Enemy-Killing Attribute-Drop System

Leaning back in the corner, Li Dao took out the flatbread, brushed off the dust, and raised it to his mouth.

Suddenly, just as the flatbread was about to enter his mouth, a voice rang out in his mind.

[Ding! First enemy kill completed. Enemy-Killing Attribute-Drop System activated.]

[One enemy killed. Attributes gained: 0.2]

[First kill completed. Attribute reward: 1]

The next second, Li Dao saw a flicker before his eyes. A panel resembling a game interface from his previous life appeared before him, while information about the system surfaced in his mind.

[Master: Li Dao]

[Physique: 0.8]

[Available attributes: 1.2]

A system?

A cheat?

Li Dao had never imagined he would possess something like a system.

When his memories first returned, he had certainly considered the possibility, but no matter what he tried, there had been no sign of one.

He had never expected that activating the system would require killing someone.

If he never killed anyone, wouldn't the system remain inactive forever?

If he hadn't ended up in the Death Row Camp and had remained that wastrel Earl of Anyuan, who knew when he would have activated it?

After a while, Li Dao finally suppressed his excitement. A system that arrived late was still better than no system at all.

He glanced at his system panel.

Just three lines. Absurdly simple.

He swore it was the simplest panel he had ever seen.

From the information in his mind, he also learned what the system did.

It was simple and brutal: killing enemies made their attributes drop.

He could add those dropped attributes to himself to increase his strength.

But why was physique the only attribute he could increase? Compared with the character panels in online games from his previous life...

Where was speed?

Where was spirit?

Where was strength?

Why was physique the only attribute?

Though puzzled, Li Dao wanted to test the system's actual effects first.

He looked at the system panel and willed it to change.

The next second, both physique and available attributes changed.

[Master: Li Dao]

[Physique: 1]

[Available attributes: 1]

It increased, but the effect...

Before Li Dao could finish that thought, a warm current appeared out of nowhere inside his body and instantly flooded every part of him. Even his mind received a faint, cool current.

The warmth came quickly and left just as quickly, disappearing after a few breaths.

"This..."

When he came back to his senses, Li Dao froze.

He discovered that his body had changed noticeably from before.

His thin frame had grown a little sturdier, and his muscles were more defined. What surprised him most was that even his mind felt much clearer. Every aspect of him had improved.

At that moment, he seemed to understand why physique was the only attribute listed.

That single attribute encompassed his entire being.

Strength, speed, constitution, and spirit were all counted under physique.

At that moment, Li Dao wanted nothing more than to give the system a thumbs-up.

Who would have thought that being simple and brutal would turn out to be the system's greatest advantage?

According to the system's explanation, an ordinary person's average physique was one. In other words, even after adding points once, he had only just reached the average level of an ordinary person.

As expected of a wastrel pampered since childhood, his physical condition hadn't even measured up to an ordinary person's.

Glancing at the system panel, Li Dao wasted no time hesitating and decisively added his remaining attribute point to physique.

The next second, an even stronger warm current appeared inside his body.

Under its influence, the body hidden beneath his prison clothes began to change visibly. His muscles repeatedly swelled and contracted, and even his internal organs seemed to expand and relax. A cool current flowed through his mind, leaving it increasingly clear.

Many memories that had long since blurred began to resurface in his mind.

This time, the warmth lasted more than a dozen breaths before disappearing.

Li Dao looked down and discovered that strengthening his physique had been like going through a second growth spurt. He had become much sturdier, and his formerly loose prison clothes now fit much more snugly.

Fortunately, the cell was so dim that no one noticed his transformation.

He clenched his fists, feeling strength well up within him.

Looking at his shackles, he felt as though he could snap them at any moment.

He knew this was an illusion caused by his sudden surge in strength.

A body twice as strong as an ordinary person's simply couldn't snap iron chains as thick as a thumb.

According to the system's explanation, killing an enemy yielded one-tenth of that enemy's total attributes.

That meant the burly man's physique had already been twice that of an ordinary person. If even he hadn't managed it, Li Dao naturally couldn't either.

By his estimate, his physique would need to reach at least five points before he could break these chains.

"Five points of physique. By the system's calculations, that would take killing fifty ordinary enemies."

At that thought, he instinctively turned his gaze toward the other people in the cell.

But he quickly abandoned the idea.

He wanted to grow stronger, but he wouldn't pursue strength mindlessly.

If he started slaughtering people indiscriminately for that reason, he figured he would ultimately become nothing more than a slave to power. Would the man he became still be the man he was now?

Besides, the system was called the "Enemy-Killing Attribute-Drop System."

As its name suggested, he had to kill enemies.

Though everyone in the cell was a condemned prisoner, they bore him no grudges and had done him no wrong. They didn't count as enemies.

Of course, all of that depended on his own judgment.

