Medieval: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

If we were to say which era is most suitable for starting from scratch, it would undoubtedly be a chaotic one.

But in chaotic times, any identity can become a target of public criticism.

Even if you are just an illegitimate child.

Li Cheng, a young man from China, stumbled upon a stroke of luck on his way home from get off work. When he woke up again, he was shocked to find himself transformed into the illegitimate son of a nobleman in medieval Europe.

This illegitimate child was born in Sedras Castle, northwest of Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia. He was the child of Serena, the daughter of Count Sedras, who was born out of wedlock when she was seventeen.

Selena died shortly after giving birth due to postpartum complications, but she gave her child a wonderful name before she passed away – Peter.

Peter is a male name derived from Greek, originally meaning "rock," symbolizing the qualities of strength and stability. After being elevated by St. Peter, one of the twelve apostles, it was also endowed with the meaning of fortitude and reliability.

It was originally a good name, but when this name is attached to an illegitimate child, it becomes repulsive.

The old count despised his illegitimate son Peter, considering him a disgrace to the family.

The count's eldest son hated Peter because his birth had taken the life of his beloved sister.

As for the biological father of the illegitimate child? In the Middle Ages, where private life was chaotic, no one knew who that beast was, and no one was willing to risk offending the Earl to come forward and claim this romantic debt.

Thus, poor little Peter spent his childhood in such an environment with the sons of his neighbors.

But his fate, like that of the Bohemian kingdom of that era, grew increasingly worse.

In 1392, when Peter was eight years old, a civil war broke out in the Kingdom of Bohemia. The old count supported King Wenceslaus IV in fighting against the alliance of southern nobles. As a result, the king was captured, and the old count was defeated and paid a large ransom. The count's territory was in financial difficulty, and the exploitation of his subjects became increasingly heavy. Peter was often hungry.

In 1396, Peter the Younger was 12 years old. Wenceslaus IV was released, and Bohemia, once the wealthiest region of the Holy Roman Empire, began to decline, falling into a state of fragmentation among warlords. The assets of all social classes shrank dramatically; high nobles became middle nobles, middle nobles became low nobles, and many low nobles went bankrupt and became wandering knights. In the increasingly difficult environment, Peter the Younger also fought with his companions for food, becoming fierce and powerful.

The County of Saïds became even more decadent, and even began selling off its various estates to maintain a semblance of dignity.

At that time, a royal commission composed of the great lords was established to limit the king's power. Count Otto von Polgao, the chief steward of the royal commission, used his power to forcibly purchase the old count's Trogki Castle and its surrounding villages.

Troski is located 70 kilometers northeast of Prague. It is situated in the eastern mountains with a marble quarry, the western highlands with dense forests, the southern part near the Izera River with its thriving waterways, the northern part near the border trading post of the Duchy of Brandenburg, and the central part with large tracts of flat farmland. It is a prime asset.

However, faced with pressure from the royal steward, Count Otto von Polgao, Count Seidras had no choice but to reluctantly sell the castle.

In November 1402, Peter the Younger was 18 years old. The lazy King Wenceslaus IV openly held a silver party, which led to the other electors of the Holy Roman Empire deposing him from his position as Roman Emperor.

Wenceslaus IV was furious and distressed by the lack of troops. He went to Vienna to meet secretly with his brother, King Sigismund of Hungary, and asked his brother to send troops to teach the other electors of the Holy Roman Empire a lesson. He promised to put his brother on the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor in the future.

King Gygi of Hungary, unwilling to listen to such empty words, imprisoned his brother in the Vienna Palace, led a large army into the Kingdom of Bohemia, and declared that since his brother Wenceslaus IV had no sons, he himself would assume the throne of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Initially, the Bohemian noble alliance supported the more ambitious King Gigi to replace the incompetent Wenceslaus IV, hoping to see the Kingdom of Bohemia regain its former glory.

King Gigi's decision to have his Hungarian army and Cuman mercenaries plunder the private property of nobles to fund the war effort finally angered the noble alliance and ignited resistance and war among the Bohemian people.

Peter, the illegitimate son, also hit rock bottom.

In April 1403 (the first year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty), 19-year-old Peter accompanied his family's caravan as a guard to the Apollonia quarry in the Trotsky territory to purchase marble to repair the castle. They were then ambushed by bandits, and the entire caravan was looted, with all the guards and workers killed.

Poor Peter didn't enjoy a single day of happiness before his wildest imagination led him to meet God.

However, this also allowed Li Cheng, who had traveled through time, to benefit from the situation. He possessed the body of this pitiful illegitimate child and inherited the other's memories and strong physique.

