1.
Even after I began walking the Path, I hadn't gained a thing.
The thing I had faced was the Aeon of Elation.
It was confirmed to be Aha.
How could I be so sure?
The status window had the answer.
========
▶ Achievement Unlocked
- You encounter Aha, the Aeon of Elation.
- You receive the gaze of Aha, the Aeon of Elation.
- You step onto the Path of Elation.
========
Elation trinity.
The garbled text disappeared.
As soon as I absorbed information about the Aeons, every related detail was unlocked, and I could even tell where the items I had came from.
"...You're some incredible being, and this is what you make? Just nail clippings?"
I rummaged through my inventory.
Out came all kinds of junk.
These bastards might not actually be that impressive.
"Hmm... and what exactly is that tool?"
"Something the gods you just mentioned tossed down like they were doing us a favor."
"...Silver Wolf, are you seriously not right in the head?"
"Mr. Toad, you've known Adrian longer than I have. Don't you know his personality by now?"
My evaluation had dropped another notch.
The pawnshop owner's gaze changed from "an idiot" to "an idiot with a headache."
Give me something good already.
Why are cosmic gods so stingy?
"Ah, come to think of it, I've got one more thing to ask."
"What is it? If it's another weird question, I'm not answering."
"What happens if you actually meet an Aeon?"
At my words, the pawnshop owner froze.
"Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"
"I met one yesterday. The Aeon of Elation."
"Are you serious?"
I nodded.
Because no matter how I thought about it, nothing else could explain that phenomenon except a being like Aha.
Just its descent and glance alone were enough to knock people unconscious.
And I, who had faced it directly, had blood pouring from every hole in my face.
An unimaginable terror.
I never would have imagined there was something even worse than the woman who killed me.
"...Really?"
"I don't know. I don't remember."
The pawnshop owner's expression turned grave.
He looked at Silver Wolf, then at Silver Wolf shaking her head, and took off his glasses to press hard at his forehead.
"Haa... fuck. You got tangled up in something nasty."
"No, why?"
What was the problem? Why was he looking at me like everything had gone to hell?
Wasn't getting the gaze of a god a good thing?
Wasn't this my chance to become Ultimate Adrian Servet?
"Explain the situation properly. From the beginning to the end."
Since he asked, I told him.
How Aha had descended after I was cursing the sky, how everyone around us had fainted, and how I had nearly collapsed while bleeding.
"At least it's a relief you lost your memory."
"...Don't talk like it's some story only you know and then refuse to explain."
I was starting to get angry too.
Why did a human who looked like a toad have to talk like a damn cat?
What is it... you wouldn't understand it now.
So you don't know, huh... you'll understand when the time comes.
Are you curious? But I won't tell you right now...
Couldn't he just say something simple for once?
I was about ready to crack his skull open.
As I grabbed my hatchet and rolled my neck with a loud crack, the pawnshop owner waved both hands.
"I tried to get serious for once, and you're already acting up again."
"What, you think I'm not going to act up? You have to explain what you mean before I can understand it."
Wah, I'm baby orphan middle-school-dropout Adrian Servet.
If you don't explain it in simple words, I won't get it.
After listening to the pawnshop owner's explanation, I finally understood why he thought this was dangerous.
Aha, the Aeon of Elation.
True to the concept of elation, a weirdo who caused trouble everywhere it went.
Receiving an Aeon's gaze was extremely rare, but it could happen.
But directly facing the Aeon's true body was something else entirely.
Especially if it had descended onto a planet just for one human.
That carried an even more extraordinary meaning.
"Even Nous of Erudition is famous, right? Just looking at it can flood your mind with so much information you go insane."
"...So it passively hits you with infinite void?"
The reason I hadn't died yesterday was because Aha had, in its own way, held back.
It had knocked out the people around me.
And the memory erasure was supposedly also an act of consideration so I wouldn't be put in danger.
"If word gets out that you survived after facing an Aeon's true body, every corporation and every interested bastard around here will want to cut you open and see what's inside."
"...I'm just a scrub, though?"
"Exactly. That makes it worse. You're weak, and that makes you a perfect test subject."
Gaze.
Encounter.
Descent.
Meeting Aha through that perfect trinity had made me the kind of test subject anyone would drool over.
A crazy level of danger that could get my head split open if I slipped up.
The being called Aha had left me with a bomb.
"...These bastards are useless."
"That's blasphemy."
"If I killed Aha's mother, wouldn't that be legal?"
"I have no connection whatsoever to this statement."
He cut ties fast and slammed the door shut.
Apparently he'd thought I was joking for a while.
When the pawnshop owner still hadn't opened the door after ten minutes, I knocked again.
"Hello~? Moshi moshi~?"
"Get lost. I've got a headache."
"Aaaah! Big brother!"
"You're really acting like a lunatic."
He really wasn't opening it.
How cold.
For now, the most important thing seemed to be how to make use of this Path.
At least it was certain that I had been set on this path.
