Late at night, in Konoha Village, at the Uchiha Residence.
"You have obtained 70 Soul Fragments. Do you want to perform your first Stand draw?"
A ringing in his ears, mixed with distant noises, echoed in Linto's ears.
Linto sat blankly in a pool of blood. The hole through his chest was slowly healing. The gravel in the courtyard was digging into his butt.
He touched the blood on his chest.
It was still warm.
Linto looked confused. A thousand words came down to one:
"Huh?"
Fragments of memories flooded his mind:
Uchiha Shou, 18 years old, a loafer, uneducated, kicked out of the Ninja School, living off family welfare, known as the shame of the Uchiha.
Tonight, the moon is bright. The original owner was drinking and enjoying the moon when he saw someone squatting on a utility pole.
Then…
Linto took over.
"I've traveled through time?"
"And it's the world of Naruto?"
Linto had heard of "Naruto."
But that was all.
Linto came from a small town, always focused on his studies. He rarely watched anime, so he knew very little about Hokage.
He only knew some of the more popular things, like:
Naruto had the Nine Tails fox sealed inside him.
Sasuke's "Amaterasu."
And…
He knew about Tsunade, Ino, Sakura, and so on.
But he didn't know any of the story details.
Traveling to an anime world, but not knowing the plot.
How am I supposed to play this?
"You have obtained 70 Soul Fragments. Do you want to perform your first Stand draw?"
As he thought, the ringing in his ears faded away, and Linto heard the cold, unfamiliar voice again.
He sighed in relief and grinned. "There's a system."
Linto opened the system interface:
JOJO Stand System.
Derived from "JOJO's Bizarre Adventure," it contains all the Stands that have appeared in the series. You can get Stands by drawing cards and then train them.
Linto hadn't seen the JOJO series either.
Maybe the system knew this, because there was a "Story Review" function in the corner of the system.
Linto could view the comics from parts 1 to 8.
But first things first, Linto opened the card drawing interface.
A Stand is the manifestation of its user's mental energy. It has all sorts of mysterious powers, and can fight, defend, and scout for its user.
Because it's a manifestation of mental energy, if a Stand is injured, the user will also be badly hurt.
The two are closely linked, two sides of the same coin.
The card drawing page showed many Stand silhouettes. Below were two options: Single Draw and Ten Draw, next to an explanation:
"Normal Draw Pool, can produce 4-5 star Stands, Stand upgrade materials, special items, etc. 10 Soul Fragments per draw."
"Four-star Stands: Stone Free, Emperor, Hermit Purple, Silver Chariot…"
"Five-star Stands: Crazy Diamond, Metallica, Star Platinum (no time stop), White Snake…"
Many types, all packed together.
Linto focused on the first sentence.
"This is the normal draw pool, so there are special pools too?"
The system didn't respond to his question.
It just popped up the suggestion to draw again, and showed a message on the draw interface:
[First draw, a ten draw is guaranteed to give a five-star Stand.]
That was good news.
This pool didn't even have a guarantee, who knows how much he'd have to put in to get anything good.
The killer of the original owner might still be nearby. If he got a 5-star Stand, Linto would at least have some way to protect himself.
He glanced at the balance in the upper right corner.
Soul Fragments: 70.
10 fragments for one draw, he was still 30 Soul Fragments short.
Not enough for a ten draw.
There were three ways to get Soul Fragments:
Defeat strong enemies, change the timeline, or pawn your own soul.
The first two were easy to understand, just kill monsters and change the story.
But the last one, pawning your soul –
"Pawn your soul to exchange for Soul Fragments. Pay off the pawn amount within 24 hours to redeem your soul. Otherwise, you will permanently lose the pawned soul limit."
Current soul pawn value: 500 Soul Fragments.
500, that's 50 draws.
My soul is only worth one 648?
Linto complained in his heart.
What would happen if he lost part of his soul?
Linto didn't know.
And didn't want to know.
He would never take out a loan to draw cards.
Linto stood up from the pool of blood, and had a plan for the future:
Stay hidden.
Uchiha bloodline plus a Stand system, develop secretly. When he got the chance to draw a strong Stand, he'd live a good life without working overtime, without suffering, with a little money, and with a girl in his arms.
Just thinking about it made him want to smile.
"Shou… Shou bro… save… save me…"
A weak call from inside the house interrupted Linto's thoughts.
Someone else is here?
Linto frowned slightly, pushed open the door, and went inside.
A little girl, four or five years old, with pigtails, was lying on the tatami mat. A bloody wound on her stomach was leaking blood.
She reached out to Linto.