After receiving the memories, Li Cheng opened his eyes and happened to meet the gaze of a robber who was groping for his valuables.

"Fuck!"

The bandit, wearing a leather hat, a long, yellowish-brown armor, and a mouthful of rotten teeth, was startled. He had killed, set fires, and poached, and considered himself brave enough, but faced with a guy whose helmet was dented, whose head was half rotten, yet whose eyes were strangely open, he was still terrified.

"Damn it! You scared me!"

The rotten-toothed robber froze for a moment, then felt both ashamed and furious. He'd actually been frightened by a fallen corpse—how utterly shameful! He couldn't let his companions know about his embarrassing moment! So what if the corpse had open eyes? He'd gouge his eyeballs out with his hunting knife….

That brief moment of contemplation gave Li Cheng the opportunity to counterattack.

Although Li Cheng of the Celestial Empire is a law-abiding office worker, he is also an angry young man in private, an invincible swordsman on the keyboard, and he always has a sense of frustration about being born at the wrong time. When faced with a desperate situation, he does not shrink back in fear, but instead his adrenaline is full and he fights back in anger.

In the brief moment when the rotten-toothed robber was distracted, his body instinctively reached for his waist, where there was a dagger that had not yet been drawn. He gripped it, stabbed, and instantly pierced through the rotten-toothed robber's neck.

A little blood splattered out, slightly warm. The dagger was pulled out, and blood sprayed out, staining Li Cheng's face with a salty, sticky stench.

A wave of nausea and vomiting made him want to vomit.

"Kill the bandit in plain clothes, experience +10"

A crisp beeping sound suppressed the urge to vomit.

"Could it be that my cheat code has finally arrived?"

Before Li Cheng could study the situation carefully, the other bandits who were looting the caravan's corpses nearby also reacted and rushed towards Li Cheng with their weapons.

"Oh, poor Rotten Tooth was killed by a despicable guard. Don't let anyone know I know him."

"Blind, stupid donkey, this is what happens when you're not careful enough."

"I knew it, I knew it! I warned you to give the corpse on the ground another stab to the neck!"

"That's enough. Kill this kid. I don't want the boss to think we're careless."

"Get them!"

Li Cheng, no, Peter now, quickly scanned the scene and saw eight robbers wielding short swords and pitchforks surrounding him, with one even drawing a makeshift hunting bow and aiming it at him.

"run!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Peter gripped the dagger, turned, and ran. Reality isn't a game; NPCs won't fight you one-on-one. Instead, they'll use all sorts of underhanded tactics—flanking, ambushing, tripping you up—to get you down.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow grazed Peter's heel and embedded itself in the ground. This reignited Peter's adrenaline as he fled for his life, and he quickly analyzed the terrain before him: a road ran north to south, to the left was a large lake overgrown with reeds, and to the right were hills and dense forests.

Should they jump into the lake and dive to escape? Or should they escape into the dense forest?

The lake would certainly help Peter, who could swim, escape the siege, but he dared not gamble that his half-rotten head would become infected if it were submerged in water, nor did he dare gamble that the robbers were not good swimmers.

On the contrary, dense forests and bushes can block the archer's line of sight, while hills and slopes allow him to run at full speed.

"Right!" Peter made a decisive choice, rushing up the hillside and using the tree trunks for cover as he ran wildly into the forest.

"Whoosh!"

The robbers, armed with makeshift hunting bows, fired several arrows, but to no avail.

The other robbers gave chase with weapons, hurling insults at them.

"Chase after him and kill him!"

"The boss ordered that no one be left alive!"

"Damn it, how can he run so fast!"

"I can't go on anymore, I can't run anymore. I, Old Blind, volunteer to stay behind and collect the battlefield supplies. You guys go after them."

"I also volunteered to stay and keep an eye on Old Blind Eyes to prevent him from embezzling the money."

"I want to too..."

"Shut up, all of you!"

After about ten minutes of pursuit, a disagreement arose among the bandits. The bandit leader advocated continuing the chase and killing them without leaving any survivors, but the other bandits worried that if they left the ambush site for too long, the spoils on the other side of the caravan's battlefield would be looted by other thieves.

This north-south road is a vital trade route in and out of Troski, with several caravans passing through daily. It's also frequented by bankrupt farmers and street ruffians looking to plunder. If you're away too long, your spoils will indeed be stolen.

Left with no other choice, the bandit leader divided the nine men into two teams. One team, led by his trusted lieutenant, consisted of four bandits who went back to collect their spoils and return to the bandit camp. The other team, led by him, consisted of two swordsmen and one archer who continued to pursue the enemy deep into the forest.

