A few seconds of silent stare passed before Tyren cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Sit. Let's talk about a certain Tuesday that has refused to go away?"

Gaus's hand was already on his watch, conveniently hidden beneath the table, and all he did was turned the crown back.

Magiwatch has saved 75 seconds.

You have Rewound for 75 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

It was a reflex Rewind originating from his intense desire to live. It was too soon to have a meeting with another looper. So Gaus wanted to go back to the time before Tyren arrived at the restaurant or even better to the beginning of the day to start everything over, but his power could only go back for 76 seconds at the most.

Tyren was there for about 30 to 40 seconds. Say he took another 40 seconds in the restaurant before talking to him. That would be 70 seconds. By Rewinding for 75 seconds, Gaus should be able to escape him.

The world blurred and disappeared. When it became clear again, Gaus was sitting alone in his seat. He looked around and once he didn't see Tyren, he fled to the exit door, bumping into a passing waitress and a couple on his way. It was a small price to pay for escaping the man. He would analyze the situation after he escaped.

"Move," he half-shouted at a man standing at the exit with his red-haired girlfriend.

The man turned around and, with a unique timid voice, shouted back, "Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?"

Dammit. So, he was here longer than I thought?

"I was just about to come to your seat to talk to you about an important matter," Tyren said. He whispered a few words to the red-haired girl. The girl hesitated for a moment before she nodded and left. "Let's go back to your seat before someone takes it."

"Do I know you?" Gaus asked with a frown.

"Of course, you know me. Look, we are blocking the way. Let's talk over there." His tone made it clear it was an order.

Niama was a busy place. So busy Gaus could make a run for it and hope to survive.

If I can cross that road...

He glanced at the road from the side of his face. Maybe he could escape if he put his heart and soul on the line, but why the hell was he just thinking about escaping? He should be more concerned about how Tyren found out about him and how he was able to locate him. He'd been pretty discrete so far, so how did it happen?

Tyren cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Sit. Let's talk about a certain Tuesday that has refused to go away?"

"Huh?" Gaus gasped in pretended bewilderment.

"Oh, please, don't. Let's sit and have a civil conversation," Tyren said with a dismissing tone.

Gaus frowned.

Tyren cared very little about his frown. He turned to the person on a nearby seat and whispered something. The guy vacated his seat just like that.

"Sit, please," he told Gaus, sounding both timid and intimidating at the same time.

Instead of taking the seat, Gaus decided to go back to his seat. Tyren smiled and, after a second of delay, followed him behind humming a little tune. Even his footsteps sounded like a horror tune. Gaus didn't know that having a time traveler walking directly behind your back could be so unnerving.

They reached the empty table ten seconds later. Gaus took a step to his seat, carefully watching every move Tyren made as he walked to the opposite seat. He pulled the seat a few inches away from the table before he sat. Tyren did just the opposite by pushing his seat closer to the table.

After silently staring at each other for a minute, Tyren crossed his fingers and leaned forward. "Who are you? How're you able to retain your memories through the loops?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gaus snapped.

Tyren frowned. "I'm a straightforward person and I like dealing with similar men." He stopped a passing waitress with his hand. "Bring me a bottle of wine, please."

"The same red, sir?" She asked.

He nodded.

After she left, Tyren sighed softly. "I believe I should introduce myself first. My name is Tyren Onis but my friends call me XM0911, and I need your help."

What the hell is XM0911?

"You need my help?" Gaus was startled at first but he quickly came to an understanding. "Oh, please, don't ask for money."

"Money?" Tyren frowned. "Interesting. So, even you think it's a good idea to use the loop to accumulate material wealth. Very interesting," he said thoughtfully.

Gaus furrowed his brows. "If you don't want money then what do you...?" He was interrupted by the waitress coming back with a bottle of beer, a tray, and a cup. She put them on the table, beaming.

Tyren smiled at her before sending her away. He casually filled up the cup and passed it over to Gaus. "Try it." Meanwhile, he raised the bottle and emptied it in his mouth.

"It's g..."

Belching.

