In the vast darkness, only the colossal entity in the center emitted an eternal golden radiance.
It was a suffocatingly massive throne.
Its entire structure was constructed from an unknown golden metal, densely covered with intricately dazzling mechanical pipelines and ancient, mysterious religious runes.
Countless cables extended from the base of the throne like blood vessels, plunging deep into the ground as if draining the nourishment of the entire planet.
Naruto stood before the throne as the system's item description emerged on his retina.
[Prop: Golden Throne]
[Description: A psionic amplification device originating from a certain plane, the unyielding lighthouse of an interstellar empire, and the positioning beacon for subspace navigation.]
[Effects:]
[1. Psionic Amplification: Massively magnifies the user's abilities and maintains the user's vital signs in an immortal state.]
[2. Subspace Projection: Projects the will into a higher-dimensional mental plane, ignites the Astronomican, and uses it as a singularity to construct a mental world covering the physical world.]
[3. Psionic Black Hole: Maintaining the operation of the throne requires the consumption of astronomical amounts of mental power and energy; if the user's mental power is insufficient, they will suffer a backlash and be burned to ashes.]
"Does it require consuming mental power rather than pure chakra...?"
There was not a single trace of fear in his eyes, only a yearning for the unknown.
"Then let's give this A-rank prop a try."
He walked up the steps one by one, turned around, and sat down steadily.
The moment he sat down, countless golden neural probes thrust out from the back of the chair, precisely connecting to his spine and the back of his head.
Boom!
The world changed.
At that instant, Naruto felt as if his soul had broken away from his heavy flesh, expanding infinitely and rising into the heavens.
It was an indescribable freedom.
An unprecedented sense of omnipotence flooded his consciousness.
His vision expanded instantly, piercing through thousands of meters of earth, covering the entire Northern Territory, and even spreading toward the distant sea.
He could see the trajectory of a moving insect, hear the heartbeats of tens of thousands of civilians, and even feel the movement of every speck of dust in the air.
This feeling...
In this domain, he felt that he was no longer an individual, but the very heaven and earth itself.
It was as if he only needed a single thought to alter any rule in this land and force all things into submission.
However...
Before he could even enjoy this pleasure of controlling everything, his consciousness suddenly began sending frantic alarms to him.
Insufficient mental power!
The originally docile stream of information instantly turned as violent as a tsunami.
Hundreds of millions of sounds, images, perceptions, and emotions madly surged into Naruto's brain like a breached dam.
Countless details that no one would ever notice were forcibly squeezed into his mind, nearly blowing apart his consciousness.
"Ugh—"
Naruto let out a muffled groan, his hands tightly gripping the armrests of the throne.
Third-order Gene Lock, activated!
He frantically pushed his brain to its limits, trying to use the super-computing power brought by the third-order Gene Lock to sort out this torrent of information.
However, this was like trying to catch a cascading waterfall with a small bucket.
It was merely a drop in the ocean.
Drip.
A drop of warm liquid fell.
It was blood.
Fresh blood flowed from Naruto's nostrils, the corners of his eyes, and his ear canals.
The blood vessels on his forehead throbbed wildly, and his brain even began to overheat.
The Nine-Tails chakra inside his body was burning frantically, trying to repair his damaged body.
But it was meaningless.
The Nine-Tails could only provide near-infinite energy, but it could not satisfy the demand for mental power.
He only lasted for ten seconds.
"Just... stop!"
Naruto suddenly got up, pulled out the connecting needles, and tumbled wretchedly from the throne, crashing heavily onto the ground.
"Haa... haa..."
How long had it been since he was in such a wretched state?
Naruto panted heavily, his collar stained with blood.
His brain hurt intensely, as if it were being stirred by a red-hot branding iron.
He had failed.
Even with the third-order Gene Lock activated, and even with the infinite chakra of the Nine-Tails, he still couldn't control this Golden Throne alone.
No wonder such a powerful item was only judged as A-rank.
Its side effects were simply not something an ordinary person could endure.
Lying on the cold ground, Naruto looked at the throne before him, which was still emitting a sacred golden light that seemed to mock the powerlessness of mortals.
He did not feel defeated.
On the contrary, he wiped the blood off his face as a smile curled the corners of his mouth instead.
He understood what he was lacking.
The Nine-Tails was just a battery; what the throne needed was mental power, or rather—computing power.
"A person's mental power has its limits."
Naruto slowly got up, supporting himself on the edge of the throne as the light in his eyes became even more dangerous than before.
"Even if I evolve to the fourth order of the Gene Lock, or even the fifth order... facing such a massive amount of data, individual computing power will never be enough."
He took off his blood-stained glasses and wiped them casually, his eyes dark and profound.
A specific memory surfaced in his mind.
It was the intelligence previously extracted from White Zetsu's brain—the Eye of the Moon Plan!
"Madara Uchiha... what a specter of the old era, with such narrow capacity."
Recalling that plan, Naruto let out a disdainful sneer.
"Gathering the chakra of the entire world and creating the God Tree, just to construct a dream where everyone escapes reality..."
"Too wasteful."
"It's simply a reckless waste of divine treasures."
A brand new, grandiose plan was rapidly constructed in his mind.
In the real world, resources were scarce, the flesh was weak and bitter, and it was filled with inescapable injustice and pain.
But if the Golden Throne was used as a server and a coordinate, and the God Tree was utilized to connect the brains of all humans together...
"That wouldn't be a dream... but... the Second World!"
"What Madara wants is a static, fake peace."
"What I want is a fluid, evolving civilization."
"Humans in the Second World will still have to compete, earn points, and contribute computing power for a better life."
"I won't raise trash, not even in the mental world."
A fanatical light flickered in Naruto's eyes as he reached out his hand, as if grasping the future itself.
In this concept, humans would attain eternal life in the mental world.
They would no longer be bound by the flesh, free from hunger and illness.
And as a price—or rather, rent.
Their brains would operate unconsciously in the background, providing Naruto with a steady stream of massive computing power to maintain the operation of the Golden Throne.
And in the mental world, Naruto would grant them the right to exchange everything through points.
As long as they contributed computing power, they could obtain points, enjoy imperial-like treatment in the mental world at an extremely low cost, and even exchange those points for a perfect physical body to return to the real world.
"This is true equality for all living beings."
Naruto looked back at the Golden Throne, raised his hand to form a jutsu seal, and temporarily sealed it away.
Now, he no longer needed to worry about this matter.
Because someone was already doing this for him.
"It seems there is no need to go after the Akatsuki to collect the Tailed Beasts."
Naruto walked toward the exit, his trench coat rustling behind him.
"On the contrary, I am going to help them, and then... use them."
"Let them collect the Tailed Beasts, let them resurrect the Ten-Tails, and let them plant that God Tree."
Naruto pushed up his glasses, the reflection on the lenses obscuring the world-devouring ambition hidden deep in his eyes.
"When the fruit matures..."
"I will take over its permissions, and then..."
"Let everyone ascend spiritually!"