Chapter 1: Encountering a Poor Goblin on My Way Home from get off work

“Hah… Hah…”
Liu Xia desperately pumped his legs, sprinting forward.
His body was utterly exhausted, yet he dared not stop—for behind him, the inspectors of the Temple of Law were in relentless pursuit.
In a twisted way, this might even be a stroke of luck.
After all, for a failure like Liu Xia, the Sacred Tower Church likely deemed it unnecessary to dispatch the Holy Knights of the Temple of Law.
Otherwise, he’d have nowhere left to run.

“Liu Xia, surrender now!”
The inspector’s voice boomed with vigor from behind.
“How much longer can you hold out? You, who can’t even produce gold coins, drowning in debt—soon, you’ll degenerate into a goblin! When that happens, you’ll become a mindless, man-eating monster!”

“Listen to me, Liu Xia. Your record is impeccable—law-abiding, kind, and cooperative. Teachers, classmates, colleagues—everyone who’s crossed your path calls you a good man.”
The inspector’s tone softened slightly, coaxing.
“You don’t want to die a sinner, harming others and despised by all, do you?”

“I don’t want that! I don’t!”
Liu Xia wailed in his heart.
“But even more, I don’t want to die…”
I don’t want to die…

He’d tried so hard to be useful, to produce gold coins.
So why? Why did fate decree he couldn’t?
Why did failing to produce gold coins mean degenerating into a goblin?
And why did becoming a goblin mean harming others?
He didn’t understand—none of it made sense.
All he wanted was happiness.

This world was full of unanswerable questions, and Liu Xia might never get the chance to find answers.
His vision grew increasingly red, the entire world pulsing and flickering.
His unfocused gaze sharpened briefly, and a string of numbers materialized.
[-101]

A shocking negative number.
In this world, it represented a man’s Gold Content—the currency of Authority, the very qualification of being human.
Once it turned negative and couldn’t be reversed, it meant no more Blessings could be exchanged from the Goddess.
A man would irreversibly degenerate into a goblin.

[-102]
[-103]

Second by second, the number crept downward.
In the past, Liu Xia had fought to keep it from going negative.
But now, no matter how large the number, it meant nothing to him.
The steadily dropping digits were like a death knell, signaling that his time was running out.

“Is this it, then?”
Bitterness welled in Liu Xia’s heart.
Why had he even wanted to live?
His life had been doomed to failure long ago.
All his efforts only delayed the inevitable.
So why keep fighting?
Why?

Images flashed through his mind like a carousel—things he’d seen, people he’d known, fleeting before his eyes.
“Senior…”
A familiar, youthful voice echoed in his ears.

Liu Xia’s expression froze, then softened into a smile.
Before him stood a black-haired boy with bright eyes, grinning and waving.
“A hallucination? To see that kid again before I degenerate…”
Liu Xia sighed with a bittersweet smile.

In that moment, he stopped resisting, accepting his fate.
His human rationality was fading, his body now driven by the primal instinct to survive.
“Chunsheng… he looks so delicious…”
Liu Xia’s final shred of consciousness dissolved, leaving only a bellow behind.

“All bystanders, clear out now! A goblin’s here—do you want to die?!”

“Liu Xia, surrender now! …”
The commotion in the distance made Li Chunsheng, just off work, pause and turn toward the noise.
What was happening?
As an ordinary, uneventful citizen, spectating drama was one of Li Chunsheng’s rare hobbies.

“Holy… Is that a goblin? So ugly!”
When Li Chunsheng saw the scene clearly, he jumped in fright.
What kind of monster was that?
Rough, ink-green skin, a hooked nose, pointed ears, blood-red eyes, and青面獠牙—utterly terrifying.

He quickly recognized the creature.
Every child educated in the Church’s elementary school was taught how to identify goblins, these man-eating monsters, and how to avoid becoming one.
“Poor guy.”

Pity aside, seeing such an ugly monster charging toward him, Li Chunsheng instinctively wanted to dodge.
But the next moment, his steps faltered.
Wait.
“Liu Xia…”
Li Chunsheng stared at the monster, his gaze sharpening.

His senior?
No, that couldn’t be right. It must be someone with the same name.
He tried to convince himself.
But Li Chunsheng had one strength: his sharp eyesight.
The orphanage director had praised him for it.
“Bright eyes, like sparkling gems. How could a child like this be abandoned?”

Back to the matter at hand— the more he looked, the more familiar the goblin seemed.
Heaven knows how he saw a person in that monstrous form.
Li Chunsheng’s heart sank, his gaze growing more intense, forgetting to dodge.

Until a shout snapped him back.
“All bystanders, clear out now! A goblin’s here—do you want to die?!”
By then, the goblin was only ten steps away, closing in fast.

“Not good!”
Li Chunsheng’s heart sank, and he stepped to the side.
But the distance between them was too close.
As an ordinary person without Authority, he couldn’t evade in time.

In desperation, he shouted, “Senior, it’s me! Li Chunsheng!”
He clung to the hope that “Liu Xia” still had some human reason.
The goblin paused briefly.
Li Chunsheng barely had time to feel relief before “Liu Xia” lunged, jaws wide, aiming for him.

It happened too fast.
Li Chunsheng only managed to raise his arm to block, and the goblin’s teeth sank into it.
“Hiss…!”
He gasped in pain.

His artery seemed severed, blood gushing out.
Agony flooded his mind.
“Ugh, I really shouldn’t have stopped to watch…”
His first time seeing a live goblin, and he’d hoped it still had reason.

It seemed his second life, gained through transmigration, would end here.
Li Chunsheng felt helpless.
As his arterial blood drained, his body weakened, leaving no strength to resist.

“Gurgle… slurp…”
The goblin eagerly devoured his blood, but its movements gradually slowed, hesitant.
“Chun… sheng…?”
A mumble came from the goblin’s mouth, still clamped on his arm.

“Big bro, you finally snapped out of it? Can you let go of my arm? It hurts like hell.”
Li Chunsheng quipped in his mind.

On Liu Xia’s side, he stared in disbelief at the man he was biting, his heart roiling with shock.
“How… did I regain… consciousness? I… I’ve hurt… Chunsheng?”
“No… A failure like me, harming those around me… I shouldn’t exist…”

“…Get away…”
Li Chunsheng said weakly.
Even after being so badly injured by his senior, he didn’t blame him.
After all, becoming a goblin was beyond anyone’s control…

“Damn you, monster!”
The inspector caught up, coins jangling as he unleashed an Authority attack.
“Edict: Shockwave Strike!”

Liu Xia took a heavy blow, spitting blood as he fled, casting a worried glance back at Li Chunsheng.
“Sor… ry…”
A suppressed whimper came from his throat.

Li Chunsheng collapsed to the ground, watching Liu Xia’s panicked escape with a relieved smile.
“Heh, what a messed-up world…”
He murmured.
Men who couldn’t produce gold coins turned into goblins and were hunted down—what a deliberate setup.

He should’ve been [uninvolved].
Yet here he was, dying to this absurd rule.
Was his entire life just a ridiculous dream?
Whatever.
Let it be…

Li Chunsheng closed his eyes, awaiting death.
Then he noticed the Gold Content Value, so familiar to him, suddenly shift.
10… 9…

The numbers dropped slowly, steadily, until they reached the tipping point.
0, -1…
The digits trembled violently, then—10!!

Li Chunsheng’s tightly shut eyes snapped open, golden light swirling in their depths…
“What is this…?”