Kakashi ran through this logic in his mind again and found no immediate flaws, but there were still some doubts...
'How could a mission involving Ninjas from another village, especially a missing-nin from Kirigakure, be assigned to Team 7?'
In Konoha's mission system.
The highest rank a genin team could take was C-Rank, though they were usually stuck with D-Rank chores like catching cats or dogs.
C-Rank missions, at their most extreme, might involve escort missions that required leaving the village, but these were typically reserved for Chunin teams.
However, considering that Team 7 was led by a Jonin, it was possible for them to take on escort missions.
But a mission involving a Missing-nin... and a Jonin-level Missing-nin at that!
This would at least be an A-rank mission! And if they had known in advance that the opponent was Zabuza, it could even be classified as S-Rank.
In Kakashi's opinion, even sending out a team of Anbu was not safe enough, let alone a team of Genin like Team 7 that had just graduated from the Academy.
---
'The only possibility was that the mission client had lied, misrepresenting the mission's rank...'
Kakashi facepalmed. This kind of thing was all too common in the Ninja World.
However, when Ninjas encountered such situations, they could abandon the mission, keep the client's deposit, and add the client to the village's blacklist.
'But after Team 7 encountered Zabuza, they would obviously realize the problem.'
'Yet they chose to continue the mission, likely due to my own decision...'
Kakashi pondered, while Yuto, noticing Kakashi had been staring blankly for a while, thought there might be a bug in the game.
So he leaned over and asked, "What's wrong? There shouldn't be any problem, right?"
Kakashi's nerves instantly tightened. Beneath his mask, the three-tomoe of his Sharingan formed into Mangekyo pattern.
His body also stiffened slightly.
But in less than 0.5 seconds, Kakashi regained control of his movements.
Realizing his reaction had been a bit excessive, Kakashi's face was filled with embarrassment.
"N-no, nothing …"
Kakashi didn't expect that as a seasoned Anbu, he hadn't even noticed Yuto approaching.
Or perhaps he had noticed but subconsciously filtered him out as an ordinary person.
After silently marveling at Yuto's ability to blend in so well, Kakashi felt a growing sense of pressure...
Though this pressure wasn't from Yuto, but from the Demon Zabuza.
---
Kakashi clicked the screen, not continuing to the next level, but instead replaying the previous levels from the beginning.
This process seemed bizarre to Yuto, but Kakashi didn't find it boring or tedious in the slightest.
He focused intently, trying to dig up more clues...
But all the evidence pointed to the conclusion he had already guessed.
He continued to push through the levels... some minor, seemingly insignificant ones.
However, when he reached the eleventh level, which he thought would be just another ordinary level.
Kakashi quickly cleared the first wave, but during the second wave, the words 'Powerful Enemy is Approaching' appeared.
'Could there be someone else?'
Kakashi was puzzled, but then a figure wearing a Kirigakure's Anbu mask appeared.
Kakashi controlled his in-game character, using Raikiri to gain the upper hand. With the three Chakra charges he had accumulated from the previous wave, he was ready to unleash his ultimate Jutsu.
Without hesitation, Kakashi activated it. In his experience, whenever an opponent with the 'Powerful Enemy is Approaching' tag appeared…
They could usually survive one ultimate Jutsu and might even have enough energy to unleash a second one.
However, this formidable enemy named 'Haku' didn't seem particularly strong. Just one ultimate Jutsu was enough to bring him down to low health.
Since enemies in the dungeon didn't have a knockdown protection mechanic, Kakashi effortlessly followed up with his dog summoning technique and a series of basic attacks to finish off Haku's remaining health.
Just as Kakashi was about to remark on how easy this level was, the already depleted 'Haku' didn't fall.
[That's enough... Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals]
Kakashi suddenly realized that this 'powerful enemy' seemed to have a second phase!
However, just as he slashed toward Haku with Raikiri, Haku's figure vanished.
In his place appeared a crystal-clear ice mirror, and the health bar below, which displayed the 'powerful enemy's' HP, now showed 'Haku: Awakened.'
Kakashi felt a sense of foreboding. His health was still at 60%, which in other levels would have been more than enough to secure a win.
But as ice spikes began to emerge from the mirror's surface, Kakashi frantically dodged.
Perhaps it was because he reacted a step too late, or maybe it was due to the unnecessary health loss earlier in the fight, but in a moment of distraction, the character Kakashi was controlling in the game fell amidst the ice.
Yuto, hearing the sound effect of the character's death, felt a strange sense of satisfaction. He wasn't sure why he felt pleased seeing his players struggle…
But Yuto could honestly say that the dungeon's difficulty had already been toned down.
Since he hadn't yet implemented a combat power progression system, and players had no way to increase their strength, the difficulty of the second volume's dungeons was only slightly higher than the first volume's.
As for why he lost, Kakashi knew all too well.
It wasn't that his reflexes were slow. In fact, in Kakashi's eyes, both the character's movement speed and the enemy's Jutsu casting speed were quite slow.
It was just, he was confused where did this Ice Release Ninja come from.
Kakashi had heard rumors about Ice Release Ninja back in the Academy. In the Land of Water, there were two major Kekkei Genkai: the Shikotsumyaku of the Kaguya Clan and the Ice Release.
The Shikotsumyaku, which was once as renowned as the Uchiha's Sharingan, had clearly gone extinct.
As for the already rare Ice Release Ninja?
They had likely been purged as well, with some possibly fleeing to the Land of Snow.
But for Zabuza, who had once participated in the extermination of Kekkei Genkai users, to team up with an Ice Release Ninja was quite peculiar.
After noting this information, Kakashi challenged the level again. This time, he effortlessly dodged all the ice spikes and achieved victory with nearly full health.
Next up was the twelfth level.
In the previous volume, the twelfth level had been the final one.
'I wonder how this volume would handle it...'
With a sense of anticipation, Kakashi clicked on the level titled [The Demon of the Hidden Mist].