Pick Me Up, Infinite Gacha

[Aaron Side Story Episode 34]

4. Those who yearn for power by themselves (5)

* * *

The wind is blowing.

In fact, there is no actual meteorological phenomenon in this frozen dimension.

But Aaron felt that way.

somewhere not far.

A man was standing there.

The man’s name is Lidigion.

He was Niflheim’s foremost warrior and master.

Instead of his usual black uniform, he wore a white long robe.

what do you think

The man is immersed in agony with his eyes closed.

A long sword is worn around the waist, and a long object wrapped in cloth is hanging from the back.

This is not the training ground behind the cabin.

Aaron had to walk a long way to find the place.

A man was waiting for him in the field.

“You came sooner than expected.”

The man opened his closed eyes.

It seemed that he had noticed Aaron’s arrival.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No way. It’s been a while since I was able to organize my old memories. I don’t know if it was a few years ago. It was right here. The place where you confronted your master.”

“If it were my teacher…”

“Didn’t he tell me a story?”

“yes.”

“is it.”

Ridigion smiled bitterly and untied the object behind his back.

The cloth that hid the object came loose.

A slick, glossy window was revealed.

At first glance, it seemed unusual.

“Take it. It will not fall short of enduring your strength.”

Spears spun in the air and came flying.

Aaron managed to grab the spear.

The feeling was heavy.

“Do you know what happened here?”

“I do not know.”

“Two men confronted each other. One was standing still and the other was kneeling.”

Ridigion said with half-closed eyes.

The man standing insisted on a draw, but the man kneeling could not accept the result.

“Since I was born, I have not known defeat. I didn’t know what it was to lose. It was the same even after being summoned. I could have done anything if I wanted to.”

“I think you will. I have heard a lot of stories.”

“What did they say to me?”

“They said that he was an invincible swordsman who was chosen by the god of war and never lost.”

“That’s a gross exaggeration.”

“If you know one, you know ten, and if you know ten, you can awaken a thousand… He is a genius in the sky.”

It was as it was said.

In the world of nothing, no one can rise to the same position as him.

In fact, a man named Ridigion has proven it many times.

There is a waiting room called martial arts.

#2 in the world of Pick Me Up account rankings.

It was a ranker account with a status similar to Niflheim.

The dimension is strong, but it has attracted a lot of attention for its unique customs and unique structure.

A world that believes in martial arts to the extreme.

The cultists there live for nothing and die for nothing.

Things like magic and psychic powers are just heresy there.

In the account called “Muryeon”, one’s own skills and realizations that have been honed throughout one’s life stand above all values.

The sub-master there was called Lianzhu, and he was a peerless strong man who was called the best martial artist in the world.

One day, such a person made a proposal that could never be made to an outsider.

‘Follow me.’

He wasn’t even from martial arts.

I was just an international student.

However, the person in charge of tens of thousands of believers, Yeonju, offered a position in the great history of Yeonju to a mere outsider.

This has never happened before in martial arts history.

Of course, the proposal was buried when the party refused, but rumors spread and reached Niflheim.

Even this was just one of the man’s many legends.

Like being able to cut enemies hundreds of meters away.

Like being able to split dimensions beyond the realm of the mind sword.

There were all sorts of rumors and speculation about the man.

Aaron listened to the stories of the men at the training center.

“Rumors are just rumors.”

Ridigion shook his head and dismissed the rumors.

“He’s just a coward who couldn’t stand his own defeat and couldn’t spread the truth. I am grateful to my master now. If I hadn’t realized my inadequacy, I would have poured all my energy into vain.”

A man’s eyes see the distant past.

The feeling of defeat that I tasted for the first time in my life.

Only then did the man understand the feelings of the opponent he had been suppressing.

He was able to accept his opponents as living, breathing human beings just like himself, not as simple chunks of meat that could be torn apart when cut.

“What is power without honor?”

“I don’t know.”

“A force without any direction breaks and ruins its surroundings.”

sereung.

A sword is pulled out of the man’s scabbard.

“If you can handle power, know it. Do it and be diligent. Strength without consideration, strength without responsibility, is just an evil that deserves to be cut down.”

Aaron grabbed the spear.

A dazzling window sparkling with silver light.

take a stance

“It was used by your master when fighting me. So is this sword.”

Lydigion laughed softly.

“So, how much leeway can I give?”

“You are quick-witted.”

Aaron scratched the back of his head.

Actually, I got a sense, but it wasn’t to the point where I could write it right away.

It took time to get it out.

“Begin.”

“yes.”

Aaron sees the man.

The one who has been chosen by the godless.

The one who has attained the talent and strength he desired is right in front of his eyes.

How much did you admire and how jealous you were?

In the end, Aaron couldn’t become like that man like his older brother.

nonetheless only one.

There is something I am confident that I will never give up.

Your own mind that wants to be strong.

A pure thirst for power.

Just as a thirsty person trapped in an endless desert longs for an oasis.

Just as a believer despairing of the world prays to a God who does not answer.

just wish and hope

Oases do not appear to those who are thirsty.

No matter how much we pray, God does not answer.

Layer upon layer of grudge and despair remains as a mirage.

If you can make that mirage a reality.

If you can turn your dreams and fantasies into reality.

Seekers dream.

The reason why he swung his spear knowing that Aaron would not become stronger.

Because it is an act that proves one’s pure longing.

As if praying to an unreachable god.

Like a desert passerby wandering in the sand.

Knowing that it would not end, he swung his spear and stabbed him.

He has always longed for power in himself.

“…”

A landscape from one day comes to mind.

It was Aaron Delkard’s first dream.

It was the memory of when I first came to this world.

He had a chance to go back, but he did not go back.

Trapped in the labyrinth of time for hundreds of years, he lost his mind.

I lost my mind, but the longing did not end.

“I want to become stronger.”

distant past.

A young man is telling a boy about his dream.

“Didn’t you say that when you first came? I want to be strong.”

“different.”

“What is different?”

“Because I lost the reason to be strong.”

“You said you wanted to go back to Nina?”

The young man shook his head.

If he had, he would have left when the second portal opened.

“Is it to help Master?”

The young man shook his head.

He has been here for hundreds of years.

Memories and feelings about the existence of a brother have already left beyond the river of oblivion.

“Is it because you want to overcome the wounds in your heart?”

The young man shook his head.

A deep scar in the memory of not being able to protect my family due to lack of strength and finally running away alone.

Another scar that he put his older brother and his colleagues in danger because of his lack of strength and couldn’t be together in the end.

It may have been an opportunity to realize the dream.

But now it’s different.

“Then what? Why do you want to be strong?”

“Do you need a reason?”

“what?”

“I just want to be strong.”

said the young man.

“It is not about being strong with a purpose. I want to be strong, I become strong It is just that.”

“Oh yeah? I’m sorry, but I wasn’t the only one who spoke like you. It was almost a lie. It was a lie.”

the boy laughed.

“You said you would become strong for yourself. It was all to fulfill one’s dirty desires. To look down on others and to laugh at them. To prove that you are superior to others.”

“I am different.”

“Ohh. How am I supposed to believe that?”

“How can I prove it?”

“Certainly so. The human heart is difficult.”

The boy shrugged.

“But what? Your mind doesn’t follow your body. No matter how much you wish, your dream of becoming stronger cannot come true. Because that is reality.”

“It seemed so. We tried for hundreds of years, but it ended with hard work.”

“I told you from the beginning. Don’t try, train.”

“Then help me.”

The young man spoke up.

“what?”

“You know that. How to become strong even for me like this. If I hadn’t really, I would have been kicked out. But Master left me here. It means that the meaning you have in mind remains.”

“You speak well.”

“If not.”

said the young man calmly.

“Please put an end to my life, which no longer has any value.”

