Star Rail: Can't You Let Me Grind Commissions in Peace?

Shirou Emiya spread his hands, then gave Orochimaru a helpless look.

"You saw it yourself. Even Konoha jokes can't lift her spirits."

"Emiya-kun, perhaps your methods of persuasion haven't been forceful enough."

A sinister expression began to appear on the Cold Lord's face. Yesterday, he had encountered Dr. Mei. At first, he had been drawn in by some of the terms she mentioned and could not help approaching her to strike up a conversation, but in the end, he had been conquered by her knowledge.

So,

he had extended an invitation to Mei, sincerely wishing to invite such a biological genius into Konoha. Once he took over Konoha's Kage position in the future, he would certainly treat this doctor with the honor due a national treasure. In truth, if Hiruzen Sarutobi had not already spent years nurturing him as his teacher, he might have turned around and joined Mei's tutelage on the spot.

Ninjutsu?

Without sufficient Chakra, no matter how much ninjutsu one learned, it was all meaningless.

And the amount of Chakra one possessed seemed to have been fixed from the moment of birth.

To surpass his own limitations, Orochimaru had long understood the only solution: obtaining the "bloodline" that those ninja clans possessed from birth.

And if he wanted to acquire those bloodlines and integrate them into himself, this doctor's knowledge could save him at least thirty or forty years of detours.

"Forceful? Mr. Orochimaru, you really shouldn't say that. Dr. Mei is my beloved friend, my sworn brother... I'm still waiting for her to introduce her assistant girl group to me so I can marry them."

Cangxuan, who had yet to be promoted into a little ancestor, rolled her eyes nearby. This man was the man Dr. Mei had set her sights on, so little assistants like them did not dare greedily claim him for themselves. Besides, this man seemed a little too promiscuous, and she had no plans to share one man with several other women.

"Looks like my attitude has been a little too gentle, Emiya-kun... When we ninjas want something, we usually... obtain it by any means necessary."

"Why didn't you just say so earlier?"

Shirou Emiya snorted. Orochimaru had never been a good person. Whether in his youth or after evolving into Mitsuki's snake-dad era, he had never been anything decent. Only the very few people who caught his eye received even a trace of his emotions. Everyone else had always been nothing more than tools to him.

"Shadow Snake Hand—!"

Almost the instant Shirou Emiya finished speaking, the Cold Lord attacked without hesitation. His unique snake-based ninjutsu locked onto Shirou Emiya's throat and lunged in for the bite.

"Calm down a little."

Ninjas had decent physical abilities, and as an all-rounder ninja, Orochimaru's taijutsu was naturally not bad either. But that depended on who he was compared to. Shirou Emiya easily evaded the snake-based ninjutsu, then placed his palm on Orochimaru's body and directly activated his Devil Fruit ability...

Paramecia Devil Fruits truly possessed excellent "one-hit kill" potential at times.

"Rewind."

The Age-Age Fruit's ability activated. Orochimaru instinctively sensed danger and immediately used the Substitution Technique without hesitation. After leaving behind a humanoid shape formed from a pile of mud, he swiftly burrowed underground and widened the distance between himself and Shirou Emiya.

When he resurfaced, he discovered that the mud doll he had hastily fashioned as a substitute had shrunk several times over. Its appearance had changed only slightly, yet it somehow seemed several years "younger." And... the structure created through Earth Style was rapidly collapsing and turning to sand.

"What an eerie technique."

"Does it activate through contact? Some kind of Kekkei Genkai?"

Orochimaru became far more vigilant, yet deep down, he felt no fear. Ninja combat methods were strange and unpredictable. Over his lifetime, he had encountered too many enemies with novel methods. If the other party only had this one move...

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."

Keeping his distance, Orochimaru decisively chose a ranged ninjutsu attack. Since the opponent's technique activated through contact, then... long-range ninjutsu was the best method of battle.

"Fire Style can't burn people to death. Forget it, I won't waste time with you... Projection, begin, Unlimited: Replico!"

Thirty rounds of Noble Phantasm replication projections. In an instant, the sky was covered by a dense mass of blades. The moment Orochimaru saw those sharp swords, a chill involuntarily rose in his heart...

"I can't block this."

The instant those swords locked onto his position, he clearly understood that they were no ordinary weapons, because every single blade could pose a threat capable of killing him.

Every sword there was a famous blade comparable to the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, and there were a full three hundred such famous swords floating above his head. Even using the Snake Substitution Technique, he could not withstand the saturated bombardment of so many blades at once.

"Run."

The instant that thought surfaced in his mind, his body burrowed underground without hesitation and rapidly fled into the distance.

"Trying to run? Isn't it a little too late for that?"

PS: The earlier chapter originally said Seshishi Fruit. It has now been changed to Age-Age Fruit.

A country had national laws, and a village had village rules. Foreign ninja villages were far too rude!

Ninja techniques were techniques honed through long years of war.

Such techniques generally possessed only two primary functions.

Kill the enemy, preserve oneself.

