Seeing the dagger mark on the tree ahead of me, I immediately halted and stared, allowing both Ruby and Lily to catch up to me.


    After looking at me with the same confused expressions, the two of them slowly followed my gaze, spotting the marked tree in the distance.


    Staring at the tree with her mouth wide open, Lily managed to mutter out.


    "P-please t-tell me you didn''t just do that."


    Regaining myposure, the spark of hope inside me ignited into a fire as I replied.


    "Yesterday, I did it yesterday."


    A loop''s end condition is only identifiable by one factor: the loop does not affect how it acts, in this case, how it looks.


    The tree in front of me was not affected by the loop, as despite everything around it being reset, it remained the exact same as yesterday.


    But then the question is sparked.


    Shouldn''t I have already triggered the end condition and ended the loop then?


    If I had marked the tree yesterday, and it was indeed the end condition, the loop should have ended right then, and all of us should have escaped the forest.


    Leaving the two shell-shocked figures behind me, I walked up to the tree, tracing the imprint of my dagger on its trunk with my hands.


    The depth, size, and shape of the imprint was an exact match to my dagger.l


    There was no denying it; this tree was the end condition.


    Trying my best to keep the fire of hope intact, I tried everything: punching the tree, kicking it, tapping it, flicking it, banging it, andst of all, just staring at it.


    Yet, nothing happened.


    Leaning against the tree trunk, I momentarily swapped bodies with my crow, making it fly forward, but just like me, the crow ended up back at the flipped carriage no matter how long and far it flew.


    The loop was still intact.


    Returning to my body, I saw Ruby and Lily walking over to the tree with concerned and confused expressions.


    Oh yeah, I must have looked like a psychopath kicking and punching a tree like a child...


    Commanding the crow to continue flying forward, hoping something would change, I turned to the two girls approaching me.


    Staring at the tree behind me, Ruby asked.


    "So... is this the end condition you were talking about, Lily?"


    Moving out of Lily''s sight, I crouched down and manifested my corrupted daggers.


    "If what Ren said is true... then this has to be the end condition."


    Allowing Lily to examine the tree, I started digging at the ground with my daggers, trying to get a view of the tree''s roots.


    Maybe the entire tree was the end condition, but we had to touch a certain part of it to trigger the end condition?


    cing her hand on the tree, Lily shouted to the other main cast members, who hadn''t yet noticed me.


    "Liam, Kevin, Zach, I think I may have found something. Can you go check if the loop is terminated, and we can leave?"


    Immediately turning around and stopping his search, Kevin excitedly replied.


    "Really?"


    Zach shared the same sentiment as he happily looked over to Lily.


    On the other hand, Liam was scratching his head as he replied to Lily.


    "If this loop really is over and we can leave, how are we supposed to tell you? We''ll be out of the loop..."


    Holding myughter in, I hid my expression by continuing to dig at the ground below the tree.


    "ah... yeah."


    Seeing Lily''s confusion, Alya emerged from the shade of a nearby tree and replied.


    "How about this; if you three aren''t back within two hours, we''ll assume the loop has ended and leave with you."


    Liam, Kevin, and Zach slowly nodded their heads before waving and departing, not even noticing my crouching figure a few meters away.


    At this point, it wasn''t my stealth stat; they just weren''t paying attention...


    Well, I could tell them that the loop was still alive... or not.


    Weighing my options, I allowed them to leave as more people would just cause more trouble.


    We had already confirmed that this tree was the end condition, so we didn''t need three extra people all searching this small tree.


    It was also possible that my crow, for whatever reason, was just stuck in the loop while humans could leave.


    Seeing the dark brown roots in the ground, I reached my hand, ignoring the dirt, and tightly gripped them.


    Switching bodies with my crow, I once again attempted to see if the loop had terminated, but my crow ended up in the flipped carriage.


    As Liam, Kevin, and Zach''s figures disappeared, Irene emerged from the trees and stood aside from Alya, watching us with a curious gaze.


    Noticing me, Irene was about to ask a question when Alya subsequently silenced her, prompting me to continue searching.


    Moving on from the root of the tree, I ignored Lily, who still had her hand on the trunk, and scaled the tree, sitting on the lowest branch.


    As I began examining each individual leaf and branch, a testament to my desperation, Ruby, Alya, and Irene followed our lead, examining the lower half of the tree.


    " *ahem* What exactly are we doing to this tree...?"


    Responding to Irene''s question while continuing the search, Ruby replied.


    "Apparently, it''s the end condition from our talks earlier."


    Nodding her head in confusion, Irene responded.


    "...Shouldn''t the loop have already ended, then?"


    "That''s why the others aren''t here."


    "So, then, why are we still searching?"


    As Ruby turned to Lily for an answer to Irene''s fair question, Lily pointed at me.


    "He seems to know something that we don''t, and he''s still searching the tree."


    As the four girls shifted their gazes to me with confused expressions, I climbed up onto another branch before sighing.


    Indeed, my behavior had been too suspicious for Lily to not have noticed something at this point.


    Why would Ren leave the main cast instead of clinging to them for help?


    Why had I marked a tree?


    Where had I been for thest three days?