The connection to the Deva Path snapped shut like a door slamming in my mind.
I opened my eyes.
Back in the rainforest.Back in the dark, humid silence.Back in the wheelchair.
My body felt heavy again—still broken, still weak, still damaged beyond normal healing.Even with the Uzumaki life force pulsing through me, I wasn't ready to stand. Not yet.
But the mission was done.
Gotham had been marked.
The Iceberg Lounge massacre was a message the world could not ignore.
And over the next week, the system made that abundantly clear.
The first day, I heard nothing.No notifications.No updates.
Then the second day came—
Ding.
The panel blinked into existence.
[Reputation Gained: +15]
Civilians in Gotham begin discussing the massacre.Akatsuki rumor level: LOW.
I exhaled slowly.
Good. The spark had been lit.
The third day—
[Reputation Gained: +40]
GCPD identifies the red cloud symbol at the crime scene.Akatsuki rumor level: MODERATE.
The fourth day—
[Reputation Gained: +120]
Gotham's underworld confirms the Iceberg Lounge was wiped out by an unknown organization.Akatsuki fear index rising.
Then the fifth day hit, and everything changed.
A new notification appeared—gold instead of blue.
[Main Character Attention Acquired]
Bruce Wayne / Batman has seen the symbol.Dick Grayson / Robin has analyzed the scene.
Reputation Gained: +600
A shiver ran through me.
Main characters.
Core individuals of the DC universe.
The system valued them far more than random civilians.
And then—
[Main Character Analysis: HIGH IMPACT]
Batman has placed "Akatsuki" on his priority threat list.Robin has identified fighting style patterns inconsistent with known metahumans.
Reputation Gained: +300
I leaned back, breath steadying.
Batman. The world's greatest detective.Robin. His prodigy.
They had seen the symbol.They had seen the bodies.They had reached the conclusion I wanted them to reach:
This was organized.This was deliberate.This was not of their world.
And the points kept flowing.
Civilians whispering the symbol in bars. +10GCPD assembling a special task force. +25Criminals abandoning the Iceberg District in fear. +50Batman rerunning surveillance footage five times. +90Robin connecting the massacre to inhuman precision. +80
By the start of the seventh day, my notifications stacked so high I almost got annoyed closing them.
Finally, the system consolidated everything into a single line.
Total RP: 1,980
I stared at the number.
One week.
One message.
One Path of Pain.
Almost two thousand points.
I exhaled slowly—almost laughing.
"I didn't even move from this wheelchair," I whispered.
The world was reacting exactly as I wanted.Fear.Confusion.Speculation.Obsession.
Batman was already investigating me.
And the beauty of it was—
He had no idea what he was truly up against.
Not the Deva Path.Not the red cloud.Not the symbol.
But me.
A man reborn.A god in the making.A being with infinite potential and time.
With nearly 2,000 RP to spend.
I opened the system panel again, fingers trembling with anticipation.
It was time to grow.To expand.To evolve.
The Akatsuki had entered the world.
Now it was time to take it.