"..."
Honestly, throughout my entire life, all twenty-two years of it..
I don't think there was ever a moment I felt truly proud of myself.
I was born into a wealthy family.
The eldest son was a renowned doctor. The second? A shrewd politician.
And me… the youngest?
Just your average game addict you could spot loitering in any local arcade.
Mediocre grades. Average looks. Almost no friends to speak of.
Sometimes, I'd ditch high school just to stay home all day.
Gaming, binge-reading manga and web novels, devouring every movie and show I could get my hands on.
And normally, having a son that far behind the curve compared to his siblings would've drawn some attention from the parents, right?
Maybe they'd cut off his game time.
Force him to rejoin the "real world" and finally start trying.
for the sake of their dreams and ambitions, at least.
But my family?
Was not that kind of family.
Maybe it was because my father was our nation's Minister of Foreign Affairs and barely had time for us.
Or maybe because my mother, the CEO of the region's largest pharmaceutical distribution company, wasn't exactly the "maternal" type.
She passed off raising us to the maids the second we stopped wearing diapers.
Why would she care about a fully-grown slacker?
So yeah, I lived that spoiled life.
Endless money. All the time in the world. No one cared what I did. No one stood in my way.
A silver spoon forever stuck in my mouth, and all my whims fulfilled on a whim.
I didn't really learn how to try at anything until late,
and even then, only when it came to video games.
If the boss was too strong and I couldn't beat him no matter what?
I'd just drop some cash, buy all the high-end gear, and brute-force my way through.
Yeah… I was that kind of gamer.
The kind who got bored of a game because they bought all the rare items early.
The type who steamrolled every "meant-to-lose" boss fight, the ones designed to teach you pain, to make you appreciate the grind.
I skipped all that.
I was just a pampered mutt. Someone who paid for his comfort. Always. No exceptions.
"Sounds like a pretty sweet life to me."
That voice.
It snapped me out of my thoughts like a slap to the face.
I opened my eyes.
Where... am I?
"Wondering now, huh? After spending all that time drowning in your own memories?"
It was that same voice again, youthful, but clearly male.
I glanced around, but saw nothing.
Just a vast, white fog stretching endlessly in every direction.
What.... is going on?
Panic crept into my chest.
I realized I couldn't move. My limbs were frozen stiff.
"No worries, no worries. This isn't some weird dimension or anything." The voice laughed lightly. "And you can't move because we're inside your head, that's all."
What?
The voice grew clearer,steadier, and then, something else began to glow in front of me.
Slowly, but surely, the fog in front of me started to morph.
Not the whole space, just a singular image taking shape in the void.
And when that image fully formed..
My entire body went cold.
"Ah, thought you'd be surprised."
The voice chuckled, sounding oddly fresh, almost cheerful.
"But now… that's an interesting expression."
That face…
Even if I'd forgotten my own reflection, I'd never forget his.
"You're..."
I saw him clearly. Painfully clearly.
I didn't even need time to realize what I was looking at.
"Hmm, I see you're trying to remember me."
He spoke with a calm, knowing smile.
Honestly, I didn't need to "remember" anything.
His face was everywhere.
on book covers, in collectible figurines, on that one anime poster that blew up the internet.
That hair,black with streaks of red.
That gaze, crimson eyes glowing with hope, as the author once described.
The young man standing before me, dressed in a sharp black suit emblazoned with a certain family crest...
It was the very suit he wore at the end of his story,
when he was married, successful, and finally free from the endless pit of torment he once called life.
He stood there, exuding dignity and presence,
and there was no mistaking it.
"Sora Asura…"
The protagonist of Rise of Asura smiled his usual serene smile, radiating confidence for some reason.
"That's right. I'm glad you remembered my name."
As if I could forget.
Your name was tossed around social media like a diplomatic scandal.
And even if I was questioning my sanity right now,
or whether this was some dream or mental breakdown,
Sora Asura was standing right in front of me. Smiling.
The very protagonist of the story I'd been thrown into.
"…What is going on?"
Slowly, my brain began to grind back into motion.
Questions hit me like a waterfall.
"Oh? You really don't know?"
