"What do you think of this?"
Since you asked so sincerely, I'll answer with great mercy~
To save time, Uchiha Xiu immediately pulled out the signature Flash Spirit enhancement the young assassin had chosen in the original timeline and projected it for everyone to see.
"Flash Spirit enhancement gene. The initial exchange costs 800 points and one D-rank side-story. It's a support-type enhancement. The Flash Spirit skill can multiply your speed for ten seconds, or even increase it further, as long as your neural response speed is enough to control it..."
"From there, you can upgrade along the same path, with a corresponding C-rank enhancement."
"Then, by spending one B-rank side-story, you can extend the C-rank Flash Spirit skill's duration from ten seconds to one minute."
"With the remaining resources, you can get a good-value weapon that suits you, plus some crucial defensive equipment."
Later in the original timeline, Zhao Yingkong of the Central Continent Team even developed Vacuum Wave Slash based on her Flash Spirit bloodline.
As for its effect... Uchiha Xiu had now unlocked the Third Stage of the Gene Lock. Recalling it with his mental faculties, it seemed pretty good?
It also provided a degree of mental resistance, helping suppress Inner Demons and psychic enemies.
"Combined with the super-dynamic vision provided by your Sharingan, you'll pick it up in no time."
Unfortunately, Zhao Yingkong merely raised an eyebrow—
"Hmm, it seems all right, and it suits my assassination style. But I heard from Sister Naicai that you said that, if you have a choice, it's actually better to start with a low-rank, D-level enhancement that grows in stages... rather than exchange directly for a higher-rank one."
Huh?
Was that a thing?
Oh, right. I did mention it in passing before, when I was explaining the Gene Lock to Kitagawa and Kobayashi. I said that high-quality bloodlines were expensive for a reason: they could provide some help with unlocking it.
"What about the A-rank Marvel Quicksilver? It's still a speed enhancement, with a particle-phasing ability that lets you pass through walls. Developed far enough, it can even manage short-distance spacetime travel."
"In a team battle, you can instantly kill the enemy's squishy fighters before they get a chance to act, then teleport out of the fight. Combined with my personal Mangekyo eye technique, it's perfect for surprise attacks and finishing off targets."
It was basically an invincible mode you could move around in.
The picture looked great.
As a fragile assassin, you're lucky to be joining my team.
"The drawback is that it doesn't offer much mental resistance, so you'll have to make up for that with items or something else."
Zhao Yingkong pondered that.
At this point, Uchiha Xiu, like an enthusiastic salesman, used his authority as captain to search the highest-level listings and recommend a variety of suitable options:
"Shadow Spider-Man's mutated bloodline. It starts at a B-rank side-story. It awakens the Shadow Stealth skill, comes with a speed boost, and lets you unleash Shadow Devouring to absorb physical and magical attacks, as well as mental assaults."
"Its mental resistance is excellent, and upgrading it to double-A rank grants the protection of the Dark Dimension."
Still, she didn't respond.
For a moment, Uchiha Xiu suddenly thought of Patriarch Bodhi:
"You little monkey, you won't learn this, and you won't learn that. I'll teach you the sting of my ruler!"
No, I mean, I'll beat you with it until you learn!
"What about the Nanaya Clan bloodline from the Type-Moon series? Superfast neural reflexes, Flash Step, and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception."
"The last one isn't unique to Ryougi Shiki."
The bloodline also came with resistance to personality manipulation. That was its most important advantage, but Uchiha Xiu didn't mention it to the girl, in case her other, dormant Fourth Stage personality woke up and started acting up.
Besides, the Eyes of Points and Lines had evolved from the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. The lines of death were easier to see, but less lethal; the points of death required focus to catch, but still had the power to annihilate.
The ability was often a strategic skill for snipers. Paired with weapons like high-vibration particle-cutting daggers, it allowed for efficient destruction by striking weak points.
"The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Ryougi Shiki, huh? And a Sharingan." Zhao Yingkong suddenly picked up on the key words.
As an old-school anime fan, she sometimes felt she was a mash-up of three famous characters: Sasuke Uchiha, Ryougi Shiki, and Killua.
She could find things to relate to in each of them.
But I'm still me!
Zhao Yingkong gobbled down the last of the excessively sweet fruit and said with a serious expression:
"No Type-Moon enhancement..."
Hearing the girl's stubborn voice, Uchiha Xiu sighed helplessly.
Had her primary personality sensed something?
Honestly, that other personality was pretty nasty.
She had a bit of a bratty-little-girl streak.
And she'd fabricated a tragic memory of her clan being massacred for the surface personality currently in control of Zhao Yingkong's body, making her believe she had to grow stronger and avenge herself against her cousin.
Since she hadn't been around for very long, she could hardly be called clever in the way she acted. Sometimes, she could be pretty dense, often getting herself beaten up on a whim. She was basically Sasuke's "Uchiha Sasuke," a walking disaster in the mold of the Sunny Pillar.
