Will You Spend Your Whole Life Killing Vampires Too?

Cheng's introduction to the concept of a "mimic" had been Demon Village—more precisely, Great Demon Village.

Great Demon Village could be seen as an enhanced version of Demon Village. Its plot and progression were completely unchanged; only its graphics, performance, mechanics, and other aspects had been improved, making the game more playable while also raising the difficulty.

Arcade platformers were all about eating coins and making money.

Captain Hook deserved a special callout here, because after you cleared it completely, it seamlessly looped back to the first stage. It was not even that difficult, practically encouraging players to clear it on one coin and mooch off the electricity. No wonder Cheng Tian had barely seen it in domestic arcades when he was a kid.

Great Demon Village itself had a "treasure chest" mechanic. These chests could yield various weapons and armor exclusive to Arthur, but they could also conceal Vampire Magicians capable of casting 'Polymorph (Duck)' on players.

Treasure chests dropped loot. Mimics ate people.

Those transformed into ducks temporarily lost all means of attack and retained only ordinary jumping ability. The spell was comparable to the 'Polymorph' spells in Dungeons & Dragons or Warcraft, except those games were more inclined to turn creatures into harmless sheep.

Moreover, Phone Guy had no relevant resistance whatsoever, and there was barely any magic within his body capable of countering spells. The polymorph would likely last even longer than expected.

Although the opening visuals of this dungeon came from the Famicom version, that did not stop Cheng Tian from remaining wary because of the arcade version.

As it turned out, his caution had been justified. Someone had tested it with his own body.

"Hehehe~~~"

The Vampire Magician let out a string of grating, Soul Hall Elder-like laughter as he admired the masterpiece created by his polymorph spell.

Phone Guy, now transformed into a duck, had absolutely no idea what was happening to him. Yet this polymorph had a special trait: it also bestowed the characteristics of the transformed creature, and the transformed person's bodily instincts would likewise lean toward that creature.

Several zombies farther out twisted their bodies, wanting to eat a live duck that had not been roasted, but the terrified and panicked Phone Duck was already flapping his wings and darting about wildly.

Not bad—he was quite nimble, even managing brief flight.

Combined with the fact that he had previously observed, while hiding near Cheng Tian and the others, that zombies only excelled at moving in straight lines, the zombies truly could not catch him for the time being... provided the Red-Eyed Ravens did not get involved.

As living corvids rather than undead creatures, Red-Eyed Ravens were exceptionally intelligent among birds. Unlike the zombies that charged ahead with their heads down, after several of their companions had their heads precisely blown apart by the whip's tip effect, they simply kept far away from Cheng Tian and turned instead to peck at the human flesh scraps that the zombies had chewed into flying limbs.

High intelligence often meant they did not act solely to survive. After satisfying their basic urges, corvid big shots would find their own amusement—and a plump live duck was clearly excellent entertainment.

Suddenly, the Vampire Magician who was still admiring his polymorph shuddered. He sensed an exceptionally chilling gaze.

Almost without thinking, the magician wrapped himself in his red cape and vanished into thin air, just as abruptly as he had appeared when posing as a mimic.

On the other side, Cheng Tian, standing atop the low hill, withdrew his gaze from the magician's back.

Cheng Tian did not feel the slightest emotional stir over Phone Guy's actions, whether stealing treasure chests or courting death. He might even have wanted to applaud the kid for testing the danger for him. But when he saw the magician who had cast the polymorph, his hunting instincts abruptly surged forth. Even the whip handle clenched in his hand faintly heated up.

The Vampire Hunter template loaded by Cheng Tian indeed covered a broad hunting range. All dark and evil creatures were on its hunting list. But just as the template's name suggested, killing other monsters was merely incidental. Killing vampires was the real profession.

Just like the ranger class in Dungeons & Dragons, the Belmont Family had chosen "vampires" as their sworn enemies, entangling themselves with them for generation after generation.

Onega~ Please team up with me to kill vampires for the rest of our lives.jpg

After lashing out with his whip, Cheng Tian gritted his teeth and pursed his lips, producing a sharp, strange sound like a mouse's squeak. One-Ear, who was simultaneously worried about and angry at his roommate, heard it, saw it, and quickly understood.

It was some kind of warning that could not be spoken aloud.

Though he did not know why Cheng Tian had done it, One-Ear chose to trust him. While chopping zombies, he diverted part of his attention to stay alert for something.

Then, just as their fields of vision overlapped and both exposed the blind spot behind their heads, the flamboyant blue-clad vampire appeared.

With a cape-spreading motion like a pervert flashing someone, he hurled out a second 'Polymorph' missile formed from a six-pointed star. Naturally, it had only one target: Cheng.

A sworn enemy was a two-way thing. The Belmont Family had become the eternal nemesis of Dracula and his spawned vampire monster hordes, and this also meant that generation after generation, they would suffer Dracula's curse. That was the price.

One-Ear might have been fierce, but he had not entered this Vampire Magician's field of vision in the slightest... and Cheng Tian understood that perfectly through the instincts of sworn enemies.

Worth mentioning was that when the mage hurled out that polymorph spell, Phone Guy, who was still flapping around in the graveyard in an attempt to evade pursuit, suddenly changed back with a pop!

It was not because the time had run out. The effect had been interrupted.

That clearly meant his polymorph likely possessed the property of "only affecting a single target at any given time."

But just as the gust from that spell missile was about to slap against the back of Cheng Tian's head, a zombie's fist landed first, smashing into the arms Cheng Tian had crossed before his chest in defense—

He had actually deliberately not dodged the zombie's attack!?

Then something miraculous happened.

The polymorph missile that should have struck the back of Cheng Tian's head and turned him into a plump white duck instead passed straight through his body and blasted directly into the zombie amid its vacant expression!

With familiar visual effects, it transformed into a Zombie Duck whose wings were gray-white and whose body was shriveled, as though it had been air-dried for who knew how long.

Not only had Cheng Tian evaded the polymorph through some inexplicable ability, he had also used the rapidly completed three-meter backward leap to turn and launch himself toward the Vampire Magician the instant he landed!

This strange scene had occurred entirely because Cheng Tian had used a passive skill that came with his loaded template.

Hit Evasion: Template skill, passive skill. A Famicom Castlevania game mechanic loathed by countless players, but in the eyes of experts, it had the potential to become an asset.

When you suffer a valid hit from an enemy, your entire body enters a rigid state and you are forcibly knocked backward a short distance. At the same time, you gain the "Phase Shift" status for 3 seconds. The rigid state can only be removed after landing.

During Phase Shift, you have no collision volume with enemies or teammates. You will not suffer normal damage, but your valid attacks can still hit enemies.

If you remain overlapped with a teammate or enemy when Phase Shift ends, you will suffer a large amount of damage once the effect expires, triggering Hit Evasion again.