I was drowning!
After having died in my first life by being struck by lightning on my way home from work, I transmigrated.
With that I took on a body that wasn't mine, in a world I apparently didn't know, only for the ship I was on to be hit by a storm and start sinking.
'Great, to be luckier than that, all that's left is for the world I've appeared in to be a world of mythical creatures, with witches, warlocks, dragons, mermaids and monsters...' I thought in frustration, wondering how long I had until I died again.
My breath was running out and I knew it would only be a matter of time before the strong turbulence the storm was causing in the water took my body to the bottom of the sea and killed me.
But to my surprise, as I began to pass out from lack of oxygen, I saw a red-haired figure coming towards me and pulling me to the surface.
Opening my eyes and trying to understand what this figure was, I was unsuccessful.
The sea was so dark that I only saw shadows before passing out.
-
After an unknown time, I felt my consciousness returning.
Startled, I tried to open my eyes, but my mind was still slow and my vision was blurred, causing everything I saw to blur.
Again I could only see a red blur next to me, singing the most beautiful song I've ever heard in my life, before my consciousness disappeared and I blacked out again.
-
The third time I woke up in this world, I was finally in a comfortable place.
A bed as soft as the bed I would imagine for royalty, it was as if it was hugging me, begging me to sleep more.
But someone realized that I had woken up and didn't want to let me sleep any longer.
"My son, you've finally woken up!" A female voice shouted next to me as I hugged myself and began to cry.
Although it was a voice I was sure I had never heard in my life, a part of me recognized it as if I had heard it all my life.
Opening my eyes with curiosity, in front of me was a woman dressed like a queen, in an elegant blue dress, with slightly graying brown hair, hugging me happily.
Next to her was a serious man, with neatly trimmed hair and an upright posture, slightly graying black hair, but who, despite his seriousness, was looking at me with tenderness and concern.
As soon as I saw these two, it was as if memories had been unlocked in my mind telling me their identity, and more importantly, who I was in this world.
Eric Lunaris, the crown prince of the Miralune Kingdom, a small and sparsely populated coastal kingdom.
A kingdom that had lived through centuries of peace, but which had unfortunately begun to be attacked by monsters in recent years.
In an attempt to gain support from neighboring kingdoms, the former Eric embarked on a sea adventure while visiting friendly Kings of Lunaris, only to be rebuffed with lame excuses by incompetent Kings...
Unfortunately, on the way back to Lunaris, a storm broke out in the ocean, causing Eric's ship to sink and almost all the sailors to die.
It was on this sinking ship that I transmigrated, taking over Eric's body in a moment of danger where he may have died of despair, hopelessness, or some other reason.
With the memories I received from him, I also received the affection he felt for the two people in front of me, as well as his concern for the safety of the kingdom he would one day inherit and the subjects who lived here.
"Calm down, mom, I'm fine." I said with a reassuring smile.
The feeling of being cared for by a loving mother was new to me.
Being an orphan in my previous world and having had to fend for myself since I was a child, the feeling she was giving me was comforting.
"Are you really all right, Eric? One of the soldiers found your body dumped on the sands of the beach and who knows how long you were unconscious and how much water you ingested..." My father asked worriedly, not showing as much concern as my mother, but from the memories I got of Eric from this world, this was his way of showing how he felt.
Smiling reassuringly, I replied, "I'm really fine, Dad. I was lucky to be saved by someone."
Hearing this, my father and mother looked at me in surprise.
"Someone? Who?" My father asked.
Thinking about the red figure I saw, unfortunately I couldn't decipher what it was, so I just shook my head in denial. "I don't know... I just saw a red blur coming to help me and looking after me on the beach, but I couldn't identify what it was."
They sighed before my father spoke in disappointment. "What a shame... I would generously reward whoever saved my son's life... take this time to try and remember, Eric. Leave the problems of the kingdom for me and the ministers to deal with, just rest for now, come on Sophia."
Hearing what my father said, my mother nodded and gave me a light kiss on the forehead as she said goodbye and walked away.
When the two of them left the room, I was finally able to organize my thoughts.
Apparently I'm in a medieval world of swords and magic.
