Chapter 102: Akechi Playing The Legend of Akechi

After Akechi booted up the game, the screen displayed the menu with the option to start. He selected "Start," and suddenly, a text appeared:

"Akechi, the princess' guardian shinobi, defends the princess from evil shinobi and samurai. But he fails, and the princess is kidnapped by an evil ninja."

Akechi grinned as he watched the screen. The scene showed Akechi running with the princess on his back before an evil ninja threw a shuriken and a rope, forcing him to stop. The enemies took the princess away.

"No! Princess! I'm going to rescue you!" Akechi's in-game character shouted, and the gameplay began.

The music was catchy, the gameplay smooth and fast. Akechi attacked the evil ninjas with his katana and shuriken, moving swiftly, jumping high, and even climbing trees and their branches. He grinned in real life. "This game is awesome!"

As he played, he found a power-up scroll. Upon collecting it, his in-game character's outfit turned green with a faint aura surrounding him. His shuriken became larger and moved faster.

"Wow, you can change forms like that? Impressive," he muttered, continuing the game.

Ayumi, watching him play, sighed. Surprisingly, the game is very good. How does Zaboru make a game like this in such a short amount of time?

After playing for a while, Akechi discovered a black scroll. When he picked it up, his character stood still, performing a hand sign. Suddenly, the game music shifted, and the visuals turned into a black-and-red silhouette. A swarm of evil shinobi charged at Akechi, only to be slashed apart with striking silhouette-style blood effects.

"Whoa, that's beautiful," he said, mesmerized by the animation.

He continued through the Forest Stage, the Hidden Lake Stage, the Wall Climbing Stage, the Castle Interior Stage, and finally, the Castle Rooftop Stage. Then, the first boss battle began—Akechi versus Yukinose Kiri, the evil ninja.

Akechi fought, but suddenly, Yukinose Kiri teleported to the edge of the screen and struck at high speed. Caught off guard, Akechi took four consecutive hits, reverting to his base orange form.

"Damn, this is hard," he muttered. He tried again, failing several times before finally managing to defeat Yukinose Kiri. Just as he thought the princess was safe, a trap was triggered, and the evil samurai kidnapped her again. The second round began, introducing new, tougher enemies.

Determined, Akechi pressed on. Eventually, he encountered a new mini-boss—a ninja in a black coat, gray helmet, and glowing blue eyes.

"Zabo-man..." Akechi muttered, recognizing the character immediately.

Zabo-man wielded a long odachi, striking swiftly while throwing high-speed kunai. He also used smoke bombs to retreat. Akechi fought hard and eventually won. Before disappearing, Zabo-man uttered, "You are cool," before his body transformed into a wooden log—a classic ninja escape technique.

"Heh of course that guy won`t die easily and of course substitution technique

Akechi pressed forward, facing Yoshiro Yugikusa, the evil samurai. The battle was fierce, requiring multiple attempts before he finally emerged victorious. The final boss fight, however, proved to be the most grueling—facing Yukinose Kiri and Yoshiro Yugikusa together. After a hard-fought battle, he finally defeated them both, completing the game.

Akechi leaned back, grinning. "So, it's not a bad game, huh?" he asked, glancing at Ayumi.

She remained silent, focusing on her work on Karate Bunny. Smirking, Akechi returned to the game, replaying it simply because he enjoyed it so much.

After practicing and mastering the mechanics and beat the games multiple times, he finally managed to beat the final boss without taking a single hit and stay in his Purple Form. But instead of the usual ending, something unexpected happened.

"Hidden ending?" he muttered, intrigued.

Instead of the credits rolling, Zabo-man appeared on the screen. "Heh, you thought I was dead? Now, I'm going to kill you!" he declared. But before he could act, the game transitioned into a black-and-red silhouette once again. Suddenly, Zabo-man's head was severed from his body, and a new character emerged—a figure in white ninja attire with piercing red eyes.

"My name is Sasuke, and I am a demon ninja. I will devour the princess!" the mysterious foe declared.

Akechi's eyes widened. "Sasuke? A reference to Sarutobi Sasuke? Fair enough."

The new boss battle began. Sasuke had four deadly attacks: a massive fireball attack that required precise jumps to evade, a red lightning-coated katana strike that could only be countered by attacking at the right moment or avoided, a cloning technique that created three copies—each defeated in a single hit—and his ultimate move, the Lightning Barrage Ninjutsu. This final technique involved Sasuke charging up red lightning before unleashing three unpredictable strikes, forcing Akechi to predict their trajectories.

The fight was brutal. Akechi struggled for hours, dying repeatedly. But with sheer persistence, he finally triumphed, defeating Sasuke with only a single hit point remaining. As Sasuke perished, the true ending played.

Akechi put down his controller, sweating. "That was intense. This game is amazing. It's my favorite."

With that, Akechi finished playing The Legend of Akechi.

To be continued...

*Author Rant :

Let me emphasize this, guys—in this fic, the MC's goal isn't to become the Emperor of Gaming or a Tycoon of the World or anything like that. All he wants is to recreate games from his previous life, improve the aspects he felt were lacking, and add his own touch. He also wants to play other people's games, which is why he doesn't abuse every advantage he gets and he want to educated people how to make games.

There are plenty of novels where the MC is a perfect genius who wants to control everything, but honestly, I don't like that. I prefer flawed characters who have strong points rather than an all-knowing protagonist.

A lot of readers say my MC isn't very smart or doesn't act his age, but think about it—he was just a gamer and an employee in his previous life. He obviously wouldn't know how to manage a company! That's why I make him learn instead of magically adapting and being good at everything from the start at least company related stuff.

As I've written more chapters and developed Zaboru's character, I've realized I don't need to listen to every picky reader saying, "Oh, you should do this!" or "Oh, you should do that!" While I enjoy interacting with readers and hearing their ideas, some people say things in a commanding tone, and their suggestions completely go against what I have in mind.

So I've decided not to stress over it too much—otherwise, I might just stop writing altogether.

Thank you, everyone!*