Chapter 39: Ryū's Little Goal
RawrSoFierce: Looks like I grabbed some kind of weird little medicine vial. [Image]
Once the image uploaded to the chat group, the strange script on the label became instantly legible—as though he'd been born knowing how to read it.
The sensation was uncanny.
And once he understood the label, his expression turned… complicated.
"'Power… Pill'? What kind of ridiculous name is that? Don't tell me it's some kind of knockoff supplement? Or worse—one of those 'male enhancement' pills?"
He had to admit: years of exposure to sketchy internet ads back on Earth had permanently damaged his associations.
The moment he saw the words "Power Pill," his brain immediately jumped to shady supplements and late-night infomercials.
The whole thing radiated "too good to be true."
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Oh! So the Admin got that vial! That's actually one of my proudest inventions!
Green Grasslands Wolf King: I'm not really a pharmacology expert. I stumbled onto the Power Pill formula by accident while I was researching regular Power Pellets. Unfortunately, there's only one left, and the manufacturing difficulty is extreme.
Green Grasslands Wolf King: The Power Pill is very different from regular Power Pellets.
Crazy Diamond: Power Pellet… Power Pill… Isn't that just one word of difference?
Crazy Diamond: Or is there something else that makes it special?
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Power Pellets are single-use consumables. They triple your strength for 10 minutes. Side effect: a full day of diarrhea.
Green Grasslands Wolf King: The Power Pill is the advanced version! Permanent strength increase of up to 3x your base. The only downside so far is… the stronger you already are, the less effective it becomes.
Ryū's first instinct after reading Wolffy's explanation was to lodge a complaint about game balance.
Because this sounded absurdly broken.
A permanent tripling of base strength? What kind of concept was that?
In any world with powerhouses, a drug like this would spark wars over possession.
Of course, Wolffy had mentioned the caveat: the stronger the user, the weaker the effect.
If Whitebeard took the Power Pill, the boost might only be around one-and-a-half times? Maybe double? Triple at most?
But then again—this was a Wolffy invention. Being broken was par for the course.
Of Wolffy's entire catalog of inventions, the ones that could be called "normal" probably didn't even account for a quarter of the total. As for how he managed to create devices that bordered on causality manipulation—only Wolffy himself knew.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara! Impressive pill. This old man only grabbed an Atmospheric Energy Cannon. [Image]
Edward Newgate: Peculiar design. I'll have someone mount it on the Moby Dick one of these days.
Kaguya-sama: I got a Sleep Hairclip… [Image] It seems to cure insomnia when you wear it to bed?
Kaguya-sama: Thank you, @Green Grasslands Wolf King!
The Little Wandering Planet: I got a man-eating plant… This is a man-eating plant, right?
The Little Wandering Planet: [Image] It looks as strange as a Sea King. Speaking of which, that Sea King I won last time? After I dropped it on my surface, those humans hunted it down and turned it into canned Sea King meat.
The Little Wandering Planet: A moment of silence for it… Moment over.
We, Ying Zheng: We obtained a peculiar handle of some sort. [Image]
Green Grasslands Wolf King: That's not a handle… That's a tranquilizer pistol…
We, Ying Zheng: A tranquilizer pistol? Hm… Ahem! What manner of device is this?!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: …Need to be alone.
Yukari had, once again, retreated into a shell of self-imposed isolation. She should never have peeked at the chat. Lurking only brought blow after blow.
Fortunately, she was well-practiced at this point. A few minutes to recover, and the Yōkai Sage would be bouncing back as lively as ever.
* * *
Ryū, blissfully unaware of Yukari's internal turmoil, studied what the other four members had received. So the "Power Pill" really was the most valuable item of the five?
A permanent tripling of strength—after his constitution had already been enhanced—how much of a boost would it actually give him?
The name was impossible to take seriously.
But the effect was undeniably top-tier.
He unscrewed the vial's cap. Sure enough, a single pill roughly the size of a marble sat inside, rolling around the bottom as he tilted the bottle.
Vivid red, with a peculiar smell.
If a pill like this could be mass-produced for the group—it would be the ultimate starter kit for new members.
But Wolffy had said this was an accidental creation. Reproducing it would be extraordinarily difficult.
And if a scientist as unreasonably talented as Wolffy described something as "extremely difficult to manufacture"—
Even without understanding the specifics, Ryū could guess just how steep the challenge was.
* * *
Pulling his consciousness out of the group, Ryū quietly shut the window.
This was a fairly busy street.
If anything conspicuous happened—
Drawing ANBU's attention would be bad.
"Swallowing it shouldn't cause any adverse reactions, right? Forget it—overthinking gets me nowhere. Bottoms up."
He tossed the pill into his mouth and swallowed.
The instant it touched his tongue, there was a faint trace of bitterness. As the pill slid down his esophagus, he could feel it dissolving at an extraordinary rate, merging into his body.
His temperature began to climb—like a high fever.
But his mind stayed perfectly lucid.
Inside him, cells, bones, everything seemed to undergo some strange transformation.
The process lasted roughly seven to nine minutes.
Then it gradually subsided.
Body temperature returned to normal.
He frowned slightly, murmuring: "There's a change… I think? It feels like my raw strength went up."
He glanced at his recently purchased table and fought down the urge to test-slap it.
"Guess I'll have to test it outside tomorrow. If I keep destroying furniture in here, Might Guy next door is going to come knocking again. Having him notice something is off would be a problem."
Guy was on decent terms with him, but the man was still a Konoha shinobi at the end of the day.
Ryū preferred to develop in the shadows.
Then, when the Nine-Tails incident arrived—
He'd give Kurama a nice pat on the head.
That was his little goal.
☆☆☆
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