Monsters are attacking my kingdom and I'm going to have to find some way of dealing with these monsters without relying on the help of foreign kingdoms... damn.
My family has no record of magic, the kingdom has no powerful mages protecting us, we're just a bunch of ordinary people who rely on swords and bows to deal with monsters as powerful as Murlocs, Goblins and Kobolds...
"Geez, and these monsters have always been portrayed as so weak in games, why are they so strong here?" I asked myself in frustration.
But come to think of it, the inhabitants of fantasy worlds always suffered from these monsters, only the Players had no problem dealing with the low-level monsters...
'Why don't I have a Player system too?' I asked myself.
As soon as I asked this, my attention was instantly drawn to a transparent glass bottle with a multicolored liquid in an inconspicuous corner of the dresser next to my bed.
I'm sure something like that would have caught the attention of everyone who entered the room, but apparently it was completely ignored by all...
Just the fact that my mind had ignored it until now and only after I asked for some Cheat did it get my attention is already a huge response to what I asked for.
Even more so when I think I recognized what that liquid was... a Cyoa Meta Essence, or more specifically, the Essence of Gacha!
Knowing that this is my chance to stop being a normal person in a world much more dangerous than my previous one, after just a few seconds of hesitation I drank the liquid from the bottle to the last drop.
Just like a Gacha, the taste of this drink changes every second, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, hot, cold... and then, a screen appeared floating in front of me.
[Ding, the Meta Essence Gacha has been activated!]
[Meta Essence Gacha, is a system that allows you to obtain random cards from different fictional worlds.These cards can be people, powers, items or consumables.
You spend Gacha Points (GP) to roll cards.
Each random roll costs 3 GP, or 30 GP for a roll of 10 cards.With 10 rolls, there is always at least one card with 4 or more stars.
The user can also use the World Scroll, costing 6 GB per scroll, or 60 GP for a scroll of 10 cards.This scroll pack only comes with items from the user's current world.
The cards currently have rarities of 1 to 5 stars, which can be increased in the future.The more stars, the stronger or more useful the card.You can summon people or items, assimilate powers or even give other people abilities with imbuements.
The system is completely random and can give anything from a legendary power to a bizarre item.The more you use MEG, the more it evolves and improves its results over time].
Looking at the floating screen that appeared in front of me, I got excited.
'This... is exactly what I needed! ' I thought.
'MEG, how many points do I have? ' I asked mentally.
- Eric Lunaris -
Race: Human
GP: 0
- Character Assimilation -
Fully Assimilated: None
In Progress: [Empty] [Empty]
Summoned Characters: None
Powers: None
Equipped Items: None
-
Looking at the big number zero and all the empty System categories, I was worried.
'How can I get GP, MEG?' I asked a little uncertainly.
[Every day at 00:00 the user receives 1 GP, another 70 GP can be purchased every month at the cost of 1 Gold Coin for 1 GP].
Reading this message, I quickly tried to get out of bed and ran to a small safe where I kept my money and valuables.
Taking out all the coins I had, I counted a total of 73 Gold Coins, just a little more than I needed.
'The kingdom really is facing big problems... not even the crown prince has enough money to splurge. The sense of crisis only intensified in me after seeing this.
'System, I want to buy 70 GP. I thought determinedly.
As soon as I thought this, the coins in my hand began to disappear, and another floating message appeared in front of me.
[70 GP successfully purchased, do you want to roll cards?]
Weighed down by System's warning that rolling 10 cards at once would improve the result, I was left in no doubt as to whether I should use normal rolling or world rolling...
'System, which world am I in? ' It was a very important piece of information to consider whether or not to use the world roll.
If I was just in an ordinary medieval world, even if I used the world scroll, it would be very difficult to get anything really useful, but if this was a powerful world like Overlord's, using this Gacha would be very profitable, since that world has extremely powerful powers!
[The user is currently in a fusion of several worlds based on fairy tales that were very popular in the user's previous world].
As soon as I read this message, I froze.
Thinking that this is a fairytale world... my name is Eric... my ship was wrecked after a storm... and I was saved by someone apparently with red hair from under the sea...
'Didn't that make it clear that the one who saved me was the little mermaid, Ariel?!' I was shocked.