It had been hundreds of nights, and Buddha had returned to the outskirts of the bustling city. Benevolent he was, trying to redeem an irredeemable killer.

  Buddha's speed was fast, too swift and sudden for the young man to react. And by the time he did, Buddha's hand had arrived, pressing his face toward the ground. Fortunately, Buddha was benevolent and kind, so there were no lethal injuries.

  “I’m curious, why are you trying to kill this old man?” Ulrich let go of his persona and spoke normally, his voice no longer pacifist or soothing.

  The sudden shift in tone had Bai Ning stutter, yet he was quick to recover his demeanor and grumbled. “I can’t tell you that!”

  Ulrich exerted more pressure on his palm, pressing his face further into the ground. “What’s your name, young man?”

  “Bai Ning!” He answered hurriedly, trying to pry Ulrich’s hand open with both hands, only fail miserably.

  “Bai Ning. Why did you try to kill him?” He asked once again, pointing at the unconscious victim.

  Had it been a regular murder, Ulrich wouldn’t have batted an eye. In the countless loops in this city, what crime and killing had he not seen? Everything here was supposed to be just a dream, yet his sense was no different from real life. As a matter of fact, even pain wouldn’t wake him up; that was how real this dream was.

  “I won’t ask for the third time, it’ll bring me bad luck,” Ulrich said. His hand was tightening, as though to crush the young man’s skull, starting from the cheeks, moving inward. In that moment, the killer's heart skipped a beat, realizing that this stranger was more vicious and dangerous than he’d imagined.

  He’ll kill me! He’ll kill me!

  “I—It’s all for the mission! I swear! P—Please let me go!”

  Ulrich didn’t let go, only loosening his grip slightly to let Bai Ning breathe. Now that the young man was more cooperative, he raised another question.

  “I heard your conversation earlier. What is this set history you mentioned?”

  Silence.

  The seer tightened his grip once more, causing Bai Ning to reluctantly answer.

  “There’s a secret o—organization! One that can only be joined by being noticed by the leader!”

  Hearing this familiar phrasing, Ulrich recalled his first meeting with Zhang San, as well as that particular name. His face remained blank, revealing nothing on the surface as he spat out a name.

  “Eternal Club?”

  There was a clear and immediate reaction. Shock, disbelief, and perplexity, all etched onto Bai Ning’s face. Clearly, the organization he spoke of must be the Eternal Club!

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  “H—How do you know that name?”

  Ulrich smiled, not intending to reply. And that frightened him.

  Eternal Club… this is my first clues other than Zhang San and Ma’am Felanor… But it makes no sense! Can you join the Eternal Club by being noticed by the leader? And to be noticed by the leader, one must kill others? Ridiculous!

  According to his understanding of the Eternal Club from Ma’am Felanor, it shouldn’t be like this. The organization's status was beyond ordinary, their action seems to transcend time, as though its existence was Eternal, as though it had existed since the dawn of time: past, present, and future.

  “What is this mission? How are you so confident that by killing people, you can join the Eternal Club?”

  Ulrich let go of his grip, allowing Bai Ning to recover his breath. In that moment, the seer stood back, picking up the knife from the ground, then stared at Bai Ning with great indifference.

  “I follow a member of the Eternal Club, true member! He tasked us with killing certain individuals under specific time frame. I don’t know the reason. I just know that it must be done, and with enough recognition from this person, I can have a chance to enter the Eternal Club!”

  True member of the Eternal Club? Like Ma’am Felanor?

  “This Eternal Club… what’s so special about it?”

  Bai Ning rubbed his wrist, trying to ease the pain as he replied. “The Eternal Club is an eternal existence. The members are geniuses, and their action is beyond time, beyond history. They treat the present like history, and the future as the present. I want to join the club and learn the truth about the world, to gain that status. You wouldn’t understand!”

  Beyond time? Beyond history? Treating the present like history, and the future as the present? For a moment, Ulrich's body jolted in discomfort. He didn’t care about Bai Ning's ambition and goal of being in the Eternal Club. The young man, along with the world, will reset every night, and nothing matters.

  But this Eternal Club, their ‘view’ on the world startled the Seer. It reminded him of certain traits that strangely resemble how he sees the past and future.

  Indeed… Ma’am Felanor was right. Where I find 42, I will find Eternity…

  He didn’t understand the meaning of that number, not before. But now, Ulrich had basically grasped at least part of the truth. 42 represented time. It was no wonder his intuition was screaming at him, compelling him to follow the trail. Was killing people at XX:42 a kind of ritual? Was the Leader of the Eternal Club a Great Existence, like the legendary Leviathan? Gods? Fallen Gods? Or some kind of malevolent entities? And all these killings are merely to satisfy that entity? To worship?

  On second thought, since Ma’am Felanor is a member of the organization, there was no way the ‘leader’ was a malicious entity.

  He didn’t let Bai Ning go, not yet. Since the victim was bound to die from blood loss, the only way he could gain more information is interrogating this fanatic ‘follower’ of the Eternal Club. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite learn why Bai Ning, or rather, the mastermind, had these tasks to kill people at specific hours.

  Had the victim not been attacked so viciously, the seer would have a good time questioning the old man and verifying the truths of it through divination. What’s done was done. In the next loop, he’d plan to visit this place again, find that old man, and save him before Bai Ning strikes. This way, he can try to piece together the motive of that elusive member.

  By the time Ulrich finished his interrogation, midnight had arrived. With so little time left, he lay next to the dead old man and gazed at the bright, round moon. The sight terrified Bai Ning. Despite being a killer and having killed so many people, even he wouldn’t lie next to a corpse and admire the night sky.

  Monster! He cried inwardly.

  An awkward silence followed.

  Facing this mysterious ‘Buddha’, he didn’t dare to escape rashly. Not to mention, the sashimi knife was still in Ulrich’s hand. In the end, three of them lay there, watching the night before welcoming the arrival of the white light.

  Boom!

  …