The Right Way to Use a Cheat

Evening.

In a field at the southeastern edge of Mill Town.

A patch of golden rice had been trampled into a mess, as though several wild boars had rampaged through it.

"Huff... huff..."

Rain gasped for breath.

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

Rain lowered his head and looked at the bloodstained pitchfork in his hands, feeling somewhat dazed. This was the first time he had killed a sapient creature, in either this life or his previous one.

It was also his third day since transmigrating to this world.

In his previous life, he had done well in school and sailed smoothly into university. Unfortunately, as a humanities graduate, finishing university had practically meant becoming unemployed.

Sure enough, after wasting several months following graduation, he had finally hopped onto an electric scooter and joined the gig economy.

Unfortunately, while rushing to complete a delivery, he had turned a corner and met his destiny.

And so, a Dayun truck had sent him to this world, where he was reborn in the body of an eighteen-year-old farmer.

An actual farmer!

On his very first day after transmigrating, Rain had awakened his "cheat":

[Name: Rain]

[Class: Farmer]

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

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

[Constitution: 5] (Represents health, endurance, and vitality, reflected in resistance to disease, resistance to fatigue, ability to withstand damage, and so on)

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

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

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

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

It said so clearly above: class—farmer.

Intelligence was his only higher attribute. Rain guessed that was because his soul belonged to a modern person who had spent over a decade studying hard.

"Sigh..."

"There are already monsters right beside me. How am I supposed to use this cheat?"

Rain couldn't help sighing.

As soon as he transmigrated, he had learned from his predecessor's memories that this world was filled with fantastical monsters and wondrous powers.

From the Goblins, slimes, and Kobolds one might encounter around Mill Town to the distant legends of dragons and gods, none of them seemed to exist only in the tales of Bards.

That was because Rain had personally seen a slender, shapely female elf carrying a large bow on her back at the Oak Tree Inn in Mill Town.

Her long, pointed, fuzzy ears had been unmistakable.

When he first transmigrated, Rain had been delighted. With a cheat at his disposal, a bright future surely awaited him.

But after two full days, he had discovered that his cheat seemed to do nothing beyond displaying his body's various attributes.

Oh, right. Beneath the attribute panel was a row of square slots, much like a skill bar in an online game.

Strangely, though, all four slots were empty.

Over the past two days, he had tried concentrating while weeding, harvesting rice, and even swinging a wooden sword, imagining that corresponding skill icons might appear. Unfortunately, every attempt had failed.

"Huh?"

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

Suddenly, Rain froze. He had just caught something out of the corner of his eye!

He immediately focused his attention and looked again at the four square slots beneath his attribute panel.

To his surprise, the first and second slots now contained two identical monster icons—

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

The images were washed in a faint gray, however, like black-and-white 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 straw from a section of his family's harvested rice field.

Yes, stack straw.

Nothing strange about that. It was a skill belonging to the body's original owner.

After transmigrating, Rain had inherited all the skills a farmer needed to know, including weeding, composting, farming, and stacking straw.

He could confidently guarantee that, if he ever returned to his old world, his familiarity with farming would put most agriculture and forestry graduates to shame.

He had been stacking straw with his pitchfork when he turned around and suddenly spotted a shifty little green-skinned creature behind him, preparing to ambush him!

At first, Rain had no intention of fighting. He ran.

His opponent was holding a short dagger, after all. As his instructor during military training in his previous life had said, if you encountered a criminal carrying a weapon, you should run immediately without hesitation.

Rain had followed instructions.

Unfortunately, after taking only two steps, he discovered that the other end of the path was blocked by a second little green-skinned creature carrying a wooden club.

That left Rain no choice but to make a desperate stand.

Once the fight began, he discovered that, with a pitchfork in hand, he was like a man possessed by a god of war.

Neither the first Goblin's short dagger nor the second Goblin's wooden club could reach him right away.

In the end, though he had fumbled a little, a few thrusts of his pitchfork had actually killed both Goblins.

Did the system absorb their souls because I killed them myself? Rain couldn't help speculating, delight welling up inside him.

After a moment's thought, he tried focusing his mind on the first Goblin icon.

Suddenly, the icon sank inward like an elevator button being pressed.

The next instant, the square slot lit up.

The black-and-white memorial portrait abruptly became a color image, and the Goblin depicted on the icon turned lifelike.

Its mouthful of sharp teeth and the saliva that all but dripped from its mouth were vividly rendered.

For a moment, it was as though the Goblin had come alive.

Before Rain could think any further, he suddenly felt the muscles throughout his body tighten slightly. At the same time, warmth rose from his lower abdomen, and a powerful urge to reproduce flooded his mind.

"This..."

As he stood there bewildered, his peripheral vision caught the attribute panel again:

[Name: Rain]

[Class: Farmer]

[Applied bloodline: common Goblin bloodline]

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

[Strength: 5]

[Dexterity: 5 (+1)]

[Constitution: 5]

[Intelligence: 7]

[Perception: 5]

[Charisma: 5]

"I can apply the bloodline of the Goblins I just killed?" Rain stared in surprise.

Then, naturally, his gaze shifted to the bloodline talents.

"Rapid Reproduction lv2?"

"It's actually a lv2 skill?!"

Having been a university student in his previous life, Rain was naturally familiar with games. He knew that lv2 skills were more powerful than lv1 skills.

After Rapid Reproduction, there was another line of small text that seemed to describe its effects.

Rapid Reproduction lv2 effect: Can reproduce with the vast majority of mammals without reproductive isolation. Seven or more sperm fertilize each time, and offspring exhibit strongly dominant traits and grow rapidly.

"This effect..."

Reading the skill's effect left Rain somewhat speechless.

Still, it did help him understand how Goblins, those pathetic little green-skinned weaklings, could run rampant throughout this world.

Based on his limited knowledge of biology, he interpreted the system's description of multiple sperm to mean that, even if a Goblin's mating partner had only one egg, multiple sperm would enter it and produce identical multiples.

As for the offspring exhibiting strongly dominant traits, that meant that when Goblins mated with other humanoid species, their offspring would generally still be Goblins.

They might inherit some characteristics of the species their parent had mated with, but most of their physical features would still be those of Goblins.

Much like double eyelids being a dominant trait.

"Agility lv1?" Soon, Rain noticed the second bloodline talent.

Clearly, compared with the previous "Rapid Reproduction lv2," this "Agility lv1" was much more useful to him.

Agility lv1 effect: Dexterity +1.

(Note: Based on current physical condition.)

That must have been what caused his muscles to tighten just now.

Although the system's description of Agility lv1's effect consisted of only a few words.

The fewer the words, the bigger the deal.

Rain had already realized that this must be the right way to use his cheat—kill monsters.