After a hearty lunch that had my paranoia screaming bloody murder, I headed home. Once there, I flopped onto the bed and immediately dove into the settings, changing the activation phrase to something more decent. I didn't overthink it and set it to "Illusory Barrier, activate." Then I scoured the forum for useful info.
But I didn't find anything worthwhile, and honestly, there was some kind of chaos going on there. One article titled "He Who Must Not Even Be Named in Thoughts Has Arrived" caught my eye. The author wrote that this unnameable being showed up in their world. They didn't get caught in the crossfire—said they escaped to their summoning world and hid there until it was over. But when they returned, they found such a mess that they're now preparing to commit seppuku and go for reincarnation.
I got curious about what happened, but the details were locked behind a group registration. After checking the requirements, I had to give up on that idea. Registration meant providing all my info—meaning any group member could view my status. Now I at least understand why there's so little info out there, only publicly available stuff, and why I couldn't see others' statuses, just their usernames.
Screw that injustice—I decided to focus on planning my next steps, keeping in mind that I'm being watched. First things first, I need to test the Illusory Barrier and start leveling up properly. So much time has passed, and I've only slightly boosted my stats, not even a smidge of a level. But with surveillance on me, this'll be much harder now. I don't know how they'll react if I disappear from sight. After some thought, I came up with a plan: I'll use my Immersion into the Shadow Plane skill—dive in from my apartment, emerge near the sewer entrance, and activate the barrier right away. After grinding, I'll return the same way. The key is not getting eaten on the way.
I didn't want to go empty-handed, though. I decided to get some kind of weapon. In my apartment, the only thing remotely resembling a weapon was a kitchen knife. But I'm not about to fight mobs with a kitchen knife—I didn't end up in Toriko, after all. So I headed to the training grounds to look for weapons. Surely someone lost a few kunai or shuriken there.
I spent the rest of the day crawling through bushes at the training grounds, but luck wasn't on my side. What the heck? Every other transmigrator finds a legendary sword behind the nearest bush, just waiting for them. Meanwhile, I've combed through three training grounds and all I found was one scratched-up, rusty kunai.
The next day, I focused on crafting a weapon. I sharpened the kunai and tied it with steel fishing line to a stick, like a makeshift sickle. Armed with that, plus the kitchen knife I grabbed just in case, I set off to annihilate some mobs.
I stashed everything in my inventory and headed to the bathroom. What better place for privacy? They definitely shouldn't be watching me there—I really hope not. I created a shadow by hanging a rag over the lightbulb and started immersing myself.
I emerged in an alley next to the one I needed. Oddly enough, nothing tried to eat me this time, even though I spent about 10–12 minutes in the shadow plane. Usually, after five minutes, one or two creatures would come charging at me, ready to feast. Maybe it's because it's night, and they're daytime predators? Seems unlikely, but I should test that later. I usually only trained during the day and slept at night.
After a few quick dashes, I reached my destination. I looked around, saw no one, and decided to get to work.
— Illusory Barrier, activate.
Param-pam-pam.
You've activated the Illusory Barrier for the first time. As a user of the Player System Version T.-3000, you receive an upgraded version of the Illusory Barrier.
A shimmering film appeared over the manhole, and a window popped up in front of me, like a game registration screen, describing the rules and properties, with a "Agree/Disagree" option at the bottom. I skimmed the text and saw nothing fundamentally new. As described on the forum, time flows differently in the barrier—no matter how long you spend inside, only one second passes in the real world. The difference here was that you could gather more loot. I didn't read it all—I was short on time, and I still had to get back—so I hit "Agree" and jumped into the barrier.
The sewer was anything but standard. It was a tunnel about seven meters wide and three meters high, with a central channel where water and various debris from pipes on the walls and ceiling drained. Bridges crossed over the channel, letting you move from one side to the other. Side passages branched off from the main tunnel.
Well, damn, a sewer like this could house not just rats, but crocodiles. I really hope there's no bigger wildlife here. I pulled my creation from my inventory and headed toward the nearest side passage. After walking about ten meters into the tunnel and turning into the first branch, I ran into a pack of five rats. But these were no ordinary rats—normal rats aren't the size of cats with glowing red eyes. They must be dumping waste from a nuclear power plant in this sewer for monsters like these to grow so big.
While I stood there, completely *#$@%-ed, trying to figure out how to take down these beasts, the rats noticed me. They stared at me oddly, with a distinct gastronomic interest in their eyes. My attempt to take a step back was their signal to attack—all five charged at me.
I tried to smack the nearest one, but the creature easily dodged and bit my arm. Two others latched onto my legs, a fourth jumped straight at my face—I barely blocked with my left arm—and the last one circled around and leapt onto my back, tearing at my shirt. I rolled on the ground, trying to shake them off, occasionally attempting to stab one, but the pests kept dodging. This went on for ten minutes until I hit them with Yaki, then nailed one with the Death God's Visage, killing it. The rest fled.
After an hour and a half, once my health recovered, I noticed the dead rat. The system highlighted it as "Rat Corpse." When I approached and picked it up, a message popped up.
Param-pam-pam.
