This world was actually this dangerous

The old man possessed by the tentacled monster tore away the sheet. By then, Uchiha Naruto had slipped to within a single step of the doorway and was just about to make his escape, but another thick black tentacle burst from the old man's mouth. It shot out like a frog's tongue and looped around Uchiha Naruto's left wrist.

"Damn it!"

Uchiha Naruto could only turn around and tug a few times at the black tentacle around his wrist. The force from the other end was not strong enough to drag him over, but it was wrapped firmly around his wrist, and he could not break free right away.

Just then, more and more tentacles emerged from the old man's mouth.

But instead of shooting toward him as before, these tentacles writhed in the air.

Uchiha Naruto keenly realized that the tentacled monster intended to abandon the old man, its former host, and transfer into his body through the tentacle wrapped around his wrist.

No one could accept being possessed by a monster like this. Since he could not escape, he had no choice but to steel himself and fight.

Uchiha Naruto formed another Tiger seal, concentrating the chakra in his body into his mouth and tongue.

By now, almost the entire tentacled monster had emerged from the old man's mouth. Its tentacles twisted and tangled like a large ball of black yarn. The tentacle around Uchiha Naruto's wrist pulled tighter and tighter, then contracted, launching the balled-up monster straight at his face.

"Fire Style!"

Ready for it, Uchiha Naruto opened his mouth and spat out a fist-sized fireball.

The fireball hit dead center, instantly setting the tentacled monster ablaze.

A wave of heat rolled through the hospital room. In an instant, the tentacled monster burned away completely, leaving not even a trace of ash.

The remaining length of tentacle around Uchiha Naruto's wrist also fell to the floor, twitched a few times, and vanished.

[Kill complete. Calculating rewards.]

[Ninja Jewel ×10]

Hearing the system's kill notification, Uchiha Naruto peered into the room from the doorway for a while, carefully checking every direction. Only after confirming it was safe did he enter and help up the old man who had fallen to the floor.

Although the old man's breathing was weak, it was fairly steady, and his complexion had improved a little.

After carefully helping the old man back into bed and covering him with the blanket, Uchiha Naruto sat on his own bed, his heart still pounding.

This world was actually this dangerous!

First there had been an evil spirit that could control people's bodies and force them to kill themselves, then a tentacled monster that parasitized human bodies. Running into two supernatural incidents in a single day-his luck could not have been worse.

This world was not supposed to be like this. In the previous fifteen years of his life, he had never experienced anything abnormal. Aside from the media publishing a few unfounded urban legends, no official organization had ever admitted that monsters, ghosts, or anything of the sort existed.

But were the authorities really unaware of all this? Uchiha Naruto did not think so.

There was a saying: if you found one cockroach in your house, there were bound to be more hiding in its corners.

Behind the evil spirit and the tentacled monster, there had to be more supernatural incidents. Given a modern state's control and surveillance over every aspect of society, even the most useless officials could not possibly remain completely oblivious.

If Japan's authorities could maintain the appearance of a stable society and keep ordinary people unaware, they probably had some trump card up their sleeves-perhaps a supernatural countermeasures department made up of eminent monks and onmyoji, dedicated to handling these unusual incidents but kept secret from the public.

Ordinary people had no way to contact the relevant department. Otherwise, perhaps he could have used the authorities' help to resolve his own predicament.

The stinging pain in his cheek flared up again. Gritting his teeth and enduring it, Uchiha Naruto opened the system to check his gains.

[Ninja Jewel ×10]

The Naruto game Uchiha Naruto played was a character-collecting card game. Regardless of rarity, every character started at Genin rank, followed by Chunin, Jonin, Kage Level, and Six Paths Level—five ranks in total.

Character rank was tied to skill level. Raising three LV1 skills to LV2 allowed a character to advance to Chunin and unlock further skills.

Besides increasing proficiency through training, skills could also be upgraded instantly with Ninja Jewels-the items dropped by the tentacled monster he had just killed.

Ten Ninja Jewels were exactly enough to max out the proficiency of one LV1 skill.

Praying to gods and Buddhas at the last minute might not do any good. Rather than waiting for that evil spirit to knock on my door at midnight, I should take advantage of daylight and see if I can kill it myself! My Fire Style can destroy monsters, so it should work on evil spirits too.

[Fire Style Level 2 (0/100)]

Uchiha Naruto thought fiercely. With the evil spirit targeting him, he had little choice but to fight with his back to the wall. After upgrading Fire Style to Level 2, he felt considerably braver.

Nakano Police Station, Nakano Ward, Tokyo.

A stubbled middle-aged man in his forties, with a faintly gloomy expression, held a report in his hand, disbelief written all over his face.

"The murderer in the Shimonakano Apartment case killed himself at the station last night? And he strangled himself to death? How is that possible?"

Yuuji Kanbara was an officer at Nakano Police Station who had been handling a murder case over the past few days. It was not complicated: a romantic entanglement between a sex worker and a down-and-out client. The murderer had turned himself in after the killing, witnesses and physical evidence were available, and the facts were clear. Just as the case was about to be closed, an unexpected complication arose-the murderer had killed himself in detention.

