Chapter 3:

Later that night, Nero had left his intoxicated host and decided to go to bed, this was just an excuse since he really didn't need to sleep anymore because of the nanites that made up most of his blood. He even cut himself and watched in amazement as he healed in minutes, if one looked using a microscope they would see thousands of small robots mending his skin together, even without his active command.

He was now also mostly immune to aging since as long as his nanites have an energy source then they'll keep him alive and his cells won't deteriorate. But his soul was another matter, or so the system said.

Nero decided to meditate throughout the night until the early hours of the morning. Opening his red eyes, he looked out at the rising morning sun and took a deep breath.

....Nero's POV

After waking up from my meditation I did a few exercises and was surprised to not feel tired even after going beyond what a human could do.

I decided to look out for any potential applications for the nanites I might have missed.

Raising my hand, I willed the nanites in my body to form on my palm, they started forming all sorts of complex shapes, weapons. I could also change them to be hard or soft, stiff or flexible, all of it was dictatedby me, but I felt that if I evolved my nanites to a high enough rank I could create something even more, a material only existing in fiction could become possible with my powers.

The range of my current and future abilities seemed limitless, I could create anything I wanted as long as I had enough mana.

An idea suddenly sparked in my mind, not wasting time I created a small flat solar panel and placed it on the window facing the rising sun.

DING!

0.000005 units of mama collected.

DING!

0.000005 units of mana collected.

I started receiving notifications every five seconds, I smiled excitedly, this proved that the nanites didn't only absorb supernatural energy even energy from the sun or energy generated by wind turbins would come to me as long as I had a connection then the energy would be transferred to me. Which without an amplifier was around half a kilometer according to the system.

I Dissipated the nanites forming the solar panel and left my room, after greeting Amare, I had some breakfast and left the inn to go meet my 'collegues' she seemed to believe me easily.

Although I was touched by her kindness, I also couldn't help but question how she seemed to easily believe me, putting that at the back of my mind I left the town and headed towards where I left my suit.

Upon arriving I dug up the suit, I dassipated the nanites forming the suit and absorbed them into myself.

Leaving the cave I quickly started running back to the town unfortunately I ran into some trouble in the form of bandits, there looked to be around 20 or so people and since the system didn't warn me, I could safely assumed they didn't have any chakra or anything to make them a danger to me.

To be safe, I didn't even wait for them to speak, I created a silenced SMG and started raining hell on them.

After killing about half the group, the rest groaned on the ground in pain with sever injuries.

I swiftly approached them and commanded nanites into their bodies, their screams of horror filled the forest as the nanites sucked every bit of chakra in their bodies and transferred it to be, their bodies turned to dried husks and they died soon enough.

DING!

[You have received 2500 mana points.] The system informed me emotionlessly.

An ominously smile adorned my face as I realized that even the person with the weakest chakra could get me atleast a hundred 100 points of mana.

This made me lament at the points I could've gotten from killing those ninja, but no use crying over spilt milk.

I looted the bodies and found 1200 ryo, I left everything else beside any bullets since I didn't want to leave a trail.

Arriving at the inn I paid Amare 500ryo for accommodation and I left since staying in an area full of people would limit my activities.

My objective right now was to find a way to create a stable source of energy, either by killing bandits, or through an array of well hidden but huge solar panels.

After leaving I went back to the cave where I had kept my suit, I commanded my nanites to form a wall that will blend in with the surroundings before continuing with my meditation for a week. Since I didn't need food or water to maintain myself I felt my time would be spent gathering energy and slowly creating machines to passively gather energy for me, I also created a few spy drones to gather any information about the happenings in Sora, they would relay the information to the every 3 days, and since my mind was now similar to a computer I could just store it in my 'database' for when the information is needed. Although I did get terribles headaches, and my brain seemed to be glitchy.

Right now I was waiting for Konoha to take the floating city down so that I could steal the zero tails, after that energy wouldn't be a huge issue since I will have a living battery that could gather enormous amounts of chakra and convert it into mana.

1 month later.

"please stop, mercy. Stay away you devil!" A man begged with tears staining his eyes.

I had followed after these two fuck-ups after they left a bandit hideout to collect the monthly 'protection fees.'

Looking at his pathetic form, I let out a sigh out how weak these ninja were, or maybe my new suit was too strong? Him and his now dead partner lying as a dried husk beneath my feet were chunin level from what I could gather and they were one of the nastiest charecters around since they charged protection fees to bandits and raped women willy nilly so honestly I didn't feel bad killing them, not that I would really feel bad killing an innocent civilian as collateral damage but they weren't worth much points and I wouldn't go out of my way to kill a whole small town just for a few ten thousand points, tempting as it was I really didn't desire to do such a horrendous act for a boost in power, well it was left as a last resort in case I ever needed to.

That's why I left a little gift in all of the wells and small creaks in the surrounding towns, this gift was in the form of microscopic robots which only had one purpose. Suck any living being who ingested them dry if I should ever command them to do so. It was also a great leash to ensure loyalty to the few bandits I let survive since I could just instruct the nanites in their blood to go boom!

