The Right Way to Use His Cheat

Evening.

In a field at the southeastern edge of Mill Town.

A patch of golden rice lay trampled and scattered, as though several wild boars had torn through it.

"Huff... huff..."

Rain gulped down air.

Following his fixed stare, one would see two small, green-skinned creatures sprawled in pools of blood.

Rain looked down at the bloodstained pitchfork in his hands, feeling dazed. This was the first time he had killed an intelligent creature, in either this life or his last.

It was also his third day since arriving in this world.

In his previous life, he had done well in school and made it into university without much trouble. Unfortunately, for a humanities graduate, graduation might as well have meant unemployment.

Sure enough, after drifting for months, he had finally climbed onto an electric scooter and taken up delivery work.

But one day, while rushing an order, he had turned a corner and met his fate.

A truck had sent him to this world, reborn as an eighteen-year-old farmer.

An actual farmer!

On his first day here, Rain had awakened his "cheat":

[Name: Rain]

[Occupation: Farmer]

[Strength: 5] (Represents muscle strength and physical power)

[Agility: 5] (Represents coordination, flexibility, reaction speed, and balance)

[Constitution: 5] (Represents health, endurance, and vitality, including resistance to disease, fatigue, and injury)

[Intelligence: 7] (Represents mental acuity, memory, learning, reasoning, and logical thinking)

[Perception: 5] (Represents willpower, intuition, insight, and common sense)

[Charisma: 5] (Represents personal appeal, persuasiveness, and leadership)

(Note: An ordinary adult male has 5 points in each attribute.)

It said so plainly: occupation—farmer.

Intelligence was his only above-average attribute. Rain guessed that was because his soul came from the modern world, where he had spent more than a decade studying.

"Ugh."

"Monsters are showing up right beside me. How am I supposed to use this cheat?"

Rain could not help sighing.

From the memories of the body's former owner, he had learned as soon as he arrived that this world teemed with fantastical monsters and wondrous powers.

There were goblins, slimes, and kobolds one might encounter around Mill Town, and distant legends of dragons and gods. None of it seemed confined to a bard's tales.

After all, Rain had seen a slender female elf carrying a longbow at Mill Town's Oak Tree Inn.

Her long, pointed, fuzzy ears were impossible to miss.

When he had first arrived, Rain had been delighted. With a cheat, surely a bright future awaited him.

But after two days, he had found that it did nothing besides display his physical attributes.

There was also a row of square slots beneath the attribute panel, much like the skill bar in an online game.

Oddly, all four slots were empty.

Over those two days, he had tried concentrating while weeding, harvesting rice, and even chopping with a wooden sword, hoping the corresponding skill icons would appear. None had.

"Huh?"

"Wait! The slots aren't empty anymore?"

Rain froze. What had he just glimpsed out of the corner of his eye?

He immediately focused on the four square slots beneath his attribute panel again.

To his astonishment, the first and second slots now held two identical monster icons—

Portraits of the two goblins he had just stabbed to death with his pitchfork.

Both images were washed in pale gray, like memorial portraits.

"Is this... some kind of kill record?"

In truth, killing the goblins had been an accident.

Rain had come today to stack the stalks from a section of his family's harvested rice field.

Yes, stack them.

There was nothing strange about that. It was a skill he had inherited from the body's former owner.

After arriving, Rain had gained all the farming know-how his predecessor possessed: weeding, composting, planting, stacking, and more.

He could confidently say that if he ever made it back, he knew more about farming than most undergraduates from agricultural universities.

He had been stacking stalks with his pitchfork when he turned and suddenly spotted a sneaky green-skinned runt behind him, ready to attack!

Rain had not intended to fight. He ran.

The creature had a short dagger, and according to his military-training instructor in his previous life, if he encountered an attacker with a weapon, he should run at once.

Rain had listened.

Unfortunately, after only two steps, he found the other end of the path blocked by a second green-skinned runt wielding a wooden club.

Rain had no choice but to fight.

Once he did, he discovered that with a pitchfork in hand, he fought like a god of war.

Neither the first goblin's dagger nor the second's club could reach him for a while.

Though he had fumbled through the fight, a few thrusts of his pitchfork had killed them both.

Did the system absorb their souls because I killed them myself? Rain wondered, excitement rising.

After a moment, he tried focusing his mind on the first goblin icon.

The icon suddenly pressed inward like an elevator button.

The next instant, the square slot lit up.

The gray memorial portrait turned colorful, and the goblin in the icon looked vividly alive.

Its mouthful of sharp teeth and the drool about to drip from its jaws looked startlingly real.

For a moment, it seemed the goblin had come to life.

Before Rain could think further, he felt his muscles tighten slightly. Warmth rose in his lower abdomen, and an intense urge to reproduce surged into his mind.

"What..."

Still bewildered, he glanced at the attribute panel again:

[Name: Rain]

[Occupation: Farmer]

[Bloodline Bestowed: Common Goblin Bloodline]

[Bloodline Talents: Rapid Reproduction lv2... Agility lv1...]

[Strength: 5]

[Agility: 5 (+1)]

[Constitution: 5]

[Intelligence: 7]

[Perception: 5]

[Charisma: 5]

I can take on the bloodline of a goblin I just killed? Rain stared at the panel.

Naturally, his gaze went straight to the bloodline talents.

"Rapid Reproduction lv2?"

"It's even a level-two skill?!"

As a former university student, Rain had played his share of games. He knew a level-two skill was more powerful than a level-one skill.

A line of small text appeared after Rapid Reproduction, apparently describing its effect.

Rapid Reproduction lv2 effect: Can produce offspring with the vast majority of mammals without reproductive isolation. At least seven sperm can fertilize a single egg; offspring exhibit strongly dominant traits and grow rapidly.

"That effect..."

Rain was speechless after reading it.

Still, it helped him understand how green-skinned runts as weak as goblins could spread across this world.

With his limited knowledge of biology, he took the system's description to mean that even if a goblin's mate had only one egg, multiple sperm could enter it and produce identical multiples.

As for strongly dominant traits, that meant when goblins mated with other humanoid species, their offspring were generally still goblins.

They might inherit a few traits from the other species, but most of their physical features would be goblin.

Like how double eyelids were dominant.

"Agility lv1?" Rain soon noticed the second bloodline talent.

Compared with Rapid Reproduction lv2, Agility lv1 was clearly far more useful to him.

Agility lv1 effect: Agility +1.

(Note: At current physical condition.)

The tightening he had felt in his muscles must have come from this.

The system described Agility lv1 in only a handful of words.

But those few words meant a great deal.

Rain had finally realized the right way to use his cheat: kill monsters.