Entertainment System
(Since this is a story about a Japanese series, I will be using that style of writing. For example, using surnames in front of given names, honorifics, and techniques. I'll use parentheses for the translation in the first couple of chapters.)
Masashi sighed pulling out his keys and unlocking the front door to his one-bedroom apartment. It was a Friday night and he just got home from a long day.
Taking off his shoes, he walks down the hallway and drops his keys on a nearby table while heading to his room.
He opens the door and there is minimal decoration. A bed paired with a nightstand with a lamp. He has a bookshelf with dozens of literature and stories but that's about it aside from a small desk and chair. Masashi opens his closet and takes off his flak jacket and puts it on the hanger.
This was a Chunin flak jacket. He was promoted to this rank when he was 14 which wasn't bad considering that most people graduate from the Shinobi(Ninja) Academy at 12. Of course, this only pertains to average and mildly talented shinobi.
Right now, he is 15 years old and working at the Mission Assignment desk, which naturally handles the assigning of missions to the shinobi in the village. He was rather average in almost every way. Black hair with matching eyes. His looks and intellect were his only saving graces.
He was born in The Village Hidden in the Leaves, or Konoha for short. Masashi had no parents since they died in the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, but luckily the village had a stipend system for orphans, but only if they became shinobi themselves.
Masashi had no better ideas at the time so he threw himself into the ninja life; however, because of Uzumaki Naruto's actions, The Seventh Hokage, the world is relatively at peace which means that ninja work isn't nearly as dangerous as before. Of course, the mortality rate of shinobi isn't small even in this peaceful era.
He didn't have any high ambitions so he didn't go above his station. Masashi had little talent in the ninja arts. His chakra control is above average, sure, but his ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu are all painfully average. The only reason he got promoted was because of his mind and tactics, which pleased the judges, so that's all that matters to him.
Chunin are not only judged on strength but also their mind and decision-making. A bullheaded moron with immense strength, while that person would be very strong, may not have the leadership capability and would end up not getting promoted, even if they were to win the whole thing.
That goes to show that the village values those who can think, plan, and use their minds in the field, but Jonin is another beast entirely. He needed great strength to become a Jonin. Something that Masashi has no hope of becoming so he has lived a rather monotonous life.
He had no family or friends, and while he had acquaintances he'd talk to on the job, it never extended to outside of work, but that was because he never really cared too much about that. Masashi had a reserved personality and kept to himself.
Looking at his nightstand and seeing that it was about a minute to midnight, he sighed.
'My 16th birthday.' He turned his head to the calendar with a date circled: March 10
The digital clock turned to 12.
When that happened, he lightly smiled.
'Happy birthday to me, I gues—" He suddenly felt a mind-splitting headache and before he could even scream out in pain, it vanished just as quickly.
Masashi abruptly sat up on his bed with a shocked expression with wide eyes.
'Was that me? Did I reincarnate and only awaken my memories now?' His mind was running wild at the possibilities.
That was because the memories were from a person that seemed to be him as their personalities were quite similar and from what he understood, his soul reincarnated into the Naruto world and his latent memories just awakened. His other self had differences though, as that would be inevitable since they grew up differently.
His past life had a better sense of humor, at least from what Masashi can see.
It was strange though.
He doesn't remember dying. In fact, he crashed on the couch after watching a new episode of Demon Slayer. The new season has been crazy good. After the episode, he took a nap, so given his strange transmigration and the last series he watched, one would expect to be in the Demon Slayer world, right?
Nope! It's the Naruto world.
This wasn't like a merger, but Masashi absorbed these memories and made them his own. He felt enlightened by everything he saw and experienced through these memories.
However, he also felt immense dread.
'From these memories, it isn't long until those Otsutsuki beings come since I've heard that the Hokage's son, Uzumaki Boruto, will be joining the Ninja Academy in the new school year in a month.' He felt lost.
Masashi had little ability to do anything about those threats. According to those memories, he couldn't even defeat the weakest members of the Akatsuki.
'Even Zetsu would rock my shit.'
He couldn't help but laugh in an uncharacteristic way, that being in complete amusement which even surprised himself. Maybe these memories are affecting him more than he initially thought. That doesn't seem to be a bad thing, though.
Masashi thought that was fine since both people were him anyway.
His eyes narrow looking at the floorboards sitting at the edge of his bed thinking about those memories in perfect detail and clarity, which was strange in of itself since the perfect recall of everything he experienced wasn't possible.
'Even from childhood to when the memories ended on that couch, I could recall them perfectly as if it was a natural thing to do.' He was amazed by such an ability that he now possessed.
Even his name seemed humorous now.
Masashi looked through his memories and since his past life read and watched all of Naruto, he recalled the series with perfect accuracy which was crazy.
He couldn't help but feel that there was something more to it than just awakening his memories, since that alone couldn't explain how he could perfectly remember everything he had experienced in both this life and his past one.
He is in the era of Boruto which is flamed heavily by the community. The manga is pretty good but still doesn't wipe away the stigma of dozens and dozens of filler slice-of-life content.
Well, if you look at it, it could be considered a victory lap for Naruto since he did what he promised; he created peace in the Elemental Nations. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it is leagues better than what it was.
These memories are giving him a much broader perspective than he once had. They are unbelievably realistic as if every time Masashi recalls something from the past, it's as if he's there once again. How strange.
Before he could question further, he was interrupted by a high-pitched chime.
