Chapter 536: A Nearly Unsolvable Genjutsu?
"No. Perhaps I need to make some changes myself, test the rules that construct this Genjutsu world, and then find a flaw."
Another 2 days passed.
Amamiya Kenichi looked at Konan and made a decision in his heart.
It was difficult to find a way out of this place. The Six Paths Sage did not know what he was doing either, since there had been no news from him at all. Amamiya Kenichi did not want to delay here any longer, so he decided to find a way to test things himself.
The simplest method was killing.
So Amamiya Kenichi used the materials he had on hand to make a simplified landmine.
However, the landmine's destructive power was limited, and it consumed a lot of Amamiya Kenichi's resources.
The sugar and other things Ōtsutsuki Isshiki had bought before were almost used up, but at least the thing was finally made.
It was a trigger activated mine. Anyone who stepped on it would set it off.
After leaving the cave, Amamiya Kenichi did not immediately return. Instead, he climbed onto a hill and observed the small town below.
During this period, Amamiya Kenichi had not been completely idle.
At the very least, he now understood some of the patrol routines of the Ninja around the outskirts of the town.
According to his observations, a Ninja squad would come out of the town every so often, patrol around the outside of the town, and then return.
Amamiya Kenichi had counted their patrol intervals.
When he remained still, after around 3,600 heartbeats, those Ninja would come out to patrol. Sometimes it would be 3,700 heartbeats, and sometimes it would be 3,300 heartbeats. The timing was not fixed.
But their path was always fixed.
The residents of the town could not come out.
From Amamiya Kenichi's current observations, he had not seen any of the residents leave the town. Almost everyone who could come out was a Ninja.
"It is about time."
Amamiya Kenichi looked at the town below.
The Ninja had just come out of it and were patrolling toward the other end of the town.
Amamiya Kenichi took a deep breath.
He touched the weapon on his back and the shovel tucked into his waist, then slowly made his way down from the hill.
As he walked, Amamiya Kenichi's heart rate gradually quickened, but he was not in a hurry.
He knew that even at the fastest, those Ninja would take 3,300 heartbeats to complete their patrol, and his heart rate was 78 beats per minute.
He did not have heart disease, so under normal circumstances, his heart rate would not fluctuate too wildly. Exercise would speed it up, but it would not affect the minimum patrol interval, which was measured in the thousands.
By the time Amamiya Kenichi reached the edge of the forest, he could already see the distant town.
The fields outside the town, though unattended, were growing well and had no weeds.
"That should not be."
Amamiya Kenichi looked at the field.
Rice was planted here, and it was growing very well. It was clearly the kind of field that had been carefully tended.
But now, the residents could not come out.
It could not possibly be the Ninja tending the fields, could it?
Or did these Ninja supervise some townspeople every day and make them come out to care for the rice?
After all, the rice looked almost ready for harvest.
Amamiya Kenichi shook his head.
These matters had nothing to do with him.
He took off his shoes and socks, then walked barefoot into the rice field.
He slowly moved forward through the field while also holding the landmine.
Although he had made a simple pin, black powder could not detonate once it became wet, so he had to prevent the landmine from falling into the water below.
After reaching the section of road where the Ninja usually patrolled, Amamiya Kenichi lay down at the edge of the field and glanced toward the town ahead.
The town was very quiet, still deserted.
The town gate was not on this side, so Amamiya Kenichi did not need to worry about being discovered by a guard.
"These disgusting bloodsuckers."
Amamiya Kenichi pulled his feet out of the field, then saw 1 fat leech clinging to each foot. Both were already swollen with blood.
He used his shovel to tap the nearby skin, shaking the leeches off.
Amamiya Kenichi did not step on them and kill them. He simply threw them back into the field.
Immediately afterward, he rubbed the water off his feet on the grass, put on his shoes and socks, and only then climbed up.
Amamiya Kenichi crouched in the middle of the road, took out the small shovel he carried, and dug a pit in the center of the path.
