In the safe house, five trial participants laughed heartily. Among them, Alfred, who had been in contact with Waldo, laughed the most joyously. Suddenly, his expression changed slightly.

"Waldo, the trial participant, wants us to meet him. He’s given us an address! What should we do?" he asked.

The safe house fell silent for a moment. Then someone shook their head and said, "No, we can’t go to the place he’s suggesting. Let him come to us! It’s not safe to go to his location!"

"That’s right, who knows what’s waiting for us there. It might be a desolate wasteland similar to ours, with no cover. If we go there with so many people, he might discover us! If he finds out, he’ll surely guess our intentions, and then our plan will be ruined," others chimed in.

As fellow trial participants, their strength differences weren’t significant. In a one-on-one confrontation, they couldn’t easily overpower each other.

Their only chance was to gang up on the enemy. But going to the enemy’s location, they couldn’t move as a group, let alone capture Waldo together.

Alfred nodded in understanding and said, "Alright, I’ll give him our address instead and ask him to come here. But what reason should we give him to come over?"

"Just say that we are currently very weak, with little strength left. Once he knows this, whether he wants to trade with us normally or not, he’ll surely come over. He might even plan to take advantage of our weakness and rob us," someone replied with a cold laugh.

If he knew that someone had three super Source stones and was in a weakened state, he would definitely be unable to resist the temptation and would likely try to take advantage of the situation. The same would probably apply to others. Hence, they came to this conclusion.

Hearing this, everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I’ll tell him that," Alfred said.

Soon, Alfred contacted Waldo again, rejecting Waldo’s request. He replied firmly and decisively, "No, we are too weak right now, with hardly any strength left. We simply can’t travel that far!"

"Do you think we are deceiving you? No, we’re telling the truth; there’s no need to lie to you! With our current condition, it’s impossible for us to traverse the tens of miles through the dark lands. We’d likely fail to reach the designated place before collapsing from exhaustion! So, brother, we have no choice but to trouble you. I’ll send you our address; just come to find us!"

On the other side, Waldo, seeing the message, sneered to himself. He was no fool and easily understood their intentions. "But you think the dark lands are dangerous, and I feel the same. I don’t believe I can pass through unscathed either," he thought.

They quickly responded: "At least for now, the dark lands aren’t that dangerous. As for the monsters in this world, they exist only in a few places and are actually quite rare, so you don’t need to worry too much!"

Seeing this, Waldo chuckled inwardly but pretended to be naive, replying, "Alright, send me the address, and I’ll come find you. Wait for me!"

Soon, they sent over their address. Waldo guessed they must be very excited at that moment, thinking they had successfully baited their prey. But unfortunately for them, the ’fish’ they thought they were about to catch was not a small shrimp to be easily slaughtered, but a deadly shark!

After getting the address, Waldo checked it on the map and found it was only twenty kilometers away in a straight line.

At his usual speed, it would take just a few minutes to get there. However, the dark lands were different. The mysterious energy floating in the air greatly hindered his speed.

Flying would consume too much energy and be counterproductive, so Waldo had to travel at normal speed, mainly to conserve his energy.

In the dark lands, typical trial participants would start to weaken if they didn’t replenish their energy after four continuous hours.

Waldo, with his max-level Indestructible Body, had strong control over his energy, which was also abundant. Even so, he could only last six to eight hours. If he hurried or engaged in battle, his energy and stamina would deplete even faster!

It would take about half an hour to cover the twenty kilometers at a normal pace. The path was mostly barren, with no hills, forests, swamps, and notably no villages, towns, or other human settlements.

Correspondingly, there shouldn’t be much danger, Waldo thought to himself.

From his interactions with others, Waldo learned that in the dark lands, monsters were not omnipresent. At least not at the moment. Especially on the wastelands, the number of monsters was even fewer.

The highest concentration of monsters tended to be in various buildings, particularly in human villages and cities, where monsters were rampant. Therefore, heading to the safe house where Alfred was located wasn’t too risky.

After sorting through this information, Waldo gave a few instructions to Tristan, asking him to wait in the safe house. "Master, where are you going? Do you need my help?" Tristan asked eagerly.

"No need, just guard the safe house. Be cautious not to let others approach. Now that the system chat channel is open, everyone has a deeper understanding of this world. Many trial participants might leave their safe houses and wander around, looking for targets," Waldo instructed.

Then, he left for the safe house where Alfred was. He wasn’t worried about Tristan running away. Given Tristan’s strength and lack of food, leaving the safe house would almost certainly be a death sentence. He had no choice but to obey Waldo’s commands.

Sigh!

In the distance, mountains rose and fell, high and low, like giant beasts lying across the land, exuding an ancient and vast aura.

The sky above was almost devoid of color, pitch black. The dark lands truly lived up to their name. Staying in such a place for too long could inevitably lead to mental instability and madness.

Further away, at the edge of sight, stood tall buildings, like high towers with strange designs. These were cities built by the natives of this world before it became the dark lands. However, for some unknown reason, this area had transformed into the dark lands.

Although not too far away, Waldo could faintly sense an extremely terrifying presence looming over the distant cities. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Even Waldo couldn’t help but change his expression. The aura he sensed was too dreadful. It was the terrifying aura of monsters. He was certain that the monsters in that area were of extremely high strength, potentially capable of killing him instantly.