It hurt so much!
Mike felt like he had been beaten with a whip, every part of his body burning with pain.
Why was his body so painful?
Mike didn't understand. He slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a blood-red moon. Under the black velvet night sky, the moon looked so red it almost looked like it was bleeding.
Am I dreaming?
Mike shot up, looking around with a confused expression.
Next to him were a group of people, half-naked, thin as sticks, with messy hair and empty eyes, some of them had blood on their bodies.
There were at least twenty people crammed into a cage. This scene only showed up in books.
"Smack!"
Mike slapped himself. His face burned.
This wasn't a dream.
Did I actually transmigrate?
The situation was really bad. Transmigrating to a strange world, and now stuck in a cage with more than twenty people like a slave? That was the worst start ever.
Suddenly, a jolt of electricity ran through Mike's mind, and his past memories flashed like a slideshow in his head.
Kael Silverlight. A citizen of the Rien Dall Kingdom, from Slagtown. His father was a captain in the Royal Order, and his mother was a school teacher in the town.
Other family members included his grandfather, older brother, and younger sister.
The House of Silverlight wasn't poor in Slagtown, but after Kael's father died, the family started to fall apart. Now the whole family was carried by his brother and mother.
Kael Silverlight was attending a high school in town, preparing to apply to a magic academy, to take on family responsibilities. But something changed a few days ago.
Kael Silverlight had been blessed by the Sky.
The Sky-Blessed. It was a sign of the gods' favor. People who got the Sky-Blessed were believed to have great potential in magic, alchemy, or other areas.
The god's message was simple and brutal. A dream that told Kael Silverlight to go to Scalesplice Alley.
Scalesplice Alley was the black market and gray market area of Slagtown. It was full of all sorts of people. People from the House of Silverlight never went there.
But this was the Sky-Blessed. Kael had to go.
He never expected it to turn into hell. In his memory, Kael had gone into a bar, drank something he didn't know, passed out, and woke up completely naked in a cage.
"..."
Mike said nothing for a long time. What the hell?
A rich kid just got thrown into the real world and got sold as a slave?
"No no no..." Mike shook his head. He thought to himself: "I need to stay calm. My first goal is to survive using the identity of Kael Silverlight."
Mike was a undercover cop before he transmigrated. He had faced countless dangerous situations, and his mental strength was way beyond normal.
Survive.
I have to survive.
I am now Kael Silverlight.
At that moment, a mess of noises came from far away. Kael Silverlight looked up and saw a group of people walking out from the darkness.
The first to come out was a big man wrapped in a rough cloth. He held a sword or a knife in each hand. Kael guessed these people were guards.
Next came people in big white robes. There were men and women. They all looked full of energy, with smiles on their faces.
Finally, a man in a red robe came out. It was hard to tell his age. He just bent over, his face hidden under the hood, and only his red eyes showed.
A cold feeling went straight to Kael Silverlight's head.
This was really weird.
The man looked like a wild beast coming out of a dark cave.
Calm but crazy. It felt like he would go mad any second and eat the poor people in the cages.
Eat them alive...
Kael Silverlight's body went stiff.
Were they the sacrifices for this ritual?
Kael swallowed hard and looked around.
This must be a square. Four cages with people in the corner. In the center was a long stone slab, maybe seven or eight meters high. Under the red moonlight, it looked like it was wrapped in a red cloth.
Below the stone slab were nine steps. Each step had a lot of lines, but it was too far away for Kael to see clearly.
"What the hell place is this?" Kael Silverlight thought angrily.
At that moment, a loud voice said, "The ritual begins."
Kael Silverlight's heart jumped. In the previous person's memory, this was a world of swords and magic, right?
Why was there a ritual like this from ancient times?
The big ceremony started, and there was no time for people to think. The man in the red robe walked forward and knelt before the big stone slab, speaking softly:
"Great and immortal God of Endless Hunger, we call to you. Guide us to our final path! Listen to the hunger of your servants!.."
Kael Silverlight's skin went numb.
Cult. Heretics.
There are three official gods in the Kingdom of Rien Dall: The God of Holy Silver, The Starforge, and The Mother of Abundance. No one has ever heard of The God of Endless Hunger.
Kael suddenly realized that the Sky-Blessed was just a trick the heretics used to fool him.
