Pick Me Up, Infinite Gacha

[Aaron Side Story Episode 23]

3. The first dream (7)

A genius of hard work.

Then it is.

Aaron sighed.

“Is that all you have to say? Please return.”

“what’s the matter? He complimented me the most.”

“Do you know that I am an idiot? I know roughly what it means.”

“If you know.”

The boy met Aaron’s gaze.

Eyes like glass beads.

I don’t know what you’re thinking.

“Shouldn’t it be changed?”

“What do you mean? I’m sure this is the best way to train.”

I thought about it several times.

He constantly revisited whether he practiced incorrectly.

But this was the correct answer.

No matter how much you inject theories and memorize formulas, you can’t move forward if you don’t have enlightenment.

Changing the way you train doesn’t suddenly create enlightenment.

In the end, it is only a fight against oneself.

“No, not that. I mean the psychological part.”

“The psychological part?”

“Do you know your heart well?”

Aaron narrowed his brows.

It’s my own mind out of nowhere.

“Yeah, something like that. Ordinary people, when they hit a wall of talent, they try a little. isn’t it okay you’re giving up on your dreams But you are different. I know it won’t work, but I bump into it far and wide.”

“…”

“Why? What is driving you to the brink?”

Aaron touched his forehead.

Why not give up.

There were several.

If you continue like this, you will fall behind your colleagues.

I don’t want to feel the humiliation I felt then.

I want to be strong and help others.

“I…”

“Is that your truth?”

Aaron’s remark was interrupted by the boy.

It seems like you know what you’re trying to say.

“I don’t want to fall behind. I want to be strong. Want to prove your worth? a guy like you All the words are the same That is a contradiction.”

said the boy.

It was a clear voice.

“What is the purpose of your life?”

purpose of life.

I knew that from the beginning.

Aaron muttered.

“Going back to… the family.”

Taoni, his hometown where he was born and raised.

There, his only family, his younger sister, is waiting for him.

Aaron had to return to his family.

in a hazy memory.

I remembered my sister’s sunny smile.

“Is this your best?”

your best.

In other words, the boy was asking if Aaron was now taking action to return to his family.

“…I do not know.”

Aaron couldn’t agree.

Is devoting your time and heart to a talent you don’t currently have, is the best course of action to reunite with your family?

‘Nina.’

Aaron recites his sister’s name.

She won’t care if Aaron is strong or weak.

I just want my brother to come back healthy as soon as possible.

So did Aaron.

In fact, there is no need for strength and weakness.

I wanted to see my sister again.

‘Why?’

Aaron asked.

If he was really hoping for a reunion with his family, the meaning of spending time here is lost.

“There is a master in your waiting room. Are you saying you don’t trust him?”

“no. I believe in you.”

one israat.

Aaron has been watching the man more closely than anyone else.

I could trust him

No matter what hardships and thorny roads await you, you will eventually overcome them and bring about a future.

“But why?”

The front and back don’t match.

A fundamental contradiction

inherent in the human being Aaron .

“Why are you trying to be strong?”

Are you miserable because you have no talent?

that’s how it is

you can give up

What Nina wants… this isn’t it.

If you come in good health, they will greet you with a smile.

why?

‘….’

I feel a wall and quit.

Actually, nothing special.

It was natural.

If you go up endlessly and compare, everyone will feel a wall.

Any genius is like that.

Any great river eventually meets the sea.

To compare was to feel a wall.

“If you hit a wall, just go back. It’s not like you can’t reach your destination, right? But you… left the road to the side and ran amok, claiming to break through the wall. Do you think this makes sense?”

There is a way.

there was obviously

Even his older brother suggested another way to him.

He said he would recommend it as an instructor at the training center.

In fact, there were many colleagues who walked the same path.

Is being an instructor useless?

no.

It was as important and necessary as fighting on the front lines.

There was no job that was not needed in the waiting room.

