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Rumble!~
As the Cursed Spirits released by Kenjaku scattered in all directions, a large amount of black lightning suddenly appeared in the sky. Amidst the lightning, a figure could vaguely be seen standing in the air, exuding an overbearing aura.
This figure was Naruto, who had rushed over after sensing the aura of Ryomen Sukuna's revival.
At this moment, the overbearing aura emanating from Naruto, accompanied by the black lightning exploding across the sky, was like divine punishment descending, instantly annihilating the Cursed Spirits released by Kenjaku.
Naruto was completely certain that Conqueror's Haki could indeed restrain Cursed Spirits!
"What is that...?"
Kenjaku looked up, gazing in astonishment at Naruto suspended in mid-air. Feeling the overbearing aura emanating from him, his face was filled with disbelief.
"Hahahaha!~"
Ryomen Sukuna, sensing the aura emanating from Naruto, couldn't help but laugh excitedly. Then he looked at him with fervent eyes and shouted,
"It's this aura! I wasn't mistaken back then!"
"Ryomen Sukuna?"
Naruto lowered his head, staring at Ryomen Sukuna with a solemn gaze for a while, then sighed softly.
"You really did successfully take over Itadori Yuji's body and fully revive."
When Naruto last met Ryomen Sukuna, he had a premonition that this day would come, but he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.
He had a good impression of Itadori Yuji and had thought he could suppress Ryomen Sukuna for a longer time, but he didn't expect him to be 'defeated' so quickly.
"This body is just a temporary vessel."
Ryomen Sukuna stared at Naruto with fervent eyes, speaking without reservation. "What I truly want is your body!"
Ryomen Sukuna's strength a thousand years ago had already reached the ceiling of this world, and he had arrived at a point where he could no longer advance. It was precisely because he realized this that he chose to die a thousand years ago; otherwise, with his methods, living longer would have posed no problem at all.
This time, upon his revival, Ryomen Sukuna originally only intended to treat everything as a game and toy with this era.
However, after coming into contact with Naruto, he, like Tengen, sensed a kind of 'transcendent' aura from him. Ryomen Sukuna's intuition was even sharper; he was convinced that if he could obtain Naruto's body, he would definitely transcend this world and step into a higher dimension!
"Is that so?"
Naruto heard Ryomen Sukuna's undisguised desire for his body and felt no surprise. Instead, he gave him a cold glance and said, "Unfortunately, I also want to drive you out of that body."
"Hahaha!~"
Upon hearing this, Ryomen Sukuna excitedly spread his arms and challenged Naruto. "Then let's fight! The victor takes all!"
Ryomen Sukuna wanted Naruto's body, but after feeling the aura Naruto had just emitted, as well as the black lightning capable of instantly annihilating a large number of the Cursed Spirits released by Kenjaku, he wanted to fight Naruto even more.
Ryomen Sukuna believed in violence, believing that the strong should stand above all else. For anything he desired, he would naturally take it by force.
If the opponent proved stronger than him, he would have no regrets in defeat. As he said, in a clash between the strong, only the victor had the right to take everything!
"That's exactly what I intended, but—"
Naruto accepted Ryomen Sukuna's challenge without hesitation.
Naruto's personality was not originally warlike, but after awakening Conqueror's Haki, his desire to challenge powerful opponents had begun to grow stronger and stronger. It was not merely a craving for strength; whenever he faced powerful individuals, he always felt an irresistible urge to fight, even to kill. And this desire would only intensify as his Conqueror's Haki matured.
However, Naruto's inherent personality prevented him from reaching the point where he would disregard everything simply to fight a strong opponent. So, after accepting Ryomen Sukuna's challenge, Naruto looked at Kenjaku beside him, pointed at him, and said in a deep voice, "Our battle will have to wait until I take care of him first!"
Upon hearing this, Ryomen Sukuna turned his gaze toward Kenjaku beside him, a playful smile appearing on his face. That smile clearly conveyed to Kenjaku that if Naruto made a move against him now, he would simply stand by and watch.
As for the favor he owed Kenjaku, once Kenjaku died, he would either kill Naruto to avenge him or be killed by Naruto and accompany Kenjaku in death. There would be no third option.
"Kill me? Heh heh!~"
Kenjaku instantly understood Ryomen Sukuna's attitude after seeing his smile. He chuckled indifferently, then looked at Naruto and said with a smile, "How heartless. But wanting to kill me won't be that easy!~"
With that, he suddenly clapped his hands together, and a huge black hole appeared out of nowhere beneath his feet. Then he said to Naruto and Ryomen Sukuna,
"The arrival of the golden age of Jujutsu is already inevitable, and no one can stop it. And your battle will unfold upon the stage I have prepared for you."
Finally, Kenjaku's figure slowly sank into the black hole beneath his feet. Looking at Naruto with a smirk on his lips, he said, "I hope that when we meet again, you are still yourself—farewell, my son!"
Boom!~
Naruto reacted immediately the moment Kenjaku summoned the black hole and launched an attack at him, but he was still a step too late. His punch slammed into the ground where Kenjaku had been standing.
"Hahahaha!~"
Ryomen Sukuna burst into laughter after seeing Kenjaku escape right under Naruto's nose. Then, his aura erupted as he said to Naruto, "Well then, it's our turn—"
Buzz!~
Before Ryomen Sukuna could finish speaking, a massive pitch-black barrier suddenly descended from the sky, quickly enveloping an area spanning dozens of kilometers around them. Immediately afterward, a piece of information was forcibly transmitted into both of their minds.
The content of the information detailed the rules of the grand game called the "Culling Game," which Kenjaku had previously mentioned to Ryomen Sukuna.
The so-called Culling Game was a meticulously planned battle royale orchestrated by Kenjaku. Its rules included mandatory participation, point-based killing, and the right to modify rules, among many other mechanisms.
There were a total of eight core rules:
Rule One: Players must declare their participation in the game at any barrier within 19 days of their technique awakening.
Rule Two: If Rule One is violated, the player's technique will be stripped away.
Rule Three: Non-players become players the moment they intrude into a barrier and are considered to have declared participation in the Culling Game.
Rule Four: Players earn game points by ending the lives of other players.
Rule Five: Points are assigned by the GM according to the player's value. In principle, Jujutsu Sorcerers are worth 5 points, while non-Jujutsu Sorcerers are worth 1 point.
Rule Six: Players can spend 100 points, excluding their own, to gain the right to negotiate with the GM and add a rule to the Culling Game.
Rule Seven: The GM must approve the addition of a rule unless that rule would severely impact the long-term operation of the game.
Rule Eight: If a player's points do not change within 19 days of acquiring points, that player's technique will be stripped away.
That was all.
In the rules of the Culling Game, 'players' referred to all participants. Players were divided into 'initial players' and 'challenger players.'
Among them, 'initial players' referred to the strong individuals meticulously selected by Kenjaku from various eras over the past thousand years, as well as ordinary humans from this era who had been secretly modified by him.
Those strong individuals from past eras who had signed contracts with Kenjaku would be reborn within the 'incarnated bodies' prepared for them after the Culling Game began, and would then battle within the game barriers. As for the ordinary humans secretly modified by Kenjaku, they would be forcibly transformed from non-Jujutsu Sorcerers into Jujutsu Sorcerers after the barriers unfolded, and would then also fight within the barriers.
These people were the 'initial players' of the Culling Game.
'Challenger players' referred to 'non-initial players' who intentionally or unintentionally entered the game arenas—the barriers. Regardless of their willingness, the moment they entered a Culling Game barrier, they would automatically gain player status and be forcibly dragged into the game.
Simply put, the game known as the 'Culling Game' was a massive killing game created by Kenjaku in order to generate immense fear.
Kenjaku prepared ten barriers for the Culling Game. The players who entered the game were required to obey the rules and kill one another. Players who violated the rules would have their techniques forcibly stripped through brain modification, and the final fate awaiting those who lost their techniques was self-evident.
Because Kenjaku established strict rules within the barriers, he himself also bore a considerable degree of binding. Civilians who were originally inside the barriers were granted one chance to leave, and Kenjaku was obligated to escort any civilians unwilling to participate in the Culling Game outside the barriers.
