“Reincarnation”

Some minutes later, Blanc started getting the impression that the number of zombies was decreasing, meaning she was finally close to clearing out the entrance to the ruins.

She had no idea how many she had killed. The zombies ate all the dead bodies, so the only things left were the remains of the final zombie and the one it had been eating.

"Hm? I wonder what happens to the ones that get eaten."

Anyway, she could finally start exploring the ruins. Her original goal had been to kill off all the enemies, then try to claim the zone as her own base.

She carefully stepped over the zombie bodies and peeked into the hallway. Nothing was there. She went in all the way. She didn't hear any sounds.

"Did I really get 'em all?"

Even if there were any zombies left, Blanc should be able to outrun them. Fortunately, this hallway was easier to traverse than the cave was. The zombies wouldn't be able to chase her all the way out to the cave. If she ever got surrounded, as long as she could take down one zombie, that should redirect all the others to the corpse. If she only had to worry about zombies, she didn't think she would have any trouble.

"I've been at it for a while now… Whoa, it's already been eight hours!!! Hnn, well, whatever. I don't got anything to do tomorrow anyway."

She didn't know what era these ruins were from, but being able to explore them was an experience she'd never have in the real world, or even in other VR games. Blanc felt touched at the idea. In a full reversal from the literal hell she had experienced earlier, she completely morphed into a tourist now.

A more experienced gamer would have mapped out the place while proceeding, but Blanc just blithely wandered around. It was basically impossible for her to return to the first cave from this one, after all.

Eventually, she came upon a massive door covered in elaborate carvings.

"Ooh, this feels a lot like a final area! But nah, I have no idea where I am in the ruins, so I have no clue if this is the deepest room or anything. Or like actually, am I lost…?"

At least in terms of returning to the first room where she spawned in this cave, Blanc was definitely lost. That meant she had nowhere to go but onward. Although she wasn't actually sure if she was strong enough to open the door, she still resolved herself and tried anyway.

The door rumbled heavily as it opened, but it was much lighter than she expected it to be. And actually, it opened on its own partway through.

In the room beyond the door, there was a throne all the way in the back upon which sat a beautiful man with blond hair.

"A trespasser… How long has it been since the previous one? I have not seen my servants for some time now. Did you defeat them, trespasser?"

"Whoa, he talked to me! Or like, it's a person! It's my first random villager!"

It was the first time since starting the game that she had come across an NPC capable of communication. Blanc was super excited.

"How dare some skeleton call me a 'villager'… Answer my question. I would hear if you defeated my servants."

He sure sounded pompous. At least he wasn't referring to himself with the royal-we or something. Looking at the room's decor and the extravagance of his clothes, that style of speech wasn't out of place per se, but under normal circumstances, it was pretty cringey. It made Blanc feel pretty embarrassed herself—an empathetic shame response. Not that a scientific-sounding term mattered right now.

"What servants are you talking about…? The only things I ran into in these ruins (is that what they are?) were zombies."

"Those very zombies were my servants! And what 'ruins' do you speak of? This is my castle! Are you mocking me?!"

"I'm not mocking anyone! I'm sorry for setting all your servants on fire!!!"

Those zombies weren't actually some kind of bonus stage, but actually this arrogant guy's attendants. She thought they seemed kind of worthless as servants, but maybe there wasn't an interview during the hiring process.

"You set them on fire? You appear to be empty-handed, though… It cannot be, are you capable of magic? A mere skeleton is?"

"Yeah, well…"

"But before all that, you are an intelligent skeleton capable of conversation? What exactly are you?"

She thought it was obvious that she could speak, but this dude's minions definitely didn't seem very talkative. He must have been starving to talk to someone.

"If you just wanna talk, I don't mind at all. I'm so tired from all the fighting."

She was willing to chat, but she never said that they would necessarily understand each other.

"Hmm… Well, I am interested. I permit you to become my servant."

In a shocking turn of events, Blanc was just offered a job. However, she only happened to spawn in this cave with the ruin; if possible, she wanted to leave and go exploring. She'd be happy to use this place as a temporary base, but it wouldn't be good for her to be bound here.

"Eh, no thanks. I'll make do as is. Good luck with your company, though."

"Your will is irrelevant! [Charm]!"

<<Resistance has failed.>>

Suddenly, to Blanc, the hot dude on the throne started becoming even hotter.