Aaron’s sincere and honest personality may be much better suited to nurturing future shoots than a warrior breaking the road ahead.

If so.

If that happens…

Aaron will be able to fulfill his hopes.

He nurtures heroes who can support his colleagues and support them.

He then restores the torn Taone language to its original state and proudly meets his sister.

don’t be embarrassed

no one was laughing

And yet… Why am I.

“I do not know.”

Aaron grabbed his forehead.

A sudden headache was running through my head.

“That is strange. I should have been summoned to the waiting room to meet Nina. Why are you doing this here? What the hell does this have to do with Nina?”

weird.

It was strange.

Why was he forced to do so?

Did you come here by betting everything on the slightest possibility instead of a sure path?

This is not what Aaron wants.

‘Do you want to prove your worth?’

don’t bullshit

Where are you going to write that?

‘Revenge against the world?’

Show that even a loser like me can do it?

Who are you showing it to?

who praises you?

‘Do you want to be helpful to your colleagues?’

Is this helpful?

Get a chance by acting as you please.

Instead of a path that was obviously helpful, I bet my life on a choice that was obviously not going to work.

“…”

It was as the boy said.

The existence of Aaron Delkard was a mass of terrible contradictions.

“I don’t even know who you are, so can you go forward?”

the boy asserted.

“okay.”

Aaron readily admitted.

It was wrongly inserted from the first button.

“I want to know. What should I do? If you want to know me, what should I do? Please teach me.”

“Is your memory really perfect? You should be suspicious.”

“Are you remembering?”

“Are you a first-star?”

Aaron nodded at the boy’s words.

He is a born 1 star hero.

In the world of pick me up, it was a low-level consumable.

“Your memory is empty here and there, right? Do you know exactly what happened to your world and how you got summoned to the waiting room?”

“Certainly so. I don’t know.”

The lesser the hero, the more flawed his memory at the time of summoning.

This part was information that an Israt found out through several cross-validations.

So was Aaron.

According to his early memories, he was spending his daily life with his sister, but when he suddenly opened his eyes, he was in the waiting room.

Due to this confusion of memories, many low-level heroes fail to adapt.

Of course, there are very few exceptions.

The vast majority of low-level heroes experience confusion or loss of memory during the summoning process.

‘Me too.’

However, memory loss is not permanent.

If you succeed in the promotion, you can get some of the forgotten memories.

As Aaron went through the ranks, he also recalled some memories of Taonier.

‘Even so…’

It’s not perfect.

Everywhere in my memory is empty.

He realized that Taonier had been destroyed by a disaster, but he did not know what he had been through in the process.

“Is it necessary to know?”

Aaron mumbled.

Somewhere in the memory that has fallen into oblivion.

There may be a hidden self.

You will never truly know who you are until you reveal that darkness.

But how.

Reviving forgotten memories is not easy.

Even in the waiting room of Taonier, several heroes have tried, but have never succeeded.

The only way he knows is to get a promotion.

But in this space, there is no jaw to be.

Even if it were possible, there was no guarantee that the memories gained from the promotion would be perfect.

I had to find another way.

“…”

Aaron looked to the side.

Suddenly, the boy’s figure disappeared.

I guess so.

Aaron himself has to do it.

He must think and do it himself.

Aaron got up from his seat.

‘If you don’t know yourself, you can’t move forward.’

This is the boy’s teaching.

How you interpret the teachings is up to you.

After that day.

Aaron’s daily routine was added.

Write a diary before going to bed.

Should it be weather?

Should it be a letter to yourself?

I don’t know exactly.

There is plenty of paper and writing utensils.

So Aaron wrote.

what you know

From the oldest memory to the memory right before being summoned.

‘It’s like this… I didn’t know.’

As time goes by, you realize.

Most of my memories were shrouded in fog.

That’s what it’s like to be an old memory.

He was standing tall on a certain impressive event, but the surrounding scenery was blurry.

