The radar station was filled with the smell of dust and engine oil. Cage stood in the center, looking around uneasily at the strangely equipped people around him.
Maine's dark red armor appeared particularly solemn in the dim light streaming through the broken window.
"William Cage," Maine's synthesized voice broke the silence, "you are experiencing a time loop."
Cage looked up abruptly, his pupils contracting.
The word struck a chord with the jumbled fragments in his mind.
"From the first time you were stained with the blood of that blue mimic on the beach, time has been repeating itself," Maine continued. "You remember, don't you? Not a vague sense of déjà vu, but a clear memory."
Cage's breathing became rapid.
Those images flooded back uncontrollably: explosions, blue blood, excruciating pain, and then... waking up and starting over.
"This is the fifth time," Maine said. "It's the fifth time for us too. We all remember."
"The fifth time…" Cage's voice was hoarse, "Every time it's… that blue monster…"
"Yes," Maine confirmed. "Every cycle, you die at Alpha's hands. The first time, it attacked from the side, its tentacles piercing your chest."
The second time, you tried to escape, and it pierced you from behind. The third and fourth times, you were forced to confront it head-on, and the result was the same.
Cage staggered backward, grabbing onto a metal box beside him to steady himself. The details were so specific that he couldn't deny them.
The pain of each death felt so real, it was not a nightmare at all.
"How could you..." he asked with difficulty, "How could you remember?"
"We are unaffected by the reset," Maine replied. "We observe and record every cycle."
Rebecca kicked away the pebbles at her feet impatiently: "Rookie, did you get that? We're stuck in this godforsaken place just like you, and we remember it perfectly well. Stop making that dumb face!"
Sasha brought the scanner closer, her eyes filled with the curiosity of a researcher: "Five deaths with the exact same pattern... that should leave a detectable imprint on the neural pathways."
Could I have a scan? Just a simple vital sign monitoring…
Cage instinctively dodged the scanner, and Dorio stepped forward to separate the two.
"We understand this is hard to accept," Dorio said, her voice relatively calm. "But denial won't change the situation. We remember the cycle, and you have the information we need. Cooperation is beneficial to both sides."
David added, "Based on observations, the cycle is triggered directly by your contact with Alpha blood. Your death is like a switch that resets the system."
Cage looked around at the strangely equipped people.
Their calmness contrasted sharply with his own panic, but it was precisely this calmness that made him begin to believe that they truly remembered everything.
If they are also trapped in the cycle, if they all remember...
"What do you want to do?" he finally asked, his voice still unsteady, but with more determination.
"Cooperation," Maine said. "First, we need to get you out of there today and change that point of death. That will buy us more time for research. We'll train you and improve your survival skills."
In return, you will need to cooperate with the research, providing your feelings about the cycle and assisting in identifying key objectives.
To survive. To break the cycle. These two goals were perfectly aligned with his desire.
"Okay." Cage took a deep breath. "I agree to cooperate."
Maine nodded slightly: "Good."
Rebecca snorted, "Finally done. So, shall we begin the tutorial? Let's teach the noob! Let me make it clear, I don't have much patience."
Dorio looked at Maine: "What's next?"
"Secure the base first, until the original time of death has passed," Maine told Cage, then turned to the others. "Falco, continue monitoring the perimeter. Sasha, you can perform basic scans, but not deep scans."
We need to verify whether Cage's survival truly extends the cycle time.
An initial partnership was thus established. For Cage, this was the first time he had seen real hope amidst the cycle of death.
——
The timeline of Cage's death had passed peacefully.
Inside the radar station, Cage subconsciously touched his chest, but there was no sharp pain or blue blood as he had expected.
He is still alive, breathing in the dusty air.
A strong sense of unreality enveloped him; this was the first time in countless cycles that he had lived through that particular moment.
"The death point has passed," Falco calmly confirmed.
Sasha looked at the sensor readings: "Background spatiotemporal parameters are stable, and no reset-level energy fluctuations have been detected."
Maine turned to Cage, then scanned the entire team.
"Initial verification successful. Cage's survival has indeed altered the fixed nodes of the loop. We've gained extra time." He paused. "Now, proceed to the next test: actively eliminate Alpha and observe its impact on the loop."
"We should have done this a long time ago!" Rebecca patted her plasma bombardment cannon excitedly.
Cage's face was pale; the memory of death Alpha had given him was still vivid, but he didn't object. He knew it was a necessary step.
"Target location?" Maine asked.
"Based on the records from the previous cycles, Alpha usually operates in the S-7 area around this time, near a destroyed air defense position." Lucy pulled up a map and marked the location.
"Action!" Maine ordered. "Valerie, Jackie, Iron Guards, advance and suppress from the front. Rebecca, take the high ground and prepare for long-range fire support."
Dorio, stay with me to protect Cage and observe from a safe distance. Sasha and Lucy, focus on recording the spatiotemporal readings at the moment of Alpha's death.
Erko, coordinate battlefield information. Sasha, Kiwi, prepare to implement electronic jamming."
The team acted swiftly.
Two Iron Guards, with heavy steps, took the lead in advancing towards the S-7 area, and their appearance immediately attracted the attention of a large number of ordinary mimics.
The roar of explosives and automatic cannons echoed across the battlefield, tearing a path through the mimics tide.
Rebecca climbed a relatively intact staircase, set up the plasma bombardment cannon, and a dangerous white light began to gather at the muzzle.
Maine and Dorio flanked Cage, following a short distance behind the Iron Guard.
Cage stared nervously ahead, his palms sweating.
Sasha and Kiwi quickly set up a portable electronic warfare array in the rear.
Sasha's hands swiped rapidly across the virtual control interface: "Continuous data exchange between mimic groups detected, frequency in the THz band, with complex modulation. Attempting to inject interference signals."
Kiwi adjusted the interference parameters accordingly: "Prioritize interfering with the communication nodes in the S-7 area to weaken their coordination capabilities."
Soon, the dark blue figure reappeared.
It attempted to break through the defenses using its speed and shield, just as it had done before, and head straight for Cage.