"It's good. Really good." He pointed at the cup. "You should try it."

Gaus glanced at the half-filled cup and shook his head. "I'm good. Tell me, are you always like this, timid and on edge?" Gaus asked, unable to resist.

Tyren stared at him with wide eyes for several seconds before he frowned. "That's slander."

"Sorry," Gaus said not at all sounding sorry.

Tyren sighed. "It's my voice, isn't it?"

Gaus shrugged. "Don't know and honestly don't care. Tell me, XL419, if you don't want money then what do you want?"

"It's XM0911 and only my friends call me by that name. By the way, aren't you tired of pretending? You've been pretending ever since you came into the loop, and you're still pretending even after meeting a fellow looper. It'll be a lot easier if you stop it and just discuss things openly with me. You don't know how that will ease the pressure and the loneliness and..."

"What loop?" Gaus cut him off. He was doing it on purpose, of course, to fish for information.

Tyren visibly deflated. "I understand why you may want to remain anonymous but isn't it futile now that I've already found you?"

"I'm sure you are mistaking me for someone else," Gaus said.

"You wish I am," Tyren said with a sneer. He waited for a response from Gaus but he probably wouldn't be getting any if the look of disinterest on Gaus was any indication, so he went on, "Alright, lemme give it to you straight then, mister Lake. I know you are a looper. But that doesn't interest me. What interests me is that you are not a temporary looper, you are not a permanent looper, and you're certainly not The Master. So how the hell did you come into the loop? How?"

He took another gulp of the beer and gave Gaus an expectant look. After a minute of silence, he slapped the table. "Oh, come on! You've got to be kidding me. That should ring a bell, mister pretender Lake."

"It doesn't," Gaus said.

A few surrounding people glanced over at their table in response to Tyren's outburst, but when they couldn't identify any sign of violence they ignored them and went back to their businesses.

Tyren glared at him for some seconds before he took another gulp of the cold drink and quieted down.

"You seem to be getting the wrong idea," Tyren said. "I'm not here on behalf of The Master. You can suspect me but you can't stay mute forever."

"Maybe if you had explained everything from the beginning like a gentleman then the conversation wouldn't have been so boring and I wouldn't have stayed quiet," Gaus said. Was the man alone? How did he find him? He needed to know.

Tyren closed his eyes and stayed still for a minute. He was probably contemplating something, or maybe he was meditating, Gaus didn't know.

"Do you want to know everything?" He finally asked.

Gaus nodded. "It will be a good start."

"That will require some privacy and this place isn't best for that, in case you didn't notice," Tyren said, referring to the restaurant and its thirty to forty patrons.

Gaus shrugged.

"Dammit, mister Lake, you're forcing me to use my privacy ward." He ground his teeth and mumbled a few sentences about how unfair the situation was before he chanted something in an unknown tongue and put his hands together in a gesture. "It's done. What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Gaus said.

Tyren hesitated for a few seconds before he started, "it happened so long ago that nobody knows when or how. The world was cursed, or so they say. This curse forbids the world from going past 3 am Wednesday. Everything starts at 3 am Tuesday and ends at 3 am Wednesday. A time loop of a kind.

"The Master was the first to become aware of the loop. Before him, there was no one and because of that nobody knows what happened then. Later on, The Master acquired the ability to add other people into the loop so they can also level up and improve their physique. That's where we, temporary and permanent loopers, came in. Temporary loopers are designated with XM - X for the unknown period before The Master, and M for the period after The Master has joined the loop - and then a number that determines how long they will stay in the loop if they fulfill their quests. I don't know how permanent loopers are designated.

"Only The Master and his loopers are allowed to control the loop. So when an unidentified looper suddenly appears everyone was worried. It was initially just a rumor. They said an archmage has joined the loop without The Master's blessings. That was one loop year ago." He sighed as he shook his head.

Last year? Gaus knitted his brows. He wasn't in this world then.