His expression shifted. confused, almost pitying.
But then that smile returned as he stepped closer.
"Tell me… do you truly not understand what's happening?"
He asked again, closer this time.
and this smile… this one felt wrong.
It made something deep inside me squirm.
"…Would you mind explaining it to me…?"
I replied calmly, swallowing the unease churning inside.
Instead of answering, his smile just widene. way more than I thought a human could even manage.
This was Sora Asura.
The kindhearted hero.
The one who chose mercy, who never took revenge,
who silenced his enemies through restraint, with help from his comrades.
But now?
The expression on his face..
It was the same smug grin every villain ever gave him when he was suffering.
Was he… mocking me?
He took a step back and began pacing slowly around me in a circle.
For some reason, I couldn't move an inch.
"Your life…" He finally spoke again. "It was vibrant, wasn't it? Full of money, of joy, of everything you ever wanted. You drowned yourself in indulgence, and never think about responsibility. Isn't that right?"
His tone, lively at first, grew heavier with every word.
Like it was sinking into something dark and bitter.
The peaceful space around us began to distort,
and the air felt heavier by the second.
"You had a perfect family. Perfect siblings.
And you never even tried to keep up with them.
You had the perfect opportunity to become something great, to build something greate, but you never left your room. You never even tried to start from scratch. You never wanted to work for anything."
His crimson eyes bore into me.
There was no light in them anymore.
Only a void. A rage he barely held back.
"Your life… was no different than that of a noble born with every privilege. And you threw it all away, on meaningless crap. With no goal. No reason."
In the end, maybe he couldn't hold it in anymore.
He shouted.
Now standing right in front of me again, his face twisted in a fury I couldn't understand.
"You were happy with that life, weren't you?
Completely satisfied!"
"..."
I said nothing.
Just stared at the face slowly returning to its usual calm.
He exhaled quietly, letting his shoulders drop just a bit.
Then, he stepped closer, locking eyes with mine.
"You disgust me."
He said it in the coldest tone I'd ever heard in my life.
Me… disgusting?
I couldn't even react. My face must've frozen over in shock.
Sora didn't care. Didn't flinch.
He just kept tossing words at me, without pause, without mercy.
"Your entire life was that of a pig. I'm shocked you didn't turn into an elephant, considering how much you stuffed your face and how little you used your body or your empty skull."
"..."
"You're a waste. A burden to society and your family.
A nobody no one would miss if you vanished. Trash. Ungrateful filth."
He hurled insult after insult, no hesitation, no second thoughts.
Like a machine built solely for this purpose.
Or like he was venting something, something ugly.
Wait. Was he angry?
"Yes. I'm angry. Furious, at you. At your life.
At whatever twisted force of fate decided to tie your name to anything."
"...But what does that have to do with you..."
I couldn't take it anymore.
Just standing there, listening to this barrage of hate,
I couldn't stay silent.
It wasn't just his words.
It was everything.
The space. His tone. My frozen limbs.
My brain still catching up, not understanding anything at all.
But I couldn't just sit there and swallow it either.
"Oh?"
Raising an eyebrow, the so-called hero gave me a slightly surprised look, before closing his eyes and letting out a mocking, almost theatrical chuckle.
He took a few steps back.
He kept laughing.
quiet at first, then louder, as he casually strolled through this endless void like he owned it.
Finally, he stopped. Looked up at the sky.
"You're right. I have nothing to do with you.
Your life? How you lived it? The crap you did?
None of it's my concern."
His voice regained that falsely bright tone.
He sounded almost... casual again.
But then..
he turned his eyes back to me, calm and composed,
wearing that same smile I'd seen a thousand times now.
"…And yet, I still hate the way you lived."
"....."
"I don't need a personal connection to feel this way, right? Honestly, just watching the way you lived was enough to fill me with disgust."
I didn't say a word.
Not because I couldn't think of a response, but because, of all the curses and insults he'd thrown at me so far..That was the first thing he said that was completely true.
He didn't need a reason to hate me.
None of us do.
All we ever really need is an excuse.
Something to justify our hate in a way that society won't frown on.
