Rumble!
A violent explosion tore through the air, sending a pillar of orange-red fire roaring into the sky from a distant building.
Merlin's body jerked involuntarily. Even with his cheat, he couldn't change the fact that he was currently just an ordinary person with a little extra strength.
The reality that he was weak remained unchanged.
His cheat didn't come with a "Newbie Gift Pack" or some miraculous, overpowering force. He was still just a fourteen-year-old boy.
If he got shot, he would die.
The excitement that had initially bubbled up from discovering his power was quickly dissolved by the relentless sounds of gunfire echoing around him.
"It's 6:30 PM. It'll be dark soon..." Merlin pulled a silver pocket watch from his pocket and checked the time.
It was his mother's keepsake.
Inside the watch's cover was a photo of a family of three tucked snugly into the frame.
A tall, handsome man; a graceful, beautiful woman; and a cute, well-behaved child.
His parents and himself at age seven.
Merlin fell silent. After a few seconds, he looked up at the sky, which was already starting to dim.
It was October, and the autumn days grew dark quickly.
Suddenly, a thought struck him. Merlin reached behind his waist and pulled out a sheathed dagger.
It was thirty-two centimeters long.
The overall appearance was somewhat old-fashioned.
It was a short-sword style dagger.
The hilt was wrapped in gold wire to provide a non-slip grip.
Click!
He gripped the handle and unsheathed the blade. In the dim light, a cold glint flashed from the bright white edges of the dagger.
"Does this count as equipment?"
Looking at the dagger he had brought from home for self-defense, a glimmer of hope appeared in Merlin's eyes.
This was an heirloom from his mother.
It was said to be a family treasure passed down for over a hundred years, a sharp blade inherited from his great-grandfather's generation.
Following his instincts, Merlin focused his mind. The dagger in his hand vanished into thin air, and an image of the dagger appeared in the equipment slot on the interface before him.
At the same time, a unique piece of information from the "Equipment Slot" flowed into his consciousness, which Merlin understood instinctively.
[Bind this Equipment?]
[No!]
Merlin's consciousness immediately rejected it.
There were two ways to equip items: [Bind] and [Temporary].
Binding an item meant the [Equipment Slot] would be permanently occupied by that specific item. However, it would also unlock every bit of potential the item possessed.
Temporary equipment could be swapped in and out of the slot at will, but it couldn't unlock the item's full potential.
As for what "potential" meant, Merlin wasn't entirely sure yet.
driven by instinct, Merlin mentally focused on the image of the [Dagger] in the slot. Information about the weapon appeared in his mind.
[Name: Sharp Family Heirloom Dagger]
[Effect: Slightly increases attack power. Long-term equipment has a probability of granting comprehension of a dagger-related technique perk.]
[Synchronization Rate: 1%]
[Evaluation: A well-crafted family heirloom for self-defense. Having been cherished and used by every owner, this dagger has witnessed the development and maturation of a specific dagger technique.]
Feeling a sudden warmth flow through his body and a sense of strength slowly filling him, Merlin's eyes lit up instantly.
"It seems... I can protect myself a little better now?!"
"Ah—don't... Bang!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Screams rang out from beyond the alleyway.
Merlin immediately held his breath, freezing in place, totally alert.
Simultaneously, the dagger vanished from the "Equipment Slot" and materialized in his right hand.
"Damn it! These infected freaks in Flevance actually want to take their virus out of here? Damn pathogens! Listen up, don't let a single one go! Wipe them all out!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Understood!"
"..."
Listening to the cold voices drifting in from the street, Merlin's eyes darkened. He gritted his teeth, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the dagger, whispering softly:
"Leave no one alive, huh?"
A moment later, the gunfire ceased, and the hurried footsteps faded into the distance. Merlin remained motionless, a chill running through his entire body.
"Survive. I have to survive. I can't die. If I die, I lose everything!"
He murmured to himself, a fierce look gradually taking over his eyes.
If there were a mirror, Merlin would have seen that his expression was now utterly ferocious.
Although in his past life he had just been an ordinary guy living under the red flag, ancient blood flowed in his veins.
We are... a fighting people!
The spirit of resisting oppression is eternally inherited in the soul.
Not to mention his experience living in this chaotic world for fourteen years. He might not have killed anyone, but the ruthlessness was there in his bones.
Especially these last three years, struggling alone here. He hadn't survived because the people were nice, but because he dared to risk his life.
Slowly standing up, Merlin peeked his head out, looking toward the street. It was silent a hundred meters away.
The surroundings were equally dead silent.
He looked at the walls on either side of the alley, about two meters high. With his height of 1.7 meters, he could easily climb over.
Treading lightly, he slowly moved outward. It took him a full two minutes to cover the hundred meters to the alley's entrance.
Slowly turning his body to peek out, he saw the street was empty of the living. Corpses lay everywhere, and the scars of artillery fire marred the surroundings.
His throat bobbed, his pupils constricted, and his heart began to pound violently again. Merlin took deep breaths, his eyes fixed on the tragic scene.
He tried to force himself to adapt quickly, swallowing constantly to suppress the nausea rising in his gut.
"It's not like I haven't seen dead people before. There's just... a lot more today. Adapt. Adapt or die..."
He muttered the mantra to himself. Merlin stared intently at a woman lying face up three meters away, her chest a bloody mess from gunshots.
Next to her lay the corpse of a boy, eight or nine years old, blood still seeping from his nose and mouth.
On her neck was a palm-sized patch of pale white skin—a mark of Amber Lead Syndrome.
Merlin's stomach spasmed, and his teeth ground together audibly. After a few minutes, he exhaled a long, turbid breath.
Scanning both ends of the street and seeing no sign of the executioners in their gray-green hazmat suits, Merlin dropped to the ground and crawled toward the woman, stopping half a meter away.
He focused his mind, but nothing happened.
He reached out, inching closer, still nothing, until his cold left hand touched her shoulder.
Checking his surroundings to ensure no one was watching, the woman's corpse vanished with a swish!
Merlin quickly rolled back into the alley, staring blankly at the blue [Equipment Slot] before him. An image of the woman's corpse was now inside.
[Name: Valueless Female Corpse]
[Effect: When equipped, your body will continuously secrete a female hormone over time.]
[Synchronization Rate: 1%]
[Evaluation: A useless female corpse with Amber Lead Syndrome. If you want your body to undergo some strange changes, you can try equipping her for a long time.]
"So humans can be equipped too?"
"Is this what it means by equipping [All Things]?"
"If the dead work... what about equipping living things?"
Thinking this, Merlin unequipped the female corpse, and she reappeared on the ground in front of him.
Staring silently at the body for a few seconds, Merlin pursed his thin lips and slowly squeezed out two words: "I'm sorry."
He reached out and gently closed her wide, staring sea-blue eyes.
Moments later, following his memory, Merlin found himself in another alley by a trash heap. He grabbed a squeaking, grayish-brown rat. He mentally commanded [Equip], but looking at the gray rat still screeching in his hand...
The struggling creature was not taken into the equipment slot.
In the next instant, he smashed it hard against the ground. Smack! The rat was knocked unconscious. Immediately, it vanished into thin air and appeared in the [Equipment Slot].
[Name: Unconscious Rat]
[Effect: When equipped, you gain biological characteristics of a rat.]
[Synchronization Rate: 1%]
[Evaluation: An injured rat. Although carrying various pathogens, it is struggling to survive. Long-term equipment has a probability of permanently granting a special perk possessed by this rat.]
At this moment.
The light in his eyes began to shine!