“After the seventh resurrection, I began consciously investigating who wanted to harm . I knew the dorm’s communal bathroom was dangerous, so I never went to shower again. I also knew soone would put peanuts in my food at the cafeteria, so I avoided it. I knew soone would push a flowerpot on from the top floor of the classroom building, so I skipped class and went to the top floor ahead of ti—but it seed like they had noticed my movents, and I found nothing on the top floor…”
“And then?” Misha had never heard such an interesting story before. Seeing Orff fall into thought, she quickly prompted him to continue.
Orff probably didn’t interact much with girls. When he saw Misha lean closer, his face flushed over half red, his eyes darted up and down nervously, and he began stamring: “Then I… I just…”
Then he entered a tragic cycle of endless deaths.
In the seventh cycle, after checking the top floor of the classroom building and planning to leave, Orff was accidentally pushed off the floor and died from the fall. Not only did he die, but he never got a clear look at what the person looked like, which was extrely frustrating.
In the eighth cycle, Orff pretended to go to the top floor but secretly kept an eye on everyone around him, trying to identify the culprit who had killed him. He looked at every passerby with suspicion—students, professors, janitors, maintenance workers… he doubted everyone, except for the fact that he was doubting!
Orff thought of himself as an extraordinary Sherlock Hols, but in reality, because his acting wasn’t convincing, nobody jumped out to kill him until he safely left the top floor and returned to the ground.
Full of suspicion, Orff decided to abandon his investigation and rest in the dorm—maybe if he stayed put quietly, he could avoid being killed?
Imdiately afterward, he was pierced through the chest by a javelin that flew out from the neighboring stadium, turning him into a humanoid grasshopper that had been impaled to death.
At this point, Orff shivered, as if he could still recall the pain and despair of the javelin passing through his chest, neither dead nor alive yet.
“I realized that as long as I went outside, I would face all sorts of dangers. So, in the ninth cycle, from the mont I woke up, I stayed hidden in the dorm, went nowhere, and ate nothing. I gave my roommate, Tom, so money to let him stay out today and return tomorrow, then I locked all the doors and windows, not letting anyone in… I actually managed to survive until the afternoon. Around four o’clock, for no reason, I suddenly felt drowsy and fell asleep without realizing it. When I woke up, I discovered that I had entered the tenth cycle.”
The tenth cycle was again spent entirely in the dorm. This ti, Orff realized that the sudden drowsiness in the afternoon was not an accident—soone had slipped a drug under the door.
But he realized it too late.
From the eleventh cycle onward, realizing that staying in the dorm would still get him killed, Orff once again bravely ventured out, going everywhere, searching for the real murderer.
…
“Since you couldn’t figure out who was killing you, did you try running away?” Misha asked.
If he ran far enough, maybe the killer couldn’t catch him.
Orff nodded miserably. “Of course I tried. I can’t rember if it was the fourteenth or fifteenth cycle, but I bought a train ticket to Concord. In the next cycle, I flagged a taxi by the roadside to take to another city. But in both cases, I still couldn’t escape death.”
On the train, Orff had just bought the ticket and hadn’t even boarded when soone grabbed him from behind and stabbed him with a dagger.
The taxi attempt was even worse. The car he was in was deliberately ramd by a large truck in the suburbs. Both the driver and Orff were thrown into the icy river and froze to death.
“…I gradually realized that as long as I didn’t find the true culprit who was killing , no matter how far I ran—north, south, east, or west—I would still be killed. So, in the following cycles, I started repeating the sa loop: ‘avoid death options—search for the killer—get brutally murdered by the killer…’”
After failing so many tis, Orff’s body began to show signs of strain. He vaguely sensed that this cycle—like a ga character “loading a save” and restarting—was not unlimited.
The more tis he died, the more intense the lingering pain from previous deaths beca. For example, during the car accident when he fell into the river, he hadn’t worn a seatbelt, so his body was violently impacted. When the next cycle restarted, Orff noticed lingering bruises on his aching lower back.
This only strengthened his determination to find the killer.
But he didn’t seem cut out for detective work. A jumble of chaotic clues piled up, a long list of suspects grew longer and longer, yet in the next cycle, whenever he risked himself as bait to test a suspect, he would inevitably discover that the person’s guilt had been ruled out.
The more he investigated, the more confused he beca; the more he tried to unravel the mystery, the deeper his despair grew.
Then, in the twentieth cycle, while investigating, he ran into the blonde girl who had kindly warned him about falling objects back in the sixth cycle.
She and her companion were strolling leisurely across the campus, freshly cleared of snow, backpacks slung over their shoulders. Both girls were beautiful, with unique, vibrant presences—framing them alone created a strikingly poetic picture.
But what drew Orff’s attention wasn’t their looks—it was the identity of the blonde girl.
—Damn it! No wonder she seed familiar. She was none other than Everly, the freshman who had shattered the criminal’s detonator with her “Faith Shot” and saved countless people during the campus shooting incident!
Even a recluse like Orff had overheard other guys talking about this freshman.
