What Do You Mean, One of Me Dies and the Cheat Shows Up?

Thanks for asking. I was in Naruto and had just landed—or, in plain English, someone had cut me down!

Across two lifetimes, it would have taken several hands to count the times I'd been this speechless.

I'd finally transmigrated. Sure, my landing was ugly, and the place I'd ended up wasn't much better, but going offline this quickly was a bit too ridiculous, wasn't it?

"That guy really was cautious. He didn't know what I was capable of, so he'd rather lose his weapon than come close."

"Actually, that's not quite right. He probably had a ninja tool pouch, and besides, ninja don't usually use tachi anyway. They mostly use Shuriken and Kunai."

Wait, it had been ages, so why couldn't I feel anything? I'd been in so much pain I was practically dying, but now I couldn't feel a thing.

I got up and looked around.

There was black fog and a gray, hazy path whose end was nowhere in sight.

What was this place? I'd never heard of a sight like this after death.

I didn't know how heartbroken my mom in this life would be when I died. My eldest uncle rarely showed much expression, so he probably wouldn't cry. My eldest aunt definitely would, and Hikari would probably have tears and snot streaming down her face. Too bad I wouldn't get to see it, or I'd have made sure to laugh at her.

I let my thoughts wander like that for a while.

"It's been ages. Aren't the Black and White Impermanence coming? Ox-Head and Horse-Face would do too. Or does a world like Naruto fall outside the Underworld's jurisdiction?"

"Or maybe I'm not all the way dead in this state, so I can only wait here."

"Whatever. I'll walk ahead and see."

Thinking that things were already like this anyway, Tamaki decided he might as well go ahead and take a look.

As he moved forward, the black fog gradually thinned a little, and tiny flecks of gold appeared in the gray path beneath his feet. They were so small that he'd only noticed them because he was bored, but the discovery strengthened Tamaki's resolve to keep going.

In these circumstances, any change was a good thing.

Besides, finding gold wasn't a bad thing most of the time, unless the gold belonged to a certain golden toilet. If this path really led to the world of a certain golden toilet, Tamaki would rather drop completely dead right now.

As he continued, Tamaki discovered that the path wasn't surrounded directly by black fog. Rather, there was a transparent barrier between the gray path and the black fog, forming a passage.

Gradually, Tamaki saw a round white light at the far end of the passage. Am I almost at the end?

He quickened his pace and soon arrived before a circular, glowing curtain of light.

Looking at the curtain of light before him, Tamaki felt an urge to pass through it.

Tamaki ignored the urge. He first looked back down the gray path, then stared at the curtain of light for a while before deciding to reach out and test it. To his surprise, the moment his hand touched the curtain, he arrived in another place.

It was an enormous semicircular space. Behind him was an equally enormous white curtain of light, and the space before him was empty. Countless small white curtains of light dotted the semicircular dome overhead.

Tamaki rubbed his chin, a little unsure what was going on.

"Yo, a newcomer."

Hearing the voice, Tamaki looked back and saw two guys squatting behind him. One was dressed all in black, and the other wore a Marine uniform. Their faces were identical and exceptionally familiar. Looking closer, he realized he'd seen that face every day while washing up in his previous life.

"What's going on here?" Tamaki took two steps back, his face full of surprise.

"Remember Teacher Du?" the burly Wang Chuan in the Marine uniform asked in a rough voice, arms folded.

Wang Chuan in black added, "If you don't remember clearly, I can explain."

"No need. I get it. The question now is, I died and the cheat showed up?"

"More or less. The way this thing of ours triggers is a little different from Teacher Du's."

With that, Wang Chuan in black and Wang Chuan in the Marine uniform reached out and placed their hands on Futate Tamaki's head. Instantly, a compressed package of memories entered Futate Tamaki's mind, letting him understand the situation.

Simply put, this was a cheat similar to Teacher Du's. The suspected prerequisite for coming here was touching the boundary between life and death—in other words, at the very least, you had to visit the ICU once.

There were also some differences in what was shared. Here, memories transferred with almost no loss, but power suffered losses in the process.

First, physical strength was almost impossible to transfer.

As for supernatural powers, such as Chakra and Spiritual Pressure, less than half remained after the loss.

The transfer efficiency of soul power was less than a third. Even so, it could bring a tremendous improvement. The soul was closely related to concentration and fine control, and Ninjutsu was essentially the control of Chakra. Finer control meant achieving the same effect with faster Hand Seals and less Chakra.

Soul power was also the reason coming here gave you at least one extra life.

Just as a sufficiently strong body could nourish the soul in return, a stronger soul could nourish the body.

In a world with supernatural powers, nourishment from a powerful soul could affect the activity of the body's cells to a certain extent. Combined with the shared supernatural power, as long as the injuries weren't fatal or involved extensive loss of internal organs, the shared soul power could generally get you through.