As for why I let a few bandits survive well I needed someone to gather information about all the gangs and unsavory charecters of this land and help me spy on them. I also had about 5 ninja under my command. If I deemed their deeds tolerable I didn't kill the person but instead used them to do my bidding.

I cut the hand trying to reach for his kunai off swiftly, all he saw was a blur. Suddenly he screamed in pain as his body started becoming shriveled up before the energy was transferred to me, I burnt all the corpses and left the scene.

I had spent this month using the sun to gather mana points and also hunting bandits. After awakening the rest of my dormant nanites I felt much more powerful physically, my mind also became shaper, but I also realized that I was absorbing a small fraction of chakra from the people I killed so that left me wanting wanting increase the rank of my ability to absorb energy in hopes that it would increase the energy I could siphon off these walking batteries that add no value besides stealing and looting.

After my points hit 18thousand, I created a much more powerful suit, it's first testdrive proved it capable to take down a pair of chunin rank ninjas easily, I even started wondering if this was all ninja could offer, they folded so easily it was honestly pathetic. I also used my memories of the anime to scale myself and I was considered high-chunin in skill and my raw firepower was at mid jounin level, well normal jounin that is. The ranks were just for show for some people in this world.

This wasn't surprising since I had a mounted missile launcher, and guns with an ammo storage that automatically refilled itself all according to me nanites, add on to my enhanced strength and speed when using my thicker and more flexible armor I could also be considered as a juggernaut at close range, the only blades that could harm me had to be enhanced with chakra techniques, while I could move faster than any average mid chunin and my blades were vibrating fast enough to cut through thick metal like butter.

My suit could accelerate to a 150 km in 5 seconds it made decapitating my enemies too easy, but who was I to complain when things were going so merrily according to plan. I was now a strong enough to survive against most average ninja. This wasn't enough though, my aim is to be at the top of the food chain and conquer this world and its ruler, but I still didn't know how to go about it, but I'll need to start increasing my influence slowly.

I had killed more bandits that I cared to count and somewhere between 8 ninja, the man currently lying on my feet would be my 9th victim who was a ninja. I didn't really feel anything while killing them since it just added on to a larger pile of corpses I amassed.

I left the scene and went back to my abode. I arrived at a simple looking wall and walked straight towards it, the wall opened up and closed when I entered leaving no trace of there being an entrance.

The inside looked like a heavily guarded vault with thick layers of steel. It was built using nanites since they could mimic anything I had sufficient knowledge on.

The place was bare besides a simple bed,a rack full of weapons from swords to guns, I even had a rocket launcher just to be safe,and a TV connected to my forest surveillance machines which watched every angle of the forest 24/7.

I exited the suit and hooked up a wire that would recharge the suit's power since I had long created a rechargeable powersource. It wasn't as powerful as Stark's reactor, heck it could'nt even hope to produce 50% of what the arc reactor produced, E-rank nanites could only take so much juice before freezing and just crumbling and leaving me vulnerable.

'How many points do I have?' I asked the system this had become my daily routine.

DING!

[Host has 12000 mana points.] Smiling happily, at my current points I sat down on the bed.

'Update my nanites to rank D and repair any damage on my suit.' I instructed and felt some excitement as my heart pounded uncontrollably.

DING!

[Updating Nanites will cause the host to go into a deep slumber for a week are you sure you want to continue?.] The system asked

'Yes.' After that I felt a warm and tingling sensation through my body and slowly my eyes felt heavier and I finally passed out.

3rd Person POV

As Nero blacked out, a strange scene took place, his body started glowing in a dim blue light and a humming sound revibrated throughout the entire hideout

1 week later....

Opening my eyes, the first thing I did was let out a content sigh, power surged through my very being. I instinctively knew that I was physically much stronger, my senses were sharper.

'System, did I gain any new abilities?.' I asked calmly as I stood up from me meditative position.

DING!

[Affirmative, host has new abilities after the upgrade, would you like to see them?] The system said in a smoother and much more human voice.

'Yes.'

DING!

[Name:Nero

Surname:----

Race:human

Condition:Healthy,mid superhuman physique

Mana:1600

Nanites:70% D-rank nanites active, next upgrade costs 500 thousand mana points.

Abilities:A-rank Mixed martial arts, C-rank gun-fu, S-rank marksmanship,B-rank advanced swordsman, C-rank bowmaster, A-rank tracking, A-rank driving. D-rank nanotechnology manipulation, D-rank energy absorption, intermediate construct creation, pure mana manipulation(new) cyber mind(new),E-rank magic runes(new) ,retractable constructs(new) .]

'Explain the new abilities and why the explosive increase the upgrade costs?' I asked the system, things didn't seem to get any easier.

DING!

