17. Reversed Cursed Technique Is So Hard To Learn

A few moments later, Ryūhei heard Atsuko come down.

"Ah, good timing Atsuko."

Ryūhei handed Atsuko the first chapter of the One Piece and Dragon Ball manga. He explained to her to bait the customers with those and then offered the customers a volume of manga which just cost a thousand Mora. And he also told her to keep her smile when talking to customers.

Naturally, Ryūhei planned to get Atsuko accustomed to communicating since communication is important in business. Perhaps, if Atsuko were to run her own business in the future, communication experience would be very important to her.

With that, Atsuko walked out of the shop.

"Xingqiu bro, can you help me for a bit? I want to go out."

"How long?"

"No idea. I need to do daily commissions. Since Atsuko is my employee from now on, I need more Mora to buy her food. I want you to watch over Atsuko while I'm gone. I just want Atsuko to handle incoming customers so she can gain experience in communicating. If she's in trouble, I hope you help her."

"Hmmm, alright. While I haven't finished one volume of this manga yet, I'll be keeping an eye on her."

After Xingqiu agreed, Ryūhei headed straight out to the Adventurers' Guild.

— — — —

Ryūhei had accepted the daily commissions and headed to the location indicated on the map. Katheryne told him that there was a Ruin Guard appearing in the Guili Plains. And the Ruin Guard seemed to be uncontrollable and rampaging in the surroundings.

"Since I already got used to my eyes, it's time to try the Limitless techniques." Ryūhei smirked as he couldn't wait to try.

He could already unleash the base state of the Limitless technique, Infinity, after understanding how to activate it. He also managed to unleash the Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue thanks to his understanding of negative distances and negative numbers along with his precise manipulation of the cursed energy that was formed from his negative emotions.

He wanted to try another technique, the Cursed Technique Reversal: Red. But he wasn't sure he could do it because the technique was 2 times harder to master than Blue. But it didn't hurt to try.

After arriving at the ruin around Guili Plains, where there was a pond in the middle of it, Ryūhei saw a Ruin Guard circling the pool and firing missiles at any living things approaching. It was a place that was once called The Guili Assembly, established and ruled by the God of Dust, Guizhong, along with the God of Geo, Morax, and supported by other gods such as the God of the Stove, Marchosius, and the Adepti.

Ryūhei started to approach the ruin since he wasn't in the wrong place. The Adventurers' Guild had explained that the Ruin Guard had suddenly activated as if it was protecting something. But, it actually wasn't.

When Ryūhei was about 25 meters from the Ruin Guard, it detected him and started firing missiles from its back.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

The missiles exploded, creating craters on the ground and smoke in the surroundings. Meanwhile, Ryūhei appeared behind the smoke without a scratch. Even dust couldn't get close to him.

Well. In the first place, the base state of the Limitless technique, Infinity, is an invisible barrier to keep harmful substances away from Ryūhei. It's essentially the power to stop anything that has mass. Or rather, it was the power to slow down anything that made contact with the invisible barrier, making the barrier seem almost like it had stopped time.

"A robot with automatic guard function, heat sensor, and self-guided missiles. Before, I had never seen robots created in this world, but I had heard of them back in Inazuma. But what I know, the robot over there uses some kind of energy that shoots lasers. Unlike this one." Ryūhei muttered after avoiding the missiles.

After firing the missiles, the Ruin Guard didn't attack again like before, instead it started walking toward Ryūhei. Maybe, shooting missiles requires a cooldown for some time, or it could just be that the ammunition is running out.

Ryūhei started to think of ways to unleash another Limitless technique, the Cursed Technique Reversal: Red. Different from the other technique, Blue, which uses negative energy. The Red technique is powered by positive energy, which is called reversed cursed energy.

In mathematics, if a minus number is multiplied by a minus number, the number will be positive. And this is also applied to the concept of curse energy, in which positive energy is created as a result of negative energy multiplied by negative energy.

Ryūhei didn't know how to produce positive energy by taking two sources of negative energy while multiplying them. After all, all he got from the system was how to use the Limitless technique. In fact, the way he manipulates negative energy is derived from his experience of being able to control negative emotions almost perfectly. In particular, thanks to being blessed by the goddess, and through his little knowledge from the Jujutsu Kaisen anime regarding cursed energy, he was able to learn how to manipulate negative energy quickly.

