Chapter 13 - [S] Treasure Hunt

[This chapter is unedited. Please kindly point out the mistakes.]

[4027] - Too long and I'm too lazy to check.

•••••

[S] Treasure Hunt?

•••••

Shuka's eyes fluttered open. Her vision swam across the unfamiliar room, then to the unfamiliar man sitting by her side. With a book in his hand and a coffee in the other, the man turned his attention from his book to Shuka.

"Are you alright?" He asked, concern was written on his face.

Shuka frowned. She noticed how weak she was and the lack of clothing made her aware that there was a man in the room. Startled, her drowsiness disappeared as she hastily covered herself using the comfortable bed sheets.

"Where am I?" Her voice was laced with cautiousness and feebleness as she struggled to sit straight. After finally meeting the man eye to eye, she asked. "What have you done to me, Dio?"

Sipping his coffee slowly, Dio raised an eyebrow and said. "What did I do?"

Shuka blushed. She pointed her trembling finger at Dio's face and said. "Y-You... You perverted... vampire..." Remembering how he licked her blood from his fingers, she immediately knew what he was.

"A vampire?" Dio placed his coffee on a nearby table and closed his book. Wiping his lips for any coffee residue, he stood up from his seat and crouched on Shuka's lap. "So..." With his face almost brushing against hers, he asked. "Do I look like a vampire to you?"

Shuka's breath hitched.

Instinctively, she raised her hands to push his face away and she turned her head. "G-Get off..." Shuka could feel the heat coming to her cheeks as she stared at Dio's open-collared shirt. For some reason, she felt hotter and stuffed whenever Dio approached her.

"And why should I do that?"

"I-Ill... I will kill you if you don't..."

Dio's smile widened. "Are you sure you can kill me?"

Shuka remembered that vampires are immortal. So, with a determined gaze, she leaned to one of her drawers, not forgetting to hold the blanket close to her, grabbed a rosary, and pushed it at Dio's face. "Begone!" She shouted.

With a rosary on his forehead, Dio blinked.

"Yes, yes, I'll begone," Dio sighed. He got up and fixed his collar before heading for the door. Pulling the knob, he shifted his body slightly. "I'll wait for you on the first floor. Hurry and get dressed."

"W-Wait!" Shuka called out. "Why... why would you wait for me?"

Dio tilted his head and said. "Didn't you want to make a family with me?" He smirked. "Let's go make it official." Looking at Shuka's confused but flustered face, he laughed and closed the door.

"That was weird."

After closing the door and walking through the corridor, Dio covered his face with his hands. As a former otaku, he knew how cringe he was. Just because he was a fake vampire, doesn't mean that he had to act like one.

Due to the effects of the serotonin in his brain, he didn't even think of his actions as 'cringe' but 'normal' instead. 'After all of this is over, I will search what excess chemicals in the brain could do to my health.' Promising himself to search for it again for the nth time, Dio walked confidently, fully knowing that he will probably forget about it tomorrow.

Since he now fully experienced what would happen if he kept pumping too much serotonin inside his brain, Dio decided to turn it off for the time being.

"Hah... It's so hard being Dio..."

Suddenly, his phone rang. Picking it up, he glanced at the message.

•••••

This is an announcement of a special event that only the special people chosen from all the participants of Darwin's Game can Join!

Click on the link for more details!

...

•••••

Dio's brows furrowed. After winning a match against Shuka last night, he learned about how to exchange points for real-life currency. Now that he has a solution for his monetary problems, he decided to invite his group chat friends to his world.

But, who knew that an event would start right at this moment? Feeling slightly suspicious, Dio pressed the link.

•••••

-<Special Event>-

~Treasure Hunt Game~

?

A great chance to earn lots of points!!

Time until the event starts: 23:59:54

•••••

"Treasure Hunt?"

Furrowing his brows, Dio tapped his chin. 'A treasure hunt... right. Should I invite my friends with me?'

After thinking about it for some time, Dio erased that thought from his head. 'Nah, I better clean up first before inviting them.' He doesn't want to bother them with his world's problems. If the GM really wants to start a bloodbath among players, then it was only between him and the players.

