Hyuga Arin looked down at the despair etched across the Cloud ninja's face beneath his feet.
All four limbs had been severed, and even his tongue had been cut out—there really wasn't much left to despair over.
Moreover, Arin had already cauterized the wounds at high temperature and even stitched them up to a certain extent.
At this point, the man couldn't even die if he wanted to.
"If I kill him, this barrier won't be able to hold anymore," Arin said as he looked around at the fabricated sky and the distant scenery.
The surroundings were nothing more than a pasted-on layer of imagery—none of it actually existed.
If one walked all the way to the edge, they could even touch a solid wall.
"We're surrounded by Cloud ninja right now," Arin said in a low voice.
Up until now, there hadn't been the slightest movement from outside the Game Instance barrier, and he had no way of knowing what the situation beyond it was like.
That was the one real downside of the Game Instance—once it was activated, it completely cut off perception of the outside world.
Even the Byakugan couldn't see through it.
That, in turn, put Arin in a difficult position.
Once the Game Instance ended, they might immediately be hit by a powerful wave of attacks.
"And then what?" Nawaki's face also showed worry.
The entire battle had felt more like sightseeing for him—he hadn't fought at all.
But that didn't mean he wanted to face countless Cloud ninja all at once.
Nawaki wanted to fight, not to die.
Arin fell into thought.
He was considering whether, after dispelling the barrier, he would have enough time to reconstruct it again.
If they were attacked the moment they stepped out, he might not even have the chance to activate Game Instance a second time.
The skill required a short activation time. If it was interrupted during that window, not only would the activation fail, he would also lose three thousand chakra.
Although he currently had an enormous amount of chakra, once the Game Instance ended, he would be reduced back to his normal state.
At that point, he would have to face a group of Cloud ninja without any buffs—possibly even that bastard who fired the Tailed Beast Ball.
Whether it was the Eight-Tails or the Two-Tails jinchūriki, he didn't know.
Sometimes Arin really wondered—
Was Senju Hashirama out of his mind when he handed out all the tailed beasts?
Now they were causing him this much trouble.
Then—
Arin glanced at his five hundred thousand-plus experience points.
"You two watch him," Arin said, kicking the Cloud ninja toward Nawaki's feet.
"Don't let him commit suicide."
Nawaki looked down at the Cloud ninja, a flicker of sympathy crossing his face—before disappearing just as quickly.
Showing mercy to the enemy in war was cruelty to oneself.
That much, he understood.
Still…
If people could truly understand one another's thoughts, wouldn't—
Nawaki frowned.
Why was he suddenly having such a ridiculous idea?
If everyone's thoughts were laid bare, no one's malice could be hidden. Even the kindest people harbored ugly thoughts deep inside—wouldn't that only intensify conflict?
Those were ideas he had heard from Arin before, and at the time they had made perfect sense.
So why was he now thinking the opposite?
"That's strange… why would I suddenly think something like that?" Nawaki muttered quietly.
Neither Arin nor Aburame Mushihime heard his murmuring.
Mushihime stared at the Cloud ninja with vigilance—she was the one who listened to Arin the most.
Meanwhile, Arin opened his status panel.
Name: I'm Hyuga Arin
Class: Hunter
Sub-Class: Doctor
Level: Lv41 (0/37500)
Chakra/Nen: 10110 / 8110 +1000 +500 +500
Essence: 6000
Experience: 522,978
"Over five hundred and twenty thousand experience," Arin couldn't suppress the grin on his face.
This was more than enough to give himself a thorough power-up.
And—
Fusion of Fire Release!!!
"Upgrade everything for me!!"
[Fire Release · Fire Dragon Flame Bullet (Lv10) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
Vitality: Your fire dragons gain their own life.Dragonization: You transform into a fire dragon.Scorch: Your flames increase in temperature.
Two of these traits had appeared before.
He had already chosen Vitality previously.
He had no intention of picking Dragonization, so he directly chose Scorch.
[Fire Release · Fire Dragon Flame Bullet (Lv10) EXP (Max) — Scorch]
Then, without hesitation, he pushed all low-tier Fire Release skills straight to max.
[Fire Release · Blazing Meteor (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
[Fire Release · Dragon Flame Technique (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
[Fire Release · Flame Bullet (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
[Fire Release · Flame Strike (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
Traits began appearing one after another:
Meteor: Your flames can condense into meteors.Hellfire: You can summon a rock giant from hell.Bounce: Can bounce between multiple targets.Dragonization: You transform into a fire dragon.Fireball: Fireball is invincible. No rebuttals accepted. ×3Explosion: Explosion is the true art of fireballs!!! ×2Enchant: Adds fire-element damage to any attack. ×2Avatar: You can become a fire avatar.
Dragonization appeared again—this time from Dragon Flame Technique.
But what really made Arin want to curse—
Why did Fireball show up three times?!
Two Enchants. Two Explosions.
Why were there so many duplicate traits all at once?
Arin rubbed his forehead. His head hurt.
Bounce and Avatar were immediately crossed out.
Bounce's range wasn't necessarily larger than his own attack radius, and Avatar overlapped heavily with his Transformation Technique—he could already turn into flames as long as his chakra held out.
Meteor had limited synergy with Fire Release overall.
Hellfire was clearly a summoning-type trait.
And… was this Hellfire the Warcraft Hellfire?
Arin fell into deep thought.
Summoning didn't seem very useful to him either.
If he needed numbers, Shadow Clones worked just fine.
But compared to Meteor, Hellfire at least seemed more promising.
There were simply too few viable options. This was the downside of rushing low-tier skills—duplicate traits everywhere.
Fireball had appeared so many times that Arin was now genuinely curious what this so-called "invincible" actually meant.
He silently added it to his "backup curiosity list."
In the end, his final selections were:
HellfireFireballExplosionEnchant
[Fire Release · Blazing Meteor (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Hellfire]
[Fire Release · Dragon Flame Technique (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Fireball]
[Fire Release · Flame Bullet (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Explosion]
[Fire Release · Flame Strike (Lv1) EXP (Max) — Enchant]
This consumed 255,500 experience points, dropping his remaining experience to 267,478.
Finally, only one high-tier Fire Release skill remained.
[Fire Release · Grand Flame Art (Lv10) EXP (Max) — Trait (Pending)]
Scorch: Your flames increase in temperature.
Arin: "…"
He took back what he'd said earlier.
Even high-tier Fire Release skills could roll duplicate traits.
Sure enough—praise it, and it slaps you in the face immediately.
He looked at the remaining two options:
Demonic Flame: Your flames can devour everything to grow stronger.Sacred Flame: Your flames can heal others.
A perfect contrast—
one pure evil, one pure holy.
✨ Bonus Chapter Goals ✨
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100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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