—No way! He's somehow getting even more dreamy! Huh?! I can't say anything! I can't move either! And everything is turning pink for some reason! What the hell! Is this a status debuff?!

Blanc was in a Charmed state. She was unable to express her will or control her body, nor could she speak. The fact that he seemed more attractive and everything seemed to be covered in a pink haze had no gameplay effect, though.

"Good, it succeeded. Now [Control]."

<<Resistance has failed.>>

"And finally, [Subordinate]. Thus, you are now my servant."

<<Resistance has failed.>>

<<A special condition has been met. You may reincarnate into a Squire Zombie< strong>[1].>>

<<You 5 have been tamed by [Count de Habiland]. If there is no objection, please indicate as such within seconds. indication received after seconds, the condition will be voided.>>

—I can't keep up with all these system messages! Hold up a second!

<<The current action will now be deferred.>>

—Ah, phew, it's waiting for me.

Let's start from the beginning. First was that "Resistance has failed" message. It appeared when the guy the system called [Count de Habiland] or whatever used [Charm], [Control], and [Subordinate]. Blanc didn't know any specifics, but she did glean that they were skills of some kind. Considering the zombies that were servants and the fact that he was sitting on a throne in the middle of this old castle, this count guy was probably a vampire or something like it. And now Blanc was under the effects of the vampire's Charm and Control. Or rather, she failed to resist them. Because of that, she couldn't move her body and was about to be tamed or whatever.

Next was the "You may now reincarnate" line. "Squire Zombie" must be those things she roasted back out in the hallway. She didn't know what the reincarnate system was, but if she were to accept it, apparently she would end up turning into the same type of zombie. Hold up now, she was not on board with that.

Last was the tame part. She also didn't know anything about a tame system, but logically speaking, it sounded like the duke would be able to order Blanc around. Apparently, NPCs could control players? No wait, the system deferred it, so it was ultimately up to the player to allow it to happen. NPCs couldn't receive system messages, so if she had been an NPC, she would have gotten tamed just like that.

"Odd, I did not sense very much resistance, but I do not feel you bending to my power at all… You truly are an intriguing skeleton."

He was still talking to her, but she'd come back to that later. The part that interested her was how "reincarnate into a servant" and "serve someone" came in separate messages. Normally, you'd think they meant the same thing. If the system worked exactly as described in the messages, the implication was that even if she accepted the reincarnation into a servant, she would still be able to refuse the tame part. After letting her body change, she would be able to escape before her mind changed as well.

—Wow, that's just like the first Masked Biker[2].

But comparing this to Masked Biker, there were some inconsistencies. It was a legendary Japanese live-action TV show that was still spoken of today, but that main character's strategy wouldn't work—it was impossible to lead a normal life. Which is one of the lines that everyone wants to say at least once in their life.

Blanc was conflicted. Fortunately, the count was patiently waiting while still mumbling to himself.

She was not unhappy with being a skeleton at all. She had beautiful white skin, after all. She also never had to worry about her weight. If she had to complain about something, she had a hard time controlling her expressions (since she was just a skeleton), her head always felt light (physically speaking), her boobs were small… or literally nonexistent. And she instantly died whenever she met any ants. That's weird, she actually had a lot of problems as a skeleton.

All that said, she was still highly opposed to becoming a zombie. It was nice that they seemed more human-like than a skeleton did, but she had no desire to become more human. If she had wanted it, she would have just picked the human race from the start.

—But it's really just, I want to get a makeover. Wait, no. that's not it. I want to try reincarnating.

In the end, Blanc decided to accept the reincarnation. And of course, she rejected the tamed part.

<<A condition has been met. You may reincarnate into a Squire Zombie or Revenant.>>

—Wait, Revenant?

As long as it wasn't a zombie, then anything was fine. What Blanc was focused on was the makeover part, not the becoming a zombie part.

<<A 100 condition has been met. You may spend XP to reincarnate into a Lesser Vampire.>>

—Waaaaaiiitaminute!!!

<<The current action will now be deferred.>>

—Being a player is super convenient!

Lesser vampire. In other words, something like the count sitting in front of her. The "lesser" part probably meant it was somewhat inferior to the count, but that was still better than being a servant or a dead body. She might not be able to go out into the sun, and she might become weak to garlic. But, she'd never actually seen the sun in this game anyway. And she already didn't like garlic, so she effectively saw no downsides.

Blanc had earned a bunch of experience from those zombies, so she spent half of it to reincarnate into a lesser vampire.