Sitting on a rock on top of a hill, a man cleared his throat before speaking.

"Alright, my name is Lennard J. Copperowl. I am a 27 year old accountant who works for a well paying company. The company isn't that known, but the work there is humane. I have a medium-sized house and a fiancee. We've been together for seven years and we support each other very well. My life is something that many people desire because it's stable." Lennard stood up from a rock that he was sitting on before he continued with his story.

"That all changed when I was on my way home. I came across a bunch of drunkards on the street and they robbed me. I didn't dare fight back because I might get hurt, so I gave them all my cash. But they broke a bottle on my head and stabbed me with it. I can still remember the sharp pain and how I was left down on the cold concrete. When it rained, my body was freezing but I couldn't do anything. I tried shouting, I tried moving, but to no avail." Lennard brushed off the tree branches that were blocking his way.

"And of course, I died. But what I wasn't expecting was to wake up in the middle of a village. I was confused. Where was I? I asked the people around and they said that I was in the Carmil Village. I asked them for places with a phone signal, but they just looked at me with strange looks. They didn't know what a phone was. I was shocked." Lennard kept walking as he spoke.

"And when I kept asking, that was when I realized that I am no longer on earth. I am in a world called Tillian, named after the goddess of earth in this world. The continent that I am is named Floresa Continent and yep, I got reincarnated."

"To others, this was a dream, but to me.. I lost everything I cared about. My two sisters and brother are probably at my funeral crying. My mother and father must be in deep sorrow, my fiancee Nadia is definitely depressed right now. My goodness what did I do to deserve this…"

"But my sadness and moping didn't do anything, so I just climbed up a hill to contemplate my life. But that was when… this appeared."

Lennard swiped his hand in the air and a holographic screen appeared in front of him.

[Lennard J. Copperowl - Level:0]

Strength:1 Speed:1 Endurance:1 Vitality:1 Intelligence:1 Magic:0 Detection:1 Reflex:0 Resistance:1 Charisma:3 Luck:1

Attribute Points: 0

Balance: 0$

> Experience Bar [Locked][Pay 13$ to unlock]

> Skill Tree [Locked][Pay 42.32$ to unlock]

> Magic Energy [Locked][Pay 510.25$ to unlock]

> Shop [Locked][Pay 1260.36$ to unlock]

> Spells [Locked] Pay 2010$ to unlock]

> Portable Storage [Locked][Pay 6767.67$ to unlock]

> Premium Version [Locked][Pay 9999.99$ to unlock]

(You cannot level up until the experience bar is unlocked.)

"A pay to win system? Are you kidding me!?" Lennard screamed out to release his anger.

"Who the hell made this system?! I know that from the anime I watched, it's supposed to help the main character progress, but this is just plain robbery! Where am I even going to get the money for this!?"

Lennard kicked a pebble on the ground to vent out his frustration. He was just killed one day ago and then he had to deal with this crappy situation.

Lennard is technically an outsider in front of the villagers from Carmil, so they wouldn't trust him that quickly.

Lennard examined himself and sighed. He was wearing a crude brown shirt made of animal skin, gray pants and wooden sandals held together by animal skin as well. If anyone looked at him right now, they would all come to the same conclusion that he was definitely poor.

He saw a "?" button in the system panel so he pressed it.

(Balance can be earned by taking ownership of treasures and items with monetary value. Items claimed must be technically claimed by the user. Examples: Paper bills, gold, jewelry.)

Lennard's left eye twitched.

"So in order to power up, all I need is cash, so that means I need to find a job in the village somewhere."

Carmil Village is quite poor. The only source of money that the villagers have is the Curero Company who hires men to mine iron ores for them, farm in the lands that they bought from the Carmil Village, hunt wild animals or catch fish for them.

It wasn't an exaggeration that without the Curero Company, there wouldn't be a Carmil Village.

With a deep groan, Lennard expressed his displeasure. "But that means that I have to work in those crappy working conditions that I spent my life studying so that I could avoid them back on earth.."

"Eh, it's better than nothing I guess."