Tamaki also learned where the two people before him came from. The one in the Marine uniform was from the pirate world, and the one dressed in black was from the Shinigami world.

After a little while, Pirate Wang Chuan saw that Tamaki hadn't spoken and asked, "Is there anything else you don't understand?"

"It's not that I don't understand. I just have even more questions."

"Save the questions for later. This is your first time here, so go back and save your life first. We can talk about the details of the space when you come back. The two of us have done some tests, but they're scattered, and you might not be able to find them in the memories."

As he spoke, Pirate Wang Chuan pushed Tamaki toward the giant curtain of light.

"No problem. I'll be back as soon as I can."

The instant he crossed the curtain of light, Tamaki's consciousness was almost immediately flooded with intense pain. He tried to get up but had little strength. Forcing his eyes open, he saw his mother, Futate Shizuka, slumped over the side of the bed.

He shifted his body slightly, waking Futate Shizuka.

"Tamaki, you're awake! Don't move. I'll go get your uncle."

Seeing the concern on his mother's face in this life, Tamaki, who had lived two lives, felt a sting in his nose.

Before long, his eldest uncle, Ichite Ki, hurried over.

"How do you feel?"

"The wound hurts, my limbs are numb and weak, and I feel dizzy."

"That's normal. Now that you're awake, there's no major problem." Ichite Ki calmly analyzed Tamaki's description. Communication between medical professionals was simplest; they could always describe their symptoms quickly and succinctly. "Do you feel anything else?"

"Not for now."

"That's good. Now that you're awake, you'll be fine. Keep resting and recovering, and I expect you'll be able to move around freely in half a month. I'll take care of the compensation for helping the village intercept the spy when the time comes."

As he spoke, Ichite Ki pushed up his glasses, a hint of coldness flashing in his eyes.

It seemed his uncle was very unhappy that the Anbu had dragged him into it.

Listening to the exchange between uncle and nephew, Futate Shizuka, who had some basic medical knowledge, also relaxed.

After a round of concerned inquiries, Ichite Ki and Futate Shizuka left the hospital room one after the other. Ichite Ki still had work to do, while Futate Shizuka went to prepare a nutritious meal.

Tamaki took the opportunity to start sorting out his cheat.

In plain English, he checked the memories of his other two selves.

There wasn't much to say about Shinigami Wang Chuan. To summarize:

After Wang Chuan in the Shinigami world died once again, he came to Soul Society and triggered the cheat. Thanks to his combined Spiritual Power, he successfully applied to Shin'ō Academy and was now about to graduate.

Shinigami Wang Chuan's plans were much the same as Tamaki's: join the Fourth Division and become a medic. It was safe, well paid, and respected, and he wouldn't have to go straight to the front lines.

Pirate Wang Chuan had it a little worse. He was born into a merchant family stationed in Wano Country.

As expected, within a few years, he ran into Kaido's attack on Wano Country. His parents unfortunately died, while Wang Chuan escaped with difficulty under the protection of a group of retainers.

Of the escape party of nearly a hundred, only about ten made it out. As expected, something unexpected happened to Wang Chuan, and then he naturally entered the space.

After more than ten years of hard work, he was now a Marine captain, soon to be promoted to major.

As for why he became a Marine, that was simple.

Question: which force on the seas was the strongest and had the most powerhouses?

The Shichibukai?

No, no, no.

The Four Emperors?

No, no, no.

It was the Marines!

They had the Three Admirals at their disposal, with the Fleet Admiral above them, numerous Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals below, and plenty of staff officers and Marine field and company officers. Their influence spread across all four seas!!

After contacting the main family in Flower Country, he smoothly took over what remained of the Wang family's commercial holdings.

Several teenagers from the escape party had joined the Marines ahead of him, laying the groundwork for him in advance, while the older members returned to Flower Country to continue running the Wang family's business.

With the Wang family's wealth, good fruits were hard to find, but good teachers were much easier to come by.

As for why he hadn't joined the Marines immediately, that was because of the age restriction.

Ten years later, thanks to the space, Wang Chuan had grown quickly and successfully joined the Marines.

With his wealth and the retainers he had sent into the Marines earlier, Wang Chuan rose quickly within their ranks. Over another ten years, both his Armament Haki and Observation Haki made great strides.

But the gap between him and Kaido was still enormous, with the fruit first and foremost.

Devil Fruits were miracles of the sea. If you didn't like it, don't play. So said a certain Admiral Lucil Culu.

Incidentally, there was no sign of that Admiral in this world. Otherwise, given Wang Chuan's nature, he would have gone to join him long ago.

Why bother thinking about how to fight Kaido?

Spreading the red banner across all four seas was a real man's romance!

After Tamaki finished his nutritious meal, Futate Shizuka didn't disturb his recovery any further.

So Tamaki planned to return to the space. His other two selves were still waiting there, and he needed to familiarize himself with the cheat as soon as possible.