Some paper-thin justification that lets us tear someone down.
with no guilt, no shame, no consequence.
"But to be completely honest…" He spoke again, tone suddenly dull, like the weight of it all bored him now.
He glanced away, almost lazily, before continuing:
"I envy you."
"..Huh?"
His words hit me like a rock to the chest.
Envy?
Did he just say… he envies me?
Me?
I wanted to ask him again.
Wanted to confirm I'd heard it right, but I didn't have to.
Because he kept going.
"I envy you completely. Every inch of you. Every part that makes you you. I envy your brothers. I envy your parents.
Your stupid, privileged family. Hell, I even envy your stupid-ass games. Your pointless, empty days.
The way you eat. The way you laugh. Even the way you sulk in that disgusting little cave you called a room."
His voice started shaking.
No, cracking.
Like something inside him was snapping under the weight of all that bile.
He sounded sick.
Like a lunatic.
A man who'd spent his whole life hating the joy of others.
Who could only taste his own bitterness.
He kept repeating that word,
"envy"
like it was the only word he knew anymore.
And in that moment, I stopped seeing Sora Asura, the kindhearted protagonist I once admired, and started seeing something else entirely.
"Your whole damn life was luxury on top of luxury! Aaaagh!! how I envied you! You bought anything you wanted. Woke up whenever you felt like it. Did whatever the hell you pleased! I envied every single second you spent rotting away in that room!!"
He was screaming now.
His expression twisted into something inhuman.
A madman.
"You got to enjoy everything your pathetic little heart desire, while I…"
He paused.
His voice dropped, so quiet now I had to lean in. But of course, I couldn't move a muscle.
And what he said next?
Terrified me.
"…While I was fighting. Clawing my way through the dirt. Bleeding and starving, just trying to survive another day."
No.
"While you ate your favorite meals in comfort, I was going days without food, feasting on moldy scraps when I was lucky."
Stop.
"You were born into a family with nothing but money, and they threw it all at your feet like it was nothing. Me? I was blamed for a crime I didn't commit.
Thrown out. Abandoned. Left to rot."
Please...just shut up.
"You were born at the top. I spent years crawling to get there."
Yes, this isn't fair but...
"I was drowning in the filth at the bottom, while you were floating in luxury,enjoying your damn life!"
Don't say it like that...
He stopped.
For just a moment, everything went still.
The furious storm inside him vanished like smoke.
He stared at the ground, silent.
And then..
a strange shadow fell over him.
I didn't know where it came from, but it cloaked him in a darkness that made my skin crawl.
"…"
That silence was worse than the screaming.
Worse than the accusations.
Worse than all the insults he'd spit at me.
I didn't understand this place.
Didn't understand why I was here.
Why he was here.
Why Sora Asura, the hero I once admired, was standing before me, pouring all this rage and hatred into my soul.
I didn't care what connection I had to him.
Didn't care why he was doing this.
But the one thing, the one thought that truly froze my blood?
Was the question quietly ringing in the back of my mind:
Why me?
Why not someone richer, someone worse?
Why me?
And then..
as if he could hear that exact thought…
"…That's why I brought you here."
His voice was soft.
Too soft.
But the weight in those words,
It crushed something in my chest.
"You…"
The word barely left my lips.
I was trembling.
Sweat running down my cheek like ice.
"Yes. Exactly."
He smiled again.
That same smile.
Sick.
Broken.
Like a child who just pulled the wings off a butterfly.
"That's why I chose you. This pitiful world,
this cursed existence, where there's no such thing as hope, I've summoned you into it."
His eyes gleamed.
"With this fragile body, so lucky, yet so untested...
against an endless horde of enemies...against fate itself...against life itself..."
He raised his hand and pointed at me, his finger like a dagger straight to the heart.
"I summoned you,and only you, to live inside my body, to walk in my shoes. To suffer my pain. To drown in my despair. Until your soul shatters completely...
and you become just as worthless as I once was."
That was the last thing he said.
Sora Asura.
the hero who once inspired millions, who carried the weight of the world and never broke, was now the same man who stood before me, cursing me with the end of my life.
And for the first time....
I truly understood.
My life was over.