Henry Clark watched as the giant face of the monstrous bird drew closer and closer to him—he could even see its terrifying, razor-sharp teeth. Just as the bird opened its mouth to engulf him, its jaws only a few inches away, all the replaying memories suddenly vanished, and all his thoughts and fears disappeared as well. In that moment, the only thing left in the depths of Henry Clark’s mind was the single thought: survive!

Suddenly, he instinctively brought his hands together and thrust them into the monstrous bird’s gaping maw. In that instant, lightning flashed between his palms—a bolt of electricity several feet long shot out from between his hands, piercing straight into the bird’s mouth and into its body. With a crackling sound, the back of the bird’s head exploded violently, blasting its hindquarters into a bloody mess. Struck by this intense pain, the monstrous bird only had time to snap its jaws shut, and with a soft crunch, it bit off both of Henry Clark’s arms that he had thrust into its mouth. At this point, Henry Clark could hold on no longer; everything went black before his eyes, and he immediately fainted.

In the darkness of unconsciousness, Henry Clark felt an indescribable strangeness throughout his body. One of his legs and both arms throbbed with excruciating pain, yet at the same time, his whole body felt as if it were soaking in a hot spring—lazily, thoroughly comfortable. This contradictory sensation made him extremely uncomfortable. After struggling for a while, he finally opened his eyes, only to be scared half to death by what he saw: the monstrous bird’s huge beak was still facing him, as if it were about to bite down at any moment, making him scramble backward on the ground in terror.

After Henry Clark had retreated several meters, he realized that the monstrous bird was already dead—what remained was nothing but a corpse. He had no idea what kind of severe injury the bird had suffered; although its front half was still intact, its entire hindquarters had exploded and shattered, with not a single piece of unscathed flesh left. All that remained was an empty shell.

Only then did Henry Clark finally calm down a little from his shock and fear. He immediately stood up and scanned the surroundings as far as he could see, afraid that another monster might appear at any moment. Fortunately, he was in luck—there was nothing but barren land in sight, not a hint of anything unusual. With that in mind, he turned and walked a few steps closer to the monstrous bird, intending to take a closer look at its body structure.

“Huh? Wasn’t my leg already torn off? And my arms too…” As Henry Clark took a few steps forward, he suddenly snapped back to his senses, remembering that both his arms and one leg had been torn off earlier. To his surprise, his arms and leg were now completely intact. What amazed him even more was that he felt as if his whole body was brimming with strength, like an athlete who had eaten well, drunk enough, and slept soundly—he felt as if he could kill a bull with his bare hands.

While Henry Clark was still bewildered, countless glowing particles suddenly began to rise from the monstrous bird’s corpse. As soon as these glowing particles appeared, part of the bird’s body would dissipate. Clearly, this monstrous bird was also made up of these glowing particles, just like Henry Clark’s current soul form.

A thought struck Henry Clark—he immediately realized a possibility… that this world might really be the underworld, the afterlife, or hell. The names might differ, but they all referred to the place where the dead go. In any case, this world clearly followed the law of conservation of energy. As for the source of that energy… it was probably these glowing particles. Otherwise, why would the monstrous bird and those monstrous wolves attack human soul forms? Most likely, they wanted to obtain the glowing particles within these souls.

Perhaps… this was the source of energy in this world!

Chapter 3: Lightning and Opportunity

As Henry Clark thought of this, his heart burned with excitement. If his guess was correct, and he could absorb all the glowing particles from this monstrous bird, wouldn’t his strength increase nearly tenfold in an instant? This monstrous bird was more than ten times his size—if his speed and strength really increased tenfold, he might not be able to fight those monsters head-on, but his chances of survival would be much greater. Maybe, relying on human intelligence, he could even set traps to hunt down those solitary, weaker monsters, and his strength could steadily grow until…

The more Henry Clark thought about it, the more excited he became. After all, he was born in the 1980s. Although he wasn’t as wild as the new generation born in the 1990s, he had at least been influenced by online literature. In those web novels—fantasy, xianxia, or urban supernatural stories—whether it was transmigration, rebirth, or anything else, which book didn’t involve power? And now, power was right in front of him. Maybe, after obtaining these glowing particles, he could even be reborn in the world of the living—become a superhuman or something like that!