The rose-pink light of dawn lights the dark bamboo forest. A very peaceful new day begins. The entire bamboo forest is sleepy and quiet.
Feng Ye awakens from his makeshift bed. He stretches himself and does a few stretches to warm up his body. While quietly walking towards the entrance, Feng Ye surveys the surroundings outside the thatched cottage.
Using some water from his water skin, he splashes it on himself to fully awaken. Using the light of dawn, Feng Ye takes out the yellowed map from the system inventory.
Looking at this parchment, it seems to cover a few countries but not in much detail. This map has many traces of history and many of the lines and text that was originally on it have long faded or smudged off.
The map contains the boundaries of three countries. Each country had orders touching the other two countries. Recalling a popular film from his old world, Feng Ye realized that the map seemed similar to the map found in Romance of the Three Kingdoms where Shu, Wei, and Wu fought during the time of warring Chinese states. The three countries are surrounded fully by a body of water. Besides these three countries and the outline of the body of water enveloping the three countries, the map doesn't show anything beyond.
The map labels the names of these three countries. With the system's translation feature, Feng Ye determined that the country in the north was called Northern Abyss Territories which shares its southwestern borders with the province called Westwind Province. The Northern Abyss Territories is the only northern country found on the map. Below, we see the Westwind Province sharing its borders with the southeastern country called the Radiant Kingdom.
There are a variety of markers indicating different cities as well throughout the three countries. There is a very distinct marking on the map at the southeastern border between the Westwind Province and the Radiant Kingdom. Feng Ye suspected that this marking might be indicating his current location. The names of the countries seem to be more westernized after the translation. This enabled Feng Ye to suspect that the world he was in might not be a wuxia type of world, but perhaps a western fantasy due to the hints on the map and the so-called monster cores. Feng Ye spent the next few minutes memorizing the map. A river stretches across the three countries and branches into each one. If Feng Ye were to travel between the countries, the river would be probably the most ideal.
As Feng Ye continued to stare at the map, a few kilometers away large shouts can be heard indistinctly which disrupts the peaceful environment from a few moments ago.
"It seems that there is a conflict just a few kilometers north." Feng Ye thought to himself. Due to his increased sensibility and awareness, Feng Ye had an increased hearing range. A few explosions can be hard as well.
"A conflict. Should I take a look or should I avoid it?" Feng Ye thought to himself. //"Typically, a self-aware individual from the modern world would definitely avoid it and run the other way. However, I have a forced execution lingering above my head. I have to take the risk. I might not be a protagonist, but if I was wouldn't there always be an opportunity in conflict? High-risk high reward."
Feng Ye steels his heart and equips himself with the bamboo staff. He also sharpened the one side of the staff. He equips the rusty dagger onto his belt under his cloak.
Feng Ye moves the broken furniture away from the exit and makes his journey to the source of the conflict. The northward journey would mean that Feng Ye will follow the lakeside in the North direction and move away from the bamboo forest.
As Feng Ye travels alongside the lakeside in the north direction, the sounds of the conflict can be heard more and more clearly. A variety of different shouts of anger can be heard. Lots of vibrations and explosive thundering noises can be felt as Feng Ye neared. The terrain slowly changes from bamboo forests to other types of wildlife. Magnificent trees become more and more common. Large ferns and grass grow and obstruct Feng Ye's way along the lakeside.
"I'll have to take a slight detour through this forest." Feng Ye thought as he disappears into the forest. As soon as Feng Ye enters the forest, he can hear a few individuals running in his direction.
Feng Ye notices a group of five individuals dressed in dark linen robes with hooded cloaks. Each carrying a variety of items in cloth sacks and holding daggers. The group of five also notices Feng Ye and charges directly toward Feng Ye.
"Unknown native encounter already. Looks like bandits." Feng Ye knits his brows and gets ready to
One of the bandits in the lead yells to the others, "THIS WAY, kill him, and let's continue south!"
Feng Ye was surprisingly calm. His fight and survival instinct was immediately triggered. Either you die or I die. He also felt much more confident due to his increased attributes. He'll have to be careful though as if he gets scratched perhaps he'll have to deal with getting poisoned or something as he is in a different world after all. If he can't even defeat bandits, then he might as well just take the system's forced execution.
