[AAA City Ghost: Oh, one look and it's obvious~]
[AAA City Ghost: Must've run out of money again.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Don't say it — actually, don't say it — and yet you're completely right.]
[Let Night City Burn: You burned through it that fast?]
In the group chat, David expressed his astonishment.
After all, he might not have known the exact tally of everything they'd hauled back from Night City — but David, who'd personally played pack mule for the whole operation, knew better than anyone just how much it had been.
To have burned through all those points this quickly... even David was momentarily at a loss for words.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Relax, I haven't actually spent it all — I just suddenly realized what I have isn't enough. Still strapped for cash.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Need to come over here and figure something out?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Uh... honestly, I kind of do.]
Just... a little too scared to actually go.
Watching the messages roll in from his chat companions, Anthony's expression shifted into one of mild suffering.
Truth be told, if he'd had any better option, Anthony genuinely had no desire to go earning points inside Konoha. The timeline was pinned to sometime after Minato's death — but exactly when after? Nobody could say for sure.
Whether it'd even be profitable, and how he'd go about it — these were both open questions.
Still, after running through the current situations of the other chat members in his head, Anthony ultimately decided to roll the dice and try his luck in the Naruto world. The remaining options, frankly, were all a pain in the neck.
Himmel's side had nothing worth squeezing. The Grand Flame Wordsmith's side was profitable, sure — but the scale of operations there had already pushed right up against what Grand Flame Wordsmith would tolerate. If Anthony wanted to keep milking that vein, he'd either need to find a way to get her to loosen her restrictions, or come up with progress compelling enough to make her go to bat for him.
Either way, neither of those was an easy option to pull off right now.
As for the City — which was probably even richer — Anthony genuinely didn't dare go there at the moment. That place had a distinctly unsettling energy about it.
Besides, his arrival point over there was almost certainly going to be somewhere near Carmen — meaning he'd drop straight into the lab. And as far as Anthony knew, the lab hadn't yet experienced the incident of the top brass showing up to "inspect the premises."
If he phased in, looked up, and found himself face-to-face with the executive doing exactly that... the fun would really begin.
After weighing it all carefully, Anthony decided: Naruto world first, for safety's sake.
Minato's wool wasn't as thick as Grand Flame Wordsmith's or Night City's, but at least it was easy to shear.
And besides — the Reanimation Jutsu was a crucial piece of the puzzle.
If everything went according to plan, getting his hands on the Reanimation Jutsu would let Anthony push the situation forward in multiple worlds at once. Even the Grand Flame Wordsmith's side could be nudged further along.
Step one of the Naruto trip, no matter what: acquire the Reanimation Jutsu.
Then, once the timeline was confirmed, identify the current resource nodes and start making the rounds — door to door, world to world. Maybe even find a way to help Minato win his resurrection match along the way; and if the timing didn't allow for it, think of another approach and revisit later.
Having resolved all this in his mind, Anthony reopened the group chat.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Anyway, thanks for the offer — I appreciate the thought, Grand Flame. But for now, the Naruto world takes priority.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Oh, right — @Let Night City Burn — don't just sit around doing nothing. The Styx Boat is already there, so while you're at it, go check on Muzan and Chongyue in that toilet's water tank.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Keep an eye on them. Don't let those two croak on me. I'll figure out a fishing rod for you two later — something to keep you occupied in the meantime.]
[Let Night City Burn: Sure, but I still haven't found a fishing rod?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Don't rush it, I'll craft one.]
Reading David's message, Anthony let out a sigh and added one more item to his Naruto trip agenda.
He was going to need to find a way to upgrade The Angler.
With his demand for points and materials skyrocketing, it wasn't just the production lines across the various worlds that were starting to fall behind — The Angler itself was showing the same signs of strain.
His current fishing rod, and the toilet itself, were both beginning to feel just a little insufficient for the demand. He needed a lot of specific materials to upgrade them, but his fishing capacity wasn't quite up to it.
Upgrading the toilet was the simpler task — once the point supply from the production lines picked up and he finished the River Styx, he could handle that. But the fishing rod was a headache.
For the life of him, Anthony couldn't immediately think of any fishing rods suitable for The Angler to absorb and fuse with.
So, after reviewing The Angler's ability tree for a while, Anthony landed on a lateral solution.
