At this moment, inside the waiting room of the trial grounds, noisy chatter rose and fell everywhere.
In midair, a small delicate chick was desperately flapping its tender wings.
It was completely focused, putting all its strength into every flap, as if trying to release all its energy.
From the tense look on the chick's face, it was clear it was already using every bit of strength it had.
Obviously its effort wasn't wasted. At this moment, the player tightly holding the chick's feet and hanging in the air because of it looked at the chick with both surprise and admiration, generously giving it very high praise and sincere appreciation.
"Wow, Brother Chicken, you're really amazing!"
"You can actually carry me flying all by yourself! Your arm strength is just unbelievable!"
"How many years of basketball training did that take?!!!!!"
Although the chick felt confused about the unfamiliar word "basketball training" and didn't understand what it meant, it still keenly caught the praise in the first half of the sentence.
After hearing this compliment, the chick seemed greatly encouraged. Its already forceful wing flapping became even more energetic, and the frequency clearly sped up.
At the same time, a snow-white cute little sheep stood in place, blinking its round eyes while looking at a group of players surrounding it.
It happily hopped around while continuously making crisp pleasant "baa baa baa" sounds.
"Baa baa… (Hello…)"
"Baa baa… (Thank you…)"
"Baa baa… (Goodbye…)"
"Baa baa baa… baa baa baa baa? (These are our common phrases… very simple, right?)"
However, the three players surrounding the sheep all looked completely confused.
They looked at each other, their faces showing puzzled expressions.
One player scratched his head and said, "This… is… is there any difference?…"
The other two players shook their heads hard. Although they couldn't tell the difference between the sheep's baa sounds, their eyes were now shining with a slightly "perverted" glow.
The way the sheep just hopped while baa-ing was basically a finishing move to them, directly hitting their soft spot.
At this moment, the three players almost simultaneously stretched out their evil hands and pounced toward the sheep.
"You're just a solid marshmallow!! Come here and let auntie kiss you!!!"
"A little lamb like you could be eaten by bad guys outside eight at a time!!! Come home with me quick!!"
"Hehehehehe, little lamb!! Little lamb!! A lamb like you was born to be squeezed by us!"
Right then, from another corner suddenly came a deep and loud questioning voice, "Roar roar roar… roar roar roar? Roar roar roar roar roar!! (We're going out soon… does anyone have an extra hat to give me? If someone gives me another turtle shell I'm really going to get mad!!)"
At this moment, players, animals, monsters, villagers, illagers, and even iron golems were gathering in small groups, chatting freely with contestants from other factions.
If this had been before the trial ended, the contestants in the waiting room would definitely have divided territory by faction.
Contestants from different factions would have kept strong vigilance toward each other, always ready for possible conflict and fighting.
The atmosphere in the entire waiting room would definitely have been tense.
But now, everyone had put aside their prejudice and was enjoying this rare time of communication. The whole waiting room was filled with a warm and friendly atmosphere.
The trial grounds had not yet ended, and the overall situation of the world still had no final conclusion, yet most contestants had already begun feeling uncertain about the future.
Among all the laughter and joy, only Notch was frowning deeply, full of worry, looking somewhat out of place.
Beside him, Black Blade had been watching Notch's movements all along. Seeing Notch's expression, Black Blade thought for a moment and then asked.
"Something bothering you?"
Black Blade's words interrupted Notch's thoughts. He looked up at Black Blade. He did not answer the question, but after thinking briefly, he asked Black Blade instead.
"What's the situation outside now?…"
After speaking, he seemed to feel he wasn't clear enough, so he quickly added.
"How is the void situation now?"
Hearing Notch's question, Black Blade wasn't surprised. After all, Xu Yuan had talked with Notch many times.
Although Black Blade didn't know what they talked about, he knew the result must have benefited the current situation.
Thinking this, Black Blade shrugged, sighed deeply, and said.
"The latest information I have is that the void has already materialized. As for what happened after that, I don't know."
After the void materialized, Entity 303 and the others under Xu Yuan directly hid in the item dimension. Players like Steve and Peng Peng, who knew the inside story, mostly logged off for safety.
So Black Blade also had no way to know the outside situation now.
After hearing Black Blade's words, Notch nodded and fell silent, seemingly thinking about something.
From his expression, it looked like he was hesitating about something.
After a while, he finally seemed to make up his mind, looked at Black Blade again, and asked.
"The void consciousness entities… there are two, right?"
Notch's question surprised Black Blade. Obviously, if Notch could ask this, it meant he had begun suspecting that those void consciousness entities were his friends.
Black Blade didn't know what Xu Yuan had talked about with Notch. At this moment he hesitated, unsure whether he should tell the truth.
But his hesitation had already confirmed Notch's guess.
Although Notch hadn't interacted with Xu Yuan for very long, after observing him during this time, Notch had developed some understanding of him.
He knew Xu Yuan was someone decisive who never did useless things.
So every action Xu Yuan took and every word he said would never be unnecessary.
Because of this, Notch could analyze many clues from his conversations with Xu Yuan.
From their first conversation, Notch gathered that the current world's troublesome problem in Xu Yuan's view came from the existence of the void.
Later, in another deeper conversation, Notch talked about two friends he couldn't remember.
In the most recent talk, Notch felt Xu Yuan was guiding him while also hiding many things.
Notch clearly understood the reason Xu Yuan hid things. It was because he was afraid Notch would be emotionally affected.
So what kind of thing would affect him emotionally? The answer was already obvious.
Thinking this, Notch looked at Black Blade. This time his question was even more direct.
"The two in the void… they are my friends, right?"