The goblin shrieked as its head was bashed open.
The impact that traveled up Fang Zhen's arm felt far softer than he had anticipated. The goblin's head wasn't hard at all; it was almost as if its bones were brittle. The strike from his baton had caved its skull right in.
He had instinctively braced for the sensation of striking stone, but the result was far better than he could have hoped for. It felt more like shattering a hard piece of plaster.
The goblin was knocked sideways, tumbling twice across the ground before lying still.
'That's it?'
'Is that all?'
After landing a successful strike, Fang Zhen realized these goblins were all bark and no bite. They sounded fierce, but in reality, they were incredibly weak!
In an instant, Fang Zhen's confidence soared.
He let out a yell and charged toward the other two goblins.
When the remaining two goblins saw Fang Zhen kill their companion with a single blow, their morale visibly plummeted.
Fang Zhen could even see the fear in their eyes.
Seeing the monsters' fear, Fang Zhen's confidence and courage grew exponentially.
He rushed forward, bringing his baton down hard on the second goblin.
This goblin, armed with a rusty dagger, instinctively raised it to block the blow.
The baton slammed down, driving the dagger straight into the goblin's forehead.
THWACK!
The force of Fang Zhen's strike was so great that it drove both the rusty dagger and the baton itself deep into the goblin's skull.
The goblin let out a pained shriek as it was knocked to the ground. It rolled twice and convulsed, its legs twitching, before quickly falling still.
Fang Zhen's confidence surged once more.
With just two swings of his baton, Fang Zhen had not only built up his confidence but had also established an intimidating momentum.
'Awesome!'
His gaze locked onto the last goblin.
The last goblin standing seemed stunned, its eyes filled with terror as it looked at Fang Zhen.
Goblins might not be intelligent, but they weren't completely stupid either. Fang Zhen had effortlessly killed two of them; even the dumbest creature would know it couldn't win.
The remaining goblin let out a bizarre shriek, hurled the wooden club in its hand at Fang Zhen, and immediately turned to flee.
Startled, Fang Zhen instinctively sidestepped the flying club. It wasn't thrown with much force; it just clattered against a nearby tree and fell to the ground.
'Not content to just stand there and take a beating, it actually dares to fight back?' Holding his baton, Fang Zhen pursued it with long strides.
The goblin was only about four feet tall and ran with a clumsy, wobbly gait, its short legs pumping furiously. How could it possibly outrun Fang Zhen?
Fang Zhen caught up and swung his baton in a wide, horizontal arc from behind.
CRUNCH!
The back of the goblin's skull was torn open by the blow, its head completely bashed in.
It staggered forward two steps, unable to even cry out, before collapsing to the ground, silent.
Looking at the three dead goblins on the ground, Fang Zhen felt all his pent-up frustration release in a rush. A cool, clear sensation washed over his mind, as satisfying as devouring huge chunks of iced watermelon on a sweltering summer day after being parched for ages.
'So refreshing!'
Fang Zhen could still feel the thrill of the adrenaline rush, but his mind felt clearer and more refreshed than ever before. His emotions were calm, his thoughts perfectly lucid.
The tension of arriving in this strange world, the tightly-wound nerves—it all melted away in that moment. Even the accumulated frustrations of his daily life vanished. The invisible pressure in his mind was gone, leaving him feeling unbelievably light and at ease.
"Heh heh... People always say violence is bad, but damn, using it feels so fucking good!"
A relaxed smile spread across Fang Zhen's face.
In modern society, everyone pretended to be civilized. People would see injustice and not dare to act. Fang Zhen had long felt there was something wrong with that, believing that humanity's primal fighting spirit was being suppressed, with no outlet for release.
This life-or-death struggle for survival allowed Fang Zhen to tap into a raw, primitive power he never knew he had.
Gradually, his excitement subsided.
He looked at the three goblin corpses on the ground and decided to examine them more closely.
Being extremely cautious, Fang Zhen drew his karambit.
The three goblins all had their heads bashed in with brains leaking out. They certainly looked dead, but Fang Zhen wasn't about to get careless. 'What if they aren't completely dead?'
He saw the goblins' sharp teeth. If one was just playing dead and managed to bite him, and if it carried some kind of Otherworld virus... he'd be screwed. There would be no vaccine for that back on Earth.
With that cautious thought in mind, Fang Zhen prepared to deliver a finishing blow to each of the goblins.
However, as he stood over the three small, green monsters, he found himself hesitating.
When the adrenaline was pumping during the fight, he hadn't thought twice. But now that he was calm, the idea of slitting their throats with his karambit felt like it crossed a line, going against his very nature.
'I guess I'm just not used to this,' he thought. 'I'm a good, law-abiding citizen. I've never had to be this ruthless before. It's harder than I thought.'
'It's just a matter of getting used to it. I'll have to find a way to toughen up later. I can't afford to be soft-hearted.'
Fang Zhen shook his head and put the karambit away.
He glanced around, and then his eyes lit up. He stood, walked over to a tree, and bent down to pick up a large rock.
The rock was about the size of a small watermelon and very heavy—more than enough to crush a skull.
'I can't bring myself to use the knife, but smashing them with a rock... the psychological burden is much lower.' Thinking this, he carried the rock over to the goblins.
"Here goes nothing!"
Fang Zhen brought the rock down.
He smashed the first goblin. No reaction. It was clearly dead.
Fang Zhen lifted the rock again and moved to the second goblin.
This was the one lying on the ground with the rusty dagger still embedded in its head—the one Fang Zhen had driven in with his baton.
Fang Zhen brought the rock down again.
"GURK!" As the rock smashed onto its head, the goblin suddenly flailed its limbs, let out a terrible shriek, and began to convulse violently!
Fang Zhen jumped back in shock.
'This thing really wasn't dead!'
Fang Zhen planted his right foot on the goblin's chest, lifted the rock, and mercilessly smashed it onto the creature's head two more times.
The goblin's body twitched, then gradually fell still.
Only then did Fang Zhen let out a sigh of relief.
'That was close,' he thought. 'It really was playing dead!'
'If I hadn't been so cautious, it might have gotten me.'
Fang Zhen wiped the sweat from his brow, feeling quite satisfied with his own thorough caution.
He used the rock to deliver a final blow to the last goblin as well.
That last goblin was also thoroughly dead.
Having finished them all off, Fang Zhen could finally relax completely.
He was now calm enough to slowly check the goblins' bodies for anything of value.
'Looks like this is a real transmigration, not some game world. I have to loot the bodies myself...' he mused. 'But it doesn't matter. I already killed them, so there's no point in being squeamish now. Looting is looting.' Fang Zhen crouched down and began searching the goblins for anything valuable or anything that might offer some clues.
The three goblins were monsters, but they weren't completely bare; they had a few possessions on them.
On the first goblin, Fang Zhen found several Copper Coins, which looked like some form of currency.
The Copper Coins were about the same size as the tokens from an arcade Fang Zhen used to visit. They were made of copper and heavier than game tokens, with a blurry, flower-like pattern stamped on them. They didn't look particularly well-made.
Fang Zhen pulled six Copper Coins from the first goblin.
From the goblin whose skull he had caved in from behind, Fang Zhen found another eight Copper Coins.
Finally, Fang Zhen approached the goblin with the rusty dagger—the one that had been playing dead.
Fang Zhen felt around in the pocket of the goblin's tattered clothes. Suddenly, his hand froze.
He pulled his hand out of the goblin's pocket.
In his hand, there was now a Gold Pendant.