NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: Kapitel zwei
The first rays of sunlight pierced through the cracks of a battered window, casting streaks of golden across his face. The golden warmth was comforting, but the disorientation and headache weren't.
His dizzy head swam as if the world stood gently tilting, and his limbs felt disturbingly alien. He felt like noddles, limp and unresponsive. He struggled to flex his fingers, managing at most sluggish and clumsy actions, 'Well... It wasn't a dream, at least.'
A groan rose in his throat but refused to form words. His lips parted awkwardly, and he found himself struggling to remember how to speak. For ten long minutes, he lay there, forcing his scattered thoughts to focus and battling the strange disconnect between his mind and body.
When he finally managed to sit up, he grabbed all his strength and yelled to the world, "I WANT TO PULL MY EYES AND SCRATCH THEM FROM THE BEHIND!!!"
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The voice felt foreign, too deep, yet oddly, it felt familiar. As he regained control, he rolled his shoulders experimentally. The stiffness slowly melted away, being replaced by a springy ease as if gravity was just turned off.
He leaned forward, bracing himself against the cracked tiles of the floor, and pushed into a hesitant stretch. Then, before he realized he was trying to do a push-up, and to his surprise, it felt absurdly light.
A sly grin crept across his face, "Right. I'm Sukuna! Being a menace and throwing hands is literally in my job description!" he said while flexing his fingers with such ease that his memories flickered in a flashback.
His old body wasn't weak, but it was not exceptional either. He wasn't the type to dominate a fight; he preferred to eat popcorn while watching everyone else beat the shit out of each other-- more a scrapper than a warrior. But this?! This body? It was built for battle!
His voice echoed slightly in the empty hallway, tinged with an almost cartoonish excitement, "First thing's first, let's get my plot armor on!"
Then a realization hit him like a bucket of cold water, "Wait... what Sukuna am I?!" This question was extremely important for him as it could change EVERYTHING; each Sukuna has its plus and cons with game changers. His mind began to pray as he rattled off deities like a desperate gambler trying to hit another jackpot.
He walked to a broken mirror lying on the floor, with its broken shards held together by sheer stubbornness and luck. Slowly, he knelt and peered into it...
A young boy stared back, with spiky dark hair framing a face full of sharp angles and the literal potential painted on his face covered in a dark blue jacket of Jujutsu High uniform.
He blinked once, then twice, before the glorious recognition slammed into him.
JACKPOT
"Hell yeah!" His grin widened with feral glee, creating a British smile, "Potential man body!"
For him, this was the best outcome, to put you on the same page as Sukuna; if it was Yuji, with Sukuna's body, he would have probably given up on getting strong quickly. Not only using the ten shadows seems easier than learning Sukuna's techniques in late game he also will have 2 cursed techniques.
He mischievously rubbed his hands together, like a cartoonish goofy villain, "I'll get the ox and make it run in a treadmill as long as I can and summon Mahoraga; he won't see it coming!"
After coming up with this ingenious plan, he thought, 'Megumi really was stupid...' As he finished his thoughts on getting stronger, he felt a void, and his stomach growled loudly; his head turned below, "Now I need to get a job or work at something to live..."
An intrusive thought entered Sukuna's mind, "Let's open a barbershop or restaurant, probably the malevolent barbershop; it sounds cool as fuck." His brain rapidly entered the scene and stopped him from fantasizing about such foolish dreams, "But from where is the money?"
Just as he finished that thought, a red hologram appeared in front of him, and Gabriel from Ultrakill began reading in an overdramatic tone:
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We need more money!
Kill or defeat ten thugs.
Reward: 10 thousand dollars, and THREE BRONZE GACHA SPIN!!!!
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A red slot machine appeared with flamboyant crimson letters above it: "99% of gamblers quit before they hit the big."
Sukuna stared blankly, twitching with annoyance, "What the hell is this? A gacha system?!" His hand clenched into a fist, trembling with fury, "Why do I feel like this is going to be a shitty system that never helps and just do something either when I am outside of danger or when I am about to die?"
A sigh exited his mouth, "Alright, it's plain daylight, and thugs aren't just gonna appear out of nowhere, or a damsel in distress..."
The slot machine blinked out of existence, leaving him alone with his thoughts. "..." He looked at the sides, hoping to archive something; after seeing that nothing happened, he said more sarcastically, "I SAID! Thugs won't simply appear out of nowhere nor a damsel in distress..."!"
Yet nothing happened...
He turned toward a nearby pile of trash bags, knowing this would be a long journey, "Might as well figure out how to use cursed energy first."
Sukuna's eyes hyper-fixated on the target-- A trash bag. He raised his hand, and the air around it trembled faintly as he focused, imagining slashes in his head, "Dismantle."
The bag of trash got a few marks of slashes; halfway through the trash, it stopped cutting as it lost power.
A faint *SHWING* echoed as slashes appeared across the bag, cutting through its upper half. The attack fizzled his potency midway, leaving torn plastic and garbage spilling onto the floor. He looked at the bag that survived, "Bro... What was that?" he was stupefied, wide open mouth at such an unbelievably weak attack.
Sensing his disbelief, the system dinged in, with Gabriel's voice dripping with disapproval, "Your merging rate with Sukuna/Megumi is quite low; you'll have to train any cursed energy-related ability and all your close combat abilities."
Sukuna's eyebrow twitched. He pointed at the trashed pile with indignation, still waiting for it to explode or do something else, "This is bullshit. Aren't you supposed to make me OP and throw in a harem or something? What kind of cheap trashy system are you?"
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"skill-based matchmaking"