"Damn it... So the 'Truck God' really does push for performance at quarter's end!"
That was the final thought flashing through Crane's mind before he blacked out.
Blinding pain, like someone had slammed a blunt weapon into the back of his skull, shot through him, making his whole body twitch uncontrollably.
Crane's eyes flew open. The first thing he saw was a wooden ceiling unfamiliar to him. The air smelled faintly of old tatami mats, musty, with a sharp undercurrent of disinfectant.
He groaned and struggled to sit up, glancing around.
A suffocatingly small Japanese-style room. Aside from the thin bedding beneath him, the only furniture was a short table. That was it.
Where was he? A prop room on a film set?
The thought was absurd, but it came anyway. Stumbling to the window, he shoved open its fragile wooden frame.
And the moment he did, his pupils contracted violently. His breath caught in his throat.
Outside: a sea of traditional Japanese buildings, people walking the streets… and far in the distance, carved into a massive mountain wall, four enormous stone faces gazed down at the village in silent vigilance.
The First, Second, Third… and Fourth Hokage.
The Hokage Rock, the unmistakable landmark of the Hidden Leaf Village!
Boom!
His mind went blank. Cold fear crawled up his spine like thousands of ants racing toward his brain.
He had transmigrated.
Into a world where death was a daily occurrence. A world that could plunge into a full-scale world war at any moment. A world where even Kage-level powerhouses could fall like weeds.
His hands trembled as he reached for the table beside his bedding. Two items rested there.
One was a standard-issue Konoha forehead protector, the kind you'd see everywhere, except this one had a few shallow scratches across the metal plate.
The other… was a ninja registration card.
He used all his strength just to bring the thin card up to eye level.
[Name: Crane]
[Rank: Genin]
[Ninjutsu: 14/100]
[Taijutsu: 12/100]
[Genjutsu: 9/100]
[Overall Evaluation: Barely qualifies as a ninja. Strongly advised to prioritize D-rank weed-pulling missions.]
"Pff…"
Crane nearly passed out from rage. His vision dimmed.
He wasn't some hidden prodigy from a noble clan. He didn't have Hashirama's cells, didn't inherit a Sharingan. Hell, he didn't even have a surname worthy of attention.
He was a no-name background character with stats so pathetic they made NPCs look like elite soldiers.
Then, like a switch being flipped, an alien thought wormed its way into his head.
Who… am I?
I think… I've always been this Crane guy…?
His memories of reading webnovels on Earth suddenly felt like someone else's dream.
Confusion assaulted him. His temples throbbed. Numb and disoriented, he stumbled out of the room and wandered the streets of Konoha.
He needed to calm down. He needed to confirm what was real.
"Move! Outta the way!"
A loud, energetic voice burst from behind him.
Before he could turn around, a blur of orange slammed into him, nearly knocking him over.
"Sorry, random bro!"
The orange figure shouted over his shoulder and darted off like a whirlwind, kicking up dust.
Blonde hair, orange jacket, six whisker marks on his cheeks,
Naruto Uzumaki.
And not far behind him, huffing and puffing in pursuit, was a man in a Chūnin vest with a horizontal scar across his nose.
Iruka.
Crane opened his mouth to say something. Anything.
But Iruka ran right past him like he didn't even exist, his eyes glued to Naruto's back.
Crane felt like air.
"Random bro...?"
He tasted the nickname on his tongue, and a chill seeped into his bones.
Not only was he weak, he had absolutely no presence.
His ominous suspicion was quickly confirmed.
He got assigned to Team Fifteen, a squad composed entirely of background nobodies.
Their team leader? A plain-faced Chūnin whose name he couldn't even remember, no matter how hard he tried. His two teammates? Completely featureless. They might as well have been named Ninja A and Ninja B.
Their first training exercise was held in the all-too-familiar Training Ground Three.
"Target: Bullseye! Begin!"
The instructor gave the signal.
His two teammates threw their kunai, not with much power, but at least they both hit the target.
Then came Crane's turn.
He mimicked the stance in his fragmented memories, inhaled deeply, poured all his strength into his arm, and hurled the shuriken with all his might!
Shunk,
It traced a weird arc mid-air and, thunk!, landed neatly…
In the trunk of a tree ten meters off target.
A deathly silence fell.
Even the breeze seemed to stop blowing.
The instructor twitched, lips pressing into a silent sigh. His teammates' hopeful gazes turned to pity.
That feeling of being utterly abandoned by the world… washed over him like a cold tide.
Training ended quickly. The others left. Crane stayed behind, alone.
His eyes burned red. Like a beast driven mad, he pounded his fists into the wooden post over and over, bruising knuckles, ignoring the pain.
"Why?! Why me?!"
"With this strength... Forget the Fourth Great Ninja War, even some C-rank bandit would be enough to kill me!"
"I don't want to die! Not like this! Not like some nameless grunt in a corner no one will ever find!"
Fear. Resentment. Helplessness. Rage.
All of it exploded from deep within.
He knew how this world worked. In the Chūnin Exams, during Orochimaru's invasion, or Pain's assault… people like him wouldn't even be considered part of the corpse count.
They'd just vanish.
"BAM!"
He collapsed to the ground, body limp, eyes staring blankly at the sky. He could feel his life ebbing away along with any hope he had left.
Give up. This is your end.
And just when his consciousness was about to fade,
A cold, mechanical voice, devoid of all emotion, exploded like thunder inside his head.
[Alert: Host's 'Presence Level' has fallen below critical threshold…]
[Condition Met…]
[Activating: "King of Nobodies System"… Activation Complete!]
Crane's body jolted.
Hallucinating?
But then, an azure, translucent virtual panel appeared before his eyes, visible only to him.
Its contents were few, but earth-shattering.
[System: King of Nobodies]
[Host: Crane]
[Presence Level: 1 (Basically nonexistent)]
[Core Mechanic: The lower your presence, the stronger the hidden powers you receive. The more you're ignored by the world, the closer you draw to omnipotence.]
What?!
Crane sprang to his feet, eyes glued to those lines of text, heart pounding out of his chest.
The lower his presence, the stronger he became?
His wretched stats, his trash-tier ninja card, his invisible status…
They weren't curses, they were his greatest gift?!
"Ha… hahaha… HAHAHAHA!"
All his suffocating despair flipped in an instant, transformed into a tide of wild joy.
He clutched his face and laughed madly, tears of catharsis spilling from the corners of his eyes.
So that's it. That's what this world wanted from me all along.
It didn't abandon him.
It prepared a path that no one else could walk.
The panel flickered again.
[Newbie Gift Pack Granted. Open Now?]
Here it came.
Crane's hands were trembling with excitement. He swallowed hard, barely restraining himself as he prepared to mentally shout "Open, "
"Hey!"
A sharp voice interrupted him from the entrance to the training ground.
He turned. It was that nameless Chūnin instructor again, frowning and clearly trying to remember his name.
Eventually the man gave up and waved a hand impatiently.
"That guy… whatever. You!"
"Team 7's short one member. You're filling in for a D-rank mission. Move it!"
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter