The ground began to grow scorching hot.
The stone wall in front of Big Eyeball glowed red with heat.
Motomu thought this was bad; he hadn't expected the White Snake Sage to have a move like this prepared within Ryuchi Cave.
Big Eyeball's exterior already felt the distinct sear of heat; a few more seconds and it might actually start sizzling.
Things were getting intense!
Circulating his cultivation technique, Motomu felt a slight wave of relief, allowing him to barely withstand the high temperature.
But more problems followed. Immense pressure from the deep underground began to crush him, making it increasingly difficult for Motomu to breathe inside Big Eyeball.
The dull gurgling of bubbling magma echoed from all around.
Good grief, she really blasted him straight into the earth!
Is this even still Ryuchi Cave?
I wonder if I've hit the mantle yet.
After a few complaints, a familiar summoning sensation surfaced in his mind.
With a poof...
Having successfully dispelled the Reverse Summoning Jutsu, he returned to the ninja world.
Drenched in sweat, a flushed Big Eyeball appeared in the forest.
He was finally back in safety.
After retracting Big Eyeball, Motomu immediately checked the system prompts from earlier.
The experience points had arrived as scheduled.
700 points for escaping the two Snake Himes.
2,200 points for escaping the White Snake Sage.
Combined with what he had saved up, it was exactly enough for Big Eyeball to reach Level 41. Motomu didn't hesitate and funneled all the experience into Big Eyeball.
On the system panel, the level next to Pokémon: Right Eye jumped from 40 to 41.
Looking at the efficiency...
Motomu could only conclude that the old-school methods were still the best.
Next, he needed to see what kind of Mangekyo he could draw from the Evolution Stone.
Motomu clicked open his system inventory and went to the Evolution Stone page.
A mysterious stone, nearly identical to the last one, lay there quietly.
Perhaps sensing his previous resentment, the system automatically displayed the instructions for the Evolution Stone this time.
After a careful re-reading, Motomu confirmed he was ready.
This was definitely how it was done.
Recalling the painful lesson from before...
As eyes that reflect the heart, awakening a good ability required intense emotion.
Without emotion, wasn't it just a random draw?
Patriarch Bodhi, Jade Emperor, Guanyin, please bless me...
While muttering under his breath...
Motomu reached out and tapped his forehead and chest in a cross.
"Amen!"
Clearing his mind and maintaining a heart of absolute piety, he whispered internally.
'System, use the Evolution Stone.'
[DING]
[USE SUCCESSFUL]
[RIGHT EYE CLONE EVOLVING]
Big Eyeball No. 2 burst out of its socket.
After a flash of white particle effects...
Blue text from the system confirming the successful use appeared in Motomu's vision.
[CONGRATULATIONS TRAINER, UNLOCKED POKEMON EVOLUTION CHOICE × 2]
[THIS RESULT CAN BE SAVED]
[TO UNLOCK MORE OPTIONS, USE ANOTHER EVOLUTION STONE]
[MANGEKYO LEFT EYE: MIRROR IMAGE WORLD]
[MANGEKYO LEFT EYE: AMATERASU]
Yes, yes, yes!
Motomu, who had been praying with his eyes shut tight, snapped them open.
He had pulled an SSR!
It was an ability he'd never even heard of!
This must be the Mangekyo unique to him.
With a new technique appearing, Motomu pondered the name and fell into thought.
Mirror Image?
Not Dreamscape?
What was this thing?
It sounded incredible, almost like Obito's Kamui dimension.
If he wasn't mistaken, it was probably a Space-Time ability!
No Space-Time ability was weak.
If it was, it was the user's problem!
Like the Door-Door Fruit from One Piece—why not just open a backdoor?
Is that not a door?!
Ultimately, it all came down to using your head.
And Motomu had plenty of brains.
Five minutes passed.
"Is there no system tooltip or something?"
"Just giving me a name? How am I supposed to interpret this?"
[MANGEKYO LEFT EYE: MIRROR IMAGE WORLD]
[SPEND 10 YEARS TO CREATE A MIRROR-SYMMETRIC WORLD WITHIN DREAMS THAT BELONGS ONLY TO YOU.]
The system rarely provided further explanation.
Looking at the text, Motomu barely managed to grasp the function.
In short, he could create a one-to-one replica of reality within a dream.
But the cooldown to initiate it was as long as Kotoamatsukami.
Why was Obito's Kamui dimension usable instantly?
Yet this Mirror Image World requires ten years?
Perplexed, Motomu didn't make his choice immediately.
Remembering the previous hide-and-seek game, Motomu seemed to catch onto a thread.
If he could play hide-and-seek in the Mirror Image World, wouldn't he be invincible?
In a Mirror Image World that belonged only to him, he'd never have to worry about being found.
In the past, he would have picked it without hesitation.
But after his last Mangekyo selection...
Motomu gave deeper consideration to these strange abilities.
Spending ten years... how does that work exactly?
It better not put him in a hard CC lock for a decade.
If that happened, wouldn't Anko and Cobra treat him like a vegetable?
Even worse, Orochimaru might decide to recycle him, dismantling him for Gundam parts.
Motomu didn't choose immediately, looking instead at the next ability.
Amaterasu. He knew that one.
Uchiha Itachi's signature move—black flames that burn until the target is gone.
It had plenty of style in the original series.
But its actual performance was a bit of a mixed bag.
It burned the Raikage's arm but got cut off, burned Obito but got absorbed, and burned Zetsu but he just molted and fled.
Simply put, against high-level opponents, it was mostly just for show.
He closed his eyes, weighing the options repeatedly.
Amaterasu had a high floor but a low ceiling.
Good for burning minions, but a waste of Chakra against true experts.
Mirror Image World had an unknown floor and an unknown ceiling.
It could be a dud, or it could be a god-tier skill.
If he had to choose right now, he'd pick Amaterasu.
At least it was tangible; he knew how to use it.
Mirror Image World.
If that world is a mirror of reality, would his actions inside affect the real world?
If he placed an item there, would it appear in reality?
The system didn't say yes, but it didn't say no either.
The most important point was that this ability didn't exist in the original series.
Thinking back to the games he played in his previous life...
When a new hero first drops, people always call them garbage.
Then, once a broken strategy is discovered a few days later, the devs nerf them into the ground.
It's not that the hero was weak; it's that people didn't know how to play them yet.
After a long period of indecision...
Motomu set the choice aside for now.
Ten years was too long; he'd wait a bit more.
Maybe the next refresh would offer something better.
Regardless, the Mangekyo stage was long, and at this level, his usage was limited by visual power anyway.
Getting it now or later didn't matter much.
He'd rather see what new tricks the Kidney could come up with.
As a Water-attribute Pokémon, logically, it should counter the Heart's Fire attribute.
The lack of Chakra change before was likely because the Kidney's level was too low and it was being suppressed by the Heart.
Now, with Big Eyeball paused, he could use the experience to level up the Kidney and check the results.
However, things didn't stay as quiet as Motomu had hoped.
The next morning...
A masked figure broke the month-long streak of leisure.
After a brief exchange...
Motomu strapped on his ninja tool pouch and headed for the Anbu base.
A new Anbu mission had been assigned.
[ Author's Note : If you're loving the story, a power_stone, review or comment means the world!
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