Ch.6666. Happiness.

# Chapter 66

“Nature can provide enough for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed.”

“You can fill the sea, but you cannot satisfy human greed.”

As these age-old sayings suggest, human desire knows no bounds. Greed born from deficiency and anguish can serve as a driving force that instills ambition and leads to a better life, but the problem is that there is no “true end” to such greed.

I want to sleep. I want to eat. When these deficiencies are resolved, humans experience short-term happiness. Thus, one desire has a clear answer and a clear reward.

But as everyone knows, happiness is not infinite. This is ironically because deficiency is included in the prerequisite for humans to feel happiness.

Happiness, like gasoline, flares up like a flame and quickly disappears. A life without deficiency or happiness might be called stable, but just as a drug addict cannot return to their previous state, a bland life without ups or downs is itself painful for humans who have been continuously exposed to the intense pleasure felt when deficiency is resolved.

Therefore, even after discovering happiness, humans seek out deficiency on their own. Happiness is merely momentary, while demands continue endlessly.

Humans, who quickly adapt to stimuli, cannot enjoy the same level of happiness as they did initially when the same deficiency is resolved. Like those who gradually increase their medication dosage, they extend the length of hardship and adversity until they achieve their goals.

“Haah. It’s nice, but… it’s really too cold.”

I emerged into a world of light after piercing through a long darkness. The moment I came out, I was happy enough to jump into the accumulated snow, but that happiness didn’t last long.

Because I realized that, apart from the special circumstance of being trapped in darkness for the past few days, nothing in my life had changed, and if anything, it had only gotten colder. My excited feelings subsided in an instant.

“Everything’s so chaotic here and there, where should I go?”

Shivering, I climbed onto Alexander and looked around. The scenery gave a strong impression of being incomplete and unstable.

“There doesn’t seem to be any place to go up from here.”

Wondering if there might be more floors, I looked up at the sky, but nothing existed there. If something had been there, I would have already discovered it when I jumped into the snow.

If this is the end of the Tower, Paradise should exist here too, but why can’t I see it?

“Surely the talk about Paradise wasn’t a lie…?”

No, that can’t be. I shook my head vigorously. I just arrived, it’s too early to say that even the existence of Paradise is false.

“That can’t be. There’s definitely data about Paradise. But since this is my first time coming here directly, I don’t know exactly where it is.”

“Why do you know so little despite being a Robot?”

“That’s exactly why! I was born with only the information necessary for my job, except for the very basics!”

“I see… Anyway, as long as Paradise isn’t completely nonexistent, that’s good enough. We’ll find something if we look around.”

Now that I’ve left the Tower, all I can see are buildings that could be described as unique, for better or worse. As if embodying greed as vast as the sea, buildings of enormous length and height stand haphazardly.

“It’s a free city. Though it’s disappointing that I can’t see where I need to go at a glance because it’s too free.”

“I detect faint artificial light coming from that direction.”

“Really? Then let’s head that way first.”

Without even roads in this place, it’s overwhelming to think about how to reach Paradise, but since the land isn’t infinitely vast, we should eventually arrive if we keep moving around.

“…Yaaawn.”

But it was very late, and my body was tired. I had forgotten about it, being intoxicated with the joy of finally seeing light, but the fatigue accumulated in the tower full of darkness was greater than I thought.

My vision blurred with consecutive yawns. As I noticed my fatigue, the strength in my upper body drained away.

“If you’re tired, why don’t you sleep before setting out?”

“Mmm. I should. That building looks decent.”

I turned the handle toward a nearby building. I didn’t know what kind of building it was, but I liked that the windows remained intact.

Crash.

After parking Alexander where less snow accumulated, I immediately entered the building using Maximus’s power.

Green and white. Seeing medical-looking machines and familiar chairs, it seemed to have been a medical facility.

“Let’s all sleep here.”

Even though the wind doesn’t directly pass through, the air couldn’t help but be cold.

Despite finally being inside a building, breath still came out as vapor, but at least it blocked the wind and snow, so this would do.

I found a relatively small and enclosed space—something that looked like a storage room—and moved the blanket from Alexander.

While I was at it, I rummaged through cabinets and boxes on shelves for anything useful, but either the hospital was never actually operated, or someone had taken everything, as no medicines were visible.

“Mori. If you’re sleeping outside because of me, I can sleep here alone.”

“…”

I was about to lie down on the floor after saying my usual “good night” to the drone, shivering slightly from the cold I wasn’t used to, when the Robot addressed me in a concerned tone.

“You could spend a much warmer night if you sleep inside the Snowmobile, don’t push yourself.”

That’s true. I didn’t really need to leave Alexander to sleep.

Although the single-seat cabin wasn’t very spacious, making it impossible to stretch my legs while sleeping, the thick insulation that formed the seat made it warmer than sleeping in most buildings.

When it’s warm outside, like when we were inside the pillar, I prefer sleeping outside where I can stretch my legs fully, as it feels less stiff when I wake up.

But with the outside being this cold, it would be much more beneficial to sleep in Alexander despite the slight discomfort.

“What are you talking about? I just want to stretch my legs while sleeping.”

“You’re lying. You know I’m sturdier than I look. If you catch a cold, you’re the only one who loses, so go sleep in there.”

The reason I insisted on sleeping in a building where cold air would obviously circulate was because I was worried about the Robot, who, unlike me and Puppy who could sleep in the warm cabin, had to sleep in the cargo area.

Whenever I express this concern, he always says he’s sturdier than he looks, but there’s a limit to that.

I’ve seen countless times that robots can’t withstand extreme environments for long.

There’s no way I’d leave him to sleep alone outside in cold so severe he might turn into a snowman… no, a snow-robot by the time I wake up.

“Whatever, just lie down and cover yourself with the blanket. It’s much warmer to sleep like this.”

“Maybe with Puppy, but there’s no way it’ll get warmer with me next to you since I don’t have a heating function.”

“I don’t care. I’m going to sleep. Good night.”

I closed my eyes, making it clear I didn’t want to hear any more. Seeing my stubborn attitude, the Robot reluctantly entered under the blanket I was holding up.

“Huff, huff.”

Puppy, who was usually quiet when nothing special was happening, had been sleeping on my side or stomach since we couldn’t use the heater anymore.

The way he emitted a small amount of heat seemed very admirable, as if understanding my disappointment at losing the heater I had used so effectively for the past few months.

But… the warmth felt from just one part of my body couldn’t completely replace the heater that had warmed the entire space around me.

Coming to a place colder than any city we had passed through so far made the absence of the heater feel even greater.

However, having these complaints won’t resolve the deficiency. Unless I miraculously find the exact same heater after getting used to this cold, I’ll continue to miss it.

The sad thing was that even if I miraculously recovered the heater, I wasn’t certain that I would gain happiness greater than the pain I was feeling now.

“Perhaps living is just endless suffering…”

Pain was always present beside me and visible, while happiness couldn’t be confirmed with the eyes and wasn’t always present, making life truly miserable.

—Will I really be able to escape from this deficiency and endless greed when I reach Paradise?

The more accustomed I become to despair and pain, the more often I think about Paradise. It’s because I, too, am an ordinary person who desires salvation and happiness.

It’s truly contradictory and makes me laugh hollowly that I assert God doesn’t exist in this world yet hope for Paradise to exist.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but hope for Paradise. Because it’s the only way to escape this desperate life.

Clasp.

Despite not believing in God, I earnestly prayed with my hands together for Paradise to exist.

But faith without an object brought me neither certainty nor answers.

“…”

Not wanting to face the cold and lonely night, I escaped into sleep.