Thousands of Resets, Thousands of Choices

"Faster than last time?"Mike blinked in surprise. He murmured, "Dude… how many times have we actually met?"

"I don't remember," Wang Peibo replied calmly, shaking his head."Failed timelines aren't worth storing. I have limits too—I'm not going to waste energy remembering things that didn't matter."

He paused for a second, then added, "I vaguely recall… it's been over ten thousand times. Probably way more than that."

"H-holy sh*t!"Mike inhaled sharply, his eyes going wide. A cold shiver swept down his spine.

Over ten thousand times?

Bro, are you even human?

Wang Peibo's casual words carried two terrifying implications:

He really does possess an extraordinarily powerful time-travel ability. One with no visible upper limit—or at least none that he's reached yet.

He's met Mike in every single one of those timelines. And from the sound of it, he knows Mike very well.

Mike was both shocked and confused.Why the hell would someone time-travel over ten thousand times… just to see him?

If this was a girl, this would be an epic love story.

But both of them were dudes. So… what the hell was going on?

Mike stared at the young man in front of him. Wang Peibo remained calm, sipping his drink, seemingly in no rush to explain anything.

Mike had questions. Tons of them. He couldn't just blindly believe this guy—even if the system had confirmed Wang Peibo possessed the [Reincarnation] ability.

After all, the system also said there might be bugs in Wang Peibo's status. His info wasn't exactly… standard.

Thinking of what Jiang Xiaoci had taught him about people like this, Mike narrowed his eyes and asked:

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

The same question. Spoken at the exact same moment.Only—Wang Peibo said it first.

Mike blinked. "Uh…"

"Uh…"

Wang Peibo set down his glass, smiling warmly as he mimicked Mike's hesitant tone perfectly. He even echoed the thoughts racing through Mike's mind.

"Weird. Can you read minds?""Wait—no. Something's wrong. You're repeating me. You actually know everything I'm about to say?"

Wang Peibo's calm voice struck deep. Every sentence matched Mike's internal confusion, even his growing fear and disbelief.

Then, before Wang Peibo finished his next sentence, Mike grabbed the ashtray on the table and hurled it at him.

But Wang Peibo had already tilted his head aside, dodging it before it even left Mike's hand.

Mike wasn't some average Joe—he'd parasitized Chen Dafeng and gained elite combat stats. His reaction time, strength, and agility surpassed even most S-rank talents.

No way someone with just 20 base stats should've been able to dodge that at such close range.

Yet Wang Peibo had done it—casually.

It wasn't reflex. Mike saw it clearly. Wang Peibo hadn't reacted to the attack—he had already known it was coming.

"Always the ashtray," Peibo sighed, rubbing his nose."You pull that stunt every time to test if I can read minds."

He took a slow breath. "You have no idea what it feels like to get hit with an ashtray ten thousand times. Honestly, sometimes I really want to hit back."

"…Have you ever hit back?" Mike asked in a low, gravelly voice, sitting back down.

"Nope. Never needed to."Peibo shook his head and looked Mike over.

"I get it. You still don't believe me. And Jiang Xiaoci taught you well—but I don't like being doubted either."

He paused, then shrugged. "Whatever. I mean, odds are this run fails too. I might have to start all over again."

"Fail again?"Mike narrowed his eyes. "What exactly are you trying to succeed at? I'll believe what you've told me so far—but only if you tell me what this is all for."

"If you really came from the future and have met me countless times…""Then you should know what I want to hear most right now."

Mike was watching for any sign, any slip-up. If Wang Peibo really came from the future, then he had a clear motive.

There were only two extremes here:Kill Mike. Or help Mike.

If it was the former, Peibo would've acted by now.But if it was the latter… then he'd have no reason not to reveal everything and earn Mike's trust.

That would be the best way to prove he's telling the truth.

But Wang Peibo just tilted his head with a faint grin.

"This version of you is always the hardest.""Not quite smart enough to figure everything out, but just clever enough to be suspicious of everything."

Peibo chuckled. "Sometimes I think I should go further back. Catch you at the dumb stage—before you had any doubts. Show up like some mysterious badass, save the day, earn your worship, and farm some affection points."