"Ah, our captain sure does love everyone. From gentle, white-haired big sisters like Kaguya-hime to baby-faced female assassins with the biggest gap between their looks and personalities—he likes them all."
In the corner,
Watching Uchiha Xiu patiently explain things, Soul Bender Kobayashi Yoshito silently grumbled to himself, then hurriedly lowered his head and got back to eating.
"Become a werewolf." Uchiha Xiu brought out his trump card.
A werewolf?
Shouldn't it be a wolfman?
The East Sea Team's spectators perked up, pulling their attention away from the food on their tables.
Mizutani Akira, the construction worker, was startled. He'd been planning to get a generic fantasy-style, B-rank beastly werewolf bloodline, then enhance his Battle Qi.
Don't let them overlap!
[Mutated Invisible Werewolf Bloodline, from Blood Blockade Battlefront. Whether it's your form, weight, body temperature, sense of touch, scent, or even causality, any attribute belonging to you can have its concentration diluted to the extreme. In other words, it is a special ability that lets you alter yourself within an extremely small range.
You can exist anywhere, while also existing nowhere...]
A new subtitle projection appeared.
"Chain Sumeragi?" The anime fan Zhao Yingkong tilted her head, picturing a city woman with short black hair and a suit.
"That's right!"
Uchiha Xiu snapped his fingers.
"In the anime, this conceptual ability is nearly unbeatable, but it has one fatal flaw: there's a limit to how much of yourself you can erase from the world."
"If you exceed that limit, the rules of the world will assume you've disappeared. Your memories, your actions—everything about you will be erased from the world."
"It's a little like the White Whale in Re:Zero, and you have to use the talismans from the anime with it."
"Mm-hmm." Zhao Yingkong nodded eagerly, clearly interested.
The talismans recorded the werewolves' "obsessions," their most precious possessions. If a werewolf vanished from overusing her ability, something recorded on the talisman could be used to call her back to the world.
"But after the Main God improved it, that fatal weakness was gone."
"The downside is that it's expensive."
"Of course, that's not the Great Light Sphere's fault. It's the reincarnators'."
"It starts at two B-rank side-stories and 8,000 points, and greatly enhances all attributes. It also comes with two starting skills. The actual effect... really depends on the user's development and compatibility."
[Skill One: Gravity Elimination]
[Eliminates your weight, makes you immune to fall damage, and frees you from gravity's restraints, allowing you to jump, fly freely, and move at high speed with phase blurring.]
[Skill Two: Figure Erasure]
[Skill description: By eliminating your interaction with various waves, including light, as well as energy reflection, you can achieve complete invisibility at most.]
"The two abilities are paradoxical in nature. You can use that property to develop all kinds of techniques during your downtime."
"For example, you could erase as much of your existence as possible and shift into a quantum-entangled state. To anyone who can't observe you, your existence would be impossible to determine—which means they couldn't attack you."
"An alternate version of Kamui? The ceiling and the floor depend entirely on you. You could be a total flop or a god."
"The ideal template is a top-class assassin and an unbeatable scout."
"My personal summary: this bloodline breaks through biological and physical limitations and directly affects causality."
—It could erase her bratty inner personality and absorb it completely, taking control in the process.
—If she didn't want a conflict, she could dilute her current personality.
Well, it would also make suicide convenient.
Fight to the very end, then slit your own throat and go to heaven?
The plaza fell silent.
There was no single perfect answer when it came to enhancements, but every option Uchiha Xiu had given her was guaranteed to have a decent baseline. None of them would leave her stuck with a useless enhancement.
Zhao Yingkong linked her will to the Main God and quickly found all the relevant options through a targeted search.
The furrow in her brow gradually relaxed.
"All right. I choose the werewolf." Her expression was resolute. "Paired with specific assassination tools and by developing my own potential, it'll work well."
A pillar of enhancement light descended!
Uchiha Xiu quietly let out a breath. This enhancement hadn't appeared in the original story.
I hope you can take it to new heights...
"Not a physical, beastly werewolf. Heh, no overlap." Mizutani Akira, who saw himself as a tough, explosive Battle Qi fighter, was secretly delighted.
At that moment, gentle streams of light wrapped around Zhao Yingkong.
The original power of a hidden race from another world flowed down the pillar of light and merged with her soul, slowly reshaping her bloodline.
The Invisible Werewolf wasn't a savage beast or a Western fantasy wolf. It was a ghostly, humanoid subspecies that commanded concealment of existence, intangibility of mass, and freedom from conceptual constraints. It was naturally hidden from the world and, in its normal state, indistinguishable from an ordinary person. It had no beastly transformation or visible signs of mutation.
Still, beast-eared girls did seem pretty nice.
Uchiha Xiu stroked his chin and looked up, admiring the entire process of the young assassin's transformation.
Kaguya-hime quietly stayed by his side, not the least bit jealous.