“…”

“I can’t back down. You won’t be able to move on. Then, as Master said, you will become a specter. Didn’t you promise? Then he will kill me.”

“…it was.”

“Were you bluffing?”

A spear is held in the boy’s hand.

If he made up his mind, the young man would immediately spurt blood and collapse.

The boy looked face to face with the young man.

Then, all of a sudden, he laughed.

“I got caught.”

The spear the boy was holding disappears.

“Aaron.”

“Yes, Master.”

“How could a bird fly in the sky?”

“well.”

“Was the bird a bird from the beginning? Could the bird species have been able to fly since the world was created?”

The young man cannot answer.

the boy continued.

“no. In the beginning of the world, there were no such things as birds. They all crawled on the ground like beasts. But as time passed, a beast that could fly appeared. because?”

“Isn’t it because being able to fly is an advantage for survival?”

“Tsk, you don’t have romance. Wrong.”

“Then what is the answer?”

“Because one of the beasts had a dream.”

The boy smiled softly.

“He looked up at the sky and dreamed. How good would it feel to be able to fly in that blue sky? How happy would you be? I was delusional on the subject of not being able to fly. He was a pitiful fellow.”

A long time ago.

A beast that creeps on the ground had a dream looking up at the sky.

A dream of flying high in the sky.

“Are you just dreaming? have no wings He must have crawled on the ground for the rest of his life.”

“I guess so.”

“But the dream is not over.”

The dreaming beast is dead.

But the dream is not over.

“He left it to his descendants. your own dreams. dream of flying in the sky Of course, what difference does it make? The guy is also the same way. He died miserably while crawling on the ground. While lamenting his fate of not being able to fly.”

“…”

“But the dream never ends.”

continues

Even if your body changes and your memory disappears.

Dreams pass down from generation to generation.

It spreads its roots while gaining nutrients in the name of time.

“Then, and the next, and the next.”

They don’t even know they are dreaming.

But the dream never ends.

They are born and die while dreaming.

up.

The name is only part of what the system has determined.

The true name of that power was said by the sages to be eternity.

It is the nature of life.

It’s an endless song.

Its power was called the miracle of existence by the ancient sages.

Why did the universe make life dream?

A dream that can be achieved is not a dream.

Even if you achieve your dream, there is only another dream ahead of you.

Dreamers die in frustration and despair, in anger.

Karma was born there.

Feeding on the despair and hope left by those who are dying without realizing their dreams.

“So, if one day we get out of a long, long cave…”

It must be close to eternity.

That time was a unit that could not even be measured in a lifetime of life.

In that bondage, countless lives live and die repeatedly.

Still, the dream continues.

“One day a dreamer realizes. That you have wings.”

And the beast that crawled on the ground finally flies up into the sky.

This was the story of the birth of a bird told by the boy.

“Ah, on Earth, people talk about evolution or something like this, but none of them are romantic. It is advantageous for survival. It is easy to find food. Sisi, Sisi, Sisi.”

“Master.”

“What.”

“Then will I be able to fly too?”

“Can you?”

“As expected.”

“You may not be able to do it, but ‘someday you’ will. So Aaron.”

me someday

The young man immediately understood the meaning.

“You must die here. To entrust your dream to the next you.”

“…”

“You are not the one who can make that dream come true. He may have the same name as you, look the same, and have the same personality as you, but he must be a different guy.”

“…”

“That bastard won’t even know how hard you suffered here for hundreds of years and what kind of resolution you died. Even if you find out later, you’ll think of it as if it were someone else’s business.”

So you must die.

The boy said so.

“Could it be someone else?”

“I guess so. Do you have different memories?”

“When your memories change, you become a different person.”

“The next Aaron will not be able to endure your pain. So you have to bury those feelings alone and die.”

Does that mean that someday, even if the ‘self’ of the distant future reminds us of the ‘self’ of the present, they are not the same person?

I don’t know.

The young man did not know.

Only one thing was known.

