Embedded Files
"....What are you reading?"
Blake asked dully
Ayame, the owner of the sideroad inn, yelped from the counter, the book in her hand inadvertently dropped to the ground with a dull thud with it's cover laid bare, allowing the secret cat-faunus to get a glimpse at the title
"......"
"Seriously, 'Ninja of love'?" She asked incredulously "You're reading this trash in the middle of your shift?"
"Trash is trash, regardless of the genre" The yukata-wearing maid shook her head, turning around and began walking away
"Hey, it's not trash!" Ayame shy away from the other girl's intense glare "....It's adult literacy"
"Trash is trash, regardless of the genre" The yukata-wearing maid shook her head, turning around and began walking away
"But this is the best one yet! Okay hear me out-"
Ayame has decided that if she can't prove this masterpiece isn't trash, she will make it damn sure look like good trash, the best trash there is
"The protagonist is Yami, a desolate child from the demon Kage clan, a clan known famously for their shadow assassination technique, but was unfortunately wiped out in a conflict with humanity. She has to witness both her parents being executed, her house burned, and her friends killed at a young age and was sold as a slave afterward"
Blake stopped dead in her track,
her eyes glinted dangerously
"This, of course, lead to Yami developing a deep hatred for human, which is made worse by the fact that she is helpless in power as a slave. Her life has been hell on that moment onward, until the girl has lost all will to live, her conscience no more than that of an animal"
Unknown to Ayame, Blake is resisting the urge to slit the hidden dagger in her sleeve against the old woman's throat. She couldn't help but feel threatened at the seeming coincidental resemblance between her and Yami
'No need to blow my cover, it's just a coincidence'
"Then one day, a masked individual freed her when she was being paraded through the market. He rekindled her need for vengeance and mysteriously left after that, just like the sage you'd often her in children folklore"
The mysterious image of that stranger wearing a Tengu mask crossed Blake's mind
He couldn't have been a wise sage, could he? Sages are people who have trained their mind to the zenith of human limit and achieve true understanding of the world, a person whose wisdom are endless by nature'
Even if he is one, would such a wise person like Tengu-sama ever pushed her on the path of hatred?
She couldn't help but feel there's something more to this individual than he showed her
"But, twisted in sanity and warped by hatred, the line of friend and foe began to blur to the girl. Drenched in blood of the innocent and the screams of her nightmare haunting her every second, Yami began to lose grip on reality and her soul was consumed by the Shadow inside her"
The Faunus was silent
Being consumed by one's demon as she slain demons. Bathing in the blood of others make her no more a killer with purpose than a punisher
...She personally don't care, Blake Belladonna have nothing to lose anyway
"And in this chapter, it is up to the mysterious sage to rescue her. He crossed mountains, traversed desert, following the trail of blood and chaos the demon caused, until they met each other and resulted in a clash of ideals and power"
"And..what happened next?"
In the end, does the demon win with it's violence, or the sage with his reasons?
Ayame smirked
"After an intense section of "fighting", He freed the demon inside her heart by making her reach an orgasm. At that moment, Yami realized she has been in love with her mysterious savior all this time! THEN THEY HAVE A LOT OF SEX AFTERWARD"
"...."
"Blake, something wrong?"
The book was promptly thrown into the fire under the stove
Her boss's agonized scream came just moments later
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"Umm...(Y/n)?"
"What is it?"
"Are we lost?" Ren asked
I fixed him with a look "And why would you think that?"
"Well, it's just my intuition but I clearly remembered seeing that tree last time, and the time before that" He added "Forgive me, but I couldn't help but feel like we are wandering aimlessly without a destination in mind"
I was silent, sweats pouring down my forehead
'Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....crap'
I was hoping they won't notice it
Quickly calming myself, I decided to distract the children in order to stop them from embarrassing me
"No, we are not lost, merely on a journey" My voice came out cool and collected "The journey of life, that is"
"What?"
I decided to mess with the boy a little bit, considering how he'd been so tense around me until now
"In the ancient time, Sankrit monks have invented, or rather taught upon other Buddhist the way of life" I closed my eye, intentionally switching to a sage-like voice to the children
"To imprint their mantra of the self-less, that the idea of individual existence is in fact false. denying the credibility of physicalism and instead focus on the mind, the monks create something called the Samsara"
Both Nora and Ren paid their undivided attention to me
I couldn't help but cackle inside
Children, so easily distracted
"To one, it is a concept, to another, it is the way of life, but to a select few, they believed it to be the way of the universe. The Samsara roughly translates to either "the cycle of existence", "endless rebirth", or "wheel of suffering", which represented each faction's viewpoint in such an ideology"
"it is the concept that has no beginning nor end, a state of mundane existence. Unsatisfactory and painful, perpetuated and eternalized by ignorance, desire and karma, this wheel is divided into six different realm, but all of them is considered equal suffering by some of the practitioner"
The Deva Path. Bliss
The Asura Path. Malevolence
The Human Path. Passion
The Animal Path. Instinct
The Preta Path. Desire
The Naraka Path. Hatred
Though different in nature, each of these paths all relied upon their karma, either stacking up or dwindling them down in exchange for the severity of one's torment, forever intertwining them to the mortal world of materialism
You could say each path has their own pain, eh?
