Warrior Nation!

Rumble!

A violent explosion and a column of orange-red fire rose fiercely from a distant building.

At that moment, Merlin's body inevitably trembled again. Even with his cheat, it could not change the fact that he was still just an ordinary person with a bit of strength.

The fact that he was weak still could not be changed.

His cheat did not come with any novice gift pack or some miraculous, overwhelming power. He was still just an ordinary fourteen-year-old boy.

If he got shot, he would die.

The excitement brought by having a cheat was swiftly eroded by the sounds of gunfire and artillery all around him.

"It's six thirty in the afternoon. It'll be dark soon..." Merlin took a silver-cased pocket watch from his trouser pocket and opened it, looking at the time displayed inside.

It was his mother's keepsake.

A family photograph of three was clipped inside the opened cover of the watch.

The man was tall and handsome, the woman graceful and beautiful, and the child obedient and adorable.

His parents, and himself at the age of seven.

Merlin fell silent. A few seconds later, he raised his head and looked at the sky, which had already begun to dim.

It was October, and autumn evenings darkened rather quickly.

Then, as if recalling something, Merlin pulled a sheathed dagger from the back of his waist.

It was thirty-two centimeters long in total.

It looked somewhat old overall.

It was a short sword-shaped dagger.

The hilt had been wrapped in gold thread for a non-slip grip.

Click!

Grasping the hilt, he drew the dagger. In the dim light, a cold gleam flashed along the twin edges of the bright silver blade.

"This counts as equipment, right?"

Looking at the dagger in his hand, which he had brought from home for everyday self-defense, a glimmer appeared in Merlin's eyes.

It was an heirloom from his mother's side of the family.

It was said to have been passed down through the family for more than a century, an Heirloom Sharp Dagger inherited since the generation of his maternal great-grandfather.

With that thought, Merlin followed the instinct within him. At a mere thought, the dagger in his hand vanished into thin air. Then, in the Equipment Slot on the equipment interface before him, an image of a dagger appeared.

At the same time, a strange message from the Equipment Slot entered his mind, and Merlin instinctively understood it.

[Bind this equipment?]

[No!]

Merlin immediately refused in his mind.

That was because after equipping an item, there were two different equipment modes: [Bound] equipment and [Temporary] equipment.

With bound equipment, the Equipment Slot would be permanently occupied by that item, but all of the item's potential would also be fully developed.

Temporary equipment, on the other hand, could be stored in and retrieved from the Equipment Slot at will, but it could not deeply develop all of the item's potential.

As for this matter of [potential], Merlin did not understand much about it yet.

However, guided by instinct, Merlin used his mind to touch the image of the [dagger] that had appeared in the Equipment Slot. Information about the dagger appeared in his consciousness.

[Name: Heirloom Sharp Dagger]

[Effect: Slightly increases attack. Long-term equipment has a chance of allowing you to comprehend a dagger-type technical specialty.]

[Synchronization Value: 1%]

[Evaluation: A finely crafted heirloom dagger for self-defense. Cherished and used by every one of its wielders, it witnessed the development and maturation of a dagger technique.]

Feeling a surge of warmth appear from nowhere within his body, while a sense of strength slowly filled him, Merlin's eyes immediately lit up.

"I think... I can protect myself better now?!"

"Ahh—don't... Bang!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Screams rang out from outside the alley.

Merlin immediately held his breath, remaining perfectly still as he became alert.

At the same time, the dagger disappeared from the Equipment Slot and materialized in his right hand.

"Damn it! These infected people in Frevanz actually want to take their virus out of here! Damn pathogens! Listen up—don't let a single one go! Wipe them all out!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

"..."

Listening to the cold voice drifting in from the street outside, Merlin's eyes darkened. He clenched his teeth, the knuckles of the hand gripping his dagger turning faintly white as he murmured:

"Not a single one left?"

Before long, the gunfire outside ceased, and the hurried footsteps faded into the distance. Merlin remained motionless, an icy chill flooding his entire body.

"Live. I have to live well. I can't die. If I die, I'll have nothing..."

