“Level 15 already.
The final Hextech augment!”
“I have to get Convert Physical to Magic!”
Inside his rented apartment, a young man controlled his mouse, ordering Ryze—already decked out in a full set of endgame equipment—to charge straight into the enemy fountain and sacrifice himself.
He kept muttering under his breath:
“Convert Physical to Magic, Convert Physical to Magic, Convert Physical to Magic!”
As the screen faded to gray, the Hextech augment selection appeared.
The option in the center immediately caught the young man’s eye.
[Convert Physical to Magic: Converts bonus Attack Damage into Ability Power, and additionally grants 15% Ability Power.]
“YES!
Ryze Emperor!
I can finally play Ryze Emperor!”
His hand trembled from excitement as he gripped the mouse, but he still managed to click precisely on the [Convert Physical to Magic] augment.
“Goliath, Mind to Matter, Overflow, Convert Physical to Magic!
It isn’t theoretically the most perfect combination, but Ryze Emperor has both of his scaling stats now!
This game is going to be insane!
I’m taking off!”
The young man burst into laughter, preparing to control Ryze as he headed out to slaughter the enemy team.
Suddenly, a notification appeared in the chat window:
The enemy team has surrendered!
Immediately afterward, the camera shifted away from Ryze and toward the enemy base.
As the Nexus exploded, a huge VICTORY icon appeared in the center of the screen.
“No!”
“Fuck!”
“I finally got a Ryze Emperor game, and they surrendered before I could even have any fun?!”
The young man stared at the screen with wide eyes, unable to believe what had just happened.
The most satisfying game he’d had in ages had ended before it even began.
That somehow felt worse than losing.
Bang!
Unable to contain himself, the young man slammed his fist onto the desk.
He failed to notice that the glass of water sitting on the table had been knocked into the air by the impact.
It flew straight into his computer tower.
A burst of sparks flashed.
Everything went black.
The young man lost consciousness.
…
The Shinobi World, Year 41 of Konoha.
The Second Great Ninja War had entered its final stages, with only a few localized battlefields still locked in confrontation.
After years of chaos, the shinobi world had finally entered a rare period of relative peace.
Konoha Ninja Academy.
A new generation of children was arriving to enroll.
Some came alone.
Others were accompanied by their parents.
As a war orphan, Kuroda Ren naturally came alone.
After filling out the enrollment form, he followed the signs until he found the classroom for Year One, Class A.
Perhaps he had arrived too early.
The classroom was completely empty.
Kuroda Ren walked to a seat near the window in the back row and sat down.
The moment he settled into his seat, a voice suddenly sounded inside his head.
[Ding!
Class upgraded to: Ninja Academy Student.
Please select your Hextech augment.]
[Current Hextech Tier: Gold.]
A translucent interface appeared before his eyes.
Three cards were arranged in a row.
[Final City Train: Upon your death, launch a train toward the enemy who killed you.
Every living being struck by the train will suffer massive physical damage.
The train will disappear after traveling once around the planet.]
[Upgrade—Snowball: Your Snowball gains Ability Haste.
Upon hitting a target, it creates an area that slows enemies within it and deals ninjutsu damage.]
[Lucky Bag: Every day, receive gold and a small amount of random stats.]
Unlike in the game, there was no opportunity to reroll.
He could only choose one of the three options, and the properties of the Hextech augments had also undergone some subtle changes.
For example, the area magic damage from [Upgrade—Snowball] had become “ninjutsu damage.”
Likewise, [Lucky Bag] no longer required him to physically pick anything up.
The rewards were granted directly.
However, its refresh interval had changed from several dozen seconds to once per day.
This was reality, not a game.
Naturally, there was no reason to consider [Final City Train], an augment that only activated upon death.
Moreover, there were no Summoner Spells.
That meant everything related to [Snowball] was completely useless to him and could be eliminated as well.
The only option left was [Lucky Bag].
Kuroda Ren made his choice.
[Obtained 22 Gold and 5 Attack Damage.]
