Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest novel Chapter 279

Chapter 279 Chapter 65.5 - Conclusion [Interlude]

What is one's goal? What happens to a machine which had lost its purpose?

As I ventured into the outside world, a new realization struck me. The freedom I had craved for so long made my life become something….

It was something empty…..

With survival no longer a constant struggle, I found myself asking the question that had never bothered me before – what was the meaning of life?

The skills I had honed for survival in the harsh streets and the facility seemed pointless in a world where basic survival was no longer a concern.

Why had I done all of those things before? To step on others? To control? To be the one that always stood above?

All of them seemed pointless. Surely, at the start, I tried to live freely. Entering a normal high school after a bunch of fake identities and stories and then looking at the normal humans and how they lived.

But then again, at this point, I had already become far more different. The emptiness I felt wasn't satisfied by just blending in the crowd.

No, I had never been able to blend in in the first place. I was always an outsider. Even if I had perfectly acted as one and controlled everything inwardly, I always knew that I was in a different frame than others.

It was just how it was.

I became a wanderer, grappling with the void that replaced the constant threat of death. The very essence of my existence seemed uncertain, and I grappled with the question of what I truly desired.

I looked for different types of excitement.

I created a company and took many risks to taste the same feelings when I was a child on the streets. But, operating a company was a lot different from operating in those cold streets where your life was dependent on it.

I tried martial arts and fought to death in countless different types of underground positions.

But it wasn't pleasurable either. This emptiness inside me was killing me, and I knew that. Then, at that point of time, I had entered the college.

It was just to 'experience' how it would feel, nothing more, nothing less. Then, I was introduced to the gaming industry.

For starters, playing games wasn't that different from anything, either. They also felt empty as well, as if something inside me was never satisfied.

I played online games….but it was too easy…once my superior motor reflexes adapted, it became a monotone routine as well.

It was pretty close to fighting.

After that, I started playing story games. Not because I thought it would be different but because I started doing drugs. Even though it was pretty irrational, it was the only way to shut this mind so that I could no longer feel empty.

There, I came across that game.

During the game, I felt something for the first time long in a while.

Whether it was excitement or completeness….I didn't know. Was the game perfect?

It was not. What made it special? I didn't know. Was it something that could be explained by a rational mind?

It wasn't.

And that was what I was looking for. Something I couldn't understand, I couldn't grasp. Then I played the game again and again.

Continuously, at different times.

And that feeling of slight completeness that I could never get from anything else continued to fill me. freēwebnovel.com

But at some point, it started becoming not enough. Just at that exact moment, something happened.

Something that one could never believe. As I lost consciousness and appeared inside a space filled with nothingness, I knew what I was experiencing was something that could never be understood.

Therefore, I was able to keep my sanity in that necklace for three years. Even if this mind of mine never stopped, I knew I was close to filling that emptiness.

And just exactly the moment the opportunity presented itself, I took it.

I made my other self take it, too. After all, he was in a position where he could never refuse. It was interesting how his life had unfolded, but I lacked that feeling of empathy to understand his feelings.

But, I inwardly knew that he would fill this void.

At that point, we became complete, but not entirely, it seemed.

And now was the time once again.

Watching him live his life like how it was supposed to be was certainly a surreal feeling, yet maybe because it was his past, I was buried under his consciousness and was suppressed.

However, the trigger for him to see came not long after. Awakening me and letting me enter his consciousness once again.

*******

Suddenly, as the clock's frozen hands and forgotten memories overwhelmed my senses, the world around me blurred into darkness.

? Took you long enough. ?

It felt as if an invisible force gently pulled me inward, drawing me into the depths of a new space.

The transition was both surreal and disorienting. Colors melted into shadows, and the familiar surroundings of my room faded away.

It was as if I traversed a nebulous boundary between the tangible reality and an ethereal realm different from anything else.

"Where is this place?"

I asked myself, and following that, another voice came.

"This is your consciousness."

In this realm, I discovered another person sitting on a small rock. It was highly likely the person whose voice I had heard in my head.