For more loot, manually dissect the corpse, or touch it and give the voice command "Extract" to receive standard loot.
I had zero desire to dig into a rat, so I put it back on the ground and activated "Extract." The corpse turned to ash, leaving behind a small blue stone and a rat tail. On closer inspection, the system labeled them as "Minor Essence Crystal Lv. 3" and "Rat Tail." So, I finally got Observation—dream of an idiot comes true, huh? But what's the point of this kind of Observation? I'll look at a random guy, and it'll just say "Human." The system didn't notify me about gaining the skill—maybe it only works in barriers, and only on items dropped there. Probably so, since when I examined the Soul Crystal, the system highlighted it the same way but didn't react to anything else.
After resting another half hour, I decided to keep exterminating rats, but without wrecking myself in the process. I carefully peeked around the corner and saw the rats back in their spot—five of them again. Focusing on one, I saw the label "Rat Lv. 3" above it. I stepped back to think about how to kill them. I didn't want to half-kill myself just to use Death God's Visage—that'd only take out one, and I'd have to scare the rest off with Yaki, then recover for hours. Turns out, Death God's Visage has a one-hour cooldown. I hadn't noticed before because of the default settings—they hide extra info unless you toggle it. I need to set aside time to thoroughly go through all the settings, not just skim for one thing.
After much thought and reviewing my skill arsenal, I came up with a plan—simple and reliable as a crowbar, if it works.
Peeking around the corner, I used Irritating Stare on the closest rat. As soon as it snapped and charged at me, I stepped back behind the corner to avoid attracting the others. When the rat rounded the corner, I smashed its spine with my makeshift weapon. Sadly, it didn't die right away and put up a fight, so I didn't come out unscathed. But after about six rats, I'd perfected the method. With my Strength, Dexterity, and Speed each up by 1, I could handle them with almost no damage.
After killing twelve rats in total, I headed for the exit. I'd been here for six and a half hours, according to the timer. It's a shame the rats gave so little experience—just 5 points each. I still need 1,200 points to level up, which means I'd have to kill 228 more rats. If I had a proper weapon instead of this makeshift junk that broke on the ninth rat, things would've gone much faster.
I navigated to the exit using the map, but I couldn't leave. When I tried, a notification popped up.
Boss not defeated. Exit impossible.
After a long string of curses that got me nowhere, I had to dig through the messages and reread them. I shouldn't have skipped the end of that initial message—the very last point warned that on the first run of any new location, you can't leave until the boss is defeated.
I got out of the sewer after five days—or more precisely, four days, eight hours, and forty-two minutes, per the timer. I looked like a not-so-fresh zombie: tattered, blood-soaked clothes, a pale face with a vacant stare, and the smell—after five days in a sewer, I definitely didn't smell like roses. To complete the look, I should've stretched my arms out and groaned "BRAINS" in a creepy voice, but I had neither the physical nor mental energy for that.
After the message about being unable to leave, I carefully reread the info they gave me before entering the barrier. Turns out, that rule was there—at the very end. Who reads user agreements in games all the way through? You check the box agreeing and play on. I shouldn't have skipped it here, but putting such critical info at the end is just dirty.
All my protests were ignored. Wishing the rule's creator a long and passionate love… with Hapsiel, I went to take down the boss, eager to get this over with and rest.
The rats didn't share my enthusiasm and did their best to stop my localized rat genocide. My makeshift weapon, already broken earlier, had to be replaced with a pipe I spent three hours prying off the wall. The pipe made things faster, but after a couple of hours, I was utterly exhausted and had to retreat for a two-hour nap. But after waking up, I faced another serious problem: I was starving and thirsty.
Water was easy—I broke a few pipes and found one with clean water, not waste, and drank. But food was a bigger issue. They say humans can survive without food for weeks, but I'm not exactly human—my race is different—so my body flat-out refused to go that long without eating.
By the end of the second day, I was enjoying roasted rat. I started eyeing the rats with gastronomic interest by the end of the first day, but I only managed to make fire and cook on the second. Creating fire by striking sparks with the pipe against a rock onto rat fur, then starting a fire, took forever and killed tons of my nerves.
The kitchen knife I brought just in case came in handy—I used it to skin and carve the rats. Because of that, the system gave me the skill "Skinner" Level 1, and after cooking the rat, I got "Extreme Cooking" Level 1. The first skill lets me extract more ingredients from a corpse—normally, Extract gives a crystal and a rat part, but now I also get the hide and meat. Cooking adds bonuses to my food based on what it's made from and how it's prepared. Rat dishes, for example, gave +2 Dexterity for an hour. Those extra buffs really helped with the rats—I'd have taken two more days without them. While I slept or cooked, the rats partially repopulated.
The biggest challenge wasn't the boss, as I'd initially thought, but its guards. The boss was a Rat Queen, Level 7, but she was fat and slow. Her guards, though—a Rat King at Level 6 and three veteran rats at Level 5—were the real problem.
