Back to the Culling Game

Bathed in the golden light cast down by the system, Gu Yanzhi's consciousness sank into darkness.

[World transfer in progress]

[Drawing identity]

Gu Yanzhi opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was a faint itch on his fist, as though it had just scraped against something rough. Then came a wet, sticky sensation around his knuckles, with warm liquid trickling down between his fingers.

He looked down-a headless female corpse lay slumped at his feet, nothing left above her neck. Shattered skull fragments and grayish-white brain matter spattered the floor. He couldn't quite make sense of it.

Gu Yanzhi instinctively pulled his hand back and wiped it on the hem of his clothes. He stepped back twice, distancing himself from the crime scene. Before his mind had fully caught up, a Kogane popped out of thin air, hovered beside his ear, and sounded a crisp notification.

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong."

"You have earned five points."

Points, Swimmers, the Culling Game.

The keywords clicked together in his mind, forming a clear conclusion-he had returned to the Culling Game, and this time his identity wasn't an ordinary civilian, but a genuine Swimmer.

At the same time, the original owner's memories began flooding his mind.

He leaned against a library bookshelf and closed his eyes, taking a moment to absorb them. Gradually, a familiar figure emerged clearly from the fragments of memory: a man with stitches across his forehead-Kenjaku.

That scheming old bastard, the mastermind who had thrown all of Jujutsu Society into turmoil in the original story, actually had ties to the original owner before his incarnation.

He sifted through the original owner's memories of Kenjaku. The original owner had been Kenjaku's disciple a thousand years ago and had learned quite a bit from that old monster.

Unfortunately, the original owner's talent had been mediocre, and there was a limit to what he had managed to learn. He was the textbook example of someone who aced the theory but struggled to scrape a passing grade in actual combat.

He continued reviewing the memories, then suddenly raised his right hand, spreading his fingers slightly. The blade in the scabbard at his waist jolted, then slowly floated free and hovered before his eyes. It was long and slender, its temper line gleaming with a cold silver sheen in the library's dim light. It rotated gently in midair, as though awaiting his command.

Object Manipulation. He read through the information on the cursed technique in the original owner's memories-a telekinetic technique. Very interesting.

It allowed him to expend cursed energy to manipulate objects, but it still had plenty of limitations. The greater the range of Object Manipulation, the steeper the cursed energy cost. Inanimate objects were relatively easy to control, but manipulating living beings multiplied the consumption. He also had to account for their struggles, which could drain additional energy or even cause a backlash.

He tried directing the blade through several arcs in the air with his mind. Its edge cut through the air with a faint hum. The control was smooth, with almost no delay. The clumsiness of his cursed energy control in earlier battles had improved tremendously in this body. The original owner might have lacked talent, but his fundamentals were rock solid. He had spent his whole life making up for his innate shortcomings.

Gu Yanzhi smiled faintly. The original owner really had lacked talent, and his cursed energy reserves were limited. In his earlier battle with the female Swimmer, even with the support of his barrier, two large-scale uses of his technique had nearly drained him dry as he tried to trick her into believing he was using Cursed Speech. Without those dirty tricks, that fight would probably have been the end of him.

But that had been the original owner. Gu Yanzhi had just inherited the cursed energy reserves of Kurourushi, a special grade cursed spirit. In his hands, Object Manipulation's raw power had more than doubled.

He took the blade in one hand and lifted the other slightly. A golden barrier unfolded around his body, its translucent walls covered in flowing, intricate Sanskrit patterns, enclosing him completely.

This barrier didn't require a two-handed sign. He had modified it himself using the knowledge of Barrier Technique Kenjaku had taught him, trading a shorter duration and higher cursed energy consumption for the ability to deploy it instantly with one hand.

Gu Yanzhi looked at the golden light with delight. An improved Hollow Wicker Basket, the original owner's proudest creation. Kusakabe's and Kasumi Miwa's Simple Domains probably shared some connection with this move.

Against a Domain Expansion, it could buy him a few seconds to react. It couldn't clash head-on like a true domain, but those few seconds might let him find a way out of certain death. At the very least, he wouldn't be as helpless as he had been against Uro.

The original owner had been fortunate enough to become Kenjaku's disciple and receive that old monster's instruction. In cursed technique theory, barrier principles, technique analysis, and other fields, he had thoroughly assimilated almost everything Kenjaku had taught him. He was practically a walking encyclopedia of jujutsu.

The problem was that, despite his extraordinary diligence and extensive theoretical studies, the original owner fell apart in actual combat. His talent for cursed energy reserves was average, and his talent for controlling it was even worse. He was a classic case of someone whose brain understood everything but whose hands couldn't keep up.

If this guy had been just a little more talented, I might have landed a premium account with Domain Expansion and Reverse Cursed Technique already unlocked.

Still, now that I've patched up the cursed energy weakness, this account has gone from a theory-only dud to a usable premium build.

Gu Yanzhi opened his eyes and stepped away from the bookshelf. Just as he finished processing the memories, the Kogane spoke again, its tone noticeably more urgent this time.

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong!"

"Swimmer Hajime Kashimo has added a rule-all Swimmer information will be made public."

Gu Yanzhi stopped in his tracks. Only then did he remember that he seemed to be in the same colony as Hajime Kashimo.

Hajime Kashimo, the strongest sorcerer of four hundred years ago.

A battle fanatic who had accepted Kenjaku's invitation to incarnate just to fight Sukuna. That combat addict was right here in the Tokyo No. 2 Colony, and he had just added a rule that was extremely dangerous for every Swimmer. Hajime Kashimo would chase down every Swimmer worth fighting like a hunting hound.

And Gu Yanzhi was a rookie Swimmer who had just earned five points-no. He searched the memories. The original owner had already fought quite a few battles. Though he had done his utmost to avoid killing people for points, he wasn't strong enough to handle every fight with that kind of ease, so he had already accumulated a certain number of points. In this colony, he probably qualified as prey worth hunting.

Gu Yanzhi raised his head amid the wreckage of the library and looked through the shattered roof at the gray sky.

The faint roar of erupting cursed energy came from the distance. Somewhere, two Swimmers had already begun fighting. Wind swept through the empty bookshelves, rustling the pages of the medical textbooks scattered across the floor.

He tightened his grip on the blade. Its surface reflected his face-the original owner's youthful face, already marked by fine lines at the corners of his eyes.

"In that case..."

Lightning flickered faintly outside. Gu Yanzhi, who had just gained vast reserves of cursed energy and a cursed technique, stared at it. He held his blade across his chest, pointing it toward the lightning, and smiled slightly.

"I'd better get the hell out of here right now."