Chapter 18: Secret Realm Mode — A Preview
[Nen Ability Name: Little Tyrant's Endless Amusement — Secret Realm Mode]
[Ability Type: Specialization]
[Activation Conditions and Description: When the player has placed the physical "Little Tyrant's Endless Amusement" console set somewhere in reality, started it up using standard Entertainment Mode, and is actively playing a game cartridge for which their clear rating reached S or above, Secret Realm Mode may be formally activated.
Only the player who personally achieved the S-rank clear rating is eligible to enter the corresponding Secret Realm Stage. Because the current player holds only a 1P controller, with no 2P controller or related expansion equipment, group exploration cannot currently be activated.
After meeting the prerequisite conditions, the player must grip the Little Tyrant game controller with both hands and use Ren. The player's body will then be directly transported into the corresponding Secret Realm Stage.
At that point, the Little Tyrant console set will acquire three rules: indestructible, immovable, and unburiable. It will serve as the player's fixed anchor point connecting them to the real world.
The Secret Realm Stage will preserve its own internal rule logic to the fullest extent possible while interfacing with real-world rules.
The player may only exit the Secret Realm Stage by clearing the stage in its entirety, or by locating and activating the corresponding save point within the Secret Realm. Exit takes the form of spatial transport, with the destination coordinate being the location of the Little Tyrant console.
In principle, real-world items can be brought into and used within Secret Realm Stages normally. Items originating within the Secret Realm Stage may be brought out only after certain conditions are met.
When the player enters any Secret Realm Stage for the first time, they will simultaneously receive a "Completion Vow" specific to that stage. Completion Vow types include but are not limited to at least one of the following: Extreme Speedrun, Full Item Collection, Full Hidden Area Exploration, Full Map Unlock, No-Kill Run, No-Gun Run, No-Damage Clear, and similar conditions.
When the player clears the Secret Realm Stage while ignoring the Completion Vow — the stage's transport mechanism is relaxed, allowing the player to challenge the stage repeatedly under easier conditions; the player also gains basic management access to the Secret Realm Stage, including the right to reset it within its rules, and receives +1 collection slot.
When the player clears the Secret Realm Stage in accordance with the Completion Vow — the player will receive an exclusive Nen ability derived from that Secret Realm Stage's game cartridge as its blueprint, and will gain intermediate management access to the stage, which includes all basic access rights.
Note: certain special Secret Realm Stages contain a hidden built-in time limit as part of their Completion Vow. If the player fails to clear the stage within that time limit, the Secret Realm may produce uncontrollable phenomena including but not limited to: two-way passage opening, random absorption of individuals, dark aura backlash, and roaming calamities. At that point, the player will receive a further Completion Vow. If the player successfully fulfills that Completion Vow under those conditions, they will gain advanced management access to the Secret Realm Stage.]
[The player may now activate Secret Realm Mode at any time, transporting to the Sonic 3: Angel Island Zone Secret Realm Stage.]
After reading through the complete Secret Realm Mode description, Ross sank into thought.
Genuinely complex ability. And a lot of information packed into it.
First: the Secret Realm system had actually integrated with the Little Tyrant console. The visually vivid pixelated Angel Island from Sonic 3, viewed through a screen, existed somewhere in the Hunter world as a real Secret Realm. Ross couldn't yet determine which had come first — the Secret Realm or the cartridge.
If it was the latter, fine. But if the Secret Realm had existed first, could someone bypass the Little Tyrant's rules entirely and sneak in without going through the console at all?
He recalled that Greed Island had its own share of stowaways. Ging and the other administrators had developed countermeasures in advance, but the possibility itself was clearly real.
Second: group exploration. Based on the description, his console should be configurable with a 2P controller and additional expansion equipment. A lot of older games weren't limited to two players — something like Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku, for instance, could handle up to four players, but only with the expansion adapter that let you plug in four controllers at once.
Which raised the question: would the 2P controller and expansion equipment have to be found out in the world the same way cartridges were, through searching and luck? Or could he try to materialize them himself, the same way he had originally materialized the entire console set by starting from the smallest components and working up from there?
Third: the Completion Vow. A lot of unknowns, but the visible upside was substantial. Ross was genuinely intrigued. But thinking too hard about it right now was getting ahead of himself.
Setting aside the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to use Ren, the console's immovable property once Secret Realm Mode activated meant he couldn't run it recklessly on an airship in flight. If the console became fixed here in this small cabin, that would be manageable. But if it locked onto the current XYZ coordinates at cruising altitude — before the console punched straight through the hull of the moving airship, he would eventually have to return from the Secret Realm and teleport back to a console suspended in open sky, with nothing beneath him but clouds and a very long fall. He had done ropeless bungee jumping at Frog-Tiger Mountain. He had no particular desire to discover what ropeless skydiving felt like.
While he was still mid-brainstorm, a familiar wave of weakness rolled through him without warning. Ross recognized it immediately and yanked the plug prongs out from between his toes.
The screen went dark. The Little Tyrant stopped drawing from him.
He had accidentally drained himself again. With practiced ease, he settled into Zetsu and let his aura begin recovering.
The Secret Realm could wait — indefinitely, for now, given that he also couldn't get in. But gaming was still on the table, and the goal this time was no longer chasing SSS. Ross was going to run Zone 1 in a full sweep — thorough and methodical, every corner of the map explored in detail — to improve his odds when he eventually did go in.
He also quietly pushed his planned Secret Realm entry date further back.
Looking at his current situation: as long as Real Mode required one hand on the controller, he couldn't map Sonic's abilities onto himself inside the Secret Realm at the same time. That significantly raised the difficulty of a Secret Realm clear on its own. He knew exactly what he was capable of, and he knew exactly what Sonic was capable of. There was no comparison.
When his aura recovered to one bar, he ran the console idle without a cartridge and activated the cartridge navigation arrow. It spun slowly clockwise overhead like a scanner that couldn't lock onto a precise target. The search radius, apparently, had its limits.
All told, the free time on this transit to the third phase venue had been good to him. He had walked away with a conditional master introduction from the Hunter Association's highest authority, a portion of the SS clear rewards, and a basic working understanding of how Secret Realm Mode operated.
His short-term and long-term goals were both clear. You could see it in his face — he was genuinely looking forward to everything ahead of him, eyes clean and bright enough to bother anyone who spent their time in darker places.
Time moved quickly. The sun crept up from below the horizon, and a thick, round tower standing at the edge of a cliff came into the pilot's field of view.
The appearance of that structure — Trick Tower — meant the third phase was about to begin.