After handing in her completed registration form, Ayane received a standard-issue Anbu mask painted in black and red, resembling a fierce demon.
As for her custom “Black Swan” mask, she would have to wait a week for the Anbu artisans to craft it specifically for her.
Naturally, she didn’t have the luxury of sitting around waiting for it right now.
[You have acquired a new Title!] The moment her fingers brushed against the Anbu mask, a faint holographic prompt popped into her vision.
Ayane didn’t rush to check the specific details.
Instead, she continued following Woodpecker into the armory to systematically collect her combat supplies and soldier pills.
Even though she was just a rookie who had literally clocked in today, the Anbu’s “employee benefits” were incredibly generous.
She received ten high-grade explosive tags, five kunai and five shuriken forged from refined steel, along with Anbu-exclusive smoke bombs, signal flares, and other tactical gear.
Added all together, the market value was roughly around 20,000 ryo.
Of course, considering they were in the middle of a World War, the actual value of these combat supplies on the black market was likely several times higher.
“Your ninja tool quota resets at the beginning of every month,” Woodpecker stated dryly.
“The village does not ask for previously issued gear back.
How you handle your surplus is up to you.
In the future, you can come to the armory and requisition them yourself.” He paused, hesitating for a second, before lowering his voice to add a tip, “If you time your visits right at the very end of the month, you might get lucky and snag a few extra explosive tags before inventory clears.
The quartermasters usually turn a blind eye.” Ayane had a sudden realization.
Keep the surplus…
End-of-the-month inventory clearance…
Good lord, these were basically off-the-books employee perks!
She nodded to show she understood.
At the same time, she thought to herself: This Woodpecker guy might be a man of few words, but he’s actually pretty responsible when taking care of his own.
He even taught me the unwritten loopholes.
By the time she finished processing her onboarding, dusk had already fallen.
Woodpecker had absolutely no intention of resting.
He immediately led Ayane out of the village, traveling through the night as they sped eastward.
The Anbu truly operated with overbearing arrogance.
When they passed through the main gates of Amegakure, Woodpecker didn’t even bother flashing his ID.
He simply barked, “Emergency Anbu operation,” and completely blew past the guards attempting to inspect them.
Running behind him, Ayane saw it perfectly clear.
When the gate guards approached, Woodpecker hadn’t slowed his pace by a single fraction of a second…
To the Anbu, the village’s regular security forces were apparently less of an obstacle than a speed bump!
After leaving Amegakure, they sprinted at top speed for nearly a hundred miles.
By now, the night sky was pitch black.
Any faint traces of human civilization they had passed earlier had completely vanished.
Woodpecker finally slowed his pace.
He glanced back at the young girl and gave the order.
“We rest here.
I’ll take the night watch.
We resume at daybreak.” He clearly had no intention of pitching a tent or starting a fire.
With a few quick bounds, he leaped up into the canopy of a massive tree, opting to spend the night perched on a thick branch.
Ayane took the initiative, offering, “We should take shifts.
I’ll take the first watch—” Before she could even finish, he cut her off coldly, “No need!
I don’t trust a fresh rookie like you to keep watch!” Ayane: “…” Feeling rebuffed, she had no choice but to follow his lead.
She found her own large, leafy tree next to Woodpecker’s and jumped up into the branches.
She took a bite of a soldier pill.
Ignoring its chalky, bitter taste, she silently called out in her mind: ‘Panel!’ The holographic interface sprang to life.
[New Title: Ame Anbu Member!] [Rarity: Green] [Description: Wear the mask long enough, and you will eventually forget the face beneath it.] [Effect: When wearing a mask, the destructive power of your Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu increases by 15%!] [Reward: You have received 1,000 freely allocatable Achievement Points!] 1,000 points!
I’m rich!
Ignoring the slightly edgy, dramatic title description, Ayane’s eyes lit up the moment she saw the massive reward payout at the bottom.
She quickly checked her current Achievement Point balance.
The number had rocketed up to 2,111 points!
