Chapter 786: NO．155：People's worries also vary

NO．155：People's worries also vary.

Although the activity room has already become a kind of stagnant atmosphere like a psychological clinic, the work of a psychologist is not that easy to start.

Yes, Aomo actually doesn't really reject the work of a psychologist either.

Just as when he was active on Umastagram under the name Umastar, most of his posts were used in one-on-one worry debates.

Of course, Aomo's motives back then were also different.

For Aomo Lindun, who was of the same adolescent age, these worries expressed by peers, even older people, were novel and extremely valuable for research.

They were both observational material and also a filling of life experience.

At that time, even his words of consolation for others might have been taken from idle chatter with other 'patients', highlighting a transplanting of flowers and grafting of branches.

Thus, the listening process itself was also equivalent to filling 'ammunition'.

Every sentence that sounded reasonable, as if experienced firsthand, was actually a dissection of another group's experience from a 'third-party perspective', filling his knowledge.

However, for most people, digesting others' insights is not easy.

More people in the world merely glance over it and leave it at that; only when truly experiencing it do they recall past accumulations—perhaps they didn't even think of it at the time, only realizing it during later review.

Aomo was no exception, but he had the advantage of having accumulated enough.

——As long as you have listened to too many confessions, you find it hard to let them pass; in clearer terms: when the same topic is repeatedly brought up by more than one person, to the point it seems capable of being etched into DNA, you find it hard to forget.

Just like the poem you recited most often in elementary school, you still remember it even in middle age.

That verse was indeed written by someone else, but it also became a part of you that is hard to forget.

And this is the value that earns Umastar the title of AIbot.

Aomo's past behavior pattern was indeed almost identical to that of an AI; as Umastar, his speech records while active were like an AI accumulating raw data—based on the material packed inside, step by step cultivating learning, producing increasingly mature and refined responses.

But Aomo Lindun now has not become a complete AI; he even shows some 'defects' that he didn't have before, due to his growing 'humanity'.

The so-called defect mentioned here is a lack of efficiency.

Things one shouldn't do, words one shouldn't say, people one shouldn't see……If we let his two‑year‑old self judge his present actions, teenage Aomo would certainly point out the many 'omissions' of young Aomo, feeling that those actions and decisions need improvement, and would also feel that he is now too reckless and not rational enough.

All we can say is that people do change.

But the core of this change remains the same driving force as always.

Even the little Aomo of the past cannot deny having many observation channels; there's no need to obsess over Umastagram, and one cannot deny having many hobbies to cultivate— the cost‑effectiveness of special effects toys and plastic models is hardly worth discussing.

Even the effort to learn about time‑traveler‑related knowledge, trying hard to no avail to 'scale the wall' and mix into time‑traveler forums, is seriously an inefficient approach— somewhat impatient, when clearly normal growth to university would inevitably bring such contact.

After all this, what does it come down to? Isn't it just liking to watch Umamusume? Isn't it just liking monsters and heroes, and liking new things and possibilities in other worlds even more?

No matter how mature one's conduct, no matter how one gives off an aura that doesn't match one's appearance, deep down it's still that same pattern, which would let Guiye Xiaomei directly conclude that the person is of the same kind as the protagonist in her story.

Nor does he resemble a person.

Although he appears gentle and warm, approachable on the surface, inside he actually harbors astonishing obsession.

Usually he keeps silent and shows nothing, but if given a chance to release it— he might then abandon what he originally possessed and even insisted upon.

Rational consideration, efficient handling, an attitude of never dragging one's feet?

As long as the position touched by that obsession is reached, he will easily discard everything else— just as now——

——Even if you could guess with your toes that this 'most exciting time is all spent on the screen', the young person's worries, which need no further personality dissection, are completely devoid of persona; even if you can no longer obtain any particularly rare example from the other party.

He still remains willing to listen.

He is willing to listen to a young hero's worries, and also to listen to the worries of another Umamusume, who 'served as his former practice target, looking at him once only feeling like his past struggling self, not worth a glance'.