I have fun memories of going to play with my younger sister after a long time.

what exactly happened then.

What my sister said and what expression she made.

Details are erased like sand after a high tide.

Write desperately.

If it doesn’t come to mind, make it up and write it.

I forcibly put the puzzles of scattered memories together.

I know it won’t end in a day or two.

I had an intuition that this trip would go beyond weeks and months and extend to years.

However, time here is something that exists without limits and without end.

There was no need to hesitate.

In the morning and during the day, he wields a spear nonstop, asks Seragin to learn, and bandages his calloused hands.

At night and dawn, I wrote letters and diaries to recall forgotten memories.

Wounds from torn hands.

shed a lot of blood

The sweat shed along with the effort left more than enough to fill the bucket.

The remaining paper becomes bundles and bundles, and piles up so much that even a large trash can cannot contain them.

* * *

The continuous flow of time.

when

The boy said this.

“hey.”

“yes.”

“You in Taoneer and you now. Which one is real?”

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s strange.”

The boy smiled wickedly.

“I think the time you spent in that waiting room was about a year. Maybe shorter than that?”

“I guess so.”

“But you’ve been spending a lot more time here. So maybe the real you is here? Aaron there has now become a fake.”

Aaron looked at the boy with sunken eyes.

If it was like before, I would have been angry because I thought I was ignoring myself.

“remember? you when you are there what were you thinking What were your feelings about the situation at the time? Even now… can you clearly feel yourself at that time?”

Aaron wasn’t sure.

The boy smiled and said.

“If you are here, tell me. you know what’s weird? being human that’s emotion. It all feels futile.”

“….”

“There were quite a few people who came here in the past?”

The boy recalled the past.

the far distant past.

“They all had a burning zeal. My desire to be strong never goes out! What is the resolution to be treated as a black history like this? Would you understand?”

Aaron nodded.

Everyone would have made such a resolution if they had come here.

He was like that too.

“But everyone knows. in endless time. What is human emotion. What is commitment. I mean, it’s not forever.”

said the boy.

The passion that burned while swearing a dream.

The love of a lover who promised eternity.

The desire to cherish and be together with the family.

It cools down eventually.

finally cool down

Just like a flame that has nothing to burn, it disappears leaving only ashes.

“A long, long time leaves nothing for that human being.”

Aaron noticed.

Now the boy is warning himself.

“Then what about those who are swept away by time?”

“You will not be human. ‘Cause I can’t feel anything you become a ghost to become a ghost. Didn’t it happen once or twice?”

The boy turned the window around.

It is not a wooden spear for practice.

A black shadow rose ominously from the tip of the vortex-shaped spear.

Jet-black spear Ruin.

It was a divine instrument created for a boy by Master Loki.

“Part of my role is to take down the specter.”

“….”

“Those who can neither advance nor retreat become specters trapped in the flow of time.”

The boy glared at Aaron.

You can’t be strong without talent.

I can’t even give up on that subject.

It was clear who he was talking about.

“Don’t forget my words.”

A voice full of life.

now.

The boy is a warning of Aaron’s end to come someday.

‘If I become a specter, they’ll kill me…?’

Aaron’s expression hardened.

at that time.

“Puha!”

The boy burst into laughter.

The spear is missing from that hand.

As if it had never happened, the boy was grinning.

“Are you scared? were you scared? Were you just scared? Are you afraid that I will kill you?”

“…no.”

In a bad mood, Aaron shut his mouth.

“Hey, it’s a joke, it’s a joke! Are you really going to kill me?”

Aaron furrowed his eyebrows.

“Are you upset? I’m pissed, I’m pissed! Look here! He’s pissed off!”

“I didn’t pout.”

“Did all the squeamish people say that? Why are you so narrow minded huh? People should be bold! Like me!”

“…ha.”

Were you worried like a fool?

* * *

Like that.

10 years have passed.