She had the air of a proper wife.
When the pillar of enhancement light faded, the gravity binding her body was immediately stripped away. Zhao Yingkong remained suspended in the air, weightless and unsupported, quiet and light.
A faint, misty blur surrounded the edges of her silhouette. A few strands of translucent, intangible hair curled around her earlobes.
It was the unique sign of her diluted presence.
"So she has talent, huh?"
At Uchiha Xiu's murmur, the assassin girl disappeared!
Where'd she go?
Kobayashi Yoshito focused all his senses.
Unfortunately, the knife vanished along with her and instantly appeared at his neck. The Soul Bender still couldn't sense her and kept looking around.
Zhao Yingkong's prank ended moments later.
He was a teammate now.
The kind she'd worked well with in the cursed battlefield of Cairo.
A pseudo-teleport over fifty meters!
A hazy silhouette gradually appeared in front of Uchiha Xiu. Seeing the man stare straight at her, the girl couldn't help feeling a flash of disappointment and frustration.
It had been like this the first time they met, too.
She'd hidden behind a low sand mound after compressing her body as much as she could, and suppressed her heartbeat until it was barely detectable. Yet he'd still picked her up from behind like a kitten.
In Uchiha Xiu's eyes, however, Zhao Yingkong's current weightless, floating posture had a strikingly soft and adorable contrast to her usual appearance.
—Under the bloodline's properties, the killing intent she'd once carried had become empty.
Good.
Killing intent that was sharp enough to be sensed wasn't a good thing.
"How many years have you even been in the Main God Space?"
The seasoned veteran in him surfaced at once.
Meeting the girl's gaze, Xiu couldn't help teasing her. "If I let you put a knife to my neck just like that, wouldn't I be a disgrace to every captain at my level?"
"Get used to it and learn how to develop the ability. You're still a long way off. Once we're back from farming points, I'll take you to fight in the Ninja World and temper yourself fast."
"The unified war over there is about to begin. The flames of war will soon sweep across the Naruto World."
"Okay." Zhao Yingkong pressed her lips together slightly, then quietly added, "Thanks."
As she spoke, a dagger appeared in the werewolf girl's hand.
The handle was decorated with skulls.
When the energy circuits that came with her bloodline flowed into it, black hellfire immediately ignited along the blade.
"Fang of Netherfire. Feed it any kind of energy, and it can produce hellfire that deals special damage to any soul."
"The weapon itself is sharp and sturdy enough, too. It can tear through targets with powerful bodies."
Two D-rank side-stories plus 2,000 points. In the original story, Fang of Netherfire had been Zhao Yingkong's regular weapon for a long time. It had seen plenty of battles, offering excellent value for its cost, until it was replaced by the Sword of Victory and Covenant.
So she really did love it that much.
"All right. You can decide what to do from here."
An individual's exchange choices were inherently tied to the realm of the mind.
At most, Uchiha Xiu could point them in a general direction.
Even if something was powerful enough to turn you into a wheelchair, a reincarnator might still resist it mentally, dislike it, and have no desire or ideas for developing it. Whether it could play a crucial role would still be a big question mark.
Just like when Brother Jie of the Central Continent Team recommended a few practical items and enhancements for Zheng Zha to consider for the Xenomorph trial. The gorilla had immediately chosen a vampire enhancement paired with inner power, then been so happy he didn't mind getting stuck with it and went straight to the opposite extreme!
Oh, and the Spatial Ring, too.
"I wonder what two abilities you'll awaken when you cheaply fuse with the Uchiha Bloodline, awaken the Sharingan, and advance to the Mangekyo."
"The chakra it produces is basically a universal energy, so you don't need to worry about it clashing with the werewolf's energy cycle."
As he spoke, Uchiha Xiu turned to the three remaining members who hadn't chosen their paths.
"Battle Wolf. I like the Western setting."
"Sure."
Mizutani Akira eagerly announced his preferred choice. He had a whole list of reasons prepared:
A technique that excelled at close-range bursts.
Tough enough to take hits.
Decent mental resistance.
He hadn't expected the captain to agree so readily.
Now the construction worker was at a loss, wondering whether it was sincere or reverse psychology.
"The combination formula looks good. Nothing wrong with it. How far you take it afterward depends on how you develop it." Uchiha Xiu rubbed his brow. He hadn't even gotten more than a couple of bites of food down.
Just as he'd said, no matter how the times changed, the Battle Wolf School had always held a place among the old hands on the Infinite Flow forum. Its effectiveness had been proven time and again.
"Then I'll choose the Warhammer Eldar Bloodline."
Honda Yui, whose brain worked differently from ordinary people's and who was clearly a special boon the Main God had granted the East Sea Team, said something astonishing.
Damn, going that big?
The setting of the next horror film would obviously be a major hurdle for a mental powerhouse, and the Aeldari were prone to attracting trouble in the first place.
Before you continue