Return

When the ninja who had stayed behind saw the argument erupt, they jumped in and unleashed a furious barrage of their own.

One Chunin even joined in shouting despite still having his arm in a sling.

"When we were desperately defending the streets, fighting the Sand Ninja and Sound Ninja for our lives, you didn't come out to help!"

"When the fighting was over and people called us cowardly, we didn't see you speaking up for us either! Now that we want justice, you jump out to play peacemaker? I'm telling you, not a chance!"

"That's right! Not a chance! You spend every day looking down on us. When have you ever cared about us? And now you have the fucking nerve to show your faces?" Several ninja beside him shouted their agreement.

In an instant, everyone's fury poured down on the ninja clans' leadership.

What had started as civilians and ninja tearing into each other had escalated into an all-out battle against Konoha's Brahmin elite.

Angry curses rose one after another. Complaints and accusations filled the air, mingling with loud, tearful cries in an overwhelming uproar.

Mitokado Homura had prepared a bellyful of platitudes, but confronted with the fury of hundreds of people, he simply froze.

Utatane Koharu's expression was equally ugly. This was the first time she had ever been lambasted like this.

Shikaku Nara wanted to speak, but he knew that anything he said in this situation would only add fuel to the fire.

Veins bulged at Hyuga Hiashi's temples, his face flushed bright red.

Choza Akimichi silently backed away, tucking his massive frame behind his colleagues.

Meanwhile, ignoring the pain around his eyes, Shuofang Si kept his gaze fixed on that man in the crowd.

The man who had tried to attack him earlier had already been pushed to the crowd's outermost edge.

He stood there, caught between advancing and retreating, unsure what to do.

Everyone's attention was now on the leadership, and a ring of people had unwittingly gathered around this gravely injured troublemaker.

Some were villagers cursing the leaders; others were ninja joining the uproar and watching the spectacle. They had no idea they were protecting him. Simply by standing there, they had unknowingly formed a human wall.

"Hmph. There's always another day." Frustration and resignation flashed in the man's eyes, and he had no choice but to turn away.

He slowly withdrew his hand from his sleeve and disappeared back into the crowd.

Watching the man retreat, Shuofang Si finally relaxed his long-taut nerves.

He was safe for now.

He knew he had succeeded. That man no longer had an opening to strike.

After all, with everyone's eyes focused on him, there was no reason for the man to risk assassinating him.

This was his only way to survive.

Then the scene before his eyes began to blur.

The aftereffects of the gene lock struck more fiercely than before.

Shuofang Si's consciousness teetered in the darkness, and the curses in his ears gradually faded until they vanished.

The last thing he saw was Tobirama Senju standing amid the ruins, putting a stop to the confrontation, while disbelief covered Mitokado Homura's and Utatane Koharu's faces.

Ha. I won.

Then Shuofang Si's vision went black, and he knew nothing more.

"Main God, heal this kid. Deduct the reward points from him."

Was that Zhang Jie's voice?

Shuofang Si snapped his eyes open. Before him lay an enormous, empty platform surrounded by darkness, with only a gigantic ball of light reflected in his pupils.

I survived.

The thought had barely surfaced when a warm power enveloped him.

The light descended from above and slowly shrouded him, leaving him suspended in midair.

Warm currents flowed into his body from every direction. Muscles, bones, every part of him was repairing itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Shuofang Si struggled to open his eyes and looked down through the pillar of light enveloping his body.

Several figures stood directly beneath the enormous ball of light at the platform's center.

The black-haired young man with a cigarette between his lips was Zhang Jie. Beside him stood Zheng Zha, who was looking up at him.

Farther to the side were Zhan Lan, Zhao Yingkong, Zero, Ming Yanwei, Li Shuai Xi, and another young male newcomer whose name Shuofang Si did not know.

Had everyone actually survived?

They stood around the platform in twos and threes. Some faced the ball of light with their eyes closed, some chatted, and others simply stared into space.

The healing was faster than Shuofang Si had expected-so fast that he wondered whether this Main God Space had been heavily modified. Wasn't healing supposed to be especially slow in the original Terror Infinity?

As he pondered this and enjoyed a comfort unlike anything he had ever experienced, he suddenly noticed the healing light changing from white to green.

An entirely different warmth flowed into his body. The green light was repairing the aftereffects of unlocking his gene lock.

Gene lock repair.

Something stirred in Shuofang Si's mind. The Main God's healing came in different tiers: white repaired the body, while green repaired genes. He had never expected to unlock his gene lock under those circumstances.

He closed his eyes and felt the green energy moving through his body.

The drained, hollow weakness he had felt after unlocking his gene lock was fading, replaced by an increasingly powerful sense of strength.

If I keep unlocking my gene lock and getting healed afterward, I should get used to using it.

Below him, Zhang Jie looked up at Shuofang Si, wrapped in green light in midair, his gaze growing complicated.

The gene lock.

This kid went off alone in his very first horror movie and even unlocked his gene lock in a world of that caliber?

In all his time as a veteran, he had seen newcomers unlock their gene locks before. His own talent was not bad, either.

But going solo in his first horror movie, unlocking his gene lock, and coming back alive... What am I supposed to do about this guy...?

Zhang Jie shook his head. He was a good person at heart and truly did not want to think any further about it.

"If there are any rules you don't understand, ask the Main God. Just communicate with it through your mind..." Zhang Jie looked away and continued speaking, then turned toward Na'er in front of him.

"Other than making yourself a woman, don't exchange for anything else! Everything can wait until tomorrow! Oh, and just pick any room. Think about what you want it to look like, and that'll do it..."

"We went through such a terrible scare in the Naruto World, and the moment you come back, you're already thinking about sex. Men are all idiots!"

Watching the men beside the ball of light promptly close their eyes, Zhan Lan snorted and turned toward a nearby door.

She pushed open one of the doors and went inside. The door slammed shut with a deafening bang, jolting several men out of their eyes-closed communication with the Main God.

They exchanged glances and awkward smiles, then closed their eyes again, immersing themselves once more in mental communication with the Main God.

Without a word, Zhao Yingkong found a room and went inside.

Ming Yanwei followed close behind, choosing a room in a corner without sparing anyone another glance.