Tyren didn't miss the change in expression on Gaus but he decided to let it go and went on, "ten months ago, the most powerful loopers amongst us were asked to find the archmage. But even they couldn't catch him. Even as we speak, powerful loopers are out there looking for this archmage. They would be shocked to know that I'm having lunch with him at this very moment."

Hell, no! Gaus screamed internally. He wasn't the archmage, not even close. There had been some bitter conflicts going on even before he arrived.

"How did The Master know about the archmage?" Gaus asked.

"How should I know? It isn't as if I get an audience with The Master, you know. It's a miracle that we even heard about it at all, although I believe The Master has intentionally let the rumor out. I don't know why don't ask me."

This conversation had completely turned his world upside down. It had changed everything he knew about the loop. There was an army of loopers recruited by a superior looper called The Master. How did The Master bring the others into the loop? Gaus didn't know. Even more concerning, who was this archmage that joined the loop one year before him? So the loopers he'd been marking in the city were all temporary loopers recruited by The Master?

Sigh.

The loopers and their quarrel aside, how did the loop come into being? It was the work of the finest magic. What's the purpose behind it? How did a milk vendor from Earth come to be involved in all this? Did he milk the wrong cow? No, milking the wrong cow wouldn't put him in a time loop or transport him to another world.

"Ehem.." Tyren cleared his throat to wake him up. "Do you know what the number 0911 means? It means from the day I became a temporary looper, I have 911 loops to live on before I expired. When a looper expired, The Master deletes them from the loop and they go back to living their previous mundane life. They would lose the memory of the loop, of course. As for their skills, levels, and physique, it all depends on The Master. If you have impressed him, he might give you 20% of your entire gains in the loop, maybe less. Do you know how many days I've left? 5 days. I'm sure I haven't impressed The Master in any way, so he would probably leave me with nothing. I would rather die than lose everything." For once his timid voice became more masculine and intimidating.

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He remained silent for a minute before he sighed and reached out to the bottle of wine. He almost touched it when he decided against it and withdrew his hand with a serious expression.

"Now, mister Lake, do you deny being part of the loop?" Tyren asked.

Gaus opened his mouth to answer but Tyren stopped him. "Think before you answer," he warned. "Either way, I'm not going down without a fight. Either you tell me how you joined the loop and let me join, or I'll take my chances and inform The Master of your existence."

"There is a third option, perhaps. One that doesn't involve you leaving this place alive," Gaus said, making the threat clear.

Tyren smiled wryly. "I didn't come here unprepared. If something were to happen to me in this restaurant then five temporary loopers all across the city will receive an anonymous tip about a certain mister Lake. A tip that will lead them to Sizea hotel, room 44. The tip will also contain a hand sketch of mister Lake's face. I would also like to tell you that I know about the two bodyguards that have been secretly watching over you every loop. They're the police, aren't they? So, don't even think about it."

Bodyguards? The police? You've got to be kidding me.

Tyren went on, "Trust me, I have done my research before coming here."

Gaus frowned. Tyren could be lying about the people following him but what if he wasn't? What if the police were after him and he didn't even know it?

Dammit.

Gaus scanned the nearby tables and the seemingly harmless patrons. What if they were spies and loopers?

"I'm alone," Tyren said, mistaking his interest in the patrons. "But I'm prepared. You see, I'm a man who's about to die after accumulating all the wealth in the world. What do I have to lose by destroying everything?"

The air became tense as they stared at each other.

Tyren was a temporary looper who was about to be erased from the loop; he probably had nothing to lose. If Gaus were to refuse him then he would make sure he went down with him. But Gaus didn't have any way of bringing Tyren into the loop. Would Tyren agree if Gaus told him so? No, absolutely not. The only way out of this mess was to promise to help Tyren. But, what if Tyren was lying and he was the leader of all the loopers walking around the city? What if Tyren was there to get information about him? There had been some glaring inconsistencies between what Tyren had said about the loop and what he knew. First, about physique. According to Tyren, he and the other loopers could retain their physique through the loops, which went against what Gaus practically knew. Second, Tyren didn't mention the Rewind even once. It was as if he didn't know about it.

