Waking up the next day, I felt more motivated than usual as energy coursed through my veins, and my brain was already spinning in circles, trying to find solutions.
As soon as I woke up, the crow appeared above me before swiftly descending and sitting on the ground beside me.
The next moment, my ck cat jumped out of my hoodie and onto the ground, staring at the grow with its eyes sparkling.
Those two should get along, right...?
Both animals'' exteriors were pitch-ck, so the temperature was hotter for them, so after a moment, they both dashed a nearby tree.
The crow, watching the cat lie down in the shade of the tree immediately after waking up, turned its gaze to me, seemingly saying.
"You make me work all damn day, but this cat just sleeps..? What the hell is this???"
It was true; for the entire day yesterday, I had kept the crow alive and hard at work, making sure it monitored the waterside vige in case of any anomalies.
The crow didn''t require corruption to keep it alive, but only to manifest it, so I had no problem keeping it alive as long as I wanted.
However, the strain on my mind from switching between bodies started to grow, so I only checked on the crow at specific intervals.
Also, joining my animals in the shade, I leaned against the tree and examined my surroundings.
It was the same as yesterday.
Usually, the breeze of the night sky should have blown away some leaves, and there should have been some animal tracks from nocturnal animals... but there was nothing.
The area around me was exactly the same as it was yesterday.
The position of the leaves, color of the leaves, and amount of leaves remained the same.
Confirming something, I switched bodies with my crow and controlled it to fly toward the tree where it had gotten my two apples from yesterday.
Approaching the tree, I saw that the apples were there despite my crow having picked them yesterday.
"...apples don''t grow that fast."
I truly was in a loop.
Well, I already knew that, but it helped to know that the forest would also reset alongside the townsmen.
"...can I just do anything to this forest, then?"
Infinite wood, infinite nts, infinite fruits, and most important of all, infinite time!
What would Raven say in this scenario?
"hah... it''s been ages since I''ve seen that kid..."
Would he confused that I hadn''t arrived when I said I would...?
Or...did the loop also affect the outside world?
For every day that passed in this loop, did a day pass in the world outside the world? ...or was it longer or shorter?
Returning to my own body, I picked up the cat, allowing him to cover himself from the sun in my hoodie, and sent the crow to continue monitoring the waterfall town.
Making my way through the familiar forest, I spotted the flipped carriage alongside the main cast, who were lying on the ground.
"..damn it, why can''t Liam do some protagonist things for once and get us out of this damn loop!"
*RUSTLE*
Hearing the bushes behind me rustle, I immediately turned around.
A couple of meters behind me stood Ruby, who was also chewing on an apple while staring at me.
"What was that?"
Shaking my head, I replied.
"Nothing."
Putting the apple down and walking towards it, Ruby responded.
"I''m pretty sure you said something about a ''loop?'' "
"Yeah... this whole forest in stuck in one gigantic loop."
"mhm."
Seeing her have no reaction to the news of the loop, I scratched my head and asked.
"You knew?"
Walking past me and towards the flipped carriage, Ruby replied.
"Yeah, our group also figured it out yesterday... we''re surprisingly productive when Liam and Kevin aren''t arguing."
Seeing the shock evidence on my face, Ruby smirked and said.
"What? You realize you''re not special anymore."
"...you do know your group of six discovered what I found out as a single person, right?"
Stopping next to me, Ruby got on her tippy-toes and began patting my shoulder.
"Keep the excusesing; whatever helps you cope."
"...really, that''s how we''re ying?"
"I''m just saying we''d get much more done if we all worked together instead of you just going off to wherever."
Shaking my head, I asked.
"So, how''d you guys find out."
"Well, we obviously noticed something was wrong when, no matter how far we ran, we also ended back up here."
Pointing at the carriage,Ruby continued.
"Since we were all suspicious, none of us dared to sleep tonight. We had flipped over the carriage, intending to sleep in it, but in real-time, we watched it magically flip right back over. Then, after some more tests, Lily told us that we were stuck in some kind of time loop."
Well, considering there was an incident involving time loopster on in the school year, it wasn''t surprising that Lily had recognized this situation as a loop.
Grabbing the sleeve of my hoodie but not my hand, Ruby tugged on it, pushing me towards her, and asked.
"So, what do you think? Pretty genius, right? Are you going to join us now?"
"You guys got lucky because you stayed up like idiots sleeping, you know? I actually discovered it through exploring."
Pulling the sleeve of my hoodie harder, Ruby replied.
"Whatever you say, Ren. C''mon, let''s go!"
Shaking my head as she pulled me towards the carriage, I took out one of the precious eggs from a nest my crow had discovered earlier in the morning.
Since the day reset every day, I basically had infinite eggs, so I could spare one.
"Here, take this."
"... an egg, really?"
Shrugging my shoulders, I replied.
"Well, it''s the best food you''ll find around here."
"...thanks, I guess."
Sighing, I nced at the area around the carriage, ensuring everyone else was asleep, and asked.
"Do you really want me to cook it for you?"
"YES! I thought you would never ask!"
Tugging my sleeve even harder, Ruby dragged me out of the trees and into the clearing where the flipped carriage was.