Darkness wasn't empty. It was structured. In the final moments of my past life as a Lead Systems Architect, I saw the world as a cascade of data. Code errors, unoptimized interfaces, redundant loops—these were my elements. Then came the critical failure. A flash, systemic noise, and... silence.
When I opened my eyes, reality hit me with the smell of old dust, damp wood, and something sickeningly sweet, like cheap soybean oil. I lay on a hard floor, my fingers clawing at the floorboards. Gravity felt too heavy, as if someone had cranked the physics settings to maximum.
Above my head, floating directly in my retina, was a translucent window. It didn't belong to this world. It was too... clean.
[SYSTEM: EVOLUTION MARKET — VERSION 0.1a] New Host Detected: Kaien Akimichi. Biological Audit: Checking "Clan — Technical Base" compatibility. WARNING! CRITICAL COMPATIBILITY ERROR.
I struggled to sit up, propping myself on my elbows. My arms weren't thin. They were the arms of a seven-year-old, but beneath the skin, the muscle relief was clearly visible—dry, dense, and functional. Not a single gram of the excess fat that was the "calling card" of my new clan. In my old world, this would be called the peak of physical fitness. Here, it was a death sentence.
I walked over to a dusty mirror. A boy with a hard, unchildlike gaze and sharp cheekbones stared back. I felt my stomach—the abdominal muscles were hard, like biological armor.
[AKIMICHI CLAN TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS] Base Doctrine: Conversion of lipid reserves (fat) into chakra energy for expansion techniques. Current Host Status: Body fat percentage < 3.5% (Athletic type). Forecast: Using any clan technique (Tank, Partial Expansion) will require an instant energy burst. Due to the lack of a "fat depot," the system will immediately burn muscle glycogen and internal organ tissue. STATUS: LIFE-THREATENING. Verdict: Activating Akimichi techniques will cause instant myocardial overheating and tissue necrosis. Cardiac arrest within 60–120 seconds of combat initiation.
"Ironic," I whispered, the dry sound echoing in the empty room. "I'm an Akimichi who physically cannot be an Akimichi. The clan is a massive, clunky steam engine, burning tons of coal-fat for a single strike. And I'm a high-revving engine that was accidentally filled with fuel oil instead of rocket propellant."
I tried to concentrate my chakra using fragments of this body's memory. A sharp, stabbing pain immediately flared in my chest, as if a red-hot needle had been driven into my heart. The System instantly flashed a warning in red.
[WARNING]: Attempt to access clan algorithms blocked by safety protocol. Comment: You will either die as a "defective" specimen or rewrite the rules of this game.
"Rewrite the rules... That's exactly what I was paid for in my past life," I straightened up, ignoring the lingering pain.
I looked around my room. It was furnished simply, almost ascetically. On the table lay blueprints of standard shinobi gear. My engineer's eye immediately caught the errors: wrong center of gravity in the kunai, lack of ergonomics in the pouch mounts, primitive aerodynamics. The shinobi world relied on tradition, not efficiency. It was "legacy code" that no one dared to update.
"System, you mentioned a 'Market.' What do you have for 'defective' engineers?"
[SYSTEM MARKET: RECOMMENDED] Item: Unique Skill [GLUTTONY]. Price: 500 BP (Blood Points). Description: Radical metabolic restructuring. Activates the "Material Deconstruction" function. Allows the absorption of biological resources through tactile contact, bypassing standard digestion.
I froze, reading the details. This wasn't just an appetite; it was an utilization tool.
Deconstruction (100%): Upon palm contact, the target's flesh dissolves into pure energy and biomaterial, absorbed directly into Kaien's body. The process is silent and waste-free.
Energy Synthesis: Energy is stored directly in muscle fibers, increasing their density and chakra conductivity. Normal food is now just social camouflage.
Permanent Buffs (90-100%): A chance to receive micro-bonuses to stats (bone density, sensory sharpness) from every deconstruction.
Skill Extraction (5%): A chance to copy an active skill from the absorbed object.
[HIDDEN PROTOCOL: KINSHIP RECOMBINATION]: When absorbing shinobi of your own species, data extraction efficiency increases to 40%. Allows for the extraction of Kekkei Genkai "source code."
A chill ran down my spine. The System wasn't just offering survival. It was offering me the top of the food chain. And it didn't care about morality, ethics, or village laws.
"500 points..." I tapped my fingers thoughtfully on the table. "That's a lot. Defeating a kid on the training ground will yield pennies. I need something serious. I need meat that flows with real power."
I walked to the table and picked up a standard kunai. A heavy, unbalanced piece of iron. In my hands, it felt like a mockery of engineering. I took out a file and a whetstone. If I wanted to survive in a world where my own body tried to kill me with every attempt to use family techniques, I needed the perfect weapon. And a perfect plan.
Tomorrow, Choza would be at the training ground. My good-natured cousin, the "hope of the clan." He was the perfect example of a "proper" Akimichi. My victory over him wouldn't just bring me my first points; it would be my statement.
I wasn't going to be Hokage. I wasn't going to save this rotten world. My goal was far more ambitious: I wanted to conduct a full audit of this reality, optimize my body to the level of a god, and prove that density always beats volume.
[SYSTEM]: Dopamine levels rising. Comment: Looks like you've finally stopped whining about "dead pixels" and decided to get to work. Try not to die on your first mission, "Engineer." Don't ruin my statistics.
"Don't count on it," I replied to the void.
The path of the "Flesh God" began here. Tomorrow, Choza would learn what happens when a "kernel error" turns out to be stronger than the system itself.