boyutpedia Chapter 1 Silver Grains in the Rain
Chapter 1 Silver Grains in the Rain
It's raining.
Sosuke opened his eyes.
He lay in the mud and water, half of his body submerged in a shallow pit.
The water had submerged his ears, and the cold sensation traveled up his cochlea and into his brain.
But he did not move immediately.
In his mind, fragments of memory were being reassembled, like a jigsaw puzzle being forcibly put back into place.
Memories of a past life, identity in this life.
Without a complicated integration process, he accepted the status quo in just a moment of confusion.
He crossed.
This is the ninja world. This is the Land of Rivers. This is the third year since the end of the Second Shinobi World War.
Sosuke sat up.
The clothes he was wearing were made of coarse linen, and were badly worn, with loose threads all over the cuffs.
He was wearing a pair of straw sandals, one of the straps of which was broken.
His stomach was growling, and a burning sensation from the friction against his stomach walls reminded him that his body hadn't eaten for at least two days.
He looked down at his hands.
The palms were rough, the knuckles were wide, and the lines on the palms were full of black grime that couldn't be washed off.
These are hands accustomed to hard labor, belonging to a fifteen-year-old homeless man.
That's all the capital he has.
No, there are others.
Sosuke closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the depths of his mind.
There were no flashing screens, no chattering sprites, only an extremely simple and indifferent concept—[Precious Metal Generation].
There were no instructions, but he just knew how to use it.
He stretched out his right hand, palm up, and in this deserted, muddy wilderness, his mind stirred slightly.
There were no special effects of light or shadow in the air. There were no fluctuations of chakra, and no smoke.
An object the size of a mung bean appeared out of thin air in his palm.
It was heavy and had a dazzling color.
It's silver.
Sosuke picked up the piece of silver and examined it closely.
It is extremely pure, almost 100% chemically pure silver, unlike the kind of monetary silver that is mixed with copper and lead that is commonly used in the world.
He tried again.
This time, it's a grain of gold.
It's only the size of a grain of rice, but the sense of density it feels in your hand is especially real in the rain.
"No cooldown time," Sousuke muttered to himself, his voice hoarse. "No stamina consumption, no chakra required, and no... storage space."
He searched his entire body, but apart from a tattered pocket, he had nowhere to store anything.
He clutched the gold and silver in his palm.
fear.
This was Sousuke's first reaction after gaining this ability; it wasn't elation, but fear.
In a peaceful society governed by the rule of law, creating something out of thin air is the ladder to becoming the richest person.
But in the ninja world, in this world where power reigns supreme, a person who possesses unlimited wealth but lacks martial prowess is like a sheep carrying fresh meat into a pack of wolves.
This is still in the Land of Rivers, a buffer zone sandwiched between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.
There is no order like that of a great ninja village here, only wandering ninjas, samurai groups, mountain bandits, and countless war refugees.
Gold and silver are not only inedible, but they also attract vultures.
Sosuke threw the gold nugget back into the muddy puddle and stomped it deep into the silt.
At this stage, gold is too dazzling.
In this world where even iron pots are stolen and melted down, taking out a grain of pure gold is tantamount to suicide.
Silver could be circulated with difficulty, but it had to be handled with extreme care.
He kept the small piece of silver, about the size of a mung bean, and hid it in the lining of the bottom of his straw sandal.
It's still raining.
Sosuke stood up and checked his bearings.
The muddy dirt road stretches northward, with collapsed houses or abandoned bunkers visible every few hundred meters along the roadside.
Those are scars left by war.
He started walking.
After walking for about two hours, it began to get dark. The rain subsided slightly, turning into a misty fog.
A dilapidated temple appeared ahead.
It's called a temple, but in reality, only half a roof and three walls remain. The enshrined statues have long since lost their heads, and their bases are covered in moss.
There was a fire inside the temple.
Sosuke stopped and hid behind a dead tree to observe.
There are five people in the temple.
There were three adult men, an old woman, and a little girl who looked about seven or eight years old.
They sat around a small campfire, on which sat a chipped earthenware pot, inside which something was cooking, emitting faint steam.
That's the taste of wild vegetables.
Sosuke observed for ten minutes.
Although the three men were thin, they had fierce eyes, and each had a sharpened wooden stick or a rusty sickle in hand.
The old woman and the little girl huddled in the corner, their expressions numb.
This is not a family. It is a temporary homeless group.
Sosuke rubbed his stomach; the hunger made him feel a little dizzy.
But he didn't walk over, nor did he touch the silver coin under his foot.
In this environment, if he were to take out a piece of silver and say he wanted to buy a bowl of soup, there would only be two outcomes: first, the silver would be stolen and he would be killed; second, the silver would be stolen and he would be crippled.
He needs a different approach.
Sosuke grabbed a handful of wet mud from the ground and smeared it on his face, making his already filthy appearance even more unrecognizable.
Then he picked up a sturdy wooden stick from the roadside, used it as a crutch, and limped away.
Instead of heading directly to the dilapidated temple, he followed the path, pretending to pass by.
"stop."
A man in the temple shouted.
Sosuke stopped, turned around, his back slightly hunched, his eyes appearing cloudy and dull.
"Is there anything to eat?" the man asked, his hand already gripping the sickle beside him.
Sosuke shook his head, his voice hoarse: "I haven't eaten for three days. I want to go to the town ahead."
The man looked Sosuke up and down.
He was dressed in tattered clothes, his straw sandals were almost falling apart, he only had a rotten piece of wood in his hand, and there was no bulge on his body.
