Chapter 26 The Start of the Expansion
After arriving home, Ha-Joon didn't waste a single second. With determined steps, he went straight to his room, sat at his desk, and turned on his computer. His heart was pounding—not from fear, but from excitement. It was time to finally put his long-awaited plan into action.
This time, instead of keeping his drawings and chapters just for himself, or for a small circle, he decided to upload them to an online site. Ha-Joon carefully searched through several international webcomic platforms until he found the perfect one—a site that allowed creators from around the world to publish their work and reach a global audience.
"This is it," he murmured, clicking the upload button after carefully selecting the files for the first chapter.
As the upload progressed, Ha-Joon leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. He stared at the screen with intense focus, feeling every second pass like an eternity. Finally, the process was complete. The chapter was live.
Ha-Joon closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on the emotional energy around him. Slowly but surely, he began to feel it—faint waves of emotional reaction coming from people reading the first pages of his manga. The curiosity, the surprise, the excitement of readers discovering a new story—they were all generating emotional power.
A small smile appeared on his lips. "It worked," he said in a low voice, feeling satisfaction grow in his chest. "So, I can really gather emotional energy like this… That means I don't need to keep limiting myself to Korea anymore. Through this site, I can reach readers from all over the world… and absorb even more emotional power."
Ha-Joon's eyes sparkled with determination as he turned his attention back to the computer. "I'll keep posting more chapters of this manga," he said to himself. "This will ensure that I keep collecting more and more power… enough to summon powerful beings… or even their abilities."
But as soon as he looked at the stack of drafts and unfinished storyboards on his desk, he realized something obvious. "There's no way I can handle all this alone… not at this speed."
Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind. Without hesitation, Ha-Joon made a familiar sequence of hand signs and shouted:
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
With a loud puff, several shadow clones of Ha-Joon appeared around the room. The clones looked at the mountain of work, then at Ha-Joon, and immediately began to complain.
One of the clones crossed his arms and muttered, "Really? Again with this? You know we deserve better working conditions, right? No labor rights for clones?"
Another added with a tired sigh, "If there's a Clone Workers' Union, I swear we're filing a complaint."
Ha-Joon just laughed and waved his hand. "Stop complaining. We don't have time for that now. If I don't get stronger soon, none of us will survive."
Despite their grumbling, the clones started working. Some focused on inking, others worked on digital edits, while the rest began outlining the next chapters.
As Ha-Joon watched the clones busily moving around, he couldn't help but feel a surge of motivation. "With this," he thought, "I'm getting closer… closer to being strong enough to survive the things that are coming."
He walked over to the window and stared at the night sky outside. The city lights flickered, calm and peaceful, but Ha-Joon knew that wasn't the true state of the world. There were threats everywhere—dungeons, monsters, and much worse things coming soon.
His mind wandered back to the manga he was drawing. Unlike most people who started Naruto from the very beginning, Ha-Joon had made a very specific decision.
"Good thing I started the Naruto manga from the night of Obito's first invasion… when Naruto was born and Minato fought against him. That way, I already have access to stronger powers right from the start…"
Thinking about the fight between Minato and Obito, about the moment when the Kyuubi attacked the village, gave Ha-Joon chills. The energy, the danger, the overwhelming power of that moment—it was the perfect place to begin building the foundation of his future summons and techniques.
"If I keep this up," he whispered, "it won't be long before I can start summoning techniques and abilities that even the S-Rank hunters would fear…"
With his clones working tirelessly and the emotional energy slowly increasing with each new reader, Ha-Joon clenched his fists. The first real step of his master plan was now in motion. And there was no turning back.
"This… this is just the beginning."