That he had to disappear while burying his broken heart alone.

In order to let the next self carry on the dream.

So the first Aaron dies here.

die without being understood by anyone.

He dies in frustration of not being able to achieve his dream.

However, he dies while holding on to the hope of continuing his dream.

“Master.”

“…”

“Thank you.”

The young man laughed.

“My dream does not end here.”

“okay.”

“The next me won’t remember me, but Master remembers me.”

“okay.”

“thank you.”

The boy lowered his gaze and said.

“Sleep well. Dreaming of flying in the sky. And when you wake up one day, you will be able to fly.”

The young man closed his eyes.

A face that accepts everything.

The boy saw the young man.

I saw the fragments of life that had been shattered while chasing a dream that would never come true.

how many people have been here

How many people have died in frustration at their unfulfilled dreams?

“…”

The boy tiptoed over and put his hand on the young man’s forehead.

Afterwards, he wiped his face as if mourning the dead.

dump.

young man collapses

The heart was no longer beating.

“See you again, my brother.”

The boy turned his back.

The body of the young man soon began to turn to dust.

This world is a world where the laws of physics are out of sync with other places.

In this place born of the whims of the universe and system, time, space, life and death are twisted.

The young man’s corpse is scattered to dust.

The body has lost its form.

The dust eventually turned into a black mist and disappeared somewhere.

“I’m going to be bored for a while.”

The boy sighs and walks toward the cabin.

It is unknown when the next ‘Aaron’ will appear.

The unending dream will gather Aaron’s body and memories, which have become dust, like a magnet, and create a new form.

He may have memories of being outside, but he will not know the memories of being here.

It’s better that way.

so come back

As long as there is a dream, it will definitely come back.

the boy knew

So the twist continued.

It went back and forth countless times.

Their age cannot be judged by a mere thousand years.

In the world of eternity, measuring time itself was meaningless.

However, even if it is infinitely close to eternity, time goes by and dreams continue and spread their roots even in bondage.

So now Aaron saw.

I saw countless selves who passed away without realizing their dreams.

Even though their emotions and frustrations were not their own, they knew that their dreams did not end.

This is your identity.

Obviously not human.

It was an illusion and a shadow that dreams show.

It is a crystal of pure dreams.

So you can.

Distorting the laws of reality.

Being freed from the frivolous restraints of talent.

Aaron has already crossed the boundary between reality and fantasy, and in some concepts has become closer to a spirit and a god.

Therefore, karma is buried in a long time and reconstructs one’s existence from the beginning.

Using the despair and frustration of the past as food, overlaying fantasy on reality.

Therefore, to those who have mastered karma, the laws and limitations of the world are no obstacle.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Aaron opened his eyes.

An insidious shadow rose from his whole body.

“Excellent.”

Ridigion replied.

Dark energy began to gather at the tip of Aaron’s spear.

That look is the same as the fatal blow that Aaron pierced through Han’s Bifrost a while ago.

Aron consciously demonstrated a technique that could only succeed in the unconscious.

Whoops!

There was the sound of a bee flapping its wings.

The shadows gathered on the blades swayed in an illusion.

It looks similar to the thrust used during the event, but it is different.

The color of the shadow was much clearer and darker than before.

‘The shadow reflected on the moon.’

A stab that compresses countless shadows.

The power of that thrust is incomparable to anything.

No physical or magical means can stop this technique.

Aaron remembered.

I don’t know how many times it’s my memory.

Still, the master made it clear.

It was a technology that you would use in the future, and taught me indirectly.

Usage and name of this technique.

‘Gathers the shadows.’

Aaron ran out.

The extreme energy contained in the spear blade fluttered with smoke.

The target is the man right in front of you.

“Come.”

Ridigion’s smile deepened.

Yes, it was that ominous light.

The strength of the boy who gave him his first defeat.

[Home]

[Moon Shadow]

The tip of the spear that shot out like a shot went toward the heart of Lidigion.