Task Manager

Pain was his final memory.

A sharp, agonizing pain struck the back of his neck as if someone had slammed a hammer down, and Sawada Hiroki's consciousness plunged into darkness in an instant.

He felt his body go limp, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.

When his consciousness coalesced once more, Sawada Hiroki found himself suspended in an endless, deep blue space.

Before him was the familiar loading screen that had accompanied him for nine years, but now, it had been completely refreshed. A minimalist desktop had replaced the unchanging progress bar. In the top left corner were a few clear icons: [My Computer (Sawada Hiroki)], [Recycle Bin], and [Network].

Was this the true face of the cheat that had been trolling him for nine years? A personal computer built into his soul?

What use was a computer?

Before Sawada Hiroki could even complain about this overly retro interface, a blurred voice was "played" directly into his consciousness through some unknown channel.

"...Hurry up! Konoha ninjas could catch up at any moment!" a hoarse voice said.

"What should we do with this brat?" another voice asked.

"What else? Take him near the border and finish him off; we can't leave any traces. He's just dead weight."

It was those Cloud Ninja! A bone-chilling cold instantly gripped Sawada Hiroki's consciousness.

He was about to be silenced! He frantically tried to regain control of his body, just like someone desperately shaking a mouse in front of a computer to wake up a frozen screen.

But these actions only yielded a prompt: [Control Panel is not responding. Wait for response?]

Hm?

Control Panel is not responding?

What did that mean?

Damn it! Sawada Hiroki forced himself to calm down; his only reliance now was this "computer" that had just booted up.

Wait, could his cheat be treating his body like a running computer?

Sawada Hiroki "clicked" on [My Computer] with his mind, and a window popped up, displaying several disk partitions: [C: Drive (System)], [D: Drive (Memory)].

But they were completely empty; clearly, there were no usable applications inside.

Damn it.

However, his theory had been partially validated.

--[D: Drive (Memory)] seemed to be the place where his memories were stored.

His cheat seemed to define him as a [Personal Computer].

? Then what was the point of this? Was there any way to quickly regain control of his body?

Sawada Hiroki didn't have time to look closely. He frowned and immediately focused his attention on the taskbar of the desktop. He needed a more powerful tool. He thought of the function that had saved him from the brink of a system crash countless times in his past life.

"Ctrl+Alt+Delete!"

He shouted this sacred combination of keys in his mind with all his might.

Hum--!

The deep blue desktop switched instantly, and a concise, efficient window popped up.

[Sawada Hiroki - Task Manager]

In the window, under the [Processes] tab, lines of data were refreshing at high speed.

| Process Name | CPU Usage | Memory Usage | Status | |---|---|---|---| | Fear.exe | 75% | 2048MB | Running | | SharpPain_Neck.log | 15% | 512MB | Running | | BodyControlPanel.exe | 5% | 1024MB | Not Responding | | Dizziness.dll | 3% | 258MB | Running | | SurvivalInstinct.sys | 1% | 64MB | Running | | Consciousness.bat | 1% | 32MB | Running | | ... | ... | ... | ... |

Found it! Sawada Hiroki's consciousness became clearer than ever before.

Yes, his guess was correct; his cheat had broken his body down into a computer, and his various states were broken down into programs.

This also meant that he seemed to have absolute administrative control over his own body.

Sawada Hiroki quickly scanned through the Task Manager, and the problem was clear at a glance.

The process named Fear.exe was eating up almost all of his "CPU" resources, causing the BodyControlPanel.exe responsible for physical movement to fall into a "Not Responding" crash state.

Meanwhile, processes like pain and trembling were constantly consuming his "memory," making his thoughts sluggish.

He couldn't wait any longer! He had to manually optimize the system and reclaim his permissions!

And then, regain control of his body.

Hiroki's consciousness transformed into a mouse cursor, precisely selecting Fear.exe.

"End process!"

[Are you sure you want to end the process "Fear.exe"? Ending this process may cause system instability.]

"Confirm!"

He did not hesitate for a single moment.

The instant he clicked [Confirm], a stream of icy cold seemed to surge from the depths of his soul, washing over his entire body in an instant.

The palpitations of his heart threatening to burst from his chest, the freezing sensation of his blood congealing, and the overwhelming panic of facing death were cut short, like an appliance being unplugged from its power source.

In their place was an absolute, almost terrifying, sense of calm.

The CPU usage plummeted from 99% to below 20% in an instant.

"It works!"

Hiroki felt a surge of mental clarity and immediately followed suit.

Select Dizziness.dll -> [End process] -> [Confirm].

The dizziness and headache caused by the heavy blow to his body vanished.

Select SharpPain_BackOfNeck.log -> [End process] -> [Confirm].

The excruciating pain at the back of his neck, which had been enough to cloud his consciousness, was blocked. The pain signals were still being sent, but the program processing them had been shut down; it could no longer affect Hiroki's core consciousness.

Now, only the last one remained, the most critical one of all.

Hiroki's mental cursor hovered over that "Not Responding" BodyControlPanel.exe. He took a deep breath and selected [End task].

[Attempting to end this task...]

The deep blue space before his eyes instantly turned pitch black. All sensory input—the feeling of being carried on a shoulder, the whistling wind in his ears, the rough texture of fabric against his skin—vanished entirely.

It was as if he had been stripped of everything, sinking into an endless void.

But that azure system remained before his eyes; the external signals and the control over his own body seemed to have been temporarily terminated by his own hand.

[Desktop Window Manager has stopped working and has been closed]

Hiroki took a deep breath. If his judgment was correct, then all he had to do next was restart the control panel, and he would regain control of his body!

[Launching "BodyControlPanel.exe"...]

A faint glimmer of perception, like pixels lighting up in the dark, began to converge once more.