[The high surge in the cost of upgrade is due to the difference in the capability of the nanites, E-rank nanites wouldn't allow you to create complex contracts like small drones and robots that can channel mana, E rank nanites cannot create constructs that can manipulate mana without being destroyed. D rank nanites on the other hand can allow you to create constructs capable of shooting beams of mana or create mana shields atleast five times before needing some parts to be replaced. As for the skill mana manipulation, host can now shape mana in anyway he wishes either to creat a dagger made of solid mana, use it as a power source instaed of the usual battery and if host is creative maybe even use it to alter the laws of physics to his favor with the help of runes. Cyber mind is an ability that allows the host to share his senses through a special link with any of his constructs at a given distance. The basic magic rune ability simply allows you to imbue magical properties like increase in sharpness or endurance or just creating a rune that shapes mana in your place, this skill will rely on the host's study of runes and how to apply them since all information is contained in your database and right now you can only access the basic rune section.] The system explained diligently.

"Then how long would it take to replace my suit with one that uses mana? And what how much mana would it cost to keep it functional." I excitedly asked since having a powerful and lasting powersource was always a problem due to how inneffecient E-rank nanites were.

[It would take half a month to build a brand new suit, and it would cost 25 thousand mana. The lowest cost to keep it running would be 450 points every 5 minutes a quarter of that will be used to power the runes shaping and infusing mana into the suit, adding more runes will increase costs to 700 mana points.the remaining 3/4ths is up to you how you use it.] I almost spat out blood at the cost. It seemed that I was wrong,my journey to become supreme would come at the cost of mountains of resources.

"Haa, how many points of mana can I earn from meditation as compared to before." I asked in a neutral tone.

DING!

[About four times more than before.] The system's answer came as a shocking but welcome surprise to me. Assuming that a day of meditation gave me 800 points multiply that by four and I'll earn 2400 points everyday, plus I'm sure I'll milk all my batt- Ahem! all my enemies for more of their chakra now since I could only absorb a little bit of their chakra while the rest was lost, it worked similar to how electricity worked, some energy was lost in the form of heat.

I meditated for the rest of the day and tomorrow I would begin my usual schedule, maybe I'd even take down one of the gangs in that Northmost town and enslave a puppet to run it for me.

.....

The next day quickly came by, after waking up from my meditation induced stupor I decided to look at what was happening in the orest. Like always I found nothing which meant the rulers of this place weren't onto me.

I equipped my suit, which I had named the lurker 2.0, after checking and making sure everything was doing good, I left the cave and headed towards a relatively big trading town known throughout Soragakure, besides the floating and obvious target for any invading shinobi it was the second most guarded town in Sora, this is because they had come across a very special metal known as chakra metal.

This is what had caused Soragakure's economy to flourish since they could sell it at high prices to other villages who were currently burning money on the war and needed something to give them an edge over their enemies, that's where chakra metals came in. It was an ore vein which grew in places with high amounts of nature chakra and after a long time of exposure the metal started changing from a normal unremarkable ore into a deadly weapon if used correctly, a jounin who fought using Kenjutsu would experience an increase in sharpness and there would be less wasted chakra when using elements and channeling them through the sword.

Heck some rumors claimed that some of the seven swords of the mist were made using a chakra metal special even among other chakra metals.

My destination was a small town called Mayami which was located south-east of where I was, I would arrive in about a day or two since I also wanted to hunt some bandits and even animals to see whether I could also take their chakra.

After making sure I was set for my journey, I commanded the nanites forming the suit to become more flexible and clothlike, it was a new disguise function I added for this particular mission. I also left the heavy artillary like missile launchers and mounted guns. All I had on me was two cutlass pistols, an extandable katana, and a strange attire that consisted of a black tracksuit which had lime green lines running all over it, this was just a disguise for my suit. All I needed to do was command my nanites and within a second I would be covered head to toe in a suit hard as nails and as swift was lighting. This would've usually cost a fortune but now I did it all at a measly price of 800 mana points.

"I think I'm ready, system save this version of the suit in my database and tell use my remaining points to creat an aerial drone that will run recon and share it's senses with me." I ordered, hopefully it would cost less than 800 points.

DING!

[The drone will be available for use in 20 minutes please wait till then.] The system informedmed me.

After twenty minutes, the information on how to build the drone was uploaded into me and after instructing my nanites they formed a small drones with four rotors and what looked like a jet engine behind.

"Huh, 780 points, not bad, and the 80 points was for the solar charger." I mused to myself and picked up the folded drone and placed it inside a bag.

I left my cave in the afternoon and headed straight towards where Mayami was located. I already had one of my sla-..employees who will receive me along with info about who to kill and who to enslave.

An evil cackle left my mouth as a smile adorned my face.

'It's been a while since I've had this much fun.' I smiled to myself, the journey to the top was a painful, long and lonely journey but I for one would enjoy the whole process. Pain makes me stronger and I have decades before any real threat comes to this world, as for being lonely I didn't plan on that being true anytime soon. Every king needs a badass queen and I had a feeling I'd find here in this crazy world full of shinobi.

.....

This chap is out hope you enjoy. also if you find any misinformation just tell me and I'll deal with it other than that enjoy and give me some powerstones.