Between the [Ame Genin] and [Ame Anbu Member] titles, she had raked in a whopping 1,800 points in a single day.
Since awakening her cheat system, she had never fought a battle with this much capital!
Naturally, Ayane also noticed that the effects of these two titles were extremely interesting.
The [Ame Genin] effect: When wearing an Amegakure forehead protector, Nin/Tai/Genjutsu power +10%.
The [Ame Anbu Member] effect: When wearing a mask, Nin/Tai/Genjutsu power +15%.
Therefore, as long as she wore her forehead protector and her mask at the same time, both effects would trigger simultaneously, granting her a total 25% damage boost to all her jutsu!
‘Wait, if that’s the case…
When I eventually rank up to Chunin, Jonin, Anbu Squad Captain, or Commander…’ ‘There will definitely be new titles refreshing with similar effects!’ ‘And, assuming all title multipliers can stack infinitely…’ ‘Then after the war ends, what if I manage to earn the respect of other hidden villages?
I could hustle them for things like an ‘Honorary Friend of Konoha/Suna’ forehead protector…’ ‘If I stack all of those together, I could easily reach a 100% damage multiplier across the board, right?’ ‘Doesn’t that mean every single jutsu I cast will basically be a guaranteed critical hit?!’ Kukuku!
Just thinking about it made the corners of her mouth curl up as she slipped into a wild fantasy…
If Kakuzu could shamelessly hoard five different hearts in his body, why couldn’t she, Ayane Amamiya, wear the headbands of all Five Great Nations?
As long as the title buffs stacked, she would strap an entire row of headbands up her arm like a set of metal combat bracers!
It turned out that quantity really could make up for quality to some extent!
Question Danzo.
Understand Danzo.
Become Danzo!
“Swan, control your breathing!” Her excitement hadn’t even lasted ten seconds before Woodpecker’s buzzkill voice drifted over from the neighboring tree.
“I know rookies experience massive emotional swings the first time they deploy to a battlefield, but we are Anbu.
Anbu shinobi do not need such vivid emotions!” Ayane instantly wiped the smile off her face.
Thank goodness she was wearing her mask, or the secondhand embarrassment would have been lethal.
“My code name isn’t Swan, it’s Black Swan!” She didn’t have the heart to correct his assumption about her ’emotional swings’, so she just reiterated her name.
“Woodpecker, you got it wrong.” Woodpecker replied in a painfully flat tone, “Ah, my apologies.
Was it Black Swan?
I misremembered.” The code name is literally two words!
And you were the one who handed me the registration form!
How could you misremember?!
Could you sound any less sincere?!
Ayane finally understood exactly how Takayuki Nagano felt when she had brushed him off with that lazy excuse earlier that morning…
Because Woodpecker had completely killed the conversation in a single sentence.
Their brief exchange came to a screeching halt, and the atmosphere quickly sank back into silence.
Ayane shifted her focus back to the holographic panel.
Since she was flush with cash—having over two thousand Achievement Points—it was naturally time to go on a spending spree.
Her eyes darted across her current Traits.
The Prismatic Trait [Outlander] could not be upgraded.
Pass!
The Purple Trait [Thin Uzumaki Bloodline] required 20,000 points to upgrade.
Pass!
That left her with three available Traits.
[Basic Shurikenjutsu] (White), [Basic Taijutsu] (White), and [Basic Ninjutsu Mastery] (Green).
How to put it…
All three Traits felt useful, but none of them felt like they would provide an immediate, qualitative leap in her combat power…
Ayane didn’t agonize over it for long.
She gritted her teeth and decided to just upgrade them all evenly to maintain a balanced foundation!
In one breath, the young girl dumped 2,000 Achievement Points.
Allocating 500, 500, and 1,000 points respectively, she successfully upgraded all three Traits!
She was about to plunge headfirst into a brutal Great Ninja War.
Every little bit of strength mattered!
Who knew which of these minor improvements might end up saving her life?
After all, the greatest tragedy in the world was dying before you got to spend all your money!