Mei Terumi went off to notify everyone to enter battle-ready status.
Ryosuke stood where he was, taking several deep breaths before gradually calming the despair he had felt earlier, then turned his attention to this trial mission.
[Saint Trial Mission]
[Trial Difficulty: Medium]
[Trial Description: Go alone to North America in 1980, defeat Funny Valentine, and seize the Saint's Corpse. If you die, the challenge fails and the Ascension Star Core disappears.]
It was a very simple description, and also the first time since obtaining the Ascension Star Core that Ryosuke had seen a "Medium" difficulty stage.
'Before, the trial missions were either high difficulty or extremely high. I thought they were all high difficulty.'
Unlike Stand trial missions, where new forms are only unlocked after clearing the stage.
Based on the Kars trial, skill-based abilities like Ripple and Golden Spin were more about improving technique through the course of the trial, gaining progress during actual combat.
If you could improve, you passed the trial.
If your comprehension wasn't enough and you couldn't raise your skill within the short trial time, then… you relied on other methods, like Ryosuke's Past Projections.
Back to this trial mission.
Steel Ball Run is a completely different world from the previous JOJO storylines, more like a parallel timeline.
In this world, JOJO, Dio, and Zeppeli also exist, but they are not the same characters readers are familiar with from Parts 1 through 6. They are closer to what the gaming world calls "counterparts."
Golden Spin comes from the "Zeppeli" counterpart, Gyro Zeppeli.
Ryosuke recalled the plot of Steel Ball Run,
In 1890, the ultra-long-distance horse race spanning the North American continent, six thousand kilometers in total, the STEEL BALL RUN (SBR) race began.
Johnny Joestar was once a top-tier jockey, but a shooting incident left him paralyzed from the waist down. In order to cure his legs, he teamed up with Gyro, who was skilled in the power of Spin, and entered the SBR race.
On the surface, the SBR race symbolized the spirit of frontier exploration, but behind the scenes, the true mastermind was the U.S. government, or rather, the U.S. president mentioned in the trial mission, Funny Valentine.
Valentine planned this race in order to collect the Saint's Corpse scattered across North America, using thousands of racers as bait to locate the relics buried all over the country.
———
Ryosuke pondered the trial mission.
First, defeat Valentine.
Second, seize the Saint's Corpse.
'Since this is a Golden Spin trial moving toward Lesson 5, the Valentine I need to defeat has most likely already obtained the complete Saint's Corpse, with his Stand evolved into 'D4C, Love Train'.'
'Otherwise, defeating a normal Valentine would run counter to the fundamental purpose of the trial.'
With Ryosuke's combat instincts, plus the energy transfer across world barriers from Past Projections, dealing with an ordinary flesh-and-blood human, if he really went all out, would be far too easy.
'That means the point where I enter the story is probably around the final decisive battle.'
'As long as, during that battle, I can grasp the true essence of Lesson 5 from Gyro and Johnny, the infinite-rotation steel ball will be able to tear through the barrier, defeat Valentine, and seize the Saint's Corpse.'
'From that perspective, it really is 'medium' difficulty.'
Unlike the Kars trial, which required strength in all aspects.
Unlike the Killer Queen trial, which demanded a battle of wits with Yoshikage Kira.
This trial was more like an exam question where, as long as you studied and memorized the formulas, tweaked them a bit, and had some insight, you could easily score the points.
But on the flip side, if you lacked insight and couldn't comprehend Lesson 5 during the trial, then defeating Funny Valentine would be extremely difficult.
In the era of Steel Ball Run, only the Cavalry Spin could break through D4C, Love Train's light barrier. All other forms of attack were completely ineffective against Valentine.
"Insight, huh…"
Ryosuke let out a soft sigh.
His talent in Spin was average at best, and his comprehension was pitifully low, but it was still better than his talent in ninjutsu, and far better than his aptitude with the Sharingan.
Earlier, when everyone had died and he was struck by extreme despair, Ryosuke had nearly awakened a powerful single-tomoe Sharingan.
In the end, he still failed.
Just one move short.
But at this point, there was no meaning in thinking about talent or insight anymore. Obito, Momoshiki, and Kinshiki would descend in about forty minutes.
Ryosuke could not allow the tragedy to happen again.
The human heart will despair in the face of the first grief.
But after it happens too many times, despair turns into numbness.
Ryosuke couldn't gamble on whether he could trigger Bites the Dust again. Once time could no longer be reversed… even if he relied on an Ultimate Lifeform's body and spent days, months, or years slowly grinding all his enemies to death, he would still have lost.
Ryosuke needed the power of the Cavalry Spin.
Even more, he needed to find Funny Valentine and use D4C's power to verify something extremely important.
So…
"Let's go."
Ryosuke looked at the floating system window in front of him and clicked "Confirm Activation."
Heaven and earth inverted. Amid an intense sensation of weightlessness, his vision fell into pitch-black darkness. The only thought left in his mind was, "Who am I getting attached to this time?"
Considering it was right before the final decisive battle, most racers would be galloping along the course. The only ones truly near Funny Valentine would be just a handful of people.
Johnny?
Gyro?
Lucy?
'Anyone is better than last time's vampire start.'
As Ryosuke thought, the chaotic sounds gradually became clear. He heard the wind, screams, and the chugging sound of an old green train moving away. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked at his hands.
They were wearing brown leather gloves, and razor-sharp claws extended from the fingertips of the gloves. Every single one gleamed with a chilling cold light.
At the same time, Ryosuke sensed the original Stand of this body, 'Scary Monsters.'
'Diego!
"I descended into Diego Brando's body!"
Diego Brando is Dio's counterpart in the Steel Ball Run world.
However, in the base world (that is, the world where the Saint's Corpse exists), his Stand is not The World, which can stop time, but Scary Monsters, whose power and speed stand at the very peak of Steel Ball Run.
Once the Stand ability is activated, the user's body can enter a semi-dinosaur state, gaining overwhelming close-combat pressure, and can also turn other living beings into dinosaurs to fight alongside him.
It can be said to be a purely combat-oriented Stand.
And its fighting style is extremely well-suited to Ryosuke.
"So this is 'medium' difficulty… huh?"
Ryosuke bared his teeth in a grin, but as the sense of weightlessness completely vanished and the descent process finished, he immediately noticed something was wrong.
He slowly turned his head.
And saw a ruptured abdomen, intestines spilled all over the ground, and the lower half of his body thrown several meters away.
Ryosuke was about to die.