Cheat Upgrade

A girl's icy voice rang out in the jungle. Then a girl in a deep blue dress stepped forward, her eerie scarlet eyes sweeping over the group before settling on the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man shuddered under her gaze. His body bent forward involuntarily, and he lowered his head and gritted out, "Lady Ultear."

The girl walked lightly up to Chiba, gave him a long look, then turned to face Qiaote. "What happened?" she asked coldly.

Qiaote raised his head, his eyes practically blazing. "My lady, this brat killed my son while I was asleep. My lady, I have to kill him to avenge my son!"

"Ha! While you were asleep?" Ultear's beautiful eyes pierced his heart like sharp swords. "This guy overtrained and fell asleep outside my tent. Then your precious son and his 'good brother' brought him here to assassinate him. They weren't good enough and got killed instead. Who can they blame?"

Qiaote gritted his teeth, but had nothing to say.

"That's the end of it. You know Grimoire Heart's rules: no one mourns the dead. Besides, those two brought it on themselves." Ultear turned away, then said coolly, "Chiba, let's go."

Chiba obediently followed her.

"My lady... but..."

"Shut up!" Ultear spun around, her beautiful eyes blazing with a cold scarlet light. "I don't mind sending you to hell with your son," she said coldly.

Qiaote lowered his head. Under Ultear's imposing presence, he trembled so badly he hardly dared speak.

Chiba then followed Ultear toward the camp.

But no one saw the flash of jealous resentment in Qiaote's eyes after the two left.

Back in the tent, Ultear sat on the bed and cast a cold glance at Chiba, who was sitting on a small stool.

"You offended someone in a dark guild, and it never even occurred to you to watch your back. Should I call you stupid or stupid?"

After a long silence, Ultear finally scolded him.

Chiba said nothing.

He had no reason to argue, because Ultear was right.

The incident had also taught him to be more careful.

"Big sis, you were inside the tent. How did you know so much?" Chiba asked.

"Shut up!" Ultear glared at him.

Chiba obediently shut his mouth.

He seemed to have realized something.

As it turned out, Ultear had been watching him all along. She was clearly a girl who was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Though the two hadn't spent much time together, she had felt a warmth from Chiba that she couldn't feel in a dark guild.

Her true nature could actually be seen in the original story. She was a kind girl.

She was cold because no one had taught her right from wrong when she was young. She had pursued happiness, only for reality to cruelly shatter it, leading her to commit so many sins.

She pursued the Arc of Time, wanting to return to the person she had been before she hated her mother, before she had so many sins on her shoulders.

She hated her mother, yet longed for her mother's love.

Yes, only the Arc of Time of the Great Magic World could turn back time in this world and take her back to the past. So now, all she needed to do was keep moving forward and make herself invincible, even if she was covered in blood, even if she bore the weight of sin.

Chiba should actually have been glad he had met Ultear at this stage. A few years later, or even just one year later, she might have lost her softness toward others. By then, perhaps only her mother could defeat her.

Chiba: "Zzzz..."

Ultear: "..."

Chiba was so exhausted that he had fallen asleep sitting on the stool.

"Welcome to the Ninjutsu Chamber..."

"The artificial intelligence has awakened..."

"Because the Ninjutsu Chamber is bored, it will upgrade your talent..."

"Talent upgrade in progress... Please wait patiently..."

"Th... the Ninjutsu... Ch... Chamber... has... has crashed. Please... wait... wait patiently..."

"Th... the crash has been resolved. Please wait patiently..."

"Your talent has been successfully upgraded. As a reward for upgrading your talent before the explosion, you will randomly receive a Kekkei Genkai."

"Ding-dong (voice acted by a person)! Congratulations, you have received the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai (Yamato version)!"

"Because... because the Ninjutsu Chamber has fuck-all to do, your Yamato-version Kekkei Genkai has been replaced with the Hashirama-version Wood Release Kekkei Genkai."

"Ding-dong (voice acted by a person)! Because you have yet to learn to convert earth-attribute chakra into earth, and your physique is too trashy, your Hashirama-version Wood Release has been replaced with the Yamato version again."

"Your talent has been successfully upgraded."

"PS one: The Ninjutsu Chamber is not a system, but a good friend who teaches you how to pick up girls."

"PS two: The Ninjutsu Chamber is not the creator of ninjutsu. We're just the old cheat seller's deliverymen."

New talent: Complete Version Ninjutsu: When all hand seals are performed, ninjutsu has 150 percent of the power of ninjutsu at the same proficiency level, and the difficulty of learning is reduced by 90 percent.

Simplified Ninjutsu: Simplifies the hand seals for all ninjutsu. Ninjutsu can be activated by pressing both palms together (or using the first hand seal of the ninjutsu), with 300 percent of the power of ninjutsu at the same proficiency level. Simplified Ninjutsu can only be used once a ninjutsu reaches a certain proficiency level. Currently eligible: Fire Style, Great Fireball Technique; Substitution Technique.

Then Chiba woke up in a daze.

Chiba: "???"

What the fuck? I just took a nap. What the hell happened?

The Ninjutsu Chamber had developed a distinct consciousness of its own.

Artificial intelligence?

Or artificial idiocy?

But that voice didn't seem like an artificial intelligence's voice. It sounded more like... a real person's...

Could it be... that some dumbass monster is living inside my body?

His original cheat had also been upgraded, and the homophones had been changed to simplified hand seals. But... but this cheat... he suspected that the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had possessed it too.

In Naruto, Hashirama Senju basically just clapped his hands together and got whatever he called for.

Now he himself could basically do the same.

Could it be that I'm the long-lost son of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju?

Back to the point: Complete Version Ninjutsu only increased its power by 50 percent. Although the increase wasn't great, the difficulty of learning was reduced by 90 percent. That made it more likely that he could learn ninjutsu of every attribute.

As for Simplified Ninjutsu, he only needed to press his palms together or perform a single hand seal to unleash ninjutsu with 300 percent of the power it had at the same proficiency level. A ninjutsu's power depended on the amount of chakra consumed to cast it, its rank, and the user's mastery of the technique. Simplified Ninjutsu greatly increased its power, which in turn greatly strengthened Chiba's combat ability.

After all, at the same proficiency and with the same amount of chakra consumed, Simplified Ninjutsu had 300 percent of the power of ordinary ninjutsu. That was almost equivalent to raising a ninjutsu by an entire rank!

It was just...