In a certain room, a game of mahjong was underway.
Strangely enough, the players weren't human, four Cursed Spirits were sitting around the table.
They were Mahito, Jogo, Hanami, and the mysterious brain in a jar being whose humanity,or lack thereof, remained unclear.
"Tsk tsk, looks like Suguru Geto got beat up pretty badly," Jogo remarked, schadenfreude all over his face.
In a way, all of them were connected to Geto. It was just that Geto himself wasn't entirely aware of it.
Or maybe he was, and simply chose not to acknowledge it.
"Badly beaten? He's still alive, isn't he?" Mahito muttered as he tossed out a tile. "Two Dots."
Pung!
The brain being, let's just call it Brain for now, calmly claimed the tile and placed three matching tiles on the table. "That's why I said, even among Special Grade Cursed Spirits, there's a difference in class. Some just aren't cut out for it."
The other three paused for a second. After all, they were Special Grade Cursed Spirits too.
"Is this Su Yang guy really that powerful?" Hanami couldn't help but ask.
"Tch, all the Cursed Spirits Geto controls stop growing in power once he seals them. Who knows how strong that particular one actually was?" Jogo scoffed, clearly unimpressed. "Compared to us, it's no contest."
"You've got a point," Brain said with a nod, then glanced at Mahito. "How much do we really know about this Su Yang? Seems like none of us have dug too deeply into him yet."
It was Mahito who suddenly spoke up again. "Apparently, Geto started rounding up new Cursed Spirits about three hours ago."
"Haha! Guess he lost too many and is scrambling to restock!" Jogo burst into laughter.
"Maybe it's time we consider deepening our cooperation with him," Brain proposed, a sly look in its eye. "If we can use Geto as a tool to test Su Yang's limits, or even deal with him altogether, that could save us a lot of effort."
The suggestion was quickly met with agreement from the other three Special Grade Spirits.
But whether it was Mahito and the others, or Brain with all its strategic calculations, none of them realized one thing:
Su Yang was never someone they could afford to underestimate.
Later that night...
Ding,System Notification: Today's simulation attempts have been refreshed. You currently have 1 simulation available!
After smoothing things over with Yukino, Su Yang returned home and waited patiently for the reset.
This time, he had set a very specific goal for himself. Whether or not he could achieve it, though,that remained to be seen.
Su Yang had realized something, although he could define goals before each simulation, the simulated "him" wouldn't necessarily act exactly as instructed.
For example, he once tried to focus solely on improving his chakra, but the simulation version of him still got distracted by other things, refusing to prioritize chakra training exclusively.
Even when chakra was raised to a certain level, the simulation would shift to other pursuits.
"I wonder if there's a way to override that," Su Yang pondered.
After a bit of thinking, he let the idea go.
The important thing now was to start the next simulation.
With a thought, Su Yang opened the system interface and entered the simulation.
[World selected: Naruto. Beginning simulation.]
[You may now spend Simulation Points to roll for an Orange Talent. Would you like to spend 100,000 points to randomly receive 1 Orange Talent?]
[Tip 1: Spend 500,000 points to receive 3 Orange Talents.]
[Tip 2: If you receive an S rank evaluation of this simulation, you'll get one Orange Talent for free next time.]
The good news? He could now roll for higher,tier talents.
The bad news? One Orange Talent cost 100,000 points... but to roll three at once, it would cost 500,000, not 300,000 as he had hoped.
"Wait, 300,000 points only gets me two Orange Talents now?" Su Yang's eye twitched. "Damn, the cost just keeps going up."
Still, there was a silver lining: if he earned an S rank this time, he'd get an Orange Talent for free next run.
"So if I get an SS rank, maybe I could unlock an even higher tier talent?" Su Yang's heart stirred at the thought. If that were true, it'd be a game changer.
For now, he didn't have enough points to go allin,so he decided to try his luck with just one Orange Talent.
He'd spend the rest on two Purple Talents.
In an instant, 120,000 points were gone. Three talents appeared before him.
[Simulation begins!]
[Current Talents: Double Blessing (Purple), True Clone (Blue), Combat Boost (Green), Small Gains Add Up (White)]
[You have acquired one new Orange Talent. Please select one of the following talents for this simulation:]
Combat Boost (Purple): Increases combat power by 50%.
Training Maniac (Purple): Turns you into a relentless training machine.
Simulation Focus (Orange): Allows you to set a simulation goal, and the simulation will revolve around achieving that objective.
Huh?
There's a Purple version of Combat Boost?
Su Yang's eyes lit up at the sight.
A 50% power boost, now that's impressive.
And if there's a Purple version... then an Orange one must exist too.
"Looks like the Orange version of Combat Boost might boost power by 100%, maybe even more, and probably includes some additional effects," Su Yang thought, smiling to himself.
A hint of anticipation flashed in Su Yang's eyes as he skipped over the second talent, which frankly looked a bit dumb, and locked his gaze onto the third one.
The orange tier talent he had spent a whopping 100,000 Simulation Points to unlock.
Simulation Target!
To be honest, after seeing the purple tier Combat Power Boost, Su Yang had been ready to settle for that if the orange talent didn't turn out to be worthwhile.
After all, a 10% boost to combat power had already shown him just how valuable such enhancements could be.
So there was no way he'd pass up one that offered a 50% increase.
But this newly generated orange tier talent completely blew away his expectations.
Especially after reading its effects, a wild thought popped into Su Yang's head:
I was just thinking about needing something like this, and now it appears? System, are you doing this on purpose?
There was no need to hesitate. This talent was tailor made for the simulation itself. How could Su Yang possibly pass on it?