After realizing that amusement was also a source of Emotion Value, Uchiha Qi considered it briefly, then clapped three times in a steady rhythm.
At once, an Uchiha Guard appeared beside Uchiha Qi and respectfully asked, "Lord Qi, what are your orders?"
As he spoke, the Uchiha jonin looked at Uchiha Qi with undisguised admiration.
As one of the people assigned by the Uchiha Clan to specifically protect Uchiha Qi, he had initially only respected Uchiha Qi. After all, the Genjutsu Game Uchiha Qi had brought truly provided great help to the Uchiha Clan.
But after witnessing Uchiha Qi, with some preparation time, change the Uchiha Clan's terrible situation in merely a few days, his opinion of Uchiha Qi underwent a tremendous upgrade.
Especially after witnessing the representatives of the major clans seek cooperation at the negotiating table with attitudes so cordial they bordered on fawning, this Uchiha had come to utterly worship Uchiha Qi.
"Though Lord Qi may be lacking in strength as a ninja, he is a sage our Uchiha Clan sees once in a thousand years. Strategizing and guiding the greater situation are what Lord Qi should be doing. Matters like fighting and killing should be left to ordinary people like us!"
Those were the words spoken by Uchiha Jiri, captain of Uchiha Qi's guard unit, and they had become an accepted truth within the unit!
Yes, after personally witnessing the enormous changes Uchiha Qi had brought to the Uchiha Clan, even these powerful Uchiha, who had always only respected fists, experienced the strange thrill of being crushed by intellect. Their values had changed drastically, displaying classic black-and-white thinking.
Faced with the admiring Uchiha Guard, Uchiha Qi had also firmly assumed the position of a superior and directly stated his request. Upon hearing it, the guard immediately took action, meticulously conveying Uchiha Qi's will.
The staff outside responsible for the live broadcast soon received the order. They nodded to indicate their understanding, then went to prepare for what came next.
All of this was carried out quietly, without the audience noticing.
At this moment, the viewers had also recovered their senses and focused their attention on the four live feeds.
Although all four feeds had viewers, the most eye-catching one was undoubtedly Minato's Team's broadcast.
This time, it was not only Minato Namikaze who drew attention. More importantly, this team was the most entertaining.
In the game world, after Nohara Rin calmed down Kakashi and Obito, who had nearly come to blows, Minato Namikaze spoke at the right moment and told them to look at a notice hanging nearby.
It contained some simple gameplay instructions, explaining the game's situation to the players. The key point was that their strength had been severely weakened in this game, leaving them only slightly stronger than ordinary people.
Furthermore, due to the story setting—Chakra having been banned by Chimi Moryo's evil power—they could no longer use their former ninja combat methods.
The characters played by the players needed to fight using relatively primitive methods and make flexible use of all kinds of weapons.
At the beginning, they were in a safe room made of dilapidated wooden cabins. Inside were several weapons, including kunai, shuriken, bows, iron rods, katanas, and other weapons, along with Explosive Tags, Molotov cocktails, and other items that could be used as throwables.
Besides that, there were medical kits that could restore health—in this game, every player finally had a clear health bar.
Each person could choose two weapons, carry two throwables, and take one medical kit.
This limit was fixed. No one could take more.
Then, perhaps because he had not understood it or simply had not carefully read the rest, Uchiha Obito watched for a little while before suddenly shouting, "I get it!" He then eagerly went to grab weapons and a medical kit, even fawningly saying that he would help Nohara Rin carry hers too, so she would not have to bear the burden.
As a result, when he picked up the medical kits, he kept picking them up and dropping them. Whenever he already had a medical kit and tried to take another, the old one would fall to the ground.
During this, he even cried out, "What is this? Minato-sensei, is there something wrong with this game? Why does the first medical kit fall out whenever I pick up a second one?"
Seeing this, Minato Namikaze wore an awkward yet polite smile, Nohara Rin looked helpless, while Kakashi said coldly, "You really are a super idiot, you dead last!"
The moment he heard that, Obito exploded again and tried to argue with Kakashi, leading to another round of chaos.
This highly entertaining development naturally drew laughter from the audience. After all, the people in the other teams were all carefully reading the instructions, then carefully selecting weapons and gathering supplies. Their developments were straightforward and uneventful.
It was not that this was bad, but with such a comparison, their watchability was greatly reduced.
The Uchiha Clan members, meanwhile, all darkened their expressions, feeling as if they had been humiliated before all of Konoha. Even if Uchiha Obito had become a different person in the game, he was still an Uchiha! To the proud Uchiha Clan, the audience's laughter was the most humiliating thing possible.
