2: The mule team heading north

When I regained consciousness, the strong smell of livestock filled my nostrils, mixed with the sour smell of moldy leather and the bitter scent of some herb.

My face was pressed against rough fur, constantly bumping against a warm body with each jolt—it was a mule, and I was tied horizontally to the saddle like a sack.

“Achoo!”

The mule hair tickled my nose, and that sneeze fully woke me up.

My limbs felt like they were filled with lead, and the wound on my right shoulder throbbed with each bump.

I tried to move my body but found my hands and feet were immobile.

The twilight sun cast long shadows, and I saw six mules in a single file ahead, carrying wooden crates tightly wrapped in tarpaulins, their rhythmic outlines projected in the afterglow.

Their clothing somewhat resembled the commoner attire of the Western Middle Ages on the Blue Planet.

A man rode a tall horse at the very front, followed by four children on ponies.

Turning my head, there were also two other people on horseback.

The one on the tall horse was a rugged man.

The other, on a pony, had his questioning voice come from above my head.

It was a completely foreign language; I couldn't understand a single word.

I struggled to lift my neck, meeting a pair of amber eyes.

The small person on the pony was leaning down to look at me, and he had sandy-brown curly hair.

Although he was barely a meter tall, his calloused palms and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes indicated the vicissitudes of adulthood.

Only later did I learn that these small people were not human children, but Halflings.

They are a small but resilient humanoid intelligent race in this world.

They excel in craftsmanship, combat, and interacting with animals.

They have existed in this world even longer than humans, possessing rich cultures and traditions.

At the time, I didn't know they would cause me more suffering in the future.

And they didn't know that an accidental encounter with a seemingly harmless child like me would bring about their downfall.

The group suddenly stopped, and an urgent whistle came from ahead.

The small person instantly tensed up, pulling a crossbow from the saddlebag with a speed that left afterimages.

Wolf howls tore through the twilight.

Over a dozen giant wolves burst from the forest, the lead wolf standing four feet tall at the shoulder.

They encircled the group in a fan shape, saliva dripping from their fangs glowing with an eerie blue light in the sunset.

The leading human warrior shouted, his voice like clashing metal.

As he galloped, his chainmail made no sound, and the cold gleam of his twin axes cut crescent shapes in the air.

Two human mercenaries set up iron-bound wooden shields, and vine-like light patterns appeared on the shield surfaces.

The small male archer in leather armor fired arrows that never missed.

Most shocking was the small woman in the gray robe.

She raised her staff, her incantation as crisp as cracking ice.

When the first direwolf lunged within three steps, the gem at the tip of her staff suddenly burst with strong light—hundreds of ice crystals shot out in a fan shape towards the wolf pack.

These prism-like crystals automatically tracked their targets in the air, piercing through the wolves' eyes and exploding within their skulls; over a dozen wolf corpses fell, maintaining their pouncing postures.

My throat tightened, my forehead pressed against the mule's belly, clearly feeling the tremor of this young body.

This wasn't movie special effects; there were no safety ropes or green screens, and the splashing wolf blood was dripping down the grass blades, evaporating into a pale blue mist in the twilight.

After reorganizing the mules, the group resumed their journey.

They encountered two more attacks afterward.

One was from a black bear, and another from a beast I didn't recognize, but they repelled them one by one.

When the moon rose into the sky, a large number of wild beasts poured out from the depths of the dense forest.

It was that disgusting monster that attacked me today again!

Accompanied by a huge shriek, a large group of demonic Mad Apess, with blood-red eyes and evil smiles, charged towards the group with a crazy deterrent force, like a surging mudslide.

There were about fifty or sixty Mad Apess, a vast dark mass from afar.

The moonlight illuminated the outlines of pustules on their festering skin, like moving groups of toads.

So many!

In this clearing in the forest, it was impossible to defend. Could they hold them off?

The mage acted even earlier than I expected.

This time, she cast a new magic I hadn't seen before.

A huge fireball flew from her hands, soaring at an extremely fast speed into the Mad Apes horde.

This time, it wasn't just the mage acting alone.

The hunter also shot a magic arrow with sparks on its arrowhead, landing in the Mad Apes horde at the same time as the fireball.

With two bangs, the fireball and arrow exploded within the Mad Apes horde.

The power seemed like two hand grenades, accompanied by surging flames.

Most of the Mad Apess were instantly blown to death.

Their fur and flesh became fuel for the raging flames, rapidly burning into piles of black ashes.

This was the first time I had witnessed the entire process of these strange creatures, with dense fur and even flesh that was easily ignited, being burned to ashes.

The remaining two or three Mad Apess, not affected by the magical flames, were met head-on by several warriors and quickly cut down.

Was it resolved that easily?

This battle again made my jaw drop.

After reorganizing the mule team, the group continued north for a short distance.

The vanguard hunter led everyone to a large rock formation sheltered from the wind; it seemed the group would camp here for the night.

Once the campfire and tents were mostly ready, a tall man lifted me from the mule's back and placed me near the campfire.

I just lay there, limp and wrapped in a blanket by the campfire, watching these people busy around me.

The humans and the small people spoke two different languages that I couldn't understand.

But as they communicated with each other, I noticed that most of the small people could speak the human language.

Where exactly was this place?

The two languages they spoke didn't sound like any language family I knew on the Blue Planet.

And what about me? How did I become a child? Was I like these small people?

I remembered touching my pointed ears earlier; this seemed different from them, and my stature was far from as robust as theirs.

My body still looked like a child's, but the pointed ears certainly didn't seem human.

“Beep, system restart complete.”

I heard a strange mechanical voice again.

I twisted my stiff neck, trying to move my eyeballs; the people around me were all at some distance, busy with their own affairs.

It didn't seem like anyone was talking to me.

“Detecting host… planar traversal complete, repair and optimization of physical body damaged by planar traversal complete.”

“Energy critically low, entering power-saving mode.”

The mechanical voice continued in my head, “Host, silently recite 'system' to access the auxiliary interface.”

What… what was happening?

Everything I experienced today was so absurd, like a long nightmare.

But all my senses told me this was an incredibly real reality.

Had I really transmigrated?!

I tried silently reciting the word “system.”

Suddenly, an icon appeared in my mind.

I focused my consciousness on this somewhat familiar-looking icon in my mind.

The icon suddenly expanded into an attribute panel, with a long string of information written in Chinese.

Name: Lin Yang

Race: Half-elf

Alignment: Neutral Good

Identity: Outlander

Age: 8

Profession: None

Attributes: Strength 4 (-3 = 1 Paralyzed), Agility 10 (-9 = 1 Paralyzed), Constitution 6, Intelligence 16 (+3 Otherworldly Knowledge System = 19), Perception 9 (-8 = 1 Paralyzed), Charisma 10

Defense Level: 1

Health Points: 1/3