"Oh no, the baby tree spirits are gone!"

Banana, who had been constantly watching the tree spirit pets, suddenly screamed in surprise. He unexpectedly discovered that most of the rarely seen tree spirit babies had vanished without a trace, a situation he found hard to accept.

After all the effort, to end up like this, it was very frustrating for Banana!

"Don’t just stand there, if you wait any longer, you won’t get a single pet!"

Su Ran immediately summoned ten magical skeletons. In his view, these plant-based monsters definitely didn’t have high mobility, and using ranged pets against them would absolutely dominate!

"Still, having pets is glorious..."

Looking at the Skeleton Army that Su Ran had just summoned, Banana, envious yet more resolute, decided to catch a pet. At this point, he had no mood to wait for Wu Qing’s arrival and grabbed a long bow, about to fit an arrow, but Su Ran stopped him.

"Banana, I’ll draw away these guardian tree spirits, you focus on capturing the pet!"

For Banana to get the pet he desired, Su Ran was all in. He immediately commanded his Skeleton Army to charge forward. Upon reaching the attack range, he ordered his skeletons to disperse and attack, planning to draw all the guardian tree spirits’ aggro toward them.

However.

Unexpectedly to Su Ran, although these tree spirits were aggro-locked, they showed no intention of pursuing and took the magical damage while defending their saplings.

"Damn, is it? Even aggro doesn’t work on this Pet Island?"

Su Ran was astounded by this scene. He initially wanted to create a capturing opportunity for Banana, but no dice, the tree spirits weren’t fooled.

"I thought it was just me who couldn’t lure them away. Never mind, Overturning Water, let’s stop. We can still find better ones later."

Seeing that the saplings were gone, Banana also gave up hope. After all, this mountain had plenty of wooden pets; missing a few didn’t matter!

"Wait a moment, let me experiment first,"

Su Ran ordered the Skeleton Army to concentrate their attack on one tree spirit while explaining, "Banana, since these tree spirits don’t resist, let’s see if the experience points are substantial. If we can get a good amount of experience, leveling up here wouldn’t be bad, huh!"

"Coming to Pet Island not to catch pets but to gain experience? Brother, where’s the thrill in that? You just don’t understand our plight, those of us who are single!"

Banana gave Su Ran a look full of reproach, his expression as though Su Ran had wronged him.

"Er, forget I said anything."

Su Ran wisely shut his mouth to avoid further hostility, but he was still going through with the experiment. After all, these guardian tree spirits were like targets, sitting ducks for the taking—where else could you find such a good deal?

It wasn’t long.

Thanks to the magical skeletons’ relentless efforts, one guardian tree spirit met its glorious demise. With a loud crash, it fell to the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust, and Su Ran successfully bagged the experience.

"Damn, why is it so disheartening?"

Seeing the amount of experience he gained, Su Ran immediately abandoned the idea of leveling up there.

"What’s up, shocked by the bountiful experience?"

Noticing something off with Su Ran, Banana couldn’t help asking. He was somewhat tempted himself; if the experience was high, after catching a pet, leveling up here would indeed be great. He still hadn’t reached level 40, and that Golden Crossbow had been sitting in his pack for ages, eager to be equipped and put his mind at ease.

"Shocked, yes, a measly 8 points of experience!"

Su Ran said nothing and pursed his lips dejectedly, "The system really won’t let us exploit any loopholes. This Pet Island event is not as simple as we imagined!"

"Overturning Water, brother, I told you, we are here to catch pets; you have to distinguish the main purpose from the secondary."

Banana glanced around and did not see any trace of Wu Qing, which made him somewhat anxious, "This dish is getting cold; why hasn’t Wu Qing showed up yet? She has a Pegasus mount, so she should have gotten here easily. Women are always dawdling."

"Who knows? Let’s go find the pets. We can’t waste such a good opportunity."

Su Ran’s curiosity about Pet Island grew stronger. Wild pets could appear in groups, and the opportunity ahead should not be small!

Now that no other players had discovered this place, it was time to seize the moment, or the advantage would be lost.

"Okay!"

The two struck an agreement and immediately headed toward the mountain top. Su Ran did not use the Treading on Air Technique but chose to move through the forest with Banana. Soon, they reached the mid-slope.

However, Su Ran was perplexed that not a single animal was in sight, not even a monkey, let alone a mosquito.

"Banana, have you noticed how eerily quiet this forest is!"

Su Ran slowed his pace and voiced his concerns to Banana beside him.

"Brother, don’t tell me you haven’t read the Divine and Demonic Forum post about the New Year event!"

Banana was quite surprised by Su Ran’s words and explained, "The post clearly explained that most parts of Pet Island are divided by categories. The island we are on now must be heaven for wood-type pets. To find pets of other types, we must look on other islands."

"So that’s how it is."

Su Ran finally understood the system’s intentions. It not only eliminated the players’ blind actions but also greatly prevented chaos at the scene.

"Brother, I don’t mean to criticize you, but it’s odd that you didn’t clarify the New Year event before coming. That’s really... Huh?"

Banana was about to continue when he caught sight of something ahead, stopping him in his tracks. He pointed forward and whispered to Su Ran, "Brother, there’s a new pet out there!"

Upon hearing this, Su Ran looked ahead and saw an isolated three square meters clearing nearby. A lone sapling swayed in the wind, looking out of place compared to the surrounding forest.

However,

what puzzled Su Ran was that not even a single guardian spirit appeared around this sapling pet. This was too abnormal!

Could it be...

this was the system giving the players a utility?

What a fortunate event!

"Don’t just stand there; go catch it before it refreshes and you’ll regret it!"

Seeing Banana seemingly indifferent, Su Ran couldn’t help but urge him. If they wasted this opportunity, they might as well stop catching pets and log off to celebrate the New Year.

"It’s a Bronze pet; even if we catch it, it’s of little use,"

Banana pointed at the sapling and began to educate Su Ran on the tier system of wood-type pets, "Brother, look at the branches. The more branches it has, the higher its tier and potential. Like this sapling in front of us, it doesn’t even have a single branch; it’s definitely the lowest tier pet. Even if caught, it would be good only for release."