Infinite Anime [298-299] (Patreon)

Chapter 298: Return to the Shinigami World, Hueco Mundo

"Hahaha… that's very much your style."

Blood Rain laughed at the Soul Singer's words and paused her ladle. "Since you're using a prop to force-entry a world, the mission requirements are going to be very high. Based on my intel, this is the first time the Shinigami world is opening in the new cycle. If the Space did a default deployment, it'd cap out at level 35 explorers at most."

"Doesn't matter. S-rank, S+, whatever—they'll give me the evaluation I deserve. The Spirit Seed will be mine."

The Soul Singer stayed unmoved. "My only worry is that I might miss him."

"Is that so? Confidence is good. I look forward to your results."

There was a hint of mockery hidden in Blood Rain's smile. She actually had a bit of special intel she hadn't told the Soul Singer—because he hadn't paid enough.

He'd only asked about who might be holding Spirit Seeds, so she told him the recent intel related to them.

As far as she knew, back in the One Piece world, there had likely been a brutal battle among special individuals holding Spirit Seeds, and the winner was a powerhouse from the End Space named Mazuko.

Based on power estimates and the scheduling across mission worlds, she believed Mazuko was very likely to be deployed by End Space into the "just opened" Shinigami world in this mission window.

But since the Soul Singer hadn't paid enough, she'd withheld some key, inferred intel.

Namely, she was basically certain Mazuko would go to the Shinigami world. It wasn't just about End Space's scheduling—it was also because she knew this "explorer" Mazuko's main weapon was… a Zanpakutō.

That's a rather delicate bit of information. Honestly, Zanpakutō aren't rare across the Spaces; historically, quite a few explorers who entered the Shinigami world obtained them.

But not many truly trained and cultivated them as a main growth weapon. The main reason is that the Shinigami world is typically officially opened to Tier 4 explorers. By then, most explorers already have an epic-tier main weapon. Switching over to cultivate a Shinigami Zanpakutō from the ground up is too painful.

Also, not all explorers use bladed weapons. Even though a Zanpakutō's Shikai—and even its Bankai—can take myriad forms, its base form is a sword, which inevitably demands some degree of swordsmanship specialization.

Thus, even though the Shinigami world has opened time and again, and many have acquired Zanpakutō, very few have actually committed to cultivating them as a growth main weapon.

Since the explorer named Mazuko uses a Zanpakutō very well, comparing to the level range pulled when One Piece first opened, Blood Rain believed Mazuko likely obtained his Zanpakutō very early on.

Simple deduction: Tier 4 explorers can't set up stalls in Tier 1–2 trading markets, so Gusion's Zanpakutō probably wasn't something he purchased as an Asauchi that evolved in the internal market.

Further analysis led her to believe Gusion had likely already been to the Shinigami world—and did so without anyone knowing, soloing the new-cycle "opening" of the Shinigami world. After all, in the past half year, they hadn't heard any news of the Shinigami world opening.

That's intriguing. Deploying explorers into mission worlds consumes resources. Opening a world and sending only one person in would be an enormous waste—Spaces almost never do that.

That's why most mission worlds see a batch deployment of many explorers, and in large worlds, multiple worlds may deploy explorers at once.

As far as she knew, there was only one situation where a Space would deploy a single explorer into a mission world: the Trial World at the moment of first pulling an explorer into the Space.

Due to a kind of "newbie protection," the Space believes that if veterans and newbies are deployed together, veterans could massacre the trial rookies. So it deploys them solo.

When Blood Rain reasoned this far, it felt absurd, and riddled with contradictions she couldn't reconcile. Why would End Space shove a newbie straight into a world like Bleach!?
Isn't that just murder?
Or did End Space have that much faith in this explorer from the very moment of pulling?

Thinking further, based on the last closure time of the Shinigami world, it became even more ludicrous: if Mazuko is a special individual, he might not even have experienced six worlds yet in total!

What kind of monstrous growth rate is that!?
The Soul Singer before her was strong, but even he took ten mission worlds to reach mid-to-late Tier 4.

That End Space Mazuko is about to catch up in roughly six worlds? Ridiculous. How are the other explorers supposed to live with that?
Because much of the intel about Mazuko was her own deduction—though she felt it was 80–90% likely—she didn't say more, since the Singer hadn't paid enough.

