The Gamer's POV-Chapter 220: Second Chance

~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~

Character Name: [Cedric Anele Martini]

Age: [18]

Level: [20]

Grade: [2]

Element: [Darkness]

Exclusive Class: [Gamer]

Exclusive Class Attribute: [Gamer Privileges] 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]

Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]

Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv9], [One with the Ravens - Lv6]

EXP: [6,500 / 10,000]

Karma points: [N1,685 / P406,510]

~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~

The first thing Cedric saw was the number of Karma points that he had racked up.

"Over four hundred?" He looked at Aika with wide eyes. "Where did it come from?"

Aika lazily fell onto the bed beside him and started to explain. "Well, while you were unconscious, I carried out your wish by feeding the five hundred and eighty cadets twice a day. Since you had planned to do that entirely out of goodwill, it gave fifty Karma points per person. And since you were unconscious and couldn’t revel in the positive Karma, that amount did not drop for the entire seven days."

She tapped her lips, trying to recall the rest of the tally. "That, plus the hundred Karma points you gained from feeding that vampire girl your blood that one time."

"..."

Cedric swallowed, and then a sly grin began to grow on his lips. "Well, now that’s convenient."

Aika, who was now admiring her nails, chipped in without looking at him.

"Indeed."

But then her eyes suddenly widened as if the gears in her head had finally caught up with his earlier words, and she looked back at Cedric, then asked, "Wait... you told me to stop acting ’all cute.’" She smiled and began to lean in closer. "Does that mean you actually find me cute?"

Cedric’s brow twitched.

Then Aika chuckled softly, and her voice dropped to a murmur. "You find me attractive, don’t you."

Cedric picked up a pillow and shoved it squarely against her face to push her back.

"Shut up and go to sleep."

He was about to turn away, but then he remembered something and added, "And her name is Evelyn, not ’vampire girl’!"

He fully turned away, only for a pillow to hit his face a moment later.

"Why should I remember a name that isn’t yours, you mule?!" Aika retorted as she raised the pillow and brought it down on his face again.

After the third time, Cedric picked up his own pillow and shoved it hard into her face, sending her tumbling backward onto the heap of blankets with a loud, startled yelp.

She was about to straighten herself out and take her revenge when he smothered her face again with the same pillow, sending her tumbling from the bed to the floor.

"You’re so dead!" Aika huffed as she scrambled back up with surprising speed. Before he could react, she lunged at his back and locked her arm around his neck in a tight chokehold. Then, she wrapped her legs firmly around his waist and threw her weight backward, pulling him on top of her and locking them both together.

"Let go of me. Let go of me, you psycho!" Cedric gasped as he tapped at her forearms.

"Die! Just Die!"

***

...

..

.

Very early the next morning...

——

Marcus, the hollow one, walked down the long hallway to the room where Cedric was supposed to be. When he arrived, he knocked on the door three times.

He was expecting Cedric to open the door when he heard footsteps coming from the other side. However, when the door opened, he was flustered because instead of Cedric, the person who had opened the door was the most striking woman he had ever laid eyes on in his very long life.

She was wearing a black embroidered silk robe draped over her shoulders and was idly blowing out a thin trail of silver mist from a smoke pipe.

It took Marcus a surprisingly long moment to compose himself, before he finally cleared his throat, and said, "I believe you are Cedric’s... bond?"

Aika arched a brow because she was genuinely surprised at the fact that the hollow ones even knew what a bond was.

After a few seconds, she nodded, "I am."

Marcus’s eyes darted into the room. "Then, could you let Cedric know that we are waiting for him outside?"

Aika exhaled a trail of silver mist and shook her head. "He is not here. He left for the graveyard a while ago. We will stop to pick him and a few people up on our way."

"The graveyard? People?" Marcus repeated curiously as Aika left the room.

He then followed her down the hall, keeping a respectful distance beside her.

When they eventually got out of the fortress, Aika could see eleven horses lined up, and nine had the other hollow ones already seated atop them.

The hollow ones gave her the same look Marcus had given her earlier when they saw her approach with Marcus beside her.

She didn’t say anything and just approached the lead horse and mounted it with a smooth, practiced motion. So Marcus addressed the group instead, "We are going to stop by the graveyard to pick Cedric up."

He mounted his horse and with Aika leading, they all began riding towards the graveyard outside the city.

***

Meanwhile...

Cedric was seated with his elbows resting on his knees on a large rock by the graveyard. His eyes were half-lidded and he was very deep in his thoughts.

"Tsk, tsk. It’s a shame that many will still die... again."

He sighed as he eventually ran a hand through his hair.

Regardless of that, he wasn’t really seeing what he was about to do as a waste. This was his power, after all.

The power to bestow life and to grant a second chance to the fallen.

Plus, what’s the point of having lots of positive karma if he did not get people indebted to him with it.

After a few more moments of deep thought, he jumped down from the rock and walked to the middle of the clearing, where the earth was nothing but mounds of freshly turned soil.

Slowly, he stretched out his hands and hundreds of screens appeared in his vision with each above a grave, displaying the same message he always got before he activated Chrysalis.

He drew in a deep breath, and his voice dropped an octave as he spoke the command into the cold air, "With the exception of every Cadet from the Evrarel empire, I command every fallen cadet to rise."

Suddenly, a heavy, unnatural gale swept through the clearing and the sky above the graveyard grew dark as the light was swallowed by a thick, swirling dark mist.

...The pressure in the air was so suffocating that even the hollow ones who were yet to approach the graveyard instinctively slowed their horses and looked up at the gathering black clouds that had even begun to show streaks of lightning.

"What is happening?" One of them asked, his voice barely audible over the howling wind.

Aika didn’t respond and instead snapped the reins to move even faster toward the center of the disturbance. When the others saw her surging forward without hesitation, they too spurred their mounts into a gallop to keep up.

...Meanwhile, Cedric’s eyes had suddenly inked black and his skin turned a deathly shade of pale as the sheer weight of the souls he was pulling back into the world began to manifest through him.

Then, after a few more seconds, the first hand emerged from the earth, followed by a girl pulling herself out of a grave some meters away. Like that, one by one, more bodies began to breach the surface of the soil.

Every one of them wore an expression that was a mixture of confusion and terror. They turned to look at each other, and then at the dozens of others who were still pulling themselves out of the soil.

However, their fear intensified when they turned to see Cedric standing before them with his hands outstretched and his eyes completely devoid of color, bleeding into that unnatural, inky blackness. Even though they had no idea what was happening, they could immediately tell that Cedric was the source of it all. They saw him grit his teeth and groan, and almost immediately, a single bolt of lightning tore through the dark clouds above, followed by even more people pulling themselves out from the earth as the ritual reached its peak.

***

At the same time...

In a bright castle somewhere in the King’s Paradise, Seo-yeon was walking through her hallway. She was wearing a pair of baggy pants and an oversized hoodie with her hands tucked deep into the pocket.

She had a lollipop in her mouth and was humming Kim Min-jun’s favorite song to herself when she suddenly halted. She turned and adjusted her large round glasses to look at the sky through the wide window beside her.

The sky seemed normal, of course, with its usual expanse of drifting white clouds, but then, a knowing grin began to spread on her lips.

After a few seconds, she turned away from the window and as began continuing down the hallway, she muttered under her breath.

"That’s a lot of souls for this stage, Min-jun. But it’s not bad. The more people know, love, and are indebted to you, the stronger you’ll become." She broke the lollipop and as she began to chew on it, she added.

"That’s the law of power after all."