After entering the era of ninja villages, the Second Hokage made the Three Transformations the first lesson every ninja was required to study. During this period, nearly every ninja qualified to graduate as a genin had mastered the life-preserving techniques of the Three Transformations. As for methods of killing enemies, even if one used nothing more than ordinary shuriken or poison, no one would call them despicable.

So,

in this era, ninjas generally invested far more effort into preserving their lives than into the techniques of killing others.

Only the living deserved to deal damage. As long as one still had a breath left, even a kunai might ultimately have a chance to take the enemy's life.

This world would not have situations like One Piece, where someone could be tied up and still refuse to die no matter how much you tried to kill them.

"A flashy ability like breathing fire is less useful than simply carrying a gun. That technique for traveling underground is rather interesting, though."

"Changing the soil layer to create gaps that allow temporary movement? Chakra really is an interesting kind of energy."

A flash of intense interest appeared in Mei's eyes. In her world, people had too few means of dealing with Honkai. Aside from specially made anti-Honkai weapons, other combatants still relied on their flesh and blood to stand on the front lines. Although their physical abilities could temporarily be enhanced through certain special drugs, compared to the vast numbers of Honkai Beasts and pain-insensitive zombies... humanity still had far too few ways to preserve their lives.

"It's clearly bioenergy, yet it can interact with the material world."

"The source of this energy must possess some kind of Imaginary nature as well."

According to the hypothesis of Superstring Theory, Honkai Energy was fundamentally energy radiated from a higher-dimensional space beyond the four-dimensional spacetime humans could normally observe. This energy could often easily affect material phenomena within "four-dimensional spacetime." The most fundamental units of matter—particles, electrons, photons, neutrinos, quarks, and all similar things—were categorized under Superstring Theory as merely excited states at different vibrational frequencies.

And the "Imaginary" strings that humanity's current technology could not observe also possessed the ability to affect these fundamental units of the material world. This was one of the hypotheses formed by Flame-Chaser's leading scientists after observing the Herrscher of the Void Core.

Unfortunately, although humanity possessed the ability to observe it, it could not derive any method of directly utilizing Imaginary Internal Energy from the results of observing this Imaginary Space energy. The only Imaginary Internal Energy people could touch was still merely "Honkai Energy."

It had originally been a shortcut capable of overtaking nuclear energy, but the possibility of accessing it was hundreds or thousands of times more difficult than directly researching nuclear fusion.

"Chakra... what secrets does it hide? I'm becoming more and more interested."

"Shirou Emiya, I'm also very interested in the knowledge inside his head. Capture him for me."

"Doctor, that slippery snake won't be easy to catch."

"Please. This is a commission."

You have received a new commission!

A bad woman was starting to wrap him around her finger.

"Later, I'll arrange for Mei to come as well. That girl is an absolute beauty."

"You're being too formal, Doctor. We're beloved friends, sworn brothers... If you need something, your brother here will never hesitate!"

There was nothing shameful about earning points.

Mr. Emiya thought this to himself, and the movements of his hands slowed somewhat. With his current abilities, if he failed to control his strength, he might really kill Orochimaru. Though these fragile ninjas could not easily be burned to death by Fire Style, once pierced through by swords, not even Orochimaru—even Old Madara—could survive without sacrificing an eye.

That was why ninjutsu clashes could not kill people. Blades were more practical after all.

"Brother Orochimaru, weren't we having such a pleasant conversation just now? As it happens, the Doctor is quite interested in you too. Why not come inside and have a cup of tea with us?"

From afar, Shirou Emiya called out to Orochimaru as he traveled underground. Orochimaru surfaced in an instant, only turning back to give him a gloomy look without saying anything before fleeing farther away.

"A country has national laws, and a village has village rules. Foreign ninja villages really are too rude. I invited him so warmly to stay as a guest, and he actually refuses to give me face."

"Stop fooling around. With information from a local, we won't need to explore so many basics from scratch."

"Fine, fine... Then I'll use a little native ninja world ability."

A scarlet hue abruptly appeared in his pupils. Uchiha Hikari wandered around right under his nose every day, and this clan's eyeballs were famous for functioning like USB devices: plug and play. Even Kakashi had said they worked well. Though they consumed a great deal of Chakra, Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyō Sharingan was "Yachihoko," capable of connecting to the Chakra and spirits of others.

The tens of thousands of Uzumaki Clan members were now all linked to Shirou Emiya through this pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.

Chakra shells, brat!

Even Hashirama Senju reborn would not dare compete with the entire Uzumaki Clan in terms of Chakra reserves.

"Susanoo—!"

With the Uzumaki Clan's Chakra as his foundation, Shirou Emiya directly expanded the Susanoo to the current limit he could support: a three-hundred-meter Karasu Tengu giant god bearing wings.

"Is that Hikari's ability? The Herrscher of Reason can completely recreate even human tissue..."

"The Imaginary Authority controlled by Herrschers has already reached the level of directly manipulating 'laws.' Those Herrscher Cores must be fully utilized."

