On an ordinary night, Kevin Chase was idly sprawled on his bed, scrolling through his phone. A new "choose one of two" poll video popped up in his short video feed.
Bored, Kevin lifted his slightly long middle finger—which had been propping up his chin—intending to swipe to the next video, but he accidentally tapped one of the voting options. The choice that appeared, a fifty-one percent vote to end it, was apparently the exact number needed to break the tie. This caught Kevin's attention, his previously vacant gaze sharpening a little.
He looked at the options: the one above was "Obtain the Emperor Armor Summoning Belt," while the one below was "Obtain the Twelve Zodiac Talismans." Opening the comment section, he saw that more people actually wanted the summoning belt than the talismans. However, since the armor supposedly required a specific bloodline to summon, a portion of voters figured it would be useless without that bloodline, even if chosen.
But the Talismans were different. Anyone could use them as long as they were in hand, and the various wondrous uses of the Twelve Zodiac Talismans were very appealing, leading to a persistent deadlock in the votes. The content creator had set the poll to end at five thousand and one votes, and Kevin's vote happened to be the very last one, making the Twelve Talismans the winner.
"Seriously? How childish. As if you'd actually give it to me just because I picked it," Kevin muttered disdainfully. "Why are there so many of these stupid things lately? Like those 'pick three from the following ten options' things, and then it's just a list of mansions, luxury cars, beautiful women, and money for you to choose from."
He grumbled for a bit, then was about to use that same long finger to swipe to the next video.
The new video showed a content creator with three lines of text hovering above their head. The first line read: "After clapping, transmigrate to—" followed by a constantly scrolling list of names, including familiar ones like The Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Naruto, Marvel, and various other movies and TV shows.
The second line read: "Initial profession after transmigration—" also with various randomly jumping options. Kevin even saw "funeral director" and "scammer" pop up.
The third line was: "Innate superpower—" similarly displaying a wide array of abilities like X-ray vision, flight, and immortality.
Kevin watched as the creator clapped their hands, and all three options stopped. It landed on: Transmigrate to the Primordial Era, profession: street vendor, superpower: flight. Kevin couldn't help but think, what's the use of mere flight in the Primordial Era? Isn't that just asking for trouble? Which of the various demons and monsters there couldn't fly? Was he supposed to use flight just to set up his street stall faster and snatch a better spot?
The video ended. Kevin stretched, finally willing to pull out his hand, which had gone numb from being pressed under him. He shook it a couple of times to relieve the pins and needles.
"That's weird, I've scrolled through several videos now and haven't seen any cute girls," Kevin mumbled to himself as he swiped the screen with his finger, only to find his phone had frozen. Kevin picked it up and noticed it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. His awkward posture on the bed was precisely because the phone was charging, the cable length was restrictive, and the phone had gotten hot from extended use, so he'd put it aside to cool down, forcing him to lie on his stomach to scroll.
Looking at the frozen, increasingly hot phone in his hand, he figured he'd have to unplug the charging cable and restart it. With that thought, Kevin sat up, intending to pull out the cable. He glanced at the screen and saw that because his phone had frozen, the three "transmigration simulator" options were no longer scrolling. They had settled on: "In The Vampire Diaries," "Orphan Rich Second Generation," and superpower: "The Twelve Zodiac Talismans."
"Huh, talk about a coincidence. The Talismans and I seem to be fated today. But what the heck is The Vampire Diaries? Never even heard of it," Kevin said. Holding the phone in one hand, his other hand had already found the charging connector at the bottom of the phone and yanked it out.
BANG!
The phone exploded.
And just like that, Kevin was gone. Actually, the force of the phone explosion itself wouldn't have been fatal. The critical issue was that Kevin was still holding the charging cable. The explosion had blasted out the copper wires from inside the cable, and considering it was a genuine 120W super-fast charging cable—which are quite thick—and he was still gripping those copper wires, Kevin was, to put it bluntly, electrocuted to death.
..... (Separator Line) .....
"Ugh, where am I?" Kevin shot up from a bed, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings. All he could tell was that the owner of the room was quite wealthy; everything else was a blur.
Just as he was about to get out of bed and explore, the image of himself being electrocuted flashed in his mind. Moreover, in his mind's eye, the Twelve Zodiac Talismans were slowly rotating, with only three of them glowing brightly. Taking a closer look, he identified them as the Dog, Horse, and Rabbit. Kevin recalled the general effects of the Twelve Talismans. He wasn't sure why the others weren't lit, but if the glowing ones were usable, then with the Horse and Dog, he at least wouldn't be easily injured or killed, and with the Rabbit, he could run away if he couldn't win a fight. He was practically invincible from the get-go!
Just as Kevin was reveling in this, a segment of memories flooded his brain—a bonus, perhaps, from the transmigration. This current body was an enhanced version of himself: a strapping 16-year-old youth, with his original height, build, and looks all maxed out.
Crucially, he was an orphan from the start, and a rich second-generation orphan at that. Back in China, his immediate family had all passed away, leaving him a considerable sum of money. Recently, his last living relative had also died. This relative had gone abroad in their youth to make their fortune, had no children, and Kevin was their only kin. For the past two years, this relative had been living a retired life in Mystic Falls before passing away a short while ago. Not only had their liquid assets been transferred to Kevin, but a house in town was now also under his name. That was why Kevin had traveled here from China.
"Looks like this is the world of The Vampire Diaries, then. No idea what kind of movie or TV show it is," Kevin mused. Seeing the Talismans in his mind and recalling the student identity he had just received, he figured he had probably arrived in that Vampire Diaries world shown on his phone right before it exploded.
Kevin got out of bed, tidied himself up a bit, and then began to experiment with his Talisman abilities. He found that thanks to the Horse Talisman, any injuries he sustained, any wounds that appeared, would heal instantly. He even felt very little pain because normally, after an injury, a person's adrenaline would spike, making them feel no pain in that initial moment. The Horse Talisman healed the wound before the adrenaline even had a chance to wear off, so there was basically no pain. In terms of physical recovery, it felt even better than Wolverine's healing factor—Wolverine still felt pain, after all. Plus, Kevin also had the Dog Talisman. With the Horse Talisman active, the Dog Talisman basically ensured he couldn't die even if he wanted to. As for the Rabbit Talisman, Kevin tested it a few times but found it hard to measure his speed accurately without professional testing equipment. He remembered that in one episode of the animation, the Rabbit Talisman, when enhanced, had even allowed for time travel.
For now, Kevin just needed to know that the Talismans worked well. With these three as a foundation, Kevin wasn't too worried about what kind of world The Vampire Diaries might be. After all, he couldn't die, and he was an orphan, so no one could threaten him through loved ones.
After finishing his experiments, Kevin tidied himself up again and checked the time. It turned out today was the day he was supposed to go to the new school to register as a transfer student.
Thankfully, the transferred memories also came with English language proficiency. Otherwise, Kevin would probably be fumbling around blindly the moment he stepped outside.
Thinking about it, I have no idea what this world is really like. At least, the memories I received don't contain anything about actual vampires. Better to lay low and build up strength for now. I'll just act like a normal rich kid and go to school.
Kevin took his documents and headed to the garage on the first floor, then drove off to school in a sports car. In this foreign country, being 16 and having a driver's license to drive was a perfectly normal thing, and for a rich orphan like Kevin, driving a sports car was practically expected, right?