Admitting that eternity was a game had benefits and drawbacks. Games usually had a set of strict unchangeable rules: only certain people who had joined eternity could get classes, each mirror only gave out a class once, there was no changing the key holder. That was enough to come up with a bunch of ideas or even a plan. The drawback was that the person most familiar with games in general was the most unreliable of the bunch.

“For real, bros,” the goofball said, chugging down cocoas as if they were water. “I’m the goat! Been playing games way before eternity.”

That didn’t sound in the least reassuring. Everyone instantly imagined the guy wasting hundreds of loops on mobile games and nothing else. For all they knew, he had done just that while working with Daniel.

“I got it covered,” Will said.

“I’m with Stoner,” Jace agreed. Against most expectations, he kept a surprisingly healthy diet, which had resulted in him ordering a glass of water and an apple. “His idea makes sense.”

“For real?” Alex slumped backwards in his seat. “I can improve it, though.”

“Alex!” Helen hissed. “What’s the plan?” She turned to Will.

“You don’t get your class,” Will explained. “The goblins won’t pop out until their mirrors see you. That’s why you don’t. Alex does.”

“I’m not trusting him with the knight.” The girl crossed her arms.

“I’ve been the knight hundreds of times,” the goofball grumbled.

“The point—” Will raised his tone slightly “—is for Alex to set up his traps in the room before you go in. Then you take your class, kill them off, and we see what we do from there.”

There was a long moment of silence, only interrupted by the barista passing by to refill Alex’s mug. As far as he was concerned, they were discussing the strategy of some mobile game. And even if he found anything suspicious, he’d forget about it in about five minutes.

“Good plan,” Jace said, his words soaked with doubt. “We can join in to help. A team is always stronger than a group of individuals.” He gave Will a glance. “Until they run off.”

“The three of you in the girl’s bathroom?” Helen asked mockingly.

“Won’t be the first time.”

“Bro,” Alex laughed. “That sounded so wrong. But nah. Key holder gets to keep the loop. She must do the kills. Maybe we’ll get something useful.”

Everyone nodded.

“The important thing is that we time and learn this,” Will said. “It’ll be our starting point from here on. Alex goes in, then out. Helen gets the knight, kills off all the goblins, then we meet up in class. And Jace learns what he needs to do to extend his loop.”

“Lame,” Alex said, grabbing the new cup of cocoa that arrived at his table.

“We’ll know more when we know more.” Will said and took a sip of his soft drink. It tasted of sweetened strawberries—definitely not something he’d try again in any future loop.

“So… we do this every loop?” Jace asked, only now realizing the situation.

“Seriously?” Helen gave him her typical glare. “What do you think this is?

“Hey!” Despite being the loop newbie, the jock had no intention of taking any shit. “What about shifting the classes a bit? During training, coach had us take on different roles so we got an idea how everything worked.”

That, to everyone’s surprise, was a remarkably good idea. Will even hated himself for not coming up with it first, despite thinking the exact same a hundred loops ago. With everyone knowing the pluses and minuses of their class alone, their way of thinking had become restricted. Switching up things would let everyone get a different perspective, not to mention that it would be fun.

“Let’s get the timing on this first, okay? Then we’ll try variants.”

It sounded simple enough. With everyone else doing the same things in the same fashion, it had to be. Will pushed his drink away. There were a few more minutes until the end of the loop. Part of him considered whether to have a mousse. It had been a while since he’d tasted one. Better not. There would be a chance to do so in another few dozen loops or so.

“Not that it’s my business, but aren’t you supposed to be at school?” the barista asked.

“Teacher’s sick,” Alex said without batting an eye. “Diarrhea.”

If there was a topic that was certain to end all conversation, it was discussing diarrhea in a coffee shop. Even with no people around, the barista instinctively pulled back, out of fear that he might get affected by the word itself.

“Way to go, idiot,” Helen whispered beneath her breath.

