Chapter 67: Chapter 66: Ophelia, the Angel, and Takeshi.

Over the following days, Takeshi did not try to escape.

Not because he had accepted the situation, but because running without a concrete plan only produced the same cycle: the angel intercepted him, Ophelia revived him, and the starting point was always the same.

’Every time I run without knowing where I’m going, I waste energy and accomplish nothing. I need to observe before I make a move.’

So he observed.

Ophelia established a routine quickly. She searched for food in the empty stores, cooked in the nearest apartment she found functional, read her blue-covered book for hours, and slept on a regular schedule.

She treated the empty spaces of the city as if they belonged to her by right, with no visible discomfort, no sign whatsoever that the absence of other people affected her negatively.

The angel remained present whenever Takeshi was awake. It never moved away or rested. It was on the street, in the hallway, at the corner visible from any window, and the eye on its shoulder watched him without blinking.

Takeshi began paying attention to the moments when Ophelia slept.

The first night she fell asleep, the angel remained in the hallway of the building where they were staying. Takeshi stood still for twenty minutes, watching the creature from the partially open bedroom door.

The angel did not move, nor did it react when Takeshi took a step into the hallway.

’Interesting.’

Takeshi stepped back and waited. Ophelia was still asleep. Her breathing was steady and slow.

He walked fully into the hallway.

The angel was four meters away from him. The eye on its shoulder stared in his direction.

Takeshi waited ten seconds.

The creature did not move.

’So it’s true. When she sleeps, the angel doesn’t react. I don’t know if it’s because it isn’t receiving instructions or because the connection is interrupted while she’s unconscious, but the reason doesn’t matter. This will be useful.’

Takeshi returned to the room before Ophelia woke up.

He spent two more days thinking about it.

’The reset doesn’t happen because Ophelia revives me before the system processes my death, which means I need to die somewhere she can’t reach in time and where my body won’t be accessible to her.’

The city was empty, but it was still a city. Ophelia moved through it without restrictions and found Takeshi with a consistency that suggested she was not searching for him through a process of elimination, but locating him directly.

’How does she find me? I don’t know for certain. It could be the angel, it could be something related to having been revived by her magic, or it could be another ability she hasn’t shown yet. Either way, if she can locate me, I need to make sure she can’t get to me before the system acts.’

That reduced his options to a single variable: speed. If the death was fast enough and the body ended up in a difficult-to-access location, the system would have a chance to process the death before Ophelia intervened.

’I don’t know exactly how much time the system needs, but I know that on the street, under normal conditions, Ophelia reaches me before that time passes. So I need something more.’

On the third day, while Ophelia was reading in the living room of the apartment where they had been sleeping, Takeshi explored the entire building under the excuse of looking for water.

He climbed to the top floor, twelve stories above street level.

From the roof hatch, he looked out over the city. All he saw were buildings, streets, and the river visible in the distance.

’Twelve stories of free fall. If the system needs time to process and Ophelia needs time to get there and act, the combination might be enough. But if I’m on the roof, the angel will follow me as soon as Ophelia wakes up, and that gives me less time than I need.’

He went back down before Ophelia noticed how long he had been gone.

On the fourth day, he found what he needed.

During one of the moments when Ophelia was asleep and the angel was inactive, Takeshi walked four blocks in silence. Not running, but walking, so as not to trigger anything.

Three blocks from the building, there was an abandoned construction site. The fences were still in place, but the structure inside was unfinished. From the entrance, he could see that the building had several levels excavated downward, a foundation pit of considerable depth with metal scaffolding around the edges.

Takeshi looked down from the edge of the scaffolding.

’If I fall down there and press the reset button during the fall, the system will process my death before I reach the bottom. And if Ophelia can’t locate me immediately because she doesn’t know I’m here, she’ll have to search first, which buys me more time.’

It was the best option he had found in four days.

’It’s not guaranteed, and it could fail, but it’s all I have.’

He returned to the building before Ophelia woke up.

That night, he waited.

Ophelia read late into the night. Later than on the previous days.

Takeshi sat on the floor with his back against the wall and waited patiently.

’When I get out of this, if I get out of this, I’m going to have to deal with all of it again from the beginning, since the killer is still out there and Ophelia is still a problem, even if the reset works.’

Ophelia closed the book after midnight. She said good night with a naturalness that Takeshi answered with the same neutrality as always. She went into the bedroom and closed the door.

Takeshi waited forty minutes.

Then he slowly opened the bedroom door and saw that Ophelia was asleep, breathing with the same steady rhythm as on the previous days, and the blue-covered book lay on the floor beside the bed.

He stepped into the hallway.

The angel stood at the far end, beside the window. The eye on its shoulder was still watching in his direction.

Takeshi did not move for thirty seconds.

The creature did not react.

’Good. Just like the previous days.’

He went downstairs without using the elevator, since the noise from the elevator was too much and, although the stairs took longer, they were silent.

He reached the ground floor and stepped out onto the street.

The city was still empty beneath a clear sky.

He walked toward the construction site at a normal pace, since running created noise and urgency, which could disturb something that might awaken the angel while Ophelia slept.

’I’ve gone three blocks. If the angel doesn’t react until Ophelia wakes up, I have enough time to get there.’

He reached the site’s fence. The side entrance he had found earlier was unlocked, so he opened it and went inside.

The scaffolding was twenty meters from the entrance. He crossed the space in silence, avoiding construction materials piled on the ground.

He reached the edge of the scaffolding and looked down.

The pit was deep. He could not clearly see the bottom from that angle, but it was enough.

’If this doesn’t work, Ophelia will revive me again and I’ll return to the same hell, probably for all eternity.’

He opened the shop panel. The reset button was there, and all he had to do was press it at the right moment.

’I have to press it during the fall, and then this will be over.’

He heard a sound in the distance coming from behind him.

"אלוהים"

’She’s already awake.’

He did not wait any longer and jumped.

During the fall, he pressed the reset button.

[LOADING SAVE POINT]

It took Takeshi three seconds to process where he was.

The noise of the classroom was normal. The teacher was writing on the board, and someone in the back row was dragging a chair.

He checked his stats.

[Life: 100%]

[Sanity: 78%]

[Points: 3]

’It worked.’

He remained seated without moving for a moment.

His sanity was at 78% because Ophelia had restored it several times during the days in that timeline, and his points were at 3 because he had used the reset multiple times, but both numbers were problems for later.

What mattered now was that he was back.

He looked toward the front of the classroom. The teacher was still at the board, and the students were taking notes. Everything completely normal.

’Ophelia is somewhere in the school right now, completely unaware of what she’s going to do tomorrow.’

That was a problem he still did not know how to handle.

’She kept me for days in an empty city after erasing humanity so she could stay with me, not to mention reviving me every time I tried to escape, and the only reason I’m here is because I found a place she couldn’t reach in time.’

He looked at his hands resting on the desk.

’When I leave this class, I’m going to see her in the hallway, and she’ll greet me as if nothing happened, and I’ll have to respond the same way.’

The teacher asked the class a question, and several students answered.

Takeshi looked toward the window.

Outside, he saw people, cars, and heard the noise of everyday life. Everything that had disappeared in the other timeline.

’On top of that, the blue-haired killer is still out there, and I still don’t know how to protect Ophelia without her becoming the problem herself.’

The bell rang at the end of the period.

Takeshi did not stand up immediately. Instead, he waited until most of the students had left, then slowly gathered his things.

’Let’s start over.’