Rewards After the Battle

But Shen Mu had no time to think too much. Looking at the contents of the dialogue box before him, he blurted out almost instinctively:

"Start Game!"

Data error... Repairing data...

Repair complete.

Character Template successfully loaded.

Then, the instant the dialogue box appeared on Shen Mu's retina, a burst of white light enveloped him.

Looking closely, one would discover that this white light was actually a Data Stream composed of countless zeros and ones!

It spread out from Shen Mu's forehead before truly manifesting in this world.

Inside Shen Mu's tiny apartment!

However, the white light formed by the countless streams of data lasted only three to five seconds before vanishing again in an instant.

But when the white light faded and Shen Mu regained his senses, he found his body weighed down, and there seemed to be something extra in both his hands—

When Shen Mu looked down, he saw that his left hand held a Hide Round Shield pieced together from several hard Wooden Boards and covered with a layer of animal hide.

In his right hand was a gleaming longsword with a sharpened edge. Holding it gave him a familiar feeling, as though he already knew how to wield it for maximum killing power.

As he looked down further, Shen Mu also discovered that the jeans and shirt he should have been wearing had somehow been replaced by a gray, short-sleeved leather jerkin. It looked rather worn, yet it had considerable weight and a certain defense effect.

Even the sneakers on his feet had become leather boots that looked hand-worked and kneaded into shape!

"Character Template?!" Shen Mu immediately understood.

It was this set of starter gear that had allowed him, last night, to lead the five newly recruited Swadian Recruits and easily defeat four bandits, even capturing two of them!

Clearly, when the Character Template had loaded, it had also loaded the character template from the original Warband game he had played the night before!

"There's movement ahead!" Before Shen Mu's astonishment could settle, a warning suddenly sounded beside his ear.

It was Chinese!

And five Swadian Recruits dressed in gray-black Linen Robes, with One-handed Axes at their waists, rotten wooden shields on their backs, and Long-handled Sickles raised in their hands, stepped past Shen Mu and stood shoulder to shoulder inside the apartment.

Ahead of them was the brazier burning in the apartment. Though the five Swadian Recruits looked thin and were only around sixteen years old, they held their roughly two-meter-long Long-handled Sickles—assembled from wooden poles and sickle blades—like a wall of men, expressionlessly blocking the way before Shen Mu.

They gave Shen Mu an absolute sense of security!

It really is the character template I played at home last night, along with the Swadian Recruits I recruited! Shen Mu was overjoyed.

Thinking about it now, that was probably why his predecessor had slit his wrists and died, yet he had crossed over into this body completely unharmed.

Perhaps it was because the Mount & Blade System had been awakening!

"Urgh..." But just then, as if it had sensed the presence of living humans in the apartment, the short roar from the bathroom suddenly became agitated.

The blurry shadow behind the frosted glass grew larger and larger, as though it had found an exit.

With a sharp crash.

The glass in the bathroom door was smashed from the inside out.

"Urgh!" At the same time, a swaying figure stepped through the shattered bathroom door and entered the apartment!

"Zombie!" The term instantly surfaced in Shen Mu's mind.

It came from his predecessor's terrifying memories.

Especially when he saw the Undead Monster staggering toward them—its entire body grayish-black, dressed in ragged hemp clothing, its limbs twisted so badly it could barely walk properly, its lifeless eyes like those of a dead fish—his heart began racing several times faster!

The blazing fire in the brazier seemed to sense something and began flickering slightly.

The abundant light shone directly upon the zombie that had emerged from the bathroom and staggered into the apartment.

Wisps of gray mist rapidly seeped from the zombie's body under the firelight, only to be forcibly evaporated by the flames just a few steps away.

The zombie let out low growls, but it did not dare cross the brazier and pounce on Shen Mu and the others.

Because these Undead Creatures were innately afraid of fire and light!

"As expected, my predecessor's memories were right." Shen Mu was glad he had believed those memories and made preparations.

But from behind the five Swadian Recruits, Shen Mu could not see the expressions on their faces.

They were silent, yet they also seemed... eager to give it a try!

Thus, amid Shen Mu's silence, the five Swadian Recruits from the same village seemed to have made up their minds.

They tightened their grips on their Long-handled Sickles.

Looking at the ugly zombie staggering before them, clearly wary of the brazier, they showed no fear. Instead, they nodded together, raised their Long-handled Sickles, and thrust forward!

"For Swadia!" they shouted.

Then they raised their Long-handled Sickles high, as though they were swinging the sickles and pitchforks they had wielded countless times in the countryside, and brought them down heavily upon the zombie's head!

