The corridor was already packed with people. Employees of the Investigation Bureau flooded out from every office, brandishing various weapons as they launched their assault on Yue Shi.
The same madness was etched onto every face, and the same slogans burst from their lips.
Yue Shi cut through the crowd, leaving a trail of severed limbs in his wake.
He had a rough grasp of the loop’s patterns now, but he still didn't understand why these people had gone insane, obsessed with killing him.
Stepping out of the Investigation Bureau, the pedestrians were as reckless as ever, shouting for his head.
Yue Shi looked up at the sky. The sunlight was just right.
“A six-minute world.”
The numbers on the stopwatch were still ticking.
9:36:47, 9:36:48.
Everything went black.
...
Iteration 31.
Yue Shi opened his eyes. Lime powder flew toward him. He didn't dodge; instead, he waved his hand through the air. The powder instantly reversed direction, coating Ling Xun’s face.
Ling Xun choked and coughed twice. Before he could draw his gun, Yue Shi had already kicked him in the shin.
Ling Xun’s knees buckled, and he pitched forward. Yue Shi grabbed him by the collar and pinned him against the service counter. “Stop fighting. We’re old acquaintances, after all. Why don't we sit down and chat?”
The receptionist, who had been about to pounce, slammed on the brakes. Her feet slipped, and she banged into the corner of a desk. Her face flushed red as she crouched down, clutching her knee.
The other staff members heard Yue Shi’s words and turned to look at him as if he were an alien.
Yue Shi’s gaze swept across their faces. “I’ve killed you so many times. Doesn't it hurt?”
The lobby fell silent for a moment. Someone instinctively touched their own neck.
“Let's have a temporary truce. We should communicate first, don't you think?” Yue Shi suggested.
Ling Xun was pinned against the counter in a pathetic position. He didn't struggle; he simply turned his face to the side, a smile in his eyes. It was as if he were still that gentle group leader from before, the one who would always tolerate Yue Shi’s mischief.
“Fine,” he said helplessly. “Let’s talk.”
Yue Shi released him and smoothed out Ling Xun’s crumpled collar.
Ling Xun rubbed his reddened neck and straightened the cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The atmosphere in the lobby relaxed.
“Kill him!” someone roared from outside.
A security guard in uniform rushed in, brandishing a stun baton with a murderous look on his face.
He was running so fast that he didn't notice the change in atmosphere, nor did he notice Ling Xun standing beside Yue Shi in a relaxed posture, with no intention of fighting.
Yue Shi stepped to the side and kicked the guard’s wrist. The stun baton flew into the air, spinning a few times before landing in Yue Shi’s hand.
The guard’s momentum carried him forward. He stumbled, and as soon as he turned around, he was knocked unconscious.
In the corridor, more guards were running, their footsteps urgent and chaotic. But as they reached the lobby entrance, they suddenly slowed down.
They saw that no one in the lobby was fighting. Ling Xun was leaning against the service counter smoking, the receptionist was sitting in a chair rubbing her knee, and Yue Shi was petting the leopard.
The security captain poked his head in, holding a riot shield, a tense "I’m ready" expression on his face.
He looked at Yue Shi, then at Ling Xun, unsure of what to say.
“Temporary truce,” Yue Shi announced loudly. “We’ll fight later.”
The security captain was dumbfounded. He stood at the door with his riot shield, neither entering nor retreating, his expression like someone trying to solve a complex math problem.
Pedestrians flooded in through the main entrance of the Investigation Bureau. They had come to hunt Yue Shi, shouting all the way. But now that they had reached their destination, they found their target standing calmly in the center of the lobby. Everyone else was drinking tea or reading the newspaper, with no intention of making a move.
The crowd was equally stunned.
“Why aren't they fighting?” someone asked in surprise.
Another person replied, “This guy is too hard to kill. He’s killed us so many times instead... it really hurts.”
Although their bodies reset to their initial state with every restart, the painful memories of death did not disappear.
Yue Shi’s methods were too ruthless, growing more vicious each time. Every death forced them to experience the height of agony. Some had been killed by him thirty times already. Every time brought a fresh wave of pain, repeating every 6 minutes and 48 seconds. Who could endure that?
This was the same reason Ling Xun had so easily accepted the truce.
Yue Shi had been particularly cruel to him, willing to waste time just to subject him to various forms of insane torture.
He had essentially experienced the Ten Great Tortures; having his tendons pulled and his skin flayed were considered the mildest treatments. Every time, the pain was so intense he wished he could die on the spot. And while he did die every time, he would simply wake up in the next loop to be ravaged by Yue Shi all over again.
“Fine. What do you want to talk about, old acquaintance?” Ling Xun took the cigarette from his mouth and flicked the ash into an ashtray.
Yue Shi pulled over a chair and sat down. The snow leopard jumped from his arms and crouched beside the chair, licking its paws.
The others in the lobby also found places to sit. Those who couldn't find a chair simply sat on the floor.
The battle royale had suddenly turned into a grand meeting.
“Why do you keep hunting me?” Yue Shi asked.
A chorus of boos erupted in the lobby. Everyone wore an expression that said, How do you have the nerve to ask that?
Some rolled their eyes, some shook their heads and sighed, and others looked at Yue Shi with a gaze that clearly meant, Do you really have no self-awareness at all?
Ling Xun cleared his throat and said with a straight face, “Because we’ve all gone crazy!”
The crowd applauded.
Yue Shi’s face darkened. Their mental states did indeed seem quite poor.
“Tell me, what exactly happened?” Yue Shi pressed, his voice turning serious, devoid of his previous teasing and casualness.
“I know every one of you remembers what happened in the loops. After I left... what happened here? Why is Amber City stuck in a continuous loop?”
Ling Xun was silent for a few seconds before he suddenly laughed. It wasn't mocking; it was the laugh of someone who felt his life was wretched.
He put the cigarette back in his mouth, took a drag, and exhaled a cloud of grey mist. “You’re asking me?” he said helplessly. “Who am I supposed to ask?”
The lobby became deathly silent as everyone turned their eyes to Yue Shi.
Ling Xun flicked his ash onto the floor. “If we knew the cause of the loop, would we have been driven insane by it?”
Yue Shi stared in stunned disbelief.
Before this, he had speculated on dozens of reasons for Amber City’s constant looping. Perhaps it was a curse cast by some incredibly powerful deity, an invasion by time-controlling aliens, or a social experiment by some advanced civilization.
But Ling Xun’s answer was the worst of all his hypotheses—the original residents of Amber City were actually completely ignorant of the loop’s cause.
Yue Shi took a deep breath, forcing himself not to let his thoughts spiral.
He couldn't be certain yet if Ling Xun was telling the truth, but he instinctively believed his former group leader wouldn't lie to him.
But what if it was all a lie?
He had been back in Amber City for so long, yet there was still one person he hadn't seen. That person might know more.
“Is Director Tang here? I want to see her.”
Rate on N.U.
