"Moshi Moshi... Chuan-Chuan?"
"Can you hear me? Your signal seems a little bad."
Satoru Gojo's drawn-out voice came over the phone.
"Gojo."
"What?"
Wangchuan answered the call.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's nothing much~"
He deliberately pitched the end of his sentence way up.
"I just suddenly missed you, Wangchuan~"
Wangchuan stared at the bikini-clad woman wobbling on a surfboard in the distance and said languidly, "Speak like a normal person."
"That's so mean, Chuan." Satoru Gojo drew his words out through the receiver.
"I called you with so much enthusiasm, and you're telling Jujutsu High's strongest to speak like a normal person? You've broken my heart, you know?"
"I'm hanging up."
"Wait, wait, wait!" The flippant tone finally disappeared from the other end. "Seriously, where are you right now?"
"The United States." Wangchuan nudged his flip-flop with his toes. "Miami. Sunshine, beaches, palm trees. Smells ten thousand times better than your musty Jujutsu High basement."
"Wow, a vacation! No fair!"
"Then could I trouble this leisurely American tourist to come back and handle a little assignment for us?"
"Just one little..."
"No time."
"That was a fast rejection!" Satoru Gojo gave an exaggerated gasp. "I haven't even told you what the assignment is!"
"I don't have time, whatever it is." Wangchuan watched a tall blonde woman emerge from the sea in the distance.
Water trickled down her healthy, wheat-colored skin.
"I'm on vacation. No overtime, especially overtime involving you."
"No matter how much you pay."
The other end went silent for three seconds.
Wangchuan could practically picture Satoru Gojo's expression.
Those pale blue eyes behind his sunglasses had to be narrowing slightly, his lips curling into that smile that made people want to punch him.
"What a shame."
Satoru Gojo suddenly lowered his voice a fraction. "I was going to say the reward was fifty million yen."
Wangchuan's toes shifted inside his flip-flops.
"Hmm..."
He rolled over and pushed his sunglasses up.
"Gojo, do you have some misunderstanding about the word vacation?"
"My plane only landed this morning. I haven't even gotten over the jet lag."
"Eighty million."
Satoru Gojo's voice was still just as airy.
"..."
Wangchuan fell silent for a moment. "No can do. You know I haven't had a break in ages... hm?"
Halfway through speaking, he caught a black-and-white shape flying toward him out of the corner of his eye.
Several blond, blue-eyed boys were playing soccer on the beach. One had kicked too hard, sending the ball straight toward Wangchuan's lounge chair.
Without even lifting his eyelids, he raised a finger slightly.
The soccer ball traced a small arc through the air, as though supported by an invisible hand, then rolled steadily back to the two children.
"Whoa! John, did you see that?!"
One brown-haired boy pointed at Wangchuan, his eyes wide. "He has superpowers!"
"Is he Magneto?"
"No way. It's a ball. There's no metal."
"Cool! Do it again! Again!"
Wangchuan ignored them and moved his phone to his other ear. "Anyway, Gojo, I really don't have time."
"What's that noise over there? Why are kids shouting about superpowers?" Satoru Gojo had sharp ears.
"Beach soccer."
Wangchuan's expression didn't change. "I'm on vacation, researching the cultural significance of the curves of women's buttocks on the American Continent. Very busy."
The other end went silent for a full three seconds.
"Hahahaha..."
Then Satoru Gojo burst out laughing. The sound spilled through the receiver with a hiss of static, long and infuriating.
"Chuan, just say you went to the United States to look at tall beauties with big asses. Why make it sound so academic?"
"I'm hanging up."
"One hundred million."
Wangchuan's finger stopped just before pressing the end-call button.
"...One hundred million yen?"
"One hundred million yen." Satoru Gojo's voice suddenly grew just a tiny bit more serious.
"A Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Nothing special for you."
"If you don't take it, I'll have to go myself, but I've got something on my hands right now that I really can't leave~"
His voice rose at the end again.
Wangchuan stared at that blonde woman walking out of the sea in the distance.
One hundred million.
He slowly sat upright and took off his sunglasses, revealing eyes that finally held a little interest.
"Gojo."
"Mm-hmm?"
"...Where is it?"
"Hahaha..."
"You never change, Chuan. Money above all."
"Tokyo. I'll send the details to your phone."
Wangchuan kicked off his flip-flops, stood up, and brushed the sand from his beach shorts.
"As a member of humanity, I am duty-bound to preserve peace in Tokyo," Wangchuan said solemnly. "I'll take a flight tonight."
Satoru Gojo's barely contained laughter came through the phone, muffled, as though he had covered the receiver.
"I knew it," he said. "You're always the most reliable, Wangchuan~"
"Pay enough, and anything's negotiable."
"So materialistic! So cold! So hurtful!"
"I'm hanging up. Need to pack."
"Wait, wait, wait! Remember to bring me a souvenir from Miami! One of those wind chimes made of seashells..."
Beep.
He bent down, picked up his sunglasses, put them back on, and gave the two little boys still watching him expectantly a faint smile.
"Sorry."
He crooked a finger at them, and the soccer ball floated lightly back into one child's arms. "Superpowers are off duty."
Wangchuan stared at his phone screen, waiting for the message to pop up, and sighed.
The money arrived quickly.
"One hundred million yen."
He stood up and brushed the sand from his shorts.
"Sure enough, what Satoru Gojo does best is throw so much money at people that they can't refuse."
As he spoke, the translucent panel automatically appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Wangchuan] [Template: Moon Demon (33%)] [Race: Human/Demon (switchable)] [Demon Coins: 0] [Jujutsu rating (strength rating): Special Grade · Special Anomaly-an existence beyond Jujutsu Society's current rating system.] [When the host travels between worlds, he will automatically adapt to the current world's rules, converting his power into the corresponding energy system (such as Chakra or Cursed Energy). In a plane without supernatural powers, Original Magic Power will be enabled by default. However, switching to his true demon form allows him to use demonic energy directly.] [Innate Cursed Technique: Gravity Mastery] [Domain: Guanghan Collapsing Moon Realm] [Traits: Conceptual immortality, molecular regeneration, no weaknesses, limitless magic power (Cursed Energy).]
Half a year ago, when he had first landed in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen.
He had still been wondering how an ordinary corporate drone like him could survive the first episode when a ding sounded in his head, and the system booted up.
It had handed him the complete template of Tso Lan, the Moon Demon, right from the start.
Along with some of Tso Lan's power, knowledge, and combat instincts.
It was like taking everything someone else had spent a lifetime developing, compressing it into a package, and extracting it into his brain.
It felt as though someone were pouring an entire library's worth of boiling water into his skull.
For the first three days, he had nearly burned himself to death.
[Traits: Conceptual immortality, molecular regeneration, limitless magic power (Cursed Energy).]
Wangchuan's gaze lingered on the list of abilities for a moment.
Undying and indestructible.
He knew about the Eight Demon Sorcerers' immortality.
When he had first crossed over, seeing that line had kept him excited all night. He had thought he was about to soar straight to the top with cheats.
And even after killing, he still had to bow to the progress bar's whims.
He glanced toward the very bottom of the panel.
Sure enough, that familiar progress bar that raised his blood pressure slightly lay there quietly.
[Template Fusion Progress: 33%]
Over half a year had passed. Thirty-three percent.
The first month had gone fairly smoothly. After he killed some Grade Four through Grade One Cursed Spirits, the progress bar had shot up from zero to five percent.
At the time, he had thought that at that rate, another two months would fully unlock the template and put all of Tso Lan's power in his hands.
Then the system had abruptly popped up a notification.
[Beginner benefit period ended. Further fusion progress will be increased through hunting Special Grade Cursed Spirits or energy infusion.]
Then he had gotten stuck.
Only after combing through the system instructions had he discovered that gaining progress by killing monsters earlier had merely been bait to hook a beginner. The real threshold only started now.
Either he had to find relatively powerful Special Grade Cursed Spirits to gain one percent.
Or he had to pay.
One Demon Coin could raise it by one percentage point, but exchanging for one Demon Coin required ten billion yen.
Roughly six hundred million RMB for one percentage point.
"What a lousy system."
He muttered under his breath and slung his beach bag over his shoulder.
"It's bad enough that killing ordinary Special Grades gives no experience, but now you want me to top up?"
"Why not just tell me to rob Satoru Gojo's wallet? That thing could fill my bar several times over, couldn't it?"
The panel, of course, did not respond.
But Wangchuan didn't dwell on it. With his current strength, he could handle Sukuna anyway.
Yet the small gray text in the lower-left corner glowed quietly, as though it had long known he would grumble every time:
[Note: The power you possess is enough to warp the orbits of stars, but not enough to alter the course of human hearts. Unless you find the right way.]
Wangchuan stared at the line for two seconds.
Every time he saw it, he felt the system was taking a veiled jab at him.
"All right, all right, I know. Human hearts are unpredictable. I get it."
With a casual swipe, he dismissed the panel, and it dispersed like smoke blown away by the wind.
At the same time, a faint ache began at the back of his head again.
"Hisss..."
That familiar feeling was like something new slowly seeping from the inside of his skull, soaking into his consciousness bit by bit.
Tso Lan's knowledge was surfacing again.
It had been like this for the past six months. Every so often, the system would stuff a new batch of things into his brain.
Sometimes it was techniques for applying Jujutsu, sometimes fragments of memories from ancient times. The most outrageous instance had woken him in the middle of the night.
His head had been filled with prayers used by some unknown civilization to worship the moon. He didn't even know when he had learned the language.
"Here we go again..." Wangchuan rubbed his temples.
Wangchuan shook his head.
"Hm?"
Just then, his phone vibrated.
A message from Satoru Gojo: a set of location coordinates and several photos.
The special grade cursed spirit in Shibuya Hospital looked like a mass of twisted sludge with dozens of eyes embedded in it, nauseating just to look at.
There was also a voice message below.
Wangchuan tapped it.
"Chuanchuan~ Remember to bring back a souvenir~~ A seashell wind chime~~~ I want to hang it outside my office door~~~"
Wangchuan turned off the voice message, his face expressionless.
"I'm heading back to Japan to toy with those cursed spirits."
Before you continue