In a boundless darkness, Satsuki's consciousness slowly awoke.
To call it "awakening" might not be accurate, because even if she believed herself to be awake, everything around her was still pitch black.
She could see nothing, feel nothing—there was no frame of reference for time or space at all.
What was going on?
Satsuki tried hard to recall what had happened before.
"I remember… I was cultivating that technique—Raigō: Thousand-Armed Murder…"
What happened afterward? It seemed that just as she was about to succeed, she suddenly heard a prompt.
"Hurry and leave this world, or be erased."
That familiar inorganic tone could only belong to that useless system.
"System, shouldn't you have an explanation for this?"
A square chat window appeared "before her eyes," displaying: "Well, if I said I knew nothing about this, would you believe me?"
The sender's ID was shown as: The Strongest System Across All Worlds.
"This is something we can discuss later. Right now, I need to figure out my situation." Even trapped in eternal darkness, Satsuki's tone was as calm as always.
The chat window displayed another message: "Still as bossy as ever. Then please wait a moment, Host. I'll gather some intel."
After a while, the system's chat box reappeared: "Host, I have good news and bad news. Which one would you like first?"
"You can tell me both at the same time."
Two large chat boxes immediately appeared before Satsuki.
She first looked at the one on the left. Though there was no tangible mouse or finger to scroll with, as her first-person gaze swept downward, the long content of the chat box scrolled with it. With her mental acuity, it didn't take long to fully understand everything written there. Then she quickly read through the contents of the other chat box in the same way.
With a peculiar feeling of "just as I thought," she closed the chat boxes and fell silent. At the same time, she understood the reason she had been transferred here.
It turned out that while she had been cultivating Raigō: Thousand-Armed Murder in the Naruto world, due to some "special reasons" within her soul, a mysterious transformation occurred between her and the giant she visualized. A technique that would normally only provide a moderate amplification to ordinary people, when used on her, resulted in a change far beyond imagination.
It was as if where Chiriku visualized only an ordinary bodhisattva vajra, and Hashirama Senju visualized a thousand-handed Buddha, when it came to Satsuki, the object of her visualization had already surpassed the specifications of that world.
This caused Satsuki, who was already at the ceiling of that world's power, to step further, breaking past the upper limit that world could permit. Without realizing it, she directly drew the attention of a certain "Greater Will."
At that moment, the long-dormant Strongest System Across All Worlds suddenly activated some kind of emergency measure. Not only did it autonomously issue warning messages, it even spent a vast amount of energy to produce black lightning in order to awaken Satsuki's consciousness. However, at that time her mind was at the critical stage of merging with the three-headed, six-armed giant, and she could not react to external stimuli.
Thus, according to a certain rule embedded within itself, the system forcibly activated the Time-Space Medal embedded in her consciousness. At the very moment that the Greater Will was about to lock onto Satsuki, it forcefully transferred her from that world into this one.
That was the reason she had appeared in this world.
As for why her consciousness now existed in such darkness, the system's chat window had also given an explanation.
The greatest problem in traversing all worlds lies in the mismatch of their fundamental origins. On top of that, all physical constants and derivative energy systems differ. If it had only been an ordinary living being making such a traversal, it would have been inconsequential. Since such a being carried no foreign-world energy, they would not be affected—only needing some time to adapt.
However, Satsuki was different. Having already reached the level of the Six Paths in the Naruto world, and in the end even surpassing the world's upper limits, the energy contained within her body far exceeded normal imagination. For an existence at her level, crossing into another world meant that after a successful traversal, she would inevitably have to undergo a process of readapting her energy system.
During this process, her body and energy would automatically gather information on the new world's fundamental origins, then convert her own energy into a form consistent with that world's rules.
This was the "good news" the system wanted to convey: thanks to the wise and decisive actions of the Strongest System Across All Worlds, Satsuki's life had been preserved. Now she was simply in the stage of energy adaptation, and as long as she endured this period, she would be able to continue existing in this world.
"So, you were able to control my body without my permission, right, System?"
Satsuki directly pointed out the key issue.
Although it was true her life had been saved, some questions had to be asked clearly. In fact, she already understood that the body she inhabited had originally been prepared for her by the system, so it was only to be expected that it could also control it.
"I knew it wouldn't be so easy to fool you."
Large orange text floated across the chat window, followed by another line: "That kind of emergency-triggered special mechanism isn't even something I myself understand. Just like the teleportation function last time—it only activated after you hinted at it. This time, too, with autonomous control, neither you nor I had any say. It was all carried out according to some preset program."
An existence behind the system?
Satsuki didn't pursue the question further, but she firmly engraved it into her memory.
"Let's set that topic aside for now. I'm more interested in what you mentioned as the bad news—the so-called data world. What does that mean?"
