In the white room Aaron wasted no time activating Laws consciousness when he became aware of himself in the room. He was about to restart the loop before a voice sounded behind him.

“Well fuck, I didn't realise how much your word meant to me before. It turns out I didn't believe you in the slightest.”

“Hello Law.”

“So you can just sit here for as long as you want?”

“Not quite. I can only stay here for an instant. That instant can seem as long as I needed it to however.”

“Why does it matter?”

“Listen for your heartbeat.”

Law sat silently for a moment before attempting to find his pulse on his neck “Okay, that’s odd.”

“Now sit still and try not to think until I tell you to stop.”

The two sat there perfectly still for what seemed to Aaron like four days. Aaron realised he needed a break. He had been pushing himself too much. He took the time to plan out his argument to Law.

At the end of that ‘four days’ Aaron let out a sigh. “I think I need a break. You can move again. How long do you think you sat there?”

Law started to speak before he realised he didn’t know. “What about you? You don't seem like you waited five minutes to tell me I could move.”

“In here the only way I can judge time is by the progression of my thoughts. Four days.”

“So what do you plan to do?”

“I plan on taking a vacation.”

“You are just going to let this keep happening while you take a break? Whats wrong with you?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I have spent near enough to a year repeating one day. I have had no meaningful social interaction in that time. I’m tired. Second, I can repeat this day as long as I need to solve the problem. I don’t know what will happen if I die but, if I don't die this all holds true.”

“Alright. Sorry. What do you have in mind. As long as we are repeating the same day I might as well spend my money wisely.”

“You mean waste it efficiently?”

“Yeah I guess so. You should learn some martial arts, I don’t know if you can build up muscle in this loop but the skill should stay with you. Maybe in the future you can win a fight without taking the beating.”

“I guess I will think on it.”

~~~

chapter break

~~~

Aaron spent the time he took as a vacation effectively. He ate well, read books, watched movies. He saw little point in playing games, there just wasn't the time to finish most of them. He also devoted time to his favorite pastime, breaking into secure buildings. In another age Aaron may have been an explorer. Instead Aaron had a love of going places he wasn’t supposed to know about.

As a student Aaron was attending the Garden under scholarship. In his first year of middle school his school had taken a trip to the valley and toured some of the research facilities in the city. During their stay they were housed in the high school’s dormitories. Aaron had gone for a late night walk and walked right into one of the college facilities nuclear research labs. He sat down and nodded off while examining the machinery and electronics. When the researchers caught him the next morning he casually gave his name and walked out without a thought. When his school was packing up to return home representatives of the garden informed him that he had been accepted as a transfer student. Aaron spent the next year in a remedial program to bring his fundamentals up to the school's standard.

While his explorations had lost some of their luster with sanctioning by the school he began ‘working’ as a security consultant within the city. With the security and funding offered by the position he moved onto targets he couldn’t risk before. From then on every six weeks or so he managed to break the security of major firms within the city.

Law also used his sudden vacation as a chance to pursue his passion. With the risk to his life minimized Law ended up trying to take down a local gang single handedly. He succeeded, the gang had connections to one of the facilities that Aaron was breaking into and the two teens ended up working together. Law found it distasteful but Aaron thought filling the sprinkler system with a highly corrosive acid (taken from another of the gang facilities) and then setting the system off was effective.

After that the two did end up playing some videogames together.