Chapter 388: Update Complete
By the time Ryū made it back home, night had already fallen. Eating ramen hardly took a whole day — he'd finished up before noon and simply spent the rest of the day wandering around outside.
Not that he'd had much else to do — sleep wasn't in the cards, and sitting sandwiched between three Sannin all afternoon had left him with a distinctly awkward, itching-to-move sort of feeling.
So once he'd finished his meal and paid up, he'd taken a walk out past Konoha's borders, checking out the surrounding cities.
The Land of Fire really was the most populous nation in the shinobi world, no question — the outlying cities didn't match Konoha's own density, but they weren't far off either.
Shinobi weren't exclusive to Konoha, either, though outside the village they were considerably rarer. Out there, you might not find a single shinobi among a hundred ordinary civilians — maybe one in every three or four hundred, at best.
Plenty of the people out there who called themselves "shinobi," in fact, probably hadn't even earned a proper forehead protector — just civilians who'd picked up a handful of minor techniques.
To an uninformed civilian, sure, that might pass for the real thing. In actual practice, their strength was roughly on par with a student at the Academy — some of them arguably weaker.
Drop any of them into Konoha, and they wouldn't even qualify as genuine "shinobi" — nowhere near strong enough to earn a Genin's headband.
Back home, Ryū showered, changed clothes, and washed his laundry while he was at it.
His consciousness slipped back into the Dimensional Chat Group. The update was still running, though only fifteen minutes remained on the countdown.
Fifteen minutes wasn't much time for him, honestly. What exactly did fifteen minutes look like, spent doing nothing in particular?
Hm... a bit of light tidying around the house, one more glance at the clock, and sure enough, the fifteen minutes had passed.
He slipped his consciousness back in, and found the countdown had finally been replaced with new text.
[The Dimensional Chat Group's second major update is complete! As a thank-you, every member receives a bonus 288 Points. Click the link on the right → [link] to claim your bonus.]
A bonus reward, on top of the update itself?
And a genuinely substantial 288 Points at that.
Daily sign-ins only netted between 1 and 100 Points — three days of decent luck might get you close to 300, sure, but three days of bad luck might barely clear single digits total. 288 Points, in one shot, was nothing to scoff at.
Especially with Ryū's own balance sitting at a bare 2,500 right now.
Though — why hadn't the last update come with a bonus like this? A little stingy, honestly.
After claiming the 288 Points, Ryū's attention turned to the chat log from the past two days.
Apparently thanks to the update just wrapping up, the Dimensional Chat Group was livelier than Ryū had ever seen it.
Newcomers and veterans alike, lurkers and chatterboxes alike — everyone was flooding the chat all at once.
The unread count hit 99+ in the blink of an eye, then reset and climbed straight back to another fresh 99+ almost instantly — a genuinely terrifying pace of conversation.
Thankfully nobody in this group was remotely ordinary — even the weakest member could probably take on more regular humans than anyone could count. Keeping up with a chat moving at "99+ new messages per second" speeds was, somehow, manageable.
Eternally Seventeen: So many new features in this update — the Arena's got a whole Dungeon Mode now, and reading the description, it sounds almost exactly like an actual video game.
Eternally Seventeen: Well, more like a half-real game, really, given there's an actual chance for the in-game gear to manifest in reality.
Kaguya-sama: So many new perks for newcomers too — jealous, honestly. Back when I joined, the only perks were mooching off group quests and the 1–100 daily sign-in.
Senbei Is So Tasty: ...This old-timer, who's never once mooched off a group quest, is turning green with envy right about now.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, old Whitebeard here mooched off the very first group quest this chat group ever had. Jealous, Sengoku boy?
Senbei Is So Tasty: Hey now, you're actually a few years younger than me — you should be calling me "Sengoku-senpai," if anything!
Admiral Kizaru: I have a strong feeling these two are about to throw down. Fight! Fight! Fight!
Street-Corner Illustrator: Pfft, Kizaru-ojisan just cheering from the sidelines trying to egg them into an actual brawl, classic.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, old Sengoku wouldn't stand a chance against me. See the Tier badge next to my name? Tier 1, baby.
Senbei Is So Tasty: Damn it... I'll get there eventually. I'm already Tier 2, not far off from Tier 1 myself.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: No idea why, but this king apparently rates a Tier 1 badge too? Genuinely baffled over here.
RawrSoFierce: Well, Wolffy, your inventions are broken enough that if you casually whipped up a fist-sized bomb with star-busting power one of these days, none of us would even be surprised.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: Huh? Really? Guess this king's more impressive than I thought.
My True Form Is Cola: Guys, look who I just spotted! It's Admin-sama! A genuine legend! AWSL!
Kaguya-sama: AWSL!
Maidang: Um... sorry, senpais, what does "AWSL" mean?
Terrible Tornado: It's short for "died from cuteness" — people spam it whenever some adorably cute character shows up in an anime.
Maidang: Oh? Really? I see! ...Though I still don't totally get it.
Miyaa Miyaa Miyaa: Oh, that thing about hitting seven consecutive daily sign-ins to unlock the weekly lottery — I think I qualify? I've been in the group less than three months, right?
Master Roshi: Same here, actually, less than three months myself — I get to enjoy this newcomer perk too. Lovely.
The Ancient One: Also eligible here, just passing through to confirm.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: Finally finished updating! This sovereign has been waiting the better part of a day.
Crazy Diamond: QIN SHI HUANG IS A LEGEND!!! (voice cracking, screaming into the void)
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: ...This sovereign only meant to pop in and say a few words.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: Most of the state's affairs are more or less settled for now, so this sovereign should have plenty of free time to chat going forward.
Crazy Diamond: Don't care, doesn't matter — Qin Shi Huang is a legend! End of discussion!
"..."
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