Making up his mind, Lennard returned to the village and looked where the men from Curero were located.

The village houses were really poor. They are made of mud, wooden planks and some stone. If a heavy rain falls down on the village, the houses wouldn't stand a chance and probably get destroyed in the process.

The road was very muddy and a wrong step would lead to your foot plunging deep into a hole full of mud. Lennard really missed the concrete roads from earth.

He arrived shortly at a large stone house and saw a lot of men in the age of twelve to fifty four. It shows that the jobs provided by the Curero Company are vital to the survival of the villagers.

He lined up from the back and saw that a lean man holding papers was assessing them in order to figure out what job suited them best.

Lennard looked at the man carefully because he could feel a strange energy pulsating in the man's body. "So he's definitely a magic user.."

Reighton is a young magician who works for the Curero Company and was stationed here in the Carmil Village. If he did his job well, he was going to get shifted to a better area.

Reighton looked at the fifteen year old in front of him and said, "Your stamina is good, I think that you can go to the farmlands. Do you agree with this?"

"Of course! Of course! I'll be glad to work!" The fifteen year old boy nodded eagerly.

"Very good, now go there and someone will send you to work." Reighton pointed to a carriage filled with other teenagers who were about to be sent for work.

He then turned to the middle aged man in front of him who reeks of a sour smell. "Hmm.." he covered his nose and said, "You'll be going to fish for us. Now go ahead before you stink up the whole room."

The middle aged man quickly walked away with his head lowered.

Lennard couldn't help but hate Reighton already. The look in his eyes that screams his superiority already irritates Lennard's eyes. But he concealed it and waited patiently for his turn.

Curero does provide some salary of two silver coins minimum after working for them. And since Carmil Village is so poor, there weren't merchants interested in doing business here.

So even if they receive money, they can't spend it.

The higher ups from Curero obviously knew this, so they also sold clothing, food and water in Carmil Village. So that means, all of the money that they gave to these people would return to them and all they had to provide was cheap food, water, and clothes for the people.

I know what you're thinking, why waste all that effort and just directly give them their necessities?

Well, Carmil village is still under the Gereno Kingdom's laws. They still classify as citizens that cannot be enslaved. So if the Curero Company wants to do cheap business without getting caught, they used this loophole to get the villagers to work for them like slaves even though their status says otherwise.

When it was Lennard's turn, Reighton looked at him up and down. He felt a breeze of cold air enter his body after feeling the man's gaze that seemed like it could pierce through his mind and see all of his secrets.

"Oh?" Reighton finished assessing Lennard and said, "You're quite strong for your age.. farming, fishing and hunting would be a waste of your strength.. what do you say about being in the mines?"

Lennard was happy after hearing this. Mining has the best salary out of all the jobs that the Curero Company provided with a salary of five silver coins. He could definitely live off of this and have three silver coins for spare.

"Yes, I'd be willing to." Lennard smiled to show his enthusiasm.

"Good, now go to that carriage and you'll be sent to the mines for today. They will bring you back home at 5 pm and remember to return here early in the morning around 8 am." Reighton has a good impression of Lennard, so his attitude towards him was obviously nicer.

"Thank you." Lennard went to the carriage where Reighton pointed so that he could start working.

The carriage was filled with men with decent physiques unlike those who are skinny. People this strong was only a handful in the Carmil Village.

The driver closed the door and got on the carriage. He whipped the reins and then the horses began to move forward.

Lennard hasn't experienced being on a horse carriage until now. He thought that it was a unique experience until he felt how bumpy the roads were until his butt became sore after hitting multiple rocks on the road.

"Damn this…" Lennard was used to an easy and relaxed life, so something this painful was a bit much for him to bear.

After a few minutes, they finally arrived at an iron mine located at the base of the Southern Sunrise Hill.

Many miners were working hard gathering iron ore. The sound of pickaxes hitting the hard stone reverberated on the area.

The driver hopped off the carriage and opened the door. The driver had a tall stature and a grumpy looking face. He was old so his beard was fully white.

