Chapter 20: Skill Refresh, a Beauty Falling from the Sky

Under the moonlight, the Uchiha squad was still accelerating westward. The daytime battle had wasted too much of their time; although they had originally intended to take a detour, Uchiha Fuhuo had decisively chosen the direct route.

The remaining members had no objections, as the direct shortcut could save more than half the time.

They had not encountered any resistance from the Senju clan along the way, suggesting that the Senju were already overwhelmed and unable to dispatch personnel to pursue them.

"Alright, we camp here for tonight."

Seeing the increasingly familiar road ahead, Uchiha Fuhuo ordered the squad to rest.

"Huff... huff..."

Uchiha Ryoichi and the other two had just endured a bitter struggle during the day, and combined with the high-intensity travel, they were exhausted like dogs.

As the three slumped to the ground, they suddenly noticed that Uchiha Gin, who was supposed to be the weakest, actually looked quite spirited. Not only was he not gasping for breath, but he didn't even look dusty or disheveled.

Sensing their strange gazes, Uchiha Gin realized something was wrong. He immediately dropped the bound Senju Itama from his back.

He took the opportunity to lie on the ground, forcing a cold sweat and sticking out his tongue to appear utterly exhausted, which finally allowed the other three to withdraw their attention with peace of mind.

"I'll go on sentry duty first. You guys rest quickly."

Uchiha Fuhuo, who was already skilled at concealment, was in decent shape and took the initiative to handle the lookout so the others could rest.

After a brief respite, the others gradually got up and began pitching tents.

Once they had walked a distance away, Uchiha Gin also stood up and took out a tent. However, remembering his strange skill, he abandoned the idea of camping where they were and instead chose a more secluded corner.

After setting up the tent, he chose not to tie Senju Itama to the outside this time, but instead threw him inside. He then circled around the back and, following the same pattern as last time, cleared out a circular patch of ground.

"I hope I can roll a useful skill tonight."

Thinking of the Tsukuyomi from last night, Uchiha Gin felt another wave of dread and discomfort. Although Tsukuyomi was "fragrant," no one could endure being dragged into it for torture two days in a row.

Praying that he wouldn't roll Tsukuyomi, Uchiha Gin sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting for the skill refresh.

But before that, he hadn't opened his mission rewards from the daytime, so he decided to check them first and subsequently sank his consciousness into his mind.

Standing on the chessboard, Uchiha Gin saw that the point counter on the cleared game console had become 50. Suppressing the urge to gamble, he turned his gaze toward the five floating orbs. The mission had only given four; why was there an extra one?

"Reward for defeating Uzumaki Mito," the system prompted timely.

"Damn it, then why didn't you use this orb during your emergency avoidance? Why did you use my points instead?" Uchiha Gin asked angrily, finally remembering the reason for the extra orb.

"Mission orbs can only be opened by the Host. The System has no authority to process them automatically."

Understood. Points were equivalent to the money he earned, so the system would naturally spend them on itself. The orbs were rewards given by the system—essentially the system's own inventory—so it wouldn't use them lightly.

"What a profiteer!"

No longer bothering with this dog of a system, Uchiha Gin began to examine the orbs before him: two blue, three white.

Aside from the girl's mission which gave a fixed blue orb, the four orbs from the mission to save Uchiha Fuhuo and the others contained only one blue; no purple, no gold. He was truly a "unlucky player."

He casually tapped the first white orb, and a faint white light flashed.

[Gold Brick *1] Universal currency, can be used for real-world consumption.

A jackpot of gold coins. Not a loss.

The second

[Gold Brick *1] Universal currency, can be used for real-world consumption.

Still gold coins. Not a loss.

The third

[Gold Brick *1] Universal currency, can be used for real-world consumption.

"#?"

What was the meaning of three consecutive gold bars? So, the most useless thing about the orbs was just spitting out gold coins.

Suppressing his anger, Uchiha Gin clicked the first blue orb.

[Gold Brick *5] Universal currency, can be used for real-world consumption.

"......#@%￥%@...%￥#￥%&*@!"

Uchiha Gin felt like jumping up and slapping this system. At this moment, he felt like a player who pulls ten consecutive summons and gets nothing but R-rank items—a state of helpless rage.

After venting, Uchiha Gin extended a trembling finger and, with his eyes closed, tapped the final orb.

