[T/N: We've reached 500 chapters!! 🥳🥳]
Pocolo's actions were all seen by Black Blade, but Black Blade wasn't watching him with a mindset of enjoying the spectacle or laughing at him. Instead, he skipped straight past that step and fast-forwarded directly to the part where Pocolo became awkward…
At this moment, Black Blade's toes were tightly digging into the ground, as if he were about to carve several deep pits into the hard earth.
It was obvious that he was already feeling secondhand embarrassment for Pocolo to such an extreme degree that his body reacted on its own.
Who knows if Black Blade picked up this habit of feeling embarrassed for others from Steve.
Thinking of this, Black Blade still didn't pay Pocolo any attention. Instead, he once again turned his gaze toward Grayfist, his eyes filled with deep relief.
"Grayfist really has grown a lot… I never thought he'd be able to keep his cool and patiently deal with someone like this, even putting on an act like they're brothers…" Black Blade murmured softly, shaking his head slightly as he sighed inwardly.
"Ah, that really must've been hard on him…"
In Black Blade's understanding, Grayfist must have suffered a lot during this time.
After all, in his view, with Grayfist's personality, there was no way he could tolerate Pocolo. Grayfist must have been holding things in and feeling extremely stifled during the time he spent with Pocolo.
But the truth was completely opposite from what he imagined.
Not only did Grayfist feel no frustration at all, he was actually enjoying himself, savoring every moment he spent with Pocolo.
In fact, this wasn't because Black Blade didn't understand Grayfist well enough, it was because Grayfist had changed far too quickly.
The Grayfist of the past might have felt intense aversion toward people like Pocolo, those who loved to play little tricks and show off small bits of cleverness.
Back then, he didn't want to spend energy thinking through problems, and so he deeply disliked dealing with people who were quick-witted and fond of scheming.
However, after experiencing a series of changes, he was now completely different.
At this moment, he could easily see through Pocolo's words and accurately sense the true intentions hidden behind them, effortlessly piercing through all of Pocolo's little schemes.
In Grayfist's eyes, every word Pocolo spoke and every move he made was like an incredibly entertaining, captivating performance.
And for Grayfist, actively cooperating with Pocolo in this "performance" had become the greatest source of enjoyment he'd had back when he was in the camps of Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM.
If Pocolo weren't around, Grayfist would probably have died of boredom and wouldn't have had any motivation to keep going at all.
He even felt like he hadn't had enough fun yet, how could he possibly feel wronged?
That was why, at this moment, Grayfist couldn't quite understand the look Black Blade was giving him.
But he didn't care. Right now, Grayfist was completely in the mood to have fun.
After meeting Black Blade's gaze, he quickly shook his head, his face showing a look of lingering enjoyment.
Clearly, Grayfist still wanted to keep watching the show, and even felt an urge to continue playing along with Pocolo.
Black Blade originally didn't want to waste time, but seeing that Grayfist was in high spirits, and thinking about how pent-up he must have been for so long, he really couldn't bring himself to ruin Grayfist's fun.
So Black Blade said nothing and decided to let Grayfist enjoy himself a bit more first.
Seeing that Black Blade had tacitly approved his behavior, Grayfist was just about to put on a proper performance with Pocolo when some commotion suddenly arose on the outskirts of the group.
It turned out that Blue Demon, the Pillager King, Mustard, Barbecue Sauce, and the others had arrived with the main force and surrounded the area.
Although the arrival of Xu Yuan's main force caused some disturbance, it didn't trigger chaos.
After all, the people under Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM knew very well that a war wouldn't break out at this moment, so they were still able to stay calm.
However, that calm didn't last long before it was shattered.
When the Pillagers who had been "captured" by Annoying Village HIM saw the Pillager King appear, they all laid their cards on the table and stopped pretending. One by one, they impatiently pushed their way out of the crowd and moved behind the Pillager King.
When Grayfist's subordinates saw that the Pillagers had already returned to their ranks, they also began to stir.
After all, Grayfist's people were all behind him and hadn't seen the eye contact between Grayfist and Black Blade. Now that the main force had arrived, they naturally felt that it was time to reveal everything.
Seeing this scene, Pocolo froze completely.
Ever since Black Blade and Grayfist had been frequently exchanging looks earlier, Pocolo had already sensed that something wasn't quite right.
But he couldn't put his finger on exactly what was wrong.
Now, seeing the restless crowd, even an idiot could understand what was going on.
Although Pocolo already knew the truth in his heart, he didn't dare to admit it.
After all, faced with the facts, what he had just done made him look like a complete clown. At this moment, all he wanted was to dig a maze into the ground and hide there forever…
Grayfist had wanted to keep playing a bit longer, but seeing that it could no longer be hidden, he had no choice but to stop.
He shook his head helplessly, let out a sigh, then looked at Pocolo and patted him on the shoulder.
"Brother, sorry about that. When it came time to cooperate with your performance, all I could do was turn a blind eye."
"If you want to be an actor, you still need to learn from me."
"I'm not pretending anymore. I'm laying my cards on the table, I'm the mole."
As he said this, Grayfist looked at Pocolo with a satisfied expression and continued.
"But I did quite enjoy those compliments you gave me earlier."
"My outlook really is pretty broad."
"Don't you think so, Black Blade brother?"
Grayfist spoke while giving Black Blade a playful look.
Before Black Blade could respond, Grayfist continued, "This time, I really went above and beyond."
"Look at that, until just before Blue Demon and the others showed up, this poor guy was still completely in the dark, wasn't he?"
Although Grayfist's words were full of hints that he wanted a reward, he wasn't after material things.
To put it simply, he was holding a grudge. He still remembered Black Blade's earlier roundabout remark implying that he wasn't very smart. His little scheme was nothing more than wanting Black Blade to praise him.
Seeing Grayfist's smug little expression, Black Blade almost blurted out, "Then I'll reward you with a little red flower."
But reason made him swallow those words back down. After all, this was a public setting, it was better to stay serious. He could make it up to Grayfist in private later.
With that in mind, Black Blade beckoned to Grayfist.
"You won't be shortchanged. It's time to get down to business."
Even though he didn't get the praise he wanted, Grayfist wasn't clueless. No matter what, the important matters came first.
He immediately led his people to stand behind Black Blade.
Once Grayfist and his group were in position, Black Blade finally turned his gaze toward Pocolo.
"Now we can properly talk about that 'win-win' you mentioned."