Will You Also Hunt Vampires for a Lifetime

The work that enlightened Cheng Tian about the concept of "Treasure Chest Monsters" was none other than Castlevania, or more accurately, Super Castlevania IV.

Super Castlevania IV can be seen as an enhanced version of Castlevania. The story progression remains exactly the same; only the graphics, performance, and mechanics have been strengthened and expanded, making the game more playable while also increasing its difficulty.

Arcade games, after all, are primarily about earning money by consuming coins.

Here, I must specifically criticize Hook, because after completely clearing it, it seamlessly loops back to the first stage. The difficulty itself isn't high, making it a prime example of a game where you could beat it with one coin and waste electricity. It's no wonder Cheng Tian barely saw it in domestic arcades when he was a child.

In the setting of Super Castlevania IV, the "Treasure Chest" mechanic itself exists. These chests can yield Arthur's exclusive weapons and armor of different types, but they also hide these Vampire Magicians who can cast "Polymorph (Duck)" on players.

Treasure chests drop loot, while Treasure Chest Monsters eat people.

Once turned into a duck, one temporarily loses all means of attack, retaining only the ability to perform a normal jump. The spell's effect can be compared to the "Polymorph" in Dungeons & Dragons or Warcraft, though the latter two tend to turn creatures into harmless sheep.

Furthermore, since Phone Bro has no relevant resistances and possesses almost no magic power to counter spells, the duration of this Polymorph is likely to be longer than expected.

Although the opening scene of the current dungeon is from the NES version, this does not prevent Cheng Tian from remaining vigilant due to the arcade version.

And as it turns out, his vigilance was justified, as someone decided to test the waters.

"Hehehehe~~~"

The Vampire Magician let out a series of piercing cackles, reminiscent of an Elder from the Hall of Souls, as it admired its Polymorph masterpiece.

Phone Bro, having been turned into a duck, had no idea what was happening. However, this Polymorph spell has its own unique characteristic: it simultaneously bestows the traits of the transformed creature, and the transformed person will also instinctively lean towards that creature's behavior.

Several zombies on the outer edge twisted their bodies, attempting to eat the uncooked live duck, but the terrified and panicked Phone Duck was already flapping its wings and darting around.

Not bad, it was quite agile, even managing short bursts of flight.

Combined with the observed behavior of zombies, who only moved in straight lines, as Cheng Tian and the others had witnessed earlier while hiding near them, the zombies couldn't catch him for a while... provided the Red-Eyed Crows didn't get involved.

As corvids, which are not undead, Red-Eyed Crows possess very high intelligence among birds. Unlike the zombies charging headlong, after several of their brethren had their heads precisely blown off by the whip-like effect, they kept their distance from Cheng Tian and instead began pecking at the scattered human remains being gnawed by the zombies.

High intelligence often means acting for reasons beyond mere survival. After satisfying their basic desires, corvids also seek entertainment for themselves, and a plump, live duck is clearly excellent entertainment.

Suddenly, the Vampire Magician, who was still admiring its Polymorph, shivered. It sensed an extremely eerie gaze.

Almost without thinking, the Magician wrapped its body in its red cloak and, just as it had appeared abruptly when it was a Treasure Chest Monster, vanished into thin air.

On the other side, Cheng Tian, on the small mountain, withdrew his gaze that had been fixed on the Magician's back.

Cheng Tian felt not even a ripple of emotion towards Phone Bro's actions, whether it was snatching treasure chests or courting death. He might even have applauded the kid for clearing the way for him. However, upon seeing the Magician casting Polymorph, his hunting instincts flared up, and even the whip handle he held grew warm.

The Vampire Hunter template Cheng Tian had loaded had a very broad hunting scope. All dark and evil creatures were on its hunting list, but as the template's name suggested, killing other monsters was secondary; killing vampires was the true main profession.

Just like the Ranger class in Dungeons & Dragons, the Belmont Family chose "vampires" as their Nemesis, becoming entangled with them for generations.

Onegai~ Please team up with me to kill vampires for a lifetime.jpg

With a flick of his whip, Cheng Tian gritted his teeth and pursed his lips, letting out a sharp, squeaking sound like a mouse. At this moment, One-Ear, who was both worried and annoyed about his roommate, heard and saw it, and quickly understood.

This was some kind of reminder that couldn't be spoken aloud.

Although he didn't know why Cheng Tian was doing this, One-Ear chose to trust him, diverting some of his attention from fighting zombies to remain vigilant.

And just as their fields of vision overlapped, exposing the blind spot at the back of their heads, the flamboyant blue-clad vampire appeared.

With a perverted, cloak-spreading motion, it unleashed a second "Polymorph" projectile constructed from a hexagram. Its target, naturally, would be only one: Cheng Tian, his Nemesis.

The concept of Nemesis is mutual. The Belmont Family became the eternal Nemesis of Dracula and his derivative vampire monster horde, and this also caused them to be cursed by Dracula for generations – that was the price.

Although One-Ear was brave, he wasn't even in the Vampire Magician's line of sight... and the Nemesis instinct made Cheng Tian acutely aware of this.

It's worth mentioning that when the mage unleashed this spell, Phone Bro, who was still struggling in the graveyard to evade pursuit, suddenly transformed back with a poof!

It wasn't that time had run out, but that the effect had been interrupted.

This clearly meant that its Polymorph spell most likely had a "can only affect a single target at a time" attribute.

But just as the wind from the spell projectile was about to hit the back of Cheng Tian's head, a zombie's fist struck Cheng Tian's crossed arms in front of his chest--

He had deliberately not dodged or defended against the zombie's attack!?

At this moment, a miraculous thing happened.

The Polymorph projectile, which should have hit the back of Cheng Tian's head and turned him into a plump white duck, instead passed directly through his body and blasted into the zombie with a look of stunned confusion!

The familiar effect transformed into a zombie duck, appearing as if it had been air-dried for an unknown length of time, with pale gray wings and a shriveled body.

Not only did Cheng Tian evade the Polymorph with some inexplicable ability, but he also used his rapid three-meter backward leap, and upon landing, instantly turned and charged towards the Vampire Magician!

The reason for this peculiar scene was entirely due to Cheng Tian utilizing a passive skill that came with his loaded template.

[Damage Dodge: Template Skill, Passive Skill. A game mechanic from the NES version of Castlevania that infuriates countless players, but in the eyes of experts, it has the potential to be a helpful tool.

When you receive an effective hit from an enemy, you will enter a state of full-body stiffness and be forcibly propelled backward a short distance. Simultaneously, you will gain a "Phase Shift" status effect for 3 seconds. The stiffness state is only released upon landing.

During Phase Shift, you will have no collision volume with enemies or teammates, and you will not take conventional damage, but your effective attacks can still hit enemies.

If you remain overlapping with teammates or enemies at the end of the Phase Shift, you will take a large amount of damage after the effect ends, and Damage Dodge will be triggered again.]