Minato Namikaze was not a timid ninja. Rather, he possessed courage and noble qualities that many ninja lacked. As one of Konoha's Elite Jonin, he had come infinitely close to the level of a Kage at only nineteen. According to history, once he truly entered that realm, he would swiftly surpass even the Konoha Sannin, becoming the foremost member of Konoha's younger generation and a supreme weapon capable of determining the course of the Third Great Ninja War.
The many legendary stories surrounding him all proved that Minato Namikaze was a prodigy of the ninja world who lacked neither courage nor talent.
But...
What he was experiencing now had genuinely startled Minato Namikaze, because it was a hellishly eerie scene unlike anything he had ever encountered.
Moreover, after entering this game world, Minato Namikaze felt that his body had become incredibly "weak," as though more than ninety percent of his strength had simply vanished, turning him into a complete weakling.
Such a drastic decline in strength naturally brought unease, and combined with this hellish setting Uchiha Qi had deliberately created, it was no wonder Minato Namikaze had lost his composure a little.
Fortunately, Minato Namikaze was still Minato Namikaze. Even under these circumstances, he quickly calmed down and spoke up.
"Qi, are you there?"
Uchiha Qi's voice immediately rang out. "I can hear you, Minato. How does it feel? I mean, does it feel real being in this game world?"
Minato Namikaze thought for a moment, clenched his fists, and touched his body before replying, "It feels quite real. I can still sense that some parts are artificial, but it feels much more real than the dreamlike illusion brought by ordinary genjutsu."
Hearing that, Uchiha Qi, who was also inside the game world but observing everything from a god's-eye view, nodded. "I see. It still isn't real enough? Then it needs further optimization."
Minato Namikaze said, "Uh, if it's only a game, I don't think it needs to be that realistic..."
Uchiha Qi nodded. "True. Even Virtual Reality Games deliberately avoid making things too realistic, so people won't be unable to distinguish reality from illusion."
"Still, I have great faith in the mental and physical fortitude of the ninja world's superhumans, so I think it's best to pursue ultimate realism."
Minato Namikaze said, "...I don't know what this Virtual Reality Game you mentioned is, Qi, but not everyone in the ninja world is a superhuman."
Uchiha Qi said, "No problem. At worst, I'll make two versions: an ultra-realistic ninja-exclusive version, and a fake version ordinary people can play too."
Minato Namikaze said, "..."
For some reason, Minato Namikaze seemed to sense overwhelming malice in Uchiha Qi's words, along with a twisted desire to take revenge on society.
Uh, that was probably just an illusion, right? Qi was a good-natured person. Even if he sometimes had a mischievous streak, he was not a bad person.
Muttering that to himself, Minato Namikaze asked again, "By the way, Qi, why do I feel so weak? Is it because of this Genjutsu World?"
Uchiha Qi did not directly answer the question. Instead, he said, "That glass window on your right can serve as a mirror. Take a look at what you look like right now."
At those words, Minato Namikaze looked to his right and indeed saw a house with a glass window. Reflected in it was his current appearance.
However, the person inside was not the Minato Namikaze of the real world. He was a man wearing a Konoha forehead protector and a Konoha ninja flak jacket, yet his entire body was ragged and filthy. Unshaven and disheveled, he exuded an air of despondency and confusion.
Minato Namikaze was startled by the sight. "I... turned into someone else?"
Uchiha Qi said, "That's right. Didn't I say this was a game? It's like those games we played as children, where we pretended to be heroes and villains. Right now, you're playing a Konoha ninja who has returned from the battlefield."
"The character is an original design of mine. He isn't anyone from Konoha, just a virtual character."
"Just like the name of this game says, you'll be playing him from now on and finding the way Homecoming in this world."
Minato Namikaze nodded in realization. "I see. I understand."
After saying that, he became eager to get started. In the ninja world, where entertainment culture was severely lacking, modern Earth's entertainment games were a crushing advantage across dimensions. Moreover, the Genjutsu Game Uchiha Qi had created was cutting-edge black technology even by Earth's standards.
Although Minato Namikaze was a genius who had long since become a ninja, completed many missions, and was regarded by others as an exceptionally mature prodigy, he was actually only an eighteen-year-old boy. On Earth, he would have been someone who had just finished his college entrance exams, right at the age of celebrating youth and loving to have fun.
He had not played around before because it had not been appropriate, and there was little entertainment in the ninja world anyway, so Minato Namikaze had to be a "mature Konoha Elite Jonin."
But when an entertaining game was placed before him, and he was helping a friend without needing to feel any psychological burden, even Minato Namikaze could not suppress the anticipation and excitement in his heart.
Even if the visuals and setting were hellishly eerie and a little too intense, it was still fun, wasn't it?
With that, Minato Namikaze began to move forward.
The cold night wind howled past Minato Namikaze's ears. He remained on guard, gripping a kunai in his hand and preparing to fight at any moment.
However, after walking for a while, there was nothing ahead except the road stretching onward, thick gray fog, and lanterns hanging from the houses lining the street, glowing with a ghostly green light.