"Ah, maybe buying an ability would guarantee my win?"

Although stopping time is cool, Dio knew how weak his ability is. With just a distance of 5 meters and a limit of 1 second, he knew how easy it is to kill him. One example would be if they shot him in the head while he was unaware. If it was in the front, then he could probably avoid it by stopping time, but if it was behind him, then he would be good as dead.

Opening the group chat shop, he typed 'Spatial Awareness' and '360 View' in the search bar. After pressing the search button, he raised an eyebrow at the prices.

[Spatial Awareness: The ability to see *everything* in your vision. Cost: 15000]

[360 View: The ability to see in a 360 perspective. Cost: 1000]

"Why does Spatial Awareness cost more than that ass pull Ripple Breathing Technique?"

After scratching his head, he cleared his throat and said. "Open Mission Catalog." The light in his retina deformed and scattered, forming a new series of words. After scrolling past the most dangerous ones, he eventually arrived at the mission he's been eyeing for a while.

[Personal Missions]

[Depths of Immortality] SSS

[Depths of Immortality] (Part 1/?)

-A mysterious race of giant, man-eating humanoids, known as Titans, suddenly appeared and nearly exterminated humanity. In order to protect themselves from this threat, the few survivors built three concentric Walls, called Maria, Rose, and Sheena, and encased themselves in this limited territory, forgetting everything about the outside world and the history before the building of the Walls.

Objective:

(Drink Titan Blood 0/2,500,000 L)

(Gain a deeper understanding of Titan physiology)

(Unveil the secrets of the power of Titans)

(Take the Founding Titan)

Notice:

(Do not drink Titan Spinal Fluid)

Final Objective:

[Obtain Immortality 0/1]

[Would you like to start?]

The sun shined brightly with the cold wind brushing softly against his skin. Looking at the peaceful scenery ahead, Dio wondered what he should do. For him, immortality is a foreign thing. If it was time-related powers, then he would probably accept it without hesitation. With the power to travel to the future, he wouldn't have to wait for his favorite animes getting a second season, or his favorite mangas getting an anime adaptation.

'Immortality... Could I handle it?'

Looking at the ominously blinking red button 'Start', Dio felt as if some sort of force were compelling him to press it.

'Immortality.'

As if some sort of morbid curiosity sprouted inside his mind, Dio stretched his hand.

'Doesn't sound too bad...'

The world suddenly turned gray.

[Starting Mission: [Depths of Immortality] Part 1...]

[Beggining the alteration of the time axis of multiple worlds...]

[Insufficient Chaos Energy, failure to finish the mission will result in [Existence Deletion] of the host.]

"Huh?"

[Good Luck! Sussy Vampire!]

"-Wait!"

Multiple colors swam in his vision before ultimately converging around him. Like a glowing beacon in the monochromatic world, Dio's panicked voice echoed.

"I changed my mind...!!!"

In a flash, his figure disintegrated along with the light.

Leaving the dull-colored world without motion.

•••••

The morning had dawned hot and stuffy, with the searing heat overlooking them, the vendors shouted with vigor. Their voices drowned the clamoring whisperings of pedestrians.

"Fresh meat! Get your freshly beaten meat here!"

"1 for 20, 20 for 1! Bread and butter go well together!!"

"I sell magic sticks! If you stick them up'er bum, all diseases shall be cured!"

Despite the desperate advertising of these pitiful peddlers, the surrounding people's eyes were glued to a single person.

"Hey, hey, mama, who is that? Why does he look so strange?" A child pointed out.

"Hush! He might be a noble," the mother of the child chided. "Don't point fingers at him, it is considered rude!"

A noble.

The onlookers thought that a noble had gotten lost and ended up in their city.

"A noble... he looks more handsome than I thought?"

"Are all nobles this good-looking?"

"My, do you think he would be interested in me?"

"Shut yer trap ya whore!"

As they murmured among themselves, the noble's eyebrow twitched. Taking a deep breath through his nose, his golden pupils narrowed around. With his messy blonde hair fluttering about, a handsome face, and a fancy outfit, he really looked like a high-class noble.

Taking in the entire commotion around him, Dio calmly summarized the situation in his head.