“Always works.” The goofball smiled. “Ready to go?”

No one said another word for the next minute.

Restarting eternity.

Will looked at the entrance. As far as he was concerned, this was nothing but a standard loop. Unlike Alex and Helen, his only goal was to do the same thing he did every loop and not draw attention. And that meant he could spend a few moments to chill.

“Cool move, weirdo,” Jess and her friend passed by.

“Thanks,” the boy turned to the pair. “You’re cool as well.”

Both girls reacted in a completely different fashion. Jess’ friend took that as an insult and doubled her pace in an attempt to pull her friend away. Jess, in contrast, saw it as a compliment and slowed down.

“Never noticed you came so early,” he continued.

“Yeah, my father has to get early to work, so he drops me off half an hour before class starts. I usually go to pick up Ely before we come here.”

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“Maybe I can meet up with you sometime as well. There’s not much—”

“Jess,” Ely hissed like a viper before an attack. “We’ll be late for class.” She grabbed hold of the girl, pulling her towards the entrance. This time, Jess followed. Despite liking the attention she’d just gotten, she didn’t want to appear easy to get.

“See you around later,” Will said just as the entrance door closed behind them.

Usually, this was the point at which Alex appeared with his talk of muffins. The fact that no such thing occurred gave Will hope that everything was going as close to plan as possible. Waiting a few more seconds just to be sure, he entered the school building.

The normal thing to do was get the rogue and go to class. In typical teenage fashion, though, Will decided to casually stroll to the girls’ bathroom between the two. To little surprise, he found that Jace was already there.

“Hey,” Will said, trying to hide his disappointment.

“Yo.” The other nodded.

Several seconds passed in silence as students walked by in the hallway.

“Heard anything?” Will asked, trying unsuccessfully not to stand out.

“Nope.” Jace shook his head.

“Think everything is alright there? I mean, there’s no harm in helping.”

Almost simultaneously, both boys looked in both directions of the corridor. There was no chance that they’d enter unseen. On the bright side, neither coach nor any of the teachers were present. The worst that could happen was them being dragged to the vice-principal’s office, and even then they’d probably not even get to hear a full lecture before the loop ended.

“Think we should go?” Will said, knowing what the other’s answer would be.

“You go first, then toss me a knife. I’ll disarm any traps you step in.”

Not the worst plan someone could come up with. It was ironic that, of all people, Jace had to be selected as the crafter. As far as Will knew, the most complicated device the jock had seen was a football.

Taking one look around, the pair was just about to storm in when the door opened in front of them.

“Knew you’d be here.” Helen passed by, not even taking the effort to glare at them. “Classroom.”

Jace and Will looked at each other.

“Was lit, bros!” Alex said, appearing out of nowhere. “Sadge you weren’t there.”

A few moments passed.

“You know,” Jace said after a while. “Sometimes I really hate him.”

“Don’t,” Will whispered, even if the goofball wasn’t in his good book at the moment, either. “You get used to it. Besides, you can’t hit him. I’ve tried.”

Class proceeded as usual. Or rather, semi as usual. Jace took the time to meet up with the rest of the football team, while Will and Alex helped Helen in opening the windows. The stench was still noticeable by the time the rest of the class started arriving.

That annoyed Will somewhat. There was no reason they couldn’t discuss what had happened in the girls’ bathroom, yet Helen had been adamant that they do it during recess. Judging by Alex’s unusual support, there had to be a reason for that, although it made matters just a bit more complicated. For one thing, while Will knew what he was supposed to do to reach that time, Jace remained completely new, so to speak. It was going to take him dozens of loops at least until he found his own path. Then again, it dawned on Will—maybe that was the point.

Arts was long and boring. None of the loopers put any effort into their work, even if it would have earned them additional loop minutes. Whatever attempts Jace made, they had clearly failed, for by the start of class, the loop had already ended for him.

