The pitch-black cave, from which the heavy breathing of wild beasts occasionally echoed.

In the clearing in front of the cave.

Several farmers wielding stone axes and pickaxes were being driven forward by the lord, inch by inch.

Snap!!

The lord raised his whip and lashed it ferociously onto a farmer's back.

The whip, made of vine branches with fine barbs all over it, left a terrifying gash across the farmer's back with one strike.

Hiss!

Fang Hao sucked in a breath of cold air.

The scorching pain instantly sobered him.

He spun around abruptly.

And saw a man holding a whip, staring at him with a sinister look.

"Get in there quickly, and don't come out unless you bring the chest, or I'll flay you all."

Snap!

The man yelled, cracking the whip again in the air.

Before Fang Hao could react, a prompt suddenly rang out by his ear.

"Welcome to the Book of Lords game."

"Recruit farmers, collect resources, train soldiers, expand your territory. Use everything at your disposal to strive for survival!"

"The territory is your haven; develop it, and it will greatly increase your odds of survival."

"Please treat the farmers and soldiers you recruit well. Once the loyalty of your farmers and soldiers decreases, they are prone to neglect their duties and even desertion!"

"If you encounter another player, congratulations, you have caught a fat pig. Of course, if you are weaker, then the fat pig is you."

"Newcomer protection countdown: 6 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes. During this period, your territory is immune from attacks!"

"For more functions, please refer to the Book of Lords!"

"Lastly, good luck!"

After carefully listening to the prompt, Fang Hao's face changed drastically.

Time travel, he could accept.

But it seemed his current situation was not looking good.

Dressed like a farmer, the man behind him with the sinister face looked more like a lord.

And on his waist hung a brown leather-bound book, which must be the Book of Lords mentioned in the prompt.

"I'm doomed, I'm just cannon fodder!" Fang Hao cursed his bad luck.

Five villagers slowly moved forward.

The farmer beside them was pleading loudly while wearing a gloomy face.

"Lord, we are just ordinary farmers, we can't steal the chest."

But such pleas did not win the lord's sympathy.

"Damn it, stop the nonsense and get in there," the man cursed loudly.

His expression revealing fierceness and impatience.

The five villagers had no choice but to continue forward helplessly.

Fang Hao, from beginning to end, said nothing and did not turn back.

Obviously.

The lord was using the farmers to scout ahead. If lucky, they'd find resources to enhance his early-game advantage.

At worst, sacrificing these farmers would have no impact on him.

The five edged forward.

Eventually, they entered the cave.

The deeper they went, the darker the cave became.

The breathing of the beast also became clearer.

The expressions of the farmers grew increasingly fearful; some started to tremble, barely moving forward by leaning against the cave walls.

Dragging their feet bit by bit, they finally reached the depths and saw the owner of the cave.

It was a giant brown tiger.

With black stripes and a massive body, it was much larger than any tiger Fang Hao had seen on TV.

At that moment.

The tiger's crimson eyes stared unblinkingly at them.

Revealing a sense of ferocity and resentment.

"We're done... a tiger,"

The farmers' hearts tightened.

With their combat power, they could never defeat a full-grown tiger.

"It's injured," Fang Hao whispered.

The cave was dim and the air was filled with the smell of blood; a closer look revealed the tiger was indeed injured.

And severely so.

Under its abdomen, dark red blood had pooled.

"Let's... let's stick by the walls, get the chest, and leave," one of them murmured.

Since the lord clearly wouldn't let up without the chest, they had no choice but to suppress their fears and edge past the tiger toward the chest.

Praying in their hearts that the tiger, due to its injuries, would ignore them.

The group slowly moved along the wall.

The tiger's eyes remained fixed on them, its gaze following each of their movements.

As it realized these humans were trying to bypass it for the chest.

With a roar, dragging its bloodied entrails, it lunged at Fang Hao and the others.

"We fight, kill it, or else we're all dead," Fang Hao shouted, swinging his stone axe.

For a moment, the cave echoed with the tiger's roars of rage and the villagers' screams of agony.

…

Several minutes later.

Fang Hao, covered in blood, walked out and stood at the cave entrance, waving to the man looking into the distance.

"Is the monster inside dead?" the man shouted from afar.

Fang Hao nodded.

Joy burst across the man's face, "That's great, that's great."

He muttered to himself as he ran towards the cave.

Entering the cave, he saw a tiger and the bodies of four villagers on the ground, but didn't pause, and kept walking deeper inside.

Upon seeing the wooden treasure chest, a hint of confusion suddenly appeared on his face.

"Why is it open?"

Just then.

A piercing sense of crisis struck from behind.

Chop!

It sounded like chopping wood.

A stone axe heavily cleaved into his neck from behind.

The stone-made blade wasn't sharp, but it still tore through his flesh and even cut deeply into his tough cervical bone.

"You,..." The man's eyes widened in fury, filled with astonishment and disbelief.

How could this be possible, how could a farmer sent by the system attack him?

Why would this happen?

Fang Hao's second axe swung down again.

Blood splattered.

A head instantly dropped, rolling to the side.

[You, in the guise of a farmer, have killed a provincial lord, sin value +500.]

...

Fang Hao took a deep breath.

He bent over to remove a book from the man's waist.

The book's cover was brown leather, embossed with ornate golden patterns.

In the middle were the words "Book of Lords."

As he touched the Book of Lords.

Another prompt appeared.

[Detected error in the lord's initial data, data correction.]

[Compensation issued, increased hundredfold.]

[Detected sin value of 500 for the lord, automatically classified to evil faction---Undead.]

It's finished!

Hearing the new prompt, Fang Hao's heart tightened.

Because he had killed the recent lord, he was directly classified into an evil faction.

Hadn't he just turned into the public enemy?

But in the next instant, he calmed down.

Even if classified into the evil faction, he had no regrets; it was better than being a mere farmer under that man.

He continued to inspect the Book of Lords.

Flipping it open casually, each page bore different titles.

[Resources] [Manufacturing] [Construction] [Channel].

The material was like paper, but it functioned like a tablet, responding at a touch.

He flipped open to the first page [Resources], displaying current resource count as 0.

Under manufacturing, [Hemp Rope] [Stone Axe] [Stone Pickax] were unlocked.

In the construction section, [Level 1 Farmhouse] was unlocked.

But the moment it opened, [Level 1 Farmhouse] instantly turned into [Level 1 Cemetery].

Presumably, it was due to being allocated to the Undead faction.

He then flipped to the channel page.

[Speaking rights, 10 posts per day.]

Message after message swiftly appeared.

"Has anyone left the village? Is it dangerous outside?"

"Someone save me, there's a wild boar outside my village almost the size of a tiger; at this rate, I'm really going to be ruined by this pig."

"Wow, that sounds thrilling, ask for paid content."

"How are your villagers? A few hyenas ran past the village gate a few minutes ago; the villagers are too scared to go out and work."

"It's over, there's a python outside my village, it just swallowed two of my villagers."

...

Messages appeared one after the other.

Between the lines, the danger of this world was revealed.

Most people were trapped in their villages, afraid to venture out.

The lord he had killed was also a ruthless character, having led the villagers out.

And even attempted to delve into the tiger's den to steal the treasure chest.

Unfortunately, he also died in the cave.

Closing the chat channel.

Fang Hao returned to the side of the tiger's corpse; he had hidden the items from the treasure chest under the massive body of the tiger.

[Level 2 Warcraft Magic-striped Tiger, proceed to slaughter?]

Yes!

[Slaughter completed, obtained meat 600, Beast Skin 45, Beast Bone 25.]

After obtaining the Book of Lords, he had also acquired the abilities befitting a lord.