[The Angler's Casting Net]
[Description: A fusion of Artificer technology and The Angler's abilities.]
[Effect: Generates a casting net that can be used to trawl within the Primordial River. The net is a physical object usable by others, and possesses extremely high durability.]
[When the net is in use, the current Affinity Bond level's probability applies, but the additional Affinity Bond level bonus does not.]
[Unlock Conditions: 10,000 points. Materials with high regenerative capacity or high structural integrity.]
Artificer tech, baby!
Without a doubt, purely in terms of large-scale trawling, a net would be far more effective than a fishing rod in the early stages.
And as luck would have it, there was already a hard-working young man named David right there on the boat. Anthony thought it over and decided this responsibility wasn't necessarily out of the couple's hands.
The final question then became: where to source the materials.
Fortunately, in the Naruto world, that kind of material was actually pretty accessible. With a bit of effort, obtaining it on this trip was theoretically doable.
So in short: one more item on the itinerary.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Anyway, just hang tight for now. You two can have a staring contest with Muzan in the meantime — once I've crafted the net, there'll be work to do.]
[Golden Spirit Founder: I keep getting the feeling that everyone who ends up on your boat goes straight to work...]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Ahem, ahem — let's not get into that. Anyway, I'm heading over now.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Konoha's Yellow Flash — remember to approve the application.]
Switching the group chat over to the World Traversal interface, Anthony pressed the button.
In the next instant, Smith's avatar materialized in Anthony's original position — having just wrapped up the Cyberpunk mission, he was warmly welcomed into a round of overtime.
And just like that, with a violent crack to the back of the head, Anthony was off to the world of Naruto.
Konoha Village.
It was a pleasant afternoon. The village's cheerfully oblivious civilians were out and about in the streets, going about their shopping and daily lives.
It was at this moment that a blond-haired, blue-eyed figure stepped onto the main road. His conspicuously foreign face drew more than a few sideways glances.
Then the traveler-clad stranger tilted his head back, gazed up at the Hokage Rock in the distance, and couldn't help letting out a soft sigh of wonder.
He turned, eyeing the crowd around him with a look of mild curiosity, seemingly lost in thought.
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: @Lord of the White Holy Throne — so? Can you confirm the timeline yet?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Can't pin it down exactly, but at least one thing's been confirmed.]
Scanning the Konoha shinobi moving around him, Anthony even spotted one particular familiar face on patrol.
Ah. Uchiha clan.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Looks like the Uchiha clan hasn't been wiped out yet.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Putting it plainly — you're dead, but the Uchiha clan is still alive. Looking at the current state of things, I think we can say with reasonable confidence what's going on.]
After all, in terms of major events that would have happened in this period, there was really only one candidate.
The Uchiha Uprising — and the Uchiha Clan Massacre night.
A classic, all things considered. The original story had it that in the aftermath of the Nine-Tails incident, relations between Konoha's upper leadership and the Uchiha clan deteriorated, leading the Uchiha to begin plotting a coup... and then the Uchiha were wiped out.
Just how many opportunities there had been to change that outcome, and how many unseen hands had kept the gears of that tragedy turning — that was a conversation for another time. But simply thinking about it reminded Anthony of something rather interesting.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Konoha's Yellow Flash — I guess that means you're about to see one of your students.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: ...Mm.]
Watching Minato's slightly subdued response in the chat, Anthony shrugged and didn't press any further.
Uchiha Obito — in a certain sense, one of the driving forces behind the Uchiha Clan Massacre night.
The spoils of that incident had included a tremendous haul of Sharingan — and Danzo, that old fox, had also come away from it with a fistful of Sharingan of his own.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That said, the Uchiha Clan Massacre night is still something that needs to be stopped, one way or another.]
After a moment's contemplation, Anthony voiced that conclusion in the group chat.
It wasn't that he'd had some sudden change of heart. It was simply that the Uchiha clan genuinely had reasons to be kept alive.
For one thing, Minato was going to be resurrected sooner or later. And after his resurrection, he'd almost certainly be taking back the mess that was Konoha to manage... and honestly, the Uchiha Clan Massacre had just made that mess considerably worse. There had been perfectly good, peaceful ways to resolve the situation — and instead, it had been allowed to spiral into exactly this. From the perspective of a resurrected Minato, the Massacre was something that would have been much better off prevented.