Visually, nothing had changed, yet everyone else involved knew. It was as if there was an invisible barrier that divided the looped with the non-looped. Once the time had passed, the jock seemed to have lost his vibrance, becoming part of the “gray” background. What complicated matters was that he didn’t seem to realize it, at least not fully. As far as this version of him was concerned, he was the same person with the same memories, just lacking the supernatural elements. For that reason, when recess came, he joined the other three in the yard.

“So?” Will asked the question.

“The plan worked,” the girl said. “Mostly.”

“For real?” Alex sighed. “Just needs some fine tuning.”

“The goblins didn’t drop anything,” she said.

“Not even knives?” Jace asked. “Even we could get some of those last time.”

“Those disappeared once I killed them all. And it wasn’t the normal fade, either. When the last creature was gone, all of them flashed away.”

That was new, though not unexpected.

“Any levels?”

“The usual one. And a scoreboard.”

“Scoreboard?”

“What was your score?” Will asked. The lack of response quickly let him know that wasn’t the right question. “Not that it matters since you’re the only one who—”

“I was fifth,” she interrupted. “There were four people ahead of me.” There was a momentary pause. “The Archer was second.”

That was something that no one expected. Only Alex seemed to be handling it better than the rest. His philosophy that anything new in a loop was a positive development seemed to do wonders for his attitude.

“The Summoner was first, with twice as many points as everyone else combined,” Helen went on. “The Druid was third and the Martial Artist was fourth.”

“Any sixth?” Will couldn’t help himself.

“No. That’s all.”

“What’s the big deal?” Jace joined in the discussion. “So you’re not first yet. Big deal. You’re still in the top five. That’s what counts.”

“Fifth of twenty-four,” Will said. “That’s not the scary part, though. When the fight took place, only a minute had passed. That means that the four ahead of her managed to kill more goblins in that time.”

“Nah, that’s not the big oof,” Alex corrected.

“What can be worse?” The jock ran the fingers of both hands through his hair.

“Team structure, bro. Five teams—five key holders. We’re in the minor leagues.”

It didn’t take much to calculate that out of twenty people, their team was dead last. Of course, that left the remaining sixth team, suggesting there was still one group that hadn’t started the tutorial.

“Welcome to the grind,” Alex said, taking out a muffin from his pocket.

“Do I want to know?” Jace glanced at him.

“The grind is the long period of doing lots for little progress,” Will said, who was already familiar with the term. Since they had just figured out something that Daniel hadn’t, he hoped that there would be more to it, sadly it was once again back to basics. “Helen will have to go through the entire school and find the other goblin rooms. Meanwhile, the rest of us would have to extend the length of our loops.”

“Speak for yourself, bro. I can go for weeks.”

Everyone, including Helen, stared at the goofball.

“What? It’s boring with Danny gone. You’re boring too.”

“Wait. You’ve spoken to us out of loop?” Will felt a chill run down his spine.

“Chill, bro! Your secrets are safe with me.” The goofball winked. “Only sad thing is that I had to repeat every convo again and again.”

All glances shifted to Jace.

“I’m not going to remember any of this, am I?” he asked.

“We tried to warn you.” Helen shrugged. “When out of loop, better do what you usually do. Less awkward that way.”

“Right. You better catch me up next loop.” The jock pointed at each of them in turn. “If you don’t, I’ll—”

STAB

Surprise attack.

Damage increased by 1000%

Fatal wound inflicted.

Alex stabbed the jock in the neck before he could finish. Jace crumbled to the ground, without even realizing that he had been killed in the loop. Instinctively, Will and Helen leaped back.

“What?” Alex asked in the most innocent way possible. “He won’t remember. Faster this way.”

Of all the things that came to Will’s mind, “faster” was definitely not one of them. That posed an interesting question—had Alex done the same to him and Helen as well? If so, maybe the lovable goofball wasn’t as lovable as everyone gave him credit for.

Restarting eternity.