The Last Witch Lord-Chapter 1: Task

Li Ban was in a daze when he heard someone talking to him.
"…You must complete the mission! Remember, this is your ultimate purpose for entering the Witch World!"
Li Ban was so exhausted he could barely keep awake.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a person in front of him.
When he closed his eyes again, he had already forgotten what that person looked like.
He was lifted up and started moving.
During the movement, the person talking to him kept babbling nonstop.
"Remember your goal… you must obtain it… you absolutely cannot let the enemy discover you are an undercover! Otherwise…"
Li Ban had no desire to listen;his brain refused to work at this moment.
The man's voice was intermittent in his ears;whenever he reached an important point, it was as if blocked, turning into a jumble of noise.
It was too noisy, so he wanted to sleep but couldn’t.
Li Ban tried hard to open his eyes again, wanting to punch that guy.
But when he opened his eyes, he saw a highly technological space capsule in front of him. Behind the capsule was a wall full of machinery and circuits.
Li Ban, exhausted and weak, was placed lying flat inside the space capsule.
Was he dreaming?
After lying down, Li Ban felt even sleepier.
He closed his eyes again, trying to fall asleep, but could still hear some sounds in his ear.
“Injecting serum… consciousness transfer starting… loading…”
A needle pierced the back of his neck.
It didn’t hurt.
A cold liquid was injected into the back of his neck, and Li Ban was instantly awakened by the chill.
Now he was not tired at all.
Suddenly, he remembered… he was already dead!
He had died from overwork.
Although he died quickly, he still remembered the painful moments near death.
Was he rescued again?
No!
The person who just talked to him was definitely not a doctor.
Could it be that he had transmigrated?
Li Ban recalled the previous conversation and felt a severe headache.
How did he just transmigrate and immediately get sent as an undercover?
But he had no memories from his previous life, neither of the mission content nor its objective!
As for the consequences if the enemy discovered his identity, no need to imagine—death was certain!
Li Ban felt his body gradually regaining some sensation.
He decided that once he could control this new body, he would immediately find a way to reject the mission or run away.
Though risky, Li Ban knew well that in his last life, he was just an ordinary office worker, never capable of suddenly becoming a qualified undercover agent, nor completing the important mission that man mentioned.
His body seemed to sense Li Ban’s determination;in the next moment, sensation fully returned, and he finally opened his eyes again.
Li Ban immediately sat up, wanting to see if he could communicate with the people here. If he was still in that laboratory, he planned to use physical discomfort as an excuse to test the waters.
But when Li Ban looked around, he was dumbfounded.
He was not sitting in the highly technological space capsule anymore but on a piece of yellowish land.
Above was a blue sky with white clouds, and below was…
A person!
That person was lying between Li Ban’s legs, with huge eyes staring directly at Li Ban’s crotch, looking sinister.
“Who are you!”
Li Ban instinctively pushed the person's head away, then watched as that head rolled far away with a gurgling sound, leaving only a desiccated neck and body behind.
“Holy crap crap crap crap!”
He had never seen such a scene and immediately jumped up from the ground.
With that jump, he realized there was more than just that one corpse beside him!
From beneath his feet to the distance, he was inside a shallow depression filled almost entirely with all kinds of corpses!
Some had been gutted, some had broken limbs, some were charred black, and some, like the person he had just seen, were decapitated.
Li Ban’s legs trembled;he looked around and found himself inside a huge pit a thousand meters in diameter.
The pit walls were two or three meters high, and the ground was very flat.
The corpses at the bottom were laid out very neatly.
Like dumplings wrapped but not yet cooked.
Li Ban tilted his head back, trying hard not to look at the terrifying scene on the ground. That motion let him see a carriage a few hundred meters away, above the pit.
“Is anyone there?” he shouted immediately, instinctively wanting to see other living people to dispel his fear. “Help!”
His scream startled an old man who was driving away from that place.
“Huff~” The old man pulled the reins on two horses, with a blade of grass in his mouth, and jumped down from the carriage frame.
He jogged over to the corpse pit and, seeing Li Ban standing amid the corpses in a panic, showed a surprised but relieved smile.
“There’s still one alive, not bad, not bad! To survive the Shock Terror technique, you’ve got some skill.”
The old man waved to Li Ban, “Hey, get up here. Do you want to be left in a mass grave?”
Li Ban certainly didn’t want that.
Although he didn’t know the old man, he was even less willing to stay beside the corpses.
So he stumbled over the piles of corpses and reached the edge of the pit.
The slope was steep;Li Ban couldn’t climb up at first.
On his second try, the old man, who looked over sixty, lay down and pulled him up effortlessly, as if Li Ban weighed nothing.
After climbing the hill, Li Ban couldn’t help but glance back at the mass grave behind him, his heart pounding wildly.
What kind of terrifying place had he transmigrated into?
No, he seemed to have heard someone in the lab mention “loading.”
What was going on?
Li Ban forced himself to calm down and turned back to thank the old man.
“Sir, thank you for saving me. Can you take me away from here?”
“Of course. Do you want me to leave you here to sleep with them? Get in quickly;everyone’s waiting for you!”
Before Li Ban could react, the old man pushed him onto the carriage.
After opening the carriage door, Li Ban was stunned again.
There were seven or eight people inside.
