Under the curse of immortality, they age day by day, their bodies and souls fading together. Now, many of the soldiers are nothing more than empty shells.

Their souls have become so faint that they may not even know who they are, merely continuing to patrol and fight out of instinct from their former lives.

One day, they will become walking corpses with only their bodies alive... perhaps they already are.

Brandon Jenkins let out a sigh—what a pitiful world.

Brandon Jenkins casually began to loot the corpse, but there was nothing worth taking from this ordinary soldier.

The armor was already stained and battered, and had just been pierced by Brandon Jenkins. He already had a torch, and picking up another would only be a burden.

The only thing of any value was the sword that the soldier hadn’t had time to draw—a standard king’s army straight sword.

It was the standard weapon for ordinary soldiers serving various kings. After long use, its surface had blackened and its quality had deteriorated, but there were still traces of maintenance.

However, after thinking it over, Brandon Jenkins decided not to take it—he already had plenty of weapons.

Besides, even though the soldier had lost his mind, he still maintained this sword. Let it stay here and rest with its owner.

Brandon Jenkins continued moving through the bushes, encountering a few more soldiers along the way. He succeeded in two ambushes, picking up several kukri knives.

But once, it seemed the soldier’s mind hadn’t completely faded, and he noticed Brandon Jenkins ahead of time.

Brandon Jenkins fought him for two rounds, and in the end, easily drove his sword into the soldier’s neck.

However, the noise and shouting from the fight attracted three more soldiers nearby.

The three soldiers rushed in together, and even alternated their attacks, intentionally or not, making it hard for Brandon Jenkins to fend them off. Carelessly, he was struck twice.

One blow landed on his shoulder armor, but the armor held firm, only denting a little.

But the other strike was more dangerous, coming straight for Brandon Jenkins’s head.

Brandon Jenkins had no shield, and his straight sword was busy blocking another attack.

He could only use the bracer on his forearm to block, but the bracer was split open by the blow, and the straight sword sank deep into his flesh.

Brandon Jenkins fought while retreating, seizing an opportunity to take one down, which immediately reduced the frequency of attacks. The remaining two were quickly dealt with.

“Huff—huff—”

Brandon Jenkins’s face was pale, his left hand trembling uncontrollably. The blood loss and continuous fighting had left him exhausted.

Though these soldiers had lost their minds, they fought just like the living.

Brandon Jenkins slowly removed the shattered bracer from his arm, exposing his bleeding arm, and used the dead soldier’s clothes to simply bandage it.

“They’re already walking corpses, yet when there are enough of them, they can still coordinate their attacks.”

“Luckily, the armor is still decent. If my shoulder had been cut through, my whole left arm would be useless.”

The set of armor Brandon Jenkins wore had long been through countless battles, and some parts had lost much of their defensive power—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been broken by a mere foot soldier.

“Heh, at least this isn’t a game. Now I can loot corpses as much as I want.”

Brandon Jenkins picked up a set of bracers from a corpse. The bracers of Grek soldiers were leather gloves with metal forearm guards, wrapped in a layer of tattered cloth.

Enduring the pain, Brandon Jenkins put the new bracer on his left arm. He didn’t know if there would be more fighting ahead, and exposing bare flesh in battle was far too dangerous—a single blow to an unprotected arm could sever it completely.

There was nothing else worth taking from these soldiers, so Brandon Jenkins ignored them and moved on past the corpses.

Fortunately, there were no more soldiers on the road ahead, and Brandon Jenkins made it through the dense forest without trouble.

By now, dusk was falling, the world bathed in the dim, yellowish light of impending night.

Ahead lay a field of ruins, with a few scattered tents for resting and storing supplies pitched among the remains of some unknown building.

Even from a distance, without a telescope, Brandon Jenkins could see many soldiers patrolling back and forth inside.

To the left was a massive checkpoint, a stone-brick wall spanning between two mountains, leaving only a single road passing under the city gate.

The mountains on both sides were sheer cliffs, impossible to climb.

And in front of the checkpoint, a site of grace was shining, waiting for Brandon Jenkins to touch it.

Brandon Jenkins had to go to this site of grace, because this was where Melina would appear before the player for the first time.

Brandon Jenkins wanted to meet her.

But the terrain made things difficult for Brandon Jenkins. Although the map was much larger, the soldiers weren’t deaf and blind like in the game—sneaking past them undetected was impossible.

And with so many soldiers stationed in the ruins before the checkpoint, a frontal assault would be nearly impossible.

Suddenly, inspiration struck Brandon Jenkins—he remembered the kukri knives he’d picked up from the corpses earlier.

They were a type of large throwing knife, considered a heavy throwing weapon, and did decent damage.

But more importantly, these knives had a special trait: because of their weight, they made a loud noise when they hit stone.

Brandon Jenkins licked his lips as an idea formed in his mind.

But before that, Brandon Jenkins changed position and used a monocular to observe the situation at the checkpoint.

“The soldiers are spread out, but one of them seems to be holding a crossbow. If I get sniped, that would be bad.”