"Pfft-hahahahaha! Hahahaha!" Mahito laughed uproariously.
Muta sat on the white sand with a dark face, shifting his butt uncomfortably. He had just emerged from the sand, realizing his inner monologue had been so dramatic, yet resurrection was effortless for his new boss. He didn't need to worry about the consequences of being killed by Sukuna at all.
His current mental state was roughly like making various *chuunibyou* poses alone in his room, pretending to grimly narrate the terror and despair of fate, fully immersed in his own mental world—when suddenly the door opened. His mother stood there holding a cup of water, staring at him blankly, then quietly closed the door.
Although the person was alive, he was dead inside.
Muta said sullenly, "Are you done laughing yet?!"
Mahito laughed until his stomach hurt. "I didn't expect you to actually dare to 1v1 Ryomen Sukuna. I hinted in the recording that Sukuna possessed the power of one finger. Don't tell me you didn't know that if a Curse eats just one finger of the Special Grade Cursed Object [Ryomen Sukuna's Finger], a Special Grade Cursed Spirit is born? You should have considered that."
Muta gritted his teeth. "You threw Sukuna right in my face, forced me to restore my mobility and combat power at top speed, and hinted that I use the Deluxe Version of the 200 million point recovery. Wasn't that explicitly telling me to duel Sukuna?"
"Where are your puppets?" Mahito asked curiously. "I remember our conversation about the Binding Vow half a year ago. You were sharp then, considering everything clearly. Why didn't you use your puppets to probe first instead of piloting your Unit-01 head-on? Even if you probed and then gathered the others to attack with you, you wouldn't have been insta-killed by Sukuna in two moves, right?"
"Probe with a puppet army?" Muta frowned. "Wouldn't that force Sukuna to use Domain Expansion or the fire technique? Legend has it Sukuna's Domain covers a 200-meter radius. He landed right on my face; I didn't have time to run 200 meters away. Even considering he might not want to use Domain Expansion because the subsequent Technique Burnout would be uncomfortable, he could still use the fire technique. That's the terrifying large-scale explosive fire recorded in Jujutsu history as the 'Flames of Ten Thousand Deaths.' I didn't dare gamble on that."
Mahito paused. "Ah, is that so? You didn't know."
"Know what?"
"Sukuna's fire isn't a separate technique, and its range isn't that big... Ah, how many points do you have left? This intel is valuable. You need points to buy it."
*Fuck!* Muta said impatiently, "Kogane won't appear here."
"Kogane is here, you know!" Suddenly, Kogane appeared! It flew over Muta and floated up and down around Mahito, as if bowing politely. "Lord Mahito, Kogane is at your service."
"Thanks for your hard work, Kogane. Can you show me Muta-san's account?"
"Lord Mahito has worked hard too." Kogane rejected ruthlessly. "Cannot do that. Kogane is Master's exclusive Kogane. Kogane is very grateful to Lord Mahito for granting Kogane spirituality and the possibility of growing into a true lifeform, but Kogane cannot betray Master."
Mahito clapped happily. He said to Muta, "See? Isn't Kogane much more trustworthy than humans?"
Muta suspected Mahito was being sarcastic, because Muta was Mahito's spy. As a spy, Muta was beneficial to Mahito, so Mahito shouldn't mock him like this. Logically, it was impossible. But considering this was Mahito—the Cursed Spirit version of Satoru Gojo—Muta couldn't help but waver, feeling this was exactly something Mahito would do.
*Dammit. One Satoru Gojo is hard enough to deal with. Now that a Cursed Spirit version of Gojo has appeared, Muta felt his blood pressure would never go down. Especially since this Gojo-version Curse had caught him by the short hairs!*
*Fuck!*
"How many points do I have now?"
Kogane projected Muta's panel with its watery eyes. On the right side of the panel, Muta's current points were clearly written:
25,216,720.
"25 million, huh."
Mahito said with dissatisfaction, "In my calculations, if two Special Grades fight to the death, the points gained should be at least over 100 million. But you died too fast. Although you tried your best to unleash a powerful cannon blast before that, you were killed by Sukuna's slash before you could release it. The gap to 200 million is ridiculously large."
Muta's eyebrow twitched. "I think my tactics were fine. The problem was lack of intel. If I had more complete intel, I could have scored higher before dying... By the way, how much is resurrection?"
"100," Mahito said with a grin.
"100?!" Muta's voice was sharp as a sparrow's. "Doesn't that mean as long as sorcerers engage in a death match, they're guaranteed a resurrection?!"
*Snap.* Mahito snapped his fingers.
"That's right. Anyone, as long as they die in the Dream Migration, can pay 100 points to resurrect."
"You might as well define it as free resurrection."
