For the third time, Li Wu chose the road he had just come from. He rushed into the middle of the street and forcibly stopped a white sedan that was driving normally.
"Are you crazy?! Running into the middle of the road—do you have a death wish?!"
The driver rolled down his window, stuck his head out, and cursed furiously. However, the moment the window opened, Li Wu pulled out his gun and fired two shots at the empty passenger seat.
Ear-piercing and deafening.
The strong smell of gunpowder instantly paralyzed the driver. He didn't dare move a muscle.
"Get out of the car. I'll buy you a new one in half an hour." Li Wu raised the muzzle slightly and tapped it lightly against the driver's shoulder.
"D-Don't shoot!"
The driver raised his hands, showing he had no intention of resisting.
Bang! Li Wu fired another shot at the passenger seat, his expression turning vicious. "I said, get out of the car!"
Seeing this, the driver quickly opened the door and scrambled out. Li Wu slid into the driver's seat, slammed his foot on the gas, and sped toward the apartment.
But he had never learned how to drive. Driving wasn't as simple as he imagined, and he quickly crashed into a wall.
Glass shards pierced his skull and chest. Wounds and blood were visible everywhere.
Covered in blood, clinging to the last vestiges of consciousness, Li Wu pulled out his gun, pressed it to his forehead, and pulled the trigger.
...
...
For the fourth time, Li Wu didn't drive himself. Instead, he got into the passenger seat and threatened the driver to floor the gas pedal and rush to the apartment.
But because they were going too fast, they collided with a distracted driver at the second intersection.
...
...
For the fifth time, Li Wu warned the driver as they approached the second intersection, avoiding the crash.
But even at maximum speed, the moment the car arrived at the bottom of the apartment building, the system's narration of Raiden Mei's death sounded.
[Raiden Mei has died.]
[Act I Cleared. Act II will begin in ten minutes.]
[Upon the start of Act II, your save point will be automatically updated.]
...
...
For the sixth time, Li Wu stood silently on the street.
The rainwater felt like freezing needles, piercing into his flesh one by one.
The brilliant neon lights of Nagazora City's high-rises shattered into millions of pieces on the wet asphalt. Every single piece reflected a face Li Wu could draw with his eyes closed—the image of Raiden Mei's death.
He had just returned from yet another futile attempt, and his body was experiencing phantom sensations.
He felt as if a bullet were still lodged in his brainstem, cutting off his blood vessels.
Because of the car crashes in the previous loops, he felt as if his entire body were still impaled by shards of glass. Every part of him ached with a dull throb, retaining the burning pain and ringing ears from the moments before his previous deaths.
Li Wu stood at the intersection, tilting his head back to look at the pitch-black night sky above, like an abandoned, broken doll.
Rainwater streamed down the tips of his jet-black hair, flowed over his deathly pale cheeks, and seeped into skin that was just as freezing as the raindrops.
There was no expression on his face, only the crisscrossing trails of rainwater. Perhaps there was something else, but it had all been washed clean by this endless downpour.
His eyes were dry, his body withered, and even his emotions seemed utterly depleted.
The dazzling lights danced in his brown pupils, but there was no focus. They were empty, holding only a gloomy, deathly stillness identical to the overcast sky.
The rain fell harder.
Pedestrians holding umbrellas hurried past. They cast strange glances at him before quietly walking away.
Li Wu opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something—like the hoarse, desperate scream he had let out when he saw Raiden Mei in the kitchen.
But looking back on it now, it felt more like the impotent rage of a stray dog. Absolutely laughable.
Right now, Li Wu could only squeeze out a faint whimper from his throat. Even if he managed to form a coherent word, it was quickly swallowed by the roaring rain.
Li Wu was lost. He had found the fastest possible way home, yet he was still powerless. In the end, all he could do was stand quietly beside Raiden Mei's corpse and stare at the ruined soup spilled across the floor.
It was an unsolvable cycle. No matter how much he accelerated, he couldn't change the outcome of Raiden Mei's death.
Traffic lights, maximum speed, clear roads... He had accounted for every variable, yet he still couldn't reach the apartment within three minutes. At best, he could only reach the ground floor.
[Raiden Mei has died.]
[Act I Cleared. Act II will begin in ten minutes.]
[Upon the start of Act II, your save point will be automatically updated.]
"..."
The narration appeared again. Li Wu stood frozen, letting the rain wash over him. His entire body was engulfed in cold; even his throat felt frozen, unable to produce a sound.
"Mommy! That person is so weird! Why isn't he using an umbrella?"
A little girl pointed at Li Wu and asked her mother, clearly confused.
The mother pulled her daughter into her arms, eyeing Li Wu warily. "He probably... encountered something very sad."
The rain was too heavy; its roar drowned out footsteps and voices.
The mother and daughter were less than two meters away, but he couldn't hear a thing.
Li Wu placed his left hand on the pistol at his waist. In the previous loop's car crash, his right arm had been ripped off by the massive impact.
Ten minutes.
He had to make a decision within ten minutes.
Once those ten minutes passed, Raiden Mei's death would be irreversible.
But...
Even if I rewind, what can I do?
Maximum horsepower, the clearest route, the fastest start time—he had utilized them all, yet he still couldn't make it home within three minutes. He could only watch helplessly as the narration appeared.
Li Wu bit his lip. Unwittingly, blood flowed from the bitten wound, mixing with the rainwater and running down his neck.
It dripped into the various puddles on the ground and vanished without a trace.
That smear of bright crimson blood was insignificant in this torrential downpour.
Just like him—insignificant in the face of the predestined crises and the colossal entity that was Schicksal.
Two minutes left.
Li Wu stared at the time on his phone. Eight minutes had passed since the regression. In two more minutes, Raiden Mei's death would become an established fact, impossible to change ever again.
Yes.
I should have given up long ago.
I already planned to give up, didn't I?
Li Wu said to himself in his heart.
From the moment he retracted his promise to Kiana that afternoon and parted ways with Raiden Mei, he had intended to stop interfering with the Valkyries' affairs.
The crises facing the Valkyries, the tragic destiny of the Herrschers...
None of it had anything to do with him, right?
An ordinary person shouldn't rashly interfere with things beyond their capabilities.
All this time, it was just him being presumptuous, overestimating himself, thinking that just because he transmigrated and had infinite "Returns by Death," he could change everything.
How arrogant...
One minute and fifty-seven seconds. One minute and fifty-six seconds. One minute and fifty-five seconds...
The seconds ticked away precisely on his phone. In less than a minute, he could truly cast aside all his burdens.
And then, just like a normal person, he would study, work, live... and eventually die an ordinary death.