“Ugh…” Miyuki clamped both hands over her mouth, trembling uncontrollably after hearing that.
Shu wasn’t finished.
“And the nastiest part is that even your hair can be infected by the curse.
Each strand can curl into spirals, develop a will of its own, and grow completely out of control.” “It wraps tighter and tighter around its host while continuously draining away their life force.” Shu summed it up.
“Basically, everything in Kurouzu-cho will eventually be assimilated by spirals.” “And the curse doesn’t discriminate.
As long as you’re still inside this town, you can be affected at any moment.” After hearing his explanation, Tsunade’s expression darkened completely.
Now she finally understood why the mysterious Main God had given them a mission as simple as surviving for five days.
In a bizarre town where everything was gradually mutating into something indescribable, brute force alone could only accomplish so much.
“What kind of disgusting nonsense is this?!” Tsunade gritted her teeth in revulsion.
As one of the shinobi world’s greatest medical-nin, Tsunade had seen countless horrific battlefield wounds and studied all kinds of vicious poisons.
But a curse capable of twisting the human body in such grotesque ways completely overturned everything she had learned over the past several decades.
“If it’s a curse, there should be some way to break it, right?” Tsunade asked after thinking for a moment.
“What about forcibly purging it with chakra?
Would medical ninjutsu work?” Shu shook his head.
“Based on the information I’ve gathered, maybe not.
As for chakra…” “I honestly don’t know.
This is a world of ordinary people.
Chakra doesn’t exist as an energy system here, so whether it can resist the curse is something we’ll have to test ourselves.” “Maybe we’ll get lucky.” Shu quietly considered the possibilities.
People from the shinobi world possessed abnormal physiques.
Their bodies supposedly contained 130 trillion cells.
‘In a way, a ninja is basically some ridiculous high-energy vegetable.’ Whether such a superhuman constitution could resist the spiral curse was completely unknown.
But considering the Main God’s usual style, Shu had serious doubts.
Aside from testing chakra’s resistance, there was something else he wanted to confirm.
Could Reincarnators gain extra Reward Points by actively interfering with the plot and changing how the original story unfolded?
‘If that’s possible…’ Shu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He knew exactly where the true source of Kurouzu-cho’s curse lay.
Deep beneath the town was an ancient ruin.
That ruin acted almost like a gigantic transmitter, endlessly radiating the curse toward the surface and forcing Kurouzu-cho through the same cycle again and again.
When Shu had read Uzumaki in his previous life, he understood that many parts of the story were symbolic.
If examined too literally, some details didn’t make much sense.
For example, countless horrifying incidents happened in town, with people dying in increasingly absurd and grotesque ways.
Yet the townspeople never packed their bags and fled.
They simply continued living there as if nothing had happened.
In reality, that would have been unbelievable.
Of course, later in the story, the entire town became completely sealed off.
By then, even those who wanted to escape no longer could.
But things were different now.
Since this had become a real, living world, any originally questionable parts of the plot would probably be rationalized by whatever force governed this place.
Perhaps the curse had already altered the townspeople’s perception, preventing them from realizing they should leave.
Or maybe some invisible barrier surrounded the outskirts of town, making escape impossible even if they tried.
Shu pushed those thoughts aside.
There was no point overthinking it yet.
Their first priority was figuring out exactly how far the story had progressed.
“Tsunade-sama, whether chakra works or not, we shouldn’t stand around here any longer.” Shu glanced at the gloomy sky.
“Let’s head into town and gather information first.” Tsunade nodded and started forward.
After the three of them left, a faint breeze swept past.
A weed growing beside the road swayed gently.
Its leaves slowly twisted on their own, curling into a flawless spiral.
…
The three followed the asphalt road deeper into Kurouzu-cho.
The sky remained gloomy, and the town felt strangely quiet.
Most buildings lining the streets were only two or three stories tall.
Some had peeling walls that gave the entire area an old, worn-down feeling.
Yet parked cars, streetlights mounted on utility poles, and televisions displayed behind shop windows kept drawing Tsunade’s attention.
“The architecture here really is strange…” Tsunade muttered while looking around curiously.
Miyuki followed behind and couldn’t resist staring around as well.
“It’s another world, Tsunade-sama,” Shu explained casually.
“The ordinary people here don’t have chakra, so they’ve poured their effort into developing technology instead.” “They can accomplish plenty of things without ninjutsu.” “Technology, huh?” Tsunade murmured thoughtfully.
The three continued down the main road.
They hadn’t gone far when Shu suddenly stopped.
A traditional Japanese house stood ahead, with white lanterns hanging outside its entrance.
Faint funeral music drifted from within.
A sign beside the entrance displayed the surname Saito.
Clearly, the family was holding a funeral.
The moment Shu saw the name, something clicked in his mind.
‘Saito?
If I remember correctly, the male lead of Uzumaki was named Saito Shuichi!’ His thoughts raced.
If the Saito family was holding a funeral, then the deceased was probably Shuichi’s father—the man who had become completely obsessed with spirals.
According to the original story, the curse drove Shuichi’s father insane.
He eventually forced his entire body into a round wooden tub, twisting himself alive into a spiral-shaped mass of flesh before dying.
If this was his funeral, then the story had only reached its early stages.
That meant the curse had already begun affecting people, but only on a relatively small scale.
Tsunade noticed Shu staring blankly toward the house and followed his gaze.
“What’s wrong, brat?
Is there something strange about this family’s funeral?” “Something’s wrong.
Very wrong,” Shu replied.
“If I’m not mistaken, we’re about to see firsthand exactly what happens to someone infected by the spiral curse.” With that, Shu immediately headed toward the Saito family’s funeral hall.
“Hey!
Where the hell are you going?” Tsunade blinked in surprise, then had no choice but to follow with Miyuki.
The funeral hall had a gloomy atmosphere, and the air was thick with the smell of incense.
A pale, exhausted-looking boy around seventeen or eighteen knelt before the altar.
Heavy dark circles surrounded his eyes.
It was the male lead, Saito Shuichi.