Before long, Beishi and the other three hurried back and regrouped with Xiang Nan.

All of them were staring toward the distant, thunderous battle. The city's only imposing building had collapsed and was now engulfed in flames.

"It's not just us… there are other intruders watching too. From the look of it, the only people in this city are outsiders like us—players from elsewhere."

Beishi swept his gaze around and fixed on a small black silhouette about half a kilometer away, also standing on a rooftop.

He couldn't make out the person's face, but judging by the outfit, they definitely weren't from the main world here.

The clothes were modern.

The other side had clearly spotted them as well.

"I didn't turn up anything useful, but based on my run in Rurouni Kenshin, I'd say this world's timeline sits right at the transition from late Sengoku into the Edo period." Orban rubbed his chin, thought for a while, and gave his take.

"From Sengoku into Edo?" Beishi was surprised.

"If that's the backdrop, then going by the anime I've seen and what I remember from my past life… odds are it's a low-martial world like Rurouni Kenshin—samurai, ninja, that sort of thing…"

Beishi picked up the thread.

"Very possible," Orban nodded.

If so, it meant the Multiverse Battlefield's environment this time would have very little impact on them as players from the Hunter x Hunter world—because low-martial worlds can hardly compete with high-martial players like them.

"The system is always about balance. Dropping high-martial players into a low-martial main world looks like a free win on the surface, but it will make up for that somewhere else." Xiang Nan smiled, pointing toward the still-raging fight in the distance. "For example… the players we've been matched against this time—our enemies—will almost certainly be from other high-martial worlds. Basically no weaklings."

"There—"

Xiang Nan had barely finished when several figures vaulted out from the burning courtyard of the wooden complex.

They landed on the main street.

One of them formed hand seals and spewed a massive torrent of flame—a spherical blast.

"Ninjutsu?!"

Beishi flinched.

He couldn't see every detail, but the familiar feel and fighting style made him instantly associate it with one world—also the most famous anime in the multiversal mix:

Naruto.

That was a Fire Release technique.

Their opponents looked like a type of "adventurer": armored, longswords in hand, fully kitted out, and from their hair and features they read as more "Western."

"Given how famous Naruto is, the lack of shinobi uniforms is probably to avoid outing themselves on sight. But their fighting style is too distinctive… they're from the Naruto world, no question. I might not know the exact names of their jutsu, but I recognize them!" Beishi blurted.

Out on that street:

The Naruto side had two people. Their enemies were three.

Unlike the shinobi, the three seemed built for close combat. Facing ninjutsu at range, their first move was to dodge or block, then look for a chance to close in.

Xiang Nan's eyes were sharp—he could make out one shinobi launching some kind of Wind Release: a savage gale tore down the avenue, the slicing wind even ripping the nearby wooden rooftops clean off.

But one enemy—a big, heavyset knight type with a giant axe—planted himself in the gale and didn't budge an inch.

Then, as the Wind Release petered out, that seemingly lumbering hulk sprang skyward.

He covered well over ten meters in a single bound, rocketing up to a point above the two shinobi—and brought the giant axe down toward the street.

Dust exploded everywhere.

The boom and the tremor were obvious even to Xiang Nan's group at a distance.

"Ridiculous physical stats and attributes…" Beishi gasped.

"It's definitely Naruto," Xiang Nan said.

He'd watched Naruto—not a superfan, but he remembered enough.

From the way the two shinobi fought and their distinctive hand seals, he could practically confirm Beishi's call.

On top of that, Xiang Nan saw one of them avoid the axe strike with the Substitution Technique—clearly prepared.

Half a log lay where the body had been, an explosive tag burning on it.

Boom!

The follow-up blast swallowed the axe-wielding knight.

But when the smoke cleared and the ash drifted down, the knight was unscathed.

Clearly, the two shinobi's ninjutsu and offense weren't doing much. The knight's "defense" was monstrous.

"It's not just his raw physical stats… just like the shinobi's chakra, he's got 'energy' layered over him." While the others were stunned by the spectacle, Xiang Nan stayed calm. In the Battlefield, the energy level and nature of moving targets is the most important intel.

"Magic?" Xiang Nan narrowed his eyes.

He'd dealt with players from Black Clover and Fairy Tail, so he knew a thing or two about magic.

To him, the "energy" cladding that knight felt a lot like magic.

He still couldn't say which world the guy was from, though.

"The Naruto pair pulled out…" Xiang Nan smiled faintly.

The three intruders led by the knight had lost their targets.

Since the system hadn't issued missions yet, none of them knew what was coming… and there was no reason to fight to the death right now.

The shinobi were cool-headed, clearly aware their foes weren't going down easily.

"Two teams exposed already—one Naruto, the other likely from a magic-using world. From that brief clash we can roughly gauge their strength, though we still don't know the exact headcount on either side.

"My read is the knight's team looks stronger than the Naruto pair," Orban finished, then glanced at Xiang Nan.

What should their squad do next?

"We're not the only ones watching from the shadows… someone's probably clocked us too," Beishi cautioned.

"This city isn't big… with no locals around—only intruder-players present—and no sign of this world's native players, it feels like someone deliberately set up an 'environment' to make us outsiders slug it out."

Xiang Nan chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Orban blinked.

"An empty city. The moment we intruders drop in, our first instinct is to learn the world's info and background—so we start moving. In that situation, intruders with a latent adversarial relationship are bound to bump into each other, and once they do, fighting is inevitable. At the same time, the city's layout makes hiding impractical… which means we'll all be exposed sooner or later, and each squad will start tracking the others, escalating the competition.

"Especially… that tower is the city's most conspicuous landmark. Players who can't find intel will be drawn there and get baited into fighting. As soon as any intruders engage, the other squads whose attention gets snagged will show themselves too… Someone is using the terrain and environment here—and a sharp read on intruders' mindset and habits—to make the 'script' play out exactly as they want."

Xiang Nan's tone was even.

"You're saying…?" Beishi's eyes lit with understanding.

"Mm. There's a very smart native player in this world who's already laid the groundwork for us."

"Don't let your guard down just because this is a low-martial world… sometimes brains are scarier than brute strength."

With that, Xiang Nan hopped down from the roof.

"So what do we do now?"

"Nothing… get some rest, and wait for the system mission," Xiang Nan said.