The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

That must have been during my student days, long before I joined my family's aerospace business.

Ultimately, the concept of dreams has already evolved many times over.

As a child, Eileen was able to easily create works that won praise from others because of her innate talent for composition.

Initially, it was just talent, but no parent would overlook their child's excellence. Born into such a privileged family, Eileen quickly received a professional education.

The seed called talent, carefully nurtured by education, blossoms into the flower called ability, and naturally bears the fruit called achievement.

The eldest daughter of the Xue Ni family is a born artist.

The news spread like wildfire through Karen's high society.

Her paintings began to be sought after by all sorts of people, including true art collectors, courtesans hoping to win Eileen's father's favor, and even lecherous men who wanted to please Eileen herself...

As Erin's paintings became sought after at various auctions, she devoted more and more time to painting.

When a casual interest became the means to maintain the label of "Miss Eileen is a born artist," one day Eileen began to tire of painting.

Later, she put down her paintbrush.

Later, she started trying other things and found that she could still do them very well.

Soon, a new cycle began.

Repeatedly.

But the paintbrush in my hand as a child has never felt so heavy...

公历1173年12月16日10时18分56秒，天气：多风。

After making the final stroke on the canvas, Eileen let out a long sigh of relief. She looked up at the clock on the wall and thought for a moment that she was seeing things.

The devil, who had been dozing on the sofa, opened his eyes and easily saw Eileen's confusion, which he then easily dispelled.

"Don't worry about time. Time won't flow in either direction by even a fraction until our game is over."

The devil has easily revealed yet another absurd fact.

As if to prove that what He said was true, He casually snapped His fingers, and the tightly closed porthole opened upwards. Outside the window, the white sand whipped up by the storm remained suspended in the air, motionless.

The whole world fell silent; even the howling wind disappeared.

When Eileen was engrossed in painting, she was highly focused, so she did not notice the unusual silence until now.

"...Don't you devils get bored with your lives?"

After realizing that the devil had absurdly frozen time in the world, Eileen was genuinely amazed, despite her deep resentment towards him.

"Why would I be bored? Only after I personally ascended to the realm of time and climbed to a peak did I realize how vast this world truly is. Freed from the constraints of the timeline, I gained a completely different macroscopic perspective. Incidentally, [Time Freeze] is merely the most superficial application in this corrupt realm that is solely based on lineage. Most of the mortals who are fortunate enough to master it are complacent, thinking that they have already ascended to the realm of time, unaware that they are merely infants with one foot on the threshold, and will never be able to make any further progress in their entire lives."

The devil's chatterbox opened again, and he seemed quite pleased and accomplished with this topic, as he enthusiastically sketched out one ancient word after another for Eileen.

However, Eileen didn't care about those things; she just asked questions.

Are you proud of the talents you possess?

"Why not? Miss Eileen, would you be proud of your mediocrity?"

"you……"

"It looks like you've finished drawing the sun. How about it, are you ready for the evaluation?"

The devil grinned and stretched out a hand as if begging.

Eileen didn't like His smile, because it never had any warmth in it. That cold smile, even when it bloomed on such a beautiful face, only made her feel that it was hypocritical, pretentious, and disgusting.

Therefore, she also handed over the canvas along with the drawing board with a cold expression.

Despite her cold expression, Eileen was actually quite uneasy inside, to the point that her body was trembling slightly.

The devil carefully took the painting that had truly consumed a great deal of Eileen's effort, examining it closely and occasionally making ambiguous nasal sounds.

“Hmm…Hmm…Hmm…”

Thanks to that soft hum, whether it was praise or mockery, and the ambiguous tone that rose and fell, Eileen's heart was in her throat several times.

He was truly a devil who understood people's hearts so well that Eileen even doubted whether He was human or a devil.

Since the game of chasing the sun began, He has never missed an opportunity to indirectly put pressure on Eileen, and He has enjoyed it from beginning to end, just as He said—fully enjoying the pleasure of tormenting the human spirit and soul.

Finally, the melody, which seemed both approving and mocking, came to an end with a jarring, shattering sound.

