Rasa looked at the strange interface before him, and in just a few seconds his heart shifted from shock to ecstasy.
At the same time, he forced himself to stay calm, keeping his expression neutral so no trace of joy would show.
Although his head was lowered, and logically no one should see his face clearly, this was the ninja world—where one could never rule out the possibility of being secretly observed.
Silently, Rasa called out in his mind: System?
No response came.
But he wasn't disappointed.
Instead, he focused and kept trying to interact with the glowing interface in his consciousness.
The moment he clicked again, the interface shifted, and a voice—neither male nor female—resounded in his head:
"The Super Favorability System is attempting activation. This requires one year of the host's lifespan. Do you agree?"
Rasa felt oddly relieved at the emotionless tone.
One year of life? he thought. That's nothing. More than worth the price.
He responded firmly in his heart: I agree.
He braced himself for sudden pain or change, but after a few seconds, nothing happened. Only the voice returned:
"The host agreed within one second. Standard achieved. One year of lifespan extracted. System officially and perfectly activated."
Hearing that, Rasa's emotions tangled.
So if I had hesitated longer, it wouldn't have been a perfect activation?
He pushed the thought aside and looked at the system's interface again. It had shifted once more, revealing three icons:
Host
Character Favorability
Exchange
Suppressing his excitement, Rasa chose to open the Character Favorability tab first.
"The first time the host opens Character Favorability, a random reward is granted—a mid-grade Favorability Doubling Fruit!"
"This fruit allows the host to double a target's favorability once per day, up to a maximum of 100."
The detailed explanation of the fruit instantly imprinted itself into his mind.
Reading the description, his eyes lit up. Though his head remained lowered, his breathing quickened.
With something this powerful… wouldn't it be effortless to realize the harem dream I've secretly harbored?
Pushing aside the thought, Rasa tapped further into the favorability menu. A notification appeared:
"You have gained one distributable favorability point."
He ignored the pop-up and checked the ranking list that displayed everyone's impressions of him.
There she was—Pakura—sitting at 19th place.
Her favorability toward him was only seven points.
Before he could think further, the system's cold voice explained automatically:
"Zero points means strangers. One point means only heard of each other. Five points means mere nodding acquaintances. Ten points means ordinary friends..."
Rasa quickly grasped the logic.
Unlike the systems from the reincarnated novels he'd read, this one wasn't harsh. Those usually started at fifty points for "friends," anything lower counted as dislike, and favorability would plummet at the slightest misstep.
Here, however, below zero meant dislike, while forty points meant friends for life and death. More importantly, once favorability rose, it was hard to make it drop.
If a friend's score was 20, even careless words wouldn't matter—she would laugh it off. The higher the score, the stronger the loyalty.
It was, in essence, an enhanced version of the "love-brain" mindset during the height of passion—but unlike real life, it only grew stronger and never cooled over time.
And it wasn't illusionary. Once the system raised someone's favorability, it became their genuine, heartfelt emotion.
Relief washed over Rasa.
There might not be many powerful kunoichi in this world, but there were still a few. Raising their favorability to the maximum could completely change the tide of his future.
And he hadn't even checked the Exchange function yet—there had to be combat-related rewards.
Deciding quickly, he commanded: Allocate that favorability point to Pakura. Use the Favorability Doubling Fruit on her.
"Ding! Favorability assigned. Pakura's favorability increased to 8 points."
"Favorability Doubling Fruit used. Pakura's favorability rose from 8 points to 16 points."
"First favorability allocation detected—host gains 1 skill point."
"First item used—rewarding 30 skill points."
"Total increase of 9 favorability points—host gains 9 skill points."
Hearing the string of notifications, Rasa exhaled in relief and carefully lifted his head.
Around him, the office was still buzzing with quiet discussions. His twenty seconds of silence had gone mostly unnoticed.
But the mention of "skill value" caught his attention.
So that's the system's currency. And every time favorability increases, I gain more skill points… this could be an endless cycle.
"Master Rasa, are you alright?"
A cold but concerned female voice drew his attention.
He turned and saw Pakura leaning slightly toward him, her beautiful, stern face softened with genuine worry.
Inwardly, he knew—this was the effect of her new favorability score.
According to the system's standards, 16 points already made her a proper friend.
He smiled gently, shook his head, and replied softly:
"I'm fine."
Pakura studied him, puzzled.
For some reason, she felt deeply familiar with Rasa, as though they were long-standing friends.
But when she thought about it, that didn't make sense. They had barely spoken before—just polite exchanges in passing.
Strange… why does it feel like we've always been friends? she wondered.
Then, almost instantly, her mind corrected itself: What am I thinking? Of course we've always been friends. Maybe not close, but we clicked from the start.
If anyone could hear her thoughts, they would be horrified. Her reasoning had been twisted without her noticing, and she accepted it as natural.
Pakura gave herself a wry smile, then simply looked at Rasa in silence. With her personality, she didn't have many friends—so Rasa naturally felt like an important one.
But Rasa wasn't paying her any attention now. His thoughts were elsewhere.
Even with the system in hand, he couldn't relax. He had to correct the great mistake that the Sand Village was about to make.
That would buy him the time to strengthen himself—to gain real power and the ability to protect his own life.
Only once he was strong enough could he think about anything else.
At the front, Chiyo listened quietly as the murmuring of the crowd grew louder and louder until it was no longer whispering. Finally, she spoke.