The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion

Eric Walcrown was a man whose name resonated across the globe.

A wildly popular streamer, his reputation had reached international heights.

Anyone who immersed themselves in the world of online entertainment knew of him.

Streaming wasn't just Eric's career; it was his gateway to a life of freedom.

The money he earned allowed him to travel the world without worrying about the burdens of labor or routine responsibilities.

Yet, it wasn't just his charisma or high production quality that drew audiences in.

It was the sheer danger in every video he created.

Eric had built his fame on the edge of peril.

Every video he posted featured him tackling life-threatening challenges under the guise of exploration and adventure.

Nobody truly knew whether these stunts reflected his genuine personality or if they were meticulously crafted for views.

Regardless, people were addicted to watching him flirt with death.

The audience didn't care about the task itself.

They weren't invested in the danger or the purpose behind it.

What they craved was the spectacle.

Would Eric meet a grisly end while performing a reckless stunt?

Or would he survive yet another trial by fire?

To his millions of subscribers, it didn't matter.

Their only desire was to be entertained.

For Eric, it was simple.

He didn't care about his subscribers, their lives, or even their fascination with his content.

What he wanted was their money, the fuel for his freedom.

He understood what the masses wanted, and he gave it to them without hesitation.

But there was a deeper truth.

Eric didn't engage in dangerous activities solely for the money.

He did it because he loved the adrenaline, the raw thrill of putting his life on the line.

The rush, the exhilaration, made him feel truly alive.

The electric pulse of danger coursing through his veins was an addiction he couldn't resist.

And then the world turned upside down.

It happened without warning: a cascade of inexplicable phenomena erupted across the globe.

The impossible became reality.

The world as humanity knew it twisted into something strange and terrifying.

For most, it was the beginning of a nightmare.

But for Eric, it was paradise.

As chaos unfolded, Eric found himself on the way to a burger shop.

Amid the panic and confusion, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind, a cold, otherworldly presence.

[The System has arrived on your habitable planet, known as 'Earth,' and has forced its inhabitants to undergo metamorphosis. You have gained the right to evolve.]

[In five seconds, monsters from countless realms will invade Earth.]

In the blink of an eye, towering structures appeared across the world.

They seemed to pierce the heavens, ominous and unyielding.

Alongside them came the Gates, portals from which nightmares emerged, monsters from realms beyond human comprehension.

Eric didn't run.

Fear pulsed through his heart, but it was drowned by something stronger: exhilaration.

The things he had only read about in books or seen in anime were now real, standing before him in all their terrifying glory.

How could he turn away?

His eyes widened as bloodthirsty creatures poured out of the Gates, their predatory gazes locking onto the helpless humans nearby.

The streets erupted into chaos.

Screams filled the air as monsters feasted on the living, their claws tearing through flesh, painting the ground in vibrant red.

Eric's breath hitched, his heart pounding in his chest.

The sight of people being ripped apart should have frozen him in fear.

But instead, it awakened something primal inside him.

The danger, the carnage, was intoxicating.

And then, he saw him.

A man stood amidst the chaos, unyielding and resolute.

Armed with nothing but a knife and an axe, he cut through the monsters like a force of nature.

Blood sprayed in every direction, and yet the man remained unfazed, his movements precise and merciless.

The ground beneath him was a sea of crimson, littered with lifeless bodies, chunks of flesh, and the mangled remains of those who had been devoured.

Around him, the fallen painted a grotesque masterpiece of death.

Eric's hands trembled as he streamed the scene to his audience, his voice barely above a whisper. "Is he... a superhuman?"

He couldn't tear his gaze away.

This man, this unstoppable force, was unlike anything Eric had ever seen.

The way he stabbed, slashed, and tore through flesh without hesitation made him seem like the most powerful person in the world.

Eric had never felt such fascination in his life.

The blood, the violence, the pure, unrelenting survival, was everything he had ever dreamed of witnessing.

His heart raced, his excitement surging as he continued to stream the scene, his audience equally captivated by the madness unfolding before them.

For Eric Walcrown, this was no nightmare.

This was a dream come true.

It didn't take him long to annihilate all the monsters that emerged from the gate.

Eric was about to end his livestream when the man he had been recording fixed him with a predatory gaze, one that was no different from the eyes of the very monsters he had just slain.

Before Eric could react, the man was suddenly in front of him, an axe in hand, its bloodstained blade resting dangerously close to his neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" the man demanded, his voice cold and devoid of emotion.

"I-I… I'm sorry…" Eric stammered, his words strangled as if an invisible hand had wrapped around his throat.

"Did you record me killing those monsters?" The man's expression was icy, his displeasure palpable. The faint pressure of the axe's edge against Eric's skin made his blood run cold.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! I only did it because…" Eric babbled, his thoughts a chaotic mess.

He struggled to speak, overwhelmed by a mix of fear and awe. "Because you're like a superhuman! I've never seen anyone fight like that!"

The man's piercing gaze didn't waver. "Delete it," he commanded sharply.

"Oh, shit…" Eric muttered. Despite the panic roiling inside him, a nervous smile tugged at his lips, entirely out of place given the situation.

"I… I can't. It's live-streamed," he admitted, the smile still inexplicably plastered across his face.

"What?" The man's eyes widened in fury, and for a moment, Eric thought his life was over.

Desperate, he blurted out the only defense he could muster.

"Wait! Wait! Hear me out!" Eric pleaded. "I knew something like this might happen, so I used AI to blur your face!"

The man's expression remained stone-like, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You think I'll believe that? If you do, you're mistaken."

"I'm telling the truth! Look! I'll show you!" Eric hurriedly pulled up the livestream on his phone.

Sure enough, as the man inspected the footage, his face was completely obscured.

After a tense moment, the man snorted in annoyance and withdrew the axe from Eric's neck.

Without another word, the man's attention shifted.

Eric followed his gaze and felt a chill run through him.

A dozen more monsters had emerged from the gate, their feral eyes fixed on the two of them.

"Get the hell out of here!" the man growled, his tone dripping with disdain. "If you can't kill a monster on your own, you'll never survive."

"What should I do?" Eric asked, his voice trembling.

The man glared at him, his annoyance barely contained. "It's simple. Get the fuck out of here. Find a monster and kill it. After that, you'll figure out what to do next."

With that, he kicked Eric square in the backside, sending him sprawling.

Then, without a backward glance, he strode forward, resuming his brutal slaughter of the monsters.

"Kill a monster, and you'll know what to do." The man's words echoed in Eric's mind, refusing to be ignored.

Shakily, Eric glanced at his phone and realized it was still streaming.

In his panic, he had forgotten to turn it off.

Thankfully, the face-blurring function was still active.

Millions of viewers watched as Eric stumbled to his feet.

Every single one of them had heard the mysterious man's words.

Among the countless people tuning in, there was no doubt that thousands, perhaps more, shared a dangerous, thrill-seeking nature.

The idea of facing monsters head-on ignited something primal within them.

Excitement coursed through the audience.

Hearts raced.

Adrenaline surged.

And in that moment, a dangerous thought unified them:

They would do it.

They would hunt monsters.

Just like the man in the stream.

They would kill.