(From now on, I will refer to the main character as Eren to avoid unnecessary confusion.)
When Eren found himself in the middle of a strange wild forest where strange flowers bloomed, a huge question mark hung over his head.
After staring into space silently for a while, he mimicked the hand movements like the mysterious girl who had sent him here and spoke to the tree in front of him.
"Be Eren. Be Eren. Your Eren now. Fucking bullshi..."
Eren was about to continue complaining about this when his attention was diverted by his own hands.
The hands that entered Eren's field of vision were, contrary to what they should have been, tiny and chubby. On top of that, Eren noticed something else; even though he was imitating her, his voice had become unusually high-pitched.
Eren immediately began to control himself.
Small, chubby hands, short legs, pale skin, short stature. Based on initial estimates, he realized he had been reincarnated as a child around 3–5 years old.
As the dirtiness of the clothes he was wearing began to catch Eren's attention, a holographic screen floating in the air appeared before him.
[Congratulations, you have successfully connected to the system]
[Would you like to use the beginner's package?]
"Ha ha, you little fool, you offer it and I'm going to refuse? Of course I want to use it."
The system's artificial intelligence, unable to comprehend the sarcasm in Eren's words, accepted this as confirmation and opened the beginner's package.
[You have obtained a single-use spirit absorption range 1000x increase card and a single-use spirit grinding speed 1000x increase card.]
Eren picked up two holographic cards, one blue and one yellow, that appeared in the air.
The front sides of the cards featured complex patterns, while the back sides contained explanations of their functions.
****************
1000x soul absorption range enhancement card
Note: Your current soul absorption range is 1 km².
Warning: This card is single-use and has a usage duration of 10 seconds.
System note: It is recommended that the server use this card immediately. Many spirits are detected within a 1000 km2 range, about to be swallowed by the earth.
****************
After hesitating for a moment, Eren chose to use the card. He thought that he could also learn what spirit absorption was during this opportunity.
The card shattered into thousands of pieces within seconds and began spinning around Eren's body at an increasing speed. After continuing to accelerate for a few seconds, the card pieces suddenly vanished.
"What's happening? I didn't feel anything. It seems like we've been scammed, system?"
[You didn't feel anything because your spiritual awareness is very low, host. Please wait four seconds. I am calculating the amount of absorbed spirits.]
[Congratulations, host, you have obtained a total of 2 high-quality spirits, 19 medium-quality spirits, 4 low-quality spirits, and 297 low-quality spirits.]
[The spirits you obtained have begun to be ground]
[Estimated grinding time: 39 hours, 49 minutes, 22 seconds]
[After grinding, you will obtain 4 spirit drops and 4,000 XP]
"Hold on a minute, system, I have some questions to ask."
[I'm listening, host]
"First of all, do I have to speak aloud to talk to you? Can you hear my thoughts?"
[That's not possible at the moment, sir. But if you gain the ability of spiritual telepathy as a reward for reaching level 25, you won't have to take any risks to communicate with me]
"Oh, so I'll get rewards every time I level up?"
[Yes, landlord, if you want to check the rewards you will receive by leveling up, just let me know.
"First, tell me what you know about soul absorption, soul grinding, soul drops, and soul quality levels."
[You don't have enough level to access most of this information? How about I give you a summary of these concepts?
"Of course I'd like to say no, but I don't think I have any other choice."
[I didn't understand what you meant, host. Could you please repeat your request?]
Eren sighed at the fact that the only thing he could trust was an AI with low-level intelligence and accepted the system's offer.
[Soul Absorption: A innate ability that allows you to trap souls within a 1 km² radius into your soul core]
[Soul Grinding: The process of converting souls collected through Soul Absorption into usable soul drops and experience points. Your default soul grinding speed is 10 soul drops per hour]
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a minute. You just said that after nearly forty hours, I'll earn 4 spirit drops. If I can grind 10 spirit drops per hour, why am I only getting 4 spirit drops instead of 400? Hmm, don't tell me the spirit drops are turning into XP. Because if they're turning into XP, why are there only 4 drops left?"
[Your soul grows stronger as you grind. That's why you earn XP points. On average, each soul drop you produce earns you 10 XP. And as a player, you have to pay 90% of the soul drops you earn to the company.]
"What the hell? That's too much... wait, there's still a discrepancy in the accounts."
[Additionally, you must pay 9% to the system's artificial intelligence.]
As Eren was about to ask another question, he heard a scream coming from the distance. The sound was so far away that Eren could barely hear it.
"Forget it. Use the other card, and we'll continue talking later."
The yellow card also shattered into pieces and disappeared around Eren, while the grinding process's countdown began to decrease rapidly, until it was just over two minutes remaining. After that, the countdown continued normally.
And at that moment, as Eren sat under a tree, looking up at the sky with an expression as if he had had an epiphany, he muttered: "Shit, I just reincarnated into Naruto."