In 1997, an unexpected torrential downpour swept through Raya Town.
The night was dark and the wind was fierce. In this small town on the border of the Republic of Mingbo, every household had sealed its doors shut as a violent hurricane raged through the streets.
It was the middle of the night, and the entire town was experiencing a blackout due to the storm having blown down the utility poles.
Charlotte Dai and her father, Ian Dai, were tidying up tables and chairs.
Bang!
The sound of the main door being slammed open echoed.
Ian, thinking it was the wind, instinctively looked towards the entrance—a man was lying on the floor there, seemingly unconscious.
He had wounds almost everywhere on his body, his clothes were tattered and soaked with rain. He was tall with handsome features and appeared to be only in his early twenties.
Putting his shock aside, Ian immediately ran forward, dragged him inside, and shut the door again.
Ian, a former field medic, examined the man's wounds and said:
"Charlotte, go find some hemostatic cloth and bandages!"
"Oh, okay!"
The young Charlotte hurriedly complied, turning and rushing into the back room of the restaurant to retrieve a first-aid kit.
The father and daughter duo busied themselves with the stranger.
A kerosene lamp sat on the table, its dim yellow light quietly dispelling the darkness.
The chirping of birds outside the window startled Dia awake. He shot his eyes open, and an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
Where is this? Why am I here?
With these questions in mind, Dia struggled to sit up, calmly surveying his surroundings from the bed.
The patterns and decorative style of the room felt extremely foreign to him; it wasn't British, Chinese, or any traditional style of any country he had ever seen. Could it be that he had transmigrated again?
That's right, he was no stranger to the concept of transmigration.
A few months ago, having just graduated from law school, he fell during a mountain climbing trip.
Yet, he cheated death and crossed over into the world of JoJo, where he was saved by a man named Jonathan Joestar.
Under the care and guidance of Jonathan and Baron Zeppeli, he recovered and even learned Baron Zeppeli's Ripple Qigong from an ancient eastern country.
After he recovered, Jonathan gave him enough money to settle down and told him to find a job in his hometown.
But having read the manga, Dia knew the tragic fate that awaited the two Ripple users. Out of a desire to repay their kindness, he decided to join Jonathan's crusade against Dio.
In the ensuing battles, he transformed from a complete novice to a skilled warrior in just a few short days.
This was largely thanks to a special ability he gained in the JoJo world—under extreme focus, the world in his eyes would slow down dramatically, what people often call bullet time!
Of course, some also call it commentary time-stop.
Dia followed Jonathan, overcoming one obstacle after another, and finally, atop the high tower, they completely eliminated Dio.
Dia recalled that moment. Just as he was about to happily high-five Jonathan, he saw what looked like a shattered portal appear out of thin air.
A platinum-colored head of Dio flew out from it, struck him in the chest, and carried him into another portal.
After that, he only saw an indescribably massive explosion that tore both him and the already tattered head to shreds.
Memories of the past rushed back like a tide, and along with them came another set of fragmented, unfamiliar memories. These memories originated from his current body, belonging to a young man named Dia Diego.
In these memories, the original owner of the body looked almost identical to Dia, was born in the Republic of Mingbo, and had graduated from the National Medical University this year.
The originally promising owner of the body had encountered a sudden, extreme storm during his graduation trip, fell from a ship into the ocean, and died. For some reason, Dia was reborn in his body.
Through the original owner's memories, Dia immediately realized where he was: the world of "Hunter x Hunter," a world full of secret realms, magical beasts, and a superpower known as Nen.
With his recollection ending there, Dia still couldn't make sense of his current situation. He felt a throbbing pain in his head from the sheer volume of memories, which he likely wouldn't be able to fully process in a short time.
But he knew for certain that he could never get his original body back. He could never return to his original world or the world of JoJo.
Since it had come to this, he could only take things as they came.
Just as Dia was contemplating this, he heard a creak. The door was pushed open, and a bearded, middle-aged man walked in.
"You're awake!?"
Looking at the middle-aged man before him, Dia guessed that this must be the person who saved him.
So, he endured the headache, forced a smile, and said:
"Did you save me? My name is Dia Diego, a graduate of the National Medical University. I'm not a bad person. Thank you very much for saving me."
Hearing this, Ian snapped back to reality, surprised by the man's astonishing recovery rate, and simultaneously felt a slight sense of relief.
Judging by the calm and composed manner in which this self-proclaimed Dia spoke, regardless of whether his words were true or not, it was at least unlikely that he was some kind of fugitive or desperado.
"You collapsed in our shop yesterday. I treated your wounds."
"Well... you should continue to rest for now. I have some business to attend to outside. We can talk more when I get back."
The storm from the previous night had caused a blackout throughout the town, so Ian had to rush to the police station to register the damages and apply for a temporary power supply.
If he went late, the slots might be taken by others. He also wanted to confirm this man's identity with the police station.
With this in mind, Ian stepped forward, poured a glass of water from the pitcher by the bed, and handed it to him.
Dia accepted the glass with a grateful thank you, and then Ian hurried away.
After watching Ian leave, Dia began to slowly sip the water, acclimating to the headache and the original owner's memories.
Once the headache had subsided a bit, Dia held the glass, his expression turning serious. To speed up his recovery, he was going to attempt that ancient technique—
Ripple Breathing!
As his chest rose and fell, he used a peculiar breathing method to inhale and exhale air. The power of his blood flow intensified and vibrated within his body, gradually converging into a golden light.
Ripple energy began to flow through him, and he immediately felt the pain from his injuries lessen considerably.
'I should be almost fully recovered in about two or three days.'
Dia nodded in satisfaction, then stopped the breathing technique and downed the water in his hand.
He subconsciously leaned over to put the glass aside, but inadvertently pulled at the wound on his waist.
Normally, this level of pain would have been completely tolerable for him. But due to the sudden disappearance of the Ripple's pain-numbing effect, combined with the carelessness brought on by his weakness, he lost his grip on the glass, and it slipped from his hand!
Crap!
Dia cursed inwardly and quickly reached out with his other hand to catch it, but his reach was just short.
Just as Dia thought it was too late, he suddenly froze—
The glass was suspended in mid-air!
A distinct hand with five fingers was clenched tightly around the glass, connected to an abnormally muscular, golden humanoid torso covered in a dense network of cracks.
The golden figure floated in front of Dia. It had grayish-blue skin, carried two large oxygen tanks on its back, and wore a strange mask, under which two crimson eyes stared intently at Dia.
Dia's pupils contracted, and his heart pounded in his chest.
He was all too familiar with this humanoid "creature." It was the powerful Stand that the vampire Dio, whom he had killed, obtained one hundred years later in the original story. Its name was—
[The World]