After seeing the troublesome fellow off, Baiyu carefully counted the one million ryo in cash.
Over and over again, without tiring.
Savoring the fresh scent of each bill.
He drifted off to sleep, lost in endless daydreams.
The next morning, before dawn,
Baiyu got up on time. After washing up, he headed for the training ground, a piece of bread in his mouth and his eyes still bleary with sleep.
The monotonous training went on day after day, sustained by sheer perseverance.
"After five years in the Naruto World, I can confirm that Konoha at four in the morning is incredibly dull."
After finishing the whole piece of bread, Baiyu finally shook off his grogginess. He felt completely refreshed, brimming with energy.
Holding the Ninja Blade he had taken from the Mist Ninja, he reviewed the training plan he was about to follow.
This Ninja Blade was a little longer than an ordinary ninja's short sword. Baiyu had picked it out from among the weapons of several Mist Ninja as a replacement.
It wasn't very nimble, so it was mostly used by samurai. Few ninjas from the villages used such long blades.
Kirigakure had more long blades than other villages because of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
Thinking this way had become a habit.
He had to complete that day's training plan every day.
"The first phase is complete. I've got eighty thousand draws left before I reach one hundred thousand! But... didn't the system unlock some kind of new feature?"
By the time Baiyu reached the training ground, he finally remembered that some new function had appeared during the fight.
He opened the system panel and searched it carefully, discovering a submenu.
"Lottery? What's with all this flashy nonsense? Just teach me how to use a sword!"
Baiyu wasn't too fond of the new feature.
He'd dreamed of becoming a wandering swordsman since he was a child, but that dream had faded as he grew up and wuxia fell out of fashion.
Now that he'd transmigrated and could learn powerful swordsmanship, it wasn't just about getting stronger. It was also a chance to revive the dream buried in his heart.
"I'm going to be a swordsman. The lottery is just a sideshow!"
Baiyu ignored the new system feature and was about to close it when a new prompt suddenly popped up on the panel.
"Attention: Your first draw is half price, and comes with one Enchantment Card that gives you a 50% chance of drawing an S-rank reward. Close this window, and the offer will disappear."
"Uh... I'll just take a look and see if there's anything about swordsmanship in there!"
Baiyu struggled to decide, then finally chose to have a look.
The system was probably just trying to help, right?
"One draw costs five thousand sword swings. At half price, that's about two thousand five hundred. If I get an S-rank reward, it'll be a huge bargain! Let's do it!"
Baiyu gritted his teeth, selected the lottery, and used the Enchantment Card.
Where was the half-price card?
The moment the question crossed his mind, the draw had already begun.
An enormous wheel appeared in the system space, divided into several categories.
Weapons, swordsmanship, Breathing Style, items, and special rewards.
The wheel stopped with the pointer on "Special," and a smaller wheel appeared and began to spin.
All sorts of names were written on it, but it was too small to make them out.
He could only see the colors of the rewards: white, green, blue, purple, and gold.
"Almost half of them are gold, so the rewards should be pretty ordinary. Then there are white and green, followed by blue. There are only two purple ones, so those must be the S-rank rewards!"
"Knowing how stingy this system is, that card giving me a 50% chance probably means it adds 50% to the original odds. If it started at one, it becomes two... Maybe that means half the wheel will be S-rank rewards... The system wouldn't offer a deal at a loss!"
"That can't be right! But gold is usually the best stuff... Does the system not like gold?"
"Please, let me turn my luck around and draw an S-rank reward! Come on, come on!"
As the smaller wheel spun, all sorts of thoughts flashed through Baiyu's mind. His heart pounded.
The lottery was much more thrilling than training.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained an A-rank special item. It has been sent to the system space."
"..."
"I'm never drawing again!"
Baiyu stared at the pointer resting on purple and swore he'd never try again.
Judging by the result, it probably wasn't bad.
But the draw itself made Baiyu feel like his terrible luck still hadn't been washed away.
Even transmigrating couldn't cure his rotten luck!!!
"Purple is only A-rank? So gold must be the legendary S-rank. Half the wheel was gold, and I still didn't get one. What was the point of drawing at all?"
"And... why did the half-price discount take off five thousand? Couldn't you at least put a line through the original price of ten thousand, system????"
The calm mindset he'd developed through sword training was shaken every time he dealt with the system.
Baiyu claimed he wouldn't look, but he couldn't help sneaking a couple of glances. Curiosity was human nature.
"A letter from Shinobu Kocho? That's a strange name for an item. Who's Shinobu Kocho?"
Baiyu murmured, wondering why the system had classified the item as purple, A-rank.
He'd never watched Demon Slayer in his previous life, so he didn't know who Shinobu Kocho was.
Since the item came from the Sword God System, it had to be related to swordsmanship, right?
Every form of swordsmanship took a great deal of time to master.
After years of training, Baiyu had practiced only the Draw-Sword Technique, and even then, his speed had only reached its current level.
At his fastest, he could draw twice in one second without damaging his muscles.
During practice, he maintained an average pace of one draw every 2.4 seconds.
He could keep drawing at that speed without hurting his muscles.
He could also conserve enough energy to handle unexpected situations.
That was what Baiyu had learned through gradually getting used to the training.
In one morning, he could manage about twelve thousand draws over eight hours without a break, from half past four to half past twelve.
It sounded like he could complete the second-phase task in four days!
Did training seem easy now?
That was nonsense! Training couldn't be calculated using numbers like that.
Baiyu had worked out his current limits. He could draw once every 2.5 seconds for an hour, after which he had to slow down to once every five seconds. After half an hour at that pace, he'd have to slow to once every ten seconds. If he kept going for another hour or two, he'd have to rest.
Otherwise, he'd end up in the hospital, paying a fortune for medical experts to treat his muscle strain.
Those lessons had been learned the hard way.
"Ever since I became a ninja, my speed has shot up."
Baiyu sighed. When he'd first started training, ten thousand draws had felt like a boulder pressing down on his chest.
Baiyu took a deep breath, reopened the system panel, and entered the system space. There, he found a purple-glowing item resting quietly.
The moment he took it out, the world around him suddenly changed.
The system had activated it automatically!
Rays of light appeared, and the scene before his eyes became something else entirely.
Konoha's training ground had become a ruined village.
There wasn't a soul in sight. The stench of blood hung everywhere.
Everything suggested this was no longer the Naruto World.
Baiyu's eyes shifted as his Sharingan appeared. He scanned the area and spotted a living person beside a mound of earth.
(PS: The special item's effect does not involve transmigration.)
Before you continue