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[Main Mission (Phase One): Ascending the Ranks]
Objective: The Terminus Space has applied a camouflage protocol to the Explorer. To the inhabitants of this world, you will appear as a lifeform composed of high-density Reishi. You are currently a vagrant in the 80th District of North Rukongai. Find a way to infiltrate the Seireitei and open a path for ascension.
Time Limit: 3 Calendar Days
Difficulty: Easy ~ Hard
Success Reward: 500 Terminus Coins
Failure Penalty: Eradication
Infiltrate the Seireitei... At first glance, the mission didn't seem particularly dangerous or complex. However, the wildly fluctuating difficulty rating on the interface gave Lu Li pause.
In the Soul Society, the vagrants of Rukongai sat at the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy. Yet, for someone with natural talent, joining the Seireitei wasn't an impossible feat. After all, the Gotei 13 constantly needed fresh blood. Many elite Soul Reapers hailed from Rukongai, officially enlisting only after honing their skills at the Shin'o Academy.
He had no idea how his innate talent would translate to this world's power system, but he was undoubtedly stronger than the vast majority of ordinary vagrants. Taking the standard route through the Academy shouldn't be too hard.
The real problem was whether he could actually make it to the "admissions office" in one piece. In Rukongai, the higher the district number, the more violent and lawless it became. District 80 was the absolute fringe of the Soul Society. Trying to march all the way to the Seireitei from here practically guaranteed lethal encounters along the road.
So far, the Terminus Space had only provided his location, leaving him completely blind to the current timeline. Overthinking it with such limited intel was pointless. He decided to check his own status first.
Upon being dropped into this world, the Terminus Space had implanted basic operational knowledge directly into his mind. Lu Li mentally called up his Status Screen to evaluate his current condition.
[Status Screen]
[Explorer No. 404040404]
[Level: Lv. 1]
> Reference: With the exception of Luck, the average adult baseline for all attributes is 5.
Note: The Explorer's body has not been fully digitized. The following metrics are for self-evaluation purposes only.
Life Source (HP): 100%
Soul Source (MP/Reiatsu): 100%
Constitution: 15
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Spirit: 20
Charisma: 6
Luck: 1
Since it was his first time accessing the interface, each attribute came with a brief tooltip. Lu Li had played enough games in his old life to grasp the concepts. 'Life Source' was essentially his HP bar, while 'Soul Source' acted as his MP—or in this world, his Reiatsu capacity. Because he was a living, breathing entity rather than a cluster of digitized pixels, these bars wouldn't operate under strict video game logic.
Constitution dictated his maximum health, stamina, physical defense, and recovery rate. Strength governed his raw damage output and carrying capacity. Together with Agility, it determined his movement speed, while Agility alone dictated his raw reflexes.
Spirit affected his mastery over skills, specific types of damage output, sensory perception, and resistance to mental status effects. Charisma influenced social interactions, summoning capabilities, and minor resistances.
As for Luck, the tooltip claimed it affected loot drops, crafting, and general probability, noting it was incredibly difficult to raise.
Lu Li stared at his single point of Luck, falling into deep thought. He genuinely couldn't tell if that was considered low or average.
"Gahhh!"
A sudden, bloodcurdling scream shattered his concentration. Lu Li instantly went on high alert, his eyes snapping toward the corner of the dilapidated street.
A figure clad in the iconic black Shihakusho of a Soul Reaper was sent hurtling through the air in a spray of blood, violently crashing into the ruins of a wooden shack.
The few emaciated vagrants lingering on the street were violently startled. Pulling strength from god knows where, their frail bodies scrambled up and bolted away in sheer panic. Their reaction speed and practiced evasion tactics painted a grim picture of daily life in District 80. The proficiency of their escape was honestly heartbreaking. Anyone who wasn't this fast had likely already been reincarnated.
Lu Li narrowed his eyes. He had clearly seen the uniform. That was a Soul Reaper who had just been sent flying, which meant this wasn't some petty gang war between vagrants. Was it a Hollow? Or perhaps a rebel faction within the Soul Society? Either way, he was about to get a very clear hint regarding the current timeline.
The fleeing vagrants sprinted right past Lu Li. Seeing him standing there completely motionless, they likely assumed he was paralyzed by fear. Naturally, none of them stopped to warn him.
A split second later, two more blood-soaked figures stumbled around the corner. The leading Soul Reaper was screaming into some sort of communication device.
"We are under attack by rebel forces in North Rukongai, District 80! Requesting immediate backup! I repeat, requesting immediate backup!"
The screaming Soul Reaper was already missing an arm. His remaining hand gripped his Asauchi in a white-knuckled death grip, his eyes wide with the raw terror of a dying man. He and his comrade were running for their lives, clearly outmatched by these 'rebels'. Spotting Lu Li in his path, the Soul Reaper didn't bother changing course, sprinting straight toward him.
Analyzing the scene, Lu Li instantly understood why his main mission's difficulty fluctuated so wildly.
If he hadn't sat down to casually review his Status Screen right at the spawn point, he likely would have missed this ambush entirely. With a bit of luck, he might have even hiked all the way to a safer district in peace. Even now, if he simply turned and ran, he could probably avoid the immediate danger.
But that wasn't what he wanted.
Hot blood splattered across Lu Li's face.
A severed head spun through the air, its eyes still locked in frozen terror. The communications Soul Reaper never even made it past Lu Li. Before he could reach out, a rebel's blade cleanly decapitated him from behind. His partner suffered a similar fate, a jagged sword violently piercing through his chest. He died with his eyes wide open.
Clang—!
The headless Soul Reaper's Asauchi slipped from his dead fingers and stabbed directly into the dirt in front of Lu Li. A thick mixture of its owner's and enemies' blood dripped down the steel blade, soaking into the parched earth.
Dressed in tattered, coarse burlap rags, Lu Li stood his ground, quietly observing the ten rebels looting the Soul Reapers' corpses.
Calling them a "rebel army" was a bit generous. They were mostly just disgruntled Rukongai vagrants who despised the Seireitei's rule. Aside from a few highly organized factions, the vast majority were just a violent mob. Then again, the dead Gotei 13 members lying before him were clearly nothing more than low-ranking grunts—the kind who couldn't even manifest a Shikai.
Judging by the kinetic force and speed displayed during the brief skirmish, Lu Li already had a highly accurate read on the rebels' combat capabilities.
"What the hell are you smiling at?" one of the disheveled rebels barked, pointing a bloodied sword at him.
"Just a vagrant? Get rid of him. The Seireitei's pursuit unit will be here any minute," the rebel leader ordered without so much as a second glance. The fresh blood dripping from his blade and the jagged scar across his face gave him a particularly vicious aura.
Lu Li reached up and lightly touched his own cheek. "Oh. I guess I am smiling."
As he spoke, his entire body began to tremble. The approaching rebel sneered, assuming the ragged vagrant had been pushed into a state of hysterical shock by the sheer terror of the situation.
The rebel casually raised his blade and swung it down at Lu Li's neck. The rest of the pack didn't even bother watching, too busy rummaging through the dead Soul Reapers' pockets for anything of value.
The sickening sound of a sharp blade severing flesh and bone echoed through the dusty street.
But the body that collapsed wasn't the vagrant's. It was the rebel's.
Lu Li now stood with the discarded Asauchi resting firmly in his grip. With a practiced flick of his wrist—a flawless chiburi—he flung the excess blood off the steel, painting a macabre, crescent-red arc across the dirt.
He swept his gaze over the remaining rebels, who were now staring at him in utter shock. His body was still trembling, but not from fear.
Baring his pearly white teeth in a feral grin, he chuckled. "I like this place. It's been a long time since I've felt this excited."
A flicker of doubt crossed the rebel leader's scarred face, but he quickly made the tactical call. "Rush him! Kill him!"
A spear thrust forward, tearing through the air with enough force to generate a cooling breeze in the sweltering heat. Lu Li merely tilted his head an inch to the side, letting the wooden shaft harmlessly brush past his hair.
In the next microsecond, before the spear-wielding rebel could even process the miss, the Asauchi slashed upward in a brutal, blinding arc.
Flesh parted. Bone shattered. Soul severed.
In the blink of an eye, two more rebels were cleanly sliced in half. As Lu Li took a slow, deliberate step forward, an invisible, crushing pressure radiated from his body. Instinctively, the remaining rebels took a terrified step back.
Under the horrified gazes of the rebel mob, Lu Li tilted his head back, staring up at the harsh, glaring sun. He took a long, deep breath, savoring the absolute thrill of being alive.
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