NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12: Paradox
He was trapped in a frightening loop, a paradox that seemed impossible to escape.
"Alright, fine. You want to play games?" Arthur muttered, pulling out another [Stone Sword (Uncommon)].
He planted it firmly in the ground, slightly angled as a new marker for his plan.
Then, he grabbed a handful of pebbles from the forest floor and arranged them in a straight line, forming a trail he could follow.
"If I can't use the trees as a trail, then I will use my equipment and pebbles." He muttered, scoffing at the forest around him.
"There," he said, satisfied. "Try to confuse me now."
He started walking again, each step carefully taken, whilst glancing frequently at the ground to make sure he was still leaving the trail.
But as he moved forward, something strange began to happen.
One by one, the pebbles he'd placed started to vanish from its place, as though the forest itself were swallowing them up into an endless void.
He watched in shock as with every few steps he took, another pebble disappeared from his sight.
"What the…?" Arthur stammered, realising that his worst fear was right.
His trail was being erased, each step he took seemingly rewriting reality behind him.
"Everything in this forest is being erased?" He muttered as he glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting to see his starting point right there, but it was only empty darkness stretching back endlessly.
He clenched his fists, feeling determined to find a way out of this maze.
"Alright, if that's how you want to play… I will play with you." He said to the forest, although it was mainly to reassure himself.
Arthur took a deep breath, focusing on each step and each sound around him.
He wasn't going to miss any detail of the forest, he couldn't.
He kept his pace slow, observing everything making sure nothing missed his eyes.
Ten minutes passed, and he found himself back in the same spot.
"It's the same spot, shit!" He cursed.
He was where he'd started, with the [Stone Sword (Uncommon)] planted firmly in the ground and his initial markers gone.
"It's like… like the forest resets every ten minutes," he realized as shock and frustration built up within him.
The idea of an infinite paradox was mind-boggling. No matter how far he walked, he would always be pulled back, his progress erased.
Arthur walked in circles around his markers, trying to think.
'So if it's a reset… then that means there must be a trigger, or maybe a way to stop it.' He muttered.
Taking a deep breath, he stood still, letting his mind race through everything he'd observed. Everything he had been doing to try to get out; the sounds he'd heard, the rustling, the whispers and the shadow salve that had moved.
He knelt beside the Stone Sword, running his fingers along its hilt.
"If it's resetting, then that means there's something that doesn't want me to move forward. And maybe… just maybe… it can't reset everything at once."
"Realistically, it doesn't seem to be able to reset my equipment. It had been able to do that to the pebbles and marks on the trees. But it can't seem to touch my equipment," He thought as a theory formed in his mind, and he felt excited that he might have found the way out.
'This might actually work,' He thought, "Although, it will be damn expensive."
Quickly, he stood and left the sword as a marker but began pulling out other items he had, such as [Wooden Sword(Common)], and [Stone Sword(Uncommon)] and other items.
He spread them across the path, creating a map of markers. He went back to the sword, moved a tree branch and placed it next to it.
Then he waited.
He stood still, watching his markers, his heart pounding as he held his breath, waiting for the next reset.
A sudden gust of wind swept through the forest.
In an instant, he felt something change.
When he looked down, the tree branch was gone, and the Stone Sword remained.
He stared at it, hope swelling.
"That's it," he muttered, realization dawning on him. "Only things I'm connected to directly can survive the reset."
Arthur then quickly walked forward picking up every item he had dropped until he saw the sword from about 2 meters away, he threw an item on the floor and waited in between both of them.
He was trying to break the loop, by staying at the weakness of the loop. Right between the end and the beginning of the loop.
Minutes passed, each step feeling like a battle against the forest.
But he waited.
"This has to work," he thought.
As the time for the reset was about to be reached, the system notified him.
[12 Hours had passed since you entered, time is up!]
[Teleporting in 3... 2... 1...]
[Telerporting!]
"No!, just wait a few seconds." He yelled out, as he felt the gust of wind coming.
"Damn it, the damn system might have just ruined everything I had done!" He cursed out, as he found himself in the middle of the park.