If I could just find a method, power-up was possible.
2.
I put a cigarette in my mouth and walked down the street.
Silver Wolf trailed behind me, walking along with me.
"Silver Wolf, do you have any idea what this Path is?"
"...Maybe it's a power similar to ether editing?"
"How do you even do that?"
"Uh... well, it's hard to explain in words."
So that's how geniuses are.
They don't understand the hearts of idiots who can barely keep up.
"At least explain the feeling."
Silver Wolf thought hard, rolling a metal ball around in her hand.
The single ball increased to two, then three, splitting itself apart.
"Should I say I'm painting my mind over the world?"
"...??"
"If ether is paint, then I'm the brush. It's similar to the idea of hacking reality."
What's similar about it?
I didn't understand a damn thing.
Silver Wolf sighed when she saw my idiot face.
Trying to understand something I couldn't understand made my head feel like it was going to explode.
"This time, the slingshot's power was enhanced, right?"
"Ah, yeah, I saw that too."
Silver Wolf leveled up during the fight with the Rank 7 fixer.
I didn't know if it was from clearing a quest, but Silver Wolf was now LV.3.
She was about to catch up to me.
I was on the verge of becoming a useless side character.
Being a kept man didn't sound bad, but... a man should have big dreams.
I'd come all the way to another world, and I was supposed to stay a scrub? Not happening.
"There are limits. The longer I keep spinning the slingshot, the faster and stronger it gets."
"Oh, that's pretty slick."
"...If you protect me, I can build up enough power."
In a way, she was using a restriction to strengthen her power.
Silver Wolf had come up with that on the spot during battle.
After hearing her explanation, I closed my eyes and tried to feel whether something existed inside me.
Hmm....
Mm.
There was nothing.
My body felt like a completely empty black space.
I really couldn't tell what ether or the Path even was.
But I could faintly feel something.
Yet this was different?
Was it some instinctive warning that if I didn't duck now, my head would get smashed?
"Whoa!!!"
I ducked on reflex.
Whoosh!
Then I heard the sound of something slicing through the air, brushing past my hair.
When I turned my head, I saw a sharp hatchet embedded in the ground.
A sudden ambush.
People hidden in the darkness revealed themselves.
The four months of experience I'd built up in Neon City rang the alarm.
Before I could even think, my body moved first. I tripped the bastard who rushed in from the front and hacked at his neck with my hatchet.
With a sharp electric crack, Silver Wolf's slingshot flew.
Perfectly straight holes appeared in the bodies of the guys charging side by side in front of us.
"What the hell are these bastards now?"
We'd taken down three.
But there were far more presences around us.
People were rushing out.
The alley was narrow, so they were easy enough to deal with, but I had no idea how many there were.
"Damn it, seriously."
I spat out the cigarette in my mouth and twisted my waist.
Their movements weren't so fast that I couldn't react.
Same level as me, Rank 8.
If they were equal, I had no intention of losing.
With Silver Wolf's support, I killed four more.
Why were these extra extras, who didn't even need a description, throwing themselves at us trying to kill us?
"For Brother Yuto's revenge!!!"
"Watch out for the slingshot!"
They kept crawling out like an ant nest.
At a minimum, there were still thirty left.
If they were all Rank 8, thirty of them was manageable.
Huh? Looks like a few Rank 7s are mixed in too.
"...We're screwed."
They'd properly targeted us.
I'd always figured something like this would eventually happen in this shitty Neon City.
But this was too fast.
"Adrian Servet, and Silver Wolf. You two have been getting way too cocky. How dare you kill Brother Yuto?"
"Who's Yuto?"
"The Rank 7 you cruelly smashed to death! Have you forgotten already?!!!"
"Oh."
The Rank 7 we killed after he acted all high and mighty.
So that bastard's name was Yuto?
"We're going to kill you!!!"
"Wait, hold on. Can't we talk this out?"
"There's no need for talk!!!"
"I'll give you money. A lot."
"...Really?"
"He's actually pretending to think about it. Are you an idiot?"
Crack! Boom!
The head of the guy I'd just been talking to exploded.
Thanks to the slingshot Silver Wolf had thrown with pinpoint accuracy.
"Yoooou!!! Bastard!!!"
"The one who fell for it is the idiot!"
Okay, analysis complete.
I couldn't win.
"Ah!!! Over there!!!"
I shouted and pointed into the air.
A pigeon burst out from my arms with a flapping sound, and everyone's gaze was forcibly locked onto the sky.
Now I had to run...
Huh, Silver Wolf's eyes were locked on the pigeon too?
"Adrian!?"
"Silver Wolf, let's go!"
In an instant, I hoisted Silver Wolf onto my back and ran.
Switching to Uehara Adrian mode.
Was this how she felt being chased by a hundred people?
"Catch them!!!"
"Like hell I'll let you catch me!!!"
Goddamn Neon City!!!
One day, I'm definitely getting out of this city!
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