WHACK. A few frogs were decapitated, ripped in half, and tossed—skin, guts, and kicking legs included—into a large, soot-stained cauldron.

The water in the cauldron bubbled and sputtered. A goblin with a short tuft of white hair on its head stirred the contents back and forth with a thick branch.

Next came several fat, white worms. The goblin grabbed a worm by its hard, black head and yanked, pulling out its yellowish-green innards before flinging the body into the cauldron.

Then, a few unknown bird eggs and a large handful of wild berries.

Finally, several tubers. The white-haired goblin broke the plant roots into small pieces and, without washing the skin, tossed them dirt and all into the pot.

The color of the broth in the cauldron went from clear to yellow, then turned cyan after the berries were added, and finally shifted to green.

As the white-haired goblin stirred continuously, an indescribable stench filled the air.

Shire sat by the large cauldron, head bowed as he examined a silver necklace.

Ten days ago, his favorite game had just released its "Business Franchise" DLC. As a veteran player, he was overjoyed. He immediately brewed some tea, lit a cigarette, and pulled an all-nighter to experience it.

He never expected that the very next morning, as soon as he got to the office, he’d be sent to a client for a product presentation. On the way there, he really hit the jackpot.

When he first crossed over, the memories in his head told him that his original body was human—the son of a Baron who was wanted continent-wide for treason and whose entire family had been beheaded.

But looking at his current appearance, he didn’t look human at all.

Shire used his long, slender green fingers to flip open the locket’s cover. Inside was a portrait of a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, red lips, and pearly white teeth.

That was his sister. Of their entire family, only the two of them were left. His sister was beautiful, so he must have been handsome too. But now, he was a green-skinned goblin standing only 1.3 meters tall.

’What kind of crappy plot is this? A Song of Ice and Fire: Goblin’s Game? Hey, Mr. Truck-kun, I really have you to thank for this.’

Searching his memories, Shire was certain the charge of treason was a conspiracy, a frame-up, but he couldn’t identify the mastermind behind it.

His sister was nowhere to be found, and his own transformation into a goblin was also very strange. Unlike his sister, who had a High Tier Mage for a teacher, Shire was just an ordinary person who helped his father manage their domain. The enemy could have clearly just killed him. ’Am I just part of some twisted game?’

SNAP. Shire closed the locket and took a deep breath. In an instant, the blended stench of dirt, gamey meat, sour fruit, and feces assaulted him, making his eyes roll back. As the chief, he couldn’t just go and kick over the pot of "lunch"—which was comparable to a can of surströmming—so he could only clutch the necklace and move to a rock farther away.

"This is no way to live. I have to turn back into a human, and soon," Shire muttered to himself, fanning the air with his hand to drive away the smell.

But turning back into a human was easier said than done. The only way Shire could think of was to contact his sister and have her figure out how to lift the Transformation Curse.

But not only did he have no way to contact her, he himself was now "prey" for human Adventurers.

As a goblin, the forest was full of dangers. They could die from food poisoning, get carried off and mauled by wild beasts, be killed by Adventurers, or beaten to death by other goblins. The possibilities were dazzlingly diverse and splendidly varied.

When he first joined this tribe, there were nine goblins. On his very first day, three of them were "harvested" by Adventurers, including their chief at the time.

Among the six goblins who survived by fleeing and hiding, a new chief emerged. Two days later, that chief was dead too.

He was swatted to death by a Fearsome Claw Bear, a Magical Beast that was emanating a faint black aura.

Only four goblins made it back to the burrow after that. In the end, Shire desperately used a set of Military Boxing moves to beat down one of them and become the new chief.

Three chiefs in just a few days. It was no different from Cheongwadae—the burrow was permanent, but the chiefs were disposable.

Therefore, Shire felt his top priority was to stay alive. Only by surviving would he have any hope.

’Staying alive is hard enough as it is.’ Shire thought, calling up his panel to check it.

[Tombstone Artifacts: Shire Merlot]

[Race: Goblin (Human)]

[Danger Level: 0.5, Useless]

[Subordinates: 3]

[Personality: ???]

[Own State: Advanced Transformation Curse (Negative), Malnourished (Negative)]

[Title: Gang Leader]

"’Tombstone Artifacts.’ Seeing those words always pisses me off," Shire muttered, his lips twitching. This was an Ability he’d had ever since he crossed over.

He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink. In the space of his mind, a towering Black Obelisk stood at the center.

The Obelisk was jet-black and covered in cracks. There was no inscription, only three strange letters glowing at its base—one bright, two dim.

If he focused his consciousness on the letters, he could see their contents. The bright one was the Eye of True Sight, which allowed him to see the characteristics of others or of items. This function had activated when he became chief.

Of the two dim letters, one was the Scythe of Life. Its effect was to strip an Ability from a defeated enemy and either bestow it upon a subordinate or reclaim it.

The other was Domain Will, which allowed him to see the status of the Domain he controlled.

Both of these were very important Abilities. One was for developing his minions, and the other was essentially a map function. If he could activate them, his chances of survival would definitely be higher.

But Shire was still trying to figure out how to activate them. He deduced it might be related to the number of subordinates under his command, and that there were probably more letters on the Obelisk that hadn’t appeared yet.

Shire opened his eyes and stared at his panel.

"Calling me useless? You’re the useless one! Your whole family is useless!" he cursed.

"I am a master of everything from astronomy to geography, skilled in both scholarship and combat, omniscient and omnipotent. From Ireland to Qidan, from Athens to Philadelphia, from Rome to Constantinople—all were once within my sphere of influence."

"I’ve waged war against the nations of the world, married their princesses, disbanded the illegal organization known as the Divine Luo, and even served as a lapdog for the Great Ming."

"I have built magnificent cities, personally led the Charge on the battlefield, punched out the Fallen, kicked the Scourge, destroyed entire planets, and conquered the whole galaxy."

"And you’re calling me useless?"

Though, all of this was accomplished in games.

GRRROWL—a sound rumbled from his stomach as hunger pangs struck.

Shire looked up at the simmering cauldron, and his entire body shivered.

’It’s bad enough that goblins die so easily, but the stuff they eat is even more horrifying.’

Besides, the goblin Race had two major rules. One was that after the food was cooked, the chief ate first. Then, all the other goblins would fight over what was left in the pot.

’To this, I wish I could just depose myself.’

For the past few days, he had just been tossing the tubers he dug up into the embers to roast them.

Shire didn’t know the name of these tubers. They were a bit thicker than Chinese yams and tasted something like potatoes.

Several days of eating saltless "roast potatoes" had given him acid reflux, and he had become lethargic from malnourishment.

’I really wish I could eat something normal. A dozen grilled oysters topped with minced garlic and ginger would be perfect, washed down with a few bottles of draft beer. Tsk tsk.’

Finally, after going to great lengths to train his subordinates to hunt wild boars, he had something to show for it.

Shire got up and walked over to Little John, whom he and his subordinates had dragged back. "See if he has anything to eat on him."

After searching for a long time, they found nothing but 30 Silver Coins.

"Broke bastard. Doesn’t even have any food."

But on second thought, human Adventurers entering the forest could just hunt their own prey. No one would carry food with them.

Shire casually called up the other man’s panel.

[Name: Little John Franklin]

[Race: Human]

[Danger Level: 1, Amateur]

[Personality: Cautious]

[Title: Future Hero]

"Hm? A Hero? This Nightmare Forest is really something else. Heroes can just sprout from the ground now? What’s this, a gift from Mother Nature?"