If he disliked someone, then even without any grievance between them, that person could become his enemy.

In short, it all came down to Li Dao's own instinctive feelings.

"Grrr..."

Li Dao rubbed his stomach as hunger rose within him, even fiercer than before.

A side effect?

But that wasn't quite the right way to think about it. A stronger body naturally needed more food.

Unfortunately, he only had one water-soaked flatbread in his hand, nowhere near enough to meet his body's current needs.

After brushing a little dust off the flatbread, Li Dao stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.

Yet after that mouthful, Li Dao felt no difference at all. It was barely enough to fill a gap between his teeth.

He began to understand why the burly man had fought over food earlier. For someone with a strong body, who could possibly get by on this little?

"I should sleep. Sleeping will reduce my energy consumption."

Li Dao leaned against the wall and half closed his eyes, still gripping a sharpened wooden splinter in his right hand.

Though his physique was now twice that of an ordinary person, he was still flesh and blood. If someone killed him, he would die, so he still had to be careful.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Half asleep, Li Dao was awakened by a disturbance.

Opening his eyes, he saw two soldiers unlock the cell door and walk inside.

"Oh, another one dead."

Neither soldier found anything unusual about the burly man's corpse. They seemed long accustomed to such sights.

One of the soldiers said cheerfully, "This one's mine, then."

"Yours, yours."

The other soldier waved a hand.

The soldier who had spoken first looked pleased. He drew a small knife from his waist and crouched beside the burly man.

With a slice of his knife across the man's left ear, he cut off a bloody ear.

Rather than finding it disgusting, the soldier cheerfully wrapped the ear in a rag and tucked it inside his clothes.

Finally, the two soldiers glanced around the cell, then dragged the burly man's corpse away.

Li Dao watched without any change in expression. He was already used to it.

He also understood why the soldier had cut off the ear.

In the various frontier regions, a left ear represented military merit.

One reason the Great Qian Dynasty was so powerful was that its army had a system similar to that of the ancient state of Qin in his previous life.

The military merit rank system.

Anyone who joined the army and killed enemies on the battlefield could earn military rank through their achievements, thereby rising through the social hierarchy.

The method for calculating military merit was simple: enemy left ears were used to count kills, and merit was tallied accordingly.

After all, each person had only one such ear. Killing an enemy and cutting off their left ear served as proof of a kill.

When the soldiers handed in those left ears, their superiors recorded the corresponding merit.

With enough merit, they could earn promotions and higher pay.

Naturally, the burly man's severed left ear would be passed off by the soldier as proof of an enemy kill.

Fortunately, the Ministry of War strictly regulated the Death Row Camp. Condemned prisoners were allowed to fight and kill one another, but soldiers were forbidden from killing prisoners themselves. Otherwise, besides worrying about dying on Death Row Camp missions, the prisoners would also have to guard against low-ranking soldiers murdering them.

In short, the same truth held: condemned prisoners in the Death Row Camp had no rights whatsoever.

Of course, it wasn't quite fair to say that the condemned prisoners in the Death Row Camp had no hope at all.

On the frontier, the Great Qian Dynasty's Death Row Camp had followed one special rule ever since its establishment.

If a condemned prisoner earned enough military merit, they could leave the Death Row Camp openly and legitimately, receive a new identity, and live in the world anew.

At that point, all their crimes would be erased, and they could start over with a clean slate.

Yet since the founding of the Great Qian Dynasty, countless condemned prisoners had come and gone. How many of them had ever walked out of the Death Row Camp?

The total could be counted on one hand.

That was because leaving the Death Row Camp was simply too difficult.

So difficult that, measured in military merit, a condemned prisoner would need to collect roughly five hundred left ears to leave.

In other words, they had to kill five hundred enemies before they could leave the Death Row Camp.

What did that mean?

For most ordinary condemned prisoners, it was an utterly unreachable dream.

Even if five hundred enemies stood still and let an ordinary person kill them, it would probably take half a day, until their hands went limp from exhaustion. Killing them on a battlefield was another matter entirely.

Most crucially, the Death Row Camp generally charged into the most dangerous parts of the battlefield, greatly increasing the death rate.

The vast majority of condemned prisoners couldn't even survive their first mission, let alone kill enemies and collect their ears.

In short, the rule gave people hope, then plunged them into despair.

When Li Dao had first learned of this rule in the Death Row Camp, he too had felt despair.

But now, he no longer thought that way.

Five hundred was a lot, but as long as he stayed alive, he believed the system's abilities would let him do it.

Moreover, he now wanted not only to leave the Death Row Camp, but also to live better in this world.

Because he had experienced just how comfortable life could be for this world's upper classes.

I'll set a small goal: collect five hundred enemy left ears and leave the Death Row Camp.

Li Dao silently thought to himself.