'Old clothing, poorly built houses, roads made up of rocks, the smell of countryside and most of all... swords.'

His eyes narrowed at a man wielding a blade by his hip. With a short brown jacket covering his torso, the man had a crest of two thorned roses inside a pentagon on his shoulder.

'I got isekaid.'

With this conclusion in mind, he gazed at the scenery more clearly. He could see everything, from the high walls to the houses built upon hills, creating a distinct air of poverty. Everywhere he looked, he could see people wearing simple clothing with no complicated designs, their earnest, and curious expressions...

It all made sense to him.

'I see. I am their Hero. A Hero from another dimension here to save them from giants that live above the clouds. I'll be their Jack the giant- no, Dio The Giant Slayer.'

[...]

'This is my starting point. I have to find the magic seeds that would grow into the heavens, from there I shall start my crusade of justice, annihilating man-eating giants from the face of this world.'

[No, that's not...]

'Then the King will personally thank me by betrothing his daughter, the princess that will refuse at first but will fall for my gallant and heroic personality and ask for my hand in marriage, but I will refuse for I am not a person of this world. After that, on my last night, she will drug me and take my seed, forcing me to stay, but I will refuse again, for my strength is needed to save other worlds.'

[That is certainly not going to happen-]

'Then as my legends spread to countless worlds, my child, my sole daughter from this world will also travel worlds in search of me. After she finds me, she will try to kill me for leaving them behind, but will fail because she has daddy issues and she really just misses me.'

[Please get your mind out of the gutter. Your mission isn't to save the world but obtain immortality.]

Dio's smug smile faded. 'Huh?'

[I thought you said you weren't an otaku anymore? You are not Diomichi Diovich, but Dio, the administrator of the Dimensional Group Chat.]

Dio's mind halted. 'Wait, you can read my mind?'

[Yes.]

'Then why did I have to talk out loud before?'

[That's just you making a fool out of yourself.]

"..." Dio.

While Dio is staring into the air with a frosty expression, the audience felt that the noble was angry because they were looking at him as if he was some sort of animal. They immediately ran away, fearing that the noble might punish them if they stayed any longer.

"L-Let's go... sir noble might get angry at us..."

"Hey! Stop looking! Can't you see you guys are bothering him?"

Unconcerned about what was happening around him, he directed his gaze at the towering walls in front of him. Even though he had seen all sorts of things in his world, it was the first time he saw something so big that it could cover an entire city.

"Say... do you have any idea what this wall is for?"

[Who knows~?]

Hearing the sinister voice it replied, Dio smiled sinisterly too.

"Then..." Dio walked away, not bothering to glance at the surprised gasps he heard. "I guess I have to find out myself?"

•••••

After the charade earlier, Dio wandered around the town. While talking to the residents, he noticed how scared they were when he was speaking to them. As if that wasn't enough, some of them even knelt on the ground, asking for him to stop speaking so politely to them.

Since they clearly didn't want to involve themselves with him, he had decided to head for the nearby river he saw earlier. The river divided the city in the middle, going down beneath the ground through the walls, serving as a passageway. Wooden boats with passengers peek out of their windows, looking at him with curious gazes.

"..."

Sitting at the edge of the river, Dio had a piece of bread in his arms. It looked like a bagel in the shape of a baguette. Dio noted that it tasted like fries for some reason.

'Did they make a bread made out of potatoes?'

Even though it tasted weird, he continued munching it like a chipmunk, with his cheeks bulging to their fullest, some of the passersby couldn't help themselves but stare at him from time to time.

"Hey, mister."

As the sun slowly descends on the horizon, a boy with brown hair approached him. A little girl and a boy with blonde hair came with him.

"Hm?" Still eating his bageluette fries, Dio glanced at them. "What?" He asked warily, turning his food away from them.

"Are you a noble?" The boy asked, his green eyes looking up at him.

"Noble?" Dio scratched the back of his head. "No? Ah, do you think I'm a noble?" He was confused at first, but then when he compared his mannerism and clothing to them, he could tell that they thought of him as a noble due to his arrogant way of walking.

'Although... It's not really my fault, is it?' Strictly speaking, besides the giants he was supposed to kill, none of them could take him down. His arrogance wasn't unfounded, seeing the state of the city he was in, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a big village.

