Falsely Accused, I Started Plundering Monster Traits

"What the hell is that?"

"Is this some kind of event?"

"Someone’s filming a prank, right?"

The questions came from different parts of the carriage, one after another. Under the red emergency lights, the goblin’s green skin had turned dark and muddy, and the rusted iron club in its hand looked real enough. Even so, several people still had their phones raised. A monster appearing on the subway made no sense. An actor, an online stunt, some idiot filming a prank—any of those explanations were easier to accept.

Lin Yan swept his gaze across the carriage.

He had no intention of fighting that thing bare-handed.

There had to be something he could use. His eyes passed over the seats, the overhead handles and the stainless-steel pole beside the doors. Lin Yan grabbed the pole with both hands and yanked as hard as he could, but it did not move even slightly.

Of course it did not. It was bolted into the train.

His gaze landed on the emergency cabinet beside the seats. A red-handled window hammer sat behind the transparent cover.

That would have to do.

Lin Yan tore off his belt, wrapped one end around his hand and swung the metal buckle into the cabinet.

Behind him, the man in the cap pushed himself up from the floor. Now that no one was paying attention to him, the humiliation from earlier came rushing back.

"You think this is over?" he shouted at Lin Yan’s back. "I’m telling you, I’ll make sure you—"

A dull crack cut him off.

Lin Yan had just broken through the cabinet cover when something heavy struck the floor behind him.

Was that bastard still talking to him?

He pulled out the window hammer and glanced over his shoulder.

The man in the cap lay facedown beside the seats. Blood was pouring from the back of his head, spreading beneath his cheek while the goblin stood over him with its iron club raised.

Holy shit.

He was dead.

The nearest passengers recoiled, and then the entire carriage exploded into panic.

"That thing killed him!"

"Open the door!"

"Get out of the way!"

People shoved toward the far end of the carriage, crushing together around the narrow connecting door. Someone fell, a child began screaming, and those behind continued pushing without even looking down.

Lin Yan tightened his grip on the hammer and forced himself to remain where he was.

Everyone ran.

Except the woman.

She kept filming.

She stood beside the seats with her phone raised, first recording the dead man and then slowly turning the camera toward the goblin.

"Oh my God, guys, this is real," she said, breathing hard with excitement. "It just killed someone. Look at the body—look at all that blood."

She even edged closer for a better angle.

Lin Yan stared at her.

Oh my God, this was real.

There really was a woman brave enough to keep filming after watching someone get their head smashed open.

One of the goblin’s pointed ears twitched toward her voice. Its yellow eyes shifted to the woman, then moved past her and settled on the window hammer in Lin Yan’s hand.

A translucent panel appeared at the edge of his vision.

[Task 2 issued.]

[Kill the goblin.]

[Reward: 100 points.]

Lin Yan barely registered it.

The goblin bent down, planted one foot against the dead man’s shoulder and pulled its iron club free from his skull. When it looked up again, blood dripped from the rusted head of the weapon.

Then it grinned at Lin Yan.

The creature raised the club over its head and released a harsh roar. Lin Yan’s body reacted before his mind did, forcing him back a step.

The goblin noticed.

Its lips peeled away from rows of yellow teeth, and a low, ugly chuckle came from its throat. It lowered the club onto one shoulder and swaggered toward him, clearly enjoying the fear it had found.

Lin Yan tightened both hands around the hammer.

The goblin suddenly jerked forward.

A feint.

Lin Yan’s shoulders tensed, but this time he held his ground.

The creature’s grin faltered. In the next instant, it screamed and launched itself at him for real, swinging the iron club toward his head.

Lin Yan recoiled just far enough to escape the arc, then kicked out with everything he had.

The sole of his shoe struck the goblin squarely in the chest.

Its own momentum drove it into the kick. The creature folded around his leg and flew backward, losing its grip on the iron club before it crashed onto the floor.

That actually worked?

Lin Yan did not wait for it to recover. He rushed forward, slammed one knee into its stomach and dropped his full weight across its body.

The goblin snarled and tried to sit up.

Lin Yan brought the pointed end of the window hammer down into its eye.

The spike punched through.

The goblin released a scream so sharp that it cut through the panic around them. Both hands shot up and clawed at Lin Yan’s forearm, trying to drag the hammer away from its face.

Lin Yan ripped it free before the creature could secure its grip.

