“No-“ I stumble mid-step. My heart pounds, as I realize where I am.

Did I die twice?

Am I back at the beginning?

My eyes spread open to take in Tiendas City, the gargoyles atop the archway to the city stare at me from atop their perch. Their gemstone eyes mock me, saying hello once again. With horror, I check the Hunter Counter. All around me, familiar buildings crowd my sight. “1,400,038. I’m back at the beginning…! I didn’t go all the back!” Instantly I freeze, realizing I may have said too much. Yin stands behind me with a curious expression.

“Hei? Are you…okay?” She asks. I almost answer, when despair rocks through me.

“N-No! NO! Why didn’t we go back! Why are we still in the dungeon!”

I didn’t go back to the beginning.

We’re stuck in the dungeon.

There’s a System God manipulating everything.

Damn. This isn't good. Maybe though...there has to be some way out, right?

I have to try.

#

*Huff*

*Huff*

Blood. Always more blood. I’m sick of blood.

How many people have I killed, trying to escape this sick game?

I’ve tried everything.

I knew it wouldn’t work.

But I had to try.

I tried everything and, in the end, got nothing.

Just more loops.

Sneak attacking Tatsuya before even reaching the final boss just resulted in a quicker death. His mace shattered my skull before Yin’s horrified face.

Other routes, avoiding the System God did no good. Once the final boss died, the one with the Demon Lord’s Devouring Hunger became too strong. Locked inside at the end, I was not the hunter sometimes, but instead the hunted. But protecting Yin proved to be impossible without Ghostblade Asura and the levels from Demon Lord Belziarde. I can’t tell you how many times I had to watch someone kill her in front of my eyes. Fortunately, the end was near for myself as well whenever that happened. These worlds…they disappear, right? I pray they do when I die. That the past is simply rewritten and not left to rot and fester.

One time, I tried to lead a rebellion. Convincing the other million Hunters in this cursed city to band together against the System God. They didn’t believe me. I must have tried a hundred times to tell them the truth without alerting Tatsuya. Even in the very end, when I managed to muster together thousands of us in a combined alliance, he slaughtered us with a snap of his finger. No matter how many worms writhe together under a god, they can never reach the heavens.

I’m sick of it all. I’ve lost count of how many tries it’s been. There’s no way out. None at all.

Even becoming a monster and trying to clear the final boss as fast as possible so that I could claim people’s lives with the Demon Lord’s Devouring Hunger before they could reduce the total experience available by killing each other, didn’t work. There isn’t enough experience in this entire city to take on someone above the System. The barrier can't be broken. It really is impossible.

“What? Hey, look at me!” Yin snaps her fingers, coming in and peering into my eyes. “Do you have a fever?”

“No way out…”

I brush her away and put my head in my hands. Just thinking. Yin patiently waits while I try to figure out what to do.

There’s no way to get out. The System God controls everything. He’s invincible, a power which rivals the gods of myth right now. I’ve heard of them before in my past life, though I never met one myself. Sometimes they show up. No one ever knows what they’ll do. Except this time, I do know. I know exactly what this godlike creature wants.

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And I can’t do anything about it.

Even if I play the game perfectly, all the way to the end like he wants it, I’ll just end up back here when he kills me.

Unless I kill Yin.

Which I won’t do.

There’s no way to stop this.

It’ll just be an endless loop.

“Damnit DAMNIT DAMNIT!” I moan, clutching my head, staring all around hopelessly at the translucent blue barrier than separates us from the rest of the world. “There really isn’t anything I can do! It would have been better to go back to the beginning than come back here!”

“Hei! Get a hold of yourself! I’m here, we’ll figure it out! What’s wrong?” Yin leans in and cradles me in her arms, pressing herself against me. But I can’t respond, I’m thinking too hard, lost without hope.

So many broken timelines.

All those lost souls.

Is this all there is?

Until it hits me.

What I must do.

The only way to win.

“If I can’t win…then I’ll lose. Over and over. Forever.” I mutter to myself as Yin’s concerned eyes rake over me. I close my own and harden my heart. For I have decided what to do. "Damned System God...I'll show you the power of worms!"