Tyren interrupted his thoughts by tapping on the table.

"I'll ask again: mister Lake, do you still deny being part of the loop?"

"I'll not speak with you," Gaus said, deciding to be vague. "I don't know how you came to know about me, but I'll warn you not to step over your boundaries." It was shameless, but also the only card he'd gotten.

Tyren seemed to consider his words. He didn't outright reject the idea of being a looper because Tyren knew he was one, but he also didn't give him any indication as to how he came to be one.

"Then tell me," Tyren said. "Why do you carry bodyguards around if you're so innocent? And why are some of the observers monitoring the city reporting unusual behaviors around La Magia? You may not know about the observers in the city so allow me to tell you. They are a squad of one hundred loopers whose only mission is to monitor the holy city and its people. They monitor any changes in the loop which includes people like you."

Gaus silently considered everything. There were many loopers in the city. He was lucky only Tyren got him. And about the bodyguards...

"I don't have any bodyguards," Gaus said through his teeth.

"Then you won't mind if I do this," Tyren said. He whistled and a couple of seconds later, the red-haired woman brought a cuffed man into the restaurant. "The other one has run away."

Gaus frowned. The captive was a middle-aged man with dark-green hair, sunken, little eyes, and a heavy built. This was the first time he was seeing him.

"Surprised?" Tyren asked. "Don't be. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have him. You surely don't expect me to just walk in here while your bodyguards lie in wait, do you?"

Tyren smiled viciously. He was winning gradually and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"I'm sure you also know that this isn't the first time I have them. One always escapes. They look the same so I don't know if I've been catching one or the other, especially since they can't speak, even if they wanted to. They don't have a mind so mind magic won't work on them either. Moreover, when we killed them they turned into woods." Tyren spoke with exasperation. He cared little about the puzzled look on Gaus's face.

"Wood clone magic," he concluded. "You've to be at least level 50 and above in spirit magic to conjure something this exotic."

Gaus stood up. Wood clones that posed as humans tagging as his bodyguards? That was insane. He'd no such thing and Tyren could just be trying to get some unknown information from him. He couldn't allow the conversation to continue or he risk saying something he might regret.

"I've nothing more to tell you." He turned around and headed to the exit. "And you would do well not to antagonize me anymore." The threat in his voice was so clear that not even Tyren realized it was fake.

The red-haired woman moved to intercept him but Tyren shook his head. "Let him go," he said. "He has four hours. After that, I'm hunting him down myself."

Gaus wondered how much of that threat was true.

***

Tyren promised to hunt him down in four hours. And Gaus needed time to think and figure something out. He'd two options: either he left the city now to buy some time or he stayed in the city and hide until he could figure something out. He chose the former. But even if he left now he would still be starting his next loop in the city. His only hope was to buy himself the needed time to figure something out before the day ended. After all, Tyren knew where he stayed in the city and probably many other things about him, making it easier to get him in the city. But the world was a big place and they didn't know where he would go. Even he didn't know where he would go. They would have to spend some time looking for him. Hopefully, that would give him the time he needed to figure things out.

Yes, he could have just admitted to being a looper but then his chances of survival would have been even lesser. What would he do if Tyren asked him to bring him into the loop? Gaus had no way of bringing anyone into the loop. He also didn't know how he came to be in it. And Tyren was a temporary looper who served a master that was looking to kill people like Gaus who joined the loop without his blessings. No doubt The Master would reward Tyren handsomely for selling him out. If Tyren finally realized Gaus couldn't help him, he would just sell him out. It would be the logical thing to do to survive.

"How long to the next city?" Gaus asked the carriage driver.

"We'll be in Little Lang in an hour, sir," the driver answered.

Little Lang was a big city if the maps were to be believed.

"Okay."

Gaus murmured a few prayers before he closed his eyes.

Two wood clones were chasing after him and he didn't even realize it. He didn't offend anyone - if you excluded the few people from the gambling shop, but that was different - so why did someone saw it fit to send people after him.

