Riley smiled twisted into something devilishly. "Cheating? You make me laugh" he shrugged, "to be precise, I made it look like I was dancing in the palm of your hand... when in fact, you had been dancing in mine."
Little Riley could no longer hear what Riley was saying clearly. His temples were burning, his brain was starting to boil.
Riley had done something to him… Something dangerous… The memory rune was overloading. It was processing millions of thoughts at once.
"What... What did you do to me?" Little Riley's voice cracked, laced with an edge of panic he could no longer suppress. "Make… it… stop!" Little Riley shrieked.
Riley took a slow, deliberate step forward, his eyes cold and unfeeling. "I warned you, didn't I? I told you not to play games with me. Don't ever think you are capable of that.
Did you think I was warning Alison and Orion? That I wouldn't notice you listening in on my thoughts? You were so conceited, so certain of your control. But here's the thing— I figured you can't eavesdrop all the time."
Little Riley's eyes drooped as he realized the gravity of his situation. He began to crawl away, dragging himself across the three colored rooms, his pride shattered.
The thought of begging for mercy, something he never imagined he would do, started to creep into his mind.
"No... This can't be happening..." Little Riley muttered to himself, trying to cling to his shattered pride. He had always been in control, always the one pulling the strings.
To find himself reduced to this—crawling on the ground, powerless, at the mercy of someone who was supposed to be the one asking for mercy—was a nightmare he had never envisioned.
But the pain was relentless, his thoughts a disjointed mess, and he knew he couldn't take much more of it.
He glanced up at Riley, who was now standing over him, the expression on his face unreadable. At that moment, Little Riley knew he was beaten.
The realization hit him like a blow to the gut, stripping away the last vestiges of his arrogance. He had lost, and the only thing left was to beg for his life.
"Please..." Little Riley gasped, forcing the words out through gritted teeth. "Please, we can work this out. We're the same, you and I. You don't have to do this…"
Riley's gaze was unyielding, cold as ice. He watched dispassionately as Little Riley squirmed, trying desperately to distance himself from the inevitable.
Little Riley's breathing became ragged as the overload in his mind intensified, his senses blurring to the point where he could barely focus on anything. "I... I can help you. Just spare me—please…"
Riley crouched down beside him, his tone almost conversational, as if they were discussing the weather rather than one of their lives hanging in the balance. "You think begging will save you? You've already lost.
I thought of millions of useless and useful thoughts and kept them in my sub-consciousness.
Before I read the veritas, I started to influence you by freeing some of those thoughts, since we are the same person, the voice of the thoughts was the same as yours, I influenced you to kidnap me. Just like the way you influenced me in the first loop."
"You think I wouldn't know? I'm a guy that acts immediately when I make a decision. I'm not someone nice.
Immediately I saw the Bishop and Imam in the first loop… I would have killed them including Old Hector, Jasmine and everyone in that house.
I am not a good guy nor am I a bad guy. I am not a hero and I am not a villain. I am a survivor. I'd leave no witnesses.
I'd do anything to survive, so much that I would not trust anything I saw in the first loop, including the book in the library.
And then when the second loop began. Someone or something alerted me. It only wrote a single word on a piece of paper. "There's a player."
At first I didn't know what it meant, and then I reviewed all my decisions in the first loop, and I discovered I've been influenced by something, and then I started to think of a way to counter attack the influencer— the player — and then I studied the sequence of incidents and there's only one conclusion I came into…
I'm manipulating myself— or rather— another me is manipulating me.
But for me to realize this in the second loop, it showed that my doppelganger was not skilled in the act of deception.
After checking my body, I discovered something wrong, I never had a tattoo— after all I'm just fifteen— there's no legal age to have a tattoo, and then I saw a rune drawn on the back of my neck.
So as not to make you know when I started to counter attack, I attacked that damned stupid young master and starting from there, you noticed your plan of controlling me was a little flawed, that way, you panicked internally, thinking I will break off from your control.
So you sent the maid to keep an eye on me. Which was just what I wanted, I wanted you to know I've translated the veritas, and then I sent a thought to you, the thought influenced you to kidnap me.
If you had been careful enough, you might have found it strange that I ran in the direction of Orion's ambush instead of running away. I'm the curious type, I'd always like to know what caused the explosion.
why? You want to ask? Well it was out of my expectation also, the collapsing building made it harder for me to lure you guys, so I changed my plan and then delivered myself to you instead.
When I woke up, I discovered you had taken the bait, but I was not done yet. I still needed a way to make your memory rune overload by just a simple thought from me, to cause a chain reaction of millions of thoughts to process at once.
And the opportunity arrived, I discovered I just had to say something about your height, and then I did. And you attacked me, just like I expected, and in our fight, I sent the thoughts to your memory bank just when my head came in contact with yours; it means I figured it out before you ever told me about it.
I guess you didn't see that part where I learnt about runes from the clan rune instructor, when you viewed my memory. I had never once thought runes would help me, but I'm glad I did learn it.
When the game started, the trigger word for the chain reaction of thoughts I sent to your memory bank was. "If I survive this… I would like to learn how to play chess properly. With properly being the real trigger word."
It was risky, I know, but with my influence you quickly accepted the playing of chess.
I feigned anger, malice and frustration to deceive you, and you took the bait, you became so proud and confident in yourself. While I was looking for the best opportunity to kill you without alerting you. I knew everything would fail if you notice something off.
Through acting and planning, I overcame you— conqueror Riley.
So Sprout Riley. That was not cheating, we were both playing a game from the very beginning, and you have lost."
"You are cheating—!" Little Riley screamed was cut short by the deafening sound of a gunshot, and in the next moment, his head exploded sending white brain matter in all directions, and the orange part of the room glowed, and when the light died down, Little Riley's body had disappeared.
The room only had one color now, it was blue in color, and the gate guardian was now wearing a blue gown, smiling. Her voice was filled with genuine admiration.
"Congratulations master!"
"Thanks." Riley replied cheerfully.
He had successfully averted a disaster, he was happy his doom attribute didn't mess things up.
Any mistake on his part would have led to Little Riley's success, he would have died, and thankfully he realized early that something was wrong with his thought process in the first loop.
He was also grateful to his mysterious helper. Riley started to pounder, he hadn't got the time to think about it. Why did that mysterious person help him? And who might the person be? What does he want?
Of course he could not get the answer without looking for the person first, he was tempted to think that the Nexus Trial had given the hint but he quickly shook the thought off.
It was said that under no circumstances would the Trial provide any help. So someone must have known about little Riley's plan. And provided a subtle hint.
Riley walked off the double reinforced door, the gate guardian had teleported him out of the space.
Even if he died now, Little Riley would never exist in the next loop, as least that was what he was told. Riley being cautious didn't use the golden key to break the loop instantly. He felt like something might happen, his doom attribute might find a way to kill him.
At least he'd have an extra life left.
However the extra time cannot save him once his soul dissipates.
Alison and Orion turned in his direction when they saw him. "I won! Alison screamed." She collected a hundred dollar bill from Orion.
"Where's the boss?" Orion asked.
"He assumed room temperature." Riley replied.