Death... is only the beginning! The protagonist, Henry Clark, dies as soon as he appears. Due to the technological application of electromagnetic waves, the amount of electromagnetic radiation on Earth has increased. After death, everyone becomes a soul, and when the electromagnetic waves reach a critical point, a hellish world will overlap with Earth. The time is exactly the date of the Mayan prophecy, the end of the world, the Fifth Sun—December 21, 2012.

With time running out, how will Henry Clark grow stronger step by step, and then protect his loved ones and his beliefs?

Hidden behind the crisis of 2012, there are endless planes of existence. How will Henry Clark lead his team and cooperate with protagonists like Jason Reed, Brian Cooper, Edward Harris, as well as those from "The Ballad of the Mad Swordsman," "Legend of the Mecha God," and "Song of the Great Thousand Worlds"?

How will he break through the Nine Heavens Barrier of the Great Thousand Worlds and create a future and a world of his own?

【·Volume One: Hell·】

Death is only the beginning

Chapter One: The Beginning of Death

Henry Clark was feeling depressed. Anyone who had gone through what he had would feel the same...

He was dead, killed in a car accident.

Yes, Henry Clark was driving home on a rainy night. Because of the heavy rain, the road was slippery, and it was a dark, hazy night. Even though there were neon signs on the street, in such a downpour, visibility was only about ten meters. At a corner, he suddenly collided with another car coming from the opposite direction. Not only that, but since he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he was thrown straight out of the car window and slammed into a high-voltage transformer box by the roadside. He was instantly burned to a crisp without even making a sound. Not even a god could have saved him.

"Damn it, what kind of car is this? Where's the airbag? If I were still alive, I'd sue the manufacturer until they went bankrupt!"

Henry Clark floated about ten meters above the ground, looking down at the chaotic scene below, still screaming and shouting in frustration. From the moment he was thrown out of the car and embedded in the transformer box, in that instant of being torn away, he found himself standing outside his own body, feeling no pain at all as he watched his flesh burn to charcoal. Yes, he was now absolutely certain that souls existed, and he was now watching the world as a soul.

From the moment the accident happened to when the police and ambulance arrived, it took only a little over ten minutes. Considering the city's traffic and the weather, the police and doctors were actually quite diligent. But no matter how diligent they were, Henry Clark was already dead. All he could do was watch everything below in frustration—from the onlookers constantly making phone calls, to the police rescuing the people in the other car, and the wailing ambulance taking a man and a woman to the hospital. During all this, not a single person paid attention to his body... Even though it was just a smoldering lump of charcoal, he was still the victim! Was there any justice left in this world? Any law?

"Hey, comrades, at least get my body out of that transformer box, will you? If it keeps burning like this, even the funeral parlor won't have to do anything—just sweep up the ashes and call it a day... Hey!" Henry Clark really couldn't stand it anymore. He floated down from the air and drifted to the side of a policeman who looked like the captain, shouting loudly.

But unfortunately, no matter how loudly he yelled, the policeman couldn't hear him at all. He just stood there, frowning in thought, until another officer came over and said, "David Miller, we've identified the man and woman. Their IDs were in their wallets. The man's name is William Thompson, and the woman's name is Grace Clark... The woman is the deputy mayor's daughter. We confirmed her identity through her phone. The deputy mayor is on his way and said..."

The policeman named David Miller looked to be in his thirties. He frowned and said, "Said what? Spit it out."

The officer glanced around, then leaned in and whispered in David Miller's ear, "The deputy mayor said to temporarily seal the footage from the traffic cameras until he arrives..."

David Miller's brow twitched, and he lowered his voice to the officer, "Contact the chief immediately and have him seal the traffic camera footage, then..."

When Henry Clark heard this, his heart turned cold. This was a corner at an intersection, so the traffic bureau definitely had cameras here to catch traffic violations. When his car collided with the other, the cameras must have captured everything. Logically, on such a rainy night with low visibility, both parties should share responsibility for the accident. But now he was dead on the spot, and his body was practically gone, so the other party should bear most of the responsibility. At worst, they'd have to pay some compensation. But the other party turned out to be the deputy mayor's daughter, and it looked like they were going to pull some strings... In other words, his family would probably get little or no compensation, and might even be blamed for the whole thing, with all responsibility pushed onto him, the deceased...