How exactly did he join the loop again? He had not the slightest idea. The more he tried to understand it the more complicated it became. Right now, there were at least three insanely powerful mages playing this game (if you count The Master, the archmage, and Tyren) and he was in the middle of it all. It didn't matter what he did he just couldn't defeat them at the moment. But he'd to figure something out and he'd to do it fast.

"Hurry the hell up. Why are you slowing down?" Gaus snapped at the driver as the carriage slowed to a stop.

"I'm sorry, sir, we're at the check-up point outside the walls. It won't take long."

Gaus looked through the window to see a couple of officers asking the driver for his permit. The driver gave them a handwritten note from his pocket. They stamped on it and gave it back.

"Go on."

They let them pass.

The rest of the journey was uneventful.

"Now stopping in Little Lang station," the driver told him.

He heaved a sigh of relief as he came down with as much a hurry as he could muster.

"Sir, hold on, you didn't collect the change."

"Keep it."

Gaus disappeared into the crowd as quickly as he could. After successfully leaving Fydeba the next thing was to figure out how to deal with Tyren. It was dark already and he knew no one in the entire city. Unlike Fydeba, the buildings didn't look the same and, despite it being 5:50 pm, there were as many people as he would expect to see in a market at noon. Little Lang was a business district.

"Hey," he grabbed the person next to him, "where can I find a hotel?" It was after he was done asking the question that he realized the person he thought was a random passerby was a little girl that couldn't be more than eight years. "Sorry." He released her and went to ask the next person. It took him seven minutes to find the right place.

For the next twenty minutes, he cleaned up and ordered some food. His mana sense and stealth had been up ever since he left the last city, but he might have been followed still. Though he couldn't let himself think like that, not now. He had been beaten in the game and the only thing he'd left was hope. It was hope that let him stand despite not having enough energy to do so.

What exactly was he going to do now? He'd successfully escaped the holy city. Little Lang was far from Fydeba. He was probably safe for now. But what about the rest of the night, and tomorrow? Must he keep running every day? Yes, probably. Tyren mentioned something about him being erased from the loop in five days. Maybe all he needed to do was wait for 5 days. He didn't expect things to get out of control so fast.

He laid on the bed and closed his eyes. For ten minutes, he shut his mind and refused to think about death or anything. It was something he did back on Earth to clear his mind. Would it work here as well? When he opened his eyes, his racing heart slowed down a bit and he stopped sweating. He might even fell asleep at this rate.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three short but confident knocks. It was totally unlike the knock of the waitress he sent earlier to get him food.

"Who is it?" Gaus asked. He retrieved the dagger in his belt.

"We just wanted to know if you are inside," someone said from behind the door. He was confident and arrogant. More arrogant than even the officers.

Gaus took five steps away from the door. He returned the dagger and put his hands on the crown, readying himself to react at a moment's notice.

"Can I come in?" The confident voice asked.

"Er... wait. I'm putting some clothes on. Wait a minute," Gaus said, stuttering a bit.

There was some silence before the voice sighed. "I can't let you go beyond seven o'clock, so hurry up."

Gaus frowned. "You can't let me go beyond seven o'clock? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You've thirty seconds to dress and ten seconds to say your goodbyes," the voice said. "It won't be your last, hopefully, so don't worry."

"...." Gaus opened his mouth but couldn't find the right words. So many things were happening at an unusual speed. It would take several days just to figure out the events of this loop alone.

"Tell me who the hell are you? I'm gonna call the police," Gaus shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I'm Niln."

"Niln? Whatever. What the hell do you want with me?"

"Time's up."

Niln pushed the door open with apparent ease despite it being locked. He walked into the room. A young man in his twenties with short, black hair and a well-trimmed beard and mustache. He was dressed in an immaculate green robe and a black sandal. The man looked extraordinarily innocent to the point that he looked like he wouldn't bite. But there was just this feeling of dread at the back of Gaus' head that kept telling him to run away as fast as he could.

"It will be quick, I promise," Niln said. He bowed his head slightly before he unsheathed the sword that had been hanging down from his shoulder.

He slashed.