"Alright, get off and grab the pickaxes there and start digging. All of you are the miners and all you have to do is dig for that rock." The driver pointed to a minecart filled with iron ore. "Since all of you are the miners, all you have to do is bring the ores to the gatherers and continue digging. Now if you're worried about food, you'll get them at lunchtime." The driver wiped his mouth using his sleeve as he stared at them with an annoyed expression. "Now hurry up before I spend another second in this wretched pit." The driver snarled.

They got off quickly and grabbed the pickaxes as instructed.

Lennard followed them and picked up a pickaxe as well. And the moment he picked it up, a notification sound pinged inside Lennard's head.

Clink!

(Low Grade Pickaxe - Price: 0.05$)

[Sell? Y/N]

Lennard immediately pressed No.

He already tested his system's ability and everytime he picked up something, the system always asked him if he wanted to sell it.

He picked up a rock and sold it to test how it works, and the rock just straight up vanished from thin air.

So of course, he didn't want this pickaxe to disappear, or else he'd be held accountable.

He followed the group into the mines and saw the sunlight slowly fade as they went deeper and deeper into the darkness.

If it weren't for the lanterns hanging up on the ceiling of the mine, it would be impossible to discern anything from this cave.

Lennard didn't mind it and just went with the rest. His group was the last to be brought here, so they were going to mine in the deeper areas of the mine. Lennard actually preferred this so that he wouldn't get caught doing his thing.

And once the group reached their area, they all began mining. Lennard lifted his pickaxe and swung it down on the stone walls. Once his pickaxe struck the tough stone wall, he felt the impact numb his hands which caused him to drop his pickaxe.

"I may have underestimated this task…" Lennard massaged his hand before picking up his pickaxe.

He watched the experienced miners work and imitated their movement.

And when he did, the impact still hurt, but it was clearly reduced. Lennard mined for a while until he found his first iron ore.

A bit disoriented from the repeated movement, Lennard didn't realize it at first. "Wait… is that?" He reached out his hand and picked up the iron ore.

(Common Grade Iron Ore - Price 0.02$)

[Sell? Y/N]

Lennard looked around and saw that everyone was busy with their work.

"Phew, no one's looking…" Lennard pressed the "Yes" button and then the iron ore turned into purple pixels before completely disappearing.

He looked at his character panel and saw his balance rise up.

Balance: 0.02$

"Well… this is going to be tough.." Lennard's arms were already hurting so he didn't think that he was going to get enough money to buy the experience bar.

"Ah forget it, I'm going to die anyways if I don't work here." Lennard steeled himself and mined continuously.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

This went on for two hours…

Lennard's muscles became extremely strained after mining nonstop for two hours. He could barely feel his arms and legs as sweat continuously poured down from his body like a stream.

"Hahh… hah…" Lennard looked at his balance that he worked so hard for. Surely after that much work, it would be high enough, right?

Balance: 0.3$

"I'm going to die…" Lennard's knees slumped down after being overworked.

And as Lennard was feeling down, a huge muscular man wearing the uniform that employees from the Curero Company approached him and said, "Hey rookie, it's lunchtime. You can't work if you don't have the energy for it."

"Huh..? Oh yeah yeah… I'll be there…" Lennard stood up and wiped the sweat from his face. He looked around and saw that everyone except him were already out of the mines.

The man nodded and walked towards the exit. Lennard followed behind and looked around aimlessly at the pickaxes laid down on the ground. It was not until he saw a stray iron ore that wasn't put into the minecart.

He walked slower and let the man go ahead without him. Lennard grabbed the ore and to his surprise, he got something good.

(Common Grade Gold Ore - Price 5$)

[Sell? Y/N]

Lennard immediately sold it.

He smiled as he felt relief wash all over his body. And even though he was tired, he thought that it wasn't as bad as he thought working here in the mines.

The man turned around after seeing that Lennard was far behind him and said, "Hey, what are you doing there?"

"Hm? Oh nothing… I'll be there." Lennard didn't dawdle around and left the mine.

The man shook his head, oblivious to it all.