As if awakening from the deepest and darkest dream—Lucas Warren found himself lying on his back on dry earth.
A blazing fireball in the azure sky was wantonly releasing light and heat.
He reluctantly turned his splitting head and discovered beside him was an American black cottonwood about half a meter in diameter and seven or eight stories tall, and further away were sparse aspen trees, clusters of low shrubs, and tawny hills.
The heavy earthy smell in his nose and the withered branches and leaves he grasped in his hands all indicated that he was now in the wilderness!
'What's going on? Wasn't I vacationing in the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas?'
'Where's that white foreign woman? A honey trap?'
A series of thoughts flashed through Lucas Warren's mind.
As a mercenary, he had just completed a big job in Africa and ran to Las Vegas in the USA to vacation with two teammates.
He had only stayed one night at this five-star hotel, yet such a huge mistake had occurred!
The problem was that Lucas Warren had no idea what was really going on.
Just then, countless memories suddenly flooded his mind.
After a long while, the memory infusion stopped, and Lucas Warren finally understood what had happened.
He had actually transmigrated to July 12, 1880, near the mining town of Frisco close to Denver, a city in the American Midwest!
His current identity was that of Henry Bruce, an ordinary 20-year-old police officer at the town's police station.
This afternoon, he had followed Sheriff Bryan and a group of 25 people to pursue 8 bandits who had robbed the general store in town. When they reached the hilly area about 5 miles from town, they encountered an ambush by a large number of bandits.
Shortly after the battle began, Henry was unlucky enough to be shot in the chest. The powerful impact made him fall backward, tumbling from his galloping horse to the ground, dying instantly!
Then Lucas Warren from 2024 transmigrated over and occupied this body.
Lucas Warren unbuttoned the top two buttons of his blue police uniform with his right hand. The 18K gold Patek Philippe pocket watch case had an obvious dent, and the bullet had bounced off somewhere unknown.
Lucas Warren felt extremely depressed—even with the bullet being blocked, Henry still couldn't avoid death!
Otherwise, he wouldn't have transmigrated here.
This Patek Philippe gold pocket watch was a relic left to Henry by his grandfather.
Annoyed as he was, Lucas Warren still pushed against the ground with both hands to sit up.
A Winchester 1873 lever-action rifle lay about three meters away to his right.
He pushed with both feet, enduring the sharp pain in his chest, stood up shakily, walked over to pick up the rifle, and felt reassured.
The situation was unclear, and having a reliable weapon in hand greatly increased one's sense of security.
Lucas Warren looked down at himself: a standard blue long-sleeved police uniform with a black vest, wearing high-heeled riding boots with spurs, and a Colt M1873 single-action revolver tucked in the gun belt at his waist.
This pistol was the famous "Peacemaker" in American history—once drawn, everyone would calm down. It shared .44-40 center-fire rifle cartridges with the Winchester 1873 lever-action rifle.
Although not as sharp as the pointed smokeless powder bullets of later eras, it was already the favorite of Western cowboys in this age.
Lucas Warren crouched and walked forward cautiously for several steps—Henry's last impression before losing consciousness was that Sheriff Bryan was shooting at the bottom of the hill in that direction.
What he saw was Sheriff Bryan lying face-up on the slope of a hill about two hundred meters away. On the opposite side, about a hundred meters away, lay three bandits—two of them looked like they had rolled and fallen from the hilltop, while another was leaning against the hill. All of them were motionless.
Lucas Warren walked quickly forward along the mountain path for more than ten meters, turned a small bend, and found Henry's brown quarter horse by the roadside. He stepped into the stirrup and mounted the police horse, galloping toward Bryan.
Along the way, eleven police officers lay scattered on the ground, lifeless, with horses similarly scattered around.
After rounding another bend, a bandit wearing jeans and a wide-brimmed high-crowned felt hat lay by the roadside.
A large chunk of flesh had disappeared from where his left shoulder connected to his neck, but he was surprisingly still alive, still moaning intermittently in low voices!
Lucas Warren decisively gripped the Winchester 1873 with both hands and aimed at his head at close range, firing a shot.
"Bang!"
At point-blank range, one shot made the bandit's head explode like a watermelon, with red and white matter splattering out, but none of it could touch Lucas Warren, who had already ridden away several meters.
Huh?
Lucas Warren suddenly noticed that a progress bar had lit up in the corner of his retina!
This progress bar should have been there all along, but it hadn't lit up before and was in a semi-transparent state, so he hadn't noticed it immediately.
The progress bar appeared to be about 5 centimeters long, with about 10% lit up, and below it was a bright gray bead.
When Lucas Warren's consciousness touched the progress bar and the gray bead, some mysterious thoughts flashed through his mind, letting him understand the function of these two things.
The progress bar was called the Liberation Progress Bar, and the gray bead was called a Level 1 Liberation Bead.
Lucas Warren would gain one Liberation Bead for each person he personally liberated, and the initial progress bar would upgrade to a Level 1 progress bar after collecting ten Level 1 Liberation Beads.
Currently, Level 1 Liberation Beads had only one function—removing minor negative states from the body.
Lucas Warren focused his consciousness on the Liberation Bead and thought: Use.
The Liberation Bead instantly projected gray light toward him, making his whole body feel warm, as if his entire body was soaking in a hot spring of about 40 degrees Celsius.
This feeling came quickly and left just as fast, disappearing completely before the police horse had run even 10 meters.
But Lucas Warren felt his body had returned to peak condition, completely dispelling the previous condition of chest pain and general discomfort from falling off the horse.
Huh?!
That small bead was still there!
But its surface had completely dimmed, like an empty shell.
Lucas Warren touched the bead with his consciousness and immediately received feedback—the Liberation Bead shell would shatter when he was inevitably about to be hit by a bullet, silently deflecting the bullet away.
Projectile weapons included: stones, throwing knives, blow darts, bows and arrows, javelins and other thrown cold weapons, as well as various gun bullets, bombs, rocket launchers, cannon shells, etc.
Level 1 Liberation Bead shells could only deflect thrown cold weapons and pistol bullets.
This was equivalent to having an extra life!
Lucas Warren's chaotic and agitated heart calmed down slightly, feeling that God was quite reliable, not leaving him helpless and alone after suddenly transmigrating.
Unfortunately, the next two bandits he encountered had both been shot in the head, so Lucas Warren couldn't gain new Liberation Beads.
Soon, Lucas Warren reached Bryan's side and found that his chest and abdomen had a gaping hole, his waist area was a mess, and blood had pooled on the ground.
He dismounted and gently supported Bryan's head and upper body with both hands from the neck and back shoulder.
Huh?
The progress bar instantly lit up completely, and a vibrant green Liberation Bead appeared below it, with some mysterious essence seeming to flow on its surface, profound and unfathomable.
In a flash, the progress bar returned to its semi-transparent state, showing only 1% lit up.
A translucent panel opened before Lucas Warren.
[Name: Henry Bruce (Lucas Warren)
Level: 1
Health: 100%
Constitution: LV1]