Pick Me Up, Infinite Gacha

[Aaron Side Story Episode 19]

3. The first dream (3)

A confrontation with a boy who is said to be one of the strongest in Niflheim.

A light of anticipation and enthusiasm flashed in Sraagin’s eyes.

“Is that what you want? Minimizing the difference between physical ability and skill and winning with only weapon skills.”

“yes.”

same level.

same stats.

Even the same skill if you want.

In that state, it overwhelmingly crushes the opponent and makes them feel the difference in rank.

Ridigion was a tactic that men often practiced when competing with their juniors.

He did not dodge any fight that came his way.

Thragin could not forget the shock of that moment.

A life full of victories.

The first taste of defeat.

What the man named Sragin got there was frustration and a little excitement.

“Everyone in the first party in Niflheim is a monster.”

“Ohh? Does that mean you’ve fought them all?”

“Even after that, I was treated as a promising prospect.”

Sraagin smirked.

His fight did not end with the match against Lidigion.

Did he acknowledge Thragin’s spirit or did the other members just have time to spare?

He was able to fight under the same conditions as his colleagues from Ridigion.

“All you have left is you.”

“Ah, so you’ve done everything with Siris Yurnet Nihaku.”

“Yeah, everyone was great. So much respect.”

Weapon skill is one of the basics of a hero.

It’s inferior to Lidigion, but everyone has reached an incredible level when it comes to their weapons.

Yurnet is magic, so it’s a little different.

‘Am I a better person than I thought?’

Aaron was even more surprised by Thragin.

All members of Party 1 gave permission for the sparring.

It meant that the man had a glimpse of that much potential.

“But why are you here? You can pair up with them.”

Sraagin’s mouth twisted.

“To become stronger.”

“Shall I guess? Were they all against it? you coming here.”

Sragyn didn’t answer.

It was just quietly pulling out the sword from the scabbard.

The tip of the sword glowed bright blue.

“I’d like a handful, please.”

“It’s violent.”

Sraagin kicked his foot.

Dust and leaves are scattered violently.

In the meantime, the new model of the man exploded.

“…?!”

Aaron couldn’t catch that speed with his eyes.

Lightning-like stabs flashed among the remnants.

“Ouch!”

The boy stumbled and deflected the stab.

Then Thragin’s sword bent.

Rapid weaving.

“Yaya! Be gentle!”

Kagak!

The boy barely blocked it by turning the window sill.

already broken posture.

It was everyone’s turn to fall in the next blow.

However, Sraagin, who had to prepare for the finish, stopped attacking.

“…”

Sraagin lowered his sword.

The boy was able to adjust his posture after a few seconds.

“Hey, kids these days grow up fast. Strong, strong!”

“…what are you doing?”

Sraagin’s voice grew cold.

“Am I wrong? I lost my posture in the second attack.”

“What do you mean you’re strong? Do you do enough?”

crooked eyebrows.

“The heroes of the 1st party did their best. I also respected them. Are you different?”

“It is different. What do you mean?”

“Playing with weakness.”

The boy placed the spear on his shoulder.

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“Am I wrong? If I went out one more time, you would have lost to me. Is this a deception to deceive me? Because of the difference in level… did I not recognize you?”

Aaron agreed with that point of view.

Clearly, the boy’s posture, which managed to repel the two attacks, was terribly broken.

Even from the outsider Aaron’s point of view, the situation was like that.

Had Thragin continued to attack, the outcome of Dalian would have been decided.

He felt strange about it and stopped attacking.

Because it can’t be.

Because the weapon skills of the so-called legendary 1st party members couldn’t be anything like this.

“I heard you… have been training here for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. If so, your spearmanship must have reached its peak.”

said Sraagin displeasedly.

“Show me. The extremes of spearmanship.”

“The extremes of spearmanship? You have another strange misunderstanding.”

The boy scratched his head.

“My spearmanship skill is at best an early intermediate level?”

“…lie.”

“Why do you think it’s a lie?”

“You’ve been training for tens of thousands of years. Early intermediate? I’m in the middle class?”

“Ouch, is this too inflated? Actually, my weapon skills are low grade. Only the skills are intermediate, but the real skills are lower than that.”

Sraagin gritted his teeth.

Aaron was also confused.

‘Intermediate spearmanship?’

You said you trained for tens of thousands of years?

If you work that hard… if you pour blood and sweat…

wouldn’t you be able to overcome the limits of your talent?

Aaron was aware of his lack of talent.

That’s why I came here to overcome my lack of talent with effort.