"So why didn't you?" Mike asked, trying to step into Peibo's shoes.

"If you'd shown up before Lin Yue, you'd probably be sitting at my right hand right now. Whether to kill me or help me—you'd have had every opportunity."

"Killing you is pointless. Helping you is also pointless," Peibo replied softly.

"Right now, you don't understand yet. But someday, you will."

He looked up at Mike. "Death or survival—those concepts don't hold meaning in the flow of time. Life only means something to creatures who can't understand time. It's a subjective illusion."

"...Yeah, no thanks," Mike muttered. "Save the philosophy talk. Not really in the mood."

"Fine, fine. You're always so impatient."

Peibo poured another glass of beer and, without being asked, handed one to Mike.

Mike raised an eyebrow.

How did he know I wanted a drink right now?

He said nothing. Just stared.

Peibo smiled again. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Huh?"

"Your 'thanks.'"

Mike blinked, then nodded. "...Thanks."

Wait a sec. This is my house. My beer. Why the hell am I thanking him?

Before he could protest, Peibo continued, steering the conversation back on track:

"Alright, let's fast-forward, since you're in a hurry. First—our relationship: we're partners. Collaborators. Our mission is to solve the Apocalypse Mechanism itself."

"Though technically, that's more my mission. You haven't really developed the motivation yet."

Peibo took a sip and continued.

"We first meet—here. This exact point. The system still restricts me. I can't go any earlier than this node. I can't interfere before Jiang Xiaoci or Lin Yue show up."

"This is my earliest possible entry point. I can't rewind past it."

"And as for why I keep coming back… Why I've done this over ten thousand times…"

Peibo set his glass down and said with unsettling calm:

"We failed."

"As long as you can still see me—still talk to me—it means we failed. Every single time. We never solved the Mechanism. It solved us."

"But I'm special. Or at least… different. You can think of me like a game save file."

"I can reload from our earliest checkpoint—start over, challenge the boss again."

Mike frowned. "But if you can do that, why fail so many times? With infinite retries, isn't that basically a guaranteed win?"

Peibo gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Guaranteed win… interesting way to put it."

Mike still didn't get it. "Isn't it?"

"Is it?"

Peibo leaned in, expression unreadable.

"You told me before—you were a shut-in gamer. Loved playing all kinds of single-player games."

"In one timeline, just before we restarted again, you looked at me and said…"

'Peibo, maybe we should just give up. I think… we're in a broken save.'"

A broken save.

Mike froze.

His breath caught in his throat.

A broken save.

In games, that meant a file that couldn't be fixed. Couldn't be overwritten. A point of no return. No matter how far back you go—it always ends in failure.

That could be from bad choices, over-leveled enemies, missing key items, or just… flawed design.

A true bad save file meant you couldn't win, even with cheats or mods.

Mike stood up, trembling.

Peibo leaned back, watching his reaction with a faint smile.

"You're laughing. So you were lying?" Mike rasped.

"Do you think I'm lying?" Peibo replied smoothly. "If I wanted to deceive you, I have a thousand better ways. I wouldn't need to bring up your theory."

Mike fell silent. He wanted to dismiss it all as lies—but he couldn't.

His heart pounded. Logic screamed that he was still fine, that life was good. Why ruin everything with thoughts of some apocalyptic failure?

But no matter how he tried to calm down, the fear only grew stronger.

Finally, he asked, "Then why are you still trying? If it's a broken save… shouldn't you just give up?"

Peibo tilted his head again.

"There it is. You always say that next."

Mike blinked. "I said… that before?"

Peibo nodded. "Yeah. But before you gave up, you always said something else too."

He looked at Mike, voice calm but intense.

"You said—'If I back down… who's left to stand up for the people?'"

"You said—'I have no choice. It's my damn values—this stupid sense of justice—that forces me into this mess.'"

"You said—'I regret it. If I could start over, I'd never play the hero again. I'd die with the rest of them, just another nameless soul.'"

Peibo's smile had vanished.

"But no matter how many times I told you the truth—no matter how much I warned you about the ending…"

"You still stood up. Every single time."

He leaned in.

"So tell me, Mike.""Why do you keep choosing to be the hero?"