New Life Begins with a Corpse Run

People often said that a life lacking something was black and white.

So what the hell did it mean when even the world before his eyes was black and white?

Fierce winds howled beneath a deathly pale sky. Countless ghostlike, bizarre beings drifted among towering primordial trees. Endless ash-gray, the color of death, covered every corner of his vision. Nothing bore a normal color.

Bone-piercing chill soaked through his entire body. He clearly wanted to shiver, yet he abruptly realized that the cold came not only from outside, but from within himself as well.

Looking down at his translucent chest and listening to the faint murmurs by his ears—like wind, yet also like the whispers of souls—Duke felt completely awful.

No, it should be said that he did not even know whether he was still human. Or perhaps the entire ghost was feeling awful!

Oh no—why the hell did I wake up dead!?

Duke clutched his head with both hands, utterly unable to accept reality.

Ahhh— I swear on my 10 TB collection of adult films, I was just a miserable young guy attending some third-rate university! I'd never even held a girl's hand, and now I'm dead just like that! Heavens, isn't this too damn unfair!?

Duke went berserk. Duke wailed.

Yet it actually seemed to do some good, because an electronic voice suddenly sounded beside Duke's ear.

"Congratulations, Host. You have successfully crossed countless light-years and spatial barriers to arrive in Azeroth, a parallel universe. As one of the billions who successfully traversed worlds, you have received the technical support of the [Strongest King Support System]."

"Uh, what the hell?" Duke blurted out instinctively, only to discover that the string of obscure syllables he had spoken was somehow understood by the owner of that voice.

"Would the Host like to name this system sprite 'Uh, What the Hell?'"

Though he did not want to complain, Duke instantly confirmed that this crappy system had limited intelligence! Still, one term in the system sprite's prompt caught Duke's attention: "Azeroth."

"No, hold off on the naming thing. I'm in Azeroth right now? Warcraft?"

"Detected a portion of the Host's memories concerning a game highly similar to this world... Analyzing... Preliminary analysis indicates that 80% of this world overlaps with Azeroth from the MMORPG [World of Warcraft] in the Host's memories. Please explore the specific circumstances yourself."

Fine. At least he had a preliminary understanding of his situation.

Damn it, this is a high-risk world! One world war after another.

"But the most important thing is... I'm dead! I died right after crossing over! Other people who transmigrate are perfectly fine—either they're sons of nobles or some Long Aotian, Ka Aotian, whatever! Why the hell am I a ghost the moment I arrive!?" Duke could not help roaring.

"I'm very sorry. When you first arrived here, you encountered an irritable wild boar and were successfully killed by it."

A gust of ghostly wind swept past, and Duke felt as though his young, kind heart had suffered a hundred thousand points of critical damage.

A strange echo reverberated in his chest.

I was killed by a wild boar...

Killed by a wild boar...

Wild boar...

The system sprite's voice rang out once again. "You are currently in a graveyard. Would you like to resurrect on the spot, or move your soul to retrieve your corpse before resurrecting?"

"Fuck! I can resurrect? Why didn't you say so earlier!"

"You didn't ask." The system sprite seemed to be trying to sound aggrieved, but its monotonous mechanical voice only sounded strange.

"Then of course I'll resurrect right here... Wait!" Duke had intended to resurrect immediately, but he suddenly remembered that in the game, running back to retrieve his corpse cost 10% durability from his equipment. Resurrecting at a graveyard, however, not only cost 25% durability but also inflicted ten minutes of weakness, reducing all physical attributes.

Duke immediately asked, "Let me ask first: what's the difference between resurrecting through a corpse run and resurrecting at the graveyard?"

"Beep... Detecting missing portions of the Host's soul... Evaluating the hazards of death... After comparing data from before and after the Host's death, it has been determined that death causes the Host to lose 'humanity' and 'memories.' Estimated loss for a single ordinary death: 10% humanity and memories. Even resurrecting by retrieving the corpse will permanently lose 1% humanity and memories. Resurrecting at a graveyard will permanently lose 20% humanity and memories immediately."

Damn!

If Duke could sweat coldly, he would have been drenched from head to toe by now. It would have been one thing if the system sprite had said nothing, but the moment it explained, he immediately realized something was wrong. He had owned a dog, raised from childhood until it died naturally at the age of sixteen. Yet at this moment, he could not remember the beloved dog's name.

This was trouble!

And that was not the end. The system sprite dealt Duke a fatal blow.

"Calculations indicate that if the Host loses more than 40% of humanity, the vast majority of creatures in this world will be unwilling to communicate with the Host in any way. If more than 90% is lost, the Host is expected to become a low-level ghoul, wandering this world forever until both body and soul are completely destroyed."

An icy shudder ran through Duke's entire soul. He did not make a decision immediately. He needed to assess the situation first.

Guided by the faint connection between his body and soul, Duke started running. The distance from the mass grave where he had originally been to his corpse was not far, roughly three hundred meters. Duke reached it in no time.

The moment he entered the area, the system sprite prompted him, "Would you like to resurrect here?"

Duke did not choose.

He observed.

Because he had transmigrated. He was no longer a player sitting before a computer, controlling a little character on a tiny nineteen-inch monitor with the W, A, S, and D keys and a mouse. He had truly entered this world.

Duke had no way of knowing how far the timeline had progressed. He only knew that Azeroth was dangerous. Ahead lay earth-shattering wars among every race; later would come that bastard, the Lich King Arthas, spreading plagues around and polluting the environment, along with a whole bunch of Old Gods emerging to wreak havoc.

If he did not make something of himself, then let alone dying ten times, dying a hundred or ten thousand times would be easy.

Not to mention anything far off. Just seeing that wild boar—with its four hooves on the ground, its back as tall as a grown adult, and six saber-like tusks jutting from its mouth—told Duke that surviving in this world would not be easy.

Duke did not resurrect immediately.

An irritable wild boar larger than an adult rhinoceros was absolutely a top-tier threat to Duke in both attack power and danger.

These days, there really were not many young people who liked playing games and were especially fit. Looking at the dense forest around him and the rugged terrain, Duke knew that if he resurrected carelessly, being killed again after taking only a few steps would likely be his only outcome.

"Patience! Stay calm!" Duke kept telling himself.

After waiting ten minutes, Duke grew frustrated.

Because that bastard of a wild boar refused to leave. Although it had no interest in Duke's disemboweled corpse, it stubbornly lingered nearby, using its long tusks to dig at the soil and refusing to go no matter what.

Just as Duke was at his wit's end, a beautiful, agile elf entered his field of vision.

Though she looked somewhat different from her appearance in the game, Duke recognized her at once—Alleria Windrunner, the most famous high elven ranger-general in World of Warcraft!