A second blinding light erupted, brighter and longer than the first. Lasting nearly five full seconds before vanishung without a trace, as if it never existed.
Out of nowhere a foul stench of rot and metallic blood assaulted his senses. Thick and nauseating.
Erik instinctively clamped a hand to cover his nose. "What the h*ll is this smell?!"
After a few seconds, realization hit him like a truck.
"I can move my hands... I can talk!!" Joy flashed across his face for a split second.
Something felt wrong. His body was heavy, cold and tightly squeezed. As if he was trapped in a body bag.
Erik really was in a body bag. The coarse burlap scratched against his skin triggering a traumatic memory of the time the rivals had sent assassin to kidnap him, putting him in a body bag and dumping him like trash into the Pacific ocean. Thanks to a worldwide search team he was rescued, barely alive.
He took shaky breaths that scrapped like sandpaper in his throat. Pain throbbed faintly at his neck and chest, dulled. As if his nerves had been numbed.
Then suddenly his senses exploded sending pain signals rapidly to his brain, followed by the foul stench. Erik gritted his teeth unable to bear it, even for another second.
He raised his hands upward, with a groan, he summoned every ounce of strength and shoved upward, ripping the sack open.
Dim gray light filtered down from an alien sky that carried a faint, unnatual crimson hue. And the moon overhead looked larger and more oppressive.
Erik sat up, coughing. He was inside a shallow pit filled with bodies. Dozens of them — some fresh, some already decaying — piled haphazardly in torn sacks just like the one he had been in.
His eyes widened as he took in the scene.
A few meters away, one of the sacks had been violently ripped open. A massive creature hunched over it, its jagged teeth sinking into a severed human arm with wet, crunching sounds. Chunks of flesh tore free as it chewed greedily.
The beast was unlike anything from Earth. Its body resembled a grotesque fusion of a giant wolf and a rotting boar. Easily the size of a small car.
Patchy, matted black fur clung to decaying gray skin that oozed dark ichor. Long, curved bone spikes protruded from its spine and shoulders. Its eyes glowed with a sickly green hunger, and two rows of serrated fangs dripped with blood and saliva. A thick, barbed tail lashed behind it as it fed.
Erik's stomach lurched. This thing was clearly feasting on the corpses around him.
He froze, heart hammering. The creature hadn't noticed him yet as it was too focused on its meal, ripping the arm with savage jerks of its head.
Erik's mind reeled. The memories of the assassination, the gunshots, his bodyguards… and that blinding ethereal light and the one after all crashed back. He instinctively touched his neck but there was no wound.
As he looked at his arms, he noticed unfamiliar marks. Wiping marks. This wasn't his body. Then new memories that weren't his own flooded in. Memories of the previous owner of the body.
'So that means... I really died?' A bitter laugh echoed in his head. 'They must all be celebrating with joy by now.'
Erik thought of all the times the people he had once respected as rivals sent assassins to do unspeakable things to him.
He sighed inwardly as that wasn't the main issue now.
This place was far from safe.
Erik moved slowly, not daring to make a sound, but his foot accidentally pressed into the bloated stomach of a nearby corpse.
Greenish rotten mucus seeped out, followed by wriggling worm-like creatures.
His face turned green. Stomach acid surged into his mouth at the sight.
The creature paused mid-bite. Its glowing green eyes slowly turned toward the movement. A low, guttural growl rumbled from its throat as it dropped the half-eaten arm and took a heavy step forward, claws sinking into mud and flesh.
Erik swallowed hard as he slowly turned around. Their gazes locked on each other.
The beast's eyes gleamed with vicious hunger under the moonlight. His instincts screamed run, but raw fear rooted him in place.
Then at the worst time possible the angelic robotic female voice sounded chimed in and a transparent blue screen appeared in front of him.
*Ding!*
[Hidden Main Quest Unlocked: Stream To Survive]
[Stream and survive for thirty minutes against the Rank 1 Demonic Beast: Corpse Devourer Wolf.]
'What?!'
Erik yelled inwardly. So the earlier robotic female like voice he had heard wasn't a auditory hallucination. He had really awakened a system, like the protagonists in those novels he used to read for fun.
'Wait. Thirty, what!'
*Growl!*
The Corpse Devourer Wolf's savage snarl snapped him back to reality. It was about to charge.
[Ding! Host has not yet claimed the streaming artifact among the initial rewards.]
Erik ignored it, locked in a death stare with the beast. A few seconds later, the blue screen flashed a dangerous red.
*Ding!*
[WARNING!]
[Failure to complete the quest will result in the host's tragic death in the jaws of the savage beast!]
[Zero attempts will result in the same. Plus crippling of the host's mana heart, severe headaches, constipation, and period cramps!]
Erik's stomach dropped. 'Claim streaming artifact! Claim it now!!'
Erik yelled inside. This system was really brutal.
*Ding!*
The red warning vanished, replaced by its original calm blue.
[Normal Grade Supreme God Streaming Artifact claimed!]
[Going Live in 3…]
'Wait..!'
[2… 1… 0]
[🔴 Livestream Activated!]
*Growl!*
With a growl the Corpse Devourer Wolf charged at Erik.
•••
In various corners of this new world, cultivators watching martial techniques, cultivation methods, or even 18+ dual cultivation arts suddenly found their artifacts interrupted.
Instead, a new live broadcast appeared: a thin, long-haired young man, looking frail and disheveled like a corpse was being chased by a savage, bone-spiked wolf-like beast in a corpse pit.