KAGE

"Oh my God... This is..."

The scene before me was unbelievable.

Mist stretched as far as the eye could see. The only clear area was the place where I stood, roughly one hundred square meters in size. Beneath my feet was rich black soil, and at the center lay a small spring with a surface area of about ten square meters.

The air was fresh, but not cold.

It was a kind of freshness that seemed to nourish my very soul.

Looking around, a single word came to mind.

SPACE.

"OH MY GOD! I HAVE A POCKET SPACE!"

A few hours earlier, after my father's death, we had decided to bury him the next day before discussing what to do afterward.

Now that our hideout had been discovered, remaining there was no longer an option. We needed to leave and find somewhere else to live.

But there was one enormous problem.

The Third Great Ninja War was still raging.

Although the Land of Water, where we were hiding, lay across the sea from the war's main battlefield, our enemies had still managed to find us.

If even this place wasn't safe...

Then where could we possibly go?

That was a question we postponed until the following day.

That night, no one spoke.

Everyone cried quietly.

None of us had the strength to comfort anyone else.

After all, our family had just lost its pillar, and the future was uncertain.

Especially for me.

I had reincarnated into this family today of all days.

If this wasn't starting the game on Abyss difficulty, I didn't know what was.

Later that night, once soft snores echoed through the room, I quietly got out of bed and began sorting through my father's belongings in an attempt to distract myself.

My wound still hurt, but the pain had long since become secondary.

There were simply too many other things occupying my mind.

My God... What am I supposed to do now?

The weight of so much responsibility was suffocating.

It reminded me of all those web novels I used to read.

Now I finally understood why so many protagonists were orphans.

If I had been alone—or if it had only been my father and me—I could have buried him, focused on growing stronger, and sought revenge later.

But now...

I had five children...

And my mother.

Six people depending on me.

As I searched through the scrolls while my thoughts raced, I noticed a familiar symbol engraved on a sealing scroll.

After forming the appropriate hand seal, the item stored inside appeared.

The moment I saw it...

My breathing stopped.

It was a crystal shaped like a piece of quartz, shimmering with countless colors.

But what truly shocked me...

Was that it was identical to the crystal I had owned in my previous life.

Back then, after learning I was going to die, I had fallen into despair.

Since I could no longer have sex without risking infecting someone else—even with protection—I chose not to gamble with another person's life.

Instead...

I escaped into fantasy.

Web novels became my refuge.

I read countless cultivation and immortality novels.

Those stories were filled with mysterious treasures that transformed their owners into legends...

Some even allowed them to transmigrate into another world.

So, as a hopeless otaku nearing the end of my life, I thought...

Why not?

Whenever I bought strange objects resembling treasures from those novels, I would secretly drip a drop of my blood onto them.

Nothing ever happened.

But no one knew.

What people don't see can't bother them.

It remained my little secret.

And now...

Here I was.

Looking at a crystal identical to the one I had owned in my previous life.

Why not try again?

I grabbed the kunai resting on the table and cut my finger.

Only after doing so did I remember that my body was already wrapped in bandages because of my massive wound.

To make up for it, I loosened the bandages and pressed the crystal directly against the blood flowing from the wound on my abdomen.

The crystal touched the injury.

It hurt like hell.

Then...

The miracle happened.

The crystal dissolved into countless particles of light.

They flew toward my forehead...

And disappeared into it.

I closed my eyes and instinctively searched within myself.

After all...

I wasn't a rookie when it came to stories like this.

Soon enough, I found it.

A massive bronze door.

The moment I stepped through it...

I arrived in the space where I now stood.

"So the legends were true..."

"Every transmigrator really does get a Golden Finger!"

"Hahahaha!"

The relief I felt was so overwhelming that I nearly collapsed.

I truly hadn't been able to see a way out of my situation.

Without my father...

I had no idea what to do.

Unlike many protagonists, I had been born into one of the most powerful families in the world.

Or rather...

The original owner of this body had.

Unfortunately...

He had been painfully mediocre.

Not lazy.

Just...

Average.

The original Ren had worked harder than anyone else, yet his results were always disappointing.

Although his parents constantly told him not to worry, the disappointment hidden in his father's eyes had never escaped him.

After all...

What father doesn't dream of having a son destined for greatness?

That sense of inadequacy only pushed him to train even harder.

His daily routine rivaled that of Might Guy and Rock Lee.

He often skipped meals.

He frequently pushed himself until he became sick from overtraining.

He was always exhausted.

Even on the day our enemies discovered our hideout, he had been the first to spot them and had rushed to warn his parents.

It happened just after he had finished another brutal training session.

He wasn't even close to being in peak condition.

I walked over to the small spring and scooped up some water with both hands before drinking.

The cool spiritual liquid flowed through my body.

I could actually feel it circulating inside me.

The exhaustion that had accumulated over years of relentless training gradually faded away.

Then...

The wound on my abdomen began to itch.

"Does it... have healing properties?"

If it did...

That would be both incredible...

And cruel.

My father had died less than three hours ago.

And only now had I discovered a treasure capable of healing injuries.

What cruel irony.

---

Welcome to the Land of Beginning

Level: 1

Area: 10 × 10 meters

Spiritual Energy: Level 1

Time Flow: 2:1

Spiritual Spring: Active

---

Character Panel

Name: Tsukishiro Ren

Rank: Advanced Genin

Bloodlines

- Spiritual Seal (Awakened): Level 1

- Gravitational Field (Awakened): Level 1

Talent: Average

Chakra Affinities

- Wind: Level 1

- Water: Level 1

- Lightning: Level 1