"Rookie, why are you still zoning out?"
Lin Mo looked up, his eyes meeting those of a middle-aged man with rough skin and deep wrinkles etched into his face.
"Here, take your weapon, and hold onto it tight. A Warrior losing their weapon on the battlefield is like losing their head."
Lin Mo accepted the Sword with a numb expression. The weapon was about a meter long, its blade speckled with rust and stubbornly stained with dried blood.
He stared blankly at the bloodstains on the blade, his mind a chaotic mess.
Old Wright patted him on the shoulder and left him be.
He understood the confusion and fear of these newcomers. After all, they weren't army Warriors or battle-hardened Adventurers. If the town's recent situation hadn't been so bleak, the Lord would never have conscripted these rookies to hunt Goblins in Loran Forest.
He only hoped this would actually work. Recently, the number of young women abducted from the town had been increasing. If left unchecked, allowing those damn Goblins to grow stronger, Roland Town might completely fall just like Lager Town had not long ago.
Shaking his head, Old Wright turned around and picked out a somewhat decent weapon from the pile of scrap iron issued from above, handing it to the next rookie.
"Sigh..."
Lin Mo stared at the Sword in his hands and let out a long sigh as memories flooded his mind.
He was a transmigrator.
In his previous life, Lin Mo had no extraordinary talents. After years of academic grind, he had gotten into an Ordinary university, joined an Ordinary company, and lived an Ordinary life.
With a meager salary, frequent overtime, declining health, and his parents' occasional calls urging him to go on blind dates...
Yet, even that seemed vastly better than his current situation.
He had inexplicably transmigrated to another world. Although his body seemed a few years younger as a result, he had immediately and bewilderingly been conscripted as "cannon fodder" to subjugate Goblins.
There was no running away. It was supposedly a "voluntary" conscription, but since he was already here, backing out now would be considered disturbing military morale. The gleaming blades in the hands of the Guards would quickly teach him a lesson.
On the way to the camp, he had seen a few who refused to accept their fate. Some were brutally whipped and dragged over by force. Those who resisted too fiercely were made an example of—beheaded on the spot with a single, precise strike.
Lin Mo shifted his gaze back to the newly acquired weapon in his hands.
If there was any good news right now, it was probably the lines of text that had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Damaged Inferior Sword]
Weapon Types: One-Handed Sword
Level: Inferior (Gray)
Introduction: A rusty Broken Sword, probably too dull to even chop vegetables cleanly. Of course, even when it was brand new, it likely wasn't very sharp anyway.
"A Golden Finger, or maybe a cheat?" he wondered.
The novels he read in his past life often used these terms to describe such phenomena. Perhaps because of this Golden Finger, he had naturally mastered the language of this world.
Taking advantage of this, during the short time since he was brought here, Lin Mo had learned some information about this world by eavesdropping and asking simple questions.
First of all, this was a world where Extraordinary Strength existed.
Talented individuals could undergo training and learn Skills to become "Professionals," gaining immense power. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people possessed neither the opportunity nor the talent.
Ordinary people who couldn't become Professionals mostly had to support themselves through physical labor or by working for wealthy Nobles. Some chose to live on the edge, becoming Adventurers who risked their lives fighting Low Level Demons to earn bounties.
While the income was nowhere near that of an official Professional, it was still much better than toiling as a laborer. The only catch was that they could lose their lives at any moment.
And this was exactly what he was about to do.
Subjugating Goblins wasn't like a war where a large army was dispatched for extermination. In fact, a small town like Roland Town simply didn't have that many troops.
Even if they did, those greedy, cruel, yet cunning and cowardly Green dwarfs would immediately retreat deep into the forest the moment they spotted a human army, making them nearly impossible to pursue. Then, as soon as the army withdrew, they would reemerge to continue pillaging supplies and commoners.
As a border town near Loran Forest, the people of Roland Town had long since figured out the best way to deal with these creatures.
That was to form squads of three to five people and act independently, just like Adventurers. This approach wouldn't scare the Goblins into fleeing, and as long as they didn't encounter too many of them at once, they still had a decent chance of winning.
Experienced Adventurers would choose suitable teammates to maximize their team's Combat Power. However, for conscripted poor souls like them, there weren't many options.
Lin Mo looked up at the teammates he had been assigned.
