The European Emperor (Seeking Collection and Recommendation)

Failure!

Looking at the bright red text, Qifeng took a deep breath.

"Stay calm. Fifteen percent success rate—this is normal."

For any normal person, a fifteen percent probability wouldn't yield a win on the first try. This wasn't just a matter of probability theory; it was a key point in the study of luck.

"How about... if there's a chance, I send your body back to the Land of Earth? If Konoha allows it."

Qifeng crouched there, trying to haggle with a corpse.

Let's talk it out.

After pleading nicely for over ten minutes, he placed his sweat-drenched palm on it again and tried once more.

Success! Obtained Iwagakure Quasi-Kage Akagi Shi Experience Card (Rare)!

It worked!

Qifeng waved his hand excitedly.

"Thank Buddha! Thank God! Thank the Sage of Six Paths!"

Used one Jonin Experience Card, got back one Quasi-Kage Experience Card, plus "Kaseki's Obsession" and a single-attribute +2 Boost Card.

This round wasn't a loss.

No, this round was a huge win!

"See, corpses deserve respect. If you talk to them nicely, they understand."

Qifeng felt he'd grasped the key trick to looting bodies.

You respect the other party, even if it's just a corpse, and they'll respond in kind. Maybe it's just coincidence, just his imagination.

But doing one extra step cost him nothing.

What if it was real?

This result solidified his attitude toward every corpse from now on, and his resolve to help these deceased, burdened by unfinished obsessions they couldn't fulfill, complete their final wishes.

One return for one effort—peace of mind.

It worked on the second try. Whether the third succeeded or not didn't matter anymore; he'd already come out ahead.

But sometimes, Murphy's Law wasn't just relevant on Earth. In this Naruto World, the influence of Murphy was just as present.

Success! Obtained Earth Release Chakra Amplification Card!

Huh?

Another one?!

Staring at the gorgeously ornate red card engraved with magnificent rock patterns lying quietly in the system, Qifeng blinked.

Fifteen percent probability, succeeded twice!

He just wanted to ask.

Who else?

Lucky bloodline confirmed!

Sit down, everyone sit down—standard procedure, standard procedure.

He opened the stats on the Amplification Card, which he was seeing for the first time.

Name: Earth Release Chakra Amplification Card

Description: As a ninja, how can you be limited to a single attribute?

Effect: Increases adaptability to Earth Release chakra. Attribute added: Earth

Notes: None (Do you even need notes? Use it already!)

"Tsk." Qifeng clicked his tongue.

Earth Release chakra.

As a ninja, he knew well that a ninja's inherent chakra attributes were usually innate. Aside from the latent Yin-Yang Release, the rest were: Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Water.

And in terms of talent, the number of chakra attributes could also be seen as a measure of aptitude.

Of course, there were powerful ninjas who developed a single attribute to its peak, like those roughnecks from Kumogakure.

Most people had only one, a few had two, very few had three, and those born with five were mostly cheating.

But that was innate. Through hard work, one could develop more later, though it was extremely difficult and consumed a lot of energy. Few people bothered.

After all, if a single attribute wasn't even fully utilized, developing multiple attributes would only waste the already limited time and energy.

Not having a certain chakra attribute didn't mean you couldn't use jutsu of that attribute, but the power would be greatly reduced.

As someone with only a single Fire Release chakra attribute, gaining Earth Release now meant that as long as he mastered the corresponding jutsu, his combat style would become more diverse. The combination of Earth and Fire Release jutsu would also yield greater power.

This was a long-term, beneficial gain. The longer it lasted, the more obvious the advantage.

"Thanks, I guess." After thinking it over, that was the only way he could express his inner joy.

His desperate protection had not been in vain.

He still had three draws left, but he didn't use them all at once.

Maybe tomorrow would bring another batch of decent blind boxes.

He yawned.

Sleepy.

It had been a tiring night.

Locking the door, he returned to his small den nearby, collapsed onto the bed, and fell asleep.

In a corner of Konoha, the morgue.

Two months had passed since Qifeng killed the Iwagakure spy.

