What the hell is this?!
Karen screamed in his heart.
He continued to shoot two more arrows. Each time an arrow hit the target, the red bar shortened, and the numbers -1, -2 continuously popped up.
The fourth arrow, and also the final one, shot forward carrying a powerful force, piercing through the hard skin and pinning straight into the Spiked-Back Rat's throat.
A bright red -10 bounced up violently. The HP bar above the monster's head completely depleted and disappeared. It let out a shrill shriek, then collapsed to the ground, twitching a few times before breathing its last.
Karen stood dumbfounded, panting heavily. This... how the hell was this any different from playing an RPG game?! The monster's HP bar dropping to zero meant a successful kill!
Wait a minute!
He suddenly recalled the idle gossip at his company in his previous life. The interns frequently discussed Isekai or LitRPG novels, where the main character, upon reincarnating into a magic world, would be gifted a unique System, otherwise known as a Privilege or Cheat.
Could it be... this was his very own Cheat?!
An ability to see through the life force of all types of magic beasts?!
Karen fell into deep thought. If in the future, he had to carry on the Blackwood family's legacy to become a professional Monster Hunter, then this Cheat was truly an invaluable gift from the Gods!
To verify the hypothesis, he decided he had to hunt another Spiked-Back Rat. What if everything just now was merely a hallucination caused by heatstroke?!
Meanwhile, Mr. Blackwood standing beside him had completely turned to stone.
He still vividly remembered the first time he stepped out onto this field. Back then, he was frightened out of his wits by the monsters, having to struggle until he was dripping with sweat just to take down one rat, and in return, he himself was covered in injuries. Yet his son... actually succeeded on the very first encounter, and without losing a single hair!
By the time Mr. Blackwood snapped out of his shock, Karen had already begun attacking the second Spiked-Back Rat!
If with the first one, Karen was still clumsy and wasted a number of wooden arrows, then by the second one, the boy seemed to have grasped the target's movement pattern. He only needed exactly four accurately aimed arrows to take down the monster!
Looking at his son's calm demeanor and decisive movements, Mr. Blackwood's chest suddenly surged with extreme excitement. His son was not merely an outstanding talent, but a once-in-a-millennium genius!
With this potential, who knew, the boy might surpass the limits of Oakstone village and step into the ranks of the legendary great adventurers!
...
After consecutively taking down several Spiked-Back Rats, Karen was completely certain about possessing a hidden System Interface! From now on, whenever facing any type of magic beast, he could clearly grasp their HP and life-or-death status!
And while Karen was still busy happily grinding levels out in the fields.
At the Oakstone village gate area, under the shade of the ancient Oak tree next to the wooden sign carved with the village's name.
Aside from the adults who had to return to their daily work, most of the elderly and the children still patiently held their ground. They pulled out three-legged stools to sit on, wearily waiting for the results of Karen's first-ever hunt.
Seeing the children craning their necks, staring wide-eyed toward the dirt boundary road, an old man leaning on a cane couldn't help but chuckle hoarsely.
"You little brats, disperse and go play somewhere else! Dealing with a Spiked-Back Rat is no joke. No matter how good that boy is, the Blackwood father and son will probably have to wait until pitch dark to drag themselves back here!"
"Hmph! You senile old fool, what nonsense are you spouting?! According to my intuition, they are about to return!" Another old man, who always clashed with the former, immediately snorted and retorted: "The first time crossing the boundary, at most it's just scouting the situation to get a taste! No rookie has the guts to linger in that cursed place for long!"
The other elderly people sitting around also clamored to join the debate.
"You have a point! Besides, little Karen has been frail since childhood, not robust like Thomas! When he crawls back later, he might even be bawling his eyes out from fear!"
"I spit on that! What right do you have to look down on the boy?! That kid Karen has been sharper and calmer than others since he was little. He's definitely not the cowardly type! Unlike you, who was so scared you wet your pants the first time you crossed the boundary and lay bedridden for days!"
The group of elders argued noisily, their voices chaotic enough to dispel the quiet atmosphere of the noon.
"Enough, shut up everyone! Look quickly, aren't Mr. Blackwood and little Karen walking this way?!" An old man who had been sitting silently smoking a pipe suddenly spoke up.
As soon as the announcement was made, the entire village gate area instantly fell into silence. All eyes simultaneously shot toward the dirt path.
It really was them!
"They actually returned! I told you, there was no way they could hold out out there until tonight!"
"Sigh, coming back after just a short while like this, the mission is definitely a failure, he hasn't taken down a single rat yet!"
"I said it already, the kids these days have poor stamina! Hunting magic beasts still relies on those with the true mettle of a warrior!"
The group of elders immediately split into multiple streams of emotion: some sighed in regret, some were smug because they guessed right, and others shook their heads in boredom.
Meanwhile, the children completely ignored the adults' complex reasoning. Seeing the first young warrior of their generation safely return from the dangerous land, they cheered in excitement and swarmed out to welcome him.
Especially Lily Miller, the little girl smiled so brightly her two dimples showed. Her best friend was the first one to dare step across the boundary; how could she not be proud of such a glorious thing?!
"Karen! You're so amazing! You saw the field area, right? You..." Lily gleefully ran up leading the kids, but her chirping words suddenly choked mid-sentence, turning into an ear-piercing scream: "Ah!"
Karen jolted and stopped in his tracks: "What's wrong? What happened?!"
"You... you... that..." Lily stammered, one hand pointing straight at the bunch of objects dangling from Karen's hand, the other hand terrifiedly covering her mouth, her eyes widening so much they seemed about to fall out of their sockets.
The children behind followed Lily's pointing direction, and instantly, every single one of their faces turned as pale as a sheet of paper.
"Oh, you're talking about these things? These are the Spiked-Back Rat spoils of war I just hunted!" Karen only now noticed the children's horrified gazes. He innocently held up the rope strung with several bloody corpses for them to see: "Do you want to touch them?"
The children looked at him as if looking at a perverted Necromancer. Without needing anyone to give an order, they simultaneously took a step back, then frantically screamed and scattered in panic, vanishing as fast as smoke.
Karen: "???"