Two scruffy middle-aged men were huddled together, whispering complaints about something.
A boy who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen stood silently with his head down, gripping his Sword tightly.
The last one was the young man who had just received his weapon right after him.
The youth was looking around. Seeing Lin Mo glancing his way, he bared his teeth in a grin and greeted him.
"Hey, man... your clothes look really cool."
The clothes from his previous world indeed looked a bit out of place here. Fortunately, he wasn't wearing anything too bizarre, so he wouldn't be mistaken for a suspicious heretic.
Seeing that Lin Mo didn't reply, the young man leaned in close, examined the clothes carefully, and nodded. "Really nice. How about letting me borrow them for a bit?"
Lin Mo sized up the youth before him. He was short and emaciated, wearing an old, blackened shirt with several patches on the hem and cuffs.
"Do you know what we're going to do?" Lin Mo asked in return.
"To die?" the youth chuckled nonchalantly. "Whatever happens, happens. Even if we stay in the town, we'll starve to death eventually!"
In peaceful times, farming or working for the Nobles could at least keep their bellies barely full. But now, with Demons running rampant, plundering food reserves and destroying farmland, the trade routes had also become extremely dangerous due to Goblin harassment. Many merchant guilds had chosen to temporarily halt trading. With the wealthy Lords unable to do business, these poor souls had no way to earn a living and feed themselves.
"Then do you know when we're setting off?" Lin Mo asked.
"How should I know? You'll have to ask Old Wright, though he might not necessarily tell you... Anyway, after all that talking, are you going to lend me those clothes or not?"
"No."
"Tch."
The youth curled his lip and sat aside resentfully. "Once the Goblins smash your head in, I'll just strip the clothes off your corpse."
Lin Mo couldn't be bothered to entertain him. Since he couldn't get any more information out of the guy, he needed to hurry up and study his Golden Finger to figure out a way to survive the upcoming battles.
Recalling the feeling from earlier, Lin Mo tried to concentrate his Spirit and looked down at himself.
A few seconds later, several lines of transparent text appeared before his eyes.
Just as he thought, he could see not only the Attributes of items but his own as well.
[Name]: Lin Mo
[Profession]: None
[Attributes]:
Strength: 4 (The maximum force that can be exerted)
Agility: 4 (Movement and reaction speed)
Constitution: 4 (Life Energy, Defense Power, and Endurance)
Spirit: 5 (Psychological resilience, Insight, and concentration)
Magic Power: 0 (The power only Mages possess)
Unsurprisingly, as a modern man who rarely exercised, his Attributes didn't look very impressive.
However...
[Skills]:
Level 4 of Slacking Off (99/100): You are accustomed to slacking off at work. When moving in a group, your presence is lowered, reducing the probability of being caught "slacking."
This was it!
Lin Mo's eyes lit up. It wasn't in vain that he had always adhered to the principle of "working without slacking off is like not working at all," dedicating himself to studying various techniques for slacking off without getting caught. Now, it was finally going to be of great use.
This Skill might be the key to his survival!
"Rookies, get ready to move out!"
Just as Lin Mo was studying his interface, a burly Guard wearing Armor walked over and tapped the ground with the butt of his Knight's Lance.
"Those damn Goblins have been getting more and more arrogant lately. Now is your chance to make a name for yourselves and change your lives! The Lord has decreed that for this subjugation, you will all enjoy the same treatment as Adventurers. Kill one Goblin, and you'll be rewarded with 100 Copper Coins!"
"WOOO!"
As soon as his voice fell, the previously dead silent camp seemed to instantly spring to life. Many people's eyes shone with excitement, including the two middle-aged men and the youth who had just tried to ask Lin Mo for his clothes.
One had to know that because Goblins yielded no valuable materials, the reward for killing them was traditionally just a token bounty issued by the local Lord for encouragement—only 20 copper a head.
But now, the price had suddenly leaped to five times that amount! 100 copper was equivalent to more than half a month's earnings from hard labor. Not to mention, in these current times, there was no work to be found anyway.
Killing just one Goblin meant they could buy a hundred loaves of dark bread, ensuring they wouldn't starve for at least a month!
Amidst the cheering crowd, Lin Mo quietly furrowed his brows.
This 100 copper sounded wonderful, but for Ordinary people with zero combat experience, was it really that easy to earn?