Light cut across his vision like a blade.For a second, there was only white — then came the heat.
It wasn't the gentle warmth of sunlight; it was metallic, thick, alive.Every breath Elias took tasted of iron and smoke.The world before him trembled with fire and movement.
Ash drifted through the air like snow.Wood cracked, steel groaned, and somewhere far ahead, a child screamed.Through the haze, he could see it — walls rising against a blood-red sky, marked with a spiraling leaf emblem scorched black by flame.
Konoha.The first world.
"Tell me this is still a simulation," Raf muttered, his voice already shaking.Isha answered, dry and sharp, "Simulations don't smell like burning flesh."Sera checked the small wrist device glowing faintly on her skin. "Full synchronization achieved. Neural lag zero. We're inside."
Tajri spun around slowly, staring at the burning skyline. "We're really in another world…"Elias said nothing. His face was unreadable, but his eyes — gray and steady — reflected the fire like a mirror.
He had seen this place before. Not as a visitor, but as a reader.Now, fiction had turned into geography.
A low hum vibrated through the air.Then, before them, five blue columns of light erupted, circling their formation like sentinels.
FIELD NODE: VILLAGE OF FIRESELECT MISSION TIER.
Each column flickered with a word, almost ethereal:
Evacuation
Medical
Defense
Protection
End the Invasion
Tajri frowned. "What the hell is this?"Elias answered without hesitation. "The selection protocol. Each Tier is a mission type — difficulty and reward scale together."
Raf took a cautious step backward. "We choose now?""If you don't," Elias said quietly, "The Field will choose for you."
"And what happens if it chooses?" Raf pressed.Elias' tone didn't waver. "Then you become part of someone else's story."
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the distant roar of explosions.
Isha crossed her arms. "You said you've read reports. What happened to the last batch?""They chose without knowing the cost," Elias said, his voice low. "Most died before understanding what they were supposed to do."
Sera's eyes narrowed. "So this is our real test."Elias nodded. "Yes. Each Tier defines how this world reacts to us. The Field doesn't just simulate war — it evaluates behavior."
Tajri chuckled bitterly. "So… what, it's like a game?"Elias looked at him flatly. "Games end when you die. The Field keeps watching."
The blue lights pulsed again, brighter now — impatient.Elias spoke, his voice calm but deliberate.
"Listen carefully. The choice you make will shape your reality. Lower Tiers are safer, but limited. Higher ones… risk everything. You pick your path, and you live or die by it."
Sera asked, "And the rewards?""Permanent," Elias replied. "Field integration. Skills you can use back in the real world. But only one per mission."
Tajri smirked. "So Tier Five's the jackpot."Elias didn't even glance at him. "Tier Five is a graveyard."
They stood together, five small figures against a burning horizon.Then, one by one, they made their choices.
ISHA VALE — Tier 3: Defense of the Leaf
Isha stepped forward first.Her hand reached toward the light.
Tier 3 – Mission Confirmed: Defend the Village.
Raf's eyes widened. "That's the front line!""I know," Isha said. Her tone was steady, resolute. "I'm done hiding. If the world wants to burn, I'll burn inside it, not beneath it."
Elias turned his head slightly. "You understand Tier 3 has a 40% survival rate?""Then I'll be part of the 40."Her lips curved in a faint, defiant smile. "Better to die with purpose than live invisible."
SERA QUIN — Tier 2: Medical Corps
Sera didn't hesitate. Her fingers moved with surgical precision.
Tier 2 – Mission Confirmed: Medical Corps.
Elias raised a brow. "Why?"Sera replied instantly, "Tier 2 offers proximity to the core network — access to chakra-based physiology. I want to study how the Field manipulates biology.""You'll be in the blast zone," Isha said."Then I'll die learning something no one else will."
Her calm unnerved even Elias.
RAF TANNEN — Tier 1: Civilian Evacuation
Raf bit his lip, hesitated, then pressed his palm against the first pillar.
Tier 1 – Mission Confirmed: Civilian Evacuation.
Tajri let out a snort. "The easy path."Raf shot him a glare. "Someone has to help them. NPC or not, they're suffering. If this world feels real, then maybe saving them means something."
Elias nodded once. "Good. The Field measures intent, not outcomes. Remember that."
TAJRI KAHN — Tier 4: Protect Key Personnel
Tajri stepped up next, grinning."Fine. If we're all dying anyway, I might as well die where people can see it."
Tier 4 – Mission Confirmed: Protect Key Personnel.
