[14]

Once Dante had finally achieved his goal of taking his parents out the hood, his mindset on certain things underwent a couple of unseen changes, which was mostly due to one of the rewards he had ended up receiving from an old quest. As a result, and this was on a totally random day, the boy decided to pay an unexpected visit to their new home.

He spent some time around them, and didn't really do much aside from enjoy their company and just casually conversate with the happy duo. It was heartwarming to see, especially from his perspective. Eventually, however, Dante said goodbye to them like any other time he had paid them a visit, except maybe their hugs lasted a bit longer or something between the two, and then he hopped into his car and drove off.

The boy never returned home, though.

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Standing at the end of the Del Perro Pier, Dante looked out towards the view of the ocean, or at least that's what it definitely seemed like to everybody that might've glanced in his direction.

Quest Completed!

[A Hoodlum's Tale]

Objective: While most individuals that are born in a certain area gradually become acclimated to their surroundings and grow up to be products of their environment, especially in the hood, that doesn't mean they're incapable of possessing dreams and aspirations. Wouldn't it be nice to take your loving parents out of the ghetto?

Reward(s):

[Railgun] - [Profession] - [Blimp] - [World Travel]

Ignoring every other reward, Dante focused on a specific one before switching his attention over to a newly-unlocked function within the system.

He steeled his nerves once more, even after the boy had woken up in the morning and nervously contemplated whether or not he was actually going to go through with something that genuinely sounded as ridiculous as this was in his head.

World Travel - Activated!

[Choose A Universe]

The next thing that shows up is a seemingly-infinite list of places to pick from, and he almost immediately begins to feel overwhelmed, but continues to trudge forward nevertheless as he repeatedly scrolls throughout a span of names that simply just fly over his head.

It was quite a strange experience, all things considered, especially when so many of them looked like they had been written in Japanese or another language along those similarities. It's a good thing that whichever one he ended up choosing also possessed some kind of description, though, because even though he was honestly still a bit confused, the boy felt like he comprehended enough to understand that wherever he was going wouldn't be very kind to him.

The goal of this venture wasn't to go on some type of vacation, or anything even remotely similar to that, though... To put it simply, he didn't really care where he ended up. The whole point was that this was an entirely new thing for him to go through, and that it would no doubt separate him from what he was already so used to.

More importantly, Dante had always felt trapped within the life he had no choice but to grow up in, which is one that he has continued to live even at this stage of his journey. When the system abruptly, and drastically, altered his life, and as a result of that presented him with so many other possibilities and routes that he was capable of taking, it planted a seed of enjoyment within him for the newfound freedom he had over his life. It felt good whenever he took advantage of that as well, so the real question was, why wouldn't he continue doing that?

World Travel - Finalized!

…And with that, Dante subsequently blinked out of existence, as the universe he just left proceeded to essentially freeze in time, and it would never return to it's original state until the boy's absence was fulfilled once more.

----------

His vision had gone completely black, and it appeared to stay like that for a while for some reason, before the boy eventually realized that he was actually still capable of utilizing his eyesight.

A System Update Has Begun!

There was a brief pause, and Dante raised an eyebrow in confusion, as his body seemed to float throughout a lonely void of darkness.

…The System Update Has Been Finalized!

All of a sudden, that's when another screen popped into existence right in front of him.

Would you like to accept your free spin?

…Huh?

You are entitled to a free spin. Please press the button to spin.

That's not very informative, you know.

There is a free spin available to you. If you accept the gift, it's quite likely that it will bestow you with something that could assist you on your journey as the gamer, or not. It's all up to you in the end, after all.

…Holy shit.

That was the most it had ever spoken, or given a response back to him with such clarity, like ever.

That was weird as fuck.

Even though he felt unsure as to what was going on, Dante simply went along with it. As a result, a familiar chest appeared nearby, but before he could even make an attempt to open the tantalizing object, a luck-based fortune wheel of sorts made a sudden appearance as it proceeded to rotate at a blinding speed within an instant.

When his eyes eventually landed on an apparent option to skip all of the suspense in order to get right to the point, he decided to press the button, which ended the animation before a whole bunch of light promptly filled his vision.

Congratulations! You have acquired...

[Holy Vessel]

With the purifying essence of the Goddess Clan ingrained within your very soul, you have been blessed with an extremely long lifespan, and the beneficial aspects of the white-winged race don't stop there either. However, the rest of your potential will be for you to figure out on your own. Spoiling it now would just take the fun out of everything, right?

Dante stared at the interface with a stoic expression, unsure how to even react in the first place. Not only that, but if he was being honest with himself, the abrupt switch in the system's behavior was really throwing him off at the moment.

Additionally, his eyes landed on a specific word in the description of his apparent reward. Goddess.

…What the fuck was that supposed to mean? As far as the boy knew, he was still a dude with a one-eyed snake. Either way, after going through with the free spin, he wasn't given much of a chance to process what had just occurred due to the sudden change in his surroundings.

The darkness faded, with a clear blue sky and a field of snow-covered grass stepping in as a replacement. He was lying on the ground for some odd reason, which confused him quite a bit, and when he finally picked himself up in order to get a good look at the surrounding environment, all it turned out to be was a dead-looking forest in all directions.

Glancing down at his body just to check that everything was still in all of the correct places, a sense of relief washed over him when his eyes landed on a red hoodie, which covered up the majority of his bare torso, and a pair of ripped black jeans with matching black shoes. He let out a grateful sigh at that.

Unfortunately, that's when his ears perked up, as the sound of something growling in the distance caught his attention. After a brief pause, Dante barely even had enough time to react once a large mass leaped into view, coming out from it's hiding spot with a vicious snarl. Eyes widening in pure shock at the sight in front of him, he couldn't help but step back as he went to reach for a weapon from his inventory on instinct, only to be given a gut-wrenching reminder that everything he once had was now gone.

With every new world came the requirement to start all over again, like it wasn't already bad enough that it seemed like this foreign universe also had fucking monsters willing to eat you alive at any second of the day.

…This is just wonderful, isn't it?

At least he knew that it was possible to eventually return to previously-visited universes, and regain what he had originally possessed in those worlds.

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The Goddess Clan thing is from Seven Deadly Sins.

Anyway, all of these worlds the MC goes to are gonna have some differences, whether you see them or you don't. I've already got a few in my head, but go ahead and spit out some ideas if you've got any. It might inspire me to switch something up if it piques my interest.