Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

It seems there's a lot of competition even among heroes.

Thinking this, the man patted his cheeks, and his expression returned to its previous nonchalant state.

"Never mind, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future anyway."

"But next time, I absolutely have to find a monster for myself to defeat...!"

And so, the man stormed home, saying this as he went.

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At the same time, she was only one street away from that bald man.

Yan Ming, Wozniak, and Gates... instead stopped at a nearby intersection.

Because someone came looking for them.

"Thank you so much, oh my—how should I put it…"

A blond man who was clearly a foreigner stood in front of them, accompanied by several waiters they had seen before.

"Thank you so much for saving my restaurant! You're heroes, right? From the Hero Association, aren't you?"

"How can I possibly repay you all! That restaurant... is my dream come true! If it's really destroyed, I think my heart condition, which hasn't been acting up for years, will definitely flare up again! So please, let us repay you—!"

"Uh…"

The three of them couldn't help but look at each other.

"What should I do, my Demon King?"

"It's probably best to decline as soon as possible in this situation; we don't need this small reward anyway..."

That's what they said, mainly because they probably think it's too much trouble...

Before that, Yan Ming looked at the store manager first.

"You're too kind. Also... we're not heroes of the Hero Association."

"Huh—?"

The store manager and the other waiters were stunned for a moment.

However, Yan Ming didn't pay any attention and continued speaking.

“We accept your kindness, but if you want to repay me, I think you can tell me something.”

"Are there any suitable places to live nearby? Preferably somewhere quiet."

"I see..." Wozniak and Gates immediately understood Yan Ming's intention.

They should at least confirm where they'll be staying first—otherwise, they'll have to find some deserted place to sleep in the Time Demon's Cave tonight.

"This is a quiet place to live, hmm..."

The store manager stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"This is City A, which is usually quite noisy. It probably doesn't meet your requirements, and because of the large population, housing prices are very high..."

"Um, manager...didn't you say you recently acquired a few pretty good apartments? What do you think of them?"

"Oh, oh, that does count, huh... um? You mean an apartment?! No way! That kind of place isn't fit for human habitation!"

The store manager immediately waved his hands and shouted, but this only piqued Yan Ming's interest.

Could you please explain the situation regarding that apartment?

"Uh... well, that's in Z City."

"Z City... what happened there?"

"What? You didn't know? Houses in Z City—"

After the store manager's explanation, the three of them finally understood.

The so-called Z City seems to be a very, very desolate city. Basically, no one lives there. It is eerily quiet on weekdays because there are a lot of weirdos there, and the weirdos are all very strong. It is said that it has become a gathering place for some weirdos when they have nothing to do.

"Well, while holidays there are indeed very cheap, and the accommodation facilities are quite complete... even if you gave me ten million, I wouldn't want to live in that kind of awful place. It's absolutely gambling with my life!"

"Exactly, how could anyone want to live in such a dangerous place?"

Judging from these people's descriptions alone, Z City does seem to be a very dangerous place.

but…

No one approaches, and the accommodations are fully equipped...?

After thinking about it for a moment, Yan Ming continued.

"Okay, then please give us directions."

"That's right, no one would want to live here... Hey."

This includes the store manager and all the staff.

They stared at Yan Ming's face as if they were dumbfounded, and then their eyes widened immediately.

"—Eh?! ...

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I'm really living in Z city now.

"This is it..."

After the shop manager gave them directions, the three of them arrived at the city in front of them.

Z City... was exactly as they had described. It looked extremely desolate, and the streets were riddled with potholes and other signs of destruction.

It's hard to imagine what kind of monsters live here.

But—

"Is this acceptable? You really intend to live in this godforsaken place?"

"This has actually become an advantage. What we need most on weekdays is to avoid large crowds. This way, we can avoid excessive damage and a lot of trouble. Moreover, the shop owner gave us the room directly, so we don't need to pay rent. It will be very convenient to leave when the time comes."

"My words are completely irrelevant; everything is subject to the Demon King's choice."

What a bunch of weirdos… Gates couldn’t help but think to himself, but he himself didn’t really feel anything about it.

After all, they say there are dangerous weirdos everywhere...

"Hehehehe, humans! Humans! There are actually humans stupid enough to come to this city to look at houses? Perfect, we haven't eaten human flesh for days—"

"Woz."

"Yes, my Demon King."

Thump! ! And just like that, a group of strange people who appeared out of nowhere were all instantly killed by Woz with a single slap.

The rest of them were scared away before they even had a chance to say anything harsh.

It might be dangerous for ordinary people... but it's meaningless for these three outcasts.

After finding a room, the three of them bought some daily necessities from a nearby store. The water and electricity seemed to be readily available, so—

And so evening came.

"It's still incredibly boring."

After dinner, Gates continued to yawn as he sat in the living room.

The room they were given was quite spacious, with a living room and a kitchen, a standard suite. Although there were two bedrooms, the manager had given them the room next door, so Gates slept in the bedroom next door.

The day passed just like that.

Gates sat watching TV, Yan Ming was checking his watch face, and Wozniak leaned against the wall indifferently.

"Didn't they say that association was coming to find us? Why haven't they responded yet..."

"Who knows? Maybe it's just too slow... Compared to that, Woz, has anything changed in the book?"

"The specific content is the same as what I just said, basically all of that."

From the book, the three learned some new things.

In this world, monsters and heroes each have their own different associations. Monsters are divided into detailed hazard levels, and heroes are classified into the same levels.

C, B, A, and then the strongest S, the heroes are divided into four ranks, all of which are directly managed by the Hero Association.

That being said, this content is just information that can be found on the internet... What follows seems to be just some random information about people.

"And then what... House of Evolution, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mosquito Girl, Monster King Orochi, Garou... It doesn't really make much sense, they're all characters I don't recognize at all."

"That King Orochi is probably one of the more powerful monsters. The book describes him as the leader of the Monster Association... but that's about it."

It seems that so far, there hasn't been any truly useful information.

As I listened, Gates started yawning.

"...I'm going to sleep now."

After greeting the two men, Gates left the room.

"Woz, you can go and rest if you want. I'll go to sleep in a bit."

"I'm fine. Compared to me... are you checking the Knight Watches?"

"It's just a quick look."

The table was covered with watch faces, all of which Yan Ming and his team had collected so far.

"How many dials are there exactly? In total?"

"...That's a difficult question to answer. Theoretically, any knight should be able to create their own watch face, but..."

"Knights will keep being born, which means there will never be a limit to the number of watch faces... right?"

If you simply aim to collect all the watch faces, you'll never reach the end.

Yan Ming also sighed at this.

"Forget it... I'll just take it one step at a time."

And so, they spent the day in a rare moment of relaxation.

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As mentioned before, Gates is asleep.

but.

He had just lain down when he opened his eyes.

"...Huh?"

And so, we arrived at another place.

A completely dark world, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

"...Dreaming? No—where am I?"

Buzz—! The world suddenly became clear.

The location where Gates was situated was an incredibly vast desert.

No… to be precise, this used to be a desert, but some traces of past civilizations still remain on the desert and wasteland.

In such an area—

Gates saw it.

Countless figures kept arriving from afar.

"Kamen Rider?"

Those were countless knights.

Spanning the sky, stretching across the wasteland, emerging from the phantom-like dust, from the endless edge of the world—

Those who came here were all knights.

"What, what happened...?!"

The Seven Glory of the Showa Era, the fusion of natural and biological forces, the red and green Emperor Stone, and the evolution of Black…

Following behind them were various hostile organizations led by Shocker, and... various monsters created by Shocker itself.