Elias sighed. "You mistake ambition for immortality."Tajri flashed him a grin. "Maybe. But history doesn't remember the cautious."
ELIAS CROWE — Tier 5: End the Invasion
All eyes turned to Elias.He stared at the final column — the one pulsing irregularly, as if aware of his hesitation.But there was no hesitation.
He pressed his hand forward.
Tier 5 – Mission Confirmed: End the Konoha Invasion.Reward Pool: Advanced Chakra Flow / Will of Flame / Sensory Convergence.
Raf's voice cracked. "That's suicide!"Elias answered without emotion. "No. It's precision."Isha frowned. "You can't win that battle alone.""I don't plan to win," Elias said. "I plan to understand."
The last word hung in the air like a sentence.
The pillars of light vanished.A monotone voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere:
Batch 2025 – Tier Synchronization Complete.Mortality Estimate: 72%.
Sera checked her wrist console again. "Connection stable. Field recognition active.""Meaning?" Tajri asked."We're no longer observers," Elias replied. "We're variables."
They stood in a circle as the fire around them dimmed to embers.Elias spoke again, his tone clipped, analytical.
"Listen. The Field doesn't reward courage. It rewards consistency. You act out of pattern — it resets you. Remember that."
He pointed to the burning skyline."Each Tier sends us to different sectors. We won't see each other until synchronization ends. So whatever happens, keep acting with intent."
Isha nodded firmly.Raf hesitated, then clenched his jaw.Tajri smirked again, as if daring fate to remember him.Sera only whispered, "Understood."
Then they turned, walking toward their fates.
North.Isha, running toward the defense line where Konoha's walls groaned under enemy jutsu.
South.Raf, searching for civilians among burning homes, shouting orders over collapsing roofs.
West.Sera, already working with the wounded — NPCs bleeding real blood.
Center.Tajri, charging toward Hokage Tower, chasing glory.
East.Elias, alone, walking into the heart of the invasion.
The world burned.Sky cracked open with streaks of chakra fire.Every explosion sent waves of heat through the ground, carrying screams and static.
Elias crouched behind the rubble of a broken wall. His eyes scanned the horizon — not for enemies, but for patterns.
He opened his notebook, its pages vibrating faintly from the resonance energy in the air.
"Biological synchronization increasing relative to chakra density. The Field responds to thought frequency. This world isn't independent; it mimics us."
He paused, flexing his hand.A faint pulse beneath his skin — energy, subtle yet alive.It was as though the world was… reading him back.
A thunderous roar tore through the silence.The ground shook. Buildings folded like paper.
Elias looked up — and saw it.A serpent, massive, gleaming with wet scales, coiling around a tower of stone.
Orochimaru.
He froze.He knew the story.He knew the outcome.
But this was not a reenactment.This was The Field's version — alive, adaptive, indifferent.
NPCs weren't acting. They were living. And death here meant erasure, not restart.
Elias took cover again, heart pounding but mind sharp.He wrote quickly:
"Tier 5 begins at the narrative core. NPC behavior displays autonomy. Field integration total. Predictability impossible."
Hours passed.The sun vanished behind a wall of smoke.Only the red glow of fire remained, licking the edges of the ruined village.
Elias sat in the dirt, back against a collapsed column.He looked up at the burning sky, breathing the taste of ash.
"The first rule," he murmured, "is survival.The second — learn."
He flipped to a new page in his notebook and wrote:
"Each Tier operates in separate instances of the same narrative. We don't see one another, but we're connected through the Field Core. Mental states might influence world geometry."
He stopped writing and looked toward the horizon, where the Hokage Tower still burned — faint, defiant.
Somewhere beyond that fire, Hiruzen Sarutobi was fighting Orochimaru.Elias didn't need to see it. He knew it by design.But the knowledge didn't bring comfort — only dread.
Because he also knew this:The moment the battle ends, so does the world.The Field would erase everything, keeping only what it wanted.
That meant he had limited time to learn how the system truly worked.
Midnight came.The fires dimmed, replaced by an eerie silence.Wind carried the stench of blood and ozone.
Elias closed his notebook and stared at the darkness.He thought of the others — five paths, five reasons.
None of them wrong.None of them right.All necessary.
"The Field doesn't care about right or wrong," he whispered. "It only records proof."
He let out a slow breath, eyes still fixed on the flickering horizon.The tower in the distance trembled — a faint sign the end was coming.
And still, Elias smiled — faintly, bitterly, with something that wasn't quite hope.
"Day one complete," he murmured."One step closer to understanding."