Uchiha Hikari soon arrived in the prison block with her specially designed server equipment.
Following Makoto's instructions, she meticulously modified its core settings.
This wasn't something just anyone could alter if they got their hands on the device.
The entire operating system was built squarely upon her dōjutsu, Yachihoko, meaning Hikari was the only admin capable of changing its configuration.
"Off you go."
Using the exact same casual technique she would use to throw a shuriken, Hikari tossed the modified VR headset onto Obito's head.
The straps automatically tightened around his skull, and the device powered on.
Obito instantly felt as though his entire body had plunged into an endless, lightless void.
He immediately understood that he had fallen under Uchiha Hikari's genjutsu.
What he had not expected was for her illusion to be this utterly terrifying.
It had already vastly surpassed Itachi's Tsukuyomi!
No matter how powerful Itachi's Tsukuyomi was, it still required direct eye contact to activate.
Hikari's Engraved Tsukuyomi, however, functioned more like the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Simply closing one's eyes and refusing to look did absolutely nothing to prevent it.
Obito had been convincingly playing dead, which naturally meant his eyes were squeezed shut.
Yet without the slightest warning, he still fell directly into the digital illusion.
More importantly, once he was inside, he couldn't detect any signs that he was under a genjutsu.
The Scorch Release: Heavenly Prison seal on his chest seemed to have completely vanished, along with all his agonizing burns and pain.
It felt as though every physical restriction had been removed, leaving his body feeling incredibly light and comfortable.
That sudden, unnatural feeling of comfort made Obito's heart sink.
It proved that Hikari's genjutsu had not only surpassed Itachi's Tsukuyomi in how effortlessly it could trap a target, but its environmental quality was no worse than Itachi's ability to freely manipulate time and mass within his illusion.
And based on the conversation Obito had overheard earlier, genjutsu wasn't even the main purpose of the device.
Its real, function was to passively absorb chakra and natural energy, ensuring he was completely and permanently restrained.
Worse, they seemed to be planning to distribute this exact device across the entire shinobi world, just like the Sage Mode campaign...
Wait.
Obito suddenly realized something.
Could the global promotion of Sage Mode have been elaborate preparation for this demonic device all along?!
The more he thought about it, the more horrifying the conspiracy became.
Once the entire shinobi world experienced the incredible benefits of the Sage Mode campaign, convincing everyone to accept the next "miracle" device they promoted would become drastically easier.
And if a massive chunk of the population learned how to actively absorb natural energy, that would give Yachihoko an infinitely larger power pool to drain!
Everyone in the shinobi world who put on one of these VR headsets would become a living battery for Uchiha Hikari's strength!
How unspeakably evil!
An inexplicable, burning sense of justice suddenly rose within Obito's chest, filling him with the desire to stop this wicked plan.
Admittedly, her evil scheme sounded rather similar to what he had originally intended to do.
But neither Obito nor Madara actually knew that the Infinite Tsukuyomi would absorb the entire world's chakra and mutate everyone together into a hive mind.
Therefore, from Obito's perspective—and completely dismissing all that "dubious" intelligence he later overheard about the Ōtsutsuki—his own master plan was merely to successfully capture the nine Tailed Beasts and become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
Besides, he was doing it to bring true salvation to the shinobi world, allowing everyone to live peacefully within a beautiful dream!
But Uchiha Hikari?
The nine Tailed Beasts were not enough for her greedy appetite.
She wanted the life-force chakra of every single civilian and ninja on the planet!
Could people even survive without chakra?
Was she seriously planning to use the lives of the entire world as disposable fuel for her own power?
Compared to Obito and Madara, who generously only wanted to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and place everyone inside a wonderful utopia, she was the ultimate, irredeemable Demon King!
As for those horror stories he overheard about Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, the Infinite Tsukuyomi absorbing chakra, and innocent people being transformed into White Zetsu... Those had to be fake!
The reason Amegakure fabricated such elaborate stories was completely obvious now.
Uchiha Hikari had always intended to commit these acts herself!
She simply invented a fictional alien scapegoat called "Ōtsutsuki Kaguya" and dumped all the blame on her and the Infinite Tsukuyomi to cover her tracks!
No wonder!
After Madara was revived through the Edo Tensei, the two of them had repeatedly guarded against and schemed against each other.
The fundamental reason was that both desperately wanted to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
As the old saying went: competitors in the same market are all dear benefactors who desperately wish each other dead.
That was why they inevitably clashed.
But both Madara and Obito had completely overlooked the fact that there was a third competitor hiding in the shadows—an even greedier, more wicked one.
Uchiha Hikari wanted the exact same monopoly!
Following the sacred, cutthroat principle that all competitors were beloved benefactors meant to be buried, Hikari had ruthlessly imprisoned both Obito and Madara in this cave.
She wouldn't even allow them the mercy of death or release the Edo Tensei.
That was because if their souls became free after death, someone else might summon or revive them, turning them into her competitors once more!
Everything finally made sense!
Obito felt as though he had brilliantly uncovered the ultimate truth of the universe, and a powerful, heroic sense of duty welled up inside him.
He had to find a way out of this digital prison.
Not merely so he could become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, but more importantly, so he could stop the inherently evil Demon King Uchiha Hikari from destroying the world!
Thud.
Obito finally felt his virtual body land after falling through deep space.
Why had he landed? He had absolutely no idea.
While pretending to be unconscious earlier, he distinctly heard them call this thing a "game."
However, Obito's understanding of video games was completely different from Makoto's.
Modern online MMOs existed in the Boruto era.
But Amegakure had only recently begun developing this entertainment technology.
The village currently possessed little more than clunky arcade machines, while even basic standalone console games had only just hit the market.
Those primitive games all revolved around the simple concept of "clearing" a linear stage.
Obito naturally assumed this was a standard single-player game that had to be completed.
If he cleared all the stages, he would probably be able to break the system and escape the genjutsu.
What Obito did not know was that his long fall through the void had merely been the system's background shader rendering process... along with Engraved Tsukuyomi automatically constructing a mandatory opening tutorial and beginner village specifically for him, lazily modeled right out of the Infinite Tsukuyomi's asset library.
Obito did not wake up immediately.
He had no idea whether Hikari was actively monitoring him.
He had previously been pretending not to have regained consciousness in the real world.
If he suddenly opened his eyes now, it would completely expose the fact that he had been eavesdropping on their evil schemes.
So, Obito decided to continue playing dead for another few minutes in the virtual world.
Even with his eyes closed, he suddenly sensed a blinding light directly ahead.
It was so intense that it pierced right through his eyelids, like a guiding beacon shining within the darkness.
A voice that seemed both familiar and strangely, artificially corrupted echoed from the light.
"Cosmic X-Man... open your eyes... I am Sa-X-X..."
What the hell?
Obito was completely baffled.
Why was the speech stuttering and breaking apart like a corrupted audio file?
And what was it even trying to say?
The only phrase he clearly understood was "open your eyes."
Obito stubbornly ignored the glitched voice and continued pretending to be unconscious according to his master plan.
After waiting several minutes, he finally opened his eyes slowly.
Only then did he discover that the glowing object hovering before him was an adult Uchiha Sasuke, holding a sparking Chidori.
Before Obito opened his eyes, the Sasuke NPC had apparently been standing there the entire time, striking a highly dramatic pose and repeating the exact same broken dialogue loop like a scratched record.
"Uchiha Obitoh... open your eyes... I am Sa-shi-gay."
"..."
What kind of lunatic was this?
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