The Stuck Martial Arts Modifier (Please follow along, esteemed sirs, the plot will start to build momentum once it unfolds later)

["Crimson" loading 99%...]

Luo Bin stared fixedly at the illusory red panel before him.

Beside him, the stench of the communal bunk was overwhelming, with maddening sounds of teeth grinding and snoring rising and falling in waves.

The scene had a certain "peaceful stillness," but as a guard servant of the Pei Family, Luo Bin was now extremely anxious—because he was about to be sent off as cannon fodder, and his golden finger still hadn't activated!

Finally.

"Wake up, all of you, wake up, get up now—the goods have all been shipped to Long Wind Pier. The Green Bamboo Gang has caught wind of it. The young master sent me to call you to hold them off!"

"All of you, get the hell up!"

The old master of the Pei Family was originally a military examination graduate from the previous dynasty, enjoying immense wealth and status in this patch of Ping City, living to the age of eighty-three.

After his death in the third year of the Great Xin Republic, the Pei Family immediately faced "flooding skies and overturning seas"—the network of connections the old master had built in the county, the martial world, and the merchant guilds collapsed in an instant.

The Green Bamboo Gang had seized the timing, eager to quickly devour this fat piece of meat that was the Pei Family.

Luo Bin and the others were now positioned in an abandoned, dilapidated building half a kilometer north of Long Wind Pier, a place specifically arranged by Pei Yuan, the young master of the Pei Family, to facilitate protecting the family's gold, silver, and valuables as they were loaded onto the ship.

The distant whistle of a steamship, searchlights, the "heave-ho" shouts of laborers, and rickshaw pullers still busy late into the night gave Luo Bin a sense of unreality.

Two hours ago, he had been a graduate student conducting an experiment, and then, after a dizzying spin, a torrent of memories flooded into his mind.

In the blink of an eye, he had become a servant at the very bottom of society, a life as cheap as an ant's.

The only hope of survival lay deep in his consciousness—that [Crimson Panel].

As the rough men on the communal bunk dressed, one couldn't help but ask:

"Manager Xie, have my mother and wife boarded the ship? If they haven't, I'm not selling my life for this!"

"Manager Xie, what about my family..."

Everyone immediately clenched their fists and pressed forward, surrounding Xie Feng.

The news relayed back during the day by the Pei Family's mole in the Green Bamboo Gang was that the gang leader, Ran Shaohua, had decided with his men: from the Pei Family's direct bloodline to the servants and maids, not a single soul would be left alive tonight!

And the important figures of the Pei Family were now mostly on that steamship at Long Wind Pier, including the families of Luo Bin and these servants...

As for these servants themselves, they likely wouldn't live to see tomorrow's sun.

"Don't worry. Since I'm asking you to die for this, how could I not arrange your affairs? Your parents, wives, and children—the Pei Family will provide for them." Xie Feng grinned as he spoke.

"Now follow me, and hurry!"

The group grabbed their weapons—short-handled axes, broadswords, staffs—and followed Xie Feng in a deathly silence as they jogged toward Long Wind Pier, scattering the dockworkers in panic.

On the other side, a black car slowly drove toward the pier as well, followed by a disorderly crowd of about forty or fifty people, also clutching various weapons.

As the car drew closer, the window rolled down, and a man with a scar on the side of his face cursed loudly:

"Fine work from the Pei Family—what was decided within the gang this afternoon, and by evening you're already fleeing with the whole clan. Well-informed, aren't you?"

At that moment, the Pei Family's steamship was docked at the pier, with the last batch of goods still being loaded aboard. Meanwhile, Xie Feng, who had led the group here, had already vanished without a trace.

Only Luo Bin and these nearly twenty men remained on the pier, steeling themselves, caught between a rock and a hard place.

The Green Bamboo Gang was ruthless; its leader, Ran Shaohua, was known as the "Grass King" in Ping City, controlling a considerable amount of firearms and ammunition. Charging forward meant certain death.

But if they retreated up the ladder onto the steamship, they would surely meet a miserable end as well.

Yet dying for the worthless Pei Family—Luo Bin felt a deep resistance. In the fragmented memories of his predecessor, the young master Pei Yuan had beaten him viciously with a wooden staff during martial arts practice, and when he felt verbally slighted, he had shoved Luo Bin's face into a dog bowl... a litany of atrocities too numerous to list.

The two groups were about to clash in a bloody fight at any moment... How could he escape, and what path offered the best chance of survival?