The visibility continued to shrink until it was only two meters. It was as though a Hidden Mist Ninja had used the Hiding in Mist Technique—when Minato Namikaze had fought Hidden Mist Ninja before, the fog had only ever been this thick.
And back then, there had been no hellish green color scheme to set it off—as the fog grew denser, even the mist turned green beneath the lanterns' illumination.
Eerie and profound.
Such an environment was the most likely to trigger psychological issues such as claustrophobia and thalassophobia.
Even though Minato Namikaze did not have such problems, when he kept moving forward without encountering anything while the eerie, hollow BGM softly lingered in his ears, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.
This made Minato Namikaze ask Uchiha Qi, "Qi, is this game just about moving forward the entire time? Aren't there any changes, enemies, or anything like that?"
The answer Minato Namikaze received was silence: the low sound of the wind, then a crisp and eerie ringing of a bell, followed by an absolutely silent environment where even the hellish BGM had vanished.
The sudden change made Minato Namikaze's heart clench. Before he could react, he suddenly sensed that something seemed to be beside him and immediately turned his head.
That single glance nearly made Minato Namikaze's heart stop on the spot.
Less than thirty centimeters away from him, a mysterious woman with disheveled hair silently floated in the air. She wore tattered white clothes, and only one eye was visible. Her face was deathly pale with blue veins, and her entire body exuded a chilling aura. Her eye was level with Minato Namikaze's as they stared directly at each other.
The white of that exposed eye was filled with black veins, while the pupil was a deep, abyssal black overflowing with resentment and hatred. It was the kind of terrifying eye that no human should possess.
Normally, even encountering such a mysterious woman in broad daylight would make anyone uncomfortable, let alone in this hellish environment with a point-blank jump scare.
Almost instinctively, Minato Namikaze wanted to attack the terrifying woman with the kunai in his hand while simultaneously preparing to flee with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Those were combat habits Minato Namikaze had developed through years of conditioned reflexes.
However, that habitual motion made Minato Namikaze stumble. He nearly fell backward onto the ground and only managed to steady himself after retreating several steps.
Only then did Minato Namikaze remember that he was currently in a game, using the body of an ordinary ninja. He did not possess his own overwhelming strength.
The mismatch between his body and consciousness made Minato Namikaze suffer for it.
Still, Minato Namikaze was Minato Namikaze. Even in this state, after regaining his balance, he suddenly raised his head and looked toward the mysterious woman.
Yet when he looked back in her direction, he saw nothing. The woman had vanished at some point.
"Where did she go? No... was that really... a person?"
Minato Namikaze began to doubt it. That eerie feeling, and that eye that seemed to contain endless resentment, did not look like something a human could possess.
Even in the ninja world, a place filled with all manner of strange beings, he had never seen anything like that mysterious woman.
At least, Minato Namikaze believed he had never encountered such an existence.
"What exactly was that..."
Suddenly, Minato Namikaze's voice caught in his throat. His eyes widened, and his body froze completely. A cold sensation surged from behind him as an icy wind pierced to the bone, as though he were standing in the depths of winter.
The intense physical sensation stimulated Minato Namikaze's nerves, making the hairs of this Konoha prodigy stand on end as cold sweat poured down his body. It was an involuntary physiological reaction he could not suppress.
Then, Minato Namikaze felt a cold, stiff hand press onto his shoulder. The sensation passed clearly through his clothes and reached his skin, as though the fabric provided no protection at all.
Next, unable to move, Minato Namikaze caught sight of black hair and a pale, horrifying face beside his ear from the corner of his eye. Then an icy, hollow voice spoke.
"You... can't go back..."
At that moment, Minato Namikaze's entire body stiffened and his mind trembled. He could clearly tell that this female voice was the same ghostly cold voice that had murmured the game's name when he first entered it.
Then, Minato Namikaze felt an icy hand close around his throat.
Like a dead person's hand, like a frozen hand, it gripped him with bone-chilling coldness and tightened continuously. Minato Namikaze found it difficult to breathe as pain flooded his heart and tormented his mind.
The inability to resist also gave the man a genuine feeling that he was about to die.
But the next moment, the cold sensation and the terrifying woman disappeared, and the state of being completely restrained and unable to move was lifted as well.
However, Minato Namikaze's body went limp at that moment. He collapsed forward and ultimately could only kneel on one knee, supporting himself with his right hand on the ground and pressing his left hand against his knee to keep from falling completely.
Even so, cold sweat continued to drip down, soaking the dust-covered ground.
The combination of 21st-century horror game tricks and the experience of a Spiritual Network Virtual Reality Game from an even more distant future made Minato Namikaze, this "Tihua's finest," fully experience the sheer terror of an ultimate Hellish Game.
Honestly, for Minato Namikaze, who was experiencing something like this for the first time, it was a little too intense.
Though it might be embarrassing to say, Minato Namikaze really did have the cowardly thought of maybe we should stop playing.
Second update, please keep reading.
Before you continue