Actually, speaking logically, with Pocolo's current position, he originally shouldn't be pushing forward the process of persuading the Void Iron Golems to defect.
Pocolo knew very well that the relationship between the Void Iron Golems and Annoying Village HIM was just mutual exploitation.
Even though the Void Iron Golems obeyed Annoying Village HIM's orders, they still maintained a sort of mutual check-and-balance relationship with him.
However, if the Void Iron Golems were successfully persuaded to defect, then the divide between them and Annoying Village HIM would disappear, forming one tightly united whole.
In that case, the entire team would become more united, with no more scheming or suspicion.
Pushing forward the process of persuading the Void Iron Golems to defect was undoubtedly indirectly strengthening Annoying Village HIM's team.
For Pocolo, who was in Tyrant HIM's team, this was obviously not a good thing.
Pocolo doing this clearly had a certain reason.
If the cooperation between Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM could really defeat Xu Yuan, then once they beat Xu Yuan, the two would immediately stop cooperating and begin a new contest.
After all, both of them were aiming to win the Trial, so in the end, a war between the two sides was certain to happen.
If Annoying Village HIM successfully persuaded the Iron Golems to defect, then even ignoring the difference in combat strength, Annoying Village HIM's chances of winning would still be higher than Tyrant HIM's.
After all, once the Void Iron Golems defected, Annoying Village HIM's side would effectively eliminate internal conflict and could unite against external enemies.
But things on Tyrant HIM's side were much more complicated.
Tyrant HIM had always gone with the "corpse tide" route, and he didn't recruit many players or conscious monsters to begin with.
When facing Annoying Village HIM, even if those conscious monsters followed Tyrant HIM unconditionally, the players absolutely wouldn't continue following him.
Players put their personal interests first. If only the two factions, Annoying Village HIM and Tyrant HIM, were left in the Trial Grounds, players would definitely choose the faction with the higher chance of winning.
So in the end, the players under Tyrant HIM would certainly betray him and try to join Annoying Village HIM's faction.
As a player, Pocolo knew the thoughts and behavior patterns of players inside-out.
He understood that to go farther in the Trial Grounds, he had to grasp opportunities and plan ahead.
He knew very clearly that sooner or later he would join Annoying Village HIM's faction.
Therefore, everything he did right now was to pave the way for himself to join Annoying Village HIM's side in the future.
Although Pocolo had interacted with Tyrant HIM for a period of time, deep down, he never fully believed in Tyrant HIM.
Pocolo knew what he wanted, so he always put his personal interests first; his principles of action were guided by his own gains and losses.
Back then, he thought joining Tyrant HIM's faction would help him travel farther in the Trial Grounds, so he chose without hesitation.
But at the time, he had no choice and could only follow the situation.
Now, things had changed.
The cooperative relationship between Annoying Village HIM and Tyrant HIM might give him a greater space to grow, and this made him realize that pushing their cooperation forward was absolutely necessary.
Rather than being a troublemaker who made Annoying Village HIM wary of him, it was better to go with the flow and take advantage of the situation, letting Annoying Village HIM owe him a favor.
If Annoying Village HIM and Tyrant HIM really managed to defeat Xu Yuan, Pocolo would be able to walk safely down this path he had laid beforehand, and by then Annoying Village HIM probably wouldn't refuse to accept him.
Pocolo was very clear about how he positioned himself, he was a "fence-sitter," leaning toward whichever side was stronger.
This survival strategy might not look honorable, but in the Trial Grounds it was extremely effective.
After all, only by surviving could anything else be discussed.
Pocolo's behavior just now, actively pushing the persuasion of the Void Iron Golems, was undoubtedly him offering a "proof of loyalty" to Annoying Village HIM.
Although the topic of the Void's internal conflict came up very suddenly, and Pocolo didn't bring it up at first to persuade the Void Iron Golems to defect, since he had already said it, he could ride the momentum.
This way, not only could he dissolve Annoying Village HIM's prejudice against him, but if the persuasion succeeded, Annoying Village HIM would even owe him a favor.
———
After Pocolo explained these things to the lead Void Iron Golem, he glanced at Tyrant HIM. Seeing Tyrant HIM looking down in thought and not paying attention to him, Pocolo let out a sigh of relief.
Then he immediately turned his gaze toward Annoying Village HIM.
Of course, Annoying Village HIM had seen everything that just happened.
After briefly interacting with Pocolo, Annoying Village HIM already understood that Pocolo was a smart person.
He knew very well that Pocolo initially brought up the topic of the Void's internal conflict just to turn the tables on him.
But later, after seeing the urgent reaction of the lead Void Iron Golem, Pocolo's response was a bit unexpected to Annoying Village HIM.
From Pocolo's shifting expression and attitude during the conversation with the lead Void Iron Golem, Annoying Village HIM could already tell that Pocolo had understood the key point.
Since he understood, from his standpoint he shouldn't have chosen to push the conversation forward, after all, at first he was the one who showed the strongest opposition to cooperation.
But Pocolo chose to actively push things forward instead, which was clearly the opposite of his original attitude.
Annoying Village HIM had been confused about Pocolo's sudden attitude change, but after seeing Pocolo's gaze just now, he instantly understood Pocolo's purpose.
"This fence-sitter's ability to sense the wind direction is really strong…"
Annoying Village HIM didn't dislike Pocolo's behavior, but he didn't admire it either.
Pocolo was an extreme egoist, everything he did was for himself.
If he could choose Annoying Village HIM over his old master for the sake of profit, then later he could also choose the stronger Xu Yuan over both Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM.
Pocolo was indeed smart, had strong insight, and was very good at grasping opportunities.
But despite all these strengths, he was still just an unknown solo player, not someone of leader level.
Mainly because he lacked the most basic quality a leader should have, big-picture vision.
He couldn't understand the real point of the current situation; he only viewed things from his own perspective.
But someone like this was still a useful chess piece for now, and Annoying Village HIM certainly wouldn't reject Pocolo's attempt to pledge loyalty.
As Annoying Village HIM thought this, he lifted his eyes to look at Pocolo. At that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tyrant HIM's direction, Tyrant HIM seemed to be looking at Pocolo.
Seeing this, Annoying Village HIM couldn't help shrugging and sighing.
"Looks like persuading him is going to take a lot more work…"