The One Who Died Is Your...

Konoha Year 36, May 5.

The East Sea, the Land of Whirlpools, the ruins of Uzushio Village, the Mask Storage Hall.

Since the Little Tanuki Beast wouldn't leave the Mask Storage Hall even in its sleep, and kept its eyes on Akaseki to make sure he didn't wander too far away, Akaseki stayed inside while Minato and Ranwu remained on the island, each going about their own training.

Akaseki had nothing else to do, so he figured he might as well watch another one...

"Jiraiya-sensei said the Little Tanuki Beast should be recovering and wouldn't keep asking me to provide it with 'power.' But I have no idea how many [Big Red Bites] it'll need..."

Akaseki thought this over, then looked at the masks in the Mask Storage Hall and decided to pick some shorter shows first. That way, he could sell a few more masks!

Once he had some money, he could buy [Big Red Bite] again—things he'd bought before could be purchased again directly, sometimes even at a discount. It made Akaseki wonder if this thing was really being sold at a discount...

To make sure it really was a "short" show, Akaseki painfully spent 9.98 and opened the on-demand page.

A dazzling list appeared before him...

Ten Thousand Iron Cavalry Ordered Back to Capital<Returned from the Dead in a Coffin, Only to Find My Wife Remarried That Very Day><After I Died, My Memories Were Revealed and the Empress Went Mad with Regret>...

Some of those titles alone were enough to make his scalp tingle!

Akaseki quickly looked away and sorted the list by runtime. The result was...

The shortest one was still eight hours!

"Why are they called short shows? Is it because... the Demon Gods have too much free time?" Akaseki muttered.

At the same time, Akaseki noticed a pattern. The short shows usually had very direct titles, while the longer ones gave no clue what they were about just from the title, like Family Happiness...

"Huh? Why is this one so short?" Akaseki said, noticing a strange show.

Its immersion time was also the shortest—eight hours—but its playback time was short too, only ninety-six hours!

The other shows with eight hours of immersion time all had playback runtimes of several hundred hours. They compressed time through the difference between the viewer's consciousness and the real world, but this show was actually the shortest!

"Short is good, short is good..." Akaseki decided this was the one!

Since he was only trying to unlock the "Liu Liu" feature as quickly as possible, Akaseki decided to go easy on himself, too.

[The short show The One Who Died Is Your Mom will now play. Runtime: 96 hours. Non-members may watch for a total of 8 hours...]

Well, the title was certainly direct. Akaseki suspected it might be a story about someone losing their mother.

Since Akaseki was an orphan himself, he didn't think he'd have much of a reaction.

[Default access to "Hypothalamus" control granted. "Hippocampus" and "Amygdala" control access automatically enabled...]

[Refuse!]

Hong Yan, the live-in son-in-law of Shen Qingqing, a doctor from a wealthy family.

That day, Shen Qingqing once again used overtime as an excuse to meet her first love, An Ruhai...

Akaseki had just immersed himself in the show and was doing chores when he suddenly noticed his wife's work ID on the table.

Akaseki: ...

To put it in ninja terms, it was like a ninja saying he was going on a mission, then leaving without his forehead protector!

Needless to say, the mission was obviously a lie.

"Xiaoyan, where did Qingqing go?"

"Ah... Mom, the hospital had an emergency, so Qingqing went to work."

"Hey, I saw you put it away just now... What a disgrace!"

"Mom, Qingqing was just having a little fun. She was probably only meeting a friend..."

"What friend? The one surnamed An, that's who! Honestly... I never should've let you marry Qingqing..."

"Why would you say that? If you and Uncle hadn't paid for my university education, I'd still be in the mountains! And you even covered my mother's medical expenses..."

"When Qingqing gets back, I'll talk some sense into her... She can't think that just because her father's gone, no one can discipline her! If she does anything else that brings shame on the family, I'll cut ties with her!"

"Mom, don't say things you don't mean..."

That scene had told Akaseki most of what he needed to know about the main characters.

The protagonist had married into his benefactor's family to repay a debt of gratitude and ended up with the benefactor's daughter. After they married, his wife kept getting entangled with her first love and showed him very little respect.

Hmm...

This time, Akaseki felt nothing at all.

What was there to complain about? He was repaying a debt of gratitude, after all.

Besides, his wife's family seemed to be a major clan, while the protagonist... wasn't even a commoner.

This "debt of gratitude" wasn't a bad deal. All he had to do was avoid getting emotionally attached. If things really didn't work out, he could leave after the old lady died... What was a few years lost, if it was for the sake of "repaying a debt"?

From Akaseki's point of view, he ought to be willing to lay down his life for them. This "debt of gratitude" was even more generous than it needed to be.

Just then, the story took a turn.

When Shen Qingqing once again left for "overtime" without her work ID, her mother called her, only to be brushed off and hung up on again.

Just as Hong Yan was comforting her, the old lady suddenly suffered a medical emergency...

After she was taken to the hospital, the staff recognized her as Dr. Shen's mother and said Dr. Shen was the only one there who could perform the operation.

Akaseki had been puzzled at first. So far, the story didn't seem to be raising his blood pressure much.

"Dr. Shen, your mother's ill. Get back to the hospital!"

"What? How could my mother suddenly be ill?"

"Hurry up, your husband's frantic..."

"Oh, so they put you up to saying this too?"

Akaseki: ???

"Ah? What are you talking about? Just hurry to the hospital!"

"Enough, Vice President. Spare me the act. Tell them to stop wasting their effort. I'm just out having a meal with a friend. Why drag the hospital into this?"

Akaseki: ???

"You... Shen Qingqing! As your vice president, I order you to—"

Beep beep beep—

Akaseki: ???

All right, all right. There it was—that familiar feeling. Here we go again, huh?

"She actually blocked me..."

"I'll call her. Dr. Shen will believe me... Dr. Shen, please come back right away. Your husband's frantic..."

"What's he so frantic about? Men shouldn't be so petty. And now he's even making up stories about my mom being sick."

"I'm not making it up... Hello?"

Beep beep beep—

"No good. She blocked me too."

Akaseki: ...

The first hour of immersion ended.

When Akaseki's emotions returned, he felt like laughing in anger. He hadn't even had a checkup, but he knew his "Overspread Burning" had definitely taken another hit!

At the same time, this time's "GG" was a little different...

[Dash at top speed and embrace the thrill of the chase! Temple Run invites you to try it out...]

This time, Akaseki wasn't rewarded with a trial of some kind. He appeared directly in a magnificent but ruined structure.

"Why is the immersion reward another immersion?" Akaseki felt his heart clench. What was this, some kind of endless hell?

The next moment, a monster suddenly appeared behind Akaseki!

Akaseki tried to form hand seals, but a prompt appeared...

"I can only run? Fine..." Akaseki said, then started sprinting forward.

It wasn't just about his speed. He also had to dodge obstacles and master other parkour techniques.

More importantly...

As he ran, Akaseki realized his physical abilities were an exact copy of his real body. He simply couldn't use ninjutsu. The one difference was his stamina: it wouldn't decrease, so he could run forever.

Meanwhile, the humanoid monster behind him had about the same physical abilities as Akaseki. He suspected that wasn't a coincidence; the monster might have been designed based on his own abilities, too.

Akaseki: ...

Once he realized this "reward" wasn't useless—at the very least, it could help him train his "obstacle-avoidance running" skills—Akaseki settled down and began training...