As the red-robed man finished speaking, the white-robed people around him, and the big men wearing rough cloth all dropped to their knees and slapped the ground with their hands.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-
They hit the floor in a strange rhythm.
Under that rhythm, Kael felt dizzy and his ears rang. His heart started beating in time with the rhythm, and it made his blood rush to his head. He felt really sick.
After ten minutes or so, Kael was about to give up. The red-robed man shouted, "Praise you, Lord of the Millions of Bodies United! Accept this small offering and give us the gift to change our form!"
Boom!
A loud heartbeat echoed, louder than everything else around him.
Kael Silverlight looked up. His pupils suddenly shrank. The thing in the center of the altar wasn't a stone tablet - it was a bone tablet. It was covered in meat and blood. The ground the red-robed man was kneeling on was made of meat and blood too. What scared him the most was that even though everything looked so bloody and wild, it was bathed in holy red light. It all looked so clean, peaceful, and even smelled just a little bit like a church.
The contrast was like the red-robed man's red eyes-completely calm on the outside, but totally crazy on the inside.
Kael Silverlight collapsed to the ground. His face kept twitching. He had no will to live anymore. This wasn't a game. They were serious.
All he could do was watch the ceremony go on.
Several of the main followers began to dance around the altar in twisted ways. If it wasn't for the setting, Kael would have thought it was funny. But in the red light and the meat, the way they danced looked wild and disrespectful.
Ten minutes passed.
The red-robed man shouted, "Let's offer meat to the great [The God of Endless Hunger]."
A few men in rough cloths opened the cage that was farthest from Kael. They pushed a barely human sacrifice toward the red-robed man.
Kael Silverlight let out a bitter laugh.
So they really were the sacrifices.
The red-robed priest pulled out a black dagger and performed the ritual cut. At that moment, blood flowed all over the altar. The smell of blood could no longer be hidden and spread everywhere.
Primitive, bloody, violent... for a modern person, it was too much.
"Gag-"
Kael Silverlight grabbed the cage and threw up.
"Hm?" The red-robed priest frowned slightly, and his red eyes locked onto Kael.
A white-robed cultist turned pale and said, trembling, "Priest, I made a mistake. I polluted the ritual..."
He didn't finish his sentence. The red-robed priest flicked his red eyes a few times, waved his hand, and said, "Continue."
"Yes." The white-robed man let out a dry laugh.
There was a tunnel under the bone monument. The believers pushed the struggling sacrifice into it together. From deep inside the hole came a terrifying sound of chewing, sucking, and bones being crushed. It was like there was a huge stomach working down there.
Kael almost threw up. Was this altar actually alive?
The red-robed man spoke in a deep voice, "Not enough. Keep going."
They did the same again. The sacrifices from three cages were pushed into the tunnel. Next was Kael Silverlight's cage.
The chewing sounds in the tunnel slowly stopped. The red-eyed priest showed a hint of impatience. He was really greedy.
"Keep going!" He gave the order.
Kael was desperate. His eyes kept twitching. He felt like death was just one step away. As the strong men pushed him forward, they reached the altar.
Was this it?
Kael's emotions were all over the place. He clenched his fists, and his body couldn't stop shaking.
The red-robed priest cleaned his black dagger. He was about to perform the ritual cut when the altar suddenly started to move. The bone monument shone with a bright light.
From the hole, a warm, dark red, thick liquid came out slowly. Then, on top of the liquid, a bunch of spores grew. Then, boom, the spores burst open, and the red liquid sprayed everywhere, landing on the cultists.
All the cultists knelt down and shouted with the red-robed priest, "Thank you, God of Endless Hunger, for your gift. Praise the Lord of Flesh."
At that moment, Kael also received the "blessing."
He used his fingers to wipe the warm, sticky liquid from his face. He didn't expect the liquid to float up into the air, moving around, separating into small things like flies and mosquitoes.
"The Key of Divinity turns, the Soul of Calculation fits into you. You can now use your life to predict potions, spells..."
"Life remaining: 82."
"Available to predict: Basic Swordfighter Techniques."
Kael's eyes widened. Was this the Time Traveler's benefit?
But what use is this to me now? Am I supposed to just run up and stab the red-robed priest with a sword?