Uchiha Sasuke’s Collapse Chapter 039

Sasuke gazed at the nori rice ball in front of him, steam still rising from it as if it had just been taken out of the pot.

Although Sasuke hadn’t deliberately tracked Mei’s entire day, his chakra perception had roughly pinpointed her and Kiana’s locations. The only times Mei would have had to make rice balls that day were noon and morning, and rice balls made then wouldn’t still be steaming now.

Coupled with the girl’s recent gasp.

It seemed certain that the rice ball had been swapped.

There was a note beside it?

Sasuke slowly unfolded it. The moment his eyes landed on the handwriting, they trembled as if something had touched him deeply, but they quickly returned to normal.

It was Itachi’s handwriting.

“It’s okay if you never forgive me. No matter what you become in the future, I will always love you.”

“…”

Kiana next to him had already unfolded the note in another box and read aloud, “A ring lost in the Uchiha Ancestral Temple—Naka Shrine, huh? Uchiha? Isn’t this yours, Sasuke…”

Kiana stopped speaking. She looked at Sasuke, stunned.

Sasuke had his back to her, so she couldn’t see the boy’s eyes, only his slightly hunched back, and—the profound, bone-deep sorrow constantly brewing within him.

“Sas…”

Mei, who was facing Sasuke, was now gazing into the boy’s eyes. Since she had known him, the boy’s unfathomably deep, abyssal eyes were gone. There was no arrogance, no haughtiness, no indifference, only an unprecedented dimness.

It was as if he were crying.

For some reason, Mei suddenly wanted to pull such a Sasuke into her embrace and cherish him fiercely.

Sasuke quickly controlled his emotions, returning to his usual coldness. He had known the moment he saw it that this was likely a prank from the system.

However, seeing the familiar nori rice ball and the familiar handwriting, the once blurry memories in his mind suddenly became clear.

It was as if he had suddenly returned to the past, when his mother would place katsuobushi rice balls and nori rice balls in front of him and Itachi.

Sasuke turned around and took the ring from another gift box.

The ring was covered in mottled dust and grime, with the character “朱” (Vermillion) written in ink on a scarlet background.

“Sasuke, this ring…” Kiana was full of curiosity. “Is this something from your family?”

“…”

After a moment, Sasuke slowly said, “Just some old belongings.”

Kiana blinked. Suddenly, a stroke of brilliant wisdom made her remember something: “My tomatoes!”

She had planned to make that bastard in front of her green with envy!

Sasuke didn’t answer, merely looking up at the fiery clouds in the sky.

Perhaps sensing Sasuke’s unusual mood, even the usually boisterous Kiana didn’t interrupt this time.

A moment later, Sasuke turned around, blocking the brilliant light of the sunset. “Let’s begin today’s training.”

Although limited by chakra, Kiana and Mei couldn’t fully practice Uchiha-style kenjutsu, but training to maintain their good physical condition was very necessary.

As for the gifts in the box being mysteriously replaced, Sasuke used his Sharingan to induce some thoughts in the two girls, making them subconsciously no longer focus on the matter.

Time passed quickly. Daily training ended, Mei and Kiana went home to sleep, and Sasuke began his own plan.

Currently, the only problem vexing Sasuke in dealing with the Third Honkai Impact was how to dispose of these Honkai energy storage devices.

Even with a decapitation strike, killing Cocolia and all Anti-Entropy forces stationed in Nagazora, if those Honkai energy storage devices weren’t taken away or destroyed, the Honkai energy stored within them would still be a hidden danger.

Not to mention how Sasuke would transfer Honkai energy without leaking it, even if he knew how, no matter where it was transferred, it would become a hidden danger for that location.

He needed an organization that understood Honkai energy well enough and could be trusted.

So, could Schicksal be trusted?

Sasuke didn’t know.

But undoubtedly, he needed to make contact to find out.

So, how could he get in touch with people from Schicksal?

Sasuke had been pondering this question for some time, and he finally got some inspiration from the future he had seen using “Divine Art: Ten Directions.”

Specifically, inspiration from the Herrscher of Erosion.

In a very few future timelines, the Third Honkai Impact awakened the dormant Herrscher of Erosion from the Previous Era, who destroyed this world by invading its network.

This implied that the network had become the technology connecting most of humanity in this world.

Could he find Schicksal through the network?

These past few days, Sasuke had been observing the entire city of Nagazora. He found that people in this world usually logged into the network using two types of devices: computers and communication devices called mobile phones.

Sasuke had seen similar devices to computers in Orochimaru’s base, but those computers were usually calculators Orochimaru used to assist in experiments; there was no concept of a “network.”

Mobile phones were indeed a novel technological product for Sasuke. He had never imagined that humans could communicate across thousands of mountains and rivers using such communication devices.

If such devices existed in the ninja world, then ninjas would have a much easier time gathering intelligence.

At the very least, Naruto’s teacher, Jiraiya, wouldn’t have died trying to gather intelligence on Pain.

During his observations, Sasuke also noticed that there seemed to be some public places in Nagazora where people could use computers for an hourly fee.

Sasuke had secretly snuck into one of these places and observed a single person using a computer for several hours to familiarize himself with the so-called network.

Some of these places were called internet cafes, while others were called manga cafes.

Although these places didn’t restrict age, they required every guest to use identification.

Whether it was a passport, health insurance card, or basic resident registry card, at least one was required. Also, although there were no age restrictions, in places like internet cafes, it seemed that those under twenty were not considered legal adults and couldn’t stay overnight.

And Sasuke was neither under twenty nor did he have identification.

He was an unregistered person in this world.

Although he disliked doing so, having no legal identification meant Sasuke couldn’t obtain income through normal labor. There was no underground black market for taking bounties like in the ninja world, or perhaps Sasuke just hadn’t found one yet.

All in all, Sasuke finally decided to use his Sharingan to hypnotize an internet cafe to forge an identity registration, then he started a computer.

Uchiha Sasuke’s computer learning, grandly commenced!

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