The time essence in the surrounding has just doubled, it is beyond what your physique can hold. If you get too close you may trigger an untimely transformation in your magiwatch.

XM-9999

He was the ultimate looper. Born and trained to be a looper and a killing machine of The Master. He served long before the loopers became commonplace and he was still serving even now when everyone could become a looper. XM9999 frowned at the fact that many nobles born with a silver spoon in their mouth could become high-ranking loopers without any reasonable skill to show for it. He hated the fact that nobility was given priority over ability. If his master would listen to him, he would scrap every damn noble from the surface of the academy and be rid of them for good. But his master was a political man who cared very much about the feelings of the Kings and the higher echelon of the society.

If you asked XM9999 how he felt about his job, he would tell you that the job was boring on its own, but he felt great doing it because he was serving The Master. XM9999 wouldn't mind sailing across the narrow water dungeon and bringing the flames of war upon the world government if it would please his master. But The Master didn't want that, he just wanted him to stay around the holy city of Fydeba and kill any non-looper who left the city in the evening.

"Non-loopers aren't allowed to know what happens in the evening outside Fydeba," the Master had told him while assigning the mission to him some years ago.

As a general rule of thumb, any job that didn't involve a looper was mundane. A non-looper wouldn't remember what they did today, they would keep repeating their trashy life over, again and again, so dealing with them involved only repetitions. XM9999 didn't know how long he'd been repeating the same routine in the last couple of years. For him, the routine was to kill the 433 people that left the holy city: 168 in the morning, 97 in the afternoon, and the rest in the evening before seven o'clock. That had been the routine. But more often than not, he would have additional people leaving the city.

When something like that happened, it was mostly as a result of the actions of his comrades - loopers. Every new quest executed by a looper would bring certain changes to the loop. Those changes could lead to people going in or out of the holy city. A boy who lost his parents might consider leaving the city. A woman who left her husband might consider relocating to another city. Because of this, XM9999 wasn't surprised when he saw a teenage boy topped his list. A looper had probably killed the boy's parents which forced the boy to leave the city to his aunt's or something.

Gaus

Level 5

Untamed Mana

Affinity for time essence: 79.1%

Affinity for soul essence: 0.2%

Affinity for mind essence: 3.1%

He identified the boy from a distance. He had favorable stats, too bad he had to kill him. He followed him to a hotel room and knocked at the front door.

"Who are you?" The boy asked him.

It was a custom to tell the person you were going to kill your name.

"I'm Niln."

He unsheathed his sword, the only sword that had come from The Master himself, and slashed. Ever since he ascended to XM9999, only one person was able to dodge his slash - vice-admiral Lilian. Even long before his ascendance, no one below level 50 could dodge his slash. The boy was dead the moment he unsheathed...

What?

The boy dodged. He didn't know how; he just did. Even more surprising was how slow the boy moved.

Speed: 8.9m/s

He used sight to identify the boy's speed. Even if the boy was five times faster, it was impossible to dodge him, but the boy did. He slashed again and the boy dodged sideways without even breaking any sweat. XM9999 upped his speed to 100m/s. It was impossible to dodge him now, no matter what trick the boy was using.

He waited for the right moment and then slashed.

The boy dodged to the side just as easily as the first time.

You've got to be kidding me...

But just when XM9999 thought the boy was giving him trouble, the boy rolled on the ground and punched him in the chest.

This is absurd. He punched me at 10m/s while I'm running at 100m/s.

He was dumbstruck. A level 5 mage landing a punch on him. How ridiculous.

"Haha... you have a unique skill, boy," XM9999 said, laughing. "Congratulations, you're hired."

With that, XM9999 pressed his magiwatch and the boy saw flashes of a rainbow just before he was knocked out. It would be nigh impossible for the boy to ever explain how he was defeated, despite being armed to the teeth.

***

Gaus could sense that someone was singing in his ears.

"Wake up, wakeup, waaaakeyup."

He turned around in the direction of the voice. It was a rug. "What are you?"

He wasn't supposed to be here.