[15 years after the end of World Mission]
After countless epic and captivating journey and adventures, fighting against various enemies and potential threats capable of interfering and messing up timelines, a young 25 year old known to his "friends" as Beat, walked alone through the empty and silent streets of his city until he reached an old abandoned arcade next to some old houses ruined by the relentless force of time.
That place was special to the young man, because several good and unforgettable memories were marked in his distant childhood.
Looking nostalgically at the entrance of the old arcade completely bandaged with some warnings and signs saying stay away so that no one enters the place with the risk of the building collapsing, the young man just recklessly ignored the warnings and stubbornly jumped past them until he got close to a rusty iron door and then tried to open it with his hands by turning the handle.
But unfortunately for him, the lock was locked.
It was impossible to open the door without a key. If it were anyone else, they would have given up trying to get into the old arcade, but Beat wasn't someone who gave up so easily and with a strong push he kicked the metal door, breaking it down in the process and causing a loud noise that echoed through the street.
*Clack !*
If it were in the past, such noise would have been enough to make the entire neighborhood on the street call the police to report the illegal invasion of the old arcade, but after several years since the place stopped being very frequented, many residents ended up getting old and dying naturally, leaving no descendants to inherit these old properties. That is, most of the dilapidated houses on that street had pratically no one to take care of them, which fortunately helped to ensure that the young man was not reported to the police and consequently arrested.
'This place remains the same as before ...'
As he entered through the door that had been kicked open, the young man felt a sense of nostalgia spread within him as he recognized the entire interior of the arcade. His hands brushed off some of the dusty posters and posters of games from his childhood that were stuck to the walls, while his gaze scanned each one with longing and nostalgia.
'All these games were so important to me, but ...'
When he saw a poster that was bigger than the others and stuck on top of an arcade counter, the young man immediately recognized which game had marked his entire childhood.
'... Dragon Ball Heroes will always have a bigger place in my heart .'
Moving towards a machine familiar to him, which was covered by a black cloth so as not to get dusty like the others, the young man quickly removed the cloth and tried to turn it on manually.
'Come on, it works !'
By clicking the start button several times, he waited for the machine to at least emit some sound or a message on its screen, but after not getting any change for 5 whole minutes, the young man lowered his head in sadness upon realizing that machine was possibly broken after so many years without being activated or used. At that moment, his eyes looked disoriented and empty, anguish grew in his chest at not being able to play his favorite childhood game again.
'Maybe, I should just ... forget the past ...'
Even through the machine wasn't activated, Beat felt a little comforted at being able to revisit that arcade after so many years without going there.
With a visibly emotional and melancholic look on his face, the young man seemed to be saying goodbye to a crucial and relevant part of his precious childhood, as he slowly walked closer to the entrance and left behind all his incredible adventures in that world so far from the gray present in which he lived ...
'It was good while it lasted ...'
Just as he was about to leave the arcade, his eyes suddenly shifted to a power registration box in the building outside, as his curiosity was piqued and a new through appeared in his mind.
'Wait, maybe the power might be off !'
Upon opening the register box and seeing that the power was off, the expression on Beat's face soon became excited and hopeful again and without hesitation he activated all the cables connected to the building's electrical power, making the old lamps work as they used to.
Running quickly into the arcade, the young man connected the cable of the old Dragon Ball Heroes machine to the power outlet.
With an air of suspense, he slowly clicked the start button.
*Ding !*
[Welcome player to the World of Dragon Ball Heroes !]
As he read the game's initial loading message screen, a flash of happiness appeared on his face as he felt nostalgic about it.
'Bingo ! Looks like the machine wasn't working because of the power outage .'
[Do you want to install the new Dragon Ball Heroes update ?]
[Yes] [No]
"Huh ? New update ? I'm sure the developers haven't created a new update, after all I've finished this game myself and they've never announced anything about it ..."
With an intrigued and curious look, he clicks to download the new data and files from the game update onto the machine.
[Downloading data and files from the new update !]
Soon after, a loading screen of the update percentage appeared in front of Beat's eyes.
[1% ... 10% ... 25% ... 30% ...]
[... 50% ... 75% ... 99% ... 100% !]
[Update completed successfully !]
'That was fast .'
[Do you want to see the new features of the game ?]
[Yes] [No]
Without hesitation, the young man clicked [Yes] and soon an information screen appeared before his eyes.
[With the new game update, the player has the following new features and functions that they can access and use to have fun:
• Updated Rewards System - The player will be able to receive better rewards after completing their missions with chances of obtaining new techniques and transformations.
• Training Room - The Training Room is an isolated dimension that can be used to improve the player's strength.
