Shěn Mò struggled to open his eyes, his consciousness slowly returning from the depths of his mind. A hint of wariness made him work hard to identify everything around him.
An unfamiliar wooden room.
A thin blanket covered his body. There was no bed—he was lying directly on the floor.
Tatami mats, then.
He reached out to rub his head, trying to sit up, but the weakness coursing through his body made him abandon that plan.
"System."
He silently called out in his mind.
A faint light screen opened in his consciousness, crystal clear.
Sure enough, it wasn't a hallucination.
Shěn Mò didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.
He had originally been just an ordinary game developer on a certain blue planet. Suddenly, a system descended from the heavens and began a transmigration countdown. Unable to resist, he could only manage to use this so-called "Universal Trading System" at the last moment to trade for a large life insurance policy for his family.
This feeling…
"Absolutely terrible," Shěn Mò muttered to himself.
Transmigrating with a golden finger [cheat ability] was something many people dreamed of, but the problem was that systems like this were definitely artificially created. No matter who the big shot behind it was, they definitely existed.
He remained dazed for a while.
Shěn Mò seemed to accept this reality. There was a saying—if you can't resist, then enjoy it. As long as you don't think too highly of yourself, life is full of enjoyment everywhere.
"Universal Trading System, huh."
Shěn Mò examined the system's functions.
Very concise.
Trade with others—no matter what was being traded, it could all be converted within the system into something called "trading points." These could be used to purchase literally everything in the system store.
Shěn Mò even saw Doraemon's time machine, if you can believe that.
Though the string of zeros following the price was so long he didn't want to count them.
But this was a time machine!
The kind that could truly change the past!
"There should be restrictions, right?"
Shěn Mò felt his thinking gradually clear as he looked at the trading terms.
Indeed, there were restrictions.
Both parties must trade willingly, and the value of traded items must be limited to between one-fifth and five times the original value.
Shěn Mò currently possessed 110,000 trading points.
His savings from three years of work were about this amount—he'd used some to exchange for the insurance policy before.
Judging from a box of Master Kong instant noodles costing five points, the pricing was reasonable.
Good.
This wasn't the type of system that would cheat even its own host on exchange rates.
"Ah, damn it, I was so close to winning!"
Suddenly, a woman's voice came from outside the room. Shěn Mò immediately focused his attention and quickly added several powerful defensive items to his shopping cart.
Snap
The sliding wooden door was roughly opened.
A woman wearing a pale gray sleeveless outfit appeared outside the door—blonde hair, golden eyes, and delicate features.
This was…
Tsunade cosplay?
Though Shěn Mò wasn't an otaku, he quite enjoyed anime as entertainment.
So he could recognize her at a glance.
This character!
"Oh, you're awake." The woman dressed like Tsunade from the anime saw Shěn Mò with his eyes open and seemed quite pleased. She walked over and sat down beside him without any ladylike grace, then extended her hand. "As you can see, I'm the one who saved you. Now then, pay up for the medical fees."
Shěn Mò blinked.
From the moment she started speaking, he used 30,000 trading points to exchange for basic Japanese proficiency.
His gaze shifted to another woman—indeed, her outfit was the same as Tsunade's disciple, Shizune.
He already had a premonition.
"It's like this," Shizune knelt down as well. "We found you collapsed outside our door and brought you in for treatment."
She certainly wouldn't say that Tsunade's original words were "This guy has soft skin and tender flesh, definitely a wealthy noble"—she'd been planning to extort treatment fees.
"I see," Shěn Mò replied in his newly learned language. "I'll pay the medical fees. Thank you very much, but could you first prepare some food for me? Preferably liquid food."
"Tch, really knows how to order people around," Tsunade said indifferently as she stood up. "Shizune, this guy is your responsibility now. Don't let him run off without paying the treatment fees."
She had already examined him earlier.
Slack muscles, no chakra in his body.
Just an ordinary noble or wealthy person.
Tsunade would occasionally treat wealthy people in exchange for gambling money, so bringing Shěn Mò in was just a casual act.
In comparison, Shizune's attitude was much better. After agreeing, she instructed Shěn Mò not to move around, then went to prepare liquid food.
Shěn Mò watched them leave, his tense nerves finally relaxing slightly.
Looking at their behavior, the possibility of cosplay was low.
So they were the real deal? Had he transmigrated into the world of Naruto?
"If that's truly the case, it's actually advantageous."
Shěn Mò thought to himself. At this moment, he wasn't thinking about getting to see beloved characters from the past, but rather how to maximize his own benefits—with staying alive as the basic requirement, and enjoyment as the next step.
A world with a familiar plot was undoubtedly more advantageous than a strange world!
For example, selling a revival coin to Tsunade could definitely fetch the maximum five-times price.
In fact, if he didn't consider converting it to trading points through the system, even exceeding five times wouldn't be difficult, because Tsunade had that need.
But—
"Satisfying the other party's needs is only the lowest level of trading," Shěn Mò's lips curved into a slight smile. "Completing trades the other party doesn't need—that's the business method for maximizing profits."
In his previous world, there was a classic business story called "selling combs to monks."
This story was harshly criticized by a certain tycoon as deception, because monks had no need for combs at all.
But this kind of deception was everywhere in the gaming industry.
That's right.
What Shěn Mò was referring to was loot boxes!
Or rather, gacha games, opening boxes, opening packs—it was all the same. Players threw massive amounts of money at these things for what they wanted, only to receive piles of useless junk in return, and they did it willingly.
As a game developer, Shěn Mò understood these methods all too well.
So his mind was already made up.
Didn't Tsunade have the nickname "Legendary Sucker"? It would be such a waste to pass up this opportunity.
After simply eating some liquid food and recovering some strength, Shěn Mò routinely placed some life-saving trading items in his shopping cart so he could purchase and use them at any time. Then he prepared to begin his first trade.
He requested to discuss the medical fees and was brought before Tsunade by Shizune.
He had already inquired—the current plot should be after the Third Shinobi War, over ten years since the Fourth Hokage's sacrifice, with Tsunade having left Konoha.
This legendary member of the Sannin was drinking alone, her porcelain-like skin already showing a slight flush from the alcohol. Combined with her explosive figure, she looked nothing like a woman in her fifties.
Even with Shěn Mò's perspective, refined through countless movies and TV shows, he couldn't help but praise inwardly.
She was a beauty.
"Kid, your gaze is quite interesting," Tsunade glanced at Shěn Mò sideways.
With her discernment, she could naturally see the admiration in Shěn Mò's eyes at this moment.
He wasn't hiding it at all.
Though uncommon, it only merited being called "interesting."