The goblin twisted beneath him, desperately trying to roll onto its stomach, but Lin Yan was over a head taller and weighed nearly eighty kilograms. With his knees pinning its hips and his weight pressed across its chest, it could barely move.

The hammer came down again.

The spike entered the same ruined eye, turning the goblin’s scream into a wet gurgle. Its claws scraped across Lin Yan’s sleeves as it bucked beneath him, still trying to throw him off.

Lin Yan raised the hammer for the third time.

The final blow crushed the damaged socket and drove through the bone behind it.

The goblin jerked once, then went still.

Lin Yan remained straddling the corpse, breathing hard, the bloodied hammer still clenched in his hand.

That was it?

He looked down at the ruined face, then at the iron club lying several feet away.

"System."

[Yes?]

"You’re sure this thing killed me?"

[You witnessed the event yourself.]

"I know what I saw. I’m asking how the hell I managed to lose to something this weak."

[The circumstances were not comparable.]

Lin Yan frowned.

[During the future you experienced, the crowd panicked before you understood what was happening. You were knocked down, your ankle was fractured after being stepped on, and you were unable to stand when the goblin reached you.]

[This time, you had room to move, obtained a weapon and confronted it on your own terms.]

Lin Yan looked at the corpse again.

"So the crowd had already done most of the work for it."

[Essentially.]

"Right. That’s slightly less embarrassing."

So it was not that the creature had been overwhelmingly powerful. The first time, he had been trampled half to death before it even reached him.

A pale light rose from the corpse before he could say anything else.

[Task 2 completed.]

[100 points awarded.]

[Current points: 100.]

[Trait Plunder triggered.]

[Target: Goblin Scout.]

[Trait obtained: Brawn I.]

[Brawn I: Muscular strength and physical load-bearing capacity increased to twice their original level.]

[Equip this trait?]

"Equip."

Heat flooded into Lin Yan’s chest and spread through his limbs. The muscles beneath his clothes tightened, his shoulders and knees cracked softly, and pressure built inside his bones as though his entire frame were being reinforced from within.

The sensation vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

The window hammer suddenly felt like a toy.

Before Lin Yan could properly test the change, a scream came from somewhere deeper inside the train. Another followed almost immediately, accompanied by crashing metal and people shouting for help.

There were more goblins.

Lin Yan climbed off the corpse and fastened his belt around his waist again. He tucked the window hammer beneath it at the small of his back before picking up the goblin’s iron club. The club was clearly better, but one weapon was good and two were better.

The iron club felt about as heavy as an empty gas cylinder, yet his arm barely dipped beneath the weight.

Now this was the good stuff.

He carried it to the side doors and set it down. The passengers had stopped trying to escape while he fought the goblin. The side doors were sealed, and the broken connecting door led only toward more screams. With nowhere safe to go, they now stood several meters away, watching him in frightened silence.

Lin Yan wedged his fingers into the seam between the side doors, gripped one panel with each hand and pulled.

The doors shifted slightly before the lock caught again.

Even with twice his original strength, forcing both panels apart by himself was too difficult.

"What are you all staring at?" Lin Yan shouted over his shoulder. "Get over here and help!"

A student wearing a backpack reacted first. A broad-shouldered man followed close behind him, standing nearly a head taller than Lin Yan.

Lin Yan shifted both hands onto the left door.

"You two take the other side."

The student and the tall man gripped the edge of the right panel while Lin Yan planted his feet.

"Pull!"

All three leaned away from the center. Metal groaned inside the frame, and after several seconds of resistance, a narrow gap finally opened between the doors.

"Again!"

Lin Yan dragged the left panel along its track while the tall man pulled with both arms and the student threw his weight backward beside him.

The lock gave way with a sharp crack.

Cold air rushed into the carriage as the doors slid apart far enough for someone to squeeze through.

The passengers pressed toward the opening, but the student immediately turned and shouted at them not to push. Lin Yan held the left panel in place while the tall man kept the other from sliding shut, allowing everyone to file out.

Beyond the train, there were no staff members or announcements. Only screams echoed from deeper inside the carriages.

Before stepping out, Lin Yan returned to the dead man. The cracked phone lay beside his hand, and when Lin Yan checked it, the complete recording was still intact: the woman checking the camera, deliberately moving into position and waiting for the man to begin filming before she started shouting.

Evidence first.

Lin Yan slipped the phone into his pocket. If he survived, the recording could clear his name.

It might even be worth a settlement.

He retrieved the goblin’s iron club and stepped onto the platform.

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