He buried the landmine, carefully pulled out the pin, covered it with dirt, then cleaned up his footprints and traces before quickly running back into the rice field.
Because he was wearing shoes now, he left no footprints, and there were no water stains either. This maximized the chance of preventing his trap from being discovered by the patrolling Ninja.
He had not even dared to kill the leeches, in order to avoid any possible scent of blood.
Everything he did was to prevent any unexpected failure in his plan.
Amamiya Kenichi ran all the way from the edge of the rice field back to the foot of the mountain, then walked along the mountain's base for a while before entering the forest.
Along the way, Amamiya Kenichi did not forget to pick some fragrant plants, crush them, and rub them on his body and feet.
Then, holding the black rod in his hand, he jogged back to the cave.
By the time Amamiya Kenichi entered the cave, Konan was already lying on a stone, asleep.
Amamiya Kenichi glanced at Konan, then gently picked her up, placed her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket.
Konan slept very soundly, with no sign of waking.
Looking at Konan's sleeping face, Amamiya Kenichi's previously tense nerves instantly relaxed quite a bit.
He carefully cleaned up the traces at the cave entrance again before returning inside.
Amamiya Kenichi sat in the dim cave.
His breathing was calm, and his expression was peaceful, but his fiercely beating heart proved just how nervous and excited the owner of this body truly was.
"How many now? My heart rate has already calmed down, and it is almost at 1,000. Why is there still nothing? Was I discovered?"
Amamiya Kenichi gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly.
His breath trembled.
His heart shook.
He felt as if every heartbeat had been stretched infinitely.
The faint sound of his heartbeat echoed like thunder inside the cave.
Had it failed?
Or had he been discovered?
Or was the power of the black powder explosion not enough to achieve the desired effect?
Even the worst case scenario, that it had started raining outside, had been considered by Amamiya Kenichi.
He almost wished he could rush out immediately and see the result of his efforts.
If he could break out of this situation, that would naturally be best. Then he could leave this Genjutsu space.
1,000.
Amamiya Kenichi's mood slowly became heavy.
He was a smart man, so he knew very well that the time that had passed had definitely exceeded 2,000 heartbeats. Yet he still heard nothing.
The attempt had failed.
Amamiya Kenichi bit his finger, thinking about whether the explosion's power had not been enough, allowing the Ninja to survive, or whether that squad of Ninja had changed their patrol route.
But in the next second, a faint rumble came from outside.
Amamiya Kenichi breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed the landmine he made had still achieved its intended effect.
Konan was still sleeping and had not woken up, which made Amamiya Kenichi relax a little.
He crawled to the cave entrance and peered outside.
The forest was very quiet, with no movement.
It seemed that although he had killed a Ninja, the Ninja had not tracked him down.
This was good news.
It seemed the Ninja's tracking abilities were not especially strong, or perhaps his method of hiding himself had worked.
But no matter what, Amamiya Kenichi was at least temporarily safe now.
"But even if someone was killed, I still have not exited the Genjutsu space. There has not been any change at all."
Amamiya Kenichi sighed.
This was troublesome.
It would be even harder to kill someone with a landmine next time.
After all, after experiencing 1 landmine attack, these Ninja, unless they were fools, would certainly become wary of landmines.
At that point, using the same method to kill Ninja would become even more difficult.
And the more he used it, the harder it would be to say whether those Ninja would discover something abnormal.
That would be troublesome.
Amamiya Kenichi felt that perhaps he needed to think of other ways to solve this problem.
Perhaps he needed more powerful weapons.
"Hmm?"
Amamiya Kenichi paused.
Speaking of powerful new weapons, he suddenly thought of an interesting item.
Minerals were truly magical things.
Some ores mixed with other minerals to form stones with unique colors and shapes. Some of those ores could even glow.
It was said that some ancient luminous pearls were made from highly radioactive ores. They did indeed glow at night, but they also killed people.
Amamiya Kenichi had previously thought about this.
