Aeren looked at the sky and the white moon. Tears stopped flowing from his eyes as he stood up and went to the hall of the ghost house. He saw a few ghosts traveling back and forth, then left the ghost house and started walking along the road where one or two cars were barely visible at night.
Aeren observed all the cars and machines that had surrounded his whole life—things created to make human work easier. But Aeren felt nothing for them. In the end, they were taking time from people, making them more and more like puppets.
Aeren understood this, but if he screamed and told others, "You're blinded by machines! You're forgetting yourselves for mere machines! This isn't saving your time—these machines are stealing your time!" all humans would laugh at him and call him a mental patient.
Aeren didn't hate machines. They were distractions from life, which was why everyone's thinking became smaller and smaller. People didn't think about themselves, only enjoying their distractions. By the time they understood what had happened to them, it was already too late.
Aeren saw machines everywhere around him, but he didn't care about anything anymore. He went to a park as sunrise painted the sky.
Sitting in a corner of the park, Aeren watched people. He saw old people, young people, and children looking at each other, and Aeren could read their surface thoughts:
An old man looking at young people appeared happy, thinking, I was like him in the past—young and handsome with two or three girls around me. I lived a life people will remember forever. The old man smiled at this thought.
A young couple looking at children thought, Children have complete freedom and the best life. The young people sighed and looked at each other.
Children didn't look at the old man. They looked at the young couple and thought, I'll never be a loser like him. I'll be much cooler and have more girls than him. The child looked at his friend and started playing around.
But Aeren saw beyond the surface and perceived their real thoughts:
The old man's true thoughts while looking at the young couple: I want to be young again and be like them. I want the world to know I was never weak. Everyone looked at me and thought I was weak from beginning to end. I want to show them I was never weak in my entire life. He felt irritated inside.
The young couple's real thoughts: I want that freedom too, and a good life. I don't want to be a loser like others. I want to live a peaceful life.
The child's real thoughts: Becoming old is the best thing in life.
Aeren could easily read their true thoughts like reading a children's book. They were all puppets who reacted when it was too late and spent their whole lives regretting, thinking that becoming old was a crime. But they never thought of solutions—how to escape being puppets.
If they had thought about regaining their youth, would they think it impossible to go against nature? Even if they considered regaining their youth, it would be too late to do anything about their bodies.
As for young people trying to stay young, they wouldn't even think about such things. They were distracted by the world's pursuit of fame and money, never considering going against nature because they thought they were too busy. When they became old, they would think the same thoughts as the elderly around them.
As for children, they weren't born with knowledge. If others didn't teach them, they would never think about aging. They would enjoy their childhood with their puppet parents, who would teach them that slavery was the best thing in the world.
In this world, two types of people lived: servants and rulers.
Servants: Those who lived their whole lives serving the world without excuse, ruling over other servants lower than themselves while wanting to feel like rulers.
Rulers: Those who thought they ruled over servants directly, but in the end, they served most of the servants in the world indirectly while living like rulers.
They were also known as kings and people, or rulers and servants.
But there was one type who neither ruled nor served—beings who controlled existence itself. Some said they existed; others said they didn't.
They were known as Gods.
Aeren sighed inwardly as he thought about all this, and his mind concluded:
If I'm going to live for only a hundred years or less, why should I join the rulers and servants? Why don't I live like a God? I can't control existence, but I can control myself to become existence itself.
I can control my fear.
I can control my despair.
I can control my tears.
I can control my body.
I can control my instincts.
I can control my thinking.
I can control my actions.
I can control my reactions.
Maybe if I'm able to control myself, I can reach or find what I want to become.
I've always wished for freedom, and I know this world will never give me the freedom I want. So I just need to control my freedom itself.
I'm going to control, and I'll learn to control. If I get nothing, I'll try and try and try. If that doesn't work either, I'll create control. All I need is control. I will find control, practice control, and create control. I just have to become obsessed with control.
I need to think about control every day, every second: "control, control, control, control..."
As Aeren thought all these things and repeated the word "control," someone sat beside him and looked at him. Hearing the word "control" from Aeren, she said, "Control?"
Aeren turned his head and looked at the woman. She was the woman who had saved him in the water—burned face, missing eye, ugly appearance. Now she looked more like a beggar than Aeren did. He looked at her but continued repeating the word inside his mind.