When Zhang Lan woke up again, he was already lying in a private room.
He looked at the surrounding facilities and figured it was one of those high-end sanatoriums seen in movies.
He blinked, but didn't move, instead closing his eyes.
He still needed to thoroughly understand the system that had just activated.
With that thought, Zhang Lan tried to summon the system with his mind.
"Hello?" No response.
Did it not understand English?
"Hey, fellow countryman, are you there? Wake up, fellow countryman~" Still no response.
Did it require a special command?
"Open Sesame? Pineapple Pineapple Honey?" Still no response.
"Supreme Venerable Lord of the Daoist Heavens, as urgent as the law; Tathagata Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Jesus Christ!" Still no response.
"I'm going to TMD%￥%#@##￥%%" Zhang Lan was on the verge of a breakdown.
Had the system run out of energy and shut down again while he was unconscious?
"Ding, system activated.
Host has one mission reward yet to be claimed.
Please claim it in a timely manner."
Just as Zhang Lan was muttering to himself, the system's monotonous voice suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Uh, how do I activate you?"
After a long wait with no response, Zhang Lan thought for a moment and rephrased his question.
"System, how do I activate you?"
"Ding, host can summon the system interface by silently chanting 'System'."
Holy cow, Zhang Lan was on the verge of a breakdown.
He wanted to flip a table, did they believe him?
It turned out to be so simple.
"System, open interface." Zhang Lan silently muttered, feeling speechless.
Zhang Lan had initially kept his eyes tightly shut, with darkness before him.
As he silently chanted, an interface suddenly appeared before his eyes.
How to describe it? It was an interface so simple it couldn't be any simpler.
From top to bottom, it listed—
"Personal Panel" — Allows inquiry of host data.
"Mission System" — System missions and mission rewards will be released here.
"Mysterious Shop" — Can use Rule Fragments to unlock exchange permissions and exchange items of corresponding tiers.
"Achievement System" — Complete specified tasks to earn achievements and rewards.
"More exciting content, please look forward to it." — An advertisement.
The others were easy to understand, but Zhang Lan was very curious about the fifth item, "More exciting content, please look forward to it."
With that thought, Zhang Lan focused his attention on this option.
"Ding, host's authority is insufficient.
Please strive to upgrade.
More exciting content, please look forward to it."
"I just started up.
Am I really considered a level 1 rookie? I clearly recharged energy…"
Seeing no results from that, Zhang Lan noticed the "Mission Option" was still flashing, which made him focus his attention on the "Mission System."
Then, a small ethereal hand appeared and clicked on "Mission System," after which the other options disappeared, and the following appeared—
"Main Story" — Must be completed.
"Side Quests" — Optional.
"Urgent" — Randomly released, short time limit, high difficulty, great rewards.
Three options, with "Main Story" flashing.
Zhang Lan continued to click on it with the ethereal hand—why did Zhang Lan feel like he was playing a mobile game with a three-cent investment… and one that charged him before he could even try it out!
It felt like a PC board game, didn't it?
After clicking on "Main Story," no more branches appeared.
Only "Efforts Before Adulthood" glowed.
Zhang Lan, following the flow, continued to click.
"Ding, congratulations to host for completing the 'Efforts Before Adulthood' mission.
Claim reward? [Yes/No]"
"Yes." Zhang Lan, suppressing his inexplicable emotions, clicked the "Yes" option again.
"Ding, reward being issued."
"Congratulations, host, you have received a random lottery draw from various categories * 1.
Draw now? [Yes/No]"
"Yes."
Zhang Lan's eyebrows were twitching by now.
"The programmer who developed this system, come out here, I promise I won't beat you to death!"
The player experience was truly terrible.
"System big turntable activated.
Please host manually draw."
After the system prompt, all text disappeared, and a super large turntable appeared in Zhang Lan's consciousness.
However, the turntable was blank, with not a single option.
"System, what's going on here? There's nothing, what am I supposed to spin?" Zhang Lan indicated that he would ask the system if he had any questions.
"Please host comprehend on your own." The system didn't play along, directly shutting Zhang Lan down with a single sentence.
Zhang Lan felt his temper severely provoked, yet he couldn't see or touch this so-called system, which truly made his teeth itch with anger.
However, anger aside, the reward was still necessary.
Zhang Lan could only ponder it himself, and soon discovered that when he mentally clicked on the pointer, several options would appear.
"Current drawing opportunities are as follows—
Kekkei Genkai * 1
Ninjutsu * 1
Taijutsu * 1
Genjutsu * 1
Special * 1"
Zhang Lan tried clicking on the Kekkei Genkai, which he was most interested in.
Immediately, the entire option disappeared, and text slowly appeared on the blank spaces of the large turntable.
"Sharingan"
"Steel Release"
"Ice Release"
"Magnet Release"
"Wood Release"
"Byakugan"
"Red Eye"
"Shikotsumyaku"
There were many types, and among them, the Sharingan, which Zhang Lan had always been very fond of, was prominently featured, along with the powerful Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku.
Zhang Lan, already a bit impatient, immediately used his ethereal hand to gently pull the turntable, and the entire large turntable began to spin like a windmill.
Zhang Lan watched the large turntable spin eagerly—he couldn't help it, he was already closing his eyes, and this thing was projected directly into his consciousness, so he could only watch.
Since it had no power source, the large turntable spun for a long time before slowly coming to a stop.
At this point, it was just passing over "Shikotsumyaku" and slowly moving towards the long-desired "Sharingan."
"Hey, hey, almost, almost.
Yes, yes, go in, go in, that's it."
Zhang Lan watched as the pointer entered "Sharingan" and then stopped between "Sharingan" and "Death God Ritual," almost leaping from the bed.
Just as he thought it was settled, the system's prompt sounded.
"Ding, congratulations to host for obtaining 'Death God Ritual' (Incomplete)"
What the heck?
Wasn't it the Sharingan?
It turned out that while Zhang Lan was excited, the pointer had moved another small step at the very end, turning into "Death God Ritual" (Incomplete).
But what was with the "Incomplete"?
If he didn't understand, he'd ask the system.
"Ding, detecting partial system loss.
Some system rewards may be incomplete.
Please host strive to upgrade and trigger main quests to collect scattered system fragments."
Upon seeing the system's explanation, Zhang Lan felt like flipping a table, did it believe him?
A three-cent interface was bad enough, but it was also an unfinished product?
"System, which part of the Death God Ritual (Incomplete) is missing?" Zhang Lan finally asked weakly.
If he could gain the immortal ability from the anime, that wouldn't be bad either.
* - * - * - *
Name: [Death God Ritual] (Incomplete)
Category: Forbidden Jutsu
Tier: A
Description: Allows the host to possess the characteristic of physical immortality, but cannot self-regenerate.
Therefore, please host be careful and do not lose body parts.
Cost: None
Remarks: Death God Ritual is divided into two parts: 'Immortality' and 'Ritual'.
It was originally an S-rank Forbidden Jutsu, but due to partial system loss, it currently only has the 'Immortality' ability, thus downgraded to A-rank.
In the future, this skill will be displayed as [Immortality] in the system.
* - * - * - *
After reading the system description, Zhang Lan felt a deep malice from the system.
Alright, keep drawing then.
Better a quick pain than a prolonged one.
Given the system's nature, it probably wouldn't give out anything good anyway, so he simply decided to cut the Gordian knot and chose to draw all randomly.
Immediately, the large turntable split into four, all beginning to spin and stopping at the same time.
"Ding, congratulations to host for drawing 'Shadow Clone Jutsu' in the Ninjutsu draw."
"Ding, congratulations to host for drawing 'Eight Gates Formation – Front Lotus' in the Taijutsu draw."
"Ding, congratulations to host for drawing 'Illusion Realm' in the Genjutsu draw."
"Ding, congratulations to host for drawing 'Sand Shield' in the Special draw."
"Ding, because host completed the mission ahead of time, you are specially rewarded with a talent skill * 1, and an S-rank characteristic * 1 will be randomly added to it."
Five consecutive system prompts sounded.
Zhang Lan was startled at first, then counted carefully, and indeed there were five.
And you know what, the system was actually generous for once.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu" was a cheat artifact, a simplified version of Prince Naruto's signature skill.
"Eight Gates Formation" goes without saying, it was the strongest taijutsu that almost let Guy kick out an ending, even Madara had to admit Guy was the "strongest taijutsu user."
As for "Illusion Realm," Zhang Lan had no impression of it.
"Sand Shield," it seemed to be Gaara's mother's blessing to Gaara before her death.
The constantly automatic sand defense that protected Gaara was his mother's love.
As for the last full-category random draw, which could also add a characteristic, it sounded quite powerful.
But Zhang Lan felt this couldn't be right, could it?
Was the system's tiering inverted?
"System, list the tiers from low to high." Zhang Lan asked tentatively.
"Ding, the system will categorize, but not be limited to, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, equipment, etc., into E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS; eight tiers, with E being the lowest and SSS the highest." The system actually answered this time.
The system's answer made Zhang Lan beam with joy.
Didn't this mean the system had directly given him a sixth-tier reward?
"Alright, system, you did well this time.
Start the talent draw." Zhang Lan praised the system with great satisfaction.
As Zhang Lan's thought was given, the system this time didn't show a large turntable, but a large slot machine with three options and a big lever beside it.
Zhang Lan didn't even need the system to prompt him.
He immediately pulled the lever, and the slot machine started working.
The three options in the middle also began to frantically roll.
With his eyesight, his eyes blurred, and he couldn't make out a single thing, so he simply waited for it to stop on its own.
After waiting for a long time, the slot machine was still spinning merrily, showing no signs of stopping—did he have to manually stop it?
Zhang Lan thought so, and once again manipulated his ethereal hand to pull the lever.
The three rapidly spinning options immediately began to slow down until three options appeared.
"Uzumaki Naruto Avatar"
"Taijutsu"
"1"
This left Zhang Lan a bit confused.
Shouldn't they all be the same?
How was this calculated now?
"Ding, congratulations to host for drawing 'Uzumaki Naruto's First Taijutsu Lesson', reward is currently undergoing S-rank characteristic enhancement, please wait."
"Hmm, the Great Prince's first ninjutsu lesson?
It shouldn't be bad, I guess.
His first ninjutsu was Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu?
I already have that.
No, wait, could it be the Three Body Technique?"
Zhang Lan was confused and fantasizing, when suddenly he thought of a key phrase.
"Taijutsu!!!"
"Damn it, Naruto's first taijutsu lesson, it couldn't be what Kakashi taught him—"
Zhang Lan had an ominous premonition, and it was very strong.
"Ding, enhancement complete.
Congratulations to host for obtaining ' ' — . "
Here's an explanation for everyone.
First, the author's setting is that buying a move grants the corresponding Eight Gates Formation.
Second, Shadow Clone is a B-rank ninjutsu; the protagonist here misunderstands it as Naruto's ultimate move, Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Third, the Thousand Years of Death is not a prank, but plays an important role later on.