"Why is it suffering if one can be rebirthed infinitely?" Nora asked
'You go and ask Subaru that, girl'
"Hmm, that's because they believed such things to be impure. To be tossed from one life to the next with no memory of who you are - to wander between the border of life and death, suffering from the torment as compensation for the karma you've lost - such things are unforgivable to a person who'd cultivate the mantra of their creed for a lifetime"
"So they are not lost, but at the same time they are lost" Ren's eyes narrowed "I can understand what (Y/n) meant now"
Did he intentionally led them astray so he could impart this lesson on them?
"How do they escaped the cycle of rebirth?" Ren was once again curious
"By attaining a higher form, a higher realm of existence: The Nirvana, a state of blankness and liberation from one's earthly desires, one will finally become one with the world and get put out of the cycle's six path, similar to Buddha and his Arhat"
"What are you trying to tell us?"
"That those who wander...are not necessarily lost" I stepped forward, the dry leaves crunching underneath my sandals "As long as you find a way that is"
'I'm completely lost'
"Will you go left, where nothing is right, or to the right, where nothing is left?"
'Because I can't even differentiate directions. Help me'
"....Which path will you choose?"
'Which path do you think get us out of this place?'
Ren looked back down at his hand, while Nora seemed troubled
What (Y/n) said is enlightening to say the least, at the same time, it also struck a chord inside their heart
That's right, ever since the Kuroyori incident, both of them have been lost. Home lost, lives taken, families killed in the boy's case. The total annihilation of such a settlement like that left a hollow feeling inside them, the feeling of empty lost
A phantom pain
And now they's travelling together with (Y/n), an enigmatic, yet skilled and powerful swordsman capable of slaying fucking demons, and yet they have not found their purpose. They're useless, weak, and overall is just a burden to him
What is their path?
"Forward" His voice trembled "I will not let destiny have it's way with me, I will carve my own way into this world. I will get stronger to protect those who I treasured, because I will not lose them because of my weakness again"
He looked at the two of them
"I...thank you for pointing me to the right direction, (Y/n)-sama. I don't know what I'd have done without your guidance"
(Y/n) nodded his head in understanding
'So Ren think the path forward will let us out of here, huh?'
He really didn't understand anything, but he's going to pretend to
No need to embarrass himself further
Ding!
Skill: [Silver Tongue] has been unlocked as a result of repeated action
[Silver Tongue]: Bullshittery. Scam. Deception. Whatever you call it, words can be incredibly powerful weapons if done right. Mess with the mind of your enemies and manipulate their motives, your charisma will be increased whenever this skill is active
'I'm going to scam a shit ton of people with this'
Clueless as to the children's awe of him, the dense (Y/n) decided with determination
'But we're still lost though....'
'Oh well, if I walk long enough then I'll arrive at the intended destination...eventually'
Hah...
The System only shook it's non-existent head
Such a person is talking about Samsara...How ironic
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A few minutes later, and we seem to have gotten to the right track
Mostly
Schnee Territory, 70km ahead
The distance may be large, but it would only amount to two day of sprint-walking. The fact that we know where we are is already a huge delight to me
My nose scrunched up
....Wait, this smell, someone just passed away here
Among the wild blade of grass on the sidestreet, half-buried beneath the soil, was a dead body of a woman. Her messy black hair sprayed to the side, covering the dull irises in the woman's eyes
My eyes shone. I walked to the fallen corpse and sat down to examine it up close. I took a slight sniff, before slapping her face several time to make sure she isn't just pranking me
Hm. She's really...expired. I feel guilty for slapping a corpse now
The white stain at her nether region told me the woman was raped while having the life choked out of her, possible death to intoxication. The body is still fresh, which points out the fact that she was killed only last night, the handprint on her neck reveals the culprit to be a man, and her position told me she was tied from behind at the time of her death
Conclusion, this is a case of kinky foreplay gone wrong
"Alright, kids. Wanna see a dead body?"
