Chapter 2 — The Belated Cheat
"Technology Template System successfully loaded!"
"Detected a large amount of external thermal energy. Absorbable. Automatically activating Energy Collection Template. Activation rate: 50%… 100%."
"Loading (The Terminator) T-800 Robot Template… Load failed. Cause detected… partial loss of host body. Revising loading plan… Changing load target… Loading (Bloodshot) Blood Nanite Template… Load successful… Blood Nanite Template computing… Computation successful… Host repairing… Host repair complete."
"Reloading T-800 Robot Template… Load successful… Computation successful… Loading T-800 supplementary weapon templates… SPAS-12 Shotgun Template loaded successfully… Minimi Light Machine Gun Template loaded successfully."
As darkness swallowed his vision and his consciousness began to collapse, cold electronic notifications echoed continuously through the black void of Tsukigami Ren's fading mind.
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In the dark forest, under the explosion of the detonating tags covering his body and those plastered across the wooden boards around him, Tsukigami Ren's body was instantly torn apart—then blasted into fragments. Flames surged endlessly, devouring everything in their path and illuminating the night sky.
"No…!"
Shrill screams and unwilling cries were drowned out by the thunderous chain of explosions. The defensive jutsu the Sand shinobi had just cast were mercilessly shredded by the violent blasts. The twenty-plus Sand shinobi who had pursued Tsukigami Ren were instantly swallowed and torn apart by the firestorm. Splintered wood fragments shot outward, burning as they pierced mercilessly through every corner of the forest.
Amid the continuous detonations, something suddenly changed.
Tsukigami Ren's shattered, burning flesh abruptly turned black-gray. The flames upon it extinguished instantly, transforming into pure thermal energy that was absorbed into the fragments.
Then, like drifting dust, those fragments began to float upward. As they absorbed every flame they touched, they gradually converged back toward the spot where Tsukigami Ren had fallen—reassembling into his form.
The flames unleashed by the detonating tags continued to devour everything around them. But when they touched Tsukigami Ren's body, they were converted into pure heat energy and absorbed. Not a single spark could harm him again.
His finger twitched unconsciously.
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"Boom—!"
The relentless explosions continued to shake the forest and the earth itself. Fire and shockwaves tore through everything in their path, igniting vast stretches of woodland and painting the night sky crimson. The inferno resembled a blazing hell.
"What happened over there?"
"Did a large-scale battle break out? Why didn't we receive any advance notice?"
"Could it be a secret operation that ran into the enemy?"
Sixty kilometers away at Konoha's forward camp and over a hundred kilometers away at Sunagakure's forward camp, night-watch shinobi stared in shock at the western sky glowing red with fire. None of them had received any notice of large-scale combat tonight. That explosion—at least a thousand detonating tags. At minimum, a clash involving dozens of shinobi.
They hurriedly woke their comrades. Soon, dozens of shinobi from both forward camps rushed out, sprinting toward the source of the firelight.
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"Loading complete. Host consciousness not detected. Initiating awakening protocol. Awakening… successful."
Within the pitch-black sea of consciousness, the cold electronic voice continued to echo. As it fell silent, a faint point of light appeared in the darkness—growing brighter and brighter.
Amid the still-rumbling explosions, Tsukigami Ren silently pushed himself upright. Confusion flickered in his eyes as he looked at the still-raging blasts, the flames surging toward him—engulfing his body yet causing no harm.
Instead, the fire made him feel warm. Powerful.
"..."
Silence.
Tsukigami Ren knew that everything before his death had not been an illusion—because he truly had done it. The voice lingering in his mind explained why he had returned from death.
His cheat had finally arrived.
But it had come far too late.
If it had appeared a few years earlier, he could have gone to the battlefield with his parents. Perhaps, with this power, he might have prevented the tragedy. Perhaps he would still have a happy family.
Slowly rising to his feet, he glanced once at the shattered remains of the Sand shinobi scattered across the ground. He fell silent again, then turned and walked away through the flames.
Since he was not dead, his revenge was not over.
But before taking revenge again, he needed preparation—and he needed to understand his cheat.
He did not know which Sand shinobi had killed his parents. He did not know what mission they had been on when they died.
But he knew this:
It was this war that had killed them.
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"Is the battle already over?"
"Who won?"
Half an hour later, more than forty Konoha shinobi arrived first at the still-burning forest. Aside from the crackling of flames, there was no movement.
"Captain, no signs of anyone inside. It looks like the battle has already ended!" A Hyūga shinobi with bulging veins around his Byakugan carefully surveyed the burning forest before reporting to the elite jōnin leading the group.
"Investigate quickly. Everyone stay alert! This is the central frontline. The Sand shinobi must have noticed the disturbance as well. They'll likely arrive soon," the Konoha elite jōnin ordered, nodding before taking the lead into the smoldering forest.
Fortunately, it was the rainy season. The forest was damp, and light rain still fell from the sky. The fire had already weakened significantly compared to its initial fury.
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Another thirty minutes later, shinobi from Sunagakure's forward camp—over fifty of them—arrived at the scene and began their own investigation. By then, the Konoha shinobi had already finished their search and departed.
The expressions on the Sand shinobi's faces were grim.
On the way, they had discovered numerous triggered traps, as well as signs that a roughly thirty-man Sand squad had been pursuing someone—along with traces of blood. Combined with the earlier explosion, a heavy weight settled in their hearts.
"Captain, it was a large-scale detonation caused by numerous explosive tags. The explosion ignited the forest. Inside, we found a large number of steel wires, ropes, and kunai," one Sand shinobi reported sorrowfully to the elite jōnin leading them. "There were even more densely arranged traps inside. The approximately thirty-man allied squad entered the area. No survivors were found—only fragments of bodies and clothing. Their forehead protectors are missing. We also found many traces left by Konoha shinobi, all from after the explosion."
"Damn those Konoha shinobi!"
Hearing this, the Sand elite jōnin could barely suppress his rage. He slammed his fist into a charred tree trunk beside him, snapping the thick, blackened trunk in half.
But no matter how furious he was, he could not afford to lose his composure.
"Return to camp. Report everything."
This was the central frontline between Konoha and Sunagakure's main forces. Though near the edge of the contested zone, it remained a dangerous and strategically vital area. That was why sizable forward camps existed here—rather than mere outposts.