Chapter 3: The Night of the Massacre, a Different Kind of Fire-Style Jutsu!
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"Ding! A soul point has dropped within 100 meters. Do you want to collect it?"
Amid his myriad emotions, Uchiha Yan suddenly heard the system's prompt. Caught off guard, he instinctively chose to collect it.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've collected 3 soul points!"
"What the…"
What just happened?
Could the system collect points even if he wasn't the one who caused the death?
Staring at the system panel, where 3 soul points had appeared out of nowhere, Yan found himself lost in thought. It seemed this system, despite its simplicity, still held many mysteries to uncover.
"Ding! A soul point has dropped within 100 meters. Do you want to collect it?"
Before Yan could fully process his excitement, the system chimed again. This time, he began to sense something was off.
Something big might be happening nearby.
An increasing uneasiness gripped his heart, making it beat faster with every passing second.
Still, no matter the circumstances, the system was his only lifeline for now.
"Collect it!"
"Can you enable automatic collection?"
Yan quickly made his choice, and the system's frequent prompts started to feel cumbersome. Out of curiosity, he voiced his suggestion.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've collected 4 soul points! Automatic collection has been enabled. You will no longer receive notifications."
As the system finally went silent, Yan sighed in relief. But this didn't mean the crisis was over.
The soul points on his panel continued to increase, jumping at irregular intervals. The frequency of these changes became faster and faster.
"What's going on? Could it be that people nearby are all…"
Realization struck him like lightning.
"Oh, crap!"
A chilling thought froze him in place: the Uchiha Massacre.
Could it be tonight?
And had it already started nearby?
The scythe of death was closer than he could have imagined. Without the system's alerts, he wouldn't have noticed anything unusual.
The silent efficiency of a ninja's assassination methods was terrifying, especially in a clan as skilled as the Uchiha.
"Damn it!"
Yan cursed his luck. He had just unlocked his cheat system, barely started exploring its features, and now, this catastrophic event was upon him.
With no time to waste, he looked at his accumulated points.
He had 16 soul points. To draw a new Fire-Style ability, he only needed 10.
"Draw!"
The words left his mouth like a lifeline, a desperate attempt to grab any chance of survival.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've drawn the Fire-Walking Technique!"
Fire-Walking Technique?
What kind of jutsu was that?
It wasn't a technique he recognized from the ninja world. What was the difference between this and traditional Fire-Style techniques?
With no time for speculation, Yan quickly opened the description:
Fire-Walking Technique
Description: One of the Taoist Five-Element Escape Arts, it allows users to escape through fire using special techniques and tools.
Entering fire enables escape within a 300-kilometer radius (roughly 186 miles) to any nearby flames.
The user will sustain unavoidable burns upon entering or exiting the fire. Burn severity depends on the intensity of the fire and duration of exposure, potentially resulting in death.
If the user fails to escape within three days, they will reappear at their original location and be consumed by fire.
"Ah, I see…"
The description made Yan's eyes gleam with hope. Previously, his chances of surviving the massacre were zero. With this, they had shot up to 80%.
Though the burns from entering and exiting the fire were a significant drawback, the technique's benefits outweighed its flaws.
Still, the system's approach surprised him. He had assumed it would develop existing Fire-Style techniques like Great Fireball Jutsu or Phoenix Fire Jutsu. But this? It was beyond anything he had imagined.
"Alright, let's draw again!"
One technique wasn't enough. His soul points had already exceeded 10 again, and Yan immediately opted for another draw.
The system screen didn't bother with flashy animations. The result appeared instantly.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've drawn the Mera Mera no Mi (Flame-Flame Fruit) – Side-effect-free version!"
"…No way!"
Excitement surged through him. As a transmigrator, Yan was all too familiar with the abilities of the Mera Mera no Mi.
Control over flames, self-elementalization, immunity to physical attacks…
Now, with the side effects removed, its power was nothing short of godlike!
Perhaps he had underestimated his system. Who said Fire-Style was weak?
The famous saying, "There are no useless abilities, only useless users," echoed in his mind. Though the speaker of that quote had ultimately failed, Yan had to admit the words rang true.
Upon acquiring the Mera Mera no Mi, its abilities immediately fused with Yan's body. There was no need for practice—it was as if the powers had always been his.
Likewise, the Fire-Walking Technique didn't require any preparation, and its activation relied on chakra instead of its original energy source.
In this way, the system had "localized" the techniques to align with the ninja world.
Now equipped with these powerful abilities, Yan's confidence grew. He could escape from the massacre at any moment, his life no longer hanging by a thread.
With the Flame-Flame Fruit's elementalization ability, he could ignore the burns caused by the Fire-Walking Technique, making it even more effective.
Yet, he hesitated.
As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold.
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