Many Uchiha even activated their Sharingan and stared fixedly at Uchiha Obito in the projected image, wishing they could rush in and thoroughly grind that disgraceful fool into the dirt.
What the Uchiha Clan did not know was that as the live audience laughed and cheered, a brand-new concept—one that had never appeared before—entered people's minds.
"So not every member of the Uchiha Clan looks down on everyone else. Like other Ninja Clans, they have people like Uchiha Obito too—clumsy, and surprisingly down-to-earth."
Yes, because of Obito's public "performance," the Uchiha Clan's eternally aloof image had cracked. A brand-new kind of Uchiha had appeared, making people understand that the Uchiha Clan was not invariably arrogant and insufferable!
Although there was only one Obito, this was the Uchiha Clan. The stereotypes people held about them ran too deep, so when thousands of people witnessed Uchiha Obito's idiotic antics together, the subversion of their image was taken to the extreme.
This was a crack in ordinary people's impression of the Uchiha Clan.
Meanwhile, in the Genjutsu Game, after Minato's Team fussed around for a while, Uchiha Obito finally figured out the matter of picking up items. Feeling embarrassed, Obito immediately settled down, and the group quickly picked up their weapons.
Among them, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin, the two Ninja Academy graduates, chose kunai and shuriken. The use of both weapons had been specifically taught at the Ninja Academy.
As for Minato Namikaze and Kakashi, they chose kunai and katanas, weapons both were skilled with. Kakashi also had the Hatake Clan's inherited swordsmanship. Though Kakashi had learned it poorly because his father had died early, it was still far more natural for him than using other weapons.
After choosing their weapons, the four arrived at the safe room's entrance and opened its door. The name of this trial stage also appeared.
It was written in blood-red letters brimming with the aura of death—Escape to Konoha: Stage 1—The Forest.
This meant that the core mission of this major stage was to escape to Konoha, with the journey divided into several smaller stages. The current stage was called "The Forest," simple and easy to understand, indicating that this stage's map was a forest.
Then the words vanished, and Minato's Team immediately heard low growls coming from the distance. Within their visible range was a forest, with a winding dirt road ahead. The vegetation elsewhere was extremely dense, and strange white mist drifted through it, as if warning them not to go there.
Then, before they could clearly make out the situation, a "person" with crimson eyes, madness and brutality in its gaze, grayish-white skin, ragged clothing, and exposed flesh and even bones in many places rushed out and charged Minato's Team at the full running speed of an ordinary person.
That creature's appearance seemed to be a signal. One after another, similar "people" rushed out. There were men and women among them, but they all shared the same features: completely irrational, unlike living people, and radiating what seemed like the purest hatred for life itself.
"They're living corpses!"
Kakashi let out a low shout at once and raised his hand to throw a shuriken. It directly struck the first living corpse charging at them, easily piercing its chest and leaving a ragged hole.
However, the living corpse only staggered from such an injury before letting out another beastlike roar and continuing its charge.
This situation, where the enemies could not be killed, startled them. However, Minato Namikaze and Kakashi, who had been ninja for a long time, were merely shocked for a moment before throwing themselves back into battle.
Obito and Nohara Rin, the two students who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, were at a loss. Although Obito had already experienced the game once that morning, the Left 4 Dead environment still left his mind buzzing.
The main reason was that those living corpses looked truly horrifying, and the fact that they could not be killed made panic rise uncontrollably in their hearts.
In fact, this reaction was normal. The other three teams had also left their safe rooms, and when they encountered attacks from the living corpses, every one of them panicked badly. The shuriken and kunai they threw, along with the arrows they fired, all missed. In the end, only after the living corpses closed in did they kill them with melee weapons.
Even so, they were attacked by the living corpses, scratched, beaten, and even bitten. They screamed their heads off, putting on an utterly painful display.
By comparison, Minato's Team was in a completely different situation. Although Obito had previously created plenty of entertainment, once they truly started fighting, with Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash, and Kakashi, that genius kid, even their weak bodies could maintain formidable combat ability. Killing living corpses was as easy as chopping melons and vegetables, and they quickly discovered the living corpses' weaknesses.
These living corpses looked terrifying, but their bodies were actually far more fragile than those of ordinary people. Their bodies broke easily under attack, and their heads and spines were weaknesses. As long as their brains were destroyed or their spines broken, the living corpses would die on the spot.
With bodies that were already so fragile, the living corpses were very easy to kill. Even a wooden stick could easily smash in a living corpse's head.
Thus, while the other teams were still desperately fighting the living corpses in panic outside their safe rooms, Minato's Team had already begun its advance.
Before you continue