I've been walking along this path for nearly two hours, and what puzzles me most is that I haven't sensed even a trace of Ghost Aura in the forest. It's deeply unsettling. Now the road ahead is cut off, surrounded on all sides by dense woods, and I haven't encountered a single ghost along the way.
Logically, with so many ghosts, this forest should be saturated with Ghost Aura. As dusk falls, I stop and decide not to go any further. I’ve already ventured deep into the mountains, and although I’ve scouted the area, I found nothing unusual. Plus, I’m getting hungry now.
Everything that happened in the last loop is still fresh in my mind. Now, I must find a way to prevent the villagers from being devoured by ghosts. If Eli Lear's parents die, everything ends. My purpose here is to find Eli Lear—if he dies, I fear I'll never escape this loop.
Though I don't know exactly why, Future Ethan Zhang seemed to have discovered something. So he used the last of his power in my time loop to warn me: I must do everything I can to keep Eli Lear's parents alive.
I plan to wait for nightfall directly—these wraiths should come out then. As long as I don't damage the fence, they shouldn't be able to leave the mountain. I found a relatively dry spot to lie down and planned to nap for a bit, but remembering how a wraith grabbed my foot last time I slept in the woods, I swallowed nervously and moved to a spot where sunlight still reached, leaned against a big tree, and closed my eyes.
I can't allow myself to sleep too deeply. I quickly established a link with Newborn, asking it to help me keep watch over everything around me.
Half-awake, I heard a chorus of insects. When I came to, my whole body was aching. It was already night. I got up, shook off the drowsiness, and started searching for Ghost Aura—but to my shock, there was still none in this forest.
I started to panic a little. I quickly got up and rushed down the path. Jogging made me feel even hungrier. Finally, when I saw the faint lights of the village ahead, I breathed a sigh of relief. There was no Ghost Aura around here either. I had no idea what was going on.
Now exhausted and hungry, I decided to head straight down to Lee Hsing's house for something to eat. I carefully made my way down the mountain, avoiding the fence. When I reached the muddy ground outside the fence, I relaxed a bit. The village still had lights on at this hour. I hurried to Lee Hsing's door and knocked, but got no response.
Puzzled, I went to the window, poked a hole in the paper screen, and peered inside. Instantly, I was surprised—the house was empty. I could see food set out on the table, but no one was there. I opened the window and climbed in. Touching the food, I found it was still warm, as if someone had just been eating.
I swallowed, then wolfed down the food on the table. Afterward, I left the house and searched the area, but found nothing. The village was completely deserted.
I ran through most of the village, but still didn’t see a single person. There was a faint trace of life in the air, but no one was around. It was as if everyone had vanished in the middle of their meal.
"What on earth happened?"
I swallowed again, but quickly pulled myself together. Even though I was unnerved by what was happening, I didn’t panic. First, I needed to start by considering the Eye of Time’s motives.
My father never gave me much, except for a solid foundation in my childhood and the repeated lesson that everything has its root cause—no matter what it is. I have to find that root.
The Eye of Time trapped me in this kind of Temporal Loop, aiming to eliminate me. In this experimental loop with only past and future, it’s not so easy to get rid of me. Although I’ve become an anomaly in the Eye of Time’s view, I’m still human and possess my own time, so it can’t dispose of me so easily. But its way to defeat me is to sever my purpose for coming here.
As long as I lose all sense of purpose, this loop will only drive me to despair—endlessly reliving everything, with my memories intact. That’s probably the best way to break me.
According to my theory, the starting and ending points of the loop are always the same, but the process in between is endlessly variable. That’s why time can experiment with all sorts of things, letting them avoid the wrong moments and walk the right ones.
So if something here changes too drastically, more timelines will branch out. In my loop, the timelines might be multiplying, and I’m just jumping between them—none of them are truly correct.
After thinking it over, I decided that when the next night passes and the loop resets, I’ll try to repeat everything I did when I first came here. Maybe things will change.
Waiting is always long. My patience is good enough, though—after all, as a child I endured endless stretches of waiting, and this feels just the same.
Finally, I made it to the second night. When the moon shifted position, I felt a breeze and instantly blacked out.
The moment I woke up, I was back in the forest. I immediately recalled everything I'd done before in the previous cycle, scanning left and right. With practiced movements, I drew my bow and nocked an arrow, ready for the ghosts that might be lurking nearby. But the oppressive silence remained, and I kept waiting. Soon, a piece of clothing drifted over, landing in my hand. After waiting behind the mountain for a while, I saw smoke rising from the village and quietly headed down.
I reached the spot where Past Ethan Justice had done something before. I stopped, noticing human bones poking out of the grass. Looking around, I buried the bones, then headed down the mountain and swallowed nervously. The village was completely empty.
Though anxious, I wandered through the village. I peeked through the doors of some houses; stoves were burning as if someone was cooking, but nobody was there. In many homes, the food in the pots had already burned.
That night, after eating a little, I lay down and came to a general conclusion: anything alive had been removed from my Temporal Loop by the Eye of Time. In an experimental timeline, that’s certainly possible.
I racked my brain trying to figure out what to do, but couldn’t come up with anything. If truly no one else was here and only what I saw in this timeline would happen, then I’d be completely alone—and I couldn’t take that for long.
I barely slept all night, plagued by nightmares. At dawn, I heard doors opening, tools dragging, children laughing, and the sounds of cooking. I jolted awake, flung open the door, and rushed outside—but nothing was there.
Everything happening in front of me was shocking. Tools were moving as if held by invisible hands, floating in the air. Doors swung open in house after house. I even saw footprints on the ground and dust swirling in the village center, along with wooden swords children used for play.
I’m certain that in this loop, I’m the only real person here. Watching the tools at work in the fields, it’s as if transparent people are using them.
By sunset, everything in the village was just as I’d seen before. The villagers, after a day’s work, started cooking. Soon, every household had food on the table. I picked a house at random and went inside.
But this time, I saw something even stranger: the food was vanishing bit by bit in midair, as if being eaten by invisible people. After a while, I ate some myself and watched as the food on each table disappeared completely, the bowls and chopsticks tidied away.
Tonight, the loop will begin again, sending me back to the starting point. I only have a few hours to come up with a strategy. I still plan to do something—I won’t just sit and wait for death. That’s how I’ve always been, ever since I was little. No matter the problem, I never back down. Martin Lane taught me that: face every problem head-on.
In the past, Ethan Zhang told me that when we were in the world of the living, it was my words that encouraged him, making him try everything and finally succeed in bringing me back to the living world. He’d already felt despair by then.
I smiled faintly, trying to familiarize myself with the village roads as much as possible, and memorized everything I saw. What I couldn’t remember, I let my two instincts record for me.
I've already entrusted Newborn to replay everything I did the first time I came here as soon as I reach the starting point. Not a single detail can be lost. I plan to repeat everything from that first day.
"The only one who can defeat me is myself."
I muttered, standing in the center of the village, quietly waiting for the loop to begin. When Martin Lane told me this as a child, I didn’t really understand. But over the years, I’ve come to realize: in any predicament, as long as you don’t lose to yourself, it doesn’t matter who else you lose to. You must never lose to yourself.
A breeze brushed my face, and I briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I was crouched on the ground.
"Instinct... Newborn... coexistence..."