Tobirama Senju's suffering wasn't over yet. Trapped in this turbo-charged version of Dark Souls 3, he still had many battles ahead.

After half a year of relentless fighting, having absorbed countless souls, Tobirama had grown immensely powerful—far surpassing his old self in sheer strength. Every movement now packed terrifying force. While he no longer relied on flashy ninjutsu, he had mastered a slew of equally flamboyant spells and abilities.

In this world, many weapons came infused with martial arts techniques—vestiges of the souls and regrets of their former owners. As one of the Ashen Undead, Tobirama gained these weapons and, in turn, inherited their lingering spirits and skills.

This forced him into becoming a superhuman weapon master. If he could carry these abilities back to the ninja world, he'd be able to challenge even Madara Uchiha and say, "Wanna dance too, Madara?"

These weapons—even the inferior ones—would be considered legendary tools in the shinobi world. The top-tier ones? Practically sacred relics, rivaling or even surpassing the Sage of Six Paths' treasures.

But in this chaotic world, all Tobirama could do was use these inherited divine tools to fight twisted beasts and hunt down Lords of Cinder who refused their duty.

Just thinking about those quitters made his emotionless, numb face flash with a cold edge.

As someone who had already resolved to link the fire, Tobirama held nothing but contempt for those who ran from their duty. As the Second Hokage, he took his responsibilities seriously. Once he'd chosen a side, he stuck to it with grim determination.

Add to that his current mental state—one part PTSD, one part wistful obsession with a long-lost ideal—and you got a version of Tobirama whose strength and mindset had become… abstract, to say the least.

In this kind of state, logic need not apply.

From Uchiha Kei's perspective? He'd hit the jackpot.

Seriously. Hit. The. Jackpot.

Everyone knew Uchiha Kei's system was, frankly, a little dumb. It fed off emotional value based on player feedback—it didn't even care what the game itself was like.

Tobirama was playing a version of Dark Souls 3 so immersive it was indistinguishable from reality. But a game was still a game. And that meant feedback was still being generated.

After half a year in-game, Tobirama had long since exhausted the pool of normal emotional responses.

Not that Uchiha Kei cared about those anymore. He had plenty of ordinary emotion values pouring in from the outside world.

What he really cared about was this man—this Second Hokage—undergoing emotional meltdowns in-game. Every burst of excitement, every mental breakdown, contributed directly to the creation of golden spirit energy.

That's right. Tobirama was churning out golden spirit by the bucketload in Dark Souls.

Half a year in-game had passed, but only three days in the real world. In just those three days, Tobirama had produced ten units of golden spirit. Even Madara Uchiha would've admitted: "I can't compete with that."

Tobirama had always been one of the strongest shinobi in the ninja world. He might not have reached super-kage status like his brother Hashirama or his archenemy Madara, but he was still top-tier. Combined with his mastery of forbidden jutsu, his combat strength was already at a super-kage level.

So it made sense that Tobirama's emotional yield in-game was higher than people like Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Now add in the accelerated time dilation, plus full immersion in what he believed was a real world—and Tobirama's output exploded.

The gains were so staggering that even Uchiha Kei felt a little dizzy. And from that dizziness, a wicked idea was born:

What if… from now on… whenever I revive a kage-level shinobi or higher… I just throw them into one of these game-world mods and let them grind away as emotion-farming machines?

Kei thought the idea had potential. Even if other kage-levels weren't as productive as Tobirama, even half as much output would be enough to give him emotional freedom.

Classic management principle: as long as your employees work hard, the boss can buy mansions and drive sports cars.

The more Kei thought about it, the more excited he got.

Sure, it might earn him some enemies… but—

So what?

"Lose your conscience, earn more money.jpg."

Besides, Kei didn't need to be on good terms with every high-level shinobi. Especially not those from other villages—they were perfect tools for this.

Of course, this was all just an idea for now. How he'd proceed in the future would depend on the circumstances.

For the moment, he needed to be grateful.

Grateful to Tobirama Senju for his tireless sacrifice. It was thanks to the Second Hokage's repeated struggles that Kei had come up with such a promising plan. He owed him that much.

Gratitude (hands pressed together).jpg.

With that settled, Uchiha Kei sent Tobirama right back into Dark Souls.

It was just then that Tsunade came looking for Kei.

She'd been keeping track of the time. Kei had promised to summon a soul soon—and she knew that day had come. The one-month deadline was up. It was time to welcome the soul of Tobirama Senju.

So Tsunade came to ask when the summoning ritual would begin—mainly because Kei had mentioned the soul he was summoning this time was her granduncle, Tobirama.

When she asked, Kei didn't dodge or deflect. He gave it to her straight:

"I've already summoned the Second Hokage, actually. That happened a few days ago. But… he wasn't exactly thrilled to see me."

Tsunade's expression froze. Then she quickly asked for the details.

Honestly, she didn't even need to. She could already imagine it clearly: her granduncle's attitude toward Uchiha Kei wouldn't have been friendly. Tobirama's views on the Uchiha Clan were no secret—especially not to someone with full Hokage clearance.

Tsunade could practically hear the tone Tobirama must've used when speaking to Kei.

Now, all she could do was sweat nervously and pray Kei hadn't tormented her granduncle too much...

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