Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 582 - 580: Cycle

Li Ang shook his head slowly and said, "The Alchemist told you, ’He deliberately lied to me, giving me false hope, trapping me in the tunnel, and then he took my daughter and killed my wife.’

The true meaning of this sentence is that on the evening of March 3rd, at 9:15 PM, the Alchemist, as usual, entered Room C in the corridor to listen to his own summary from three days in the future. He heard his future self from March 6th reporting a lot of good news, probably about significant progress made in the antidote’s development.

Overjoyed, he stayed in Room C until he left the corridor at 9:45 PM and found his wife and daughter dead."

Li Ang spread his hands. "So, why did the Alchemist from March 6th lie to his past self from March 3rd, leading to the death of his wife and daughter?

The reason is simple: your sister, Siri, due to illness, was bound to die on the night of March 3rd. All subsequent loops revolve around this event.

In the normal timeline, on March 7th, the Alchemist was still developing the medicine and asked you at 9:30 PM if it was too late.

During those three days, the Alchemist must have created secret passages in Rooms D and E in the corridor, using the time-reversal effect to travel back and administer the medicine to his daughter—that was the night of March 2nd when his daughter dreamed that someone came out of the closet to feed her medicine.

Obviously, the medicine was still ineffective, and Siri still died at 9:00 PM on the night of March 3rd.

However, even in Room B, one could only travel back 72 hours at most.

If time exceeded 9:00 PM on the night of March 7th, the Alchemist would no longer be able to use the corridor to go back in time to save his daughter.

Therefore, he made a choice: to go down the well and execute a plan. This plan was to seal the corridor, permanently freezing the timeline at 9:00 PM on March 4th. Thus, the first loop began."

Li Ang said calmly, "In the looped timeline, the Alchemist, at 9:15 PM on the normal timeline of March 4th, entered Room D, which was 24 hours ahead of the corridor’s time. He used the secret passage to come to the surface; the surface time was then 9:15 PM on March 3rd. He sent his wife and you away and was alone with Siri, administering the medicine. Unfortunately, the medicine was ineffective, and Siri still died.

So, using the secret passage, he went back to Room D, opened the stone wall, and continued developing the medicine. Then, with the second version of the potion, he went through Room E, which was 48 hours ahead of the corridor’s time, and came to the surface.

The surface time was then 9:35 PM on March 2nd. The secret passage of Room E must be in his daughter’s closet. He fed his daughter the medicine, then returned to the tunnel. Then he used Room D to go back to the surface between 9:30 PM and 9:40 PM on March 3rd to check the effects of the medicine.

Regrettably, the medicine was still useless, and Siri still died.

Before this, it’s very likely that the Alchemist’s wife had also discovered Siri’s death. Keep in mind, she was a botanical Alchemist and had made distinguished contributions in the field of surgical emergency Alchemy. Before living incognito in the countryside, she and her husband worked at some secret institution.

Discovering her daughter dead or dying, and with her husband absent, she had no choice but to try to heal or resurrect her daughter with Alchemy. However, the Alchemy did not work and instead transformed her daughter’s body into a Deformed Monster. Seeing this, she was profoundly shocked.

At this time, the Alchemist from the future who initiated the loop had just returned to the surface. He consoled his wife and took away his daughter’s deformed body, using the secret passage, and returned underground.

When the Alchemist from the normal timeline returned to the surface, content after hearing the lies from his future self from March 6th in the corridor, he found that his wife had already committed suicide.

At that time, you from the normal timeline tried to stop your mother, but you failed."

Having spoken at length, Li Ang took a deep breath and continued, "So, the Alchemist on the looped timeline, after returning to the corridor with his daughter’s deformed body, what was he to do?

Of course, he had to continue developing potions.

The true meaning of the loop must be to fix the time within the corridor between 9:00 PM and midnight on March 4th, a three-hour period.

Every time it reached midnight on March 4th, the time inside the corridor would reset, and the Alchemist would start over, creating potions in the laboratory time and again, repeatedly traversing between 9:15 PM on March 3rd, 9:35 PM on March 2nd, and 9:40 PM on March 3rd—these three time points.

I think the isolation suit he was wearing must have had the ability to retain memories. Unfortunately, the limitations of the era meant that no matter how much time the Alchemist spent, he could never cure his daughter’s illness. Instead, with each cycle, he gradually became overwhelmed.

Thus, the second kind of loop came to be, which is me."

Li Ang pointed at himself. "The rubber suit I’m wearing is missing a key component; not only is it incapable of shielding chiral inversion, but it also can’t retain memories. This probably means that the Alchemist couldn’t bear the mental strain of countless failures and deliberately modified the rooms, setting up mechanisms and puzzles, and erasing his own memories at the start of each cycle.

Therefore, I, the ’infant’ Alchemist who has lost all memories, wake up in Room A at 9:00 PM on March 4th, see the envelope, and follow the instructions to explore all the rooms step by step. Since the intelligence of the ’infant’ Alchemist doesn’t change with each cycle, all his actions could easily be predicted, leaving behind the envelopes that the ’infant’ Alchemist would open at fixed times.

Hmm... the one who left the envelopes is very likely you, or the Alchemist himself from the first loop. Of course, I lean more towards it being you."

Li Ang tilted his chin towards Alice, who remained silent, not uttering a word.

Li Ang continued, "The figures in rubber suits that the ’infant’ Alchemist saw along the way were likely the Alchemist from the first looped timeline. This also neatly explains why he was always suddenly appearing and then suddenly disappearing with the Deformed Monster on his back.

Anyway, after solving all the puzzles, the ’infant’ Alchemist will realize who he is, as well as the secret of the corridor. Then he will open the corridor and meet you. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

You are not just my daughter but also the ultimate guide. When I’ve recovered all my memories, I’ll follow your guidance, enter the final Room G, and continue my drug research, hoping to find the antidote in the last two hours."

He spoke as if to himself while walking past Alice, picked up the key he was holding, and unlocked the door to Room G.

The door opened.

Inside was a laboratory, fully equipped. However, the walls, ceiling, and even the floor were covered in dense, barely decipherable chalk scribblings—chemical formulas, formulas left behind from countless cycles.