Ding!
[Synchronization Complete!]
[Status is being compiled. Features of the system are being finalized]
'This is it!' Masashi couldn't believe what he was seeing. 'Is this where my shinobi career rockets up to unfathomable success?'
He is beyond ecstatic. This is life-changing! The ability to perfectly recall would immensely help since he'd remember everything he ever did and read. It may not help his understanding or comprehension but learning would be extraordinarily easy.
A few minutes go by imagining all the possibilities that are presented by a system.
Ding!
[Finalization process complete. Pull up your Status at any time]
He wastes no time and says the word 'Status' in his mind.
A semi-transparent black rectangular box appears before him with white text and a mesmerizing combination of blues and purples resembling the cosmos as the border.
===[Entertainment System]===
[Name] Masashi
[Age] 16
[EC] 0
==[Traits]==
[Absolute Hyperthymesia]
Complete recollection of all incoming information and memories with perfect accuracy.
[Impenetrable Mind]
Absolute defense against all attacks and effects targetting the mind.
[Creative Manifestation]
You can will anything creative into existence using the [Cosmic Computer] trait.
[Entertainment Terminal]
Able to bring up all creative avenues to create works of art at the cost of EC. Only the user will see the contents of this trait.
[Cosmic Computer]
Able to summon and hide a computer capable of all tasks related to creativity.
===[Entertainment System]===
He is dumbstruck. He is perplexed. He is stupefied.
His previous dreams were snuffed out and then buried in a ditch just as fast as they came.
'Was I sent the wrong system? How does the return policy work?' He couldn't help but be dispirited but he now understands how his memory recall works now.
The [Absolute Hyperthymesia] is responsible for that.
'These traits are pretty busted.' He looked at each of them with five being the total.
[Impenetrable Mind] is also something that will be immensely helpful because of my past life's memories which would be exposed by the Yamanakas, as they specialize in mind techniques.
[Creative Manifestation] will likely be doing all the legwork since Masashi only took a few classes in digital design in high school and college, but his past life majored in Psychology. It was more of a pastime hobby.
Well, actually it seemed the [Cosmic Computer] would be handling everything in unison with [Creative Manifestation] because of the description so there probably won't be any legwork in the designing process, but selling it is another question entirely.
'What is EC?' He wondered seeing the description of [Entertainment Terminal] and his own Status having EC at 0.
He taps the icon and an explanation is shown.
[Entertainment Coins(EC)]
Currency used for creative works such as buying new sections, unlocking new series, and can be exchanged for real money.
Exchange Rate: 10,000ryo/1EC
(100ryo = $1 USD)
Only ryo obtained by creative means will be allowed to be exchanged.
'I see. So my savings won't qualify. I have no idea if 1EC is a small amount.' He thought before lowering his eyes to the bottom.
Masashi noticed at the very bottom of his Status page that there was a present box with it being similarly designed as the borders of said page.
He pressed it and a prompt appeared.
[Would you like to collect: Entertainment System Starter Package?]
Ah, systems usually had these so he presses the accept box, and a list of items appears.
===[Entertainment System]===
Starter Package:
- Illustrative section is unlocked!
- 500EC
- Creative Knowledge Crystal
===[Entertainment System]===
The rewards look pretty good and calculating how much 500EC is worth comes to about 5,000,000ryo! His savings are about half of that and they don't even qualify to be exchanged.
He grabs the crystal and it looks exactly how the present box and borders of his Status looked. I wondered what it was, and luckily, an explanation popped up.
[Creative Knowledge Crystal]
Able to see information the user missed and, if the series is unfinished, obtain the knowledge of its completion. (Exception: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)
'Wow! So I'd be able to see the ending of One Piece if I were to use this? I'm almost tempted to use it just for that alone.' He lightly smiled as the series had been going on for many years but still hadn't been completed. The exception seems reasonable since that would be a little too broken than it already is.
He brought up the [Entertainment Terminal] to see what he could use EC on.
A box designed practically identical to his Status page appeared in front of him.
=[Entertainment Terminal]=
Illustrative Creation: Unlocked! [Open]
Manga Creation: 250EC
Anime Creation: 500EC
Movie Creation: 750EC
Game Creation: 1000EC
…
…
…
=[Entertainment Terminal]=
There were more options but they were grayed out and unreadable, but the first five were already amazing. One of them was even unlocked.
Without wasting any time, I place the crystal inside my nightstand drawer and press on the Illustrative section.
[Illustrative Creation]
All works regarding graphic design can be created using the [Cosmic Computer] trait.
'Short, but to the point.' Masashi exited the terminal and decided to test out his newly unlocked creative ability.
'So how do I use the comput—' He was interrupted when a laptop appeared on his lap. This computer was immediately eye-catching as the same blue-purple cosmic-styled coloring was present here with the top having the word "Entertainment" in white lettering with a black outline.
Just thinking about using it, would cause it to appear it seems.
He opened it and the [Entertainment Terminal] appeared to be connected as the only thing visible was [Illustraitive Creation] in the middle of the black screen.
'I didn't even need to turn it on, so are there no issues regarding battery life?' That was very convenient.
Well, let's start.
Masashi decides to test something and he only thinks of opening the only section on the computer, and his thoughts are proven correct as it opens to a blank white page.
'Time to test how accurate the [Creative Manifestation] trait really is.' He thought before moving to a small desk with the computer in hand and sat down.