When the plot-skips players into the game world Chapter 1408 - 119: The So-Called Ouroboros

Such intense temptation...

For Aiwass, who was accustod to using the Shepherd’s Nurturing Skill as a shortcut, it should have been irresistible.

—Willing to sacrifice life, only at the cost of slightly straying from one’s original intent and losing the sense of self...

Yet for so reason, when Aiwass seriously considered whether to accept this powerful strength, he inexplicably felt a sense of nausea, along with the vague sensation of being watched by sothing.

That feeling was like walking alone at night in a lightless alley.

The cold and damp wind pierced through his chest, constantly feeling as if soone was watching him from the darkness—that level of unease.

An absolute shortcut... could also be an absolute trap.

Though this level of suspiciousness made Aiwass find himself sowhat ridiculous... it was precisely due to the strong aversion in his heart that he chose to refuse.

"...No, I still refuse."

Aiwass thought it over carefully, then smiled slightly and politely declined the temptation: "I would rather pay with blood, life, or even Energy Level... but this price is too heavy for . So... thank you, but no need.

"I would still hope... to let the legend of this Sword end here. rlin was right, this Sword is still too demonic. To silently and permanently rewrite a person’s mind... such a level of Curse, even I don’t have the confidence to control it.

"...If you believe rlin and think it’s a living beast. Perhaps ’Galahad can use this Sword normally without falling,’ maybe that’s precisely a kind of trap it set up as well. Letting one prey go to lure more prey into the trap... such clever beasts do exist."

Once the choice was made, Aiwass suddenly felt his whole body relax.

Although there was so regret... having made the decision, Aiwass would not go back on it.

If it were before Aiwass’s "separation and reunion," when he had not yet understood his true intentions, Aiwass might have accepted it.

But the Aiwass of today certainly wouldn’t.

Every bit of his current personality stems from the experiences he has gone through, from his family and friends around him.

The sacrifice and transcendence he achieved on reaching the Fifth Energy Level ca from Aleister’s sacrifice, Isabel’s love... from his elder brother’s familial affection, Sherlock’s friendship... and even from his foster father’s expectations, and every person he has known, whether good or bad. His growth was not achieved overnight but tempered through one event after another.

He no longer wants to fall into the divine void like the past "Pope Evas"; nor does he want to have the unruly desires like "the beastly Aleister."

Every part of his personality today is what he has earned himself, a past he does not want to lose.

Any sudden shift would possibly an a segnt of experience losing its aning.

—Like when playing single-player gas, Aiwass didn’t quite like using cheats either. Being able to save ti and effort by skipping aningless "grinding for items" is undoubtedly great... but if just by a simple click, you can obtain resources and items unattainable in hundreds of hours, wouldn’t the ti spent grinding be wasted?

A childhood mory suddenly surfaced in Aiwass’s mind:

When his family was still intact, he used to enjoy playing Pokémon gas with an emulator. Though it was a single-player pirated ga that couldn’t connect for battles, and even the translation was a bit off... he was still keen on it.

Constantly encountering new Pokémon in the grass, battling NPCs to earn money, planting berries, breeding eggs... even if the Pokémon produced could not be taken to fight, just capturing and breeding itself was full of joy.

But one day, he found a kind of modifier online.

With just a finger movent, he could alter Pokémon stats in the backpack. Whether full individual values or rare characteristics, or the money, level, and experience in the backpack... or even obtaining matured Pokémon and Divine Beasts at the newbie stage, all was made easy.

He was thrilled for a while, trying various novel starts and team compositions. But one day, he suddenly felt bored.

—He could no longer settle down to repeatedly fight battles for experience, nor ride a bike to hatch a backpack full of eggs. If the modifier could easily accomplish such tasks, then ignoring it and continuing to waste ti was re self-deceiving play. He even felt for a mont that past joys were ultimately aningless waste of ti...

There were many more experiences like this...

When Aiwass recalled this event, those mories that seed non-existent in his mind suddenly unlocked one after another—

In Diablo 2, obtaining an amulet with 7 to all skill levels through a modifier;

In RPG gas, letting the protagonist’s team obtain full divine gear directly;

In action gas, having the controlled character obtain moves or skills early that needed repeated dungeon clearing to unlock...

Once tried, there was no going back. After short-lived ecstasy, there was suddenly a feeling the gas lost their fun... or rather, the fun that was slowly obtained was gained and exhausted rapidly, leaving no morable recollections.

Using modifiers has a common point, which is making oneself feel the lengthy resource and item grinding was stupid—yet one used to feel happy because of this sense of accomplishnt.

Is that joy also a kind of stupidity?

Yet he clearly rembers them being so vivid.

Even the glowing mories themselves have beco cheap.

"—I cannot accept the sudden change in my consciousness."

Aiwass said seriously: "I get the feeling I have made a similar mistake before... this feeling is really unpleasant."

Isabel suddenly seed to realize sothing, raising her head to look at the sky.

Where there was clearly an empty ceiling.

Yet for so reason, Isabel felt as if there was an eye watching them. Just like the feeling of Yanis peering at her in a painting...

Dream Realm, focal point.

The Serpent Celestial Marshal watching Aiwass intently from in front of the display screen, slightly curled the corners of his mouth.

A silver thread wound around his left index finger—that was a clump of mory he had just extracted from his own mind.

Just now, through Aiwass’s confirmation, he found another mory that could be acknowledged to truly exist—

To protect this mory from being eroded by the Void Whisper, he sent it into Aiwass’s mind.

He had already done this many tis.

Each ti with utmost caution.

Just like rescuing uninfected files from a virus-laden computer and sending them to a backup machine. Unless certain the mory is absolutely correct, he would never transmit it over.

Of course, strictly speaking... it wasn’t "transmission," but unlocking. They were fundantally the sa person, just like two computers in an internet cafe connected to the sa database. And the Serpent Celestial Marshal blocked Aiwass’s individual mory access to "collective Little Ai," so Aiwass’s mories were so vague and fragnted.

—Any segnt of his mory could potentially be fabricated.

Because so-called "recall" is rely a notion. Only mories possessed by both Aiwass and him could be deed real.

"Even if nothing is rembered, there is instinctive resistance against the Void Whisper..."

Worthy of —the Serpent Celestial Marshal should produce such a thought.

But his remaining emotions were now so indifferent, he couldn’t even utter such praise. He looked at it all, his heart calm as water. The whole world had a vast barrier with him—no one can understand him, just as he can’t connect with anyone.

But imdiately, a new thought erged in the Serpent Celestial Marshal’s heart:

If he keeps separating all his mories, handing them over to Aiwass bit by bit... who is the true body?

Who is the real snake? And who is the discarded snake tail?

"Verbose."

Watching Aiwass completely destroy the Red-Handled Sword under Hebashia’s guidance, the Serpent Celestial Marshal slightly relaxed, saying indifferently: "Such matters, wholly irrelevant. What, getting anxious?"

The so-called Ouroboros... is the snake without distinction between head and tail.

—Snake head is snake tail, snake tail is snake head.