---
The global chat went dead silent. Not a single person responded.
After a long pause, the guy who had asked about Harper's location suddenly realized what was happening, cursed "Shameless!", and sprinted toward the Ninja Academy like a madman.
But by then, it was too late. The entrance to the Ninja Academy was already a sea of people. If it weren't for the NPC guards blocking the gate, the players would have stormed the building.
Meanwhile, Harper was back at the General Store.
Enjoying the warm welcome of the beautiful NPC shopkeeper, Harper—now flush with cash—decided to splurge.
First, he bought more materials to craft [Paper Bombs]. Then, he stocked up on [Red Food Pills] and [Blue Food Pills].
He was gearing up for the Dungeon Pre-Quest: searching for clues about the explosive weapon.
Harper had no idea that the name [Harper the Great] was already famous across the entire server.
From the Hidden Leaf to the Hidden Sand, players were in a frenzy trying to find "special" NPCs to learn secret techniques from.
Naturally, the Ninja Academy became the primary target.
Crowds surrounded the academies in every village, packing the streets three layers deep. It was chaos.
But unsurprisingly, no one got anything. Some players got too aggressive and tried to force their way in, only to be instantly cut down by the NPC guards.
[Harper the Great]—the only player known to have learned the [Sexy Jutsu]—was now unofficially recognized as the Number One Player in the game.
If they knew he had also learned [Substitution Jutsu] and [Clone Jutsu], they might have actually quit the game in despair.
Just as Harper was about to leave the village to start his quest, he heard a commotion ahead.
A group of about ten players had surrounded a single NPC and were shouting over each other.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the center of the crowd.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
ROAR!
A massive ball of fire erupted from nowhere.
In an instant, the ten players were incinerated, leaving nothing but scorch marks on the ground. As the smoke cleared, a young boy with a face like ice was revealed.
It was Sasuke Uchiha.
Since players couldn't get into the Academy, they had changed tactics: hunt down wandering NPCs in the village.
Unfortunately for them, they found Sasuke.
"Sasuke! I heard your brother killed your whole family! Teach me Ninjutsu and I'll help you get revenge! Or we can get revenge together, yeah?"
A short, sleazy-looking player stepped up, thinking he had found the perfect dialogue option since the other players were dead.
Harper, watching from the side, covered his eyes.
Oh no.
Sure enough, the answer was another fireball.
WHOOSH!
Harper observed a moment of silence for the idiot. He seriously wondered if the guy had left his brain back in the spawn point.
Mentioning the Uchiha Massacre to Sasuke's face? That was basically asking to die.
Sasuke stood there, radiating a chill that froze the air around him. The fact that he had just one-shot ten players made the rest of the onlookers back away in terror.
Sasuke snorted coldly, glared at the crowd, and activated his "Edge Lord Mode," walking away without a word.
Scenes like this were playing out all over the Hidden Leaf.
But without exception, no one succeeded.
---
While some players kept harassing NPCs, others gave up and went back to grinding humanoid mobs, hoping to get lucky and drop a skill scroll for [Kunai Mastery] or [Shuriken Mastery].
Harper left the village and returned to the canyon where he had killed the Bandit Leader. The area was crowded with players now, but they all kept their distance from the boss spawn point, knowing they couldn't handle it.
Unnoticed, Harper slipped past them and entered the deeper part of the canyon.
According to the quest log, he needed to find the cave where the rogue ninja Kenta was hiding.
Suddenly, a massive shadow loomed over him.
Harper looked up and his heart skipped a beat. A giant spider was descending from the canopy, spitting a massive web straight at him. Following the web came the spider itself, fangs dripping with venom, looking ferocious.
The net crashed down, trapping Harper tight. The spider landed on top of him, sinking its fangs into his body.
POOF!
A cloud of white smoke exploded.
Harper vanished from the web. In his place was a log of wood.
Harper had sensed the shadow just in time and cast [Substitution Jutsu]. He was now hiding a short distance away, in [Stealth], observing the monster.
[Venomous Wolf Spider]
Level: 7
Attack: 40
Defense: 20
HP: 450
Skills: [Giant Web], [Venom Spit]
"Manageable."
Looking at the stats, Harper relaxed. With his current gear and skills, he could solo this.
The spider was a huge target. He didn't even need to aim. He whipped four shuriken at its back.
Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip!
-16 HP
-16 HP
-24 HP (Critical!)
-24 HP (Critical!)
Two crits. Nice.
The spider screeched, spotting Harper, and charged at him, hissing loudly.
Harper went into kite mode. He ran circles around the beast, whittling it down.
The spider was slower than him. Whenever it tried to use [Giant Web] or [Venom Spit], Harper would just use [Substitution Jutsu] to dodge and create distance, then punish it with more shuriken.
Soon enough, the giant spider let out a final wail and collapsed, turning into XP.
Harper continued deeper into the canyon, killing Venomous Spiders, Scorpions, and Snakes as he went.
The scorpions had high defense and took a while to kill, but everything else was a breeze.
As he went deeper, the vegetation started to die out. The trees became sparse, replaced by jagged rocks.
Finally, he reached an area littered with bleached white bones.
It looked like a different world compared to the lush forest outside. This was a graveyard.
Harper walked forward cautiously. He saw a skeleton wearing a forehead protector. Not just Hidden Leaf, but other villages too.
Then, a figure in the distance caught his eye.