Chapter 6: High-Profile Audience.
Jacob stood frozen in the center of the dimly lit hallway, his eyes darting between the three figures that had gathered around him like ghosts.
To his left and right stood the two goblin skeleton soldiers, their ivory bones polished to a dull sheen and their eye sockets flickering with those eerie, spectral red flames that seemed to pulse in time with a heartbeat.
Directly in front of him, however, was the sight that truly gave him pause, the pale, reanimated corpse of the brunette woman he had only just been mourning.
She stood perfectly still, her head tilted at a slight, unnatural angle, and though her eyes remained clouded with the haze of death.
"Just what type of undead are they exactly?" Jacob wondered aloud, his voice echoing off the blood-spattered walls as he tried to reconcile his gaming knowledge with the physical reality standing before him.
He was well aware of what skeleton soldiers were, as they were the bread and butter of any low-level necromancy build, but he found himself completely stumped by the woman's current state.
She wasn't decaying like the zombies he'd seen in horror movies, nor was she a skeletal frame like the goblins; she existed in a middle ground of preserved, deathly beauty that left him questioning if she was a vampire, a zombie, or something else entirely.
Before he could reach a conclusion, a flurry of translucent notifications suddenly erupted in his field of vision.
[Viewer: Vlad the Impaler has officially joined your stream]
[Viewer: Jack the Ripper has officially joined your stream]
"Huh? What's going on now? What kind of weird notifications are these?" Jacob muttered, his confusion deepening as he stared at the notifications.
He took a moment to let the information settle, his mind racing back to the system's earlier declaration that all of this was merely a game designed to provide entertainment for an audience.
If the world had truly become a stage, then it stood to reason that these new names appearing on his screen were the "viewers" the system had mentioned, though the choice of names struck him as incredibly odd and strangely.
'So that means these guys are part of the so-called viewers,' he reasoned, his gamer brain quickly adapting to the concept of a live-streamed apocalypse.
'But why would they suddenly decide to join my stream specifically? I'm just a guy in a tracksuit hiding in a hallway.' He looked around the empty corridor, feeling a prickle of self-consciousness at the idea of being watched by unknown entities.
"And just who are they exactly? I've never really heard of names like these being used for high-ranking entities before," he said, genuinely perplexed by the lack of traditional fantasy titles like 'Dragon King' or 'Ancient God.'
[Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper are stunned by your reveal]
[Vlad the Impaler thinks you are lying]
[Jack the Ripper feels insulted by your words]
The prompts flashed rapidly, as if pulsing with a sense of indignation that Jacob could practically feel radiating off the screen.
It seemed his honest lack of historical knowledge had managed to offend two of the most infamous names in human history, even if he didn't realize who they were quite yet.
"Well, I'm sorry, but I really haven't heard of you guys before today," Jacob offered, a sheepish smile spreading across his face as he raised his hands in a defensive gesture toward the empty air.
He felt like he was talking to a chat room in one of his favorite MMOs, except the moderators in this particular chat room probably had the power to end his life.
"How about this? If you tell me just what exactly she is," he said, gesturing towards the woman he just raised. " I promise I'll try my best to look you guys up and learn everything there is to know when I get the time, alright?"
The notifications stopped for several seconds, leaving Jacob standing in a tense silence with his three undead guardians.
He could almost imagine the two legendary figures on the other side of the veil, huffing in frustration and debating whether this ignorant mortal was worth their attention.
[Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper are silent]
[Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper are discussing with one another]
[Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper have decided to give you a quest]
[Quest Acquired: Stop being Ignorant]
[Quest Description: Player Jacob needs to learn more of how infamous and glorious his two new viewers, who have taken the time to watch him, truly are.]
[Quest completion rewards: A skill from Jack the Ripper and Vlad the Impaler, respectively.]
[Accept Quest?: Yes/No]
'Well, these guys sure are a cocky bunch, aren't they?' Jacob thought, his eyelids twitching in a mixture of irritation and amusement as he read through the snarky quest description.
He found it hard to believe that he was being given a formal assignment just because he didn't recognize their names, but as he looked at the reward section, his irritation quickly vanished.
'But on the other hand, the reward is incredibly generous. Getting two separate skills just for doing a little bit of research seems like a steal, so there's absolutely no reason for me to refuse a deal this good.'
Without further hesitation, he reached out and tapped the floating "Yes" button.
[Player has accepted the quest]
"Okay, now that we have a deal, can you guys tell me what I'm looking at?" he asked the two of them once more, gesturing toward the silent, pale woman who continued to stand guard with her dull eyes.
[Jack the Ripper decides to let Vlad the Impaler do the talking]
[Vlad the Impaler is satisfied]
[Vlad the Impaler says that the woman has become a ghoul]
"A ghoul?!" Jacob almost screamed the words, his voice cracking as he jumped back a step in shock.
He hurriedly turned around to glance at the standing, silent figure of the woman, his mind flooded with images of the terrifying, monsters he had encountered in countless RPGs and dark fantasy novels.
'The f*ck?! Aren't ghouls supposed to be mindless, flesh-eating undead that tear people apart with their bare hands?' he thought frantically, his heart rate spiking as he realized he might be standing mere inches away from a ticking time bomb of hunger.
[Jack the Ripper is laughing at your reaction]
[Vlad the Impaler is unhappy; he says it's unbecoming for the streamer he chose to be so cowardly]
"I see... My bad then, I apologize," Jacob said, rubbing the back of his head in genuine embarrassment as he tried to regain his composure.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to look at the ghoul woman again without flinching, even though every survival instinct he possessed was screaming at him to run. "I just didn't expect to have created something like a ghoul right off the bat, you know? I thought I'd be stuck with basic skeletons for a long time."
Despite his initial fear, a spark of excitement began to glow in his chest as he realized the magnitude of his luck.
Even in the games he played, ghouls were known to be quite powerful and resilient undead, possessing strength and speed far beyond that of a normal human or a simple skeleton.
If he could truly control her, his chances of surviving the trip to the lower floors for food had just increased tenfold.