"Then, what are you? You have cool-looking clothes and a handsome face... are you royalty?!"

Dio's face turned weird. When he heard the other boy complimenting his looks, it felt uncomfortable somehow, and seeing as the boy looked like a girl, he felt even grossed out.

"I'm not that great," Dio said. "I'm an... adventurer."

He was planning on calling himself a hero, but then he remembered his mission. He wasn't here to save them, he was here to save himself. In order to survive in the future, in order for him to handle all the chaos his power will bring him, he would need something stronger than the ability to stop time.

'Immortality.'

That was his goal.

"Adventurer? What's that?"

The boy who first approached him asked.

"Adventurer... is a person who travels the world, seeking treasures not known to mankind. Discovering places that haven't been threaded, and helping people along the way."

Dio answered smoothly.

"Woah!" The two boys gasped in awe. Seeing how confident Dio answered their questions, he seemed like he wasn't lying in the slightest. But then, their faces suddenly turned to confusion, and eventually, it turned to doubt.

"How could you travel the world if you're inside the walls?"

"..."

"Yeah, you're not lying to us, are you?"

Faced with their suspicious gaze, Dio pulled out his secret trump card.

"Look at this."

Dio presented his smartphone. With a haughty smirk, he typed in his password and pressed the gallery app. Instantly, the screen was filled with various sceneries of different places.

"Wow! What is that?" The three of them excitedly circled around Dio, staring at his phone with stars in their eyes.

"It's called... DIOPhone."

"DIOPhone?"

"Yes, it lets me take a drawing of something extremely fast and put it inside it."

Although they couldn't understand his explanation, they understood that it was some sort of machine that draw landscapes.

"Eren! Eren! Look, he has ocean!" The blonde boy pointed at the blue sea spanning across the entire picture, while the sunset lit the background with its warm hue. "They are even colored! Amazing!"

Seeing their excited expression over something so trivial, Dio tilted his head.

"You guys haven't seen the sea before?"

"Eh?" The three turned their heads at Dio. "Have you... been outside before, mister?"

"I do." Answered. 'Technically, I do.'

The boy who had brown hair, or what the other boy called him, Eren, sprang up from his seat. His eyes widened as he grasped Dio's shoulders.

"C-Can you..." Eren's eyes stared at him. "Take me outside?"

He could hear the nervousness in his voice. As if the boy was afraid that other people would hear him, he whispered.

"No, take us with you! We'll do anything!"

Desperation was written on his face.

"Please!" The blonde-haired boy also pleaded while the girl who was quiet from the start bowed her head.

Dio's brows knitted. He felt that there was something he was missing.

'-A mysterious race of giant, man-eating humanoids, known as Titans, suddenly appeared and nearly exterminated humanity. In order to protect themselves from this threat, the few survivors built three concentric Walls, called Maria, Rose, and Sheena, and encased themselves in this limited territory, forgetting everything about the outside world and the history before the building of the Walls.'

Dio's face paled. He hastily stood from his seat before gazing at the giant walls towering over them. Fear gripped his heart, like an instinct engraved in his body, everything clicked in his mind.

'Don't tell me...' His knees quivered at the thought that surfaced in his head. 'I have to kill every Titan outside these walls...' The ground beneath his feet rumbled. 'And the whole world is infested with them...?'

Looking at the height of the wall, he suspected that the height of these man-eating giants was the same, if not bigger than that wall.

"Uh?!"

He wasn't the only one who felt the earthquake. The three kids behind him also felt it. Even the whole neighborhood felt it.

"W-What the?"

Lightning struck the wall.

"Oh."

At that moment, Dio knew...

"What is that?!"

A red hand burning with steam grasped the edge of the wall.

"Shit."

Something appeared behind the 50-meter wall.

It was a bald creature with no skin. It was no different from a human being. With a head resembling a human, rows of teeth that were shaped like a human's, and eyes that stared at them as if they were cattle.

Trapped inside an unescapable cage.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The world around Dio slowed down. Like a horror movie about the apocalypse, it was a scene where zombies starting sprouting like grass. Chasing after the unassuming humans going about their everyday lives.

