Chapter Thirty-One: Return

PS: The world of Food Wars mainly serves as a cheat for the protagonist, and incidentally allows for an airing of this novel’s settings. There are no romantic escapades or secret treasures—it ends straightforwardly. Next, in the Naruto world’s end-of-term exam, the unique combat styles of the travelers will be shown for the first time.

PS2: Yesterday, the streaking only garnered seven additional bookmarks, so today remains a single update.

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Cold and trembling.

Between dreams and reality, Feng Xue once again stood before the Gate of Worlds; his first true crossing had now ended. Though he felt some regret and loss, excitement outweighed it. He had truly crossed worlds—not a dream, nor a VR game, but a genuine traverse.

The last time he’d felt this way was sixteen years ago, when he first arrived in this world. Yet it was entirely different—how could a one-off crossing compare with an endless stream of traversals?

Although Food Wars had consumed three years of his life, Feng Xue could still say—he’d profited greatly!

Yes, three years. Even though Feng Xue had defeated Takumi with his “King of Poison Ice Cream,” made from fugu liver oil and fugu skin jelly, when he faced Soma Yukihira, the true protagonist, even his top-tier Western main dish of fugu liver with fish steak was crushed by the protagonist’s aura. Crushed—who knows why such mysterious power flowed into Soma, causing his Yukihira-style beef stew, which in canon only evolved under Subaru Mimasaka’s pressure, to manifest instantly, tasting even better than in the original.

How could he tell? Because after tasting it, Feng Xue’s gourmet cells skipped their dormant phase and evolved directly; his hair grew uncontrollably, nearly resulting in him being taken away for dissection, while Soma’s beef stew was taken for hormone analysis.

After all this chaos, Feng Xue simply withdrew from school and began a spontaneous journey.

He had prepared to spend ten years or more in the Food Wars world, but returned after just three years. After three years of accumulation—mostly spent sampling cuisine around the globe—Feng Xue finally broke through the limits of the “Uncommon” rank, stepping into the realm of “Extraordinary.”

On that day, he returned to Totsuki Academy, entered the Moonlit Hall once more, and at last obtained that elusive mysterious power.

……

“Back already?” Feng Xue rose to find Xia Mi also seated before the Gate of Worlds. Unlike his previous lazy demeanor, now an aura of sharpness emanated from him; his eyes, expression, even his bearing had changed dramatically.

Though Feng Xue could sense Xia Mi’s physical level remained at “Ordinary,” he couldn’t shake the feeling: “If we fight, I might not have the advantage.”

Impossible! It must be an illusion. Feng Xue had awakened some Origin power, reaching “Extraordinary.” In combat, he could even duel some heroes who had just begun to touch the Origin (like Kiritsugu Emiya, who could fight magicians awakened to their origin when using origin bullets).

“You—you mastered the Hibernating Dragon Skill?” Feng Xue paused, then quickly realized the reason.

“That’s right! Nine years—nine whole years, and I finally succeeded. Though I haven’t reached the limit, I’m only two months away. As I expected, it’s the Prisoned Ox Dharma Form. Now I’ll be rich! I’m heading for the Emperor of Qin, for Kung Fu, for Heroes of the Condor! I want to learn every sound-based martial technique in all the worlds!”

“Uh, even the weakest, Heroes of the Condor, is ‘Extraordinary’—and at the top level, too. You haven’t even reached ‘Uncommon’ yet…” Feng Xue wiped a nonexistent sweat from his brow, gently deflating Xia Mi’s ambitions. He’d wanted to call him a loser, but considering Xia Mi might be his equal now, he softened his words. “Even if your combat power reaches ‘Extraordinary,’ your body may not withstand the energy radiation of an ‘Extraordinary’ world.”

“True!” Xia Mi nodded. “I’ll find an ‘Uncommon’ world first to upgrade my physical constitution.”

With that, he vanished from Feng Xue’s sight.

“Did he really just pick a random ‘Uncommon’ world and jump in?” Feng Xue was dumbfounded, then turned and left. Interacting with someone so quirky was a losing proposition.

Feng Xue glanced at his student ID; only a day had passed since he crossed worlds, though he had truly lived three years. His body bore no marks of age, yet he knew his lifespan had been shortened by three years.

Moreover, the day wasn’t even the real time he’d spent. In truth, Feng Xue’s stay in the other world hadn’t exceeded twenty minutes in the real world; the rest was all spent in transit.

The essence of crossing the Gate of Worlds is to convert the traveler’s body into data, project it onto a character framework in a demi-plane, and replace the original entity, ultimately attaching the traveler’s soul to it. This character possesses both a “legitimate identity” in that world and everything the traveler owns, but is essentially a hybrid. At the moment of departure, the traveler’s part is stripped away, re-converted into data and reorganized, and then the soul returns to the reassembled body.

Early on, when the Gate was newly completed, crossing sometimes imparted characteristics of the story character—like inheriting their relationships or skills if you crossed as a bit character—but this made the traveler impure. Not only could it alter appearance or personality upon return, but abilities tied to bloodline often failed (for example, crossing as a member of the Uzumaki clan with great vitality, mastering supernatural skills, then losing the bloodline upon return, discovering those abilities couldn’t be used with ordinary human physiology). Now, aside from luck, travelers inherit nothing else.

This back-and-forth process consumes real-world time; compared to the demi-plane’s 86400:1 time ratio, this is the main time drain. Don’t be fooled—Feng Xue now completes a round trip in a day only because his data volume as a newly extraordinary is small. For epic-level experts, the buffer time can exceed a week.

Feng Xue checked himself, found no missing limbs, then walked out.

This was no joke. Even now, the Gate of Worlds has a one-in-a-million chance of data conversion error, resulting in travelers returning missing limbs or gaining extra heads. This remains manageable, as the Gate maintains full records of all data flow; as long as the soul returns safely, the body can be decomposed back into data and corrected against the original.