The painting that Eileen had poured so much of her heart and soul into, the golden sun that illuminated the earth, where all things coexisted, and radiated light and heat, was so casually depicted, along with the canvas, turned into fragments and scattered in the hands of the devil.

Then, a cold comment rang out.

"Unacceptable, redraw."

"..."

Although I had prepared myself for failure, when that moment actually arrived, when the painting I had poured my heart and soul into was easily torn apart and scattered on the ground.

Eileen felt a fire burning and rising within her.

That fire is called "Anger".

"As I've said before, I don't have the low-class pleasure of torturing clients' bodies, but I don't mind providing you with some valuable lessons."

The devil's chilling whispers were like a bucket of ice water in the dead of winter, perfectly extinguishing the fire in Eileen's heart.

The gap in strength between the two sides was so large that it was despairing.

That demon was most likely not lying; its true form may indeed be outside the galaxy, and what Eileen was facing was merely an avatar resembling "tweezers."

"I will not give up. I will redraw until I catch up with the sun."

Faced with a despairing reality, all Erin could do was stubbornly hold onto the paintbrush that sustained her soul, her only weapon, her Wings of Icarus.

"Eat what you want, go to the toilet when you want, sleep when you want. We have plenty of time to finish this game. In this game, you will not die for any reason other than exhausting your soul. Even dying of old age is just a luxury. This is the extra customer service I am providing for you. I hope you will leave a breath before you die and give it a score."

The devil pointed to the array of Holy Communion items on the table, as well as the second canvas that had been prepared again, and made a gesture that said, "Please make yourselves at home."

"..."

Even with all her dissatisfaction and resentment, faced with the clear situation, all Eileen could do was glare at him before silently going into the bathroom. Afterward, she returned to the table and tried to dispel the hunger in her stomach.

"Unqualified."

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"make persistent efforts."

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"Failure is the mother of success."

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"Failure is the grandmother of success."

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"Failure is the great-grandmother of success."

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"Failure is the great-great-great-great-grandmother of success."

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"Actually, you seem to enjoy it too, right? There's absolutely no sign of improvement."

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"Or have you already given up? And started to just throw caution to the wind?"

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"Oh dear, go to sleep when you should! What if you get distracted and your muscles sag and show? We don't do that kind of dirty work here."

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"You've already slept and eaten normally, but your eyes seem to be closing up almost completely. By the way, the souls collected here are almost a third of yours. Keep drawing, Miss Eileen Scherney."

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"Hey, are you still alive? [Snow White]"

Help……

dad……

Mother……

Why did everyone leave me all alone...?

A person... living on such a hopeless planet...

A person... encounters such a terrible demon...

The pen... is so heavy...

My eyes hurt...

I just want to... die like this...

Uh...

Snapped!

Eileen awoke from her brief unconsciousness, a burning stinging sensation spreading across her left cheek.

"woke up?"

"What did you do..."

"You raised your left hand and slapped yourself; it has nothing to do with me."

The devil smiled and pointed at Eileen's left hand, which was hanging in mid-air, sticking out her pink tongue innocently.

"..."

Eileen stared silently at her left hand, momentarily wondering who had slapped her.

"Didn't I say that if you want to sleep, go to sleep; if you want to eat, go to eat; if you want to go to the toilet, go to the toilet? I haven't restricted your freedom of movement, but your act of dozing off in front of the canvas is really unclear."

"..."

Eileen ignored the devil's mocking remarks; in fact, she barely had the strength left to speak.

The devil wasn't joking with her; all her freedom of movement was fully guaranteed, and even the dishes she ate at each meal were delicious and varied.

They get enough sleep, and even have time to take a nap.

However, no matter how much you rest or how much you replenish your energy, it doesn't matter.

The strength of his spirit was declining day by day.

The paintbrush that applied the oil paint was her soul; with each stroke, a part of her spirit was stripped away.

Every time a painting is torn apart, destroyed, or crushed into dust, a portion of Eileen's soul is taken away by that devil.

In this long, immeasurable game where even time seemed to stand still, Erin had never tasted despair like this before.

Even the despair I felt when I was walking alone on the desolate planet was never as gloomy, as profound, or as bitter as it was now...

It's almost like...