"Host, here's the situation. During your traversal, something unexpected happened to your original body. It seems to have entered a world called YGGDRASIL—a kind of full-immersion online game. Since your body had to adapt to that world's foundational settings, it automatically converted itself into data. But data alone has no meaning; it must exist on a chosen vessel. As the Strongest System Across All Worlds, it was naturally my duty to ensure your body crossed over successfully. And in order to preserve as much of your original power as possible while still fulfilling the mission of becoming the strongest across worlds, I selected the strongest template allowed by this world."
"The strongest template in a game?" Satsuki thought for a moment. "A world boss, then? And why would that be bad news?"
This time, the chat window hesitated for a long while before timidly revealing the answer.
"Because when choosing the strongest, the template I selected was a boss-type. And every game's bosses come with a fixed AI mode in the data world. In other words, beings like monsters or NPCs cannot act of their own free will…"
No free will?!
This conclusion stunned Satsuki for a moment. Only after a pause did she realize that, indeed, she had once again been tricked by the system.
No wonder she had remained in this endless darkness. No wonder she could sense that she was alive, yet could not control any senses or perceive anything. If it were merely the process of energy transformation, it would not have left her in such a state of complete detachment from the outside world.
The truth was she had been trapped inside the body of a so-called "strongest" boss, waiting for some future player-protagonists to defeat her and loot piles of equipment.
...
After a moment of silence, Satsuki "took a deep breath" and forcefully cast aside her negative emotions. Calmly, she asked: "Then is there any way for me to gain the ability to act of my own will?"
This time, the chat window appeared without delay.
"There are two possible ways. One is to let the Time-Space Medal accumulate energy on its own. Once it activates its traversal ability again, in the next world you would regain autonomous control—assuming you don't encounter another special foundational setting. This process would take about three years. The second way is to wait until this data world undergoes a major transformation, and then use my power to transfer this entire world into another real world. That way you could retain the strongest data template while also regaining self-control."
Hearing this, Satsuki secretly let out a breath of relief. "As long as there's a way, that's fine. Since the Time-Space Medal's energy accumulation will take three years, we can set that aside for now. In the second method, what do you mean by the data world undergoing a major transformation?"
"For example, server shutdown, server merges, or similar situations."
"How long until this game shuts down?"
The system's chat window responded quickly: "According to the intelligence I've gathered, this game only has one year of lifespan left."
"One year."
"So I can't do anything right now?"
The chat window appeared again.
"Not exactly. Although you cannot currently control this body, because you traversed with your physical body, you retained the Tenseigan ability from the Naruto world. You can project your consciousness outward. However, since the energy conversion is incomplete, your other abilities remain sealed. Also, this projected consciousness cannot yet interfere directly with the data world."
Consciousness projection ability?
Satsuki thought for a moment. Indeed, in the original movie, Toneri Ōtsutsuki initially projected his consciousness into puppets he controlled. Though Toneri at the time did not possess the Tenseigan, it seemed that now, having awakened the golden Tenseigan, she also possessed a similar ability.
"This works as well. At least I'll be able to know the condition and state of this body."
With that thought, Satsuki stirred her consciousness. In the midst of this dark void, a massive golden pupil suddenly appeared, its familiar six-petaled flower pattern slowly revolving in its dazzling golden radiance—it was the very Tenseigan she had awakened in the Naruto world.
Satsuki directed her consciousness toward the great eye. The instant they made contact, an infinite brilliance burst forth, dispersing the endless darkness completely. When the light faded, Satsuki found she had regained the ability to observe the outside world, for she could hear faint, incomprehensible murmurs from beyond.
As her vision gradually returned, she finally saw her current state—it was that of a colossal three-headed, six-armed giant statue over a hundred meters tall.
The statue's form was exactly the same as the giant she had visualized before. Its body ceaselessly emanated profound fluctuations and terrifying destructive energy. Centered on the giant, in a vast open field stretching to unknown distances, countless figures—whether humanoid monks in various robes or strange beings of bizarre appearance—knelt in their most devout postures, endlessly worshiping the colossal statue in the sky.
After sweeping her gaze around, Satsuki fixed her eyes on the giant statue. Instinct told her that the massive statue was her current body. Thus her consciousness flew toward it and touched the statue.
At once, her vision blurred. A strange, blasphemous Sanskrit chant sounded by her ear. Although it wasn't any language Satsuki knew, she was astonished to discover she could understand its meaning.
Though filled with countless adjectives and repetitive phrases, the core message of the chant boiled down to only a few sentences.
After unconsciously murmuring two of those sentences, a massive projection window suddenly appeared within her vision.
"What's this?" Satsuki shifted her gaze toward the upper-left corner of the window, where a small notification bar was displayed.
"Shitennō Heaven?"