Ryan didn't expect Shaan to be so calm about it.
Three fixed deaths.
Skye.
Shaan.
Ryan.
Any normal person would panic after hearing that.
But Shaan was sitting on the bench in Silent Garden, flipping a pen between his fingers like he was solving a math problem, not planning how to survive the end of the world.
"You're thinking too loudly," Shaan said without looking at Ryan.
Ryan frowned. "What does that even mean?"
"It means," Shaan said, "your face looks like you're trying to fight God."
Ryan sat down beside him. "…Maybe I am."
Shaan smirked slightly. "Then we need a better plan."
Ryan was quiet for a moment. Then he asked:
"…Are you scared?"
Shaan stopped spinning the pen.
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, very calmly:
"Yeah."
Ryan looked at him.
Shaan leaned back and looked at the night sky.
"I'm scared," he said. "I'm scared of disappearing and everyone forgetting I ever existed. I'm scared that my parents won't remember me. I'm scared that everything I did will mean nothing."
Ryan didn't know what to say.
Shaan continued:
"But you know what scares me more?"
Ryan shook his head.
"That this keeps happening," Shaan said. "Over and over again. Same people disappearing. Same world ending. Same reset."
He looked at Ryan.
"If we don't stop this now, it's going to happen an 8th time. Then a 9th. Then a 10th."
Ryan clenched his fists.
"…Then we stop it," Ryan said.
Shaan nodded. "Yeah. We stop it."
Ryan asked, "But how do we break a fixed death? Demo said no one has ever done it."
Shaan was quiet for a few seconds.
Then he said:
"I think I know why the three of us are fixed deaths."
Ryan looked at him. "Why?"
Shaan looked at him very seriously.
"Because we are the ones who keep changing the timeline," he said.
Ryan frowned. "Explain."
Shaan spoke slowly, like he had been thinking about this for a long time.
"In the first timeline, Demo could see the timers," Shaan said. "She tried to save people. That changed the timeline."
"In the next timeline, someone else could see the timers. He tried to save Skye. He disappeared."
"In this timeline… you can see the timers. And you've already saved multiple people."
Ryan slowly understood what Shaan was saying.
"The person who can see the timers…" Ryan said, "…is the one who keeps changing fate."
Shaan nodded. "Exactly. And the world reset might be happening because the timeline becomes too different from the original."
Ryan felt a chill.