Linto took her hand. It was cold, shaking, and small. Memories of the girl flashed in his mind:
Her father died in the war, and her mother kept drinking out of grief. When she was drunk, she would beat her child.
Although the original owner was useless, he was good to the children in the village, often using his welfare money to buy them candy.
The little girl was afraid to go home, so she would hang around Linto's house all day, playing games and mooching snacks.
"When I grow up, I'm going to marry brother Shou."
That's what the girl always said.
Tonight, her mom was drunk again, so she ran to find Linto.
"brother Shou… I don't want to die…"
The joy of getting the system slowly faded away.
Without another word, Linto picked up the girl and ran outside.
Doctor!
Find a doctor!
Linto ran out of the courtyard with her in his arms, realizing that he had a system.
He remembered that some Stands had healing abilities. If he could draw one, he could save this child's life.
"Hang on, I'll be right back—"
Linto couldn't finish the sentence.
The girl's eyes became gray and lifeless.
She was dead.
Linto didn't know her. The memory fragments of the original owner were broken.
But as a modern person, seeing a fresh, soft little life die in front of him, it was impossible not to feel something.
The original owner was at least an adult, a useless person for many years, wasting Uchiha resources. Someone couldn't stand it anymore and killed him.
Linto couldn't agree with it, but he could understand the logic.
But what wrong could a five-year-old child do?
"Caw— Caw—"
The cawing of crows caught Linto's attention.
Crows were circling in the air. The night sky was completely dark.
Linto moved his nose.
After leaving the courtyard, the smell of blood was even stronger.
A gentle night breeze parted the dark clouds, and the moonlight shone down again. Linto could see clearly.
Corpses.
Corpses everywhere.
Old people, young people, children.
Not a single survivor.
Linto's scalp tingled. "What's going on? The devils came to the village?"
He stood in the street.
Behind him was the brightly lit Hokage Village, and in front was the blood-soaked Uchiha compound. The night wind blew on him, and his heart felt cold.
First fear, but after fear came anger.
Not because of the feelings in the original owner's memories of the dead.
But purely because he was a normal person who had received a modern education, who understood the value of life, and who was enraged by the brutal massacre.
The Hokage world had plenty of fighting and killing. It was a hot-blooded young adult comic, so death was normal, but…
Killing old people who could barely walk?
Killing children who could barely talk?
What kind of person could do that?!
A beast.
Only a beast could do something like this.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
A scream came from not far away. It sounded like a child.
A survivor.
Linto instinctively took a step forward, but suddenly stopped.
The killer had slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan, so he must be very strong.
Konoha Village hadn't sent any help yet, which meant that the killer probably had someone behind him, cleaning up the scene.
The killer had power, influence, and planning.
Risking his life to save a stranger.
Was it worth it?
As soon as that question popped up, Linto took his second step.
What's worth it or not?
He'd already traveled through time, so he'd gained a life, plus he had a system.
Hide?
If a grown man didn't even have that much courage, he was a dog.
Linto took a big step forward. The wind messed up his hair, but it couldn't shake his eyes.
Deep in his pupils, a golden spirit ignited.
In the night, it was like a blazing sun.
…
Uchiha Itachi looked down at Sasuke, who was sitting on the ground, his eyes filled with coldness and madness.
Obito, wearing a mask, stood next to him with his arms crossed, looking like he was enjoying the show.
Just then, they both heard the sound of footsteps rushing from afar.
Footsteps… No, not footsteps at all.
His breathing was all over the place. He couldn't even be called a ninja.
Just a normal person.
At the corner of the street, Linto charged out.
He saw a small, crying Sasuke, and saw Uchiha Itachi and Obito standing opposite him.
"A fish that slipped through the net?"
Obito glanced at the bloodstains on Linto's chest. "Itachi, are you too tired? You're not even doing a good job killing people. Do you want me to do it for you?"
"No need."
Uchiha Itachi pulled out his sword and said coldly, "I didn't expect to have to kill you again."
He knew Linto.
The shame of the Uchiha Clan, a welfare professional.
During the Third Ninja World War, most of the Uchiha Clan participated in the war.
Only Linto, who was just the right age, had less strength than a child, didn't know any Ninjutsu, and wasn't even qualified to be a support staff member, stayed at home and slept through the war.
He was a celebrity for being so useless.
Seeing that it was Linto, the hope in Sasuke's eyes went out again.
"Pah!"
Linto spat on the ground. "A beast, trying to get close to me."
He took a breath, walked forward, and gently patted Sasuke's little head.
"Go, squat over there."
Linto looked back at Uchiha Itachi and Obito, and gave instructions to the system:
"I bet my soul, and then…"
"Ten draw!"