As Mei silently contemplated the Imaginary significance represented by Chakra and the Imaginary Authority controlled by Herrschers, Mr. Emiya 963 had already completed his Susanoo dive and arrived before Mr. Orochimaru.

Faced with a Karasu Tengu Susanoo exceeding four hundred meters in scale, Mr. Orochimaru politely raised both hands. Before such a monster, there was little point in struggling. The oppressive sensation brought by that amount of Chakra...

Even his teacher at his peak possessed less than one-thousandth of it.

Let alone one of him—even a thousand of him would have no chance of struggling before such a monster.

"Mr. Orochimaru, our Doctor would like to invite you back there for some tea. What do you think?"

Standing atop the Karasu Tengu Susanoo, Mr. Emiya smiled as he watched the man whose face could not conceal its greed. At this moment, the man was not afraid of the power brought by Susanoo. He coveted that power. His instinctive reaction was that he wanted to obtain it as well.

"Our Doctor said that as long as you can sur—"

"I surrender."

"So decisively?"

"Emiya-kun, I have no intention of treating this life as a joke. I still have the dream of attaining immortality... so I absolutely cannot die here."

"Then congratulations. You've saved yourself thirty years of detours. Cold Lord Orochimaru, you can join the research institute early and focus on researching what you enjoy. It'll save you from being dragged around as a tool by a bunch of teenagers later."

"What do you mean?"

Jiraiya, you bastard, you ran off alone?!

"Orochimaru, the future S-rank rogue ninja of Konoha, founder of Otogakure, organizer of the Konoha Collapse Plan, great criminal who personally killed the Third Hokage, inventor of Curse Mark Mode, spiritual mentor of ninja world orphans, catalyst of the Third Shinobi World War, perfecter of Impure World Reincarnation, angel investor of the Indra Reincarnator, and dream-maker for the Asura Reincarnator."

"Mm, and Mitsuki's 'biological father' and 'biological mother,' Mitsuki being a member of the Seventh Hokage's son's team... Look, after all those twists and turns, didn't you still return to Konoha and obediently become a researcher? So, by saving yourself thirty or forty years of detours and joining us early, you won't be wasting the precious years of your life for nothing."

After capturing Orochimaru and bringing him back to where Mei and the others were, Mr. Emiya listed Orochimaru's legendary future achievements in the ninja world as though recounting treasures.

This included, but was not limited to, personally killing his teacher only for that teacher to counter him by sealing the hands he used to perform jutsu; personally cultivating Sasuke Uchiha only to be killed by him in return; and even being dragged out of a Curse Mark while in a state of feigned death to serve as a tool for casting Impure World Reincarnation.

"The Seventh Hokage... Who is the Fourth Generation?"

As Orochimaru listened to his future deeds, he was deeply shocked, but instinctively, his mind wanted the answer to a crucial question.

"Not you. Jiraiya..."

"Impossible! How could that idiot possibly—"

"—his disciple, Minato Namikaze."

Minato Namikaze?

I actually lost to Jiraiya's disciple?

Mr. Orochimaru seemed unable to accept it for a moment...

Emotional value from Orochimaru +27

Hearing that pleasant sound, Mr. Emiya continued with a smile.

"Don't take it too hard. Jiraiya's future disciples are each more terrifying than the last. There's Nagato Uzumaki, who had a pair of Rinnegan shoved into his eyes and could glare you to death with a single look. There's Naruto Uzumaki, who inherited the Sage of Six Paths' Six Paths Yang Power and could casually create Sage Mode Tailed Beast Bombs with a lift of his hand... Compared to those two, Minato Namikaze counts as 'ordinary.' He wasn't from any ninja clan either. He merely split off and sealed half of the Nine-Tails inside himself to become a perfect Jinchuriki, knew a little Sage Mode, created an Inkless A-Rank Ninjutsu, perfected the Flying Thunder God Technique, and possessed the title of the ninja world's fastest shinobi."

What the fuck were you even saying?!

Those terms sounded like gibberish to him. He understood many of the words individually, yet when they were put together, he could not understand them at all... Sage Mode and Tailed Beast Bombs could be casually formed with a lift of one's hand?

Splitting off half of the Nine-Tails and sealing it inside oneself to become a perfect Jinchuriki? Was that something an ordinary ninja could accomplish? And he had learned Sage Mode and perfected Flying Thunder God too?

The most outrageous was the first one: someone had stuffed a pair of Rinnegan into his eyes? Fuck... why hadn't someone stuffed a pair into mine so I could enjoy myself too? He could glare me to death with one eye? Jiraiya, where the fuck did you pick up these freaks?

Emotional value from Orochimaru +37

Emotional value from Orochimaru +21

Emotional value from Orochimaru +15

Although Orochimaru desperately wanted to deny everything this man said, to regard all of it as lies... the man could transform into a three-hundred-meter Susanoo at any moment. With such power serving as proof, he could not muster even the slightest thought of doubt.