It's been two hours since Sam went deeper into the forest. For the past two hours he didn't saw anything new or something interesting along the way which is kind of a disappointment, he only found the same old Kabbit Beast over and over again to the point it quickly became a boring thing.

Whenever Sam about to encounter a Kabbit beast he just simply avoid them silently, there's no need to kill all the Kabbit beast he encountered because they didn't give that much exp anymore and this is not exclusively applied to the Kabbit beast, he will try to avoid any beast that had lower level than him from now on.

Killing a lower level beast is surely an easy and fast way to gain exp with little to no risk, but the exp they provided is simply too small. Leveling up by killing lower level beasts will be a huge waste of time since he needs about 3-10 beasts to level up. Meanwhile, killing higher level beast will yield better exp and he usually only needed to kill about 1-5 beasts which is simply more quicker and efficient, though there's a risk of him dying somehow by hunting higher level beasts he didn't really care. If he dies, he dies.

There's also one more reason why Sam didn't want to take commit a massacre to low level beasts and it's the one he's wary the most, Sam didn't want to wake up the sleeping G'rath and instantly died just because a few exp. He didn't know how strong this creature was but since the system warned him and including all the survivor in this forest to not committed excessive killing or destruction, there's a very high chance this beast is unimaginably strong.

He didn't need to do much currently and just keeps on doing whatever he's currently trying to do which is finding new Beasts and stepping into the inner part of the dense forest. A while back, Sam hypothesize about the "zone" of the dense forest. This hypothesis is simply saying that the forest area is divided by the outer and inner area. The lower area filled with low level Beast such as Kabbit, while the inner area must be filled with higher level beast.

There's a reason why and how Sam believe in his hypothesis so strongly. The first of three reasons why is because the beast he encountered all this time is only the Kabbit Cub, meaning that if it's labeled as a "Cub" there must be a full grown Kabbit beast somewhere in this forest, probably within the deeper part of the forest.

The second and most intriguing reason for Sam in his whole hypothesis is that there's one weird case where he had found a ripped apart right leg before his first ever encountered with the Kabbit beast in the forest. At a glance it might seemed to be normal thing, maybe it's because the Kabbit torn the leg's off by using it's big horn or maybe they simply just took a bite. But Sam didn't believe it to be that simple.

The traces left on the severed right leg is that it's simply not a wound caused by a Kabbit horn and the case for the Kabbit taking a bite is also out of the window since Kabbit will always devour their prey cleanly, not leaving even a single bone remained. How did Sam know this fact? Well, back when he's still new and weak he gathered all the necessary information about this beast as much as possible to ensure his chance at victory. Starting from their behavior, how they communicate, and their fighting pattern Sam knew about all of it hence why he's confident.

So from that he arrived at a single conclusion, it's highly likely that it's an evolved Kabbit beast with a special ability, it's not possible to be any other beast either since there are three Kabbit corpses killed by the unfortunate group left untouched, if it were a different beast back then then it will definitely consume the corpses.

Back then, he hypothesize that this beast is probably a full grown Kabbit with a commander/leader type that caused the beasts unusual disappearance in the forest. From that deduction alone, he deduced that if it's really a fully grown Kabbit with special evolution then without a doubt it possessed a skill or even magic, different from a normal Kabbit that can only rely on their horn for attacking.

The third and final part of his hypothesis is that higher level beast are probably doesn't even bother with a lower and much weaker prey than themselves, unless provoked or due to certain reason, higher level beast won't come into an area filled with weak beast. Since they also have level like Sam or any other survivors with system, they possibly needed exp to level up and killing lower level beast just won't cut it hence why there's a possibility of a a certain area filled with high level beast in the deeper part of the forest due to this reason.

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As Sam was lost in his thoughts, walking slowly, he suddenly heard the sound of a group of people chattering nearby, snapping him back to reality. The voices came from right in front of him.

With no time to hide, Sam steeled his mind and went on high alert preparing to meet the approaching group. Soon after, a group of people emerged from between the trees.

The one who seemed to be leading the group was a skinny man in a white robe, carrying a wand at his hip and a staff in his hand. He looked like a middle-aged guy in his early forties, but his presence did not indicate any weakness due to age.

The group that followed him was sizable, about ten people, maybe more hidden in the shadows. From their attire, Sam deduced they were mainly warriors, some of whom seemed to have evolved from their basic class. The rest were healers. However, something was off about this group: there were no archers or rogues, nor any additional mages.

"Are you done checking out our group?" the white-robed man asked, smiling.

"Not really, but overall, yeah, I'm done checking. Let's not beat around the bush, what's your group doing here? I'm pretty sure you're not just simply taking a walk yeah?." Sam replied, his tone wary.

"Easy there friend, we currently came in peace" the white robed man said amiably.

'currently huh..' Sam mentally muttered.

"Our group is on a mission to find someone called the Meat Dealer. Do you happen to know where this person is?"

As soon as Sam heard that, he felt the cringe crawling up his back. 'What the fuck? Who the hell is giving me a horrible merchant name like Meat Dealer?! I mean, sure, I trade meat, but what the fuck? Couldn't they just call me a trade merchant or something?'

Suppressing the cringe, Sam controlled his facial expression to appear as calm as possible. When he felt in control, he said,

"What's your business with the... Meat Dealer?"

"Oh, we just want to have a nice conversation, that's all," the white-robed man said with an unsettling smile.

"Oh, I see. Before we continue, I wanted to know, who are you people, and where do you come from?"

"Ah, how rude of me. My name is Mi, and we're part of a group called Heaven's Gate. As for where we come from, you'll need to join our group to find out, haha. So who might you be, young man?"

'Mi? What's an Asian named doing here? Bro he's not even looked like an asian, no matter how one sees it he looks Mexican! Wait, am i racist for assuming things like this? No, surely not.'

Clearing his throat and his useless thoughts, Sam said,

"My name is... Persona, and I'm currently just exploring the forest."

"Hm, Persona... what an interesting name, haha. And you're quite something, exploring the forest alone, Persona," the white-robed man said, his tone filled with amusement, possibly amused at Sam's dogshit attempt to lie.

Ignoring the man's clear expression that showed his lie had been seen through, Sam kept his poker face.

"Yeah, I just like exploring new places, especially this forest filled with so many bizarre things."

"What an interesting person indeed... Say, are you looking to join a group? You can join us if you want."

Sam had expected this kind of offer the moment he met the group. Knowing what to do next in these situations, he smiled innocently and shrugged.

"I don't know, I didn't think about that before. All this time, I just enjoyed doing my own thing."

"Fortunately, it's not too late for that, young man. We humans are meant to stick together, especially in times like this, where we're suddenly thrown into a death game that refers to itself as a tutorial against our will. We will band together and escape this death game!" the white-robed man replied enthusiastically, a hint of madness in his eyes.

Without much thought, Sam decided to refuse their offer.

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm sorry, I don't have any intention to join any group right now. I just enjoy doing my thing alone."

"No, young man, you don't understand. I know you're reluctant, but working together is something we need to do to survive," the white robed man said, clearly trying to persuade Sam.

"Once again thank you, but no."

"Hm.. How about this? If you join our group, you'll be able to do pretty much anything you want,"

Just as Sam was about to refuse the stubborn man again, he said something that instantly made Sam freeze in place.

"You can even set up your meat trade within our group's territory. How about it?" the white-robed man said, smiling.

At this moment in time, it takes no genius to guess that Sam got his ass busted.