Chapter 3 : Charlotte – IV

Oh…

I stood there dazed, appreciating the memories rushing toward me.

The Blood Carnival, the five-year gap when I was absent, the treaty with the werewolves, the treatment of ordinary humans, and so on. Countless fragments of memories swirl around and begin to seep into my mind.

The world suddenly and inexplicably changed.

Sixteen hours out of the 24 in a day became time when the sun didn’t rise, and cracks began to appear all over the world.

It didn’t take long for people to realize that the world had transformed into something like the game Blood Carnival.

The players of that game, the users, had crossed over into reality.

The past five years had been an era of turmoil.

The first year was especially chaotic.

The users fought to change the transformed world.

Werewolves, vampires, and humans alike gathered together to fight and began pushing back against the fusion beings.

But could those who had been sitting at home playing games really fight well?

Ordinary fusion beings could be hunted easily, but once special entities started appearing, the situation changed. On top of that, the users’ special circumstances made things worse.

According to the settings of Blood Carnival, vampires and werewolves must regularly consume human blood and flesh. If they don’t, their stats begin to drop, and in severe cases, they die.

The world had changed like the game, but it wasn’t a game.

Death was final.

The fear of death was enough to change the users’ mindset.

As the users who had fought against the fusion beings vanished, ordinary humans quickly began to crumble.

The government was dismantled, and the survivors scattered in all directions.

The old rules collapsed. In this world, strength became the law.

Humans had no choice but to band together, and they began to reject the users who were different from them, like vampires and werewolves. It was only natural, given that the werewolves and vampires had been hunting and eating humans.

Just as humans formed factions, the vampires and werewolves also created their own groups.

To hunt their prey, humans, the vampires naturally banded together, forming clans in the same way.

As the two factions grew larger, their influence naturally spread, which led to frequent clashes between them. The escalation of conflict between the two factions was inevitable.

A tremendous number of vampires and werewolves were killed, and as a result, the size of the two factions began to shrink.

It was during this time that the treaty between the werewolves and the vampires was formed.

To prevent further damage, the two factions stopped fighting, scattering their forces across certain areas, while they began to manage ordinary humans, farming them in moderation.

This brings us to year three.

During these three years, most of the level 20 users had perished.

At the same time, I also realized why so many memories were rushing into my mind all at once.

The feeding between vampires of the same kind.

The sharing of blood as a result.

Vampire blood contains memories.

The female vampire who had approached me and attempted to feed, [Ravina], had only bared her fangs to use this ability. She didn’t have any real intention to harm me.

As soon as I thought of the nickname [Ravina], information about her flowed into my mind in a chain reaction.

Ravina…..Level 15….

She had been managing a clan of 5 members.

Among the vampires in this area, she was considered to be of a relatively high level.

I had a rough understanding of the situation now.

The fact that my shadow had devoured Ravina was an unexpected accident, but it was already water under the bridge.

I sat in my chair, resting my chin on my hand with a serious expression.

The reason I was wearing a serious expression was none other than Ravina.

More specifically, it was the image of what she looked like before she became Ravina.

36 years old….Jeong Woo-hyun…

An ordinary office worker, a middle-aged man who had started to develop a belly.

That’s right. Ravina had once been a man.

Having absorbed the memories through feeding, I now knew everything about Jeong Woo-hyun and Ravina.

I knew how he behaved, what thoughts he harbored, everything.

The fact that Jeong Woo-hyun became Ravina was undeniable.

But I couldn’t think of the person before the transformation, Jeong Woo-hyun, and the current Ravina as the same person.

His values had naturally changed.

It was as though the old Jeong Woo-hyun had disappeared and a new personality, Ravina, had been born.

Jeong Woo-hyun and Ravina had changed without even realizing it, as if they were two different people now.

A chill ran down my spine.

I looked down at my small palm.

The pale, soft palm glowed faintly and moved as if following my will, squirming.

Could I be any different?

Maybe, even at this very moment, the change has already begun.

No, it’s certain. I have changed. I am changing.

Whether it’s slow or fast, I, too, will transform just like Ravina did.

Just like the other users.

Knock…

Knock…

At that moment, the sound of a knock echoed.

My confused mind slowly settled, and my uneasy heart calmed.

At the same time, fragments of memories surfaced.

The nickname [Mage of Abaddon]…Level 10….

The information about the male vampire who had guided me here came to mind.

“Come in.”

The words flowed naturally, and the door opened, revealing Abaddon.

As soon as he entered the room, his eyes filled with surprise.

His gaze shook violently.

His eyes flickered between me and the bloodstains on the floor.

“You’re Abaddon, right?”

I asked, just to make sure.

Abaddon nodded faintly.

“Is… is it really you, Ravina?”

I frowned and nodded.

It was an accident born from a misunderstanding, but the fact that I made a mistake didn’t change.

However, Abaddon couldn’t argue with me.

In this world, strength is law.

“I ate him.”