A penniless wretch. And a penniless wretch with no savings at all.
"Get lost." The man spat. "The town ahead is sealed off; you can't get in."
Sosuke nodded, did not argue, and continued to move forward.
But he didn't go far, stopping under a sheltered rock about fifty meters from the ruined temple.
Here, you won't get wet in the rain, and you can barely see what's happening inside the temple.
He needs information, and he needs opportunities.
Late at night.
The rain stopped.
The three men took turns keeping watch. Until late into the night, even the man on watch started to doze off.
Sosuke quietly took the piece of silver from his pocket.
He was grinding on the rock.
Silver is soft.
Rubbing it against the rough rock, it quickly became pitted and uneven, losing its dazzling metallic luster, and becoming covered in stone powder and dirt, looking like a slightly shiny piece of scrap iron or tin.
He needed to disguise it as "miscellaneous silver".
Those were low-purity silver ingots, mixed with large amounts of lead and tin, and even copper rust.
This is what the poorest migrants might possess—perhaps something they found, or perhaps something passed down through generations.
After doing all this, Sosuke put it in his mouth and pressed it under his tongue.
Its daybreak.
There was a commotion coming from the dilapidated temple. The old woman was dead.
There were no warning signs; they may have frozen to death or starved to death.
The three men showed no signs of grief; they simply rummaged through the old woman's body with practiced ease, finding a moldy biscuit and a few loose threads.
The little girl stared blankly, without crying.
The three men discussed it and dragged the old woman's body to the woods behind the temple.
They didn't bury it; they just threw it away.
Sosuke watched this scene with a cold expression.
This is the underlying logic of the ninja world. Life is a consumable, while resources are eternal.
He stood up and walked back towards the dilapidated temple.
This time, the three men had just finished dividing the wild vegetable soup in the earthenware pot, each holding a broken bowl and drinking loudly.
"It's you again." The leader, a one-eyed man, put down his bowl, his eyes filled with hostility. "Didn't I tell you to get lost?"
Sosuke stood at the temple gate, rain dripping down his trouser legs.
"I want to make a deal," Sosuke said.
"A trade?" The one-eyed man laughed, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "A trade of your life?"
Sosuke opened his mouth and spat out the piece of silver, which was covered in saliva and worn beyond recognition.
He held it between his fingertips.
The three men's eyes were instantly drawn to it.
Although it looked dirty and had a dull luster, it was indeed a small piece of metal.
"I found it," Sosuke said, his tone carrying just the right amount of cowardice and greed. "Give me a bowl of soup, and then give me a ride."
The one-eyed man stood up. He didn't immediately try to snatch it.
Because Sosuke's location was very clever, right by the main road.
If he wasn't given the money, Sosuke could simply turn around and run into the rain, or throw the silver into the tall grass nearby, where no one would find it.
Moreover, this small piece of miscellaneous silver is of neither high nor low value.
Is it worth expending physical energy to kill someone for such a small amount?
"Let me see it." The one-eyed man held out his hand.
Sosuke didn't move: "Give me the soup first."
The one-eyed man squinted, considered for a moment, and then kicked the little girl next to him: "Scrape the bottom of the jar."
The little girl timidly picked up the earthenware pot, added a little rainwater, shook it, and poured it into a chipped bowl.
The soup was very thin, with only a few wild vegetable leaves swirling around.
She carried the bowl and walked up to Sosuke.
Sosuke took the bowl, but instead of drinking it immediately, he tossed the piece of silver to the one-eyed man.
The one-eyed man caught it, bit it with his teeth, and then wiped it on the corner of his clothes.
"Very poor quality." The one-eyed man frowned. "Half lead and half silver. This thing is only worth a few dozen taels."
"That's enough to buy my life." Sosuke lowered his head and took a sip of soup.
The warm fluid slid down the esophagus into the stomach.
Although it has an earthy smell and is as thin as water, it is energy.
The body is cheering.
Sosuke drank slowly, observing the small group.
These three people were clearly heading to some gathering place; following them was safer than wandering around alone.
"What's your name?" The one-eyed man put away the loose silver, his attitude softening slightly.
Since they've taken the money, according to the rules of the underworld, they won't take any action, at least not for the time being.
"Sousuke."
"What can you do?"
"He's strong and can carry heavy bags."
"Alright." The one-eyed man pointed to the two large packages on the ground. "You carry those. We're going to Red Rock Town. Once we get there, we'll settle our differences."
Sosuke put down his bowl, walked over, and picked up his bundle.
It's very heavy. It probably contains iron or some kind of ore.
He didn't complain and silently followed behind the group.
The team set off again.
The little girl walked beside Sosuke. She was very thin, with big eyes, and kept staring at Sosuke.
"Are you hungry too?" Sosuke asked in a low voice.
The little girl nodded, then shook her head.
She didn't speak, but simply stretched out her thin, bony hand and pointed to the corner of Sosuke's mouth.
There was a leftover wild vegetable leaf there.
Sosuke wiped it off, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and then swallowed it.
He didn't give the leaf to the little girl.
His current identity is that of a vagrant who will do anything to survive, nothing more.
Excessive kindness will expose his abnormality.
He looked ahead.
Chiyan Town.
That's the largest trading post in the area, and I've heard that ninjas frequent it.
Only there can there be a basis for currency circulation, and only there can there be the possibility of converting the "infinite" into cash.
Sosuke looked up at the gray sky.
This long journey has only just begun.