After the dense chain of explosions.
Inside the sealed underground space, severed limbs and shattered remains littered the ground.
Only half of Terra's body was left, lying there, his face frozen in terror.
"Why… am I still not dead, even like this?"
With injuries like these, anyone else would have long since died. Yet he was still alive.
He didn't remember ever having such an ability.
His gaze finally shifted to the two white figures ahead.
Within the confined space, two snow-white fish drifted leisurely through the air, as if the room itself had turned into a river they lived in.
"Fish Swimming in a Locked Room. As long as the sealed room where it exists remains intact, the people inside won't die—
they won't even feel pain."
Hyuga Arin's calm voice echoed through the space.
Terra's eyes rolled as he looked in Hyuga Arin's direction.
Both of Hyuga Arin's legs and his remaining arm were gone, and most of his body was covered in scorched wounds. He sat slumped against the wall, completely powerless.
One look was enough to tell—he, too, was on the brink of death, surviving only because of Fish Swimming in a Locked Room.
"Isn't this ability cheating?" Terra said, disbelief written all over his face.
If this skill were used, wouldn't one be immortal?
Could chakra really achieve something like this? He had never heard of such a ninTechnique.
"This ability wasn't supposed to work like this in the first place. This game shows absolutely no respect for the original source," Hyuga Arin said flatly.
If he remembered correctly, in the original work, it was only those bitten by the Nen fish who wouldn't die immediately.
But here, it had turned into: as long as the Nen fish existed in a sealed room, no one inside could die.
The difference was enormous.
What Hyuga Arin had once dismissed as a useless ability—looking at its current effect, calling it a god-tier skill wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Of course, the conditions for activating it were rather strict.
[Fish Swimming in a Locked Room (Lv.3)
EXP: (0/400)
Traits: (None)]
His original plan really did require the power of Fish Swimming in a Locked Room.
But the skill turned out to be far stronger than he had anticipated—and far more convenient for his actions.
Without a mutual-destruction method, he couldn't think of any way to drag the opponent into the trap.
All the traps outside were just a smokescreen.
The real trap was here—and he himself was the bait that lured Terra down.
"What are you talking about?" Terra couldn't understand Hyuga Arin's words. He spoke calmly, "I just want to know when I'll die."
"Just a player's review of the game. You don't need to understand it," Hyuga Arin chuckled softly, looking at Terra's miserable state.
"And there's no need for you to think about dying. You'll stay like this forever."
Of course, that was a lie.
The Nen fish's existence required two conditions.
First: a sealed room. Once that condition failed, the Nen fish would die and disappear.
Second: Nen—now replaced by Hyuga Arin's chakra.
He strongly suspected that the change in the Nen fish's ability had a lot to do with his chakra, but he couldn't find any evidence.
At present, both the Nen fish and the condition of the two men were being sustained by Hyuga Arin's chakra.
Once his chakra was completely exhausted, the Nen fish would disappear—
—and neither of them would be able to maintain their lives.
Terra's eyes trembled as he stared at the white fish drifting in the air. He didn't believe Hyuga Arin's words, yet he couldn't help but think.
If his guess was right, then as long as those two fish were destroyed, he would die.
Living forever in this state was a form of torture to him.
Unfortunately, both of his arms had been blown off. Unable to use ninTechnique, he had no way to deal with the Nen fish.
He couldn't even stand—he could only lie there.
"At least you'll stay here with me. That's not so bad," Terra said, a malicious grin spreading across his face.
"That's not necessarily true," Hyuga Arin chuckled.
The wounds and burn marks on his body began to fade at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The arm he had lost rapidly regrew. In the blink of an eye, Hyuga Arin's once-mangled body was completely restored—
even his clothes were clean again, as if they had just been washed.
That was a bit excessive.
Hyuga Arin clenched his fist, walked up to Terra, and stepped on his chest.
"So—what do you think now?"
After leveling up, one's body would be restored to its optimal state.
Originally, Hyuga Arin wasn't sure whether severe bodily damage would affect that, so he had prepared a backup:
[Consumable: Breath of the Archangel SS-3]
But this level-up recovery was even more powerful than he had imagined.
Terra stared blankly at Hyuga Arin. That arm—he had personally chopped it off.
Yet now it was completely intact.
An ability that restored the body in an instant like this…
"Are you a god?"
A ninja could never do something like this.
Anyone who could surpass the limits of ninjas was worthy of being called a god.
"God or not, let's put that aside," Hyuga Arin said, looking down at Terra.
"What I'm curious about is how you managed to find me."
The way Terra tracked him down was absurd.
Hyuga Arin had crossed who knew how many cities, yet the other party still found him.
He refused to believe it was just ninTechnique—there had to be something he didn't know.
And deep down, he already had some suspicions.
Terra snorted. "You really want to know? Then why should I tell you?"
At this point, whether he lived or died no longer mattered.
Hyuga Arin said indifferently, "We have plenty of time to talk. I'm not in a hurry at all.
In the end, you'll tell me."
He lowered his foot, took out a kunai, and threw it straight into Terra's body.
The kunai pierced through him, destroying his lungs.
Terra tilted his head slightly, looking at the kunai that had gone through his chest.
His ability to breathe began to fade.
Fish Swimming in a Locked Room ensured he wouldn't die and wouldn't feel pain—
but that didn't mean he couldn't feel suffocation.
"Pain can be forcibly endured with willpower," Hyuga Arin said calmly.
"But what about the feeling of suffocating? I wonder how long you can bear it."
"And even though you won't die or feel pain, that doesn't mean you won't feel hunger.
Some things are far more painful than pain itself."
As he spoke, his voice grew softer and softer, but the threat in his words was unmistakable.
Terra opened his mouth, trying to say something—but without the ability to breathe, no sound came out.
Hyuga Arin had already anticipated this.
A gentle green glow lit up his hands.
He was a medical ninja, after all.
Temporarily repairing damaged lungs was no problem for him.
The operation was quickly completed, and Terra finally exhaled softly.
"Now you can speak," Hyuga Arin said, flicking the blood off the kunai.
Terra spat out a thick wad of phlegm like an arrow.
Fortunately, Hyuga Arin reacted fast enough and tilted his head to dodge it.
"If you want to know—wait for the next life."
He bit down hard, severing his own tongue and cutting off any possibility of speaking.
Hyuga Arin shook his head.
"I told you—we have plenty of time. Why are you in such a hurry?"
The interrogation continued.
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