"Y-You're talking nonsense!"
Sasuke stiffened his neck and snapped back, his face flushed red. His gaze darted around, clearly not daring to meet Ryan's eyes.
"We're brothers…"
"Do we really have to calculate things that precisely…?"
Ryan rolled his eyes, having no intention of continuing this pointless argument.
If he kept going, he was worried this kid might actually start crying.
"Let's go. Take the dog outside and raise it there."
"And while we're at it, show me if there are any other puppies around."
Letting Sasuke raise the dog outside was a compromise born of necessity.
From the moment Sasuke picked up that puppy, their father probably already knew about it.
It might've even been Fugaku's doing in the first place.
Sasuke was genuinely happy. If Ryan said so, that meant he acknowledged his new friend.
And being able to share it with Ryan made him even happier.
But before long, Sasuke started hesitating again—he remembered that he'd promised Nii-san to train together in the afternoon…
"If you don't move, give the money back!"
Ryan stood at the gate, turning around to urge the dazed Sasuke.
Right now, all he wanted was to complete the newbie quest and truly step onto the path of cultivation.
Chakra?
To hell with that—I'm done playing with it!
Over the years, he hadn't slacked off in training. He'd worked hard enough that even that guy, Itachi, had praised him as a genius of the Uchiha clan.
His chakra reserves weren't large. He wasn't one of those late-series monsters who could clap their hands and summon anything they wanted.
But carrying memories from his past life, and thanks to his unusually strong mental power, his chakra control was terrifyingly precise.
Even without deliberate training, his level of chakra control was already comparable to Itachi's.
But…
When he actually faced the illusion-specialist prodigy that was Uchiha Itachi, Ryan finally understood just how terrifying that man truly was.
At the very least, in every single exchange, Ryan couldn't even tell when Itachi had cast his genjutsu.
From that moment on, Ryan understood—only after awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan would he even have a chance of defeating Itachi.
Once he realized that awakening the Mangekyō before the night of the massacre was unrealistic, his training intensity naturally dropped.
He switched to a philosophy of "happy learning."
But now?
Now that he had a system—and a chance to cultivate immortality—there was no way he wasn't going to fight for it.
As for why he needed Sasuke's help to complete the quest…
Simple.
Puppies were easier to bully.
After all, Konoha's dogs possessed intelligence not inferior to humans.
And they tended to move in packs. If a real fight broke out, Ryan couldn't guarantee he'd come out unscathed against a group of ninja dogs.
"You're dreaming!"
Sasuke snapped resentfully, but he still obediently picked up the puppy and left the house together with Ryan.
The two walked one after the other through Konoha's streets. After about ten minutes, they arrived at the outermost edge of the Uchiha district—
Which also happened to be the boundary of Konoha.
"Ryan, it's over there."
"This is where stray dogs usually show up. I heard the Inuzuka clan's dogs often come around here."
"Those puppies were probably abandoned by them."
Ryan: ...
Isn't it also possible that those are… illegitimate puppies left behind by the Inuzuka clan's ninja dogs?
Sasuke was still young and had never really had friends. His thinking was far more innocent than kids his age.
Seeing Ryan stay silent, he assumed his brother wanted to adopt a puppy too, and began carefully introducing them one by one.
"Ryan, what do you think about that black-and-white one?"
"If we train it a bit, then in the future we could—"
Sasuke pointed at the puppies running around in the distance, patiently describing each one's traits.
But halfway through, when he turned his head to look beside him—
Ryan had vanished.
Turning back, Sasuke saw Ryan pinning several puppies to the ground, aggressively rubbing their bellies.
"Yelp… yelp!!"
Bullying a few puppies was one thing—but that ferocious expression on Ryan's face finally pushed Sasuke past his limit.
"Ryan! What are you doing?!"
"You jerk…"
"Do you have any sense of compassion at all?!"
Ryan ignored Sasuke's accusations entirely. His full attention was on the system notifications.
[Heaven-Rending Demonic Dog defeated. Quest progress: 2/10]
[Heaven-Rending Demonic Dog defeated. Quest progress: 3/10]
[Heaven-Rending Demonic Dog defeated. Quest progress: 4/10]
...
Completely absorbed, Ryan turned into a merciless quest machine.
Even when Sasuke rushed over, he couldn't stop Ryan from continuing to "bully" the stray puppies.
In the end, Sasuke had no choice but to cling to Ryan's leg with his entire body—only then did Ryan finally stop.
Of course, the real reason he stopped was because the quest was complete…
[Congratulations, Host. Quest completed.]
[Reward: Physique improvement. +100% chance to enter Qi Refining. +50% chance of successful Foundation Establishment.]
As the quest ended, Ryan slowly closed his eyes, waiting for the system's power to descend.
"Physique improvement" sounded incredibly impressive.
But after a full ten minutes passed…
Aside from two extra buff lines appearing in his [Status] panel—
Nothing happened.
No explosive pore-opening.
No sudden growth spurt of dozens of centimeters.
Absolutely nothing.
Just as Ryan was about to curse the system's ancestors, a notification suddenly rang out in his mind.
[Congratulations, Host. Achievement unlocked — Enemy of Heaven-Rending Demonic Dogs]
[Enemy of Heaven-Rending Demonic Dogs: After repeatedly defeating Heaven-Rending Demonic Dogs, you have become a public enemy of their species. While this title is equipped, cultivation efficiency is increased by 200%.]
Uchiha Ryan: ?
Standing there, Ryan carefully reread the newly acquired achievement.
No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't quite wrap his head around it.
What felt even more absurd was—
Why did this so-called achievement bonus feel stronger than the actual quest rewards?!
Look at that…
A 200% cultivation boost.
So the question now was…
How exactly was he supposed to cultivate next?
Practice chakra?
Or focus on ninjutsu?
Ryan hadn't even had time to worry about how the bonus applied when—
Unbeknownst to him, every stray dog and ninja dog in the entire village of Konoha began rushing toward his and Sasuke's location.
"Awwooo—!"
"Woof woof woof!!"
"Grrr—!!"
Thousands of ninja dogs thundered through Konoha's streets, shaking the entire village.
Every canine shared a single thought—
Teach that ignorant bastard a lesson!
Make him understand—
A dog's dignity is not something to be trampled on!
"Ryan, I think you went way too far."
Sasuke followed behind him, deeply disapproving of Ryan's earlier puppy-bullying.
"What's the big deal? I was just petting them—"
Ryan sounded utterly unconcerned. But when he suddenly noticed a massive cloud of dust rising in the distance, followed by endless barking—
He went pale instantly.
Grabbing Sasuke, he turned around and bolted.
"So this really follows cultivation-world logic…?"
"Beat the small ones, and the big ones come knocking?!"
Being chased by ninja dogs wasn't even the most ridiculous part.
Ryan suddenly realized—
That 200% cultivation boost he'd just obtained…
Had already started taking effect.
...
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