I am Jinshan Youxia

No matter how fast he charged, he couldn't see any other scenery. There were no people, no wild animals, no breaths within his perception range, only seemingly endless bamboo.

After wasting more than an hour, he finally gave up looking for something in the bamboo forest, turned back, and tested the ronin who was searching for him everywhere.

Despite being an ordinary person with no chakra, his stamina seemed inexhaustible. He chopped down a large patch of bamboo around his starting position without breaking a sweat or getting out of breath. As soon as the genjutsu ended, he started searching for people. After more than an hour of high-intensity running, even Hiruzen Sarutobi, a powerful figure among the Kage, could clearly sense his stamina draining away. Yet, this phantom ronin still showed no signs of fatigue.

He repeatedly tested the ronin, and aside from the utterly unreasonable infinite stamina, the ronin's body was no different from that of an ordinary person, and he looked almost the same when under the illusion.

The only unusual thing is that he is completely unafraid of injury and pain. Even if he loses an arm, he can still wield his katana to kill his opponent with his other hand.

Ordinary people would probably have a hard time dealing with them.

Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head inwardly and then killed the ronin.

[Reward: None]

[Third Layer]

An ordinary samurai who is extremely skilled in using a katana; terrain; hot spring inn.

[Reward: None]

[Fourth Floor]

A samurai with a rudimentary grasp of chakra refinement, the terrain, and the canyon on a rainy night.

[Reward: None]

[Fifth Floor]

……

As Hiruzen Sarutobi continued gathering intelligence, time flew by. He fought his way to the ninth floor and killed a Jonin from Kumogakure, but the reward kept showing as zero. He knew this was because the gap between his strength and the phantom was too great.

He had given up on exploring different levels of the environment; it was pointless, and the scenery around him was always the same.

The tenth floor.

"Zzzzz!" The classic Lightning Blade flashed, and he looked at Kakashi charging towards him with Lightning Blade not far away, finding it hard to describe his feelings.

Even knowing in his heart that it was an illusion, he still felt strange fighting his familiar old subordinates.

Even though he had already killed Shikamaru once and Namiashi Raido once, Kakashi was still special. He was the one he thought would become Hokage in the future, and he actually appeared on the tenth floor?

According to the information, isn't the tower supposed to have a hundred floors?

[What follows is likely to be troublesome.]

Hiruzen Sarutobi's relaxed mood after his rampage against weaker opponents subsided. His stamina had not recovered during his continuous climb of the tower, especially since he had wasted a lot of time on meaningless environmental exploration in the early stages. As a result, he felt that his stamina was already more than half depleted when he was fighting Kakashi with his Sharingan open.

The climb ahead probably won't go very far.

In fact, he was right.

On the fifteenth floor alone, he faced his older self from the Konoha Crush plan. Due to excessive physical exertion, he was caught by the Reaper Death Seal and died instantly.

[Failed. Please try again tomorrow!]

[Rewards obtained: Three-Tomoe Sharingan x1, Bloodline Limit: Ice Release x1, Big Fat Sheep's Lost Wooden Clogs x1, Fuma Shuriken x7]

【Whether to extract? 】

When Hiruzen Sarutobi opened his eyes, he was already back on the rooftop of the Hokage Building in Konoha Village.

Standing in front, Tobirama Senju asked, "Hiruzen, you're the last to return. Tell me what you've learned."

-----------------

Three days later, in the illusory world, the Land of Rain.

"Is that... the tower?"

Jiraiya gazed at the towering tower in the distance, a sense of awe rising within him.

In the virtual world, the ninjas who died are enthusiastically exploring new worlds and towers, while the ninjas in the real world are dealing with troublesome but unavoidable matters.

However, some ninjas, though still alive, remain in the virtual world to explore.

Jiraiya is one of those who stayed in the illusory world instead of leaving, and instead explored everywhere.

Even though everyone could simply recite the name of the tower to climb it, he deliberately spent more than two days traveling from Konoha to the Land of Rain, wanting to personally explore the tower's base.

His main purpose was to find out if ordinary people had re-entered the illusory world, what kind of lives those who had entered were living, whether anyone had gained power from the tower, and what those who gained power would do...

In the real world, although it's only been a little over two days, quite a few changes have actually occurred. Most ordinary people don't notice them, but the changes among ninjas are very obvious.

All the major ninja villages are shrinking rapidly, and the smaller ninja villages have abandoned the vast majority of missions to focus on the virtual world.

Even Konoha had to organize some living ninjas to enter the virtual world to climb the tower—

Unfortunately, the tower in the virtual world may not generate money, but it can provide real resources, whether it's ninja tools or other man-made objects, and even some very strange things can be drawn out and extracted in reality through the [Lottery Technique].

It's incomprehensible, but there are many things that ninjas can't understand. The operation of many ninjutsu is still in a state where the basic theory is unclear, but the actual effect is enough. Adding another tower is no big deal.

In this context, the ninja ecosystem in both worlds is undergoing drastic changes.