If he selected such highly radioactive ores, dug them out, and sold them as treasures, would they also have the effect of killing people?
But Amamiya Kenichi himself had abandoned this idea afterward.
Because the physical constitution of Ninja was very strong.
Highly radioactive minerals might be extremely toxic to him, but not necessarily to Ninja.
It would be rather ridiculous if the Ninja did not die, but he died first instead.
If that happened, Amamiya Kenichi would definitely make it onto the list of the most embarrassing transmigrators.
"Forget it. It is better not to mess around with fancy tricks."
Amamiya Kenichi shook his head.
He might as well honestly research his sniper rifle and the Chakra detector that was still in the conceptual stage.
While Amamiya Kenichi was thinking, Konan woke up.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes, walked behind Amamiya Kenichi, and tugged on his clothes.
"Brother Gen."
When Amamiya Kenichi looked at Konan, she was yawning. Seeing her like that made Amamiya Kenichi unable to help yawning as well.
"Is it still daytime?"
Konan rubbed her eyes, then looked at Amamiya Kenichi and asked.
Amamiya Kenichi nodded, then shifted his body aside to let in the beam of light from behind him.
Although it was tiny, inside the pitch black cave, it was a rare glimmer of light.
Konan walked over and looked at that faint light with longing.
"Brother Gen, are we going to live here forever?"
Konan tilted her head and looked at Amamiya Kenichi as she asked.
"Yes. Until the war ends, it has to be this way."
Amamiya Kenichi nodded.
He knew Konan wanted to go outside.
After all, humans were ultimately creatures who yearned for light.
But the problem was that light came with greater danger.
If one could barely survive in the cave, then outside, one could die at any moment.
Ninja battles would not care whether someone was an innocent passerby.
Nor would they care whether that person had a 30 year mortgage and had already paid 29 years of it.
War never cared about such things.
"I understand, Brother Gen."
Konan quickly went back to her spot and began diligently refining Chakra.
Amamiya Kenichi watched this scene and fell silent for a moment.
Although he had been forced by circumstances to live in this dim cave, he could still bring some light to this dark place.
"Konan, I am going out for a bit."
Thinking this, Amamiya Kenichi told Konan, then walked out.
He planned to make a simple hand cranked generator.
The problem was that he had not bought light bulbs.
This meant that if he wanted to light up the cave, he would need to make both a light bulb and a generator from scratch.
A light bulb required glass, as well as tungsten filament and copper wires.
It was quite troublesome.
Tungsten filament was especially difficult, so Amamiya Kenichi planned to substitute it with something else.
As for glass, it was not strictly necessary.
Although glass made from ordinary sand could not reach the purity of transparent glass, Amamiya Kenichi did not intend to make transparent glass.
Having some color would not be a problem.
And Amamiya Kenichi had already seen places with sand on his way here.
After obtaining the sand, Amamiya Kenichi also looked toward the foot of the mountain.
There was still no one there.
Only then did Amamiya Kenichi carefully clean up his traces all the way back to the cave entrance.
Firing glass was not very troublesome, but it could not be done inside the cave.
Amamiya Kenichi had to go outside and build a simple stove himself, then start firing the glass.
While waiting for the firing process, Amamiya Kenichi also needed to deal with the smoke problem.
At the same time, he pondered what material he could use to replace tungsten filament.
Although the effect might not be as good as tungsten, as long as it could emit light, it would be enough.
"But is this Genjutsu world not a little too realistic?"
Amamiya Kenichi gazed into the distance.
Everything here was similar to reality.
If Amamiya Kenichi had not been certain that he had entered a Genjutsu, he might have wondered whether he had transmigrated again.
Amamiya Kenichi sighed.
The Six Paths Sage still had not made a move.
Amamiya Kenichi did not know what he was doing, why he had not rescued him yet, or whether something else had changed in reality.
Amamiya Kenichi was not sure.
All he could do was try to find a way to break free from the shackles of this Genjutsu himself.
.....
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