Although he was no renowned detective or ace police officer, Yuuji Kanbara was a veteran with twenty years on the job. He knew perfectly well that it was impossible for someone to strangle themselves to death.

His superiors, however, were indifferent. After all, the dead were both people on society's fringes, and they were already showing signs of wanting to hastily close the case.

But Yuuji Kanbara refused to give up. He wanted to investigate further. Checking his watch, he saw it was only three thirty in the afternoon. There was still time, so he drove to the crime scene.

Before long, he arrived in front of a dilapidated two-story apartment building.

It was a two-story timber-and-earth building, constructed in Heisei 6 according to the records. For earthquake safety, Japan imposed service lives on housing: twenty-two years for timber-and-earth structures and forty-seven years for reinforced concrete. This building was undoubtedly approaching, if not already past, its service life.

The rent was easy enough to imagine-unbelievably cheap.

But the building was so run-down that few people rented there. Apart from the murdered Miyui Ogura, there were only two households on the ground floor. After the murder, both had immediately expressed their intention to move out.

Yuuji Kanbara parked on the street. The moment he stepped out of the police car, he suddenly felt a venomous gaze fix on him.

He immediately looked up and saw a woman dressed in white flash past the window of the far-left room on the second floor, where the murder had taken place.

Was I seeing things?

A chill ran through Yuuji Kanbara's entire body, and a bead of cold sweat seeped from his forehead. He leaned against the car, his expression grim.

How could something like that happen? It had to be exhaustion from working late on the case these past few nights. Lack of sleep had frayed my nerves and made me see things.

Yuuji Kanbara lit a cigarette, but after only a few drags, he dropped it and ground it out. Perhaps he had not been seeing things. Someone might be in Miyui Ogura's room right now!

Someone suddenly turning up at the crime scene might be connected to the case.

Yes, that had to be it. Yuuji Kanbara was already leaning toward the second possibility.

He crossed the police cordon. The entire corridor was dark, with barely any sunlight reaching inside. Alone, Yuuji Kanbara climbed to the second floor and arrived outside room 201, which Miyui Ogura had rented.

The room was locked, but Yuuji Kanbara had obtained a spare key from the landlord the day before.

As Yuuji Kanbara took out the key to unlock the door and approached room 201, an unprecedented sense of danger washed over him like a tide. Even his hand began to tremble, and he almost dropped the key.

The last time he had felt something like this was three years ago, during a routine street check. An office worker who looked utterly harmless had handed over his briefcase, then suddenly pulled out a folding knife and stabbed at him.

This warning was far stronger than the previous one. Yuuji Kanbara's gaze sharpened. He drew his service weapon, a Nambu M60, and held it in his hand. Ammunition check, OK. Safety check, OK.

Let me see whether you're a person or a ghost!

Holding his gun in one hand, Yuuji Kanbara inserted the key into the lock with the other and turned it. Click. Then he grasped the handle and prepared to open the door.

"Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch..."

Just then, the sound of fingernails frantically scraping wood came from behind the door of room 201.

"Something's in there!"

Yuuji Kanbara's heart pounded so hard it nearly leaped into his throat, but his body reacted faster than his thoughts, retreating several steps.

No. I can't go any farther!

A powerful instinct warned Yuuji Kanbara not to advance. Opening that door filled him with an indescribable terror.

It was like standing empty-handed in front of a cage holding a starving beast, listening to its growls, with the cage door still ajar.

Maybe I should leave it alone?

Just then, the handle of room 201 began turning from the inside.

"Click."

"Click."

"Click."

Yuuji Kanbara could barely breathe, but he still gritted his teeth and raised his service weapon, placing his index finger on the trigger and aiming at the doorway. Whatever it was—a ghost, a monster, or a demon—it could take a few bullets first.

The door opened a crack from the inside, as though some monster was about to emerge.

Suddenly, the broad, sturdy back of a tall man appeared before Yuuji Kanbara. A thick, muscular arm reached out, gripped the handle, and pushed the door of room 201 shut.

The large-knuckled hand held the handle firmly, keeping it motionless no matter how hard it turned from inside.

After a dozen seconds or so, the disturbance inside room 201 finally subsided.

"Amitabha. Benefactor, you should not be here. What lies beyond this door is not a realm mortals may enter."

The tall figure turned around. He was a monk with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and deep creases in his brow. He wore white clothes beneath a red kasaya that left his right shoulder exposed. His entire bearing radiated an unassailable righteousness.

Yuuji Kanbara instinctively swung his gun toward the monk, but then hesitated.

Faced with the dark muzzle, the monk's expression did not change. He merely lowered his head and invoked the Buddha's name.

"Master, who are you?"

Yuuji Kanbara felt as though he had just returned from death's door. Under these circumstances, he found himself filled with warmth toward this monk who had suddenly appeared. Pointing a gun at him felt terribly disrespectful.

"U... ahem. This humble monk's Dharma name is Chiriku."