From toddlers to strong men in their thirties, all were here.
Some were shirtless, some wore the most tattered hemp shirts, all staring at Li Ban.
Their numb eyes revealed unease.
Li Ban was uneasy too but could only sit on the outermost seat of the carriage.
He wanted to ask what place this was, but saw the old man smiling happily, like he had found treasure.
The old man didn’t give Li Ban a chance to speak and closed the door.
Soon the carriage rattled forward again.
Li Ban took a few shaky breaths, still shaken.
He was not one of those decisive transmigrators who could see death without flinching.
He hadn’t vomited yet, and already thought he was very impressive.
The carriage swayed;Li Ban observed his new body after transmigration.
Skinny as a rail.
Though he couldn’t see his face, judging by the skin and muscle condition, it was probably a young boy.
Between ten and fifteen years old.
He sorted through his transmigrated memories.
Just now he seemed to be in a futuristic room full of technology, but now he was in a simple, old-fashioned carriage with no electrical facilities.
Judging by the old man and others’ clothing, it seemed like an ancient environment.
Li Ban recalled some keywords mentioned in the laboratory.
Laboratory, space capsule, sci-fi machinery, data loading…
Could this be a virtual world?
Or perhaps the lab had mastered some way of crossing worlds and sent him to complete a mission in some world.
Li Ban had also watched many infinite world stories before transmigration.
Now he felt at a loss.
If this was entering a digital virtual world, that was fine.
But if it was an infinite world, he really didn’t think he’d survive past the second episode.
And one very important thing: he transmigrated too late and didn’t even know what mission he was to carry out.
He only knew the people in the lab valued this mission very highly.
Li Ban hadn’t even applied to quit before being sent in.
He looked through the door crack at the old man driving outside.
This carriage had two big horses, and the old man handled them skillfully alone.
He didn’t know what the laboratory was, but first he had to figure out where he was and if there was any danger.
Li Ban spoke through the door crack, “Sir, thank you for saving me. Where are you taking me?”
Suddenly the old man’s tone changed.
“No need to ask. Wherever I sell you, that’s where you’re going. Wherever you go is your fate.”
Li Ban stood up abruptly.
“You’re going to sell me?”
A low whisper came from behind.
Li Ban turned to see men, women, and children in the carriage. “Are you going to sell all of us?”
“Of course. You’re slaves I carried on my back;naturally, I can sell you.”
Hearing about being sold, the others showed no surprise.
They even lowered their heads to talk, occasionally glancing at Li Ban as if he were a fool.
Seeing their reactions, Li Ban finally understood: he wasn’t rescued but had fallen into the hands of slave traders.
In ancient times, slave traders didn’t just target women and children;able-bodied men were also sold, excellent for hard labor.
If lucky, one might become a trusted servant of a family head;if unlucky, death by beating or illness was common.
Li Ban gritted his teeth, standing inside the low carriage shelter with his head touching the roof.
He had just been dumped in a mass grave;even a fool would know this was no good era.
In chaotic times, life was cheap;as a slave, there was even less freedom.
Whether this was a virtual world or an infinite world, he could not become a slave!
Li Ban looked at the carriage door.
The old man still drove without looking back.
He shook his head and swayed, showing no alertness.
Li Ban silently pushed the door open a little.
The door wasn’t locked.
He looked outside: a sandy road, with forested land in the distance.
Li Ban decided to find a flat place and jump down;the carriage speed wasn’t fast, so it should be okay.
Once he jumped, he would run directly;entering the forest, the carriage’s horses couldn’t catch him, and he’d be safe.
Looking around, some people on the carriage were whispering, more were dazed.
They paid no attention to Li Ban’s movements.
There were no windows on the carriage;the only escape route was the door in front of him.
Li Ban pushed the door hard.
One side of the door hit the old man, the other side opened fully with no one blocking it.
Li Ban made a move to rush out.
Unexpectedly, the old man, whose view was blocked, raised his hand and pulled out the blade of grass from his mouth, then twisted his wrist to stab Li Ban’s right knee just as he stepped out.
“Ah!”
Li Ban felt sharp pain in his right knee;his leg went weak, and he collapsed onto the carriage floor with a “clang.”
The old man then pushed the door back and coldly looked at Li Ban. “Already a slave and still trying to run? I think… I better cripple your legs first.”
Li Ban didn’t understand how the old man made him lose strength, but looking into his eyes, he knew this was no joke.
He really intended to cripple his legs!
At that moment, a boy inside suddenly stood up. “Uncle Ma, if you cripple his legs, he won’t fetch a good price. Maybe he’s been dazed by soaking too long. Let me talk to him;I’ll make sure he behaves.”
The old man called Uncle Ma turned to look at the boy deeply. “You know each other?”
“Ah… countrymen, both escaped from the same place with a hard life.”
Uncle Ma put the blade of grass back in his mouth, said nothing, and kept driving, implicitly agreeing to the boy’s suggestion.
The boy who stood squeezed to the outside and came to Li Ban’s left side.
Li Ban watched him cautiously.
The boy was only about fifteen or sixteen, very thin, with cloudy eyes as if he had suffered hardships.
He pressed Li Ban’s shoulder and, while helping him up, whispered very quietly in his ear.
“You finally woke up!”
“There was no movement at all;I thought your loading failed.”