Perhaps it had already become a habit, but Hyuga Chiwa always kept her head held high in front of Hyuga Asana.
The way she spoke to Asana resembled that of a master to a servant.
Maybe to Hyuga Chiwa, the moment her former playmate Asana was branded with the Caged Bird Seal, Asana had already "died." The person standing before her now was merely a lookalike servant who shared the same name.
Her softened attitude in recent years was merely limited to not nitpicking Asana over trivial matters in daily life. In all other aspects, her behavior hadn't changed.
In fact, Chiwa loved keeping Asana tied to her side.
Because Chiwa's aptitude as a shinobi was abysmal. While the Hyuga main family had strong members and their access to educational resources far surpassed the branch family's, Chiwa had shown little progress, ranking at the bottom even within the main family.
Whenever she was scolded by the elders, she would take it out on Asana.
The only time she would intervene for Asana was when other main family members gave orders to her or grew displeased with her emotionless demeanor. Chiwa would chase them off.
In Chiwa's eyes, Asana was her "toy"—regardless of quality, only she had the right to reprimand her.
And precisely because of this, Chiwa had, inadvertently, shielded Asana from a lot of trouble.
Thinking this, Asana sighed and said, "We'll talk about the future when it comes. Right now, I just want to stay as far away from her as possible."
"I got it. Then I'll see you at the academy later," Uchiha Yuan said, turning and leaving.
When Yuan arrived at the Ninja Academy, he noticed the classroom atmosphere was unusually noisy.
There was just one day left before graduation, and everyone seemed to have endless things to talk about.
The teacher clearly wasn't planning to lecture today and only gave a brief rundown of the exam contents.
There would be a written test and a ninjutsu test. At this point, the written results didn't matter much. For ninjutsu, as long as one could perform the three basic techniques, they'd pass.
Yuan didn't want to sit in class listening to pointless chatter, so he went out to the field and started running laps alone.
While running, he suddenly noticed someone running beside him—a guy in a green jumpsuit with bushy eyebrows.
"Might Guy? You…"
"Yo! Uchiha Yuan, want to have a youth-filled race?"
Yuan had initially intended to decline, but then he remembered that there were still aspects of his golden finger (cheat ability) he hadn't verified yet. So he decided to race Guy.
"Sure! Let's see who can finish 10 laps first."
Might Guy was thrilled by Yuan's agreement. He slowed to a stop, and the two lined up at the same starting point. The race began.
Ten laps were nothing for someone like Guy, who trained rigorously every day.
He immediately burst into an all-out sprint. Yuan, seeing this, naturally picked up his pace too.
At first, Yuan kept up. But by lap five, Guy had pulled ahead by half a body length.
No matter how hard Yuan tried, he couldn't close the gap. It only grew wider.
By the time the tenth lap ended, Yuan was about a body and a half behind.
"I lost. Guy, I, Uchiha Yuan, acknowledge you. In terms of taijutsu, I'd call you the strongest of our generation!" Yuan said after catching his breath.
Guy was overjoyed. He wasn't a genius, and his academy grades weren't great. To defeat Yuan in a fair match and earn his recognition was truly something to celebrate.
"This is youth! So hot-blooded! To commemorate this race,
I'll run 500 more laps before class ends. If I can't do it, I'll do 1,000 sit-ups. If I can't finish that, I'll do 500 kicks…"
Watching Guy's retreating back, Yuan muttered, "It's really hard to dislike this kind of hot-blooded idiot."
Yuan accompanied Guy for nearly 50 more laps. After roughly confirming the difference in stamina between them, he finally stopped.
With those 50 laps complete, Yuan earned the right to spin his daily wheel.
In the past six days, aside from the first day where he got two attribute points, all his other five game-world runs had yielded the bare minimum of one point—he died quickly due to all kinds of bizarre reasons.
But surely no one could be that unlucky forever, right?
Thinking this, Yuan walked over to the swing set, sat down, and spun the wheel.
After the usual animation, lines of text appeared:
"You have entered Bikini Bottom!"
"No way, Bikini Bottom? SpongeBob's world?" Yuan was thrilled.
In a place like this, there should be no real danger. As long as he stayed low-key, he'd probably make it through and earn 5 attribute points—easy win.
"You are a sardine born in a regular family in Bikini Bottom."
"You and your family love eating Krabby Patties."
"One day, after a meal at the Krusty Krab, you see a commercial on TV about the Magic Conch Shell."
"You are fascinated by the little pink shell."
"You buy the Magic Conch."
"It has mysterious powers. Guided by it, you join a club."
"One day, the Magic Conch tells you that a fellow club member is in trouble and needs your help."
"Fully equipped, you follow its directions to the wild outskirts."
"You cut a path through the vine forest and find a yellow sponge, a pink starfish, and a blue octopus trapped there."
"You ask if they need help."
"It turns out SpongeBob and Patrick are also club members—they're the ones the Conch wanted you to help."
"You all ask the Magic Conch what to do next."
"The Magic Conch says: Do nothing."
"So you, the sponge, and the starfish sit down and wait."
"Even the octopus is moved by the shell's mysterious power and joins you."
"Three days later, you all starve to death. SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward are resurrected by some mystical power. You are permanently dead."
"Praise the Magic Conch!"
"Game Over."
"Rewards: Attribute points x5, one Magic Conch."
After exiting the game, Yuan slowly opened his eyes. His expression was… odd. There were way too many ridiculous moments in this game.
Did SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward really get killed by the Magic Conch?
But then again, sitting around doing absolutely nothing for days in that world… yeah, you'd probably starve.
What truly left Yuan speechless, though, was that in addition to the 5 attribute points, he also received a Magic Conch.
What's the use of this thing? Isn't it just as useless as that dumbbell from the sheep-licking Afai?
(To Be Continued...)