"Why stop me? It's a genjutsu experiment. Wouldn't it be perfect to use Fugaku?"
"There's no need for that anymore."
Genie raised a hand and swept it aside. A transparent screen appeared before Orochimaru. "Take another look at the soul strength stat."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. If he remembered correctly, the value hadn't been this high before. It had increased by a full fifth.
After thinking it over, Orochimaru spoke with a hint of uncertainty. "Didn't you say soul strength was a universal metric across all worlds, and highly accurate?"
A fifth was a massive error. It was enough to make Orochimaru treat Genie's stat panel as nothing more than a piece of scrap paper.
"What are you talking about?"
Genie replied irritably, "That's not an error on my part. Your soul strength has genuinely increased. Think carefully about what you just did."
Orochimaru furrowed his brow and thought back. Suddenly, his expression changed.
A stat as important as soul strength surely couldn't improve just by trading barbs with people in the Medical Room. And in the time before this, he had only done one thing.
"Looks like you've figured it out, too."
Genie leaned forward slightly, a playful smile on his face. "The Cursed Seal—or rather, the method you use to divide your Chakra—has somehow split your soul as well."
If that was the case, then his low soul strength was something he had developed after birth.
Orochimaru's brow furrowed deeply. He remained silent.
"I've seen a fair bit, and by rights, at your current level of life, merely splitting your soul should be impossible. Even the slightest damage to it would most likely leave you a vegetable. So how exactly did you manage it?"
Genie stroked his chin and looked Orochimaru up and down. "Oh, you don't know. Then