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?"

"What am I? I am a living thing like you," the rug said with an androgynous voice. "Look, you can sleep if you want to be expelled on your first day. You don't want that now, do you?"

Gaus stared at it absentmindedly before he looked away. He was currently lying on the floor of a giant hall with many other people about his age running around. Nobody spared him a look.

"Wake up, wakeup, waaaakeyup," it continued singing.

Gaus released a long-suffering sigh. He wasn't supposed to be here. He looked around the hall with desperate eyes.

At this point, a voice came from the other side of the hall.

"It's now time for the last badge. Welcome once again to LA, recruits. If you see yourself here then you've been chosen by The Master or his most trusted subordinates. I believe this is all your second day here, so I'll keep the conversation short. I just want to tell you that you are nothing but bloody junior initiates class 1. If you survive these first two weeks, you'll become a junior initiate class 2. If you were to survive the next two months then you would become a senior initiate. Don't even dream of becoming a temporary looper just yet, so get to work and earn yourself some reputation from your betters. If you passed the test, you'll receive a day worth of lifespan, and if you fail you will go back to your previous mundane life."

After the announcement from the voice, people dressed in uniform poured into the hall.

"Form yourselves into three lines," one of the guards ordered.

They formed into three lines. The tester was brought forward. It was a simple punch bag that was connected to a transparent glass by a rod. Another white wall was attached to the back of the glass. The first person was asked to punch the bag and after he did, a tiny spare of green appeared on the white wall behind the glass.

"Ten millimeters thick," the instructor announced. Then he checked the list on his hands. "It's the same reading as your yesterday's, so you're expelled. Go back to your miserable life."

The man begged with his knees on the floor, but the instructor didn't spare him a look. Two guards dragged him out of the hall.

"Hieya, help me, I don't want to go. Hieya, help me," he cried, but whoever Hieya was she didn't respond.

"If you punch the bag, your strength will pass through the glass to appear on the board. The same result will also appear on the board in the teacher's hall. Bear in mind that it's the collective decision of all the teachers to expel any initiate who didn't improve his physique for twenty-four hours straight," the instructor explained before he continued the screening.

It went on just like that. And in just a few minutes, eleven people had been expelled. It was Gaus's turn. The instructor looked at the record but he couldn't find his.

"When did you come in?" The instructor asked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Gaus said with a frown.

"Come again."

"I was hoping you could tell me," Gaus repeated.

"Junior initiate, you're nothing but a bloody XM0000, all it takes is a little sign from me here," he put his index on a spot in front of Gaus' name, "and you'll be gone. You'll wake up tomorrow as a mere human and continue your useless, ordinary life that'll never progress beyond a single day. So, you don't speak to me like that ever again. Are we clear?"

"Of course." Gaus nodded.

"What? That's not how to say it, boy. You say 'yes, sir', not of course."

"XM0101," one instructor said. "That's the recruit brought in by XM9999. He didn't pass through the tutorial that's why he's misbehaving."

XM0101 frowned but he nodded and let the other man take Gaus away.

"Sorry about that. He is usually tough on recruits, so don't take it personally," he told Gaus as he led him into a separate room at the end of the hall.

He closed the door behind him to cut off the noise from the hall. "Sit down. I'm gonna have to rush things because we don't have much time. The others complained about you but XM9999 vouched for you."

"Look, man, can you just tell me what is going on here? I was on my way out of the city," Gaus said.

"I understand your confusion, but just sit down and let me explain everything. I'm XM0033." He offered Gaus a seat. Gaus hesitated but at last, he sat. XM0033 went to the board on the wall and started explaining.

"Let's begin with the world as you know it." He drew a picture of the globe and he wrote 'Tuesday' on it. He wrote 'Wednesday' by the right and 'Monday' by the left. "Tell me one thing you did today," he said.

"I performed the pilgrimage," Gaus said.

"Be more specific. Give me one peculiar thing."

"I sold milk, cow milk."

"How much money did you make?"

"About one thousand ayrids."

"What did you do with the money? Is it still with you?"

Gaus nodded. "Yes."

"But I'm sure you have something in mind for it, don't you?"

Gaus nodded.

"Good. The thing is you've been waiting to spend that money for a very long time now."

"What?" Gaus mustered the best shocking expression he could. He wasn't surprised since he'd already been in the loop for some time now.

XM0033 smiled knowingly. He'd seen that same expression more times than he could remember, but it never got old. "It's difficult to believe but you've been stuck on this very Tuesday for several years now. Everyone you see in this place is aware of the situation, you can ask them if you want. By tomorrow, you'll see the truth of what I speak. Nobody knows how or why, not even The Master, but every Wednesday at 3 am, the world will rewind for twenty-four hours to 3 am Tuesday. The same thing has been going on for a very long, long time."

Gaus raised his hand to ask a question.

"Don't. I know you don't understand, and even if you did, you won't believe it. But let me finish."

The man went on to give Gaus a protracted explanation of the loop, thinking this was the first time he was experiencing it.

"Because you're now blessed by The Master, you'll wake up tomorrow with full knowledge of this conversation and everything that's happened today. This place is called LA, short for Loopers Academy. We teach loopers how to adapt to the current situation and how to make something of themselves. If you work hard, you'll learn mana manipulation to pass your initiate exams and learn mind magic, soul magic, and even time magic. If you are so hardworking and talented, you may even become a temporary looper like me."

He was proud of that last statement, Gaus could see it in his eyes.

"Your learning will be sponsored by The Master like everyone else and we'll only ask for money in extreme situations. But you've to prove your worth every day. If you miss a single day of training, The Master will automatically erase you from the database and you'll go back to living your mundane life. Even if you come to the training, you have to perform as expected or else you'll be erased. Every day must be earned until you become a temporary looper. Take this," he casually handed over a manual, "class starts at 10 am every day. It's expected that you will be here sooner to collect your daily uniform and sunglasses.

"Sunglasses?"

"Didn't I say you can't interrupt me when I'm speaking?"

"You didn't."

"I just did, idiot. You better learn how to speak to temporary loopers or you'll be in trouble. I don't have a problem but others have. They are the kings around this place. Just stay low and learn to stay alive. By the time the loop is over, you'll be royalty."