Another Chance

Marie's pov

"Hey Marie, if you're going to participate you better find someone soon! The contest is about to start soon!"

"Yeah! Everyone has already found one, where's yours?"

The other participants exclaimed, while staring at me with wide eyes.

Standing at the corner of the registration large hall, I advert my eyes from theirs and started fidgeting. Man, I really feel like heading for the exit… but this competition is only available once every millennium! I definitely can't miss this chance! That's right, all I need to do is to find a recently deceased soul and get their agreement to participate! Ha... that is easier said than done! How did all of them even managed to find one in time?!

"I... I'll find a participant by the end of today! So please wait!" I pluck up courage and said. That's right, there's still some time left.

"Alright, but don't keep us waiting for too long!" someone from a registration counter replies.

Without further ado, I use teleportation magic and my surroundings become a blur of bright light before clearing up. The marble floor that I was standing on has now become pavement. Street lights light up the dark chilly surroundings. It is night time and I have been teleported to a quiet neighborhood. Glancing left and right while running around the area, I try to search for at least one recently deceased soul. From minutes, it stretched to hours, but to no avail my search was fruitless. I could not find a single one. But I was sure that I had set my teleportation magic to take me to the nearest recently deceased soul... maybe I messed up.

Well, I might as well still give it my all to search then! I walk along a street I've not been to, perhaps what I've been searching for is here after all? Just a few meters away from me I see a humanoid figure lying on the floor behind some carton boxes. I run towards it.

Blake's pov

Upon opening my eyes, I try to stand up. But I can't feel my legs, I look around myself to only see a faint glow surrounding me. Am I now like some sort of floating light?! What?! What happened?! No way, this can't be happening! I gaze down at the lifeless humanoid figure below me, I recognize that face anywhere, it's mine. Perhaps saying it was mine would be more suitable now. Man, I guess this is it. Just a moment ago, I was being beaten up and stabbed by my bullies, I never expected that they managed to beat me to death… well what's going to happen now?

Tap, tap, tap…

The sound of shoes running on the pavement is coming from behind me, could it be someone noticed me? I might be saved then! Wait no… if I'm already a floating light it must have been too late already. I turn around and see a young woman who was the owner of those sounds. She was wearing a sleeveless dark purple dress that reached her knees, a cape that seemed to display the stars was flowing widely as her black high heels made tapping sounds as she ran. Upon seeing me, relief seemed to have flooded her face, her tense expression was now a thing of the past. Standing before me, the young woman sighed "I've finally found you."

As the cold winds blew, her dark waist length hair danced along. Pushing back her fringe, Golden eyes gaze at me introduces herself.

"Hello there, I am the goddess Marie. I came here to ask for your assistance."

What?! You're not gonna revive me? You're supposed to hold a lot of power, do you even need assistance?! Apparently, you can read my thoughts too?!

"I'm sorry but the authority to revive someone does not belong to me…"

So it's like this now, then I don't see any reason to assist you.

"Wait, hear me out first! If you assist me, there's a chance that you can be revived!"

Really? Well if there's a chance for that then that means I would have a chance to meet all the people I like again! Like my friends and family, I can't bear to leave them. Plus, I want those assholes who killed me to pay! Yes, as long as there's a chance there's a way! So what do you need help with?

"Well, it's more like I need you to agree to participate in a game. This game is held once every millennium. The many celestial beings will be participating in this event with their partner, a recently deceased soul. The recently deceased soul will be the one participating in the actual game, while the celestial beings provide support. The participants in this game are willing participants, which means no one is forced to it and the recently deceased soul that receives an invitation may either accept or reject. The winner of the game will receive a chance to have any one wish they have to be granted, both the celestial being and recently deceased soul. Which means, there's a chance for you to revive."

Wow, this deal sounds a little bit too good to be true! I just need to win a game to have my wish granted?! If it's a game then I should be good at it! Other than studying, I've basically spent most of my life gaming and reading manga!

"Now then, shall we be partners for this game?"

Okay, let's do it!

Marie reaches out both hands to me, in a split second we arrive at a great hall. The floor was made of marble and the ceiling seemed ten meters high! There were exquisitely carved pillars and some booths in the middle. This place is truly grand looking! This must be the registration area, judging by the booths.

"Looks like she finally found a partner!"

The woman managing the booth shouted, in a sarcastic tone. Marie looks down and apologizes to her and quickly fills in the registration form and places it on me. After a few seconds, my details appear on the form. It says:

[Partner Details]

Name: Blake Kim

Age: 18

Cause of death: Blood loss

Marie quickly passes the form to the woman at the booth and we join the crowd of participants. Various celestial beings filled the room, each with a different glowing orb floating by their side. Those must also be souls participating in this game. A few minutes later, the woman from before begins the announcement.