Before Shen Mu's nearly dumbfounded eyes, the Long-handled Sickles, already sharpened to extreme keenness,

split the zombie's head apart like a watermelon!

Its sturdy skull could not withstand the heavily descending Long-handled Sickles.

Fragments of grayish-black skull, gray brain matter, and black blood long dried within its veins were sent flying in all directions by the sharp Long-handled Sickles.

In just one exchange, the zombie that had been so ferocious in his predecessor's memories, one that had required every possible effort to kill,

had its head split apart just like that and fell to the floor with a thud.

Only a headless corpse with a mangled neck remained!

The battle ended just like that.

Ding! After a brutal battle, all enemies have been eliminated!

Your party has gained Experience Points.

Evaluation: This was a clean and efficient battle. (Excellent)

A dialogue box then appeared on Shen Mu's retina.

But it was not the only dialogue box.

Another dialogue box appeared behind it.

Ding! You have completed the first battle of your life and eliminated the enemy cleanly and efficiently.

You have therefore received the following rewards: Swadian Recruits ×10, Denar ×100, wheat ×5 sacks.

"Rewards?!"

Before Shen Mu could react, countless tiny streams of data suddenly burst from his forehead again and began spreading throughout the apartment.

They spread from the corners to the surrounding spaces that still had some room, transforming into streaks of light.

"This is the system distributing the rewards." Shen Mu seemed to understand.

Within this cramped apartment of less than thirty square meters, the first things to appear were five tightly packed linen sacks piled in a corner, each filled with sun-dried, roughly husked wheat grains.

Then, a small bulging money pouch appeared on the bed, filled with one hundred silver Denar.

Next came another ten Swadian Recruits, all wearing gray Linen Robes, carrying rotten wooden shields on their backs, with axes at their waists and identical Long-handled Sickles in their hands.

They all opened their eyes and respectfully placed a hand over their chests before bowing to Shen Mu, who stood beside the bed. "Greetings, Mr. Shen Mu!"

"Yes, very good." Shen Mu answered as though their thoughts were connected.

At the same time, he looked at the Swadian Recruits before him, his subordinates, whose numbers had now surged to fifteen.

Shen Mu was in an exceptionally good mood!

But seeing everyone crammed into the apartment like sardines in a can, Shen Mu could not help feeling a little helpless.

The apartment his predecessor had found had originally been chosen precisely because its small space made it easier to hide.

Now that he had so many men, this thirty-square-meter apartment was clearly no longer a suitable place.

"Once it gets light, I'll have to find more rooms." Shen Mu stroked his chin, but he did not think it would be difficult.

After all, in this world where the Spiritual Realm Rules had descended upon Blue Star and countless Undead Monsters had ravaged it for three years, unoccupied houses were everywhere.

For example, Shen Mu's apartment was the easternmost end unit. Expanding outward would give him access to more rooms.

"Anyway, it seems like I'm the only one living on this top floor, the seventh floor." Shen Mu recalled that when he had moved in a few days ago, he had barely encountered any neighbors. Naturally, there were no neighborhood committees or building management committees either.

"I feel like I've forgotten something." As Shen Mu pondered, he constantly felt as though something had slipped his mind.

"Mmmpf! Mmmpf!" Urgent, muffled whimpers suddenly came from the area by the window.

"Hm?" Shen Mu turned his head.

Beside the bed were two people with their hands and feet tied and their mouths stuffed with rags. Bare-chested, they wriggled like caterpillars as they looked toward Shen Mu in terror.

When they realized Shen Mu was looking at them, they began muffled cries even more frantically, as though they wanted to say something.

"The two bandits I captured?!" Shen Mu recognized these two classic and weakest mobs from the game world.

But looking at the terror in the bandits' eyes, he realized their gazes did not seem to be directed at him.

Shen Mu frowned and turned around. "They're looking behind me?"

Then—

He saw another swaying black shadow emerge from the shattered bathroom doorway.

But it was not the filthy zombie from before, as though it had just crawled out of a grave.

It had become nothing but a skeleton.

Dressed in tattered clothing and holding either a rotten wooden stick or a thigh bone, it clacked its way out. The blue Soul Fire burning in its eye sockets held the same hatred for the living as any other Undead Monster.

"Skeleton." Shen Mu slowly spoke the Undead Monster's name, but he did not feel the same fear as before.

Perhaps that had something to do with the fifteen Swadian Recruits beside him, each gripping their weapons tightly.