They gossiped behind her back, enviously criticizing her for being flashy, cold, and proud—“hardly like a normal girl,” they sneered, predicting she would eventually stumble in romance. Their jealousy and cowardice leaked out despite their efforts to hide it.
But even the most bitter critic couldn’t deny that Everly was an extraordinary detective.
With just a few glances, so careful observation, and a bit of reasoning, she had precisely identified the campus shooter hidden among the crowd and decisively fired, saving the people at the school gate.
If it was this girl, could she, just as she solved the shooting incident, help him identify the killer lurking nearby and free him from his endless cycle of death?
Hearing this, Everly raised an eyebrow, sensing that the juicy part of the story was coming.
To be honest, Orff’s experience sounded strangely familiar to her.
She vaguely rembered that in her previous life there had been a ti-loop movie with a similar premise: a male college student wakes up one day to find himself trapped in the sa day over and over, and must find the person trying to kill him to break the loop. It felt very similar to what was happening to Orff, including how the trailer depicted the protagonist’s face and style—similar to Orff’s own appearance.
Everly figured that this unlucky young man before her must be the protagonist of that very movie.
Unfortunately, knowing the source didn’t help much.
Everly hadn’t watched the movie herself, for a simple reason—the film wasn’t released in mainland China, nor was it available for free on the premium mbership streaming lists. To watch it legally, one would have to spend an extra 5 yuan on the platform.
Her family wasn’t wealthy in her previous life. After scanning the trailer, she decided it wasn’t worth the expense or effort to seek out pirated copies, and promptly forgot about it.
So all of her knowledge about the film ca from the trailer alone, which revealed only two things: first, there was more than one killer in the movie; second, in the ending, the male protagonist successfully broke the loop and survived to the next day.
anwhile, Orff’s story continued: “…In that cycle, Everly, I found you and tried to ask for your help. But after I recounted all my experiences to you, although you didn’t question the whole ti-loop thing, you still refused to help .”
Everly nodded furiously in her mind, thinking that this was exactly sothing she herself might have done.
According to the movie trailer, although the process was full of hardships, the male protagonist eventually survived on his own. Since the ending was positive, Orff wouldn’t truly die in the end—so as soone completely uninvolved, what reason did she have to intervene?
“So then you offered to give clues about the Fountain of Youth as a reward if I helped you?” she asked.
Orff shook his head. “No. You firmly refused , so I gave up on asking for your help and turned to the campus police instead, hoping to get help from them. Unfortunately, they didn’t believe … Sigh, in previous cycles I also tried telling others about this, but besides you and Misha, no one took seriously…”
“…”
He really lacked persistence. He even thought of asking her for help, yet his nerve wasn’t thick enough—he didn’t even know how to offer a proper incentive when asking soone for a favor. No wonder he had died so many tis before…
“…Shortly after leaving the campus police office, I was attacked from behind and entered the next cycle.”
This was the twenty-first cycle.
In this cycle, Orff shalessly sought out Everly again.
He felt that this smart, perceptive girl, who was even willing to believe his experiences with the cycles, might just be the key to escaping his endless deaths.
Having been rejected before, this ti he added so extra incentives:
Orff ca from a decent family and, after starting university, had earned considerable extra money using his extraordinary hacking skills. He had also accumulated a lot of virtual currency, like Bitcoin. If Everly needed it, he was willing to pay any amount—whatever it took to save him!
Unfortunately, Everly remained unmoved.
Listening to the story, Everly thought that the version of herself in that loop must have simply found it too much trouble.
After all, she hadn’t seen the original movie and had no idea how formidable Orff’s enemies really were. If helping him ant putting her own life at risk, that wouldn’t be worth it.
Orff then introduced himself further, saying he was a highly skilled hacker. From now on, whenever Everly needed him, he could be at her service, doing anything—legal or illegal—just as long as she could save him.
Unsurprisingly, Everly still refused him—her reason was the sa as before.
Orff had no options left. After enduring endless pressure and tornt through countless cycles, when his last hope was dashed, he couldn’t hold back. He shalessly grabbed Everly’s leg and, sniffling and crying, sobbed uncontrollably.
“Let guess—you got beaten up by Everly, right?” Misha couldn’t help but grin mischievously, her mouth curling into a playful, teasing smile.
Orff looked at her plaintively, then at Everly’s expressionless, utterly indifferent face, and nodded—and then shook his head.
“What does shaking your head an? Everly didn’t hit you?”
Pressed repeatedly by Misha, Orff’s face flushed red. Resigned, he admitted, “Not just that… you and Everly both beat up.”
“Pffft!”
Seeing Misha’s smile freeze abruptly, even Everly couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing.
No wonder Orff could be a movie protagonist—he had a real knack for cody. The film he starred in might well have been a codic thriller.
“And then?” Everly, unusually invested in the story, prompted him to continue.
“I got beaten up by you two, but I didn’t leave. If I did, I would have been beaten for nothing. Besides, I figured you weren’t really bad people and wouldn’t finish off. So I stuck around, refusing to leave your side. When you went to the bathroom, I waited at the door. Honestly, I did survive a little longer that ti. Unfortunately, later you found annoying, went back to the dorm first, and as soon as you left, I got killed…”
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