• Skill Shops - Allows the player to purchase items, weapons, techniques and powers in exchange for coins obtained from missions.
• Multi-platform Live Streaming feature - Allows the player to broadcast their journey live within the game, and can obtain certain exclusive rewards if they reach a certain number of views]
"Huh ? Live streaming function ? I think this was invented specifically for streamers, but it doesn't hurt to try playing around with it a bit ..."
Despite knowing that the chances of becoming famous with an old outdated game were very low, Beat would still have fun showing his journey live to a few people so as not to be too lonely while playing alone.
[Enjoy the new changes and modifications made to the game ! We hope the player has a great experience !]
'What new saga do we have in this update ?'
With an anxious and curious look, Beat watched the background of the screen change to a new poster with some small details different from its old version, having darker and more somber colors, reflecting a greater seriousness than the previous sagas of the game.
[Dragon Ball Heroes presents the Infinity Saga !]
[In the immemorial and forgotten times of the Genesis of the Universe before the creation of mortal beings, there were 4 Transcendental Primordial Entities, who governed the empty Universe without any type of life, whose purpose was tied to the interests and desires of these Entities ...]
While reading the introduction to the new saga, Beat unconsciously frowned in confusion as he didn't remember this in the Dragon Ball Universe.
'This is a bit inconsistent with Dragon Ball Super canon, perhaps it's a presentation of what existed before Zeno ?'
Even without knowing absolutely anything, Beat continued to read mentally.
[... When the first civilizations emerged in the Universe, the 4 Primordial Entities were amazed at their untapped potential, but there was one of them who craved more than anything, beings powerful enough to entertain him in an eternal and endless battle ...]
'This looks a bit ... no, it must be something else ...'
Lost in thought, Beat continued reading.
[Then the other 3 Primordial Entities decided to make a deal with this Primordial, in which they would give him a mortal capable of entertaining him for all Eternity under the condition of not destroying Creation ...]
'Huh ?! A mortal capable of facing and challenging a Primordial Entity older than the Universe itself ? That's intriguing ...'
With his curiosity piqued, he remembered Ultra Instinct which was a technique considered unattainable for mortals and even gods.
[After eons since the agreement was made, the 3 Primordial Entities found the perfect candidate for this mission and then trained him to reach the pinnacle of power that a mortal could hope to reach and surpass]
'I wonder who this mortal would be and how powerful he would be after reaching the pinnacle of supreme power ?'
[As soon as the chosen mortal's training was completed, the battle that would decide not only the course of the Universe but also of all Creation began and the 3 Primordial Entities knowing that this battle would cause countless damages to the Universe, decided to isolate the Strongest Mortal in Existence and the Primordial Entities in a dimension outside the limits of the Universe, being impossible to be located, or opened to the Universe ...]
[End of Prologue !]
'Is it over ? Now that things were starting to get good, they cut the ending of the story, how annoying !'
As soon as all the messages were read, the game suddenly appeared on the team selection screen, where there was an icon indicating for the player to place the characters' cards in a machine reader.
Familiar with this scene, Beat took out of his red coat some old cards, which he had with him since his childhood, preserving them with the greatest care possible so that they would not be damaged over time.
Two of the cards had a striking shine in their design in gold colors with white particles, while the third card had a more unusual coloration than the others, having an indescribably beautiful shine.
'I should have brought more cards to have a wider range of characters to choose from, but that's just enough for an hour of fun .'
After carefully placing the 3 cards on top of the machine's reader, it didn't take long for the card reader to recognize which characters were chosen.
[Do you want to add Xeno Goku to your team ?]
[Yes] [No]
[Do you want to add Xeno Trunks to your team ?]
[Yes] [No]
[Do you want to add yourself to our team ?]
[Yes] [No]
As soon as the questions were asked, Beat just confirmed the character choice and then a warning screen suddenly appeared in front of him.
[Warning ! The game difficulty has been automatically changed to Maximum Difficulty Level with the new update, making enemies more powerful than before !]
"This was already expected from the new update, but let's test something new ..."
Moving his fingers to the setting part, he slowly went through all the options before clicking on a specific function.
[Do you want to start a live broadcast ?]
[Yes] [No]
"Well, probably no one would want to watch an old anime game, right ?"
Without much expectation, Beat clicked [Yes] and as soon as the message disappeared, the machine began to shine brightly until its light engulfed him into the Universe far from the Real World ...
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[Author's Notes]
First of all, I would like to thank all the readers who read until the end. This is my first story on this platform, so I will try to post new chapters regularly and I would also like you to comment on your opinion about the chapter.
Thank you for your attention !