The two children look close to emptying their breakfast's content on my back
"I was just joking" A joke I'm definitely going to hell for
That aside, this doesn't change the fact that I'm going to loot the shit out of her
[Necrophilia] activated!
Ding!
You have found [3,000 Lien]
You have found [Condom]: One time use. +10 Armor, grant protection against low-level curse
You have found [Jade Pin]: +2 Lockpicking
Good, the batch of loot this time is more advanced than the one I found at the village. The condom is a defense item. The Jade Pin is a situational one, nonetheless useful if used correctly
I double checked the item's description, finding something odd about them.
The condom protect me against curse? I thought industrial rubber doesn't have any magic resistance property
It protects you against the curse of child support, but the effect will be negated if one have the blessing of the deity [Inari]
My eyes narrowed in thought
So, a blessing from a god can boost one's physical and magical abilities, as well as grant them different perk related to the thing they're related for?
In this case since Inari is like the Hera of Shinto aka he/she represented the aspect of fertility, so praying to he/she will passively increased their follower's reproductive efficiency?
Is it a progress by faith, one made with sincerity, or the amount of offering will increase the blessing's strength? Does a blessing from a God often demands a live sacrifice from their subjects? Does it involves doing a personal favor and complete a quest for them?
I theorized
Religiously, these gods could be real or they could just be fictional deities created by the System for a diverse style of gameplay, seeing as having multiple gods from the Shinto religion would mean my understanding about this world will be challenged once more
Nevertheless, it seems that this can be used to my advantage
Say, if I managed to gain the blessing from the Shinto's Seven God of Fortune, my luck would rise by leaps and bound, so I won't have to fear a hard life anymore
Or if I want to increase my combat prowess, I could answer to one that would go along with my Breath style. The Ryujin god of Dragons and Tsukoyomi himself would be a nice choice. Even Raijin and Fujin would still be compatible with my element
But since this is a Game, there might be limitation to the blessing system, whether it's regarding the numbers of blessing I'm allowed to take or the amount of God I'm permitted to follow
hell, maybe worshiping certain gods may lead to Karma restrictions. Then there's the fact that I will have to do their bidding since I would technically be their servant
Maybe I should leave this idea to another day
I am impressed how you manage to deduce so much just from a condom picked from a dead woman's body
'The human mind is an amalgam of bizarre logical operation that an AI like you could never hope to understand' I replied
Even if it doesn't have one, I could practically the insulted look in the System's face
But..speaking about combat, it's obvious I need to get strong as fast as possible, either that or do something that might improve my chance of surviving against more formidable foe in the future
With Neo, who mainly relies on her illusion to trick and confuse her opponents, I exploited the HUD to my advantage and render her vision-obstructing skill useless, plus the fact that I used a gun to disable her mobility add on to my victory
But there's no telling what might happen to other opponents specialized in combat. Say, Qrow Branwen, Yang Xiao Long, and Winter Schnee - who could easily slice apart bullets and kick my ass to cloud nine. I don't even know if [Dematerialization] might work on them since their levels must be higher than me
As a high-tier player, Ainz Ooal Gown is downright immune to time-stop and instant death attacks, which proved that relying too much on a single skill has their own risks. My best bet would be improving on the Breath style taught to me and try to achieve Sage Mode as early as possible, thus improving my stamina and strength once learned
'Hmm, breath huh?' I looked at the looted jade pin on my hand with ponder
A faint idea surfaced in my mind
'If I remember right, there's a similar power in JoJo that involves breathing and sages...' My eyes appeared thoughtful 'The Hamon'
'From what people in the show has demonstrated, one could increase their weapon's versatility as well as their overall strength to a whole other level when infused with Hamon. If this were to be combined with [Bonding] and [Tracing].....'
'Then the replica of the weapons I traced will be much more powerful than before, especially if used alongside Overdrive'
I know what I'm going to train next
Since Hamon is just a variant to the normal Breathing I'd practiced, it would take far less time to learn and provide an adequate power-up for me. The fact that they're effective against demons is just the icing on the cake
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Author's Note:
'you could have done more than that'
'Being ranked in the top 10 isn't that hard'
'Back in our days we study more than you ever could imagine'
are you even my parents?
......
Anyway, due to mental degradation and some personal things, I'm sorry if this chapter seems to be rushed or have any errors to it. My editor is out, so I'm doing the re-reading by myself
Editor-kun, if you're reading this know that I miss you. Please come back soon
With that said, this chapter introduced quite a few "random" things. Some might call it an info dump garbage and i would have agreed with them. The only defense I have is that things will make sense later on..hopefully
But then again, my stories usually don't make sense to most people, do they?
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Well, here's a little challenge
Which Shinto god do you think (Y/n) will meet first on his journey?
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