These thoughts all appeared and disappeared as Feng Ye bolts to the first approaching bandit and sidesteps that bandit's forward stab. Feng Ye lands an uppercut directly on this bandit's jaw.
A crushed sound can be heard as the bandit's jaw is destroyed and they are flung backward in a parabolic arc toward the other approaching bandits. The bandit with the crushed jaw runs away in fear. Feng Ye is disinclined to chase, he has four more to deal with.
"!!!" The other four bandits became surprised by Feng Ye's resolute head-on attack. One of the four bandits shouts, "Careful, spread out and kill him off."
The four remaining bandits quickly encircle Feng Ye's four directions. Feng Ye knew that he had no time to waste. He had to immediately finish up the fight quickly. He can already sense more individuals heading towards him from the northern direction. The massive conflict is still ongoing but it's getting closer!
Feng Ye is no stranger to fighting. He also is one that enjoyed the modern era of technology, however, as a city dweller he has had his fair share of street fights and street brawls. Under the capitalist society, the gap between the poor and the rich only continues to increase in the world. Many times Feng Ye had to be involved in street brawls. The difference now is that Feng Ye's attributes are higher than the average human.
Feng Ye wields his sharpened bamboo staff. With a wide swing, Feng Ye aims to sweep the two individuals behind him. As he starts, the other two bandits lounge forward.
Feng Ye lounges towards the two bandits behind him brandishing the sharpened bamboo staff. The lounge backward successfully avoided the two bandits that attempted to stab him. The two bandits that were behind him are knocked back by the bamboo staff.
Brute force is really making a huge difference! Feng Ye is fully aware that he needs to finish decisively as he knows he doesn't have much technique in his brute force attacks.
After the two bandits are knocked back. Feng Ye does a crushing blow with the back unsharpened side of the staff on one of the two bandits that lounged forward.
BANG! Feng Ye's crushing blow pounds the bandit facedown into the soil as though he was a mole smashed in the Whac-A-Mole game.
Sidestep and slash! Feng Ye slashes the sharpened side of his bamboo staff at the other bandit. The bandit's dagger doesn't come close due to the staff's longer range. He is slashed by Feng Ye's staff. Feng Ye spins the staff and uses the butt of the staff to sweep this slashed bandit far away.
Using his increased speed, Feng Ye dashes toward the bandit that has fallen on the ground. The bandit yells in pain and pants while on his hands and knees. Feng Ye quicks the bandits' side and quickly uses the dagger to slash the bandit's neck.
The two bandits that were originally behind Feng Ye and got swept in Feng Ye's first attack start running away. They decided to abandon the other two.
Feng Ye quickly approaches the bandit that he smashed into the ground with his crushing blow and uses his dagger to finish him off.
These bandits weren't a match for him. But the conflict in the north continues to rage on and gets closer. Feng Ye quickly looks around at the two dead bandits. He quickly searches the corpses to loot any resources. He takes the daggers and cloth sacks and quickly stores them in his storage space.
He throws away his rusty dagger and replaces it with one of the newly acquired ones that he looted from the bandit.
2x steel dagger (+5 attack)
2x cloth sacks (contains contents within)
Feng Ye adjusts his breathing. His stamina definitely increased from his former self in his old world. However, Feng Ye leans against a tree quickly to recover.
Feng Ye drinks from his water skin as he pulls up his attribute panel.
--
Candidate 15864457 Information.
Name: Feng Ye (Candidate)
Rank: 2
HP: 100%
Mana: 25
Strength: 6
Agility: 6
Stamina: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charm: 4
Note: An average human (non-candidate and non-contractor) has standard attributes of 4-5. After accepting the contract and becoming a candidate, the
Talent: None.
--
"No change." He mutters. He'll probably need some sort of medium or external assistance to rank up. He may be a great match to 1v5 some bandits, but if he runs into any individual that had attributes that exceed those of a normal human like potential nonhuman lifeforms or other otherworlders -- he might be in trouble.