Of course, a bit of her personal mischievous curiosity was involved too. She wanted to see how things would unfold.

"I'll be expecting fresh Seed intel when I get back."

The Soul Singer downed his drink, set the cup on the table, and left the tavern.

He couldn't wait to enter the Shinigami world and obtain the Spirit Seeds he'd long desired—and two at once!

By then, he might become the first across all Spaces to monopolize three Spirit Seeds. Promising future.

Blood Rain watched the Soul Singer's departing back with an inexplicable smile.

As she stirred her cappuccino with a silver spoon, a prompt came from the Heaven's Will Space. "Oh my, didn't expect a VIP spectator in the house. How nice."

…

In End Space, after finishing a day of training, Gusion returned to his room to rest.

After washing up, he lay on the bed to restore his spirit with quality sleep.

He'd planned the timing precisely: he would use a world-locator prop one day before the scheduled mission world opened and enter the Shinigami world.

The next morning, he woke naturally, feeling refreshed.

He checked his gear and inventory, then took out the prop Lonely Noise had given him and used it.

[Detected: Pioneer has used a world locator. You may choose a previously visited mission world to enter. Which world will you enter?]

Without hesitation, Gusion said, "The Shinigami world."

[Request received. Initiating world location. This mission world will start early and be corrected to the Pioneer's chosen target world.]

[Redirecting world… Target world: Large Open-Derivative World: Bleach]

[Direction locked. Initiating transfer…]

As the prompt sounded, Gusion felt light beneath his feet, white light enveloped him, and he re-entered that hazy corridor.

[Transferring…]

[This mission world deployment count—End Space: 113]

[Heaven's Will Space deployment count: 99]

[Chaos Space deployment count: 87]

[Tip: Killing explorers from other Spaces grants double drop chance for a Dead Man's Chest]

[Detected: Pioneer already has an initial identity in this world. It will be retained; prior identity and faction reputation will be inherited.]

[World Reputation System enabled. You can view your faction reputation from back then in the menu.]

The prompt paused. With nothing else to do mid-transfer, Gusion opened the menu.

[Gotei 13 Reputation: 1000]

[Soul Society Nobility Faction Reputation: 500]

[Zero Division Faction Reputation: 100]

[Tip: Faction reputations unrelated to the Pioneer are hidden. Explore the world to reveal specifics.]

This reputation and faction breakdown was interesting.

There wasn't a catch-all "Shinigami" or "Soul Society" faction; instead, the system split out multiple factions—something he hadn't seen when he came as a trial-taker.

From this, Gusion could intuitively feel Soul Society isn't a monolith. Even among Shinigami, there are factions that may cooperate—and hold unseen conflicts.

After reading the faction reputations, the transfer ended. The weightlessness vanished, his feet touched ground, and his vision cleared.

A gray moon hung in the sky. Endless desert stretched to the horizon. A bleak desolation shrouded the world.

As expected, he had descended into Hueco Mundo.

He'd long anticipated this. He left the Shinigami world last time by entering a Garganta alongside a Menos. Theoretically, if he didn't die, he'd be carried into Hueco Mundo.

For narrative consistency, the Space naturally placed his starting area in Hueco Mundo.

[Deployment complete. Please check the map and your missions.]

All he saw was a boundless gray desert. Confirming no immediate dangers, he set down the chubby dragon plush to keep watch and checked the menu.

[Current location: Hueco Mundo]

[Time point: 1800 CE]

[Current stay limit: 3 calendar months]

End Space was considerate this time—perhaps because Hueco Mundo lacked landmarks—directly reporting the timeline.

He'd asked about Aizen's age, so he had a clear sense of the timeline. Calculating from his last visit, about 70 years had passed in this world.

That meant he'd been gone from Soul Society for quite a while. Even with long-lived Shinigami, seventy years isn't short; many had likely forgotten this one-time passerby named Gusion.

As for his old dormmate, Aizen Sosuke, he must have graduated from Shin'o Academy by now—maybe even become a seated officer in Fifth Division.

From the time frame, the former Fifth Division officer Hirako Shinji might already be a lieutenant—or even the captain.