If in every timeline I have to die so that Yin may live, then I will do exactly that. Even if it means coming back here as many times as it takes.

Even if it means eternity.

That will be my punishment for taking so many lives.

I’ll replay this messed up game over and over, and at least in every timeline I leave behind, Yin will survive. Who knows if those timelines even still exist once I die, perhaps it all gets reset. But there’s no other way or the System God wins! If there’s even the slightest chance that in a timeline out there, Yin gets to survive, then this must be my path. The alternative would be to give up and live in a world without her. I promised her I’d come back and save her. Every single time. This bastard won’t be the one to make me break my promise. I won’t be a liar.

I have to keep dying so Yin might live.

“Let’s go. I’m okay now. I’ll protect you. I’ll always protect you. I promise…!”

A few tears drip from my eyes as I realize keeping one promise is breaking another.

“Sorry Suzy…I don’t think I’m going to be able to come back for a while. I might even be a liar. I messed up.” I whisper to a girl who doesn’t even know me in this life. Yin and the orange cat stare at me strangely as we begin the death march once more. Though they’re right in front of me, it still feels like I’m utterly alone. Because only I know. The one person I could confide in, even a little, is just a stranger from my memories. Even still, I call out to her in my darkest moment, asking for strength, “I wish you were here…”

But even if you were, you could only die with me.

#

1,000,000

Congratulations!

856,234

Congratulations!

532,948

Congratulations!

400,004

Congratulations!

200,103

Congratulations!

99,000

Congratulations!

10,005

Congratulations!

“Hurk!” My bile catches in my throat.

It’s horrible. Killing so many people over again. You’d think I can’t taste my bile any more, God knows I can’t taste anything else. But when I vomit, it still feels horrible. I can’t handle this. I want to…

Give up?

And let Yin die?

Yea right.

I’d do it again.

Every last soul.

Maybe more.

All the Hunters in Tiendas City die before my hunt ends once more.

I go back to that rooftop.

Hunters Remaining: 3

The one pretending to be a human is waiting there with Yin and Penelope.

I act out my part in the play knowing exactly how it will end.

We’re struggling in the hands of a System God. Nothing I do matters. I’ll just have to do it again. But I don’t care. I won’t let him win.

YIN MUST LIVE!

…

“Oh, you are interesting, aren’t you? But a worm is just a worm.”

*Crack*

Again, I find myself dead twice on that rooftop. The pain is horrible. But it feels good. It feels like victory.

“D-Don’t go…I love you!”

#

“No-!”

Again I wake up outside the city. This time it takes me less time to gather myself.

This is just a game. That’s all. I’ve done this before. I’ll do it again.

Forever.

“Let’s go.”

#

Congratulations!

“HURK!”

I’m beginning to remember some of their faces.

This is the third time I’ve come to kill them after all.

It’s all so sick. Disgusting and sick.

I throw up over and over, the ginger cat meowing in concern on my neck.

Now that I think about it, this little bugger always seems to disappear before the System God shows up. Where does it go?

#

“Oh, you are interesting, aren’t you? But a worm is just a worm.”

*Crack*

“D-Don’t go…I love you!”

#

“No-!”

I’m back.

“Let’s go.”

#

It’s just a game, Hei. How many times have we done this?

Congratulations!

“HURK!”

God, I hate seeing your faces. And I hate killing you. But I must…so I’m sorry.

#

“Oh, you are interesting, aren’t you? But a worm is just a worm.”

*Crack*

“D-Don’t go…I love you!”

#

“No-!”

I’m back. Oh god I don’t want to do this.

It’s just a game. Just a game. None of this matters. It’s going to get reset.

Then why am I doing it?

“Let’s go.”

#

Congratulations!

“HURK!”

I hate this. I hate all of you. How is it?

Do you enjoy dying by my hand?

#

“Oh, you are interesting, aren’t you? But a worm is just a worm.”

*Crack*

#

Just a game.

#

Congratulations!

“Hurk!”

#

“Just a worm.”

#

…

Do you see it yet? The power of worms?