"Hahahaha!~"
Ryomen Sukuna burst into laughter after processing the information flooding into his mind. Then he looked at Naruto and said
, "A battle royale game between Jujutsu Sorcerers... I didn't expect Kenjaku to actually come up with something this interesting."
After speaking, he looked at Naruto again and said, "Kid, this game is quite entertaining. Before our battle, let's use it as a warm-up."
Kenjaku hadn't lied. Ryomen Sukuna truly sensed the aura of an acquaintance within this barrier, and it belonged to a very troublesome individual. To prevent that person from interfering when he and Naruto finally clashed, Ryomen Sukuna decided to deal with that 'acquaintance' first.
Although Naruto had not yet fully grasped every aspect of the Culling Game, he realized just how dangerous and troublesome it was. If left unchecked, it could truly plunge the world into chaos. So, he decided to accept Ryomen Sukuna's proposal, use the game itself as a warm-up, and then settle things with him afterward.
Naruto watched Ryomen Sukuna leave, then continued organizing the Culling Game information in his mind.
The mechanism of the Culling Game was simple: kill for points.
Compared to Jujutsu Sorcerer players who were worth more points, non-Jujutsu Sorcerer players with lower point values would naturally become easier targets. After all, the risk and difficulty involved in killing non-sorcerers was extremely low. Therefore, during the early stages of the game, many Jujutsu Sorcerers would likely massacre non-Jujutsu Sorcerers to quickly accumulate points.
And those non-Jujutsu Sorcerers being slaughtered were most likely either 'initial players' who violated Rule One or 'challenger players' who had unintentionally wandered into the barriers.
After a long while, once Naruto had fully processed all the rules of the Culling Game, he initially believed that Rule Six was the key to breaking the game.
But he quickly realized that Rule Seven effectively restricted the potential of Rule Six.
Because the most important principle of the Culling Game was that it could not affect the game's 'long-term operation,' even if someone accumulated enough points, they could not create a rule such as 'the game ends once a certain condition is fulfilled.' At most, they could only establish rules such as 'a specific player may leave the game once a certain condition is met.'
And the cost of adding a new rule was 100 points, meaning at least twenty Jujutsu Sorcerers or one hundred non-Jujutsu Sorcerers would have to be killed.
Rules Six and Seven essentially meant that escaping the barriers required slaughtering others, while Rule Eight completely sealed off the possibility of passive survival.
Since techniques would be stripped away if a player's points did not change for nineteen days, no player could simply choose the path of "I won't kill others, and I won't let others kill me." Within the Culling Game, players could only kill or be killed. There was no third option.
However, Naruto's greatest concern was this: if some lunatic became addicted to the killing game and eventually gained enough points to add a rule such as "No player may withdraw from the game," then ending the Culling Game would become even more difficult.
Naruto was certain there would definitely be people with such twisted thoughts, perhaps more than one.
"The Culling Game is really a headache!"
Naruto rubbed his forehead with a troubled expression, then muttered to himself, "So, the most effective way to end this game is to directly eliminate that guy—"
However, Naruto had now been forcibly designated as a player. If he wanted to leave the barrier, he would first need to obtain enough points.
Ding-a-ling!~
At that moment, Naruto's phone suddenly rang.
Naruto took out his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and immediately answered the call.
"Hello, Big Sis—what did you say?!"
The call was from Yuki Tsukumo. She informed Naruto that Kenjaku had publicly exposed the existence of Sorcery, Jujutsu Sorcerers, and Cursed Spirits to governments around the world. And after learning about the existence of Cursed Energy, those governments had dispatched military convoys, preparing to enter the barriers and interfere with the Culling Game.
However, those soldiers were actually sacrifices prepared by Kenjaku to accelerate the game. When large numbers of ordinary people died, they released unimaginably vast amounts of Cursed Energy. And if all that Cursed Energy were concentrated and unleashed in one place, it could trigger a catastrophe beyond imagination.
Now, the situation had become even more troublesome.