Add to that the Obito angle, and Anthony was fairly confident Minato had no intention of letting that particular student keep causing chaos.
Beyond that, Anthony had a few other schemes in mind.
Because didn't it strike you that Uchiha Obito was, in fact, a walking goldmine?
Just mentally running through the list of ridiculous things Uchiha Obito was walking around with, Anthony could feel a certain itch of temptation taking hold.
Sure, the man was slippery — a bit hard to pin down — but he was loaded.
Setting everything else aside: Uchiha Obito had Hashirama cells.
Thinking about the materials required for his [Angler's Casting Net], Anthony felt a particular little scheme take shape in his mind.
The Uchiha clan's Sharingan sounded great on paper, sure... but in terms of raw value to Anthony specifically, they were probably worth less than Hashirama cells.
And if the Uchiha clan was kept alive, he might even be able to arrange a few other things on the side.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Alright then — I'm going to go acquire the Reanimation Jutsu.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Once I have it, I'll pin down the exact timeline... The Uchiha Clan Massacre night is certainly a lively time to land on.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: ...Understood.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: I'll wait here for your news. If it succeeds, please let me know the moment it does.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: I think... I also need to see what the village looks like now. And go meet with the Third. And then... see how Naruto's doing.]
Closing the group chat, Anthony felt his mood lift as he considered what this timeline held in store.
Oh, there was going to be so much to harvest here.
Obito's Hashirama cells. Danzo's Root. Pure, gleaming points, all of it.
But first things first — time to get his hands on the Reanimation Jutsu. Though this time, rolling out as Smith wasn't exactly appropriate anymore.
At the end of the day, he was nothing more than an out-of-town tourist here.
But — while Smith had been disqualified on account of having a physical body, Anthony's true self had no such limitation.
And so, on the surface of the Primordial River, Anthony drew out The Angler's fishing rod.
Then he opened his Soul ability tree.
Since he'd be operating in soul form next, he needed to spend some points to beef himself up first.
This was the Naruto world, after all — and he'd be dealing with Orochimaru shortly. Better to pad his soul stats just to be safe.
After browsing through the options, Anthony landed on an ability he'd had his eye on for a while.
[Spiritual Application · Steel Soul Lv.1]
[Effect: Increases your Soul Strength by 0.2.]
[Unlock Cost: 1,000 points]
[Current Upgrade Cost: 100 points]
Standard stat-increase effect. Before he had any offensive soul-based techniques, Soul Strength essentially just meant being more durable — able to take a hit and keep going.
But being more durable was exactly what he needed right now. That was the whole point.
Without a moment's hesitation, Anthony purchased the skill and began pumping levels into it — all the way to the cap!
[Warning: This will consume a large number of points. There is a possibility of insufficient funds.]
Anthony's expression turned serious in an instant.
He'd noticed something felt just a little bit off about this.
This ability... seemed to have some depth to it.
So Anthony tested the waters — switched to a smaller increment, and decided to level it up 20 times first.
[Steel Soul Lv.10 Unlocked]
[Effect: Soul Strength increased by 4. Current Soul Strength: 8.]
[Upgrade Cost: 1,000 points]
He glanced at his remaining point balance. Still manageable — he could keep going.
Forward! Another 10 levels!
[Steel Soul Lv.30]
[Upgrade Cost: 2,000 points]
Still 180,000 left.
Keep going!
[Steel Soul Lv.40!]
[Upgrade Cost: 4,000 points]
Level up!
[Steel Soul Lv.50]
[Upgrade Cost: 8,000 points]
Level u— wait, hold on, STOP LEVELING!
Watching the cost requirements spike upward in an instant, Anthony wisely pulled the brake.
Good grief — it doubles every ten levels!
He still had 120,000 points left, and he needed to keep those as an emergency reserve. The Reanimation Jutsu situation might require funds too.
Thinking it through, Anthony looked at his Soul Strength — now sitting at 14 — and nodded.
Then he swung the fishing rod.
[Soul Entity initiating World Traversal!]
[Maximum stay duration: one hour!]
[Locking onto coordinates: Orochimaru.]
Reading the display in the group chat, Anthony smiled.
Orochimaru — come on then. Let's see what leftover value you've still got, shall we?
____
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