You can’t catch up with him by sharing the same time as the genius.

just draw parallel lines.

Therefore, in order to beat a genius, you have to run a different time.

When a genius works hard for a day,

he just needs to work hard for ten days or a month.

I came here with that kind of faith.

Didn’t your older brother also guarantee it?

The proof of that faith is that boy.

“Is that true?”

Aaron had no choice but to step out.

The belief that anything can be achieved if you work hard.

The foundation was about to crumble.

“Oh, why am I lying? To be sure, my weapon skills are in the early intermediate level. The real skill is inferior.”

“You haven’t been practicing spearmanship for a long time, have you?”

At Aaron’s words, the boy nodded.

“What is it? I’ve been stabbing and swinging all day long.”

“By the way… early intermediate?”

“okay. This must be the limit of my talent.”

“You joke about there.”

Sraagin’s voice rose.

He was in a state of anger.

“Do you think you would believe that?”

“Why don’t you try it? Have you tried it before? It’s purely a technical battle. As a result, I lost.”

“….”

“The conditions are the same as for the 1st party members? stats are similar. Fight only with weapons. Everything I want…”

The boy hadn’t even finished his words.

Spurring the ground as if flying, Sraagin galloped.

“You’re in a hurry.”

Kagak!

The wooden spear and the blade collided.

“Oops!”

The blocking timing was off.

The boy had to take a few steps back.

Sraagin, who did not miss the opportunity, slashed upward strongly.

Kang!

dull sound.

The window rises into the air.

The boy who lost his weapon hit his butt.

At the same time, Thragin’s blade touched the boy’s neck.

“I lost.”

“Is this… your truth?”

A look of contempt flashed in Thragin’s eyes.

“With only this kind of skill… You said you were on the same line as them?”

“I’m sorry. It’s a skill like this.”

“I just need to know.”

Thragin said terribly.

“I’m dying.”

The blade pushed through the boy’s neck.

“Wait, what are you doing!”

Aaron hurriedly ran, but was late.

The boy’s throat spurted blood…

“…?”

Both Aaron and Sraagin stood there blankly.

Because the boy who had been sitting down suddenly disappeared.

Something that had no foreshadowing.

No one reacted.

“Uh huh, was it a bit dangerous just now?”

Sraagin looked to the side.

somewhere not far.

Standing crookedly, the boy yawned.

“Young people these days have no manners, so be polite.”

Sraagin did not open his mouth.

Scattering a dense killing spree, it penetrated in an instant and cut through the boy’s torso.

“Let’s see, his name is Sraagin. from Niflheim. Only 3 stars born. Growth and talent are fine.”

The boy who appeared to the right of Thragin muttered.

“…!”

The blade grazed the boy’s neck.

But before that, the boy had disappeared.

“My flaw is that my personality is like a bug, but this can’t be helped. Because my colleagues around me would have supported me.”

Wedge!

Again, a sharp cut grazed the boy’s body.

But the boy isn’t there.

“What are you doing!”

Sraagin swung his sword, his face contorted.

right. left. front. back. front again. right. farther right.

The boy’s body appears and disappears momentarily.

The sword dances in all directions.

However, he couldn’t even touch the boy’s body.

‘It’s not about avoiding by moving.’

Aaron, watching from a distance, could tell.

The movement of the boy did not borrow the power of the commonly referred to foot method as a high-speed movement using the elasticity of the whole body and the recoil of kicking the ground.

It’s not that it’s moving so fast you can’t see it.

Teleportation in the literal and pure sense.

It’s like magic.

There is no prior action.

There is no trembling or sound in the air that would normally occur during the movement.

complete silence.

It seemed to tear through space itself and protrude.

“Should I say that Inseong can’t be helped? Let’s see, so your limit as judged by my colleagues is… roughly around Niflheim’s 100th place!”

“profit!”

The excited Thragin’s sword couldn’t reach.

The boy is making fun of him by walking through the spaces as if dancing.

I couldn’t even guess what that principle was.

“You understand what I meant by the limit, right?”

the boy laughed

“When you work hard without a single day off, you gain a chance through coincidence and luck, and your master takes care of you with all his heart, it means that you are only at the level of 100th place. It’s just that much when you achieve all your ‘possibility’.”

“shut up!”

“You know what? Did you get a rough idea when you fought them? That I can never follow.”

Veins appeared in Thragin’s eyes.

Now his swordsmanship skills are not visible.

They are just wielding it at will, loaded with emotions.

“You know what? that there is a sky above the sky Why are you greedy for nothing? You just have to be satisfied with where you are. Still, if you’re ranked 100th in Niflheim, you won’t be treated badly anywhere?”

