Nightmare of the Unlucky

After sending the troublesome fellow away, Baiyu carefully counted the one million ryo in banknotes.

Over and over again, tirelessly.

He savored the crisp scent of every single bill.

He drifted off into a dreamland filled with endless fantasies.

The next morning, before dawn had even broken.

Baiyu rose on time, washed up, and with a piece of bread clamped in his mouth, he trudged toward the training grounds with sleepy, bleary eyes.

Day after day of dull, repetitive training, sustained only by his persistent tenacity.

"Five years in the Naruto World, and I can confirm that Konoha at four in the morning is incredibly boring."

After finishing the entire piece of bread, Baiyu finally shook off his grogginess, his entire being refreshed and radiating a rich sense of vitality.

He gripped the ninja sword he had seized from the Kirigakure ninja, muttering to himself about the training plan he was about to undertake.

This sword was slightly longer than a standard ninja short sword; it was a replacement Baiyu had selected from among several Kirigakure ninja.

Because they lacked flexibility, they were mostly used by samurai, and few ninjas in other villages used such long blades.

Due to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Kirigakure had more long swords than other villages.

This kind of contemplation had already become a habit.

He had to complete his daily training plan without fail.

"The first phase of the plan is complete; eighty thousand draws left to reach one hundred thousand! But... it seems the system has unlocked some new gadget?"

When Baiyu arrived at the training ground, he finally remembered that some new function had appeared during the battle.

He opened the system panel, searched through it carefully, and discovered a sub-menu.

"A lottery? What kind of flashy nonsense is this? Why not just teach me how to practice swordsmanship properly!"

Baiyu didn't care much for this new function.

Since he was a child, he had harbored a dream of being a wandering swordsman, a dream that shattered as he grew up and the wuxia genre declined.

Now that he had transmigrated and could learn powerful swordsmanship, it wasn't just about the desire to become stronger, but also about that dusty dream deep within his heart.

"I want to be a swordsman; lotteries and such are secondary!"

Baiyu ignored the new system and was about to close it when a new prompt box suddenly popped up on the system panel.

"Notice: The first lottery draw enjoys a 50% discount and comes with a bonus card that grants a 50% chance to draw an S-rank reward. If closed, the benefit will disappear."

"This... I'll just take a look to see if there's anything related to swordsmanship in there!"

Baiyu fell into a difficult choice for a moment, but finally decided to take a look before making a decision.

The system should be well-intentioned, right?

"Five thousand sword draws for one lottery attempt; at half price, that's about twenty-five hundred. If I can hit an S-rank reward, it's definitely a huge profit! Let's do it!"

Baiyu gritted his teeth, selected the lottery option, and used the bonus card.

Where is the half-price card?

The moment this doubt flashed through his mind, the draw had already begun.

An incredibly massive roulette wheel appeared in the system space, divided into five major categories.

Weapons, Swordsmanship, Breathing Techniques, Items, and Special.

The wheel stopped, and after the pointer landed on the Special category, a smaller roulette wheel appeared and began to spin.

Various names were written on the small wheel, but they were too small to read clearly.

He could only see the colors of the items: white, green, blue, purple, and gold.

"Gold makes up nearly half, so the rewards should be quite ordinary. Next are white and green, then blue. There are only two purple ones; those must be the S-rank rewards!"

"Given the system's nature, that 50% chance card probably means adding 50% to the original base rate. If there was one, now there are two... the possibility of the wheel becoming half S-rank rewards... the system wouldn't do business at a loss!"

"That's impossible! But usually, gold is the best stuff... does the system not like gold?"

"I hope to defy the heavens and change my fate, to draw an S-rank reward! Go, go, go!"

As the small wheel spun, many thoughts flashed through Baiyu's mind, his heart pounding wildly.

This lottery process was much more exciting than training.

"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining an A-rank special item. It has been sent to your system space."

"..."

"I'm never drawing again!"

Baiyu stared at the pointer resting on the purple section and swore.

Judging by the result, it shouldn't be bad.

But looking at the lottery process, Baiyu felt that his "non-chief" luck hadn't been washed away at all.

Even transmigrating couldn't wash away his inherent bad luck!!!

"Purple is actually A-rank, so gold must be the legendary S-rank? It took up half the wheel and I didn't even land on it, what a load of crap!"

"And... why did you deduct five thousand for a fifty percent discount! Don't you know how to draw a line through the original price of ten thousand in your system????"

The calm mindset cultivated through sword practice was always disrupted whenever he encountered the system.

Though Baiyu claimed he wouldn't look, he couldn't help but sneak a few glances. Curiosity was human nature.

"A letter from Shinobu Kocho? That's a strange item name. Who is Shinobu Kocho?"

Baiyu muttered to himself, wondering why the system had classified this item as purple A-rank.

In his past life, he had never watched Demon Slayer, so he knew nothing about this person named Shinobu Kocho.

Since it came from the Sword God System, the reward should be related to swordsmanship!

Every sword technique required a massive investment of time to master.

After years of training, Baiyu had practiced nothing but drawing his blade, and only then did his speed reach its current level.

His fastest speed reached two strikes per second without causing muscle damage.

When practicing, he maintained an average speed of roughly one strike every 2.4 seconds.

Maintaining this speed for continuous draws would not harm his muscles.

At the same time, it allowed him to conserve enough stamina to prevent unexpected incidents.

This was the experience Baiyu had gained as he grew more accustomed to the practice.

Over the course of a morning, without resting for eight hours from 4:30 to 12:30, he could complete approximately twelve thousand draws.

It sounded like he could complete the second stage of the mission in four days!

Does that make training sound simple?

That's nonsense! Training cannot be calculated using such data.

Baiyu had discovered his limit: he could maintain a 2.5-second draw for one hour, after which it would drop to five seconds per strike; after another half hour, it would become ten seconds, and after one or two more hours of practice, he would be forced to rest.

Otherwise, he would end up in the hospital, spending a fortune on medical experts to recover from muscle strain.

These were all lessons learned through blood and tears.

"Ever since I became a ninja, my speed has improved significantly."

Baiyu sighed. During his initial training, ten thousand draws had felt like a giant boulder pressing against his chest.

After taking a deep breath, Baiyu reopened the system panel and entered the system space, finding an item radiating a purple glow lying quietly within.

The moment he took the item out and held it in his hand, the surrounding environment underwent a sudden, drastic change.

System default activation!

Rays of light emerged, and the scene before his eyes transformed into something else entirely.

The Konoha training ground had turned into a dilapidated village.

There was no sign of life in the village, only the scent of blood everywhere.

Every sign indicated that this was no longer the Naruto World.

Baiyu's eyes shifted, his Sharingan manifesting as he scanned the area, spotting a living person beside a mound of earth.

(PS: This is a special item effect, not a transmigration.)