Transmigration

"Newbie, why are you still spacing out?"

Lin Mo looked up to see a middle-aged man with rough skin and deep wrinkles on his face.

"Here, your weapon. Hold on to it tight. A soldier who loses his weapon on the battlefield is no different from losing his head."

Lin Mo blankly accepted the sword handed to him—a blade about a meter long, its edge marred by rust and dried bloodstains that would not wash away.

He stared blankly at the blood on the blade, his thoughts in turmoil.

Old Wright patted him on the shoulder and did not disturb him further.

He understood the confusion and fear of these newcomers. After all, they were neither soldiers nor battle-hardened adventurers. If Ragul Town's recent situation had not been so dire, the lord would never have conscripted these rookies to hunt goblins in Lorraine Forest.

He could only hope this would really work... More and more girls had been abducted from the town lately. If they let those damned goblins continue growing stronger, Roland Town might end up like Ragul Town not long ago and fall completely.

Shaking his head, he turned around, picked a barely passable weapon from the pile of scrap metal issued by those above, and continued handing them out to the next newcomer.

"Ah..."

Lin Mo stared at the sword in his hand and let out a long sigh as memories surged over him like a tide.

He was a transmigrator.

In his previous life, Lin Mo had possessed no exceptional talent. After ten years of grueling study, he got into an ordinary university, joined an ordinary company, and lived an ordinary life.

Meager pay, frequent overtime, a body growing increasingly sickly, and calls from his parents now and then urging him to go on blind dates...

Even so, that life seemed far better than his current circumstances.

For no reason at all, he had transmigrated to another world. Though his body seemed to have become a few years younger as a result, he had immediately and muddleheadedly become a "strong laborer" drafted to subjugate goblins.

Running was not an option. This had been a "voluntary" conscription to begin with, and now that he was already here, trying to back out would count as disrupting morale. The guards' gleaming blades would teach him a lesson.

On the way to the camp, he had seen several people unwilling to accept it. Some had been whipped and dragged here by force. Those who resisted too fiercely had been made examples of—a single strike on the spot, precisely severing their heads.

Lin Mo lowered his gaze to the weapon he had just received.

If there was any good news at all, it was probably the line of text that had suddenly appeared before his eyes.

Damaged Inferior Sword

Weapon Type: One-Handed Sword

Grade: Inferior (Gray)

Description: A broken sword covered in rust, so dull it probably could not even slice vegetables properly. Of course, even when it was brand-new, it was not necessarily very sharp.

A Golden Finger, or perhaps a cheat?

Those were the terms often used in the novels he had read in his previous life.

Perhaps because of this Golden Finger, he had naturally learned this world's language.

Taking advantage of that, during the brief time since being sent here, Lin Mo had learned some basic information about this world by listening in and asking simple questions.

First of all, this was a world where supernatural power existed.

Those with talent could become "classes" through training and learning skills, gaining powerful strength. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of people lacked such opportunities and talent.

Ordinary people who could not become classes could mostly only support themselves through production work or by working for wealthy lords. Some chose to risk their lives as adventurers, fighting low-level monsters for bounties.

Though the income was far below that of formal classes, it was still much better than working as a laborer. The price was that they could lose their lives at any time.

—and that was exactly what he was about to do.

Subjugating goblins was not like war, where a great army could be dispatched to wipe them out—in fact, a small town like Roland Town did not have that many troops in the first place.

Even if it did, those green-skinned dwarves were greedy and cruel, yet cunning and cowardly. The moment they spotted a human army, they would all retreat deep into the forest, making them difficult to pursue.

Once the army withdrew, they would emerge again at once and continue pillaging supplies and civilians.

As a border town near Lorraine Forest, the people of Roland Town had long since figured out the best way to deal with these creatures.

That was to form teams of three to five people like adventurers did, then act separately. This would neither frighten the goblins into fleeing nor leave them without a decent chance of winning, so long as the goblins did not outnumber them too heavily.

Experienced adventurers would choose suitable companions and raise the team's combat strength as much as possible, but unlucky conscripts like them had no such choices.