“…!”

“When you heard my story, you must have wanted this. There is a kid who pierced the sky with hard work! Then I can too! What would it be like? You have a strange illusion.”

The boy smirked.

“If I try, I can break through the wall! If you try, you can achieve anything! I won’t lose my desire to become stronger to anyone!”

Aaron bowed his head.

The boy wasn’t just talking to Thragin.

“Don’t be foolish about the world.”

The boy’s gaze turned to Aaron.

“An ant remains an ant even after a thousand years. A rabbit cannot fly in the sky even if he trains for ten thousand years, and a deer cannot swim to the depths of the sea no matter how much he practices swimming.”

“….”

“Realize the fountain.”

Sraagin cried out in anger.

“Then… kill me!”

Sraagin staggered, covered in sweat.

“Don’t be a rabbit, fight me properly! I want you to defeat me with your trivial intermediate weapon skills!”

“Ah, don’t you know if I did this much? My weapon skills are at the level of worms. You don’t want to fight a losing battle, do you?”

“Keugh!”

“At this point, you know? The source of my strength is not technology. That’s a talent too. So even if you guys try for 10,000 years and 100,000,000 years, you can’t follow me?”

“Aagh!”

Thragin screamed and charged at the boy.

“ha.”

the boy sighed.

And stretched out a long window.

“…”

Aaron didn’t know what had happened.

Before I knew it, Sraagin was on the ground.

The boy looked down at him and said.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Is it really… not a weapon skill?”

“okay.”

“Did you get that power… through hard work?”

“no.”

The boy glared at Aaron.

“There is nothing to be gained through hard work. It is the self-consolation of losers.”

“But even if you have talent, if you don’t try…!”

“Don’t get me wrong. that’s not effort It’s called training.”

“What difference does that make!”

“That’s a big difference. Training guarantees certain results, but effort is useless, right? In other words, if there is performance, training. If there is no result, it is effort. How easy is it?”

Aaron felt like he had been hit in the head.

“Aren’t you curious? Even if you do the same thing, if a genius does it, it becomes training, and if Dunjae does it, it becomes effort. The winners tell the losers that they didn’t make enough effort. Where is there enough and not enough for such a useless thing as hard work?”

“…I am.”

Aaron gritted it.

Otherwise.

It looked like it would collapse before it even started.

“I don’t think so.”

“Hoo.”

“Dunjae’s efforts will surely be meaningful.”

“What is it? If you work hard enough, you can become a criminal. But did you come here for that?”

“…”

“You wanted to surpass genius.”

Aaron closed his eyes tightly.

couldn’t resist

If I would have been satisfied with the line of supplementing my lacking talent, I did not come here even with a push.

“You came all the way here because you wanted to cross the line that shouldn’t be crossed, right? I know a lot about your story. I have to practice thoroughly. They say they hear news from the outside.”

“….”

“So why did Master send you here?”

“Hyung-nim…”

“Isn’t it because you’re a mess?”

Aaron shut up.

“You sent me here because you were trying to cross the line, saying you want to become stronger instead of accepting your own shortcomings and being satisfied with your fraction, right? If you have done this, realize your limits.”

“….”

“You worked hard there too, didn’t you? Try twice as hard as everyone else. Do all you can But it didn’t work. Giving up neatly is important in life.”

A boy approaches Aaron.

Then he said mockingly.

“You don’t need to be particularly strong, do you?”

“….”

“Wouldn’t that place called Taoni not work without you? If you don’t become strong, will you disappear? it’s not Go well without you.”

That was right.

In Taoneer’s waiting room, the hero Aaron was just a replacement that could be swapped out at any time.

If there is an irreplaceable existence there, there is only one.

one israat.

It was never Aaron.

“Looks like you should have been recommended by an instructor. Wouldn’t it be more helpful for the waiting room to do your part there than to force yourself?”

“That’s…”

“Master is different from before. There’s a lot of useless affection. He was a person who knew how to quit when he quit.”

The boy nodded as if he understood something.

“aha. It hurts my feelings when I explain it in words, so I sent it here. to understand naturally. You must have been prettier than I thought?”

“I…”

“Aaron Delkard.”

The boy looked up at Aaron.

Although he must have looked younger than that, Aaron couldn’t move with those eyes.

“Resolve the contradiction hidden within you first. If not…”

the boy said as if he were making a decision.

“You get nothing from me.”

The figure of the boy with his back turned was scattered like bubbles.

Aaron hung his head and said nothing.