Looting a corpse really wasn't an easy job, at least not the first time.
Wu Shuang spent over ten minutes thoroughly searching the "villager's" corpse, even including the pants pockets, and the items he pulled out were everything before him now.
Seven gold coins cast from copper, the old man's head on them long rusted beyond recognition, even covered in quite a bit of verdigris.
A rusty scythe with a snapped tip that looked like it would fall apart at any moment, which he had yanked off the villager's back—unclear whose "argument" it had accidentally gotten "stuck" there from, but Wu Shuang had salvaged it as well.
Finally, there was a rusty iron key.
【Name: Kingdom Gold Coin】
【Description: A gold coin issued by the Holy Kingdom. The color has faded a bit, but it doesn't affect circulation.
Furthermore, to combat counterfeit money, you need to use the Appraisal Spell to verify its authenticity before it can be stored into the handbook. It features an impression of the King's head.
Citizens, do you see? The King is with you, right inside your coin pouches!!
Hero Insight ⑭: Most things in this world can be accomplished with money. If they can't, throw more money at it!】
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【Name: Key to Paul's Cellar】
【Description: It can open a certain door, but first, you have to find the keyhole to insert it into.】
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【Name: Rusty Broken Scythe】
【Quality: Decayed】 (Items are divided by quality into: Decayed, Rough, Common, Fine, Perfect, Epic, Legendary...)
【Description: A scythe stuck in someone's body, weathered by wind and rain. The crucial tip has broken off, and it will likely collapse after a few uses. Its only value is being melted down and re-forged.】
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Adhering to the principle of appraising everything while he was at it, Wu Shuang appraised the hatchet in his hand as well.
【Name: "Hero's Axe"】
【Quality: Rough】
【Description: A hatchet stained with the blood of a Hero. Though it has nothing magical about it, it is fairly sturdy overall, and sharpening it will yield a decent boost in power.】
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"Hero's Axe... this system really has a twisted sense of humor..."
Wu Shuang looked toward his Hero predecessor lying on the bed in the room.
Don't tell me he chopped off his own left hand? That would be a bit too ruthless.
Wu Shuang swallowed hard and surveyed the less-than-spacious room—or rather, hideout—intending to inspect the whole place, study the handbook, and then decide what to do next.
...
About half an hour later, the results were in.
This place called a hideout contained a peculiar wall cabinet. Its name had an equally twisted sense of humor: Hero's Cabinet. It contained a special space within; the specific items inside could be viewed in the handbook and dragged into the cabinet whenever needed.
Yes, much like a smartphone touchscreen, he could drag icons from the handbook into the cabinet to materialize them.
This was completely unscientific, but magical enough. Wu Shuang quite liked it; at least the system leaned toward magic.
The cabinet had 200 slots in total. Most items only took up a single slot and could be stacked. The capacity was immense and could even be expanded, though that required Kingdom Gold Coins and Hero Level—currently, the button was grayed out.
Inside were five hideous-looking strange fish that had been turned into dried fish. Their eyes were huge, their mouths full of sharp teeth, looking like they had died with unclosed eyes. The heads alone made up two-thirds of their bodies, leaving Wu Shuang at a loss for where to even take a bite.
"These should be edible, right? I just don't know how long they've been sitting here, and the info didn't mention whether they've gone bad..."
Wu Shuang glanced at the big rat he had killed not long ago—it was still very fresh. Then he looked at his own vomit, which had already mixed with the insectoid's foul blood. After hesitating for a few seconds, he picked up the dead rat...
He had thrown up all the lunch he ate before transmigrating, leaving his stomach completely empty. Although he wasn't starving yet, he had to stock up on some food, and eating a rat wasn't out of the question either.
Besides the dried fish, the cabinet contained a short sword, three loaves of black bread hard enough to bludgeon someone to death, a few bolts of reasonably clean burlap, half an earthenware jar of kerosene, a few jin of dry firewood, and the most precious item right now—fresh water.
A total of 5.7 liters, all stored in similar earthenware jars.
This was a true lifesaver. Wu Shuang took a big gulp; there was no strange taste.
It seemed that while this cabinet couldn't refrigerate items, it could still isolate bacteria, likely acting as a sealed space.
"I see!"
Wu Shuang stored the dead big rat inside as well. A countdown of under seven days appeared in the handbook, after which it would spoil, looking remarkably like a game.
Items like fresh water and long-term dry rations had no time limit and defaulted to indefinite preservation. As expected of a system, he wouldn't go hungry in the short term now.
He thoroughly searched the entire room; aside from some old basic furniture, these supplies in the cabinet were all that remained.
This Hero predecessor had lived quite a miserable life. Hopefully, he himself could pull his weight, live a bit longer, and avoid following in his predecessor's footsteps.
Having inspected everything, Wu Shuang used a rag to wipe down the floor, pushed the insectoid's corpse out the window, pulled out the handbook, and began pondering what to do next.
The system had given him several quests, including a main quest and side quests. The main quest was mandatory, while the side quests required completing at least three per month; otherwise, his Hero status would be revoked, and all his Humanity would be collected... Although he didn't know what it felt like to have his Humanity taken, Wu Shuang neither wanted nor dared to try.
The current main quest was to kill three goblins wandering in Gulf Town and ring the bell in the bell tower—pretty much the same as the system's initial prompt, with no time limit.
Wu Shuang was familiar with this kind of monster; they were beginner mobs of another world, short in stature but large in numbers. They might be sneaky and despicable, but three of them shouldn't be too hard to kill, right?
All in all, it didn't seem too absurd.
Just as he was thinking this, Wu Shuang heard heavy footsteps. Heart jolting in alarm, he sat still for two seconds before getting up, crouching low, and creeping toward the window, poking out half of his face.
Some twenty-plus meters away, in the fog-shrouded street, a monster a full story tall was walking along. It was extremely fat and held a wooden club in its hand. Because it was too far away and obscured by the mist, he could barely make out a silhouette.
"What on earth is that? Could it also be a villager...?"
Wu Shuang muttered with a frown. Confirming that the creature wasn't heading toward him, he felt slightly relieved. After a moment's thought, he cast the Appraisal Spell on it anyway.
He had originally thought it was too far to get any results, but...
【Monster: Goblin】
【Description: A goblin that has caused massive destruction in Gulf Town, long plaguing the local villagers. Urgently requires a Hero to subjugate it. There are three in total.】
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"Holy shit!? (ultra-quietly)"
"This is a goblin?"
Wu Shuang was shocked beyond measure, yet his volume remained no louder than a buzzing fly, having somewhat adapted to this world by now.
But in which magic world could a goblin grow this tall and built? It was nearly three meters tall!
And that body shape and contour—hunched over, with dorsal fins...
This is fucking NOT a goblin!!
Did the system somehow mistake the world, misidentifying this place as a classic fantasy magic world and blindly applying templates to assign these Heroes quests that looked reasonable on the surface but were actually absurd in reality?
"How am I supposed to deal with this..."
Wu Shuang felt suffocated. It seemed his path as a Hero had come to an end right here.
For now, the priority was to figure out how to stay alive; he wouldn't even think about any main quest.
Leaning against the wall, he waited until the noise faded away before he finally began inspecting the side quests in the handbook...
Rate on N.U.