The Ruin Guard was already in front of Ryūhei while swinging its arm as if it wanted to slap him. But in front of his eyes, the attack speed of it was too slow so Ryūhei casually dodged the attack. While doing so, he took off the sunglasses and gathered the negative energy formed from his negative emotions into the fingertip of his right hand. And then, he gathered the negative energy into the fingertip of his other hand.

When Ryūhei combined the two, he created more powerful negative energy instead of forming positive energy.

He knew he had failed. But what he wondered was why he couldn't create positive energy from the many negative energies combined.

"Did I use the wrong method?" He muttered while jumping away from another attack of the Ruin Guard.

Ryūhei tried several times, but it was no use. If the negative energy he collected didn't dissipate, it meant it got stronger instead, which was not the Cursed Technique Reversal.

Ryūhei clicked his tongue.

"Tsk. No wonder it's so hard to master Cursed Technique Reversal: Red. I didn't even realize what I did wrong."

After so many attempts but yielding no result, Ryūhei stopped. Then, he put on his sunglasses back before lifting his katana from its sheath.

*Slash*

*Clack*

Ryūhei appeared behind the Ruin Guard while taking back his katana to its scabbard. At the same time, the Ruin Guard stopped moving with sparks all around the body as if the engine had shorted. And in a split second, the Ruin Guard was split in two.

"I've gotten a lot stronger after getting the Gojo bloodline from the system. Or maybe this Ruin Guard isn't as strong as I thought. Well, whatever…"

Ryūhei still felt the energy from the Ruin Guard because he himself knew the core of the Ruin Guard was still functioning. He had only cut the circuits connected to the core, so even if he didn't destroy the core, it wouldn't necessarily be useless since it was the core for functioning the Ruin Guard.

But then, he glanced in a certain direction. It was as if someone was approaching him. No, it's not just someone, but a group of people.

"Boss, there's someone over here!"

"I know, I'm not that blind, bastard!"

"Ah, that's not what I meant, boss."

"Bro, it seemed that brat got something in his hand."

"It's a Chaos core. Lucky."

"But boss, it seemed that brat took down a Ruin Guard."

"What are you afraid of? Isn't it just a Ruin Guard? What's more, that brat single-handedly defeated the Ruin Guard. He must have spent a lot of energy. And we have a lot of people here. And he doesn't seem to have a Vision either."

"As expected of you, boss. You're so smart."

"Hahahaha, who do you think I am?"

The people who had just arrived chatted about a core Ryūhei was holding, and it seemed they intended to take it from Ryūhei by force.

Ryūhei frowned after hearing them.

"Where did these fools come from?" He muttered.

The group approached Ryūhei. Without knowing Ryūhei's strength nor seeing his fight, the leader of the group smugly threatened Ryūhei.

"Brat, hand over the Chaos core, and I will let you live!"

Then, everyone else in the group chuckled, as if they were waiting for Ryūhei's frightened face. Usually, a young adventurer like him would piss in fear if he encountered a group of robbers. But, Ryūhei didn't even flinch.

Seeing Ryūhei's flat expression. The leader started to feel nervous.

"Brat, say something!" One of them shouted at Ryūhei.

But, the leader of the group felt that he hit the wall. He could see that Ryūhei didn't have the slightest hint of fear even when he was facing a group of people.

When Ryūhei took off his sunglasses and revealed his eyes, the leader stiffened as Ryūhei only focused on the leader while grinning.

"You guys are really something. Do you think I took down this Ruin Guard just by sheer luck?" While saying that, Ryūhei brandished his katana.

The leader of the group felt dread. He is a person who is always careful in committing robberies. Always making sure that no one is dangerous if he does that with his group. In essence, the leader of that group is a person who is able to tell the strength of a person.

However, this did not apply to Ryūhei. Ryūhei is able to manipulate the negative energy within his body which naturally hides his strength and aura. So the leader thought Ryūhei was just a small fry.

And seeing Ryūhei brandishing his sword and about to launch his attack, the leader immediately knelt.

"Wa–wait, wait! Big bro– No. Young Lord, please spare us— No, just please spare me alone is fine! If you let me live, I'm ready to do anything! I beg you!"

Ryūhei rolled his eyes hearing the leader begging for mercy.