The Unlucky Corvée Laborer

In a sparse shrub forest, a few rabbits were nibbling on tender green grass. Cotton-like white clouds drifted across the azure sky, and crisp birdsong echoed from time to time.

Within the jungle, a thin, small figure stumbled along, carrying a corpse. He suddenly burst into the clearing, immediately startling the surrounding small animals into a panicked flight.

He tossed the corpse aside, and a scent of blood began to permeate the air. Gasping for breath, the man turned and ran. Nearly a quarter of an hour later, he finally returned to a Little Camp in the woods. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the camp floor, utterly drained of strength.

The man's name was Zhou Ye. At this very moment, he gazed into the sky, his eyes filled with confusion, his heart heavy with endless melancholy and bewilderment.

In his past life, he had been an urban white-collar worker with a penchant for wilderness hiking during his holidays. How had he inexplicably transmigrated while on a perfectly safe route?

The person he had merged with upon transmigration was also named Zhou Ye.

This Zhou Ye was a farmer, only fourteen or fifteen years old. Both his parents were dead, leaving him as the sole survivor in his household, and he had never once left the vicinity of his village.

This otherworld resembled an ancient feudal society. The government was rapacious and extortionate, the landlords were oppressive in every way, and the impoverished masses at the bottom lived in hunger and cold. Most commoners were as malnourished as Zhou Ye; though they could barely stave off starvation, they appeared quite thin and frail.

The only difference was that, according to the village elders' tales, the outside world was even more terrifying. There were man-eating demonic beasts and martial masters capable of shattering stone and snapping metal. Without a doubt, this place had to be a high-martial plane... right?

Just over a month ago, the government had conscripted corvée labor, as the prefecture city required a massive workforce to dredge the river channels.

The prefecture city where Zhou Ye lived possessed many industries, including several mines, as well as the furs, materials, and medicinal herbs of demonic beasts and wild animals from the surrounding deep mountains. Since these were transported to various places via the city's docks, the river channels required regular dredging.

Very unluckily, Zhou Ye was on the list for this corvée labor. He and several thousand other commoners were gathered together.

However, once they arrived at the site, Zhou Ye and a few others were secretly singled out. Several soldiers then escorted them into the mountains, where they established this camp, forcing Zhou Ye and the others to chop wood and burn charcoal day and night.

Since the prefecture city had a population of over a million and relied on mining and smelting, firewood and charcoal were essential necessities.

Furthermore, the farmland and forests surrounding the city largely belonged to local aristocratic families, who forbade outsiders from entering to chop wood or hunt. They were forced to head to the distant mountain regions.

But the mountain regions were home to fierce beasts, and the deep mountains even held powerful demonic beasts. Thus, chopping wood and burning charcoal was relatively dangerous. The price of firewood and charcoal in the city was also quite high.

Because of this, dredging the river was the government's business, but the money from selling firewood and charcoal went into their own pockets.

Since there were so many commoners serving corvée labor—and they were cheap, free laborers who brought their own rations—why not pick a few to do private work? Thus, the overseeing officials and soldiers began to collude, eventually dumping Zhou Ye and the others into the mountain forest.

Of course, they dared not enter the deep mountains, staying instead in the outer fringes of the mountain region where the danger was relatively low.

Just like that, for over a month, Zhou Ye and the others had been working from dawn till dusk under the lash of the soldiers' whips, having already burned and transported several batches of charcoal down the mountain.

It must be said that it was indeed somewhat dangerous, and they had encountered fierce beasts several times, but thanks to their numbers, they had always managed to drive the beasts away without incident.

But no one expected that this time they would provoke a sounder of wild boars. Under the boars' rampaging charge, neither the soldiers nor laborers like Zhou Ye could withstand such a group assault; they were either killed or fled.

The original owner of the body must have died in this chaos, which ultimately led to Zhou Ye transmigrating into this body...

Gasping for air, Zhou Ye slowly sat up from the ground. To his surprise, his transmigration benefit arrived right on time, and a virtual panel appeared before his eyes:

[Zhou Ye (Commoner): 14]

Root Bone: -3

Comprehension: +3

[Basic Stats]

Health: (30/80 Extremely Weak)

Strength: -3

Agility: -2

Physique: -3

Spirit: +4

Charisma: -2

[Cultivation Techniques]

[Martial Skills]

Basic Chopping (Unranked): Not Initiated (0/10)

Free Attribute Points: 5

Note: Newbie gift pack has been received, 5 Free Attribute Points.

Zhou Ye was quite familiar with this kind of datafication of the body. He studied it carefully.

For an ordinary person, the average value was generally 10, and anything within plus or minus 2 was considered normal—merely a difference between being slightly stronger or weaker.

However, in this body, on one hand, there was long-term malnutrition; on the other, he was young and not yet fully developed. Thus, most of the negative values were quite high.

The most eye-catching stats were Comprehension +3 and Spirit +4. This was likely due to the two souls merging, resulting in higher values.

Root Bone and Comprehension were key stats; if one wanted to add points, 5 Free Attribute Points could only increase them by 1. The others were basic stats, where 1 Free Attribute Point increased the stat by 1. As for Health, 1 Free Attribute Point added 10 to the maximum.

Of course, besides adding Free Attribute Points, if one could supplement nutrition, strengthen training, or as the body developed, those basic stats could also grow slowly.

Then there was Health, which was also quite low. He was in a state of sub-health. Below 50, it became "Weak," and below 30, it became "Extremely Weak." If it dropped below 10, it would be a "Near-Death" state, where he would likely lose the ability to move.

As for the appearance of the martial skill—Basic Chopping—it was likely due to the wood-chopping and firewood-gathering of these past few days... right? Although it was an unranked martial skill, it was a martial skill nonetheless.

Moreover, the basic martial skill had a data bar, which likely meant that once learned, it was learned forever, with absolutely no bottlenecks. As long as he kept working hard, he would definitely succeed in the end.

Of course, the most urgent matter at present was survival. He still had to finish allocating his Free Attribute Points.

Zhou Ye pondered for a while. The first allocation was extremely important; the worst thing to do was to spread points evenly, which would result in wanting to be capable of everything but actually being capable of nothing.

Charisma was definitely unnecessary; in this wilderness, he couldn't rely on his face to eat. Spirit was also... unnecessary; he didn't know what use it had for now.

Health and Physique were also ruled out. It wasn't that these two weren't important, but the original values were simply too low; adding 5 points would still leave a weakling as a weakling.

That left only Strength and Agility.

But if he added 5 points to Strength, it would become +2. He would go from a relatively weak commoner to a relatively strong commoner. He would still remain in the category of an ordinary person. If he encountered a fierce beast or a demonic beast, he would still face instant death.

Since that was the case, then Agility it was. Regardless, Agility +3 would already surpass the category of an ordinary person. Whether he could resist or not, at least he would have a chance to run away.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ye did not hesitate: Agility +1, Agility +1, Agility +1...

Before long, Agility: +3