Just as always, he remains immersed in his own world, but now he has encountered a being capable of stepping into that world.

The only problem is——normally, two speakers each holding different worries would not speak simultaneously to a single listener.

Even the most unorthodox psychologist would not consider putting multiple patients in one room to let them voice their problems; even if one could listen to ten people saying ten things like the Sage Prince Shōtoku, one would still have to consider whether those ten people are willing to speak.

And for those whose lives are overly self‑reliant and autonomous, worries in the heart tend to fester even more.

Unfortunately, Aimu Zhiji and Chao Cang Lu are both such people.

Even though the latter gives the impression of being cheerful and talkative, that is actually the manifestation of a threshold.

Just as a well‑behaved, sensible child is not free of worries, but you hardly see her express them; the more a person shows sunny optimism, the harder it is to reach the gloomy sludge he hides.

That sludge does not necessarily originate from him, but it is inevitably deeply entwined with him.

And the former… the former needs no further words.

The stars only want to show you their twinkling light, and will not talk with you about the night curtain that sets off that radiance.

At this moment he is exactly sandwiched between those two people, feeling the heavy clouds of sorrow on both sides, then gazing into the distance at the 'youth' contending with the storm, inevitably feeling deeply the disparity of the world, and then finally——

——Just the same, after thinking and thinking again, he still decides to bring forth the resolve of the Inverted Heavenly Bow.

"Chao Cang Lu," he spoke, with the gentleness he uses when joking idly.

"I've received some information that Miss Mi Yu is currently free," his finger moved in mid‑air, and then, in the gaze of the two who heard him, a frame's screen appeared, "Are you not considering taking action?"

"Lindun‑san?"

Chao Cang Lu's gaze showed some surprise; his slightly excellent vision had already seen the ID exchange content on the light screen: 【Training, work‑rest balance, then training】.

Although he didn't know that was the ID of the Miura Hosogi account, the content indeed mentioned Mi Yu's movements.

For a moment, he felt moved that Lindun‑san had silently helped him confirm Mi Yu's status, yet he also felt hesitant about the other's inquiry and gave no answer.

Aimu Zhiji and her sister, unaware of the situation here, saw this silence and tilted their heads in synchronized doubt, having no intention to speak out suddenly; thus, in the activity room that grew even quieter, only Aomo's second inquiry remained:

"Or is it that you, who clearly bragged to Mr. Stuart about sweeping the seas, now have no mood or state to pay attention to Miss Mi Yu's training?"

"This……" Chao Cang Lu's gaze darted away, also glancing toward the sisters.

"If there's a problem, it must be solved; keeping silent will only become a later hidden trouble, and if one cannot figure it out alone, confiding in others is also an effective choice."

Speaking words not meant for just one listener, Aomo took off the glasses he had worn since returning to school, looked again at the familiar dark red and black, and fixed his gaze on Chao Cang Lu, who was not quite used to meeting his eyes.

This was not the first time Chao Cang Lu had seen the other's eyes change, but it was the first time he faced such a gaze.

This was not the first time Chao Cang Lu had seen the other's eyes change, but it was the first time he faced such a gaze.

That gaze was so sharp it made him feel a bit of panic; the other's gaze seemed able to see through him entirely.

From the eyes, all the way to the heart.

And he, a twenty-two-year-old Ultraman warrior, how far is he from a blank sheet? The most vivid stroke, its core line is precisely that point hidden in his heart—

"Your father, Aoteman Beliya..." that person deliberately used the formal appellation 'UltramanBelial', not the usual Ultraman XXX, making him seem like an alien discussing the emperor of the Galactic Empire.

That person easily spoke that name, catching the faint twitch of his cheek muscles in his eye, his expression unchanged, still as gentle and calm as before.

"He indeed could possibly be reborn, right? And… still in a powerful form that could make you worry, capable of endangering all of this."