Having saved Holly Joestar, Zenith's status received an epic upgrade. At the very least, they now treated him as an actual companion.
Joseph Joestar and Jotaro weren't just muscle-brained meatheads. Aside from strength and speed, the Joestar family also possessed remarkable intellect.
Jotaro hadn't forgotten how, during their first meeting, Zenith assaulted a patrol officer and claimed to be an undocumented stowaway. Joseph was even less likely to bring someone of unknown origins along to defeat Dio.
But no matter how much of the Speedwagon Foundation's influence he mobilized in Japan, he couldn't dig up a single trace of Zenith's background.
It couldn't be helped. The oil tycoon providing the Joestars with full manpower, financial, and material support only held oil—which was comparable to gold—whereas Zenith literally held actual gold.
Not to mention, Zenith simply offered way too much.
In 1987—oh wait, it was already 1988 now—modern technology and the internet weren't exactly highly developed yet. Forging an identity was as easy as pie.
Thanks to Holly Joestar, if Zenith's trust level was at a thirty before today, it was now at least an eighty-five. For the Joestars, that was enough trust to entrust him with their backs.
Zenith pulled out a map he had hastily prepared overnight, featuring a crooked red line drawn across it.
"Our itinerary looks roughly like this: we depart from Japan and fly to Hong Kong, then take a water route through the Middle East, cross the Southeast Asian seas to reach Singapore, and then make our way through India, Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea, and finally arrive in Egypt."
Rattling off a massive list of locations in one breath, Zenith felt his geographical knowledge had reached its absolute peak in this very moment.
"Why not just take a direct flight to Egypt?"
Everyone was highly confused. Zenith folded up the map and stuffed it into his system inventory. Why? Because he was afraid of missing the plot, of course! With him around, a direct flight might actually just safely land in Egypt.
If that happened, forget fifty days—they might clear the entire Stardust Crusaders storyline in five. How was he supposed to have any fun then?
Even though Zenith had saved Holly Joestar, his proposal wasn't accepted. The group still boarded a flight bound for Egypt.
And aboard this very plane, the evil Stand user loyal to Dio, Gray Fly, was already prepared to strike.
Knowing the plot, Zenith wasn't about to let this stag beetle Stand slaughter the passengers and pilots with impunity. However, if he stopped it, the plane wouldn't make an emergency landing, and Jean Pierre Polnareff, currently waiting in Hong Kong, would lose his chance to join the team.
Pinching his chin, Zenith felt it was a bit of a pity, but on second thought, he shifted his gaze toward Joseph Joestar.
A man whose Stand was Hermit Purple on the surface, but was actually the vehicle destroyer in reality. Zenith had a sneaking suspicion that even if he took out the Stand user, the plane would still have a hard time reaching its destination as planned.
The plane reached its designated altitude and began a smooth flight. Not long after, the faint, unmistakable buzzing of insect wings began to echo.
Here it comes, Gray Fly!
A black stag beetle the size of a human head, bearing complex blue patterns on its back. Its favorite hobbies included ripping out people's tongues, slaughtering them, and stealing their valuables.
Evil is always tormented by a greater evil. Gray Fly had submitted to the even more wicked Dio, and now it was here to cause trouble for the protagonist group.
Its primary target was, of course, Jotaro.
Zenith was prepared to sit back and watch the show, but unexpectedly, the oversized stag beetle seemed to be charging straight at him first!
This wasn't great. Zenith wasn't entirely sure how to quickly resolve the problem in front of him. Gray Fly was a speed-type Stand, boasting that it could dodge even if ten handguns fired at it simultaneously from point-blank range.
Although its E-rank destructive power couldn't possibly pierce Zenith's defenses, catching and defeating it wouldn't be easy either.
I've got it!
Zenith suddenly realized the solution: when facing a fast enemy, all he had to do was slow it down!
In the original plot, it was Noriaki Kakyoin's Hierophant Green that fought Gray Fly, using misdirection and attacks to lure it into a trap for a one-hit kill. But with Zenith stepping up, there was no need for such a hassle.
Splash Potion of Slowness II! Any entity hit by it would receive the Slowness IV debuff, reducing their speed to forty percent of its original value!
Gray magical particles burst outward. This wasn't a speed human reflexes could react to, and the area of effect for a splash potion was by no means small.
Its speed was cut in half. It was still fast, but its movements were now traceable.
"It's Gray Fly!"
The exposition had arrived! The classic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure commentary segment was finally here!
As everyone knows, in the JoJo universe, the commentator is absolutely safe. Furthermore, during the explanation, neither allied nor enemy units will take any action, as if the world's time has completely stopped.
So in this moment, Gray Fly froze, and Muhammad Avdol's deep voice rang out.
"A Stand symbolizing The Tower in the Tarot, representing disaster, destruction, and the end of a journey. It frequently attacks people to steal their wealth, disguising the murders as traffic accidents. It is an absolutely evil Stand!"
Time hadn't actually stopped; Zenith could see the duration of the Slowness potion's debuff ticking down. But it truly was magical—he had subconsciously halted his own movements until Muhammad Avdol finished speaking.
This could only be chalked up to the special rules of this world. Zenith pulled out his Netherite Sword and, in order to fit in, loudly shouted the Stand name he had come up with for himself.
"Za Warudo!"
"What!!"
Gray Fly clearly knew the name of Dio's Stand. Upon hearing Zenith's shout, it paled in sheer terror—and then, it met a tragic end.
It was just a mere bug. Even Hierophant Green's tentacles could easily break its defenses, let alone Zenith's Netherite Sword.
Sharpness, Knockback, Fire Aspect, Sweeping Edge, Looting, Unbreaking, Mending—with a strike like this, even the Ender Dragon would tremble in fear.
Gray Fly was instantly one-shot. Under the effect of Looting, a red arrow popped out of its corpse.
"It dropped loot? I don't think I've seen this item before."
The others seemingly couldn't see Minecraft items in their dropped state. Zenith picked it up, examined it, and quickly figured out what it was.
When he first entered this world, the system had prompted him about unlocking numerous mods, and this red arrow came from one of them: Steve's Bizarre Adventure.
Its appearance somewhat resembled a red Stand Arrow, and its effect was to randomly awaken a Stand for the user.
Even though the Stands were all ones that had appeared in the JoJo storyline, Zenith was starting to get excited.
The red arrow twitched, and the words "Blank Stand" twisted into a new name.
Great, it's a mechanic monster! The right hand that can erase everything, even space—The Hand!
"My Stand has evolved!"
Zenith was preparing to spin a load of bull and then show off his new ability to the group. But before he could even finish speaking, the entire plane suddenly jolted violently.
Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling one after another, and the captain's voice crackled over the intercom.
"Passengers, we are experiencing an issue with our plane's engines and will be making an emergency landing on the nearby ocean surface. Please fasten your seatbelts, put on your oxygen masks according to the flight attendants' instructions, and remain seated."
??? The Stand user was already taken out, so how did the plane's engines break?
Zenith shifted his gaze toward Joseph Joestar, who innocently threw his hands up. "Experiencing three plane crashes in one lifetime... it's not like I wanted this either."
Perfect. The vehicle destroyer truly lives up to his reputation.