The Liar of the World
Chapter 5: Infinite Time
The café felt warmer than it should have, the kind of steady, quiet warmth that made everything seem slower than it really was. Soft music drifted through the room, blending with the low murmur of conversations and the occasional clink of cups against saucers. Outside the window, neon lights stretched across the wet pavement, their reflections shifting every time a car passed by. It all looked calm, almost peaceful, which only made the conversation happening at their table feel more out of place.
Rishiro leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the old woman as he tried to understand everything she had just said. None of it sounded real, but after everything he had experienced, was too much for him to just ignore it.
"…Alright. So let me get this straight," he said, raising a finger as he spoke. "The world ends in three days."
The old woman nodded without hesitation.
"And there's some kind of system running everything."
"Yes."
He held her gaze for a moment longer before adding, "And I'm a glitch inside it."
She tilted her head slightly, correcting him in the same calm tone. "An anomaly."
"…Right."
He leaned back further, dragging a hand across his face as he exhaled slowly. "Honestly, I thought my writing career collapsing was the worst thing happening in my life," he muttered, his voice dry. "But apparently reality decided to compete."
The old woman gave a soft, amused chuckle, watching him closely. "You are adjusting quickly."
Rishiro shrugged, letting his hand fall back onto the table. "Dying a few times in one night tends to do that."
He leaned forward now, resting his arm against the table as his expression sharpened slightly. "So what happens next?"
"You prepare," she replied, folding her hands neatly in front of her.
Rishiro blinked, the answer landing a second too simply. "…Prepare?"
"You need to grow stronger. And understand the system."
He stared at her for a moment, then leaned back again, disbelief creeping in despite everything. "…In three days?" He let out a quiet breath, shaking his head slightly. "You want me to get ready for the end of the world in seventy-two hours?"
"That is the time the world has," she said calmly, her gaze as it settled on him. "But not the time you have."
Rishiro frowned, his attention tightening. "…What does that mean?"
She didn't rush her answer, as if the weight of it mattered more than the words themselves. "You can repeat this day. Each time you die, the system resets you."
Rishiro leaned back slowly, the implication settling in piece by piece as he stared at her. "…You're serious."
"Yes. You can try again. And again. And again."
For a moment, he didn't respond. His eyes drifted down to the table, following the faint reflection of the overhead lights, as if grounding himself in something simple might help him process it.
Then he let out a quiet laugh.
"…So I basically have infinite retries."
The old woman nodded.
"Exactly."
Rishiro leaned back, exhaling slowly as a faint grin formed despite everything. "…That's insanely broken. So I can fail as many times as I want."
"Yes," she said, her tone unchanged, "but there is one condition."
Rishiro sighed almost automatically. "…Of course there is."
Her gaze sharpened just slightly, enough to cut through his casual tone. "You must defeat the checker."
Rishiro looked up at her, the image of the creature flashing through his mind without effort. "…That thing?"
"Yes. If you cannot kill it, you will remain trapped in this loop."
The words settled into the space between them, and for a moment, the café felt quieter than before. Rishiro leaned back and crossed his arms, staring off to the side as he replayed the encounter in his head—the speed, the impact, the way it had ended before he could even react.
"…Great," he muttered. "First boss fight already."
The old woman stood, lifting her grocery bag as if the conversation had already reached its natural end. "You have infinite attempts," she said, stepping away from the table. "You can afford to fail."
She began walking toward the door without looking back. "…Good luck."
Rishiro watched her go, blinking once as the words registered. "…Good luck?"
The warmth in the café vanished almost immediately.
It wasn't gradual. One moment the room felt normal, and the next the temperature dropped sharply, the air turning cold enough to make the shift noticeable against his skin. The lights flickered overhead, their steady glow breaking into uneven pulses that cast moving shadows across the walls.
Rishiro exhaled slowly, his shoulders loosening instead of tightening.
"…Ah. Right on cue."
Something settled behind him.
There was no sound, no footsteps, nothing he could point to—but the presence was there, heavy and unmistakable, pressing into the space like it had always been there waiting.
He didn't turn around.
"…You know," he said quietly, almost conversationally, "you really need to work on your timing."
The attack came before the sentence fully finished.
A sharp force drove through his chest from behind, the impact lifting him slightly forward as the air was forced out of his lungs. For a split second, there was no pain—just the shock of it—before everything caught up at once.
Rishiro looked down slowly.
A hand had pierced straight through him, blood already spreading across his shirt and dripping onto the floor beneath him.
He let out a weak, breathless laugh.
"…Right."
He turned his head just enough to glance back, his vision already beginning to blur at the edges.
The world began to lose its shape after that. The lights stretched and dimmed, the sounds around him fading into something distant and hollow. The café, the table, everything in front of him started to slip away as the darkness closed in again.
Through it, the old woman's voice lingered faintly, as if carried from somewhere just out of reach.
"You have infinite time to learn."
Then everything went dark.
The voice returned.
Cold.
Emotionless.
Watching.
[Irregular Existence Confirmed]
[Restart Sequence Initiated]
The world reset.
Once more.
End of Chapter 5