Status UpdateDeath Event Quality: LowCursed Energy Increase: MinorPhysical Reinforcement: MinorMental Fortitude Increase: Minor
Condition DetectedBinding Objective: New Immortal Duo
ObjectiveInteract with HidanEstablish Bond
Synchronization Level100 / 100Phase One Complete
Reward GrantedCursed Energy Points ×1000Innate Technique (Random) ×1
Ability UnlockedBlood Art: Red Dominion
Condition DetectedBinding Objective: New Immortal Duo (Phase Two Initiated)
Shinji Akagi listened to the silent notifications echo inside his mind.
A faint sense of satisfaction surfaced.
Not relief.
Not joy.
Just confirmation.
In a world like this, surviving without an edge meant dying early.
He had arrived here by accident.
Awakening in the middle of a Jashin Cult ritual.
His body had died.
Then restarted.
Something had been carved into him during that process. Something incomplete. Something unstable.
Pseudo-immortality.
Along with it came an internal failsafe. A presence embedded into his consciousness.
Not divine.
Not benevolent.
Just functional.
Its activation condition had been absurd.
He needed to be cursed first.
If he had not awakened inside the ritual circle, already saturated with corrupted energy, the interface would have remained dormant forever.
Luck.
Cruel, twisted luck.
The so-called "descent ceremony" was nothing more than forbidden human experimentation.
Whether a god truly existed behind it did not matter.
The system recognized it.
That was enough.
Shinji had no intention of questioning a mechanism that provided tangible power.
Especially in a world where curses, spirits, and impossible abilities were already normal.
The interface itself, however, was… strange.
No punishment for ignoring tasks.
No forced obedience.
No compulsions.
According to its internal logic, a system that controlled its host too tightly would eventually be rejected.
Shinji did not care about philosophy.
He cared about results.
And the result of Phase One was exactly what he needed.
Power.
He opened the interface.
Status Update
Host: Shinji Akagi
Active Curses:World Will Distortion (Permanent)Jashin Mark (Permanent)System Imprint (Permanent)
Innate Techniques:Blood Art: Red Dominion
Shikigami: NoneCursed Tools: NoneCursed Objects: None
Cursed Energy Points: 1000
Exchange Function:Single Draw – 1000 PointsTen Draw – 10000 Points
Bound Target: Hidan
Active Objective: New Immortal Duo (Phase Two)
World Will DistortionEffect: Unknown
Note: Your arrival has altered underlying causality.
Jashin MarkEffect: Incomplete ImmortalityGreatly accelerated regenerationPain reception amplifiedConsciousness restored three seconds after death
System ImprintEffect: Each death slightly increases Cursed Energy, physical resilience, and mental fortitudeEnhancement scales with combat intensitySelf-inflicted death yields no benefit
Blood Art: Red DominionEffect: Manipulation of one's own blood and objects saturated with itDomain Expansion: Locked
Synchronization Level
New Immortal Duo100 / 500
Phase Two RewardCursed Energy Points ×5000Technique Enhancement Scroll ×1
Shinji closed the interface.
Originally, he had tried a peaceful approach with Hidan.
A mistake.
Hidan's future combat potential was absurd.
Even without training, once his Blood Curse: Death Link was mastered, killing high-tier sorcerers would be trivial.
As long as the ritual succeeded, raw strength differences became meaningless.
Having someone like that on his side would drastically increase survival odds.
Unfortunately, Hidan despised him on instinct.
They did not clash because of ideology.
They clashed because neither of them could tolerate the other's existence.
Negotiation was pointless.
Friendship was impossible.
So Shinji changed strategies.
If cooperation could not be achieved…
Then control would be.
Repeated provocation.
Calculated insults.
Targeted humiliation.
Every reaction generated feedback.
Every clash deepened the strange bond recognized by the system.
Painful.
Slow.
Effective.
One month of nonstop antagonism had only pushed synchronization to one hundred.
Pathetic efficiency.
But Shinji had already identified patterns.
Timing.
Trigger words.
Pressure thresholds.
Once refined, progress would accelerate.
Hidan would never become a loyal ally.
That was fine.
A sharpened weapon did not need loyalty.
It only needed direction.
Shinji's gaze hardened.
Rewards this generous were impossible to ignore.
And now, he finally possessed an actual Innate Technique.
Blood Art: Red Dominion.
Blood manipulation.
Simple on the surface.
Dangerous in practice.
Blood was everywhere.
Inside enemies.
On weapons.
On the battlefield.
With proper control, even minor wounds could become vectors for lethal techniques.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Shinji felt something close to stability.
Not safety.
Not comfort.
Just… a foothold.
Enough to climb.
Enough to survive.
Enough to start planning.