"Alright everyone, this year's game will be a RPG game! Your partners will be sent to a prototype world that has a similar system to RPG games. Your partner will be sent to the world as players of different species at random. Everyone can bestow a [Unique Skill] to your partner for this game and assist your partner through the skill [Call]. The last one standing wins the game!"

Man, she's literally the opposite of her earlier attitude. Anyways, I hope I would get some really overpowered or cheat skills then! Marie looks at me and gives me a nod, she smiles and says "I'll be doing my best, so do you!"

Of course! If there's a chance my wish will be fulfilled I'll do my best! Within a few seconds,

A bright light blurred my surroundings and when it disappeared, I was no longer in the large hall. I look around my surroundings, Unevenly shaped dark walls were surrounding me and there were some cracks in the ceiling allowing the moonlight to light up my surroundings. I was in a cave. Okay, so since this is a RPG game, as long as you spawn at a safe place it should be fine. I don't really mind the cave atmosphere too, it gives off a kinda cool vibe. Plus, this cave isn't really that big nor deep, so I doubt there's any monsters hiding in the shadows. Beyond the cave entrance, there seems to be a forest, I shall explore there later.

I look at my hands, other than the long claw-like fingernails, it's basically a human's hands. I'm wearing a whit long sleeve top, black jeans and boots. There isn't a mirror or lake nearby for me to check how my face looks so there's that. I'm pretty sure I've got human as my species, with the information I've gathered. But just to be sure I'm going to use the [Call] skill to ask Marie. Besides, I want to know my unique skill too. So, should I just say [Call] and my skill will activate? Only one way to find out! I take a deep breath and say [Call].

Bing!

"Hello! Marie here, can you hear me?"

Oh so it's literally like how calls work back at home!

"I can't use telepathy right now, so if you want to say something just say it."

"Heyy, I can hear you. I wanted to ask you how do I check my [Unique Skill] and my species?"

"That's simple, just say [Status] and those will appear on your status screen. You don't necessarily have to say it very loud, even a whisper would be fine. The [Status] also explains your skills so it's good to read up on them! Go ahead and try it out!

[Message: Due to low skill level [Call] has ended]

Ah, so if I want the call to be longer, I need to raise the [Call] skill level. Anyways I should check out my [Status]! I say [Status] at a low volume and a status screen appears before me.

[Status]

Name: Blake Kim [Participant 100]

Species: Vampire

Condition: Normal

Level : 1/100

Hp : 50/50

Mp : 100/100

Attack : 25

Magic : 30

Agility : 20

Defence : 5

[Unique Skills] :

[Copy]

[Skills] :

[Call Lv-1] [Claws Lv-1] [Low auto regeneration Lv-1] [Vampirism Lv-1] [Anesthesia Bite Lv-1] [Mana drain Lv-1] [Life drain Lv-1] [Transformation Lv-1]

[Titles] :

Whaat?! Vampire?! To think that I had died due to extreme blood-loss from being stabbed, how ironic. The stats look pretty good too, except for defence. Let's see Vampire description!

Description of Vampire :

Immortal beings whom rely on the blood of other living beings as food source. They boast high agility and magic power which makes up for their low defence. They will suffer extreme damage from sunlight. They will enter [Berserk] condition if their Hp falls below 20% or if their condition is [Extreme Hunger].

WAIT A SEC! [Berserk]?! Why that?! So I lose my sanity when I'm very hungry or really injured? This is a major disadvantage! Ah, no point feeling disappointed about this, I should just try to prevent my Hp from falling below 30% to play safe then and try to eat on time.

Okay, so basically I should avoid getting hit due to my trash defence. Since my strengths are in agility and magic, I should use long range attacks which would help me avoid getting hit as I could probably dodge it easily with my agility. But I don't see any long range attacks from my skills other than [Claws] and [Transformation]. Most of my skills are pretty self-explanatory so I think I will just check the two possible long range attack skills.

[Claws]

[Allows the extension of your claws to attack your enemy]

Yess! A long range attack!

[Transformation]

[Transform into other monsters for a cost of 50 Mp. When transformed to a specific monster, you will be able to use it's skills as your own. A wider range of transformations will be added to this skill as you kill various monsters.]

Interesting skill. Let's see what I can transform into.

[Transformation: ]

Of course I should have known it would be nothing. There should at least be a starter pack to transform into a bat or something! This is fine, I'll eventually make my collection real nice with loads of transformations! More importantly, I want to check out my [Unique Skill] !

[Copy]

[Copy another being's skill by eating them. The skill obtained will be at the lowest level so you will have to raise it yourself. A certain amount must be eaten in order for this skill to activate. If this requirement is not reached, this skill cannot be activated. This skill activates regardless of whether target is alive or dead. It does not activate when target is cooked.]

Oh my, hahahaha , this is truly an overpowered cheat skill! So I just gotta eat to become more powerful? What better skill can there be? It says eat but in my case I just have to drink blood right? The path to become strong seems clear! Man, all of this is making me hungry, I should eat anyways or I might enter [Berserk] condition.