The café was warm.
Soft music played quietly in the background.
Outside the window, Tokyo's neon lights reflected across the wet pavement.
Everything looked peaceful.
Completely normal.
Which made the conversation happening inside feel even more absurd.
Rishiro leaned back in his chair and stared at the old woman.
"…Alright."
"So let me get this straight."
He raised one finger.
"The world ends in three days."
The old woman nodded calmly.
"Yes."
Rishiro raised another finger.
"There's some cosmic system controlling reality."
"Yes."
"And I'm apparently some kind of glitch inside that system."
The old woman tilted her head.
"An anomaly."
"Right."
"…Even better."
Rishiro sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Honestly I thought my writing career collapsing was the worst thing happening in my life."
"But apparently reality itself decided to join the competition."
The old woman chuckled softly.
"You are adapting quickly."
Rishiro shrugged.
"Well…"
"Dying multiple times in one night tends to change your perspective."
He leaned forward slightly.
"So what happens now?"
The old woman folded her hands on the table.
"You prepare."
Rishiro blinked.
"…Prepare?"
"You need to grow stronger."
"And increase your knowledge."
Rishiro stared at her.
"…In three days?"
He spread his arms.
"You want me to prepare for the apocalypse in seventy-two hours?"
The old woman shook her head slowly.
"That is the time the world has."
Her gaze moved toward him.
"But not the time you have."
Rishiro frowned.
"…What does that mean?"
The old woman spoke calmly.
"You can repeat this day."
"Every time you die, the system resets you."
Rishiro slowly leaned back in his chair.
Realization spread across his face.
"…You're serious."
"Yes."
"You can try again."
"And again."
"And again."
Rishiro stared at the table for a moment.
Then he laughed.
"…So I basically have infinite retries."
The old woman nodded.
"Exactly."
Rishiro leaned back again.
"…That's insanely broken."
A faint grin appeared on his face.
"So I can fail as many times as I want."
"Yes."
"But there is one condition."
Rishiro sighed.
"…Of course there is."
The old woman's gaze sharpened slightly.
"You must defeat the checker."
Rishiro looked up.
"…That monster?"
"Yes."
"If you cannot kill it…"
"…you will not be able to continue the day and be stuck in this loop."
The café fell silent.
Rishiro leaned back and crossed his arms.
"…Great."
"First boss fight already."
The old woman stood up from the table.
She picked up her grocery bag.
"You have infinite attempts."
"So you can afford to fail."
She walked toward the door.
Then she added one final sentence.
"…Good luck."
Rishiro blinked.
"…Good luck?"
At that exact moment—
The temperature inside the café suddenly dropped.
The lights flickered.
Rishiro sighed.
"…Ah."
"…Right on cue."
A cold presence appeared behind him.
Heavy.
Silent.
Watching.
Rishiro didn't even turn around.
"…You know."
He muttered casually.
"You really need to work on your timing."
Then—
A sharp pain exploded through his chest.
The checker's arm pierced straight through his body from behind.
Blood spilled across the café floor.
Rishiro looked down at the hand sticking out of his chest.
Then chuckled weakly.
"…Right."
He turned his head slightly toward the creature.
A crooked grin appeared on his face.
"Yeah…"
"…forgot about you."
His vision began to blur.
The café lights faded.
The world slowly turned dark.
But the old woman's voice echoed faintly.
"You have infinite time to learn."
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then—
The familiar mechanical voice returned.
Cold.
Emotionless.
Watching.
[Irregular Existence Confirmed]
[Restart Sequence Initiated]
The world reset.
Once more.
End of Chapter 5