Ignoring the negligible gains, Kuroda Ren glanced around the empty classroom and silently thought:
System.
The system interface unfolded.
…
Name: Kuroda Ren
Age: 6
Class: Ninja Academy Student
Constitution: 608
(Related to physical attributes.
Genin standard: 10; Chūnin: 100; Jōnin: 1,000.)
Spirit: 165
(Related to mental power.
Genin standard: 10; Chūnin: 100; Jōnin: 1,000.)
Chakra Maximum: 1,183
(Genin standard: 10; Chūnin: 100; Jōnin: 1,000.)
Attack Damage: 608
(Melee physical attack power.
Minimum value equals Constitution.)
Ability Power: 199
(Ninjutsu and genjutsu attack power.
Minimum value equals Spirit.)
Kekkei Genkai: None
Skills:
Arcane Mastery: Passive.
Grants an additional amount of chakra equal to (10% × Ability Power)%.
Hextech:
Mind to Matter: Passive.
Increases Constitution by an amount equal to half of your maximum chakra.
Convert Physical to Magic: Converts bonus Attack Damage into Ability Power and additionally grants 15% Ability Power.
Can be toggled on or off at any time.
Lucky Bag: Every day, receive gold and a small amount of random stats.
Equipment:
Tear of the Goddess: Passive.
Grants 600 maximum chakra (240 + 360).
“Manaflow”: When a skill hits a target, gain 3 maximum mana, up to a maximum of 360.
…
Above the personal status interface was the logo of the Strongest Hextech System.
Several option buttons were arranged along both sides:
[Shop]
[Hextech Options]
[Champion Templates]
[Minion Summoning]
However, aside from [Shop] and [Hextech Options], the other two options could not be opened.
The [Shop] that could be accessed was also no different from the game.
Equipment had to be purchased with gold.
At present, aside from the [Lucky Bag] augment—which provided him with a small amount of gold every day—Kuroda Ren had no other way of obtaining gold.
Relying solely on [Lucky Bag] to receive a few dozen gold per day, it would take an extremely long time to save enough for a full set of six legendary items.
Fortunately, six years ago, when he had first transmigrated into the Naruto world and awakened the system, the “Beginner’s Gift Pack” it provided had directly given Kuroda Ren a complete “Ryze Emperor Template.”
It included Ryze, the Rune Mage from the game, along with his passive skill [Arcane Mastery], as well as the two core Hextech augments that Ryze needed to transform into the legendary “Ryze Emperor”:
[Mind to Matter] and [Convert Physical to Magic].
In Hextech Mayhem, “Ryze Emperor” was considered the most ridiculously overpowered stat monster of them all.
His core passive, [Arcane Mastery], increased his mana based on his Ability Power.
The higher his Ability Power, the higher his maximum mana.
The two core Hextech augments were equally important.
[Convert Physical to Magic] converted all bonus Attack Damage into Ability Power.
[Mind to Matter], meanwhile, increased his health according to his mana.
Then there were several core items.
The three-item “Tear set” increased health, Attack Damage, and Ability Power based on maximum mana.
Overlord’s Bloodmail increased Attack Damage based on health.
Riftmaker increased Ability Power based on health.
And on top of all that was Rabadon’s Deathcap, which increased Ability Power by a percentage.
Six legendary items.
Two core Hextech augments.
One passive skill.
Health converted into Attack Damage.
Attack Damage converted into Ability Power.
Ability Power increased mana.
Mana increased health.
Health converted back into Attack Damage.
The cycle continued endlessly, like stepping on one’s own foot and spiraling straight into the heavens.
The final result was that his health, mana, and Ability Power could all break through the game’s normal numerical limits.
Right now, Kuroda Ren was only missing one thing before he could become the legendary Ryze Emperor:
A full set of god-tier equipment.
“The six items for Ryze Emperor should cost a little over 18,000 gold in total.
Assuming the [Lucky Bag] augment gives me an average of twenty gold per day…”
“That means more than 900 days.”
“Almost three years…”