After finishing his morning training, Shiro Akira arrived at the classroom.
He had barely sat down when Asuma Sarutobi showed up again.
The moment he saw Shiro Akira, Asuma strode over angrily. "Don't think beating a few small fry makes you amazing! I won't lose to you!"
After saying that, he awkwardly turned his head aside and added, "Also… those three weren't sent by me! But it is related to me… so, sorry!"
With that, Asuma turned and walked away without looking back, returning to his seat.
Shiro Akira: "…"
So this guy came all the way here early in the morning just to say that?
Looks like he got lectured by the Third Hokage.
Shiro Akira felt he had guessed the truth.
And he was right.
After returning home last night, Asuma had been dragged over and scolded by his father, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who also explained Shiro Akira's situation.
The Third Hokage had strictly forbidden Asuma from associating with those people again.
Although Asuma felt displeased, he was the kind of person who took responsibility. If he wanted to compete with Shiro Akira for Kurenai, he would do so openly—no underhanded tricks.
That was why he apologized.
"What did Asuma mean just now? Did someone cause trouble for you, Shiro Akira? Do you need help?"
Beside him, Kurenai Yuhi asked with concern, shooting Asuma a sharp glare.
Asuma felt both depressed and hurt.
The difference in how Kurenai treated him versus Shiro Akira was ridiculous.
"No need."
Shiro Akira shook his head. "Just a few guys trying to curry favor with Asuma. They came looking for trouble, but I already dealt with them."
"I see!"
Kurenai nodded in realization.
She gave Asuma an apologetic look, which immediately improved his mood and reduced some of his resentment toward Shiro Akira.
…
In the blink of an eye, a week passed in Shiro Akira's routine of study and training.
During this time, he had successfully learned and mastered the C-rank ninjutsu, Lightning Release: Thunder Sphere.
His basic swordsmanship had also reached an entry level.
Lightning body tempering had produced solid results, significantly improving his physique and stamina.
Now, he could maintain lightning elementalization for fifteen seconds.
Additionally, Shiro Akira had further practiced the Three Basic Techniques and completed chakra control training like tree climbing and water walking.
"The cooldown is finally over. Time for the second exchange!"
Sensing that his talent had refreshed, Shiro Akira excitedly took out a small bundle of black hair from his box and muttered, "Obito… let's see just how valuable you are!"
That's right—the hair had been secretly plucked from Obito Uchiha a couple of days ago.
At the time, it had hurt so much that Obito nearly fought him.
"Uchiha hair should count as a special item… it should have some value, right?"
This was essentially a test.
"Exchange!"
Shiro Akira silently activated his ability. In the next moment, the hair in his hand vanished.
Then, an image appeared in his mind:
…
In a post-apocalyptic world—
Wang Fan swung his blade, cleanly decapitating another zombie. Flicking the blood off his sword, he grinned smugly. "This should level me up, right? Let's see… System, open my status panel. Time to allocate points!"
But this time, the system interface didn't appear.
Instead, over a dozen strands of black hair drifted down from the air in front of him.
Wang Fan: "...??? "
What the hell was this?
"Where did this hair come from?"
He looked up in confusion—nothing.
Looked around—still nothing.
Even more confused.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on it.
The missing status panel made him panic. He hurriedly shouted, "System! Open the status panel! Open it! Come on, open it!"
"Damn it! What's going on? Did it break?"
No matter how much he called, the panel didn't appear.
Wang Fan began to panic.
The system was his foundation for survival in this apocalyptic world.
And now it was gone?
"Did the system disappear? Abandon me? How am I supposed to survive in this increasingly dangerous world?!"
He quickly calmed himself and began testing.
Eventually, he discovered that the system was still there—he could still gain experience and attribute points by killing zombies and mutated beasts, level up, and allocate stats.
Only the interface… was gone.
"Phew! Good thing the core functions are still there. Just don't know why the interface disappeared… scared me to death!"
"Is this system defective or something? Why would it have such a bug?"
Wang Fan muttered in confusion.
The system now felt extremely unreliable.
(Leveling System: I'm confused too! Someone tell me—where the hell did my status panel plugin go?!)
…
"Tch. A transmigrator? A system-type protagonist? Interesting…"
After watching the scene, Shiro Akira stroked his chin thoughtfully.
He had also noticed that Wang Fan extracted crystal cores from zombie brains.
"That world has great resources. I should study this more—maybe I can continue exchanging with it in the future."
Shiro Akira had already set his sights on that world.
At that moment, a piece of information appeared in his mind:
[Attribute Panel]: A system attribute panel belonging to an unlucky transmigrator. It displays the host's attributes and status, quantifies stats, skill proficiency, and more.
(It was originally a plugin function of a system, meant to accompany the protagonist Wang Fan as he rose to power through killing and plundering. Unfortunately, it was jointly sabotaged by the Exchange System and the world's will. All potential risks of this plugin have been completely removed.)
…