"In that case, wouldn't it bug out if someone about to die of old age died in my Dream Migration?" Mahito said smilingly. "Similarly, there are those with severe illnesses or heavy injuries on the verge of death. Even if they have no ability, they can enter here at any time. If there were no point restriction, wouldn't they be able to enjoy life-extending treatment for free?"
Muta's mouth twitched, but he quickly thought of a loophole. "No, there's another way. Since there's no rule against transferring points, one could transfer points to those people first, then have them enter the Dream Migration to extend their lives. Then you'd still have to resurrect that group."
Unexpectedly, Mahito nodded honestly. "Correct. I will do exactly that."
"Isn't that still taking advantage of you?" Muta was confused.
"But it also opens up the situation."
"The situation?"
"Even if I suffer a loss, as long as you find my bug, I will honestly swallow the loss. That's the situation," Mahito said meaningfully. "You see, I'm so honest, even crying while swallowing this loss. If you were a Jujutsu amateur—no, even if not an amateur, but a Jujutsu Headquarters higher-up, or even that old geezer Principal Gakuganji—wouldn't you feel particularly reassured about me? Thinking I'm a gentleman who can be bullied with integrity?"
Muta finally understood Mahito's meaning. This 'bug' wasn't unfixable; it was simply buying loyalty with gold! The more Mahito displayed benevolence, the shallower the label of 'Curse' on him would become. Until Mahito truly became a God, the label of Curse would inevitably fade completely with time. Everyone would remember Mahito as a benevolent god who honestly fulfilled his duties even when taken advantage of, forgetting the terror and horror of his Cursed Spirit origins.
"Is it worth it?" Muta sighed. "You are already so powerful. Money and power shouldn't mean anything to you anymore. I even feel that ruling the world is meaningless to you."
"Money and power are indeed useless to me. Ruling the world after I become God is also meaningless. Your judgment is correct; I am not acting for those things now. Those low-level desires have gradually vanished as my power expanded."
Mahito shrugged and said faintly:
"But I must be responsible for my subordinates, my companions. Those standing behind me as I grew to this point are expecting the New World after I become God. In this New World, everyone hopes for good times. I cannot betray their expectations, betray that beautiful New World. For this, I'd rather take a roundabout way to manifest my nature as a Benevolent God than act willfully as a capricious Evil God."
Muta fell silent.
He suddenly felt a sense of glory—glory in being Mahito's spy. If he followed such a god, became a believer of such a god, how happy would that be? Muta finally understood why so many people gathered around the Lord of Cursed Spirits, why they were so dead set on following him. Even Satoru Gojo, though raising the banner to counter the Lord of Cursed Spirits, never denied the Lord of Cursed Spirits' benevolence.
Although Muta was usually cold, he now felt the romance coming from Mahito. To die for this romance would surely be supreme bliss.
Then he thought of Ryomen Sukuna being thrown in his face.
*Fuck! Why does such a perfect leader have such bad taste!*
"Enough small talk." Although Muta started the chat, he forcefully returned to the original topic. "Is 20 million enough to buy intel on Sukuna's fire technique?"
"You really want to continue fighting him?"
"Isn't this the excuse you gave me?" Muta said calmly. "And it perfectly explains my intel source... I buy Sukuna's intel to build an advantage, while using constant death matches with Sukuna to explain where I got the points to heal my disability."
"Ambition!" Mahito praised loudly, then changed the subject. "However, I can offer you another choice."
Muta frowned. "Another choice?"
"In Tokyo Colony No. 2, there are two amateur Special Grades," Mahito said. "They are rampaging based solely on their newly awakened techniques."
Muta's mind raced, and he suddenly realized, "This is why I resurrected here! I should have guessed. If everyone who resurrected had to be personally revived by you, that would be too troublesome. You must have embedded your resurrection ability into the Dream Migration, allowing everyone who dies to trigger auto-resurrection. And now, the reason I didn't trigger the auto-resurrection is that you have business with me!"
Mahito praised him secretly. Muta's mind was indeed flexible.
"Exactly," Mahito said. "You are the first person I found. If you're unwilling to accept my mission, I can only find someone else."
"Need me to kill them?"
"No, just engage them in intense combat," Mahito said. "The more intense the battle, the better it can be recorded by the Dream Migration's barrier. I am very interested in these two amateur Special Grades, but restricted by the Binding Vow that I can only appear on December 24th, I cannot enter the field personally. I can only find someone to fight them."
"You have more spies than just me, right?"
"Because among my subordinates, you are the weakest," Mahito said with a grin. "If you fail, I'll find someone else, stepping up level by level. Just like a Demon King sending minions from low to high level to feed experience to the Hero. This way, the Dream Migration will perfectly record everything about these two amateur Special Grades."
