Chapter 1: Waking Up

"It's so early in the morning. Has this drunkard stopped breathing?"

A sigh of pity suddenly pierced Raine's blurred consciousness.

"Don't get too close. He's the one who ran into Goblins with his party a while ago and fled back all by himself."

Another voice was deliberately lowered but could not conceal its apathy.

"Oh, it's him. I heard he's the only one in the whole party who made it back alive. They couldn't even find the remains of the others."

The voices faded as their footsteps drifted further away, slowly blurring into nothingness.

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

Replacing the voices in Raine's ears was a burst of crisp birdsong.

The increasingly glaring sunlight pierced through his eyelids, dyeing his vision a blood red. This sudden red glow made him snap his eyes open, gasping uncontrollably for air. Several sparrows, their tail feathers emitting a faint blue light, were startled. They fluttered away from a nearby windowsill, leaving only a few feathers drifting to the ground.

His blurred vision gradually cleared.

A cracked flagstone road stretched deep into the morning mist, the distance hazy. On both sides of the street, low medieval-style buildings were packed tightly together. The foul stench of mixed mud and feces assaulted his face.

"Where am I? How did I end up here?"

Raine found himself leaning against the freezing stone wall of a narrow alleyway. The rough stones dug painfully into his back, and the chill seeped through his thin burlap shirt straight into his bones. He moved his fingers subconsciously, realizing he was still clutching a chipped, broken wooden cup. A sour smell of alcohol faintly wafted from it.

"UGH..."

His head suddenly throbbed with intense pain as the memories of a modern corporate wage slave and a decadent Adventurer began to intertwine and merge. The neon lights of towering skyscrapers and the rising bonfires of camps, the clacking of keyboards and the despairing screams of companions—everything finally froze on the blinding glare of a roaring dump truck.

"I transmigrated."

Pressing hard against his splitting forehead, Raine recalled that fatal moment. After a full day of coding, he had dragged his exhausted body off work, just wanting to grab some food from a street stall. Before he could take more than a few steps, a deafening horn and the piercing screech of tires scraping against the ground crashed over him.

BONG—

The distant, lingering toll of a bell yanked Raine back to reality.

As the morning mist gradually dissipated, the once-deserted street filled with pedestrians, slowly bustling with life. Not far away, a gray-haired old woman struggled to heave a heavy basket onto her stall with a heavy THUD. Carrots and cabbages stained with wet mud rolled out with a loud RUMBLE. Panting heavily, she strained her voice to shout her wares.

Next door, the wooden door of a tavern swung wide open with a loud CREAK. A young worker, his eyes still heavy with sleep, leaned out to splash a bucket of overnight wastewater into the drainage ditch before yawning and beginning to sweep the porch.

Directly opposite, the thick, soot-blackened door curtain of the Blacksmith's Shop was lifted just a crack, letting out a wave of scorching heat carrying a choking smell of coal. A bare-chested Blacksmith's Shop Apprentice crouched at the door, pulling the bellows with a steady PUFF PUFF, while rhythmic hammering sounds rang out from within the shop.

Raine's gaze finally landed on a burly figure's back. The man was visibly over two meters tall, with shoulders as broad as a small hill. The bulging muscles on his back rolled slowly with every step he took. He carried a massive Double-Bladed Axe on his shoulder. Its blade gleam was blinding, faintly flowing with a pale red light that exuded a terrifying, murderous aura.

This was a fantasy world where Sword and Magic coexisted.

In his memories, Minstrels passing through the Wilderness could make dead wood bloom with just a few strums of their harp strings, while the swords at the waists of knight lords always emitted the faint glow of Magic.

The Human Race, Elves, Dwarves, Dwarves, and Beastmen... Myriad races stood tall, and one unique, majestic city after another dotted the lands. Yet, danger was also omnipresent. There were creatures like Goblins, Bear Goblins, and Kobolds that frequently threatened commoners, as well as those that even nobles paled to mention—Heart Stealers, Demons, and even Giant Dragons that soared the skies.

Fortunately, the myriad races always produced capable individuals. Many Professionals emerged who mastered powerful Magic and Combat Techniques: Rangers, Warlocks, Wanderers, Druids, and so on. A powerful Professional would be offered bread and toasted with ale wherever they went, and could even become an honored guest of major nobles and the Royal Family.

Raine's heartbeat couldn't help but speed up a bit, but it quickly sank again. All of the above had absolutely nothing to do with the original owner of his body. The original owner had just turned eighteen and was nothing more than a Newbie Adventurer scraping by as a Bottom-level Adventurer. A week ago, because he abandoned his companions and fled alone, he had become the laughingstock of the town.

The crowd on the street grew increasingly dense. Several well-equipped adventuring parties were gathering at the intersection, their sword hilts and metal belt buckles clashing to produce crisp sounds. They gathered in small groups, laughing and chatting with one another. Someone shouted, "Double-check the supplies and ropes again!" with a voice full of vigor.

Leaning against the freezing stone wall, Raine watched those energetic figures and subconsciously gripped the broken wooden cup in his hand tighter. More memory fragments were surging up uncontrollably, making that chilling night increasingly vivid in his mind.

But he didn't immediately dwell on those thoughts. Instead, he supported himself against the wall and slowly stood up. As a thirty-year-old corporate worker with a fair amount of life experience, rather than wallowing in memories, he was far more concerned with his current situation.

