Time: 230 BC!
Place: Qin-Han border!
The entire border was littered with corpses; broken swords everywhere, arrows stuck in the ground, shattered chariots, and tens of thousands of bodies lying lifeless on the earth.
Blood stained the land red.
Ruined walls and rubble, utterly bloody.
"Zhao Feng."
"Why are you working so hard carrying a corpse, kid?"
"You look like you've found treasure or something. If you like carrying corpses that much, this whole field is yours."
A soldier dressed in Qin Army uniform called out to a fellow soldier who was laboring to carry corpses.
When he finished speaking,
the surrounding soldiers all burst out laughing.
"Shizhang, you're not wrong."
"This kid really is built for corpse carrying."
"He's so fast, ten guys couldn't keep up with him."
The soldiers around laughed and said.
After the battle, Daqin Elite Soldiers fight and slaughter.
But cleanup duty has its own specialists—the corpse carrier soldiers, part of logistics.
Every one of them wore black cloths on their faces, probably to block the smell.
Their job on the battlefield was to clear away the bodies and bury them, to prevent disease.
Looking at these soldiers,
a young man with a black cloth over his face was working hard, slinging a corpse onto his back and quickly loading it onto the cart, then running off to grab another.
He didn't care at all about everyone's teasing.
"You guys don't know shit."
"I'm making money and getting stronger while I'm at it." Zhao Feng secretly celebrated inside.
Every time he touched a corpse,
he would randomly collect all kinds of attributes.
When Zhao Feng touched another dead Han soldier,
"Touched ordinary Han soldier corpse, successfully picked up 1 point of strength."
A notification panel showed up before Zhao Feng's eyes.
Then Zhao Feng quickly hoisted the corpse, easily tossing it onto the ox cart.
Once it was fully loaded, he hauled it off to bury.
"Speed—picked up over forty points of strength today. If one point equals a pound, I've gained over forty pounds of strength just in half a day."
"Feels good."
Every time Zhao Feng picked up a point of strength, he could clearly feel himself getting stronger.
The sensation of increasing strength made him very content.
"Successfully picked up 1 point of speed."
"Successfully picked up 1 point of lifespan."
"Successfully picked up 1 point of constitution."
Zhao Feng kept carrying corpses, and soon one ox cart was piled high.
All dead Han soldiers.
As for Daqin Elite Soldiers' corpses, those couldn't be handled so casually. They had to be arranged neatly and buried one by one.
That's the difference between enemy and ally.
Zhao Feng had been carrying corpses at this border for two days now; he was used to it.
Once the ox cart was full,
Zhao Feng shouted up at the Shizhang in charge: "Shizhang, I'm hauling corpses out."
"Go, go, go."
"Kid, you really are quick."
"Don't push yourself. We're plenty safe now; if you get tired, take a break. No rush." Wei Quan waved him off, giving a bit of concern to Zhao Feng.
"Yes, sir."
Zhao Feng replied with a smile.
Then he led the ox cart toward the burial ground.
On the way,
Zhao Feng opened up his attribute panel.
Host: Zhao Feng
Age: 15
Strength: 256 (The stronger the strength, the more power you can unleash.)
Speed: 188 (The higher the number, the faster you are.)
Constitution: 167 (The higher the constitution, the faster you recover from injuries, and your stamina never runs out.)
Spirit: 166 (The higher the spirit, the clearer your mind and thoughts; once it reaches a certain level, you can sense nature's spiritual energy.)
Lifespan: 86 years plus 32 days
Portable Space: 1 cubic meter
Clearly,
those thirty-two days were picked up in these few days by Zhao Feng.
At first, Zhao Feng started with all attributes around one hundred, like a regular person, but in just three days, he'd gained a huge boost in stats just from corpse picking.
"Only three days of corpse carrying, and just having my lifespan boosted by thirty-two days is enough to get excited."
"Corpse carrier soldier, what a badass unit."
"No need to charge, just clean up the battlefield."
"I really came to the right place."
"If I keep carrying corpses, keep picking up attributes, will I become immortal?"
"And if I keep going, once my strength and other stats hit over 1000, what then?"
Looking ahead,
Zhao Feng was full of hope.
Corpse carrier soldier—the job the glory-seeking Elite Soldiers despise the most.
As a citizen of Qin Territory and a healthy fifteen-year-old, Zhao Feng had no way to defy the government office's conscription order. Refusal meant prison, maybe even forced labor in the Northern Frontier building the Great Wall—with his family getting dragged down too.
To stay out of prison, to protect his mom and his sister,
he had no choice.
Four months ago, Zhao Feng arrived at Lantian Camp, spent a month in basic training,
and was assigned to the Logistics Junhou Camp, job: battlefield cleanup—so-called corpse carrier soldier.
Carrying corpses?
The first reaction was: unlucky.
Zhao Feng hated it at first, but realized that by not fighting up front and being able to survive, he loved it in no time.
As someone reborn from a later era, Zhao Feng understood how brutal these times were. This was the beginning of Qin's conquest of the Six States, the war that swallowed Shenzhou; who knows how many died on the battlefield, or how many perished from chaos.
Zhao Feng didn't care much for rank or titles; he just wanted to finish two years of military service and go home.
Take care of mom, take care of his sister.
He couldn't forget the worried looks in their eyes when he was conscripted; if he died in battle, how would they survive?
So, to live, to avoid the frontline, Zhao Feng didn't try to stand out or show superhuman skill, and that's how he got assigned to logistics.
But as soon as he touched a corpse and unlocked the attribute pick-up panel, Zhao Feng was hooked.
Corpse carrier soldier—not just survival, but getting stronger! Perfect for Zhao Feng!
Feeling himself getting stronger, changing inside and out with every stat increase, Zhao Feng knew all of this belonged to him.
Back to reality.
Zhao Feng pulled the ox cart for about the time it takes a stick of incense to burn and reached a massive burial ground.
The logistics soldiers all around were digging pits—at least a thousand people on shovels.
This time, Qin's hundred thousand troops attacked Han, and the border battle was brutal—the casualties suffered by Han's Frontier Army were obvious.
Zhao Feng had been clearing the battlefield for three days now, but looking at the scene, it wouldn't be until tonight that all the corpses would be buried.
"Zhao Feng, you again."
"That's your fourth cart today."
"Impressive."
Seeing Zhao Feng hauling a cart piled with Han corpses, the pit-digging soldiers laughed.
"You guys keep digging. This cart's all yours."
"I can't afford to waste time."
Zhao Feng grinned, grabbed an empty cart from the side, and headed back to the battlefield.
...