During those two months, his life had been very routine: sleeping until noon, waking up to receive corpses sent by the Anbu or the Medical Unit, spending the afternoon fulfilling whatever last wishes he could for the deceased, cleaning blood and wounds from the bodies in the evening, and drawing from them late into the night when it was quiet.

In that time, aside from Asuma occasionally dropping by under the pretense of chatting—really just wanting a quiet, secluded spot to sneak a smoke—he had company.

Anyone who smoked knew that smoking alone was lonely; smoking with someone else was actually smoking.

When they had nothing to do, they'd chat, and Qifeng picked up all sorts of useful and useless information from him.

For example, he liked Kurenai Yuhi with her cute red eyes, and that Hiruzen Sarutobi was wearing red underwear today.

Or, occasionally, he'd catch words like war, Iwa-nin, Kiri-nin, and so on.

They weren't far apart in age and shared the same hobby, so Qifeng became one of Sarutobi Asuma's few friends.

Asuma always asked, "Isn't it boring or creepy being around corpses all day?"

Qifeng replied, "The deceased are to be respected. You honor them and what they left behind in this world."

His joy, Asuma didn't understand.

Two months had passed.

His growth was especially noticeable.

The system let him gain something every day—mostly kunai, shuriken, Ration Pills, and the like. Occasionally, he'd get a Boost Card or a jutsu card, but Experience Cards and Bloodline Cards had almost stopped appearing.

He was still one card short of the Uchiha Clan Thin Bloodline Card, but he hadn't gotten it yet.

After all, Uchiha corpses weren't easy to come by.

Only Uchiha bodies that hadn't awakened the Sharingan were sent here, and even then, they had to reach Green Corpse status to have a chance at dropping a Bloodline Card, making it even harder.

But he wasn't in a rush. He was calm.

The closer the war got to breaking out, the more the Great Hidden Villages seemed to hold back.

Their skirmishes grew rarer, as if they were making final preparations, which meant fewer and lower-quality corpses came his way.

Sitting in a rocking chair, cigarette in his mouth, only the occasional smoke ring or blink of his eyes proved he was alive.

This laid-back life was too comfortable; he'd almost forgotten he was a ninja.

He was practically a gatekeeping old man.

He took a look at his stats panel after two months.

Character: Maruyama Qifeng

Age: 13

Affinities: Fire, Earth

Rank: Chunin

Body: 25

Energy: 24

Ninjutsu: 22

Genjutsu: 19

Control: 27

Hand Seals: 22

Ninjutsu: Three Basic Jutsu, Fire Release: Great Fireball, Earth Release: Rock Concealment Technique, Earth Release: Earth Shore Return, Fire Release: Flame Bullet

Items: Uchiha Clan Thin Bloodline Card (2/3), Kaseki's Obsession, Iwagakure Quasi-Kage Akagi Shi Experience Card (Rare)

Two words.

Comfortable.

But sometimes, surprises came out of nowhere.

Just as he was enjoying a lazy afternoon, a figure suddenly appeared before him.

"Maruyama Qifeng, Lord Hokage summons you."

The speaker was a masked Anbu ninja. After saying this in a low voice, he flickered and vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared.

Hiruzen Sarutobi wants to see me?

Qifeng was slightly taken aback. As a Corpse Collector with an extremely low profile, why would the Hokage personally summon him?

Wasn't that too much attention?

For some reason, the scene of smoking with Asuma last time suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Hiss—Qifeng, you really ought to get out more. Hiding away in here, you're practically rusting, aren't you?"

"Hiss—What does a kid know? An adult's happiness is beyond you."

"Hiss—You're only a few years older than me, and you're playing the adult! Don't you know war might be coming soon? If you end up on the battlefield like this, how are you going to survive?"

"Hiss—I'll survive by hugging corpses, I guess."

The two of them traded words in the swirling smoke.

He hadn't thought much of it before, but now it clicked.

It had to be Asuma!

If he casually mentioned Qifeng's name a few times in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi, with the Hokage's memory of every villager's name, he'd definitely recall this rusty Genin.

He scratched his head in irritation.

What could he do? The Hokage wanted to see him; not going was obviously out of the question.

He tossed the cigarette butt to the ground, stomped it viciously a few times, and then vanished, heading toward the Hokage Building.