"Is this single Copper Deer all I have left?"

Raine patted down his pockets, his fingertips only brushing against a single, cold Copper Coin. He pulled out the Copper Coin and tilted it in the sunlight. Engraved on the copper-colored metal surface was a galloping stag, which was the origin of the name Copper Deer.

Before he could carefully examine this Otherworld coin, a wave of intense dizziness accompanied by hunger rushed straight to his head, instantly blurring the stag emblem in his vision. The original owner hadn't eaten for several days. If he didn't eat something soon, this body would likely collapse entirely.

Forcing himself to perk up, he began checking his only remaining equipment. Hanging at his waist was a battered Short Sword, its hilt wrapped in strips of cloth. As for his primary weapons, his Longbow and Quiver, they had long been lost during that night's escape. As for any other items of value, they had been sold off for booze a long time ago.

"A broken sword and one Copper Coin are still better than being bare-handed," he muttered to himself, feeling the emptiness coming from his stomach.

Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Now that he had arrived in this unfamiliar Otherworld, he had to find a way to live on. What's more, he wasn't entirely without something to rely on.

A golden glow surfaced deep within his consciousness, outlining the silhouette of an ancient tome—the Adventurer's Chronicles.

[Attributes Chapter], [Hunting Chapter], [Exploration Chapter].

Raine focused his mind and flipped open the Attributes Chapter.

[Name: Raine]

[Power: 5 (Muscle strength, load-bearing, explosive force)]

[Agility: 6 (Reaction speed and physical coordination)]

[Physique: 5 (Life Force, endurance, recovery ability)]

[Intelligence: 5 (Memory, mental strength, Magic Power)]

[Perception: 5 (Insight, Eye Power, intuition)]

[Charm: 5 (Affinity and aura)]

[Skills]

[Basic Archery Lv1 (1/10)]

[Basic Swordsmanship Lv1 (1/10)]

"The original owner served as a Ranger in the party, acting as a Scout, so it makes sense that his Agility is a bit higher. The other Attributes look to be at the level of a normal person. As for the two Skills being passive, judging from the lowest Level and proficiency, they at best prove that the original owner barely knows how to use a bow and a sword."

Raine silently assessed. With a slight shift in his thoughts, the tome turned a page silently, and the Hunting Chapter interface emerged.

Presented in his mind was a series of neatly arranged, dark squares. When his consciousness attempted to touch one of the squares, whose outline looked like an eyeball, a prompt immediately popped up:

[Demon not yet killed. Unable to view specific information.]

At the very bottom of the interface, there was also a striking line of text:

[For every corresponding number of Demons recorded, you will receive a reward (Next stage reward: 1 Demon recorded).]

"I can get rewards just by killing Demons. Could there be other ways to get them too?"

Lost in thought, Raine opened the final section, the Exploration Chapter. This time, a map unfolded in his mind. Only within a small circular area centered around him did it show clear street outlines and building layouts; everything else was shrouded in fog.

"Judging from the range and shape, this should be the town I'm in right now."

He observed it carefully and noticed that two prompts had also surfaced below the map:

[Visit the core landmarks of this region to disperse part of the regional fog.]

[Successfully disperse all the fog, and the region will be recorded.]

[For every corresponding number of regions recorded, you will receive a reward (Next stage reward: 1 region recorded).]

"In other words, as long as I walk to the few core landmarks in town, I can unlock a reward too? Although I don't know what the reward is, it at least won't make my situation any worse than it already is, right?"

Raine's spirits lifted as he carefully identified the four glowing points marking the core landmarks on the map. They were the Return Inn, the Adventurer's Guild, the Town Mayor's Mansion, and that tall Bell Tower.

"The inn is the closest. I must activate all the core landmarks as soon as possible. This is the only way out of my current predicament."

He took a deep breath, decisively tossed away the broken wooden cup, and took a somewhat unsteady step forward. In his memories, the inn provided the absolute cheapest meals for Bottom-level Adventurers, costing exactly One Copper Coin. By going there, he could also fill his stomach.

Following the guidance of his memories and the map, Raine fought back his hunger and soon arrived at the first landmark—in front of the inn named "Return." The inn was nestled in the corner of a row of shops, its exterior old but tidy. Just as his gaze focused on the faded signboard carved with a traveler and a wagon wheel, the map's introduction to the Return Inn automatically popped up.

[Mottled Town • South District • Return Inn]

[Introduction: Founded jointly by Basha Stone Ring and her husband, Olik Stone Ring. Olik was once an experienced Adventurer. Twelve years ago, he and his eldest son, Kalan, joined the Northern Territory exploration team and headed to Silent Snow Hill, but nothing was ever heard from them again. They were declared dead by the Adventurer's Guild. Since then, Basha has single-handedly kept the inn running and changed its name to 'Return.' The wagon wheel on the signboard symbolizes that travelers, like a wheel, will eventually return to their starting point. Over all these years, her hope has never changed.]

This sudden influx of information caused Raine's heart to tremble slightly. Although his memories told him that this place was very friendly to Adventurers—even insisting on providing meals for One Copper Coin, far below the market price—he never expected there to be such a backstory.

He tightly gripped the Copper Coin, now soaked with his sweat, and pushed open the doors to the inn.