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Chapter 100: Isn't This Just a Fast Travel Mechanic?
Ross, eating a curry-flavored puffed corn stick with crumbs raining everywhere, crouched by the glowing green Secret Realm entrance and wiped his hand across it.
The entrance vanished, the floor returning to its original appearance. At the same time, he received permission to re-set the entrance wherever he chose.
The Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Secret Realm stage still existed. It remained an independent space where Ross could reset and repeatedly explore for treasures. It would not change with Trevor and Dracula's formal arrival in the current world.
Well, not quite. If there were changes to note, there were two.
First: the final BOSS inside the Secret Realm, Dracula, had become a Projection Entity. This was a projected copy of the true Dracula now deployed in reality. His combat ability and combat consciousness would change in sync with the real Dracula's development, but the projection remained fundamentally under the control of the Creator Authority holder.
Want to reset him? Done.
Ross recognized immediately that this Projection Entity could serve as an indirect real-time observation sample, letting him track what was happening with the real Dracula out in the world, possibly even helping determine roughly where Dracula had ended up. Not bad.
Second: because the stage had transformed from the City of the Four Saint Beasts into Castlevania III rather than being generated from scratch, four additional configurable BOSS units had been added on top of the base version.
Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, Suzaku. The Four Saint Beasts, killed by the kill-stealing Ross himself, had now also become part of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. They could be configured to replace the existing guardian BOSSes during each Secret Realm reset.
This made an already impressive stage considerably more varied.
Though thinking about it, Castlevania's presence was really secondary. A castle only becomes Castlevania when Dracula is in it. Even dropped with nothing around him, Dracula could probably seize, build, or simply Conjure a Castlevania of his own from scratch.
If Dracula had landed in the human world, reports of Castlevania-related incidents would probably start surfacing before too long. If he had been dropped in Makai, it might be considerably longer before anything surfaced.
Then there was the entrance configuration.
Two methods existed for entering the Castlevania III Secret Realm normally: achieve an S-rank or higher to obtain visitor access and use the Little Tyrant for one-way teleportation, or actively set a fixed entrance in the real world. In the second case, the Secret Realm would synchronize closely with reality, and any player with S-rank or higher could freely enter without needing the Little Tyrant as an intermediary.
Ross had figured out that these two methods were connected.
In other words: if you set a Castlevania III entrance at Point A in advance, then use the console to teleport into the Secret Realm from Point B, you could theoretically use the Secret Realm as a transfer point and exit directly at Point A. An indirect cross-map fast travel system.
The usage requirements were straightforward: setting a real-world entrance at Point A required being physically present to do it, and anyone wanting to use the fast travel would need an S-rank clear of Castlevania III in Entertainment Mode.
When Ross worked this out, the satisfaction on his face was obvious.
In a world where only airships could cross oceans and travel between continents, long-distance movement was genuinely time-consuming and subject to all kinds of complications along the way. This gave him the building blocks for his own personal fast travel network.
The Sky Arena needed one, to make resuming his tower climb easier. The Dark Tournament and the higher-floor game cartridges both required him to become a Floor Master first.
The dojo needed one. He was still a long way from finishing his training and needed to keep working under Genkai.
Yorknew City probably needed one set up early too. Both the auction and the Phantom Troupe-related events all revolved around Yorknew.
Looking at it this way, he would need at least two more Creator Authority permissions.
Ross began assessing his current cartridges immediately.
Sonic 3 was incomplete. Pass for now.
Nekketsu New Record's Creator Authority conditions had been mapped out long ago in principle: essentially his earlier SSS-rank 6-restriction Entertainment Mode clear.
But clearing it in a game was different from clearing it with his real body. In the game, he could perfectly exploit coding mechanics to satisfy those conditions. In reality, with too many variables, at minimum the no-damage requirement and the Swimming Combat King event were going to be serious problems.
His plan: keep grinding skill experience and physical stats. By the time he could steamroll through it, the Creator Authority should be within reach.
Tower of Druaga was a somewhat different case.
The Famicom version could be switched to Ura Mode by inputting the sequence left-sixteen-times, up-four-times, right-three-times at the main menu before the game started. In Ura Mode, the treasures and BOSSes were the same, but every treasure's acquisition condition was completely different.
Ross estimated he would probably need to complete extreme speedruns of both Normal Mode and Ura Mode to earn the Creator Authority.
The near-future plan was clear. Go all-out on both dungeons. Try to secure both additional Creator Authority permissions before the multiple major events that were probably going to converge in September.
He had originally considered joining Hiei's rescue operation for Yukina. But the Secret Realm priority outweighed it, so he would leave that alone for now.
Actually, he should probably renew his fighter rest period at the Sky Arena.
Ross counted the days. Only about twenty-something days were left on the 90-day fighting hiatus for floor-200 fighters.
A good chance to test whether the Little Tyrant console could actually complete the A-to-B cross-location transfer.
"...Hang on. What day is it?"
Something had just occurred to him. Ross turned to look at Kurama.
"April 7th. Why?"
"Oh! There's a keyword to grab!"
Like someone who had just been injected with caffeine, Ross exclaimed and immediately pulled out his phone to contact his dedicated Sky Arena manager. Every floor-200 fighter theoretically had one assigned.
"What is it? Is something happening at the arena?"
Kuwabara asked curiously.
"Shh."
Ross waved him quiet and got a reply from the manager almost immediately.
"Hello, fighter Ross. Fighter Hisoka and fighter Kastro are scheduled to compete on April 11th. This is the match currently closest to a Floor Master challenge and we're in the warm-up phase. As a floor-200 fighter, I can reserve up to two on-site tickets for you in advance. Would you like to purchase?"
When Hisoka's name came through on speakerphone, both Yusuke and Kuwabara produced expressions of near-physiological disgust involuntarily.
Genuine involuntary disgust, apparently.
Of course, Ross wasn't going for Hisoka. He was going for Kastro, the fighter who would duel Hisoka and die on the arena floor.
If he could find an opportunity to save this person, the probability of obtaining a "clone" or "tiger" Navigation Arrow keyword was extremely high.
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