The vast passage of time made Gusion a bit sentimental. For him, his last visit to the Shinigami world was just a year ago. But for those here, the Shinigami named Gusion had been gone for eighty years.

As for Aizen's situation, Gusion couldn't rely on the original storyline anymore. He himself might have influenced Sosuke. Under the butterfly effect, Aizen's current strength and position were hard to gauge.

He was in Hueco Mundo now—whatever "connections" he had in Soul Society were useless. He had to focus on the present.

After checking the place and time, Gusion looked at the mission.

Unlike large derivative worlds like Naruto or One Piece—and perhaps because he'd been here before and had a prior identity and main quest chain—he again had a main quest.

[Main Quest: Power of the Shinigami]

Objective: During your stay, further develop Shinigami powers and master Bankai.

Difficulty: Nightmare ~ Certain Death
Reward: Inheritance Crystal (Medium) x10; Flexible Return Voucher

Failure Penalty: All attributes -3

A single-stage main quest, brutally simple: master Bankai.

But the difficulty rating was absurd—nightmare to certain death. If this were a combat quest, Gusion might have been excited—a life-and-death challenge to enjoy battling strong foes.

But this "Power of the Shinigami" quest wasn't a combat mission; it was a "learning" mission like when he first entered the Shinigami world. If you hit roadblocks here, you can't just hack your way through.

Judging by how he awakened Shikai last time, without Sosuke's help, he wouldn't have managed.

Same this time. Before coming, he'd studied the problem repeatedly yet had no traction on Bankai. He couldn't even use Zanpakutō resonance to enter that purgatory space anymore.

He'd considered whether his base—i.e., reiatsu—was the problem. But even if his reiatsu were below par, it shouldn't prevent resonance entirely. It felt more like his soul was being temperamental.

All told, even if he could push reiatsu to a qualifying level, achieving Bankai would still be difficult. Fortunately, his base stay this time wasn't short, and a side quest promised extensions. He had time to slowly figure it out.

Speaking of time, the next side quest was interesting.

[Side Quest: Time Hunter]

Objective: Hunt the strong in the Shinigami world. Based on exploration percentage gained, extend your stay proportionally.

Difficulty: Easy ~ Certain Death
Reward: Proportional stay extension

Failure Penalty: None

Expanding the details: kill a strong foe, gain 3% exploration, get ~2.7 extra days. At 100% exploration, you'd gain an extra three months.

[]

Gusion was about to check subsequent Pioneer-identity exclusive quests when the chubby dragon warned him, pulling his senses outward.

Figures were fighting to the north, drifting closer mid-battle. With high-speed movement, they were soon near his position.

Within a few kilometers—no longer hidden by gray dust—Gusion saw them clearly: Hollow forms, one stark white with a pair of pitch-black, bat-like wings.

He didn't need the chubby dragon to scout; he could clearly sense these Hollows were no ordinary ones. Their forms marked them as Adjuchas-class Menos.

Chapter 299: Adjuchas

Boom—

Three Adjuchas-class Menos fired Cero amid a fierce battle, shattering Hueco Mundo's silence. The roar sent gray sand skyward.

They moved rapidly mid-fight and soon charged into Gusion's area. One Menos, shaped like a musk-ox, noticed the Shinigami with surprise—but its ferocity made it decide to swat this intruding Shinigami on the way.

The yak-like Hollow turned its head and unleashed an orange Cero at Gusion. The high-pressure energy beam speared straight for his face.

Gusion calmly stowed the chubby dragon plush, then raised his right hand and swept it sideways. In his Mangekyō Sharingan, the Cero seemed to crawl in slow motion. His Armament Haki-wreathed hand intercepted precisely and deflected it, sending it crashing into a dune off to the side.

With a thunderous boom, the sand-sea heaved. A towering wave of sand rose beside him, several dozen meters high.

From the chubby dragon's scouting, the yak Menos had a composite attribute range around 75–80.

Curiously, it was a fluctuating value rather than fixed—meaning its attributes were shifting during combat.

That confirmed Gusion's later, broader insight: the Bleach-world reiatsu system doesn't directly "buff the flesh."

Simply put, a being with high reiatsu will, by virtue of condensed spiritons, have a body with attributes different from normal—but not outrageously so. Once entering combat and actively applying reiatsu, with full release, reiatsu further augments the body, yielding much higher attributes.

That's why Captain Unohana could spar by restricting her reiatsu to keep parity with him. Her "body" wasn't inherently super-statted. With reiatsu limited, her strength and speed dropped, lowering her external performance.

But because her true reiatsu was immense, Kirio Hikifune's device couldn't fully suppress it. When Gusion cut her, he could never truly inflict grievous injury.

Overall, the Bleach reiatsu system has partial similarities to Naruto's chakra: higher reiatsu can decide baseline stats. If you know how to use it, your external performance won't be low.

Ichigo vs. Kenpachi the first time is an obvious reference. Even though both housed massive reiatsu, without understanding release and application, their attack and defense initially weren't impressive.

At first, it was chickens pecking each other. From pure performance, Gusion didn't think the Space would rate their attributes very high at that moment.

But no one can deny their reiatsu potential. Their poor performance stemmed from not truly releasing and applying it.

From this angle, Gusion felt the reiatsu system demands higher operational finesse. In Naruto, if you have abundant chakra supporting the body, your composite stats won't be too bad. In Bleach, if you don't know how to use reiatsu, even a regular Menos can floor Ichigo.

With this feature identified, Gusion thought he could further study the essence of the system. Masterful control of reiatsu could yield defense and offense comparable to Armament Haki.

A person's reiatsu in relaxed vs. taut states differs vastly. There's partial and full-body application. He figured he could discuss this with Aizen later and cross-pollinate.

As Gusion pondered, another Cero lanced at him. He swatted it aside like a fly.

With Ryou technique and reiatsu control, his hand felt like it wore an invisible film. He didn't need to touch the Cero directly to bat it away entirely.

After he casually handled two Cero, the three Menos halted their fight and watched him warily.

Adjuchas live by constant battle and cannibalism. Many dream of evolving into Vasto Lorde. They'll fight their kind to the death. But that doesn't mean they'll keep brawling when a potentially powerful Shinigami appears mid-melee.

"Hey, how about we kill the Shinigami first?"

The yak Menos addressed the other two, red eyes fixed warily on Gusion.

Adjuchas usually look down on Shinigami. They rarely go to the human world to devour souls—useless and inefficient at their level. Even if they ran into a Shinigami by chance in the living world, they usually one-shot them.

After all, at their stage, non-captain and non-lieutenant Shinigami are generally weak in their eyes.

But this one was different. He'd easily deflected Cero from it and another Adjuchas. That wasn't normal Shinigami strength.

"Heh, I wonder if devouring a strong Shinigami still helps."

The other Adjuchas, a giant serpent, laughed, clearly agreeing to pause their duel.

The last one—a pure-white humanoid Adjuchas—remained quiet. Once they stopped, he just stood there, snow-white head to toe, mask covering his face, white horns on both sides of his head. Aside from his eyes, he had no other features.

He stood and looked at Gusion with eyes no more wary than when he'd regarded the other two—like everything was inconsequential.

To the other two Menos' surprise, after a few seconds of silence, this white Adjuchas turned and left, as if nothing had happened.

"Kill the Shinigami first, then kill him."

The yak Menos growled, annoyed at the white Adjuchas—feeling looked down upon.

Gusion watched the Adjuchas with interest, analyzing where his own strength currently stood in the Bleach world.

By the original's description and feats, Adjuchas vary widely. Strong ones can fight lieutenants, even captains; weak ones can be handled by stronger seated officers.

If an Adjuchas becomes an Arrancar and grows further, that gap widens.

He couldn't judge whether these three were on the strong or weak side, but on average, he felt his peak "reiatsu" was above lieutenant—perhaps able to contest some weaker captains.

His calm scrutiny seemed to irk the two Menos. They stopped their in-fighting and charged him.

The yak activated a charge skill, horns lancing for Gusion.

The giant serpent opened its mask-hidden maw and spat a fountain of condensed toxic energy, a torrent surging at Gusion.

Ting—

A clear ring. Mazuko slid half out from Gusion's waist, catching the yak's horn. Sparks flew as the high-pressure toxic geyser slammed into his flank and rose like it hit an invisible wall, spraying a tall, dark green sheet.

Gusion exerted force, fully drew Mazuko, and blasted the yak back.

Both Menos stared in shock—multiple strikes and not a scratch.

A single thought flashed for both: Did we run into a captain?

"Among Adjuchas, are you strong… or weak?"

Gusion's Nightwalker had shifted to Shihakushō form upon entering. The wind tugged his black garb, and the lightning sigils of his Mangekyō turned slowly, pressing on the two Menos.

"You arrogant Shinigami—together! Kill him!"

The yak, hot-tempered, raged at the perceived insult.

It believed itself among the stronger Adjuchas. It couldn't recall how many it had devoured. It had long hit a plateau, and thus fancied itself the apex of Adjuchas.

In fury, it rallied all its reiatsu. Its aura surged.

Watching through Mangekyō, Gusion saw its energy spike—composite attribute rising to 84 in full burst.

That confirmed his earlier inference: the degree of reiatsu output governs external performance.

The serpent Menos was similar, roughly on par in a "final-burst" state.

Gusion appreciated the reiatsu system's burst potential, but such high-output externalization can't last. Otherwise, their earlier fight wouldn't have dragged on without this state—they'd been conserving in case of a third-party ambush.

Facing a Shinigami who angered them, the two Adjuchas threw caution aside to end him fast.

A yellow and a green Cero pinched in from left and right. In Gusion's Mangekyō, he noted their energy nature and condensation-release principles were akin to Tailed Beast Bombs—but more advanced, since users could add "nature change" to their Cero.

As the twin Cero shot toward him, purple mist billowed off Gusion. "Shatter your chains, Mazuko."

The violet fog surged outward like a tide. At the same time, Gusion cut forward precisely where the two Cero would merge before his face. With master-level swordsmanship plus Ryou and advanced haki, his precise offense split them cleanly.

Stray energy streaked past him and hammered into the dunes, kicking up layered waves.

After thousandfold training time in Space, Gusion's post-Shikai physique hit 83. With the Shunpo technique further unlocking body potential, he could raise his lower Strength and Agility up to match Physique.

Limited by an outdated version, Shunpo no longer yields a huge "berserk," just flattens gaps by a few points. The upside is his experience makes it essentially strain-free.

He was still developing a new composite burst technique—merging Eight Gates with Shunpo to create a more practical temporary ascent.

At first glance, his composite attribute looked slightly lower than the two Menos, but technique and auxiliary abilities more than bridged that gap. He hadn't even used much force splitting their Cero.

From the Menos' perspective, he'd merely waved his blade and erased their full-power attack.

In that instant, anger gave way to survival instinct. They both turned to flee. They hadn't lived this long to die on the path to Vasto Lorde.

"You started this fight. How could you run?"

Lightning crackled over Gusion, entwined with Conqueror's Haki into dark red bolts that arced out, striking the two would-be escapees.

Even though Hollows and Shinigami are spiriton bodies, lightning still works—this world has lightning-type Zanpakutō too.

With the upgraded Thunder God lineage and his 85 Spirit stat, he could affect Adjuchas-class Menos.

Reiatsu does buffer against energy attacks, but they'd lost their will to fight, and their reiatsu slackened. The shocks froze them momentarily.

Gusion flashed with a silent Shunpo, appearing behind them, then passed through.

Under the gray moon, a black figure rose, a faint blood mist trailing in his wake.

As he landed with poise, the two Menos crashed down, fatal wounds undoing them into drifting gray dust that returned to the desert.

He flicked his blade clean, released Shikai, and turned to the white humanoid Adjuchas who had stayed at a distance without leaving.

"Why didn't you go?"

Gusion watched the Hollow, curious. It neither attacked nor fled. Its only features—those eyes—quietly observed the fight just past.

But Gusion couldn't read any battle hunger in them. The white Adjuchas hadn't been studying the fight; it was simply watching, probing something.

In Gusion's senses, this one was the strongest. Even while "idling," its composite attribute sat at 83. Who knew how high it could spike at full power?

"Why didn't you kill me?"

The white Adjuchas spoke. With no mouth, the source of the voice was unclear.

"Do you want to die?"

Gusion stepped forward. Ryou tinted Mazuko's edge.