[Flying Thunder God Kunai *1] A weapon used by Namikaze Minato, containing trace amounts of space-time power. Note: Wearing it can accelerate the comprehension of space-time ninjutsu.

Looking at the trident-shaped weapon in his hand, a yellow figure surfaced in Uchiha Gin's mind.

This kunai was the Fourth Hokage's specialized weapon, marked with a dedicated Flying Thunder God formula. Combined with space-time ninjutsu, it allowed for long-distance teleportation.

"Wearing it can accelerate the comprehension of space-time type skills?"

He tried swinging the kunai a few times and found it quite handy. Even if he couldn't use the Flying Thunder God, the weapon could still be used for daily combat.

Putting away the hard-won kunai and the eight gold bricks scattered on the ground, Uchiha Gin walked over to the game console.

Looking at his pitiful 50 hard-earned points, he gritted his teeth and pulled the slot machine lever. He decided to gamble it all—to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle.

Accompanied by the classic slot machine BGM, three characters on the panel began to flash rapidly. Uchiha Gin held his breath, staring intently at the changing symbols.

The first character: Tai (Body),

A few seconds later, the second character also stopped on "Tai."

Seeing this, Uchiha Gin's breathing quickened. Was he finally turning his luck around?

"Tai, Tai, Tai!" he couldn't help but shout.

Just as he finished speaking, the last character stopped on "Nin" (Shinobi).

"Congratulations, Host, for rolling the Tai + Tai + Nin combination. Taijutsu effect doubled / Tai + 1."

"I choose Tai + 1!"

Fearing the system would settle too quickly, Uchiha Gin snatched the choice.

Striking while the iron was hot, Uchiha Gin continued to pull the slot machine. The next four times did not result in critical hits, only small combinations.

Final settlement

Tai + 2, Nin + 2, Jing (Stamina) + 1

Host: Uchiha Gin

Nin: 9 Tai: 10 Zhi (Intelligence): 9 Jing (Stamina): 7 Mei (Charisma): 1 Tong (Dojutsu): 10

Skills: Basic Taijutsu, Fire Ball Jutsu, Uchiha Entry-level Swordsmanship, Intermediate Shurikenjutsu.

Comprehensive Evaluation: A well-balanced, punchable Uchiha Chunin.

After the stat allocation, he felt his strength had improved significantly. Comparing horizontally, he should be on par with Uchiha Ryoichi and the other two.

After counting his loot, Uchiha Gin exited the system space.

Opening his eyes, he was met with darkness once again. Only the Flying Thunder God Kunai in his hand gave him a sense of reality. He frowned.

"Why hasn't today's skill refreshed yet?" Uchiha Gin muttered to himself.

Before his voice could fade, the aura around him suddenly stagnated. A ripple-like light screen quietly emerged above his head, and then a figure descended from the sky, landing a heavy blow toward the still cross-legged Uchiha Gin.

Despite having a bit of Uzumaki-style sensory perception and predicting the danger, he still failed to dodge this swift strike.

The opponent's powerful kick slammed heavily into his back, the brute force piercing through his body. Uchiha Gin immediately collapsed to the ground, spitting blood.

As the smoke cleared, a tall figure appeared before him. The newcomer had long, pale yellow hair tied in a large ponytail, thin light-yellow eyebrows, bright brown eyes, and bright red nail polish on her clenched hands.

The moonlight spilled down, casting a faint glow upon her fair skin. She wore a tea-green long robe with black edges over a loose, sleeveless top similar to a kimono, with a black cloth belt at her waist and dark blue cropped trousers.

But none of that was the point. Spitting blood, all of Uchiha Gin's attention was focused on the two magnificent "peaks" of the opponent. At this moment, he felt a hot stream rushing into his nostrils.

Before he could recover, the newcomer threw another straightforward punch at him. Unable to react in time, Uchiha Gin immediately activated his Sharingan, attempting to simulate the path of the punch to twist his body away from this world-shattering strike.

But before he could turn, he found his body unable to move, and a sharp pain shot through his right arm.

At some unknown point, the opponent had used her other hand to grab his right arm, snapping it as easily as a dry twig.

Ignoring the pain, as Uchiha Gin tried to break free, he discovered in horror that a delicate, fair fist was already rushing toward him with the force of thunder.

"The nail polish is quite pretty."

That was Uchiha Gin's last thought before falling unconscious.