Cheng Mouren's first exposure to the concept of the "Mimic" was in the game Demon World Village, or more accurately, 《Great Demon's Village》.
Great Demon's Village can be seen as an enhanced version of Demon World Village; the plot progression remains entirely the same, only the graphics, performance, and mechanics have been reinforced and added, making the game more playable while also increasing its difficulty.
Arcade Platform games, after all, are primarily about making money by taking coins.
I must specifically criticize 《Captain Hook》 here, because after completely clearing the game, it seamlessly loops back to the first stage, and the difficulty itself isn't high, emphasizing wasting electricity on a single coin. It's no wonder Cheng Tian rarely saw it in domestic Arcade Halls when he was young.
The setting in Great Demon's Village inherently includes a "Treasure Chest" mechanism. These Treasure Chests could yield Arthur's exclusive weapons and Armor of different types, but they also concealed this Vampire Magician who could use 『Polymorph（Duck）』 on the Player.
Treasure Chests drop loot; Mimics eat people.
A person turned into a duck temporarily loses all Attack Methods, retaining only ordinary Jumping Ability. The Spell Effect is comparable to 『Polymorph』 in 《Dungeons & Dragons》 or 《Warcraft》, except the latter two tend more towards turning organisms into harmless sheep.
Furthermore, since Phone Guy has absolutely no relevant resistance and almost no Magic Power within his body to counteract Spells, the duration of this Polymorph is likely to be longer than imagined.
Although the opening Scene of the current Instance comes from the FC Version, this does not prevent Cheng Tian from remaining vigilant due to the Arcade Version.
And the facts proved his vigilance was correct; someone tested the limits.
"Hee hee hee~~~"
The Vampire Magician let out a series of ear-piercing laughs reminiscent of a Soul Hall Elder while admiring his Polymorph masterpiece.
Phone Guy, having been turned into a duck, had no idea what situation he was in, but this Polymorph had its own special feature: it simultaneously grants the traits of the transformed organism, and the transformed person's physical Instincts will also lean towards that organism.
Several Zombies further out twisted their bodies, wanting to eat the uncooked live duck, but the terrified and flustered Phone Guy Duck was already flapping its Wings and scrambling away.
Not bad, quite agile, it could even manage brief Flight.
Combined with the action characteristic observed earlier where Zombies only excelled at moving in straight lines while hiding near Cheng Tian and his group, the Zombies wouldn't catch him for a while... provided the Red-eyed Crow didn't interfere.
As a Corvid organism that is not undead, the intelligence of the Red-eyed Crow is very high among birds. Unlike the Zombies that charge headfirst, after several of their brethren had their heads blown off precisely by the whip-tip effect, they simply kept far away from Cheng Tian and began pecking at the Humanminced meat(mangled human flesh) scattered by the Zombies.
High intelligence often means acting for reasons beyond mere survival. After satisfying basic desires, the Corvid Bosses also seek Fun for themselves, and a plump live duck was clearly a good source of Fun.
Suddenly, the Vampire Magician, who was still admiring the Polymorph, shivered. It sensed a chilling gaze.
Almost without thinking, the Magician wrapped his body in his red cloak and vanished into thin air, just like his Abrupt Appearance when he was a Mimic.
On the other side, Cheng Tian on the low hill withdrew the gaze that had been fixed on the Magician's back.
Cheng Tian felt no psychological fluctuation whatsoever regarding Phone Guy's actions, whether stealing Treasure Chests or courting death, and might even have applauded the kid for scouting the danger for him. However, upon seeing the Magician casting Polymorph, his hunting Instinct flared up, causing the handle of the whip he tightly gripped to feel faintly hot.
The Vampire Hunter Template Cheng Tian Loaded indeed had a wide hunting range; all Dark Organisms and Evil Organisms were on its hunting list. But just as the name of this Template suggests, killing other Monsters was secondary; killing Vampires was the true main profession.
Just like the Ranger Job in 《Dungeons & Dragons》, the Belmont Family chose "Vampire" as their nemesis, entangled across generations.
Ooh, come on~ Let's team up to kill Vampires for a lifetime.jpg
After cracking out a whip, Cheng Tian gritted his teeth and made a sharp, mouse-like squeak. One-Ear, who was simultaneously worried and annoyed for his Teammate, heard and saw this, and his mind quickly processed the meaning.
This was a form of reminder inconvenient to voice aloud.
Although he didn't know why Cheng Tian did this, One-Ear chose to believe him and dedicated some mental energy to vigilance while chopping Zombies.
And just as their fields of vision overlapped, exposing the blind spot at the back of their heads, the flashy blue-clothed Vampire appeared.
With a dramatic cloak-spreading motion, the second Magic Missile constructed from a Hexagram was flung out. The target could only be one: Cheng Mouren, his fellow nemesis.
The concept of a nemesis is mutual. The Belmont Family became the eternal nemesis of Dracula and his derivative Vampire Monster Horde, and this resulted in them being subjected to Dracula's Curse generation after generation—this was the Price.
Although One-Ear was brave, he hadn't entered the Vampire Magician's line of sight at all... but nemesis Instinct made Cheng Tian acutely aware of this.
It is worth mentioning that just as the Mage flung this Polymorph, Phone Guy, who was still flapping around in the Graveyard trying to evade pursuit, suddenly snapped back to normal with a *peng* sound!
It wasn't that time was up; the effect was Halted.
This clearly implied that its Polymorph likely had an Attribute of "only affecting a single target at the same time."
But just as the wind from the Magic Missile was about to smack Cheng Tian's back, the Zombie's fist struck his arms, which were crossed in defense in front of his chest—
He intentionally didn't dodge or defend against the attack from the Zombie!?
At this moment, a miraculous thing happened.
The Magic Missile, which should have directly hit the back of Cheng Tian's head and turned him into a plump white duck, passed straight through his body and blasted towards the Zombie with a stunned expression!
The familiar Special Effect manifested as a Zombie Duck that looked as if it had been air-dried for who knows how long, with gray-white Wings and a shriveled body.
Not only did Cheng Tian evade the Polymorph using an inexplicable ability, but he also used the rapidly achieved three-meter backward Jump, spun around upon landing, and lunged straight towards the Vampire Magician!
The reason for this peculiar Scene was entirely due to a Passive Skill Cheng Tian possessed from his Loaded Template.
【Hit Dodge: Template Skill, Passive Skill. A game mechanic from the FC Version of Castlevania that infuriated countless Players, but in the eyes of experts, it held the potential to become an aid.
When you suffer one effective strike from an Enemy, you will enter a stiff state and be forcibly jumped backward a short distance. Simultaneously, you will gain a 3-second "Phased Movement" status. The stiff state is only removed upon landing.
During Phased Movement, you 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 a Teammate or Enemy when Phased Movement ends, you will take a large amount of damage upon effect conclusion and trigger Hit Dodge again.】