He muttered under his breath, and a vicious light gradually rose in his eyes.

If there had been a mirror, Merlin would have discovered just how horribly twisted his expression was.

Although he had only been an ordinary person living under the red flag in his previous life, ancient Huaxia blood ran through his bones.

It was... the Warrior Nation!

The spirit to resist oppression had been passed down and endured within his soul from beginning to end.

Not to mention his fourteen years of experience living in this chaotic world. Though he had never killed anyone, that ruthlessness still existed deep in his bones.

Especially after struggling here alone for the past three years. The reason he had managed to get by reasonably well was not because the people here were kind, but because Merlin dared to risk his life.

Slowly rising to his feet, Merlin cautiously leaned his head out and looked beyond the alley. A hundred meters away, everything was silent.

The surroundings were equally silent.

Looking at the walls on either side of the alley, which stood around two meters high, he knew that with his height of 1.7 meters, he could easily climb over them.

Lightening his steps, he slowly made his way out. The hundred-meter distance took him a full two minutes before he finally reached the mouth of the alley.

He slowly turned sideways and poked his head out. The street was empty now, littered everywhere with fallen corpses and the lingering "scars" left behind by gunfire and artillery bombardment.

His throat bobbed, his pupils gradually contracted, and his heart began pounding violently once more. Merlin took deep breaths, his eyes fixed tightly on the scenes of devastation before him.

He did his best to force himself to adapt as quickly as possible, swallowing repeatedly as he suppressed the nausea and urge to vomit.

"It's not like I've never seen dead people before. There are just a few more today. I have to adapt. If I can't adapt, I'll die..."

He muttered, urging himself on as he stared fixedly at a woman lying on her back three meters away, her chest blasted into a bloody mess by gunfire.

Beside her lay the corpse of a boy around eight or nine years old, blood still seeping from his nose and mouth.

There was a palm-sized patch of ghastly white on her neck. She was a carrier of Lead Platinum Disease.

Merlin's stomach kept cramping. His clenched teeth ground together as, after several minutes, he slowly exhaled a long breath.

After scanning both sides of the street and finding none of those executioners in gray-green protective suits, Merlin lay on the ground and crawled toward the woman, stopping half a meter away.

With a thought, nothing happened.

He then stretched out his hand, inching ever closer, but still nothing happened—until his somewhat cold left hand rested on her shoulder.

He swept his gaze over the surroundings. With no one else present, the woman's corpse vanished with a whoosh!

Merlin immediately rolled back into the alley. He stared blankly at the azure [Equipment Slot] before him, where the image of a woman's corpse had appeared.

[Name: Worthless Female Corpse]

[Effect: After equipping it, your body will continuously secrete a female factor as time passes.]

[Synchronization Value: 1%]

[Evaluation: A completely useless female corpse with Lead Platinum Disease. If you want your body to undergo strange changes, you can try equipping her for a long time.]

"Humans can be equipped too?"

"So this is what it means to be able to equip [all things]?"

"If dead people can be equipped... then what about living creatures?"

Thinking this, Merlin unequipped the female corpse, and it appeared on the ground before him.

After silently looking at the corpse for several seconds, Merlin pressed his thin lips together and slowly squeezed out two words: "I'm sorry!"

He reached out and closed her wide-open Sea Blue eyes.

A moment later, following his memory, Merlin stood by a garbage heap on another street, holding a large earth-gray rat that squeaked and shrieked in his hand. With the thought of [Equip], he looked at the gray rat still howling in his grasp.

The struggling creature was not placed into the Equipment Slot.

The next instant, he slammed it hard against the ground. With a splat, the rat was knocked unconscious. Immediately afterward, it vanished into thin air and appeared in the [Equipment Slot].

[Name: Unconscious Rat]

[Effect: After equipping it, you gain the biological traits possessed by a rat.]

[Synchronization Value: 1%]

[Evaluation: An injured rat. Though it carries all kinds of germs, it is still struggling to live. After equipping it for a long time, there is a chance to permanently gain the special talents possessed by this rat.]

At that moment.

His eyes gradually lit up!