Lin Mo raised his head and looked at the teammates assigned to him.

Two unshaven middle-aged men were huddled together, quietly complaining about something.

A boy who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen gripped his sword tightly and kept his head down without speaking.

The last was a young man who had received his weapon just after Lin Mo.

The young man was looking around with his head raised. When he noticed Lin Mo watching him, he bared his teeth in greeting.

"Hey, brother... your clothes look really cool."

Clothes from his former world did indeed seem somewhat out of place here. Fortunately, he was not wearing anything bizarre enough to make others mistake him for a suspicious heretic.

When Lin Mo did not reply, the young man came closer, examined him carefully, then nodded. "Pretty nice. How about lending them to me?"

Lin Mo sized up the young man before him. He was short, sallow, and skinny, dressed in a darkened old garment with several patches on the hem and cuffs.

"Do you know what we're going to do?"

Lin Mo answered with a question.

"Go die?"

The young man smiled indifferently. "Whatever. Even if I stay in town, I'll starve to death sooner or later!"

During peaceful times, farming or working for the noble lords could at least barely fill one's stomach. But now monsters ran rampant, stealing stored food and ruining farmland. Trade routes had also become perilous due to goblin attacks, and many merchant associations had chosen to suspend business for the time being. The wealthy lords could not do business, and poor wretches like them had nothing to eat.

"Then do you know when we're leaving?"

"How would I know? You'd have to ask Old Wright, though he might not tell you either... After all that, are you lending me those clothes or not?"

"No."

"Tch."

The young man curled his lip and sat down off to the side in disappointment. "When the goblins smash your head in, I'll strip those clothes right off you."

Lin Mo could not be bothered with him. Since he could not get any more information, he needed to use this time to study his Golden Finger and find a way to survive the coming battle.

Recalling the sensation from earlier, Lin Mo tried to focus and looked down at himself.

A few seconds later, several lines of translucent text appeared before his eyes.

Sure enough, he could see not only items, but his own attributes as well.

[Name]: Lin Mo

Class: None

Attributes:

Strength: 4 (the maximum strength one can exert)

Agility: 4 (movement speed and reaction speed)

Constitution: 4 (vitality, defense, and endurance)

Spirit: 5 (mental fortitude, perception, and focus)

Mana: 0 (a power only Mage lords possess)

As expected, for a modern person who rarely exercised, his attributes did not look very good.

But...

Skills:

Slacking Off Lv4 (99/100): You have grown accustomed to slacking off at work. When acting in a group, this reduces your presence and lowers the chance of your "laziness" being discovered.

There it is!

Lin Mo's eyes lit up. All those years of adhering to the principle that "a day at work without slacking off is a day not worked" had not been in vain. He had always devoted himself to researching ways to slack off without getting caught, and now it could finally prove immensely useful.

This skill might be the key to whether he survived!

"Newbies, get ready to set out!"

Just as Lin Mo was studying his status panel, a burly man in armor walked over and struck the ground with the shaft of his lance.

"Those damned goblins have been getting more and more brazen lately. Now is your chance to earn merit and change your lives. The lord has said that for this expedition, you will receive the same treatment as adventurers. Kill one goblin, and you'll be rewarded with 100 Copper Coins!"

"Whoa!"

As soon as his words fell, the once-dead camp seemed to come alive. Light appeared in many people's eyes, including the two middle-aged men and the young man who had just tried to take Lin Mo's clothes.

One had to know that goblins had no particularly valuable materials on them, so the reward for killing one had always merely been a minimum payment offered by local lords as encouragement—only 20 Copper Coins per goblin.

Now, however, it had leapt to five times the price. One hundred Copper Coins was equal to more than half a month's wages from hard labor in ordinary times, not to mention that in times like these, there was not even work to be found.

Kill one goblin, and one could buy a hundred black breads—enough to avoid starving to death for at least a month!

Amid the cheering crowd, Lin Mo quietly frowned.

One hundred Copper Coins sounded wonderful, but for ordinary people with no combat experience, could it really be so easy to earn?