The scar-faced man sitting in the black car was Luo Wendi, the hall master of the Green Bamboo Gang's Black Sheath Hall. He now stepped out of the car and shouted toward the ship docked at the pier:

"Have you forgotten? There are still thirty-two women, children, and elderly in the Pei Family compound. Aren't they Pei Family members?

Leaving these useless women and children behind in Ping City—are you offering them to the Green Bamboo Gang as sacrificial banners?"

Luo Wendi bellowed, his words clear and deliberate. The dozen or so men around Luo Bin froze briefly at the sound, exchanging uneasy glances.

A steamship whistle drowned out the crowd's restless noise. Pei Family steward Xie Feng suddenly appeared on the deck, his face twisted as he roared:

"Luo Wendi, you're spouting bullshit! Even if the Pei Family acts shamelessly, we wouldn't toy with the families of the brothers dying for us!

Brothers down below, if you don't believe me, I'll invite the young master and the old master out to explain to you face to face."

Xie Feng was sweating in panic. The May weather wasn't scorching, and the salty wind from the pier was cool against the skin, but his face was already flushed red—because the young master and old master who had been standing on the deck moments ago had disappeared.

The whistle sounded again. From within a tastefully decorated cabin on the ship came a calm, indifferent command:

"Xie Feng talks too much. Feed him to the fish."

"Leave the rest of that stuff behind. We can set sail immediately. The estate in Tianhai is already prepared. Getting settled there as soon as possible is the real priority."

"Understood, Father."

Pei Yuan, dressed in a sharp flannel suit, responded. He pulled off his tie, unbuttoned his cuffs, and walked out of the cabin.

Xie Feng, flustered and panicked, was about to enter the cabin to beg the old master and young master to give these servants an explanation, but he ran headlong into Pei Yuan. The latter, having trained in martial arts for years, possessed considerable strength.

One hand suddenly grabbed Xie Feng by the collar, shoving him backward until he stumbled. Xie Feng retreated to the edge of the deck before he finally realized what was happening, his face filled with terror as he begged for mercy.

"Master, I was wrong. I know I was wrong. Next time... no, there won't be a next time."

Pei Yuan's smile was warm as he asked politely, "Steward Xie, what exactly were you wrong about?"

"I-I-I, this servant was wrong to reason on behalf of those lowlifes, wrong to think of seeking justice for them. There will never be a next time..." Xie Feng was practically sobbing as he said this.

"Good. Then there won't be a next time..."

A Pei family servant stood on the deck, raising a club to savagely strike Xie Feng's aged head.

A corpse sank heavily into the riverbed, stirring no ripples in the dark night, nor any echo worth mentioning.

In the end, it landed in the eyes of Luo Bin and the others.

"The Pei family broke their word again. Why should we fight to the death for them?" Luo Bin murmured with a sigh.

He truly didn't want to die. He hadn't lived enough in his past life, and now, before his golden finger had even activated—was he really going to die?

Heaven grants no extra years...

The sound of the steamship slowly starting up came through. The Pei family had abandoned their last batch of goods, and a burly man named Meng Jiu found it hard to accept this reality.

Deep down, he believed that the prestigious family he had served for half his life couldn't possibly be so heartless and ungrateful.

"Whatever—I've got nothing to lose. Today, for the Pei family, I'll fight you Green Bamboo Gang scum to the death!"

Meng Jiu grabbed his staff and charged toward Luo Wendi's direction.

But before he could take two steps...

Pfft—

A blade gleaming with cold light pierced through Meng Jiu's body from behind.

"Ah Bin, what are you doing?!!"

"Have you lost your mind, Ah Bin? Why did you kill Meng Jiu? We've lived together for two years—two years!!"

Enduring the searing pain, Meng Jiu lowered his head in disbelief at the blade tip protruding from his back, then turned to glimpse the young man's face splattered with hot blood... youthful features, tinged with ruthlessness, and in his eyes, a desperate craving for life.

Then his consciousness sank into endless darkness.

[Crimson Martial Arts Modifier, fully loaded. Host, please check at your convenience.]

So taking first blood was the trigger to activate it. Brutal enough.

Luo Bin's eyes were bloodshot, his whole body trembling, adrenaline surging. He felt not a shred of the fear of killing, only elation at the panel's activation.

After all, anyone who killed regularly knew: when it came to transmigration, without a golden finger, you might as well kill yourself early.