Muta was speechless.
After a while, Muta continued to ask, "What's the deal with those two amateur Special Grades? Is there such a thing as an 'amateur' Special Grade Sorcerer?"
"Among a population of 100 million, sorting through the sands will always reveal stunning talents," Mahito lamented. "Now, two have appeared. Special Grades that even I find very tricky. They know nothing, but the moment they awakened their techniques, they became Special Grades. These are bona fide monsters of the Jujutsu world."
Muta frowned. "Solely based on talent, becoming Special Grade the moment Cursed Energy awakened? Even you find them tricky? And two of them? If you didn't say this personally, I'd think you were joking."
"Even Ryomen Sukuna might suffer a loss if he went in unaware," Mahito said seriously. "Although not as terrifying as Sukuna, they are opponents you absolutely cannot underestimate. If you set your target on them, you must be fully mentally prepared."
"Compared to one-finger Sukuna?" Muta asked.
"At least you'd have the spare energy to counterattack," Mahito laughed.
Muta sighed. As expected, a troublesome mission.
Continue seeking out Ryomen Sukuna, or find the new Special Grades? Anyone with a normal brain would know what to choose.
Muta exhaled slowly, his face suddenly twisting into a ferocious expression. "This 20 million. I want to buy Sukuna's intel."
"You're actually deciding to grind Sukuna?"
"This is a Dream Migration where one cannot die, right?" Muta said coldly. "Since death has been stripped away, what I do is up to my own will... I just can't swallow the insult of Sukuna killing me so casually!"
Mahito wasn't surprised at all by Muta's decision. This was his personality in the original timeline.
In the canon, Mahito and Kenjaku had invited Muta to truly join their team. Muta rejected them with fierce and insulting words. He clearly expressed the attitude: *You must heal me, and after healing me, I will definitely kill you.*
Actually, in the canon, after Mahito healed Muta, Muta abruptly collapsed the floor under the life-support device. At the time, Mahito thought Muta had fled and turned to leave, but Muta actively initiated combat.
He deliberately wanted to fight Mahito in the original timeline!
Perhaps it was guilt, or maybe he needed to prove he wasn't a traitor, so he had to fight them to wash away the suspicion.
But regardless of the reason, his behavior of actively starting a war when he could have avoided it was extremely emotional. On the surface, Muta seemed cold, but in reality, when he got heated, he was a psychopath who didn't care about his life!
And now, Muta had—unsurprisingly—let the blood rush to his head.
*Snap.* Mahito snapped his fingers. "Kogane, deduct 20 million points from Muta-san. These points are for purchasing the truth about why Ryomen Sukuna possesses two different techniques."
Kogane made a *clatter* sound. "Master, are you sure you want to purchase partial intel on Ryomen Sukuna? The required points are 20 million."
"Cheap enough to move me to tears." Muta's voice was cold. He remembered Sukuna's carelessness before his death, feeling the humiliation and rage in his heart impossible to bury. "Confirm!"
This was indeed a very cheap price. After all, Muta had merely contacted Sukuna and immediately had enough points to buy unknown intel on him. If everyone did this, keeping secrets in the Dream Migration would become increasingly difficult until everyone's intel was hollowed out.
Cannot die, plus knowing everything about the opponent after just one fight—the intel came too fast. Just like veteran *League of Legends* pro players: everyone knows the heroes' skills and how to counter them. The rest depends on proficiency.
The future Dream Migration would be the same. With intel fully public, it would depend on who could use their techniques more proficiently, whose combat experience was richer, and whose adaptability was stronger! Muta even looked forward to that future. It would surely be a Jujutsu Golden Age that no one could stop.
Mahito was about to reveal the intel when he suddenly froze.
Muta frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
Mahito laughed awkwardly twice. "Haha, I thought the Key Keeper was an interesting setting. I didn't expect someone to be so impatient and so... ferocious."
Through the Dream Migration's barrier, Mahito saw it:
A man in a suit and leather shoes was stepping on Jogo. Beside the man, a Kogane swam happily.
"The Key Keeper of Tokyo Colony No. 2 just changed," Mahito sighed. "While we were talking, one of the amateur Special Grades I mentioned defeated the Key Keeper in his barrier and became the new Key Keeper."
Muta couldn't believe it. "You're kidding, right? It's only the first day."
"Yeah, even I can't understand it. Some people can't even tolerate the first day." Mahito looked at the man's name, a smile appearing on his lips. "What an interesting man, isn't he? How about it? Want to change your mind and probe this amateur Special Grade?"
Mahito was the controller of the Dream Migration, so he could clearly see the man's name: Hiromi Higuruma.