He could feel himself being carried on someone's shoulder, jolting violently with the other person's running. The rough fabric of a vest rubbed against his cheek, stinging slightly.

He could hear the wind, and the heavy, labored breathing of the Cloud Ninja carrying him.

"That guy... did he move just now?" the Cloud Ninja carrying Hiroki suddenly spoke.

"Impossible. I hit him hard enough to keep him unconscious until tomorrow morning," another voice came from nearby, clearly the leader.

"It might have been an unconscious twitch from the jolting. Still, just to be safe..." the leader's voice turned cold, "Find an opportunity later and give him another hard one to make sure he doesn't wake up and cause trouble."

Another hard one?!

Having just reconnected to the body control panel, alarm bells rang in Hiroki's mind. He had already mobilized every ounce of his remaining strength, preparing to drive the muscles in his fingers—even if it was just a twitch, he had to find an opening.

But the other man's words were like a bucket of ice water poured over him.

If he opened his eyes now or made any move to resist, the only outcome would be being knocked out even harder, or perhaps even being disposed of entirely. The others were experienced ninjas; as a student who couldn't even master the Body Flicker Technique, he had no chance of winning against them.

What should he do?

Hiroki made a decision in an instant, his consciousness sinking back into the system.

Generally, computers have power supplies! And within the power settings...

[Start] menu -> [Settings] -> [Power Options].

A familiar window popped up.

◎Recommended: [Balanced Mode] (Automatically balances performance and energy consumption)

○[High Performance Mode] (Prioritizes performance, but consumes more energy)

●[Power Saver/Low Performance Mode] (Conserves energy by reducing system performance)

This was it!

Could Low Performance Mode allow him to disguise himself as being in sleep mode? Hiroki wasn't sure, but it was the only thing he could think of right now!

Hiroki activated [Low Performance Mode] without hesitation.

[After switching to Low Performance Mode, the system will close non-essential background activities, limit maximum CPU frequency, and reduce sensory input/output refresh rates to maximize runtime. Confirm?]

"Confirm!"

Before the Cloud Ninja carrying him could stop to check his condition, Hiroki completed the switch.

In an instant, his entire "system" seemed to enter standby mode. His heart rate was forcibly lowered to an extremely low level, and his breathing became faint and long, almost imperceptible.

All commands attempting to mobilize his muscles were flagged by the system as "high-energy activities" and automatically intercepted.

From the outside, he appeared to be a severely wounded patient in a deep coma with weak vital signs, looking even more realistic than his previous "unconscious" state.

"See? Nothing to worry about." The lead Cloud Ninja checked Sawada Hiroki's pulse and breathing, saying impatiently, "Stop being so paranoid and pick up the pace! We must leave the border of the Land of Fire before dawn!"

The crisis was temporarily averted.

Sawada Hiroki's consciousness, like a ghost lurking in the deepest recesses of the system, calmly observed everything. He could not control his body, but his mind was more active than ever before.

In Low Performance Mode, the only thing he could do was think and receive information.

Amidst the swaying of his body, his arm was pressed tightly against the back of the Cloud Ninja carrying him.

Just then, an unexpected pop-up window appeared in the bottom right corner of his conscious desktop.

[Ding-dong~]

[Detected another connectable computer "Sakuchi", temporary connection established via "Chakra Communication Protocol".]

[Open and view files?]

Sawada Hiroki's consciousness jolted violently.

This... is actually possible?!

Physical contact was actually judged by the system as a data cable connection?!

Is "Sakuchi" the name of this Cloud Ninja carrying him? Can he actually see his real name directly?

Almost trembling, he used his thoughts to select [Yes].

A brand-new window popped up, titled [Sakuchi (C1:) System Disk], with another below it labeled [Sakuchi (D1:) Memory Disk].

Inside the window, dense folders and files were listed, and the file names made his breath hitch.

[Folder: Insights on Cloud Flow Sword Technique]

[Folder: Lightning Style Ninjutsu Training Notes]

[Folder: Assassination and Stealth Techniques]

[File: Chakra Nature Transformation (Lightning) Beginner to Master.zip]

[File: Cloud Ninja Style Taijutsu.zip]

[File: Lightning Style: False Darkness.exe]

[File: Sensory Ninjutsu.dat]

This... this is a Cloud Ninja's life-long accumulation! It is the very foundation of a ninja's livelihood!

Sawada Hiroki's heart—no, his lurking consciousness—began to beat wildly. If he could copy all of this, could he transform from a ninja apprentice into a Cloud Ninja overnight?

The hope for a breakthrough was right before his eyes!

Without the slightest hesitation, he used his thoughts to press [Ctrl+A] to select all, followed by [Ctrl+C] to copy.

Immediately after, he opened his own [D Disk (Memory Disk)], created a new folder named [Ninjutsu Backup], and slammed his thoughts down on [Ctrl+V] to paste!

A file transfer progress bar window popped up immediately.

[Calculating required time and space...]

[Total files: 128,562, Total size: 3.2GB]

[Copying files from other computer (Sakuchi) D1 Disk (Memory Disk) to My Computer (Sawada Hiroki) D Disk (Memory Disk): Ninjutsu Backup]

[Remaining files: 128,562]

|Transfer Speed|Remaining Time|Estimated Power Consumption|

|---|---|---|

| 1.5KB/s | Approx. 25 days | 1285.7% |

Below the progress bar, a line of glaring red warning text made his heart sink.

[Warning: Currently in "Low Performance Mode", data transfer speed is severely restricted. The transfer process will continuously consume core power. It is estimated that in 23 hours, system power will fall below the 10% threshold required to maintain vital signs. Please proceed with caution!]

25 days?! Are you kidding me! He wouldn't even survive for 25 hours!