Chapter 488 Jiraiya's Personal Opinion

"paradise!"

"This is our paradise!"

A man in a white robe stood on a platform near the tower, raising his arms and shouting, "It is the paradise that God gave us..."

Jiraiya stood outside the crowd, observing coldly.

Within just a few days, people near the tower had already begun to exploit 'faith' for personal gain.

The lottery technique, which even ninjas cannot comprehend, is nothing short of a miracle to ordinary people. With someone fanning the flames, it can quickly turn into blind faith.

This world has never lacked all kinds of beliefs, from Buddhism to strange and bizarre gods, and even the belief in evil gods who kill for pleasure.

The main reason is not complicated: war displaced people, ordinary people were powerless to resist the destruction caused by ninjas, and even many ninjas were terrified of war. Even someone as powerful as Madara Uchiha could only use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create peace.

This is a cesspool of a world.

Desperate people need faith to give themselves a reason to keep living.

"Death! Only death can lead to paradise!" The white-robed man must have used some kind of ninjutsu, for his voice suddenly grew louder, and there were even traces of genjutsu fluctuations.

"die!"

"die!"

The crowd below joined in with enthusiastic cheers.

It is estimated that this was a cult that existed before. The existence of the virtual world made them quickly change their strategy of making money, and instead tried to use believers to climb the tower to collect various resources.

The living need rest and nourishment, while the dead can not only exist in the virtual world without spending anything, but also generate benefits.

It goes without saying how a cult leader should choose his path; inciting followers to die has become a matter of course.

【really……】

This wasn't the first time Jiraiya had witnessed such a scene. It was alright in the Land of Fire, but after entering the Land of Rain, a large number of ordinary people and even ninjas chose to die and enter this genjutsu world.

There are many reasons: hating reality, hating one's disability, having nowhere to go, having beloved family and friends in a virtual world, and so on.

He had no intention of influencing other people's choices, and even he himself had become somewhat confused about the difference between reality and illusion. The immortals of Mount Myōboku could not give him any answers about the future.

It seems that at some point, the Great Toad Sage could no longer see the 'future' and could no longer offer any guidance.

This plunged the 'lustful sage,' who had spent most of his life working on prophecies and yearning for peace, into an unprecedented state of confusion. He wanted to see what most people in the world thought when faced with such a change.

However, using illusions to incite others to commit suicide and then climbing towers in the illusionary world for personal gain is indeed extremely despicable.

Jiraiya quietly formed hand seals and cast an illusion he wasn't familiar with.

The white-robed man, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs on stage, suddenly froze, then his crotch became soaked, and fear filled his eyes. He cried out, "I shouldn't have impersonated you! Didn't you want people to come in? Wasn't making them commit suicide doing you a favor? You can't kill me..."

He poured out everything he had done and thought, like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

The believers looked at each other, disoriented by the illusions and words. Seeing their leader's ugly state, they realized they didn't want to live anymore. They weren't complete idiots; they understood what was going on and thought it through.

Those on the periphery quietly left, while the believers near the platform went from confusion to anger, attempting to rush up. A few who knew the truth refined their chakra and took out ninja tools to try and suppress them.

Unfortunately, if they are not afraid of death in real life, they are even more fearless in the virtual world where they can be resurrected.

The fearless followers had acquired at least some chakra and physical modifications from climbing the tower in their daily lives. Even after being robbed of their ninja tools and techniques, they still managed to kill more than a dozen people and rush to the top of the platform, killing the 'leader' on the spot.

In their rage, after killing the 'cult leader' in the virtual world, they all chose to return to reality.

It's probably another killing in the real world, but in this virtual world where you can restart and resurrect, does death really have any meaning?

"..."

Jiraiya stared at the empty missionary platform, his expression indescribable. He climbed onto the platform, looked at the pure white tower so close at hand, and reached out to press his hand on it.

Congratulations! You are the 297749th person to touch the tower!

Classic Zhang Chengyi-style illusion subtitles.

What's there to congratulate?

Jiraiya couldn't feel any joy. Touching the tower, which had a smooth texture and a pleasant temperature, he murmured absentmindedly, his face blank.

What exactly do you want to do?

Find some fun

Jiraiya snapped back to reality, the feeling of having his carelessly uttered words answered so intimately was terrifying.

He quickly calmed down and asked, "Are you Zhang Chengyi?"

"Of course, I'm not deaf in my world," Zhang Chengyi replied matter-of-factly.

"But why..." Jiraiya couldn't understand why the other party would create this world, or why they would do so many seemingly meaningless things and give countless sacrifices, seemingly only to make this world more complicated.

But thinking of his earlier comment about "finding some fun," he smiled with mixed emotions and shut his mouth.

The sense of confusion has not decreased, but rather increased.

Why?

Zhang Chengyi asked curiously, "Ha, you look like you just ate poop."

Jiraiya showed no anger upon hearing this; his emotions were already remarkably stable. He smiled meaninglessly and said, "Someone as powerful as you, what are your thoughts on peace and on this world?"