"Damn it, whether you're a demon resurrected or a bastard feigning death, I will catch you and personally send you back to hell! God protect me, who bought indulgences!"

The bandit leader cursed through gritted teeth as he pursued them.

Meanwhile, Peter, who had escaped into a crevice in the limestone cliffs, was also panting heavily and had to stop to rest for a while. He also used this break to open his system panel.

Name: Peter

Level: lv1 (10/100)

Height: 181 cm

Weight: 81 kg

Life: 20/100 (Severe head injury)

Energy: 65/100 (daily - 30 PM)

Nutrition: 45/145 (daily - 30 PM)

Stamina: 26/210 (+13 points per second)

Weight limit: 15/250 (lbs)

Wealth: 1 Grossing, 6 Finney, 4 Heller

主属性：力量15、敏捷12、活力13、智力10、魅力12。

次属性:爆发10、防御10、闪避10、口才10、视野10。

技能：拳脚lv5、投掷lv6、生存lv5、饮酒lv2、驯兽lv1、学术lv1

Talent: Diligent Youth (White Talent. You've grown up doing heavy manual labor and found satisfaction in it. When moving corpses, sacks, or cargo, your load capacity is halved and doesn't consume extra stamina. Each point of Strength increases your load capacity by 10 pounds.)

Remaining points: 0 attribute points, 0 skill points, 0 talent points.

-----

How to describe this panel? It's a fairly standard Kingdom Come: Deliverance game panel.

In his previous life, Peter was obsessed with various fighting games in his spare time, including the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series. Because of his love for the game, he also did some research on its historical background. So when he received the original owner's memories and found keywords such as "Wacław IV", "King Sigismund" and "Cuman mercenaries", he concluded that he must have come to Bohemia before the Hussite Wars.

But he wasn't sure if he had traveled into real history or a game world. It wasn't until he saw this game panel that he realized—he had probably traveled into the game world that had been altered.

Well, at least I have the advantage of being prescient and have a game panel that can quickly improve my strength.

The load-bearing capacity, in particular, surprised Peter greatly.

自己基础负重为100磅，每一点力量额外增加10磅，15点力量加成后就是250磅。自己全身破头盔破软甲破腰带破皮鞋一堆破烂和小匕首加在一起才15磅。

Peter tried putting a stone from the ground into his satchel, adding 1 pound. He picked up another stone, adding another pound.

+1

+1

+

........

As he collected stones, his carrying capacity increased, but he couldn't find any stones on his body. Opening the panel, he saw "Stone 23" listed in the "Carrying Miscellaneous Items" section.

This load-bearing capacity is actually equivalent to storage space.

Peter suddenly remembered a bug in the game regarding weight limits—it wasn't exactly a bug, but it was that as long as you didn't exceed your weight limit, you could run and travel at lightning speed no matter how many items you were carrying. However, there was no upper limit to weight limits; that is, if you exceeded your weight limit by 0.1 pounds, you would walk slowly. Exceeding 1000 pounds would only result in a staggering gait, but there was no situation where you couldn't walk at all.

So what about carrying more than 1 pounds or 10 pounds? The only punishment would be slow walking!

In a sense, if we disregard walking speed, this "load-bearing" ability is simply a divine skill!

Peter's eyes lit up at this thought. He rushed towards a nearby boulder as tall as a man, pressed his hand against it, and silently chanted "collect."

.......

An awkward three seconds passed without any response.

Did I misunderstand? No, I overlooked a game mechanic: items that can be collected are only those "picked up" by the protagonist, meaning items that the protagonist can carry.

If that's the case...

Peter glanced at the knee-high rock next to the boulder, and with his 15 points of strength, he struggled to lift it up with both hands, silently reciting "collect it" in his mind.

With a whoosh, Peter felt a lightness in his arms; the large stone disappeared, and his weight display showed an increase of 150 pounds.

Sure enough!

Peter did the same thing again, collecting nine large stones and increasing his load to over 1000 pounds, more than four times the normal load.

I took a few steps, my steps faltering, as if my legs were filled with lead, and my stamina had drastically decreased. But I could still move!

This proves that my guess was correct.

Peter then opened the weight panel, selected all the boulders, and removed them all at once.

With a whoosh, ten huge rocks surged out a meter in front of him like a shower of flowers, almost hitting his feet.

With his load reduced, Peter nimbly jumped aside.

"I have a plan!"

Peter stroked his chin and chuckled.