My previous strategy didn't work on them—they'd all charge at once, though they wouldn't stray more than 30 meters from the Queen. I had to change tactics. Using the kitchen knife, I lowered my HP to a dangerous minimum, then hit the King with Death God's Visage. I blasted the veteran rats with Yaki and retreated to a side corridor. After the King died—he was apparently the one directing the others—taking out the rest was just a matter of time. The Queen was easier to deal with than regular rats.
In total, I earned 518 experience points for all the rats I killed, including the Queen and King, plus an extra 100 from the system for clearing the location for the first time. My inventory also gained 91 Minor Essence Crystals, 26 Rat Tails, 31 Rat Hides, and 8 pieces of Rat Meat. But the real prize was in the Queen's nest: a short sword and a pouch with 6 kunai and 12 shuriken, all on the corpse of a Konoha shinobi, gnawed to the bone by rats. Naturally, all that loot went straight into my inventory. Now I was properly armed.
On my way home, all I could think about was eating, washing, and sleeping. But after a couple of blocks, I snapped out of it and remembered about staying discreet. I dove into the nearest shadow and made my way home. Once there, I climbed into the bathtub, ate instant noodles, and fell asleep as is.
Game Forum
Naruto Worlds Group
Bloody Jester (Sasuke Uchiha): As I wrote in my brief announcement, HE came to my world—He Who Must Not Even Be Named in Thoughts. I managed to escape using reverse summoning and hid there until HE left. But what I found when HE was gone killed any desire to stay here, so I'm off to reincarnation. Good thing I completed a quest for an extra life.
Hell Guardian (Kiba Inuzuka): That's all clear, but give us the details—I've got to report to other groups.
Life Mistress (Sakura Haruno): Guys, how do you do a reincarnation quest?
Pompous Dominator (Naruto Uzumaki): Check the special section—there's about a dozen quests listed with that reward.
Bloody Jester (Sasuke Uchiha): You want details? Fine, I'll even provide pics—for a price.
Pompous Dominator (Naruto Uzumaki): You didn't take pics of HIM, I hope?
Bloody Jester (Sasuke Uchiha): Do I look like an idiot?
Life Mistress (Sakura Haruno): What's the problem?
Phantom Avenger (Sasuke Uchiha): The problem is that any image of HIM can become an anchor HE can use to enter the world where it exists. Spread something like that, and the whole community will come for you.
Hell Guardian (Kiba Inuzuka): Stop getting distracted—what happened, and more importantly, who's to blame? I heard from some knowledgeable folks that HE doesn't just show up—someone either called HIM or mentioned HIM too often.
Bloody Jester (Sasuke Uchiha): That's true. From what I gathered from the locals, HE was looking for whoever called HIM.
Phantom Avenger (Sasuke Uchiha): We need to find that moron and take them out.
Pompous Dominator (Naruto Uzumaki): A hundred times, so they learn their lesson.
Hell Guardian (Kiba Inuzuka): You're getting distracted again.
Bloody Jester (Sasuke Uchiha): Fine, I'll go step by step. Chronologically, this happened between the second and third stages of the Chunin Exams. I didn't train with Kakashi—I'd already mastered Chidori back in the Academy, so I stayed in the village.
When HE appeared, I was on the lookout point at the mountain, so I noticed in time and got out. When I came back, I found some horrifying aftermath. The general gloom and absurdity among civilians wasn't too noticeable, but the shinobi—it was terrifying. The first ones I saw were Mitarashi Anko and Orochimaru, who was in the body of a young, black-haired girl. The two were blackout drunk in a restaurant, and under the table, I found Kurenai, already plastered.
I also witnessed an epic scene: Neji trying to hang himself while Tenten tried to stop him. But that's nothing—I caught Jiraiya peeping in the baths… in the MEN'S section.
Then I ran into Naruto wandering the village—though calling him that isn't quite right anymore. He's the one who told me how it all started. He was training with Jiraiya on summoning techniques, but instead of a toad, one of his attempts brought HIM. HE said someone around here was calling HIM. Then HE noticed them, and Jiraiya was the first victim. Seeing that, Naruto figured HE was into guys and used his Sexy Jutsu—obviously, that didn't save him. He got stuck in that form, and now he's 100% a she. I even checked with my Sharingan—it's not an illusion or a transformation jutsu.
What really bothered me was that no guy cared about a naked, blue-eyed blonde with a third-size chest, especially with Jiraiya peeping in the men's bath nearby. That paints a very grim picture.
But that's not what drove me to leave this world—even with those consequences, you could still live. It was when I saw THAT—I awakened my Mangekyo Sharingan and nearly burned it with black flames. They dodged, the bastards.
If anyone thinks Lee and Gai in their green suits are creepy, let me tell you, that's nothing. Picture those two in the same outfit as HIM—that's TRUE HORROR. Those psychos are now spreading LOVE AND PEACE in the name of the POWER OF YOUTH. Now I totally get Neji—I'm gonna go join him. The branches on that tree are sturdy enough to hold one more.
Pompous Dominator (Naruto Uzumaki): Everyone, no summoning techniques, just to be safe.
Phantom Avenger (Sasuke Uchiha): Hell Guardian, tell the others the same—no summoning, period.
Hell Guardian (Kiba Inuzuka): Got it.