the territories under their control are limited to scattered cities and villages across the continent.
Thus, while there are many top-tiered NPCs capable of challenging the leaders and lords among the monsters, in terms of bottom-rank strength, the NPCs cannot compete with the monsters.
Now that Zhou Tian has become a member of the monster army, understanding each side's strengths and weaknesses, he knows what strategies to employ to achieve the desired battle results with the least cost.
At first glance, taking on the NPCs with his current strength would be suicidal, yet Zhou Tian knows for sure that he can still perform well, with the right motivation.
Attacking NPC cities is clearly beyond Zhou Tian's capacity at the moment. However, considering the frequent attacks on beast-slave camps by NPC armies, it's clear that the NPCs have never given up their counterattacks. Exploiting these actions by NPCs, Zhou Tian would inevitably have opportunities to attack them.
With his mind made up, Zhou Tian immediately set about making arrangements.
Thanks to Zhou Tian's training, a handful of Beastman warriors understood his intention, despite their limited intelligence. Within less than a month, Zhou Tian received news after having those Beastman warriors scattered around his territory.
Perhaps because Zhou Tian has never shown himself publicly, the NPCs are oblivious to his presence as a Beastman warrior. Not realizing that there is a lord ruling Zhou Tian's territory, a troop of a mere dozen NPCs intends to eradicate the Beastman warriors within it.
It may appear unbelievable for a mere dozen of NPC soldiers to exterminate hundreds of Beastman warriors. However, without Zhou Tian being a Beastman warrior, the NPC troop would have encountered little resistance in their mission to wipe out all the Beastman warriors in that territory.
The NPC soldiers are admittedly stronger than the average Beastman warrior, and although outnumbered, the dispersed Beastman warriors across such a vast territory would be easy targets without a strong leader. It's a relatively easy task for the NPCs to pick them off one by one.
Doing such things must have been pretty routine for the NPC troupe. However, with Zhou Tian now on the scene, it's guaranteed that their tasks won't go as smoothly as before.
Of course, Zhou Tian won't let the NPCs run wild in his own territory. Hence, upon receiving the news from one of his Beastman warriors, Zhou Tian immediately ordered the majority of his Beastman warriors to assemble.
Given their simple intelligence, these Beastman warriors had no idea about resistance. At Zhou Tian's command, all the Beastman warriors in his territory, regardless of what they were doing at the time, promptly dropped everything and flocked to his side.
Looking at the messy group of Beastman warriors before him, Zhou Tian couldn't say he was entirely satisfied with their performance. However, considering this group of Beastman warriors was his initial team as a BOSS, he could tolerate their poor performance to some extent. Especially when thinking about the upcoming tasks and that these Beastman warriors would soon be fighting for him, Zhou Tian naturally felt a bit more favorable towards them.
"Move out!" Since he had already gathered his Beastman warriors and knew the whereabouts of the NPC team, in order to avoid any changes, Zhou Tian naturally wouldn't stay in one place for too long. So once he assembled the group of Beastman warriors, he immediately led them towards the NPCs.
It was not because the NPCs were careless, but rather because the Beastman warrior Zhou Tian was too special. The NPCs were unaware of Zhou Tian's existence, yet Zhou Tian had already launched a counterattack with his troops against them.
Obviously, given the situation at the time, it was impossible for the NPCs to be prepared for Zhou Tian.
Under such circumstances, after Zhou Tian had sent his Beastman warriors in different directions, he easily surrounded the NPCs.
When Zhou Tian gave an order for his Beastman warriors to attack, the NPCs were still attacking beast slaves. Under such a situation, one can only imagine what would happen to the NPCs.
In the end, only a single charge was needed. With absolute strength, the NPCs quickly fell under the weapons of Zhou Tian's Beastman warriors.
However, the downside was that although Zhou Tian successfully eliminated the NPCs, due to the great disparity in strength between the two sides, even though Zhou Tian's Beastman warriors were victorious, they easily defeated the NPCs, but it resulted in Zhou Tian not being able to personally defeat many NPCs.
Not being able to kill NPCs naturally means not being able to gain experience. However, given the situation at the time, Zhou Tian could accept this. After all, killing a small number of NPCs wouldn't enable Zhou Tian's evolution, but his actions would definitely give the Beastman warriors under him the necessary training. As someone who fully regarded his forces as his support, Zhou Tian could not care less about such minor losses.
With that, after getting rid of the NPCs, Zhou Tian quickly composed himself and led his Beastman warriors towards the direction from which the NPCs had come.
Every time Zhou Tian changed his identity, the information in his mind increased, but most of that information was related to his identity. Ninety-nine percent of the content was information about the monster camp, and there was very little about the NPCs.
Thus, although Zhou Tian was quite familiar with his territory, the only thing he knew about it was the situation of the Beastman warriors. In fact, he didn't know much about whether there were any NPC forces near his territory.
However, even though there was no such information in his mind, Zhou Tian could draw conclusions himself.
It's actually not hard to surmise, if the distance was too great, how could those NPCs with their limited powers come to this place? Zhou Tian knew that where there were monsters gathered, there undoubtedly must be NPC gathering points. Thus, after seeing the NPCs, Zhou Tian was quite certain that there must be an NPC gathering point not far from his territory.
With such a thought in mind, Zhou Tian naturally couldn't pretend to be ignorant of what was going on.
Never mind the threat the NPCs posed to Zhou Tian, just considering his ambition to achieve merits, it all depended on that NPC gathering point. Knowing that there might be an NPC village near his territory, Zhou Tian naturally wouldn't miss out on exploring it.
Following the traces left by the NPCs, Zhou Tian led hundreds of Beastman warriors and after nearly a day, they found the dwelling place of the NPCs.