"Ah."

The wall exploded like a grenade. With its sharp shrapnels flying around, pieces of debris flew above. With the dust covering their trajectory, the rocks soared through the sky like comets... before plummeting down like asteroids.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Kyaaaa!!"

Their cries reached his ears.

"HELP! PLEASE!"

Their pleading as their guts spilled on the ground.

"Look out!"

He heard them audibly.

Like a knife stabbing him in the back, Dio could only stare ahead with an empty gaze.

[You are not a hero.]

A piece of rubble hovered above his head. It spun in the air slowly. like a pendulum gravitating around him. Rising high above the air, before crashing down on its inevitable destination.

[You are the bringer of calamity.]

Dio's lips quivered.

[Chaos is what sustains me.]

The sound of air crying. The whistling of the wind, brushing against a hard surface. With his enhanced senses, he could hear it clearly.

[And my powers sustain you.]

"..." An inaudible whisper escaped his mouth.

[If you want to save them, then you must first save me.]

Gritting his teeth, he clenched his fist.

[For I am a being who feeds upon chaos. And you...]

"Motherfuckers...!"

[Are my champion that serves chaos.]

Dio cocked his fist. His feet dug the ground as his suit screeched in pain. With his body bent to the ground, he glared at the sky. Like a sword unsheathing from its scabbard, Dio's suit was torn to shreds as his body grew in proportions.

As the speeding comet was about to reach him, he opened his mouth. Like a painting removed of colors, the world before him slowly turned gray. In a world where life seemed non-existent, a single man stood. He looked up, and the world parted before him, as if attending a king, the world stood still.

[Adrenaline Induction 45%: Suicidal Fervor]

His golden pupils burned like the sun.

"THE WORLD!!!"

His roar echoed across the frozen world.

•••••

[Author's Notes]

I just realized that there are some plot holes concerning Dio's [Time Stop]. The duration is only 1 second, but he showed feats of doing things much longer. The only thing that Dio could do in the state of [Time Stop] is [2] punches maximum, any further actions will take longer than a second.

Dio is not the strongest, even though he has the ability to stop time. His stand could only reach 5 meters(Twice his arm length) so it could only hover around his body. There are much stronger characters in [Darwin's Game] that could counter his 1-second x 5-meter ability.

As long as someone is within 5-meter range of him, then Dio could kill anyone instantly.

There is no nerf. Dio's abilities are already broken as is. [Bodily Master] [Vampire Physiology] [Limitless Potential]

The stand [Hermit Purple] will not be integrated into Dio as Dio's body isn't a Joestar.

All his abilities are only [Copied] from a fictional character, since [Vampires] don't exist in his world, Dio's vampire powers are mere imitation.

Dio can be categorized as [Good-Neutral].

The strongest member in terms of strength would be [Ban].

The strongest member with potential is [Dio].

The strongest member in terms of ability would be [Katarina Claes].

The strongest member in terms of mentality would be [Tanya].

The strongest member in terms of versatility would be [Killua].

The strongest member in terms of intelligence would be [Shinobu].

-Why did I stop updating?

Honestly, I wouldn't really update if it weren't for some of the readers requesting.

Since I have said before that I would start my own Pat-reon, I stockpiled some chapters on all of my fics.

And those chapters were saved on Microsoft Word... on my phone(I write on my phone because it is much more efficient, only editing is slow af because I had to scroll up and down to check grammar mistakes.)

Some things happened and my phone broke, kek.

I couldn't even get it fixed because my country is on lockdown...

So yeah, I lost motivation and just played video games the whole week. After I was released from my addiction to watching anime and reading questionable shit, I realized that there are a lot of things I could do without relying on my phone.

Overall, it was a very productive week.

I'm not really sad or depressed that my hard work got isekaid, but I was really demotivated and soon I lost interest in writing.

I'm not saying this for pity or some shit, I just want to clarify some things because I know the feeling of an unfinished story (It sucks as fuck, and I want to strangle my favorite author for not finishing his work).

Ehem, anyway, I'll try to update more consistently. I don't really like writing on my laptop cause it hurts my back.

See you soon~.