Taking a detour and crossing the Eternal Fire Blaze multiple times, Aron, who was now almost naked due to being burned several times, encountered groups of people along his journey.
Fortunately, even though he did not understand who these people were and did not know how they got here, they were not an unreasonable group like Wu Jian. Although these people seemed a bit strange and were surprised by Aron's condition, they did not pay much attention to him and continued doing what they were doing.
From this incident, Aron finally understood why he could not find any demon cores along the way.
With several groups of people coming here, all of whom shared the same mindset as him—seeking to profit from the chaos that occurred in the past—it was likely that the good things had already been taken early.
Therefore, Aron immediately decided to head to the death zone, which from a distance was already shrouded in black mist covering the entire area.
Just as Aron entered the black mist, he felt a different sensation than before. He was unsure what was different, but he found that the mist had actually become very vast, even covering several endless mountains.
In addition to being larger, the death zone also had several strange plants and trees that he had never seen in the outside world.
Moreover, he did not feel any sense of insecurity upon entering the black mist. On the contrary, he felt a bit happy and as if he had returned home.
"Strange," he murmured, confused, as he determined the direction he had set.
In the past, if Aron remembered correctly, this death zone only had a radius of ten kilometers, but now, as he continued running toward the direction he recognized, he felt that he had run beyond the expected distance.
When he arrived at a forest, Aron suddenly stopped and looked at the trees around him, which were blackish-red with oddly shaped leaves. Furrowing his brow, he felt that there shouldn't be any trees or anything here, right?
"Did I take the wrong path?"
This peculiarity made Aron hesitate about whether to continue exploring this place or not. However, when he saw light blue beads in the distance, he couldn't resist the urge to take them and smiled.
"A demon core of a first-level monster?" He smiled and decided not to rush away.
Even though a first-level monster core was only worth 500 points, if he collected ten or a hundred, wouldn't it be possible to gather 100,000 mission points? Considering the number of monsters that had roamed in the past, there should be more than hundreds of demon cores, right?
Aron quickly decided to take a look around and explore the strange forest.
His choice turned out to be correct, as within just one hour, he found five more monster cores. Although they were all first-level monster cores, this gave him 2,500 contribution points that he obtained for free without any risk.
"With this, getting 75,000 points doesn't seem impossible anymore, right?" Aron smiled hopefully as he thought about it and began searching further.
However, his hopes did not match reality; even though he carefully scoured the edges of the forest for nearly two hours, he only managed to find three additional demon cores.
"Is there someone else who came here before me and searched for them?" Aron murmured, looking deeper into the black mist with doubt creeping back into his heart.
After hesitating for a moment, he decided to leave; after all, he really needed contribution points right now. Moreover, he also felt that something that had called to him earlier was located deep within the death zone.
Five kilometers later, after Aron ventured deeper, he stopped again and looked ahead with a wary gaze.
His guess turned out to be correct; indeed, there were people who had come here before him.
But these people were not from Wu Jian's group; instead, they were from another group, and there were only two of them. Specifically, two young women with faces that vaguely resembled each other, possessing a beauty that Aron had never seen in his entire life.
Standing ten meters apart, Aron and the two women exchanged glances with a hint of surprise and confusion.
They did not speak and only stared at each other in silence for a while, before the younger-looking woman, who seemed more troublesome, suddenly asked, "Who are you? How did you get in here? Are you secretly following us?"
Without answering, Aron immediately ran in the opposite direction from the other party.
"Hey, wait!" The woman shouted again to stop him, but Aron seemed not to hear her and ran even faster.
"What's with him?" Seeing Aron running away, Ji Rui looked confused and tilted her head.
"Maybe he's in a hurry," replied Ji Meiling, the more beautiful, mature, graceful, and calm woman beside Ji Rui.
"Considering his rather pitiful state, it seems he really is in a hurry. But why did he run away as if he saw a ghost when he saw us? Are we that ugly? I don't think so; after all, sister Ji Meiling is the most beautiful woman in the entire Cloud City, and even though I'm still a bit behind in some points, my face shouldn't scare him off, right? Or is he one of sister Meiling's admirers who secretly followed us and ended up embarrassed when caught?"
Ji Meiling beside her shook her head gently, no longer wanting to discuss it, and continued her journey in silence.
Seeing her like that, Ji Rui looked displeased and continued, "Sister, it seems he really is one of your stalkers. If we meet again, we should teach him a lesson."
Hearing that suggestion, Ji Meiling continued walking in silence, not responding or seemingly caring at all about what was happening. She neither denied nor agreed with what Ji Rui said, as if such things were something normal and had often happened to her.
On the other hand, Aron, who was now considered a stalker, finally stopped when he felt they were far enough away.
Previously, the reason Aron decided to run and not answer or greet the other party was a lesson learned from his encounter with Wu Jian some time ago.
Even though the two women who seemed to be sisters were very beautiful and appeared to have no malicious intent, who knew what they were thinking? Who could guarantee that these two women wouldn't turn out to be unreasonable like Wu Jian?
By observing their clothing and temperament, Aron suspected that they might also have unusual identities. So, rather than risk something undesirable happening, it was better to stay away from such people.
However, before Aron could breathe a sigh of relief, something that made him feel extremely extraordinary suddenly reappeared in front of him.
At a distance of fifty meters in front of him, Aron encountered something he did not want to find at all. But this time, what he encountered was not a human or a monster animal, but something else.
Two figures, standing two meters tall, had the lower body of a human and the upper body of an animal, one with a horse's head and the other with a donkey's head, silently stared at Aron in front of them with a strange expression, like a human's confused expression.
Holding iron rods in each of their hands, the two strange beings with completely black eyes looked uncertain and stood still as they gazed at Aron.
Aron also stood frozen, astonished by the sight of something he had never known existed in this world.
What kind of creature is this?