It was an odd choice of words, but it wasn’t exactly wrong. Ravina, whom I had devoured, disappeared, leaving only memories behind.

Since opening my eyes, I had committed two murders.

But I didn’t really feel anything about it.

It was in self-defense, after all.

It was just an accident.

That’s why I could remain calm.

I wiped my dry face and smiled faintly.

The clan Ravina had run naturally passed into my hands.

The vampires under Ravina didn’t seem to have any complaints, even though their leader had changed.

No, even if they had complaints, they probably couldn’t show them.

The fact that Ravina was devoured without resistance meant that I was much stronger than Ravina.

I had no desire to lead the clan, but since I wasn’t planning on leaving this place right away, I accepted the position of clan leader without much thought.

Two days passed since I arrived here.

During that time, I focused on assessing the power I now possessed.

In the game Blood Carnival, there were three main ways to build up a vampire’s strength.

One build focused on increasing control over blood to maximize feeding and health regeneration, making it a melee DPS build. Another focused on enhancing control over shadows, maximizing defensive abilities, creating a tank build. The third build maximized psychic abilities like telekinesis and pyrokinesis, making it a ranged DPS build.

If you dig deeper, there are subcategories within each build, but at a high level, they could be classified into these three types.

The Charlotte I had raised belonged to the tank build, focusing on shadow control.

I moved the shadows and frowned.

I could move the shadows at my will.

But that only meant I could move them, not that I could use powerful skills like I could in the game.

As I focused my consciousness, shadows surged from my feet, spreading outward like waves around me.

From the wide spread of black shadows, sharp spikes shot up, upending everything around me.

The range of the black spikes extended about 5 meters.

If this were a game, the spikes would have shot up to over 10 meters.

This meant that my control over the shadows wasn’t perfect.

If I, at level 20, was like this, other vampires wouldn’t be any different.

I recalled Ravina’s memories and imagined the other vampires fighting.

Low-level vampires didn’t use abilities; they fought in close combat, relying on their physical strength.

The only ones who could use skills that could be called “skills” were the users above level 10.

The werewolves were in a similar situation.

Only a handful of them could use enhancement skills based on moonlight, and most of them could only partially transform into wolf-human hybrids.

“Excuse me…”

A strange voice echoed.

Curious, I turned my head, and I saw a small girl peeking out at me.

Her fine blonde hair scattered softly in the breeze.

Her white, sparkling skin and the vampire’s distinctive red eyes exuded a strange allure.

Her outfit was another matter. She wore a gothic lolita-style dress, a blend of black and white, but it didn’t seem out of place at all.

Here, she was known as Aurel, a level 12 vampire.

Aurel stood at about 150 cm tall.

It bothered me slightly that she was a bit taller than me.

“Charlotte-sama…”

“What is it?”

“Well… the regular exchange with the werewolves is today…”

I frowned at Aurel’s words.

The regular exchange with the werewolves.

Since I had absorbed Ravina’s memories, I knew exactly what it meant.

The weekly exchange was a meeting where the remaining humans were counted, and decisions were made on how to divide them up.

I shook my head and responded.

“I’m not going.”

I wasn’t going. I had been reluctantly made the clan leader, but I was planning to leave in a few days anyway.

And more than that, I had no intention of accepting the vampire lifestyle.

“Y-You’re the clan leader, though…”

Aurel replied with a pout, clearly disappointed.

I frowned as I watched her.

She was also a user of Blood Carnival.

That meant she was once an ordinary person.

Because of that, I felt a significant sense of rejection from Aurel’s behavior.

“Then you be the leader.”

“H-How could I…?”

I ended the conversation with that and turned my body, beginning to move the shadows.

The next day, Aurel came again.

“Excuse me… Charlotte-sama…”

But this time, she wasn’t alone; she was with a werewolf.

The distinct, unpleasant smell of beastly musk hit my nose.

I frowned and stood up from my seat.

“It seems the rumor about the leader changing is true.”

Rough, gray hair that had grown wild.

Scars drawn under her eyes.

A body that was quite large for a woman.

A very wild-looking beauty was standing in front of the door, blocking my way, staring at me.

Looking past her, I could see the other vampires peering at us with worried expressions.

I tilted my head slightly and looked up at the woman.

[Reina]

I didn’t know her exact level, but she was probably higher than Ravina.

Because of that, Ravina always felt tense when standing before this woman.

Reina was the leader of the werewolves who, along with Ravina, managed this area.

“If the leader has changed, I think we should renegotiate the existing agreements.”

I nodded at Reina’s words.

Since I planned on leaving this place anyway, I didn’t even consider arguing.

“Aurel.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Come here.”

Therefore, I called Aurel over and had her sit in the chair I had been occupying.

After all, when I left, Aurel would be the highest-level member in this clan.

I didn’t care about a clan formed to hunt humans.

I nodded at the two, who were looking at me with dazed expressions.

“You two talk.”