This time, walking through Jujutsu High, Sōjun Minamoto felt something real. It was no longer just a collection of scenes or fragments from memory stitched into a few stories.
This was a real world.
It gave him a dull sense of disorientation—binary and ternary systems mixing, time and space overlapping.
So many things seemed almost right, but not quite, leaving him unsettled.
In truth, it didn't matter which world he was in, or how many dimensions it had. He didn't feel a sense of belonging to this one—or the previous one, either.
The world was too vast.
And now, maybe there were simply too many.
Thinking about it only added to the confusion.
He cleared his mind.
His soul immediately felt lighter, as if he had brushed away a layer of dust.
Finally, complete integration!
...
Back in his room, Sōjun Minamoto turned on his computer.
Almost at the same moment, his phone buzzed with a message from Shiko Mishima, sending him a link.
He clicked it, logged in, entered the default account and password. The entire process was familiar, and soon, he was in.
It was a forum-style platform made up of various functional boards.
There were listings for commissioned tasks, a trade board, an information board, and even friend and team features.
Many sorcerers were chatting, posting threads that sparked comments and discussions—until they inevitably went off-topic.
Sōjun Minamoto skimmed through the posts.
Some were recruitment ads for team missions.
One read: [Grade 1 Cursed Spirit extermination, one spot left! Looking for a beautiful, kind, and powerful girl. Handsome guys are okay too, ugly dudes don't bother!]
The replies exploded:
"What's your level that you think you can discriminate against ugly people?!"
"Ugly guy above!"
"Didn't you say one spot left? Why are you only recruiting one?"
"We've got a straight shooter here."
"He means: one Grade 1 slot and one Grade 2 slot."
"Come on, tell us your level! Discriminating against ugly people like that!"
"..."
Then followed dozens of copy-pasted comments, mostly people begging, "Boss, take me with you!"
The replies were a chaotic mess—pure madness.
Looking at this derailed post, Sōjun Minamoto was hit by a wave of nostalgic memories.
It was all coming back—the internet vibe of today's world.
He browsed more threads: cursed object trades, call-out posts, shady deals... even a few matchmaking ads.
Sitting speechless in his ergonomic chair, the glow from the screen reflected different shades on his face. Were these really today's Jujutsu Sorcerers?
Of course, there were more serious threads too—posts sharing cursed spirit intel, shikigami trades, buy/sell requests. Those looked normal.
Cursed spirits with spatial attributes often sold for high prices, sparking intense bidding wars between shady characters.
Storage-type curses were in high demand. Sōjun Minamoto was also looking for one.
Jujutsu High neither supported nor restricted this. As long as school rules weren't broken, bounty sorcerers had a lot of freedom.
He suddenly recalled Shiko Mishima's reminder—use a codename, separate from your real name.
At the time, he didn't think much of it. But now? Who in their right mind would use their real name online? That was just asking to get doxxed and publicly destroyed.
Following the steps, he filled in the required fields one by one.
When it came time to choose a name, he considered something normal like "PrettyBoy," or something confident like "I'mFirst," or even something outrageous like "WarGod" or "AlphaBeast."
But after realizing the system was tied to his real identity unless he skipped bank binding or didn't take online tasks, he dropped the idea.
That would defeat the whole purpose.
After a few tries with duplicate names, he finally got one that worked.
[Sovereign], lv1.
Looking at the brand-new rookie account, Sōjun Minamoto felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
Your level would increase based on task completions, transaction amounts, and activity, all calculated with a set formula.
With that done, he sent a friend request to Shiko Mishima.
She had included her own codename when she sent the link—it was [Little Delinquent].
Heh.
...
Shiko Mishima felt a little embarrassed.
After graduating from Jujutsu High and becoming a support supervisor, she'd chosen that... rather immature codename back when she didn't know any better. By the time she wanted to change it, it was already tied to her real identity.
Unless she paid.
After a brief moment of thought, she decisively chose money over shame. If she didn't feel embarrassed, then it was someone else's problem.
Besides, there weren't many people who knew both her codename and her real name. After all these years, her skin had grown thick enough.
She was quite satisfied with her current partner. At least, her first impression of him was good. After a short interaction, he felt easy to get along with. She liked his attitude—he didn't act superior, and his personality seemed normal, gentle, and polite.
All in all, a pleasant man. Though his eyes were... a little strange. It was subtle, but she noticed—he had double pupils.
Actually, that was Sōjun Minamoto's second modification.
After the success of his hawk-eye enhancement, which had stabilized, he began optimizing it further with precision work.
Then came his second experimental project: a biomimetic system modeled after a fly's compound eyes.
A fly's compound eye has over 4,000 small lenses, each forming an individual image. These lenses are arranged in a honeycomb pattern, allowing the fly to perceive its surroundings nearly 360 degrees. Each tiny lens provides its own view, enabling a 350-degree field of vision.
They also detect ultraviolet light, and their reaction speed to fast movement is incredibly high. The structure itself offers immense research value.
Inspired by this, modern science developed "fly-eye lenses," using hundreds or thousands of micro-lenses arranged in a matrix, each capable of forming a separate image.
Based on this concept, aerial cameras were created—capable of capturing over 1,000 high-resolution photos in a single shot.
Additionally, compound-eye-inspired anti-reflective coatings help reduce light reflection, increasing the light absorbed by solar panels, thus boosting energy conversion efficiency.
This compound-eye structure even inspired the development of multi-viewpoint 3D camera systems, capable of depth scanning and multi-dimensional imaging.
Sōjun Minamoto's fly-eye adaptation followed a similar principle.
The colored part of the eye is the iris. The black hole in the center is the pupil.
On the surface, his iris now had two pupils—one large, one small. But they weren't just pupils. They were two eyeballs—one embedded within the other.
He discovered a unique coexistence structure: the smaller eye nestled inside the larger one, their irises overlapping, giving the illusion of dual pupils.
With both eyes functioning, Sōjun Minamoto could capture two images within a 180-degree field at a glance. This let him spot subtle movements, track speed more precisely, and react more quickly.
Now that he had the structural formula, it was only a matter of time before he developed triple pupils... ten pupils... a hundred...
The number of eyeballs would grow exponentially.