"My foolish little brother."
"If you want to kill me, then hate me, despise me, and live in an unsightly way—cling to life."
That vicious voice and the bloody scene of slaughter kept replaying around him, again and again.
'Let me out, let me out!'
Sasuke saw his younger self flailing his arms, trying to drive away the nightmare, but all his struggles were in vain.
[Soul fusion complete. Beginner reward unlocked. Please make a selection.]
A mechanical voice suddenly rang out, interrupting the endlessly repeating words like a curse.
"Uchiha Sasuke? I'm... Uchiha Sasuke?"
Looking at his younger self still trapped in pain and struggle, Sasuke finally regained his sense of self.
He was Sasuke—but not entirely.
As an ordinary otaku from Blue Star (Earth), Naruto had once been one of the anime series he followed religiously.
Perhaps it was the curse from that girl who had invited him out multiple times that finally worked.
He really had stayed home… until the very end.
A sudden earthquake struck. The building collapsed in an instant. He died the moment the ceiling came crashing down.
And then—he became Uchiha Sasuke.
He had Sasuke's memories and emotions from childhood. If the system hadn't mentioned the "fusion," he would've thought he had just lost his memory for the first seven years after being born.
Right now, it was the night of the Uchiha clan massacre.
Just moments ago, he had seen his parents' corpses with his own eyes—forced to relive the scene of their deaths, over and over again.
"I choose..."
In front of him appeared the system's virtual interface, displaying three beginner reward packs.
They were: Taijutsu Pack, Genjutsu Pack, and Ninjutsu Pack.
He could only pick one. This system of his sure was stingy.
"Taijutsu Pack!"
He wanted all of them, of course—but at this point in time, aside from taijutsu, Sasuke couldn't make use of anything else.
Without a strong enough chakra foundation, everything else would be meaningless.
[Taijutsu Pack selected. Opening pack... Congratulations, host has received: Low-Level Physical Enhancement Serum ×1.]
The cold, mechanical voice of the system spoke again. Sure enough, the reward was as "beginner level" as it gets—a low-level enhancement serum.
"System, aside from beginner packs, don't you think it's time for a proper self-introduction?"
Sasuke wasn't too concerned about the beginner reward. What he really wanted to know was—what was the system's purpose?
Or rather—what was its function?
In the original storyline, Sasuke's life could hardly be called pleasant. He always felt like he could succeed—yet was constantly crushed along the way.
"The sky has cleared, the rain has stopped, and the Second Pillar thinks he's back in the game!"
That line—he used to joke about it all the time back when he was watching Naruto.
But now that everything was happening to him, Sasuke absolutely refused to just accept it.
[Fate Choice System: Upon the host's death, an abnormal soul fluctuation occurred, attracting the system to break through dimensions and bind with you. After binding, you were placed into a known storyline world, and the system selected the most suitable vessel in that plot for you. On the path of fate, the system will offer new choices.]
The system's explanation was thorough. It clearly laid out why he had been chosen as the host, how his new identity was selected, and so on.
"Every choice I make results in a reward. So—what does the system get out of this?"
Sasuke didn't believe in free lunches falling from the sky.
If he was getting rewards just for making choices, then he was clearly benefiting. But there was no way the system wasn't profiting too.
[The Fate Choice System is built on fairness. The host receives rewards and growth. The system gains the resulting changes and data based on the host's choices. However, if the host is later deemed passive or unworthy by the system, the system will abandon them.]
This explanation gave Sasuke some peace of mind.
As long as there was a reason, he could accept it—at least he could use the system without worry.
Besides...
He'd already died once.
Every extra day he lived now was a bonus—
What was there to be afraid of?