West Virginia. A remote forest highway.
A flashy convertible sports car tore down the road.
Kimberly, a fairly well-known local actress, had been invited as a guest to film a cheap wilderness survival reality show in this backwater mountain area.
Truth be told, she looked down on the low-budget production with every fiber of her being.
Some rookie director fresh out of school and a bunch of college kids? What kind of quality could they possibly produce?
With her looks and talent, her future should've been on Hollywood red carpets—not eating dirt in some signal-dead rural hellhole.
The pop song playing on the car radio suddenly turned into loud static.
"What the hell kind of place is this? Can't even get a signal," Kimberly grumbled, already regretting the money she'd spent on professional makeup.
She reached toward the center console to turn off the annoying noise.
In that split second of distraction—
THUMP!
A dark figure flew straight over the open-top car.
Did she hit someone?!
Kimberly's face went pale. She slammed on the brakes in panic.
She frantically shoved the door open and instinctively tried to dial 911.
But out here in the middle of nowhere, there was zero signal. The emergency call wouldn't go through.
Not far behind the car, the figure she'd struck lay motionless in the middle of the road.
Fighting back her fear, Kimberly walked closer. The moment she saw the person's face clearly, her stomach lurched violently—
The man's eyes were crooked—one high, one low. His mouth was twisted sideways. Even his nose looked completely wrong. It was hard to believe this thing had ever been human.
Just looking at it made her want to vomit. But the thought of a hit-and-run scandal destroying her career forced her to keep going.
Trembling, she reached out to check for a pulse.
Right then, the "corpse's" eyes snapped open.
Like a zombie, it lunged forward and clamped onto her, sinking its teeth viciously into her jaw.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the quiet forest.
Kimberly fought desperately, clawing at the creature's skin like a madwoman.
Riiip—
Her lower jaw was torn clean off.
Her mind went blank from the agony. Fighting through the pain, she staggered back toward the convertible, desperate to escape.
What she didn't expect was another deformed figure already standing beside her car.
It held a blood-stained fire axe in one hand, silently blocking the driver's door.
Kimberly stood frozen in despair as her shadow split in two under the sunlight.
…
Los Santos International Airport.
"No commission? Alright, never mind. Bye."
Soren frowned and hung up the phone.
He had already bought a ticket to West Virginia.
The call was just to double-check whether the authorities were offering any official bounties for the missing-persons cases out there.
If they had, he could kill two birds with one stone.
He recalled what Nico had told him yesterday outside the office—
While driving through a stretch of ancient forest in West Virginia, her van's demonic-energy detector had gone off.
After looking into it, she discovered that a huge number of hikers and tourists had gone missing in the area. She was almost certain a demon was behind it.
Nico wanted Soren to head out there and bring back the demon's corpse for her research.
In exchange, she promised to pay top dollar for the body and personally craft him a custom Devil Arm.
(Of course, he'd have to supply the materials himself.)
The system quest that popped up in his head confirmed Nico's suspicions were correct.
[Ding!]
[Side Quest Triggered: The Black Forest Ritual]
[Quest Description: Deep within the forests of West Virginia lurks an ancient dark presence. In this place, the corruption of flesh is worshipped as divine grace. They zealously breed deformed offspring, offering deformity and grotesqueness to please the forest in exchange for savage power.]
[Objective: Locate and kill the demon in the forest.]
[Reward: 2,000 points]
[Bloodline Awakening +2%]
What confused him was how loudly the story had blown up online.
Yet the government remained completely silent—no damage control, no deleted posts, not even a token statement.
His contacts in the police department had checked the files too: zero official operations in the area.
He wasn't sure if it was just because the region was too remote and the local government didn't care…
Or if they were deliberately luring curious people in to die.
Right then, a loud argument nearby caught his attention.
"Fuck! Let go of me!"
"I told you the plane was going to explode! Why the hell won't you believe me?!"
Five or six people were being forcefully escorted out of the boarding gate by airport security, drawing stares from everyone around.
At the center of the commotion was a young man in a plaid shirt, sweating bullets, eyes full of terror.
"I dreamed it! I saw everything clearly!"
The plaid-shirt guy gestured wildly with both hands.
"After takeoff the cabin starts shaking, the left wing falls off, and then the whole plane explodes…"
"I really dreamed it all!"
Beside him, an older woman kept trying to calm him down—she looked like their teacher.
Another guy in a white T-shirt had much less patience.
He grabbed the plaid-shirt guy by the collar and roared, "Because of your stupid dream we're delayed half a day getting to Paris! You paying for the new tickets?!"
As the two started shoving each other, their classmates and security rushed in to break it up.
BOOM!
While the scene was in total chaos, a deafening explosion suddenly ripped through the sky above the airport.
The terminal's massive glass windows shattered instantly. Shards of glass rained down like a storm.
"AAAAHHH!!!"
The entire hall erupted into panic. Passengers and staff dropped to the floor, covering their heads.
In the middle of all the screaming and terror, only Soren remained calmly seated in his chair.
He stared at the fireball burning in the sky outside and his eyelid twitched.
Final Destination?
This world really was getting messy.
If West Virginia wasn't so far away, he wouldn't have even considered flying in the first place.
Since he still couldn't fly on his own, putting his life in the hands of airport staff felt way too risky.
If something went wrong at thirty thousand feet, his only options would be trying to air-dash and double-jump to reset fall damage on landing.
Forget it. Better to rent a car and drive. Much safer.
Soren sighed and stood up.
…
Deep in the ancient forests of West Virginia.
Two deformed figures dragged half a corpse each through the trees.
As they ventured deeper, the surroundings grew increasingly twisted.
Lush green trees turned withered and black, bark peeling away like burnt charcoal.
Soon they reached a small wooden cabin.
Eight flaming torches stood around it.
The deformed pair stopped, pieced the torn body back together, and respectfully laid it at the cabin door.
A moment later the wooden door creaked open. An inky blackness slowly spilled out.
Even though it was daytime and torches burned nearby, not a single ray of light could penetrate that darkness.
A pair of pale little hands shot out from the void, grabbed the corpse, and dragged it inside.
Sounds of wet chewing followed.
Once the body disappeared, the kneeling deformed figures stood up excitedly and began dancing in bizarre, jerky movements while screaming.
…
Several days later.
Soren gripped the steering wheel with one hand while holding up his phone with the other. No signal. He was speechless.
"What garbage infrastructure…"
In America, the second you left the cities and drove into sparsely populated areas, cell service died completely. Sometimes even the built-in GPS gave up.
He picked up the paper map from the passenger seat and carefully compared the landmarks.
Should be around here.
He didn't have the demon's exact coordinates, but heading toward the highest concentration of disappearances was the smartest play.
Whoosh!
A faint whistling sound suddenly came from the high ground on the left side of the road.
Hiss—
The front left tire went flat. The car tilted.
Luckily Soren had been driving slowly while checking the map. The car only bounced once before coming to a steady stop on the shoulder.
He got out and looked at the deflated tire. Without even turning around, he caught the second arrow flying at him and muttered in annoyance:
"Goddammit… another repair bill."