Warning! Performance Monitor Alert!
Processor Usage: 98% — CriticalMemory: 2.9 / 4.0 GB — Low RemainingDisk Activity: 89%
The hardware was screaming.
What's going on? Why am I lagging?
Hiroki's pupils shrank. He immediately withdrew into his Consciousness Space and forcefully opened the Task Manager.
After countless battles, he rarely produced useless emotional fluctuations during combat—but the moment the interface appeared, the problem became obvious.
Too many threads.
It wasn't a memory shortage.
It was thread overload.
The instant the battle began, he had followed the Third Hokage's orders and initiated data-transfer operations on every unconscious non-Konoha ninja on the field.
Each target contained more than a dozen Ninjutsu files.Each file required independent scanning, parsing, verification, and copying.
That meant dozens—no, hundreds—of active threads running simultaneously.
It was like forcing an outdated, single-core processor to manage a swarm of processes at once. The CPU was frantically jumping between tasks, and the cost of constant context switching was devouring nearly all available performance.
A thread—simply put—was like a chef cooking multiple dishes at the same time.
Imagine preparing three meals at once:
You're stir-frying Dish A.
Suddenly, Dish B's soup is about to boil over.
You have to pause Dish A, remember exactly where you stopped, rush over to Dish B, handle the crisis, recall Dish B's state, then run back to Dish A and resume from the exact point you left off.
That entire back-and-forth process—
That was context switching.
And Hiroki was doing this dozens of times per second, while simultaneously trying to run a high-load combat program against a Kage-level opponent.
His hardware had finally reached its limit.
"I need to optimize the threads."
The instincts of a programmer completely overrode the instincts of a shinobi.
Hiroki's consciousness raced across the task list.
Earth Release.Water Release.Substitution Technique.Basic weapon techniques.
Cancel them all.
Either he already knew them, they lacked value, or they didn't even involve chakra nature transformation.
Only rare, high-value assets were worth keeping.
Pakura's Scorch Release—a true Bloodline Limit formed by the fusion of Fire and Wind chakra, complete with a fully integrated system composed of twenty-one interdependent files.
And Sasori's Human Puppet Technique—
The core framework of a forbidden art capable of converting a living human into a puppet while retaining their original abilities.
Wait.
Hiroki paused for half a beat, staring at Sasori's data.
He already has this much knowledge at this stage?
No time.
Processing had to happen immediately.
In an instant, all copy operations—except for Pakura and Sasori—were forcibly terminated and replaced with a far simpler, low-consumption command:
Delete.
The deletions completed almost instantly, likely because the execution burden fell on the targets' own systems.
CPU usage plummeted.
Control flooded back into Hiroki's body like a returning tide. The stiffness vanished.
But it still wasn't enough.
To face a Kage-level opponent, he needed more processing power.
"Shadow Clone."
Bang.
Without forming hand seals, a burst of white smoke erupted beside him. A Shadow Clone identical to Hiroki appeared instantly.
He didn't summon more.
Everyone knew that a single Shadow Clone consumed nearly half the original body's chakra. Spread the chakra too thin, and the clone became useless; give it too much, and the original body would collapse.
In this situation, one clone was optimal.
Single-core—upgraded to dual-core.
"You," Hiroki commanded calmly, "handle the remaining delete tasks. Sort the copied Ninjutsu, purge redundancies, and monitor system performance. Alert me if anything spikes."
"If needed," he added, "assist with Ninjutsu execution."
"Understood."
The Shadow Clone nodded, already shifting its attention toward the massive golden sphere enclosing Rasa.
At last, Hiroki's computing resources were fully freed.
And in that same brief window—
Rasa's next attack descended.
Gold sand surged violently, converging midair and forming a colossal, grotesque hand that blotted out the sky before slamming downward.
"Now—it's my turn."
A sharp glint flashed through Hiroki's eyes.
Fire Release: Flame Bullet!
A massive fireball roared forward, but when it struck the golden palm, it only managed to slow it briefly before being crushed downward by sheer mass.
Not enough.
Then composite techniques it is.
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!
Hiroki inhaled deeply. Violent airflow erupted from his lungs, sweeping up the lingering flames and transforming them into a raging firestorm.
A blazing tornado smashed straight into the descending golden hand.
BOOM—!!!
This time, the structure failed.
Part of the hand shattered back into airborne gold sand, while the rest melted and poured downward as molten metal.
Hiroki didn't hesitate.
Chakra exploded beneath his feet as he vaulted upward, stepping across unstable currents of gold sand and finally breaking through the blockade.
He reached the top of the golden sphere.
Tch—so troublesome.
Rasa's defense was suffocatingly solid.
Fire and Wind together could break through his attacks, but the chakra cost was enormous—and unsustainable. Worse still, Rasa's chakra reserves clearly exceeded his own.
A prolonged exchange was suicide.
A frontal assault wasn't the answer.
No matter how optimized his System was, his hardware was still that of a ten-year-old body.
What now?
Alter the properties of the gold sand? Impossible without physical contact.
Use stronger Ninjutsu? He didn't have the chakra.
He had already used a Shadow Clone and composite techniques—his reserves were nearly drained.
Two more casts. At most.
If he couldn't finish Rasa within those—
Then he would be forced to rely on outside intervention.
Just as Hiroki's mind raced, weighing every remaining option—
Ding-dong~
A crisp system notification chimed within his consciousness.
Clear.
Bright.
Almost divine.
Hiroki's eyes widened.
…The download is complete?