"Akashō, your mom's calling you home for dinner!"
In a small village of a minor country between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, children's voices rose and fell in succession.
Akashō lay on a patch of raised grass, tilting his head slightly. The children of varying ages immediately turned and ran, as if they had seen some kind of monster.
"Heh, a bunch of kids."
Akashō sneered, shook his head, and went back to staring blankly at the clear blue sky.
Come to think of it, it had already been a year since he transmigrated.
With a casual wave of his hand, a black screen like a game interface appeared before his eyes.
Name: Akashō.
Age: 5.
Skills: None.
Special Ability: Uzumaki Constitution.
Villain Template: Kokushibo.
Kokushibo:
Skills: Moon Breathing, Transparent World.
Special Ability: Demon Body, Blood Demon Art — Blade of Living Flesh.
Overall Strength: S−.
Current Reputation: 8.
Notes:
When a Villain Template's reputation reaches 500,000, it can be consumed to unlock the next template. The more reputation consumed upon unlocking, the higher the template's level. A Villain Template's strength level is fixed and will not increase further.
Villain Reputation System.
That was the cheat Akashō obtained after transmigrating.
Its purpose was simple: to make him become the greatest villain.
Its function was to let him transform into different villains, using those templates to accumulate massive amounts of reputation for each one.
Once a template exceeded 500,000 reputation, he could unlock the next.
As a beginner bonus, he had gotten his first template for free—Kokushibo.
Kokushibo, one of the villains from Demon Slayer, the strongest among the Twelve Demon Moons under the Demon King, Upper Rank One—his strength spoke for itself.
However, in the year since transmigrating, Akashō had lived quite leisurely in this village.
His cheap parents didn't earn much, but they weren't poor enough to starve.
The villagers treated people fairly well. Though those kids were annoying and always isolated him because of his red hair, after he once transformed into Kokushibo and scared them, they at least didn't dare to trouble him anymore.
As for this world, he had only heard that ninjas existed. It probably wasn't some high-powered martial world.
With a Kokushibo template, maybe not invincible—but self-preservation should at least be guaranteed.
Living out his days lazily in this small village wasn't so bad.
Akashō sat up, scratched his messy red hair, and walked toward his shabby home.
If he didn't go back soon, that old woman would probably come looking for him with a broom.
Reaching the most remote wooden hut in the village, Akashō pushed open the creaking door.
"I'm back."
But after several seconds, he didn't hear the familiar voice yelling, "You little kid, where did you run off to this time?"
Akashō raised an eyebrow, sniffed lightly, and walked toward the kitchen on the left.
Squelch.
His foot stepped into a pool of red blood. Looking up, he saw a corpse with wide-open eyes, blood still spurting from its neck.
"Damn, bad intel. These two weren't spies. Killed the wrong ones."
"Whatever, just two civilians. Better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one go."
At that moment, two voices came from behind him. Akashō turned his head to see two men wearing tactical vests like special forces soldiers from his previous life, walking from the back room into the front.
They noticed his striking red hair and exchanged a glance.
Akashō's gaze dropped. Blood was still dripping from the short blade in one man's hand.
Two civilians… so that cheap old man was dead too.
"There's still a kid."
"Kill him too. If this leaks out, it'll be troublesome."
The two Sand Village ninja finished their exchange. The one holding the short blade quickly strode toward Akashō.
Akashō snapped back to his senses. They wanted to silence him?
The blade rose, its clean edge reflecting his messy red hair.
"I really didn't want to do this."
Akashō stepped forward. His small body suddenly grew much taller.
A spray of blood shot into the air. The Sand ninja who had swung at him clutched his neck in disbelief—but half his neck had already been severed. In less than a second, he collapsed with a thud, his wide-open eyes fixed on the woman's corpse in the kitchen.
The other Sand ninja's pupils shrank sharply. He leapt back three meters and pulled a kunai from his pouch.
Standing not far before him was a terrifying figure—long dark red hair tied behind his head, clothes burst apart leaving only a scrap barely covering his lower body.
But that wasn't the important part.
The important part was the face—six horrifying blood-red eyes. Especially the central pair, with yellow irises bearing the markings "Upper Rank" and "One." Flame-like markings spread across his left forehead and the right side of his neck.
"What… what kind of monster are you!?"
The Sand ninja's voice trembled uncontrollably. This form wasn't human.
And this inhuman monster had killed his equally strong teammate in the blink of an eye—meaning he would meet the same fate.
Akashō, now in Kokushibo's form, raised his right hand and wiped the blood from the long blade formed from his own flesh through Blood Demon Art.
"What a disgustingly foul smell of blood."
All six of his eyes blinked at once. Then he stepped forward, slowly approaching the terrified ninja.
"You've seen something you shouldn't have. I'll have to silence you."
The ninja trembled and took a step back, swallowing hard.
"I didn't see anything—I didn't see anything! I won't tell anyone, please… spare me…"
"Too late."
Akashō raised the blade lined with eyes and brought it down. The Sand ninja was split cleanly in two.
...
Akashō stood there in a daze. When the storm of blood inside the house finally settled, his body gradually shrank, returning from that terrifying demon form to his original appearance.
He turned to look at the woman's corpse. Her eyes were still open, a cooking ladle clutched in her hand.
"Too late…"
"Well, I've been freeloading here for a year. I've avenged you, at least. Might as well give you a proper burial."
Akashō went to the back room, dragged out the corpse of a middle-aged man, then pulled the woman's body as well, hauling them out of the wooden hut.
Under the shocked and stunned gazes of the villagers, a small figure dragged two adult corpses out of the village. After searching for a while, he buried them together in a place with decent sunlight.
After piling up the dirt, Akashō cut a wooden plank and clumsily carved their names into it. After a moment of hesitation, he added one more line:
Your son, Akashō.