章 3: 03. Game of Death Pick
Avante continued to explain. "Those of you with a score of 51-69, you are what we call the Fencers. You are neither condemned nor deemed holy enough to enter the Heavenly Domain.
"Thus, you get a chance to try your luck at reincarnation. You can live your second life for a chance of beefing up your Karma Score or even marring it. You see, that choice is yours entirely.
"But the next time we meet, if we meet, you will not be a Fencer anymore. You will either be headed for the Heavenly Domain or the Abyss."
Snap~!!
With a snap of her finger, a golden-brown transparent screen appeared and hovered above us for everyone to see.
This screen displayed a list of names, boldly written in black and alphabetical order.
Glancing towards the right side of a person's name, one could see that person's Karma Score.
The same held true for all of us present.
I darted my eyes about, quickly running through the hundreds of names that were listed in front of me.
I frantically searched for my name until I saw it and then traced towards my right where my Karma Score was written.
'Fifty-seven.'
Sigh~
For some reason, I was relieved. Well, at least the score was above 50.
For the kind of life that I led, that was fair.
After everyone had identified their scores, something even stranger started to happen to some of us.
People started disappearing.
From the looks of what happened on the screen, those who disappeared were those with scores of 50 and below as well as those with at least 70 Karma Score.
The Death God Assistant sorted out the damned and the righteous first before focusing on people like me, who sat on the fence.
By the end of it, there were about seven persons left, including myself.
Just seven people had a score between 51 and 69, out of what was nearly hundreds of people that were here just a few minutes ago.
"Tch, six more points I would have gone to the Heavenly Domain" someone bitterly complained from my side.
'Aren't you an unlucky one?' I thought as I glanced in the direction of the voice.
"Phew, I was three points away from going to the Abyss," another uttered with relief and mild excitement at the chance of a second life.
Each of them had different reactions to their scores.
The God Assistant, Avante, who sat in front of us and on a throne that was evidently not made for someone her size, narrowed her eyes at the seven of us left.
'Just seven?' she thought, her facial expression reflecting her unhappiness with the number of leftovers.
'It's been a few centuries since we had just a single-digit count in the Fencers category. Well, that makes it easy.'
Snap~!!
In a jiffy, a moderately sized glass pot appeared out of thin air and floated at the centre of the hall, just a few metres in front of us.
I was shocked by this and certainly, the other six were, I was sure of it.
Nothing that happened inside this so-called Mortalis Realm was ordinary and as much as I had that at the back of my mind, I couldn't still help but be amazed every time something unusual happened here.
"Since the number of you, Fencers, is a single digit, we'll make this quick. I have a movie to catch with Nathos-sama."
'Do ghosts watch movies?'
Ouch!
I felt a sudden twisting sensation in my gut after saying that, almost like my intestines were being wrung out.
Glancing at the God Assistant and seeing the mischievous smile on her face, I knew right away that it was her doing.
She pointed at the floating glass pot and said, "Every one of you will come forward and pick a Spawn Card from the pot. There are three types of Spawn Cards in there: Black, White and Gold. The Spawn Card that you select will determine your fate in your next life."
And so, one after the other, we stepped forward, dipped our hands into the pot and took out a Spawn Card.
The Spawn Cards were sealed inside envelopes, every one of them designed with three colours—black, white and gold—which we had to open and get the actual Spawn Card from inside of them.
I looked at mine, examining the Golden Spawn Card in my hand without any idea what it was and what it could do for me.
'Two Golden Spawn Cards?' Avante thought with disbelief, seeing as two of the Fencers had picked two Golden Spawn Cards already.
She did well enough to hide the surprise on her face when she saw two Gold Spawn Cards.
Realising that this was just the God of Death being mischievous, she sighed. 'You can't just do that, Nathos-sama.'
Soon the card vanished from my hands and like a habit or something inherent in me, I knew exactly what the card was for and how it worked.
It seemed that it had been automatically absorbed by my body; like I had learned everything about the Gold Spawn Card.
I looked at my hands and the card was, indeed, gone.
After processing the information that came from the Gold Spawn Card, I smiled.
I expressed a smile so wide that I felt my mouth ache.
I felt an overflowing gratitude towards this Nathos guy whom the blue-eyed girl was always mentioning and the teenager as well.
"I believe you all know what you picked now and how it would work," she said.
"The Black Spawn Card is a Negation Card. Tsk! This means that you will not reincarnate or regress, instead you will slave away for the Gods and Goddesses and improve your Karma Score here. Basically, you will be working your ass off, divinely of course, to have a shot at being in good standing with us.
"Unless… unless one of those deities favour you and override this rule, allowing you to reincarnate. Good luck with that."
After she said this, I heard loud hissing come from around me.
It was obvious what this meant.
One or two, or even three people among us had picked the Black Spawn Card.
"The White Spawn Card is a Reincarnation Card and my personal favourite. It means that you would reincarnate into another world of your choosing and finally…
"The Gold Spawn Card is a Regression Card. That means that it randomly takes you back to a time in your old life that happened at least five years before the time of your death in that world.
"You all know what you picked from what I have just explained."
My heart was instantly filled with joy, happiness and a renewal of the flames of vengeance as well.
I had gotten another opportunity to live.
I had hit a jackpot!
The blue-eyed girl had just said that I could go back to any point in my past life.
I didn't like this idea entirely because I wasn't the one with the absolute choice of the point in time where I regress to.
The influence I had over the random nature of my regression was limited.
Nonetheless, I was relieved because I had a second chance to make things right again.
'Like I promised you, Terrence, I will win this time.'
I will win!
So I took several deep breaths and shut my eyes.
Inhale~ Exhale~ Inhale~ Exhale~
After absorbing the Golden Spawn Card, every piece of information about it came naturally to me.
I didn't need to learn anything.
I knew all I needed to do and so I focused my mind and picked out a scene from my past.
I could influence the period and age that I would go back to but not the exact time. For example, if I imagined a moment from my teenage years, I would go back to a point when I was a teenager. This may or may not be at the time of the exact moment that was in my head.
'You just wait for me, you bastard Hero. I am coming.'
-- 贈り物
が届きました 
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット