For a moment, Anthony stared at the pure-white throne before him, his expression cycling through a whole parade of emotions.
Then he glanced at the chat group — at his own username, "Lord of the Ivory Throne" — and the corner of his eye gave a small, involuntary twitch.
So that was what it meant. When the chat group had selected him, it had apparently already detected his identity as the Lord of the Dead… After all, technically speaking, by that point he had already been designated the next Lord of the Dead by the Underworld's own mechanisms.
Sun Wukong, meanwhile, was watching the play of expressions cross Anthony's face with a raised eyebrow. Then he opened his mouth:
"Alright, anything else you need my help with?"
"Uh — would you be willing to be a sport all the way, Bro Monkey, and just fix up the whole Underworld for me right here and now?"
Sun Wukong rolled his eyes.
"Save those pipe dreams for another day. This old Sun isn't your free labor service.
"Besides — now that I've swept the dust off this Ivory Throne for you, can't you go find some other immortals to pester?"
"Other immortals?"
Anthony blinked, looking toward the Ivory Throne — and in the next moment, heard Sun Wukong's explanation:
"That thing's essentially a phonebook. With it, you can get in touch with just about any immortal in existence — even the ones currently living in the mortal world. Of course, use it with a little care. Some immortals have foul tempers; if you go bothering them without good reason, or disturb them at the wrong moment, you'll be biting off more than you can chew."
And so, as Anthony looked toward the Ivory Throne with a blend of curiosity and barely-contained eagerness, a hint of amusement crept into Sun Wukong's expression.
"Come to think of it — the Lord of the Dead returning at last is no small matter in the Three Realms… If you have someone you'd like to contact, this occasion might just be enough of a pretext to draw a few of them to the Underworld for a chat."
"You said the immortals are in the mortal world… can't I just go there myself?"
Anthony turned his head and addressed Sun Wukong in a quiet voice.
"You could, more or less — if you want to step out onto the Huangquan Road, that shouldn't pose much of a problem."
Sun Wukong waved a hand and added: "So? Got anyone in mind?"
"If there's someone you want to call over, I could help you fetch one of them…"
The next moment, Sun Wukong saw Anthony open his mouth almost immediately — and spoke first, cutting him off: "Not Lord Laojun. He's been in his pill chamber recently, in the middle of an especially grueling alchemy session — word is he's running dangerously close to the deadline. You ring him up right now and he might actually snap at you."
Right.
Anthony sheepishly set aside the idea that had been itching at the back of his mind.
After thinking it over again for a moment, Anthony felt that the best candidate was, after all, Erlang Shen.
Slap that otaku reputation on top of his own chat group, and maybe he could scrape together a little strike team out of it.
He had already reviewed what remained to be done to restore the Underworld's functions. First: the wandering ghosts currently drifting through the mortal world needed to be brought back to the Underworld for reincarnation — but that required repairing things like the Bridge of Helplessness and Meng Po's soup station.
But the mortal world also had malicious spirits. Those could be cast directly into the Eighteen Levels of Hell; once consigned there, they could be used to restore certain functions… and once the most basic reincarnation components were repaired, efficiency could continue to climb from there.
Beyond that, there were various treasures and materials needed to restore the remaining functions.
With reincarnation temporarily out of reach, Anthony felt that Erlang Shen was genuinely a solid choice.
On one hand, he could try to pry open that deity's personal treasury for some resources. On the other hand, he could ask Erlang Shen to help him deal with malicious spirits and send them down to the Eighteen Levels of Hell… Of course, that went for Bro Monkey as well — if he was willing, Anthony was confident he could lend a hand too.
But then again — if he used something anime-related to rope in a fellow anime fan, filmed the whole scene, and sent it to Bro Monkey… maybe Bro Monkey would have such a good laugh he'd just pitch in anyway?
When all was said and done, Erlang Shen was the linchpin of this whole plan.
"Great Sage — I'd like to observe the mortal world for a bit… Could you do me a favor? Keep my observation from being noticed by most people."
And so, a moment later, Anthony turned to Sun Wukong for help. Sun Wukong blinked, looking a touch puzzled, and asked:
"That's simple enough… but why do you want to do that?"
"I want to check on Erlang Shen's situation — and also take a look at what the mortal world looks like right now." Anthony said: "I've got almost no memory of it anymore."
More importantly: he wanted to see what the anime scene in this world was like, and what Erlang Shen was into — so he could tailor his approach accordingly.
"Fair enough. Go ahead and observe — this old Sun will stay in the Underworld a while longer. With any luck, next time I come by, this place will actually look halfway reputable."
Sun Wukong thought it over briefly, then waved his hand and gave his generous assent.
Anthony, hearing that, hooked the corner of his mouth into a wry grin. He understood the unspoken implication in Sun Wukong's words perfectly: the hope that next time he came to mooch off this ramshackle place, there'd actually be something worth mooching…
Damn it all, he'd spent his whole life being the one who mooched off others — and now, the first time he'd ever experienced someone mooching off him had to happen the moment he arrived in the Underworld.
Anthony let out a sigh, said nothing further, and simply opened the Huangquan Road once more — gazing out toward the mortal world.
But this time, the field of view seemed to be veiled in a layer of mist, making the soul's prying gaze far more covert. Feeling that shift, Anthony understood: this was Sun Wukong's doing.
And so, without a moment's further hesitation, Anthony looked directly down into the city.
Street after street, building after building swept past his vision — Anthony paid particular attention to any shops or locations connected to anime merchandise and figures.
And in an instant, he spotted quite a few old acquaintances.
The classic, venerable Re:Zero; the three titan shonen series; some of the older fare like Date A Live and other relics of a prior era… At a glance, the storefronts looked a little sparse, radiating that particular aura of battle-hardened old-guard anime fandom.
Right next door was a shop dedicated to gacha game merchandise, and Anthony even spotted merchandise for Ling — and a whole chaotic jumble of other gacha game goods.
Well, that shop looked considerably livelier.
He was still in the middle of feeling somewhat wistful about all that when he fixed his gaze — and his expression froze.
Because there, among the merchandise, he had spotted an unmistakably familiar figure.
Two dragon horns growing from the head. A dragon's tail curving from the back. And critically — the face was identical to Anthony's own.
Haku?!
Staring at that scene, Anthony's expression went blank for a moment — and then, in bewilderment, he spoke up:
"Great Sage, that figure over there…"
"Don't ask me, I don't follow the anime scene."
Sun Wukong didn't even lift an eyelid as he replied. Anthony fell silent, and helplessly chose to stop pestering Sun Wukong.
Instead, he turned to the chat group.
"Chat group — do you have any annotations?"
[Searching for relevant content… providing the following annotations]
[Your resurrection condition — "spreading your own meme across the myriad worlds" — is currently in progress]
[Expand to read full details…]
And so Anthony tapped expand.
What appeared before him was a densely packed, ten-thousand-word academic paper.
Right. Of course. This again.
Rolling his eyes, Anthony skimmed rapidly through the paper, and after quite some time, finally puzzled out what it was actually saying.
Simply put: the Primordial River had flexed its muscles.
The Primordial River's essential nature was as an aggregate of information from across all worlds — condensed and given form as a river, acquiring its own unique qualities in the process. But among all those qualities, the most fundamental had never once changed.
That was the river's flow.
The Primordial River would interconnect information from across all worlds, allowing the information of one world to pour into another — thus giving birth to creative works. The more this kind of information flowed, the more a world's ACG industry would flourish.
For reasons Anthony couldn't quite put his finger on, looking at this, he had a strange and eerie sense of having seen this aesthetic somewhere before, roughly ten years ago.
But in any case, this also explained Haku's existence.
And because Anthony himself, as a high-ranking earth-bound spirit of the Primordial River, caused all information he generated to flow directly back into the Primordial River — in other words, because of the Primordial River's existence, any history he had altered was recognized as a form of "canonical history."
And so, in the subsequent flow of information, Haku's data had appeared in other worlds.
If this theory held, then Prometheus and Smith — his two Stands — should, in theory, have also appeared in other worlds as well.
"I see… No wonder my resurrection condition is listed as in progress."
Anthony murmured softly under his breath, feeling a quiet sense of relief settle in his chest.
If things kept going like this, he'd only need to keep stirring up trouble, and his meme problem would take care of itself entirely!
He didn't even doubt that the things he'd gotten up to in Fuyuki City these past few days had probably already become a canonical world-line within the FSN narrative — quite possibly the Heavenly Illya line, in fact.
And so, Anthony shifted his attention back to the present situation and continued sweeping his gaze across the city.
The modern society's anime scene was roughly in line with what he remembered. Aside from the fact that a few works now featured his own likeness, and that a handful of titles were missing, everything else seemed about the same.
Then that left only the final question.
"Great Sage — could you help me find Erlang Shen?"
Once again, Anthony turned to Sun Wukong.
He'd been searching for quite a while now, and had yet to spot anyone who matched the image of Erlang Shen he had in his head.
"Hm? Can't find her? Alright then, let this old Sun have a go."
Sun Wukong lifted an eyelid — seeming to let out another small sigh — and then stretched out a hand. In an instant, Anthony felt the entire field of the Huangquan Road shudder — and in the next moment, the view locked onto a single room.
A room that, even at a glance, was unmistakably that of an anime fan.
It was relatively tidy, granted — by just a hair — but the figure display cabinet packed wall-to-wall with figures was impossible to fake.
Anthony stared at that display cabinet in silence for a long moment, and then couldn't help turning to look at the Great Sage.
"Don't look at me. I've got the right room — she lives here."
Sun Wukong waved a dismissive hand and said directly: "Immortals have to keep up with the times too, you know. These days, most of the divine crowd living in the mortal world are here to enjoy life — just about everyone has their own little hobby."
"And you?"
"Me? I spend my free time mooching meals wherever I can."
Anthony once again elected to ignore the hint embedded in Sun Wukong's answer.
He looked back at the room — no sign of anyone. But just then, he heard the click of a door being unlocked, and he instinctively narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the entrance.
"Oh. She's here."
Sun Wukong said it plainly, reinforcing the concealment around Anthony — layered atop Anthony's own Soul Strength-based concealment — and buried the line of sight deep behind a veil of mist.
And so, with a flicker of nervous anticipation, Anthony looked toward the doorway.
Wondering what kind of person Erlang Shen would be, having come to live in the modern age…
The door swung open — and the very first thing Anthony saw was long, gleaming silver hair.
Oh, an ethereal, celestial bearing — but wait. Are you sure that's a look that belongs in the anime fandom?
That thought flashed through his mind instinctively — and then he watched as one slender, pale foot kicked off a shoe and stepped into the room, delicate and slight in a way that did not look remotely masculine.
Hang on. Hang on a second.
For an immortal, this would probably still count as… normal? Right?
Anthony kept telling himself that — and then in the next moment he saw the figure who had walked in. He looked at the silver-haired girl stifling a yawn, took in her frame that was honestly even a little petite, and went very quiet.
On reflex, he looked back at Sun Wukong. Then looked back at the silver-haired girl who had just walked in.
Then he noticed the third eye on top of the silver-haired girl's head — still closed.
"?"
"Hey, little Lord of the Dead — why do you look so confused?"
"No, it's not — hang on, just — hang on a second."
"Didn't you say Erlang Shen was a male otaku?!"
"Sure, and look — she's even got a figure box in her hand, hasn't she?"
Sun Wukong replied with perfect equanimity, pointing to the figure box Erlang Shen was clutching as she entered. Anthony was silent for a moment before managing: "But shouldn't that — shouldn't it mean she's… male…"
"Ah, why get hung up on that."
Sun Wukong waved a hand, speaking with breezy indifference: "The point is the otaku part, not the male part. 'Male otaku' is an identity, not a gender — she calls herself that sometimes as a self-deprecating joke, so this old Sun just ran with it."
What the absolute hell.
Anthony felt wave after wave of bewilderment wash over him.
Especially when he got a clear look at the figures in Erlang Shen's cabinet — and at the figure box she had just carried in. The bewilderment on his face deepened considerably.
The good news: Erlang Shen's anime density was looking quite high.
And the variety of figures was impressive — proving she had broad taste in ACG, with no shortage of works she was into. Anthony could already spot a figure of Namikaze Minato sitting on the bottom shelf, and quite a few people from the chat group were represented on that figure wall.
The bad news: Anthony had apparently spotted himself on the figure wall as well.
Yes. Himself. Haku.
When he saw that the top row of the figure wall had somewhere around three or four figures all depicting Haku — Anthony felt his breathing stop.
Especially when he saw that the figure box Erlang Shen was carrying into the room was also a Haku figure.
He felt like he couldn't breathe at all.
The Sui family's figures were almost entirely represented on that wall. Although, Haku did have the most of anyone there — wait, no, what was the gap between him and everyone else? He was pretty sure the charm of an unscrupulous black-hearted capitalist was not supposed to outstrip the rest of them by this kind of margin.
"Ahh… got a new one, huh. Time to put it up and take a nap."
From within the observation of the Huangquan Road, Anthony heard Erlang Shen's voice — languid but clear and bright.
After a long silence, Anthony closed the Huangquan Road's observation.
"Hm? Done already?"
Sun Wukong turned his head, looking at Anthony with a slightly puzzled air.
"I'll… put a pin in that for now…"
Anthony rubbed his temples, lifted his head, and said with a somewhat dazed expression: "I need a little time to process this."
Strictly speaking, this should probably count as good news. Or, really, very good news.
He could gather a few people from the chat group, call Haku's avatar back, and while he was at it, rope in the Sui family for a team-building trip to the Underworld — then the whole crew could go find Erlang Shen together, and asking for a favor should be absolutely effortless…
But even for Anthony, unscrupulous black-hearted capitalist that he was, this particular scene had packed just a little too much of a punch.
He needed a moment to digest the reality that a pie had just fallen from the sky — and turned out to be stuffed with a very peculiar flavored filling.
He'd reach out to the group first, see who was free, and call everyone over to visit Erlang Shen a little later.
Mainly because he genuinely couldn't predict what would happen once he actually came face to face with Erlang Shen.
He urgently needed someone to help absorb the heat with him… Ideally someone who appeared on Erlang Shen's figure wall, so that if things went sideways in some extreme direction, he'd still have someone to throw under the bus.
Brothers in arms — sharing the hardships together!
"If you've got nothing else for me, I'm heading out. Next time something actually comes up, just use the Ivory Throne to contact me."
Sun Wukong stood up, spoke casually — and then Anthony watched him flip another somersault, zip out while the Huangquan Road wasn't looking, and vanish.
And so, alone in the empty Underworld, Anthony opened the chat group — and the moment he did, he found Namikaze Minato speaking up in the group after a long absence, with a mention directed at himself.
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: @Lord of the Ivory Throne, you there? Something I need to talk to you about]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: ? What's up — is Naruto falling behind with his studies?]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: No, it's the village. Things in the village seem to be starting to shift]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Hm? The village? Let me take a look… hm, now that you mention it, things do seem a bit…]
After organizing Smith's intelligence reports a little, Anthony found that things in the Naruto world had indeed begun to get messy.
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Do you have a grasp of the specifics on your end? Smith's intel is telling me that Konoha has been pretty turbulent lately]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: I'll lay it out plainly — I've spent this period of time teaching Naruto, while also having him wander around the village and interact a bit with a kid named Uchiha Sasuke…]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Through that, I got a sense of the Uchiha clan's situation. The atmosphere over there has been growing more and more volatile lately]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: In short — the sentiment of resistance has been escalating by the day]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: In other words — the arc where they rebel, it's just about getting started?]
For a moment, Anthony raised an eyebrow and posed the question to the group.
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: That's my read as well]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Also, I've been asking the Third Hokage to keep an eye on Danzo's movements this whole time. Going by what the Third has told me… Danzo has been rather restless lately. Unusually antsy]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: If nothing goes sideways, I'd guess it's almost time]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Has Uchiha Shisui died yet?]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Not yet]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: I see… understood]
And so, in that moment, everything clicked for Anthony.
It seemed they had arrived at the eve of the explosion — the eve of blood and storm.
If nothing went sideways, it wouldn't be long before the night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre arrived.
Of course — now that the chat group had gotten involved, "nothing going sideways" was pretty much off the table.
And as it happened, Anthony thought it over, and felt that now was actually a decent enough time to take on the Naruto world arc. He was probably qualified for it by now.
Everything was coming together at just the right moment.
Especially when he thought about the figure of Namikaze Minato he had spotted on Erlang Shen's figure wall — Anthony felt that this was simply too perfect a coincidence.
Could you ask for a better setup?
Wasn't this exactly the person to help him absorb Erlang Shen's attention?
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: In that case, no point dragging it out — since we're here, let's just take care of your situation while we're at it]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Your resurrection, handling the Uchiha Clan Massacre night, plus a few other loose ends — we'll settle them all at once]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: The Shinigami — have you figured out a way to deal with that?]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Not certain, but worth a try]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Right now I'm essentially the Lord of the Dead… in theory, tracking down the Shinigami shouldn't be difficult]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: And that thing would actually be useful to me]
Typing those words into the group without a moment's hesitation, Anthony's eyes carried that familiar look — the one that always appeared when he spotted a rare and exceptional find.
Or rather: the joy of having glimpsed a future cornerstone of the Underworld.
If he could bring the Shinigami back to the Underworld… wouldn't that let him restore quite a few more functions?
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Also — @Yellow Flash of Konoha — once I've finished helping you out, I'll probably need you to come over to my side and help me with something]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: No problem, what kind of help?]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Just meeting someone. Don't worry about it]
Whether that was actually going to be trouble or not — Anthony could say nothing on that front.
He had no idea himself!
If he had any clue what meeting Erlang Shen was going to turn into, he would've gone straight over on his own long ago — why would he need to drag Namikaze Minato along as a shield?
All in all, in a word: once Minato was revived and the aftermath of the Naruto world sorted out, he was dragging the man over to meet Erlang Shen with him.
Having made up his mind on that, Anthony opened the chat and sent Minato a short message:
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Get ready. I'm on my way]
And in the next moment — a gentle swing of the fishing rod in his hand.
His soul quietly split off, flowing directly back to the Primordial River — and then, cast out through the line, sank once more into the endless, kaleidoscopic churn of the current…
And finally settled upon the Stand of the golden-haired young man.
And so, in that moment, the avatar known as Smith opened his eyes in the Naruto world.
"Well then — time to get started."
He flexed his hand gently, murmuring quietly to himself.
So — what was the first step?
He smiled — and the full Authority of the[Lord of the Dead]settled upon him, his Soul Strength reaching out to sense everything in this world connected to the concept of the[Underworld].
The first step, obviously: find Minato — and then go knock on the Shinigami's front door.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone