[Bro Long's streaming?]
[Seriously?]
[Are you working at the convenience store again today, or have you found another way to survive?]
[What's so interesting about working in Japan? Didn't you say you transmigrated? Hurry up and show me some cursed spirits!]
[So is the streamer a jujutsu sorcerer now?]
[Both are possible. That's the answer...]
Cursed Technique: Early Access!
It was a technique centered on Long Xi, with a range of fifty meters, that let him keep growing stronger as long as he received attention.
Compared with a straightforward technique like the Ten Shadows Technique, this was precisely the sort of modern-flavored ability the higher-ups disliked.
But the boosts it provided were permanent!
As long as someone observed him, he could slowly and permanently improve his abilities in proportion to the people watching!
Although he had attracted quite a few followers lately by claiming to have transmigrated into the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, most were inactive followers.
A large portion also thought he was using some high-tech AI to generate anime shorts. Barely anyone believed he had actually transmigrated.
Even with his stream running, there were only a dozen or so people watching. Receiving gifts was even less likely.
That meant his stats would increase very slowly.
It was an ability that required early accumulation before taking off in the late game.
Especially since it had another effect.
He could only increase his cursed energy reserves while being observed, and while using it now, his energy would slowly recover as well.
In other words, activating the skill was like standing in the healing fountain.
Translucent chat comments drifted past the corners of Long Xi's eyes like a swarm of mosquitoes. But now that he was used to them, their presence actually gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
After all, he had followed Jujutsu Kaisen through the anime. Beyond that, he had only read a little of the manga's Sendai battle.
Without reminders from the audience, once it was time to fight aliens later on, he would probably end up as some roadside nobody, right?
He was only level one now. Things should be different once his level went up.
Still, leveling up would probably take a long time.
Long Xi curled his lips, crouched down, and slipped through a broken window beside the school building's side entrance.
Security at Sugisawa High School was practically nonexistent late at night. The old man in the security office was already snoring, and half the surveillance cameras were broken.
Even delinquents elbowing classmates, telling them not to leave after school, and treating them to another helping of elbows would probably go unnoticed.
For the past eight days, he had done nothing else but scout this building every night. Which floorboards wouldn't creak, which corridors had the fewest cursed spirits, which corners could hide someone-he could navigate it all with his eyes shut.
He even knew that the window latch in the Occult Research Club's room was broken and the window had been left unlocked.
Don't ask. Occupational habit.
For a player hoping to pull off a top-tier play in one go, not even knowing the map meant relying entirely on instinct.
And clearly, instinct wasn't much use.
He had actually considered snatching Sukuna's Finger ahead of time.
The answer was absolutely not.
That thing was a mobile special grade cursed spirit summoner. With his current scraps of cursed energy, touching it would probably send every cursed spirit within a hundred meters charging at him like mad. He would become cursed spirit crap on the spot.
Long Xi wasn't part of Gege's family next door. If he died, he would really die.
Besides, even if he hid the finger at the ends of the earth, Yuji Itadori would still have to eat it.
The gears of fate would turn regardless. A nobody who couldn't even beat a grade 4 cursed spirit had no business trying to wrench them out of place.
After all, neither Itadori's father nor his mother was ordinary.
One hijacked an account to experience that dark-star style, while the other supplied it. Itadori's mother was Clear Rain reincarnated. He really couldn't beat her.
Having worked that out, Long Xi stopped dwelling on it and turned briskly into the western stairwell.
He had chosen this stairwell carefully. It was the quietest place in the entire building, with only a few small-fry cursed spirits too weak to even qualify as grade 4 wandering around.
Sure enough, as soon as he reached the second-floor landing, he spotted a sticky black lump sprawled on the steps. It looked like melted chewing gum with hair stuck to it and was slowly crawling upstairs.
Long Xi stopped and took a deep breath.
A nearly invisible trace of pale blue cursed energy slowly gathered in his palm, thin as paper.
This was the result of eight days of practice. He could just barely use it.
No incantation, no hand signs, not even a running start.
He simply threw an utterly ordinary punch.
Splat.
The chewing-gum cursed spirit didn't even get a chance to scream. It burst like a punctured balloon, turning into a wisp of black smoke that dissipated completely.
The viewers watching the stream had already been somewhat stunned by the school grounds, which looked almost identical to those in the original anime.
After Long Xi's reasonably clean and efficient attack, their interest visibly picked up.
[Long Xi, you've finally made something of yourself!]
[Tokyo's king of part-time jobs is gone. The old soft and meek Long Xi is dead!]
[Enough yapping. I want to see rivers of blood!]
[Go! Go fight Sukuna!]
A dozen or so comments floated past. Long Xi could clearly feel the faint cursed energy inside him growing a little, roughly as much as the last time he had bitten a lighter.
Now he was a badass who could bite two lighters.
Long Xi shook his fist out and felt nothing much. After all, punching melted chewing gum didn't take much effort. He looked up the stairs. Two more floors-the Occult Research Club was on the fourth.
This stairwell really was quiet. He walked another half-flight before meeting another small fry, which looked like a flattened cockroach with three legs.
Long Xi frowned in disgust. He couldn't even be bothered to gather cursed energy and simply raised his foot and stomped down.
With a crack, the cockroach cursed spirit died on the spot. Another scattering of comments floated past, and his cursed energy rose a tiny bit again. He was now at the level of biting three lighters.
At this rate, killing another eight or ten would give him enough to bite through a whole box. By then, he might even be able to take on a grade 3 cursed spirit.
After all, although the two he had dealt with were probably trash too weak to qualify for any grade, he had still genuinely exorcised them.
Long Xi stopped thinking about it and continued upward, lightening his steps. The higher he went, the stronger the cursed spirits' presence became, and he could already hear faint whimpers.
He didn't need to guess who was making those sounds. It was the two students from the Occult Research Club who had been courting death, a boy and a girl. The moment they summoned the cursed spirits, they had been ensnared and restrained, unable even to scream.
Just then, a cursed spirit half a person's height suddenly lunged from around the stairwell corner. Its skin was bluish-black, its features twisted, and bits of plaster still clung to its claws.
Long Xi reacted quickly, sidestepping the claws and kicking its knee in the same motion. The cursed spirit lost its balance and dropped to its knees.
He immediately sprang back three steps, pushed off into the air, and drove his right foot into the cursed spirit's head with a vicious rush of wind.
With a dull thud, the cursed spirit tumbled down several steps, its head bent at an unnatural angle. Yet it didn't die. Instead, it let out a piercing shriek and pushed itself back up.
Long Xi's heart lurched. He had still been careless. Forget low-level cursed spirits-even a college student would have been laid out by that little combo.
Judging by that, the creature in front of him was considerably stronger than the small fry from earlier. Killing it now wouldn't be so easy.
Rather than retreating, Long Xi advanced. He rushed forward and delivered a string of kicks to the cursed spirit's joints and chest, pouring all his cursed energy into each one and forcing it back against the stair railing.
His slightly off but convincing-looking Wing Chun came fast and fierce. As for whether it was actually Wing Chun?
Of course it wasn't. Just rotate these two fists forward and hit fast enough that nobody can follow it. If I say it's Wing Chun, that's good enough, right?
Driven steadily backward by this counterfeit Wing Chun, the cursed spirit couldn't lunge at him for the moment. Long Xi took the chance to catch his breath, glancing at the comments drifting past.
[This is episode one, right? Stop bothering with these weak, low-level cursed spirits and hurry up and grab the finger!]
[Believe in yourself! You're a transmigrator! You're the protagonist! Go steal Yuji's Pickled Pepper Chicken Feet!]
"You really think I'm not dying fast enough?!"
Gathering all his cursed energy into his lower leg, Long Xi kicked apart the ungraded cursed spirits in front of him before finding a moment to reply.
But after he had just said it was too dangerous, the screen filled with comments declaring that a loser's mentality. Long Xi could only laugh helplessly.
A laugh born of sheer irritation.
Why did Jujutsu Kaisen have bloodthirsty viewers too?
You don't belong here! Don't you know that?!
Although he could clearly feel his strength rising rapidly after the surge in comments, going after Tiger Heavenly Emperor Yuji's little snack right now would still be pushing it too far.
He hadn't even fully adjusted to using his ability yet. All he did was gather the energy in his hands and release it in one burst.
At least his proficiency in that alone ensured he wouldn't waste it for nothing.
Over the past couple of days, he had only figured out the most basic way to use cursed energy. Being able to gather it in his hands was already pretty good.
While Long Xi was still thinking about having a proper talk with these bloodthirsty-world viewers and getting them to abandon their "doctoral student" mindset,
a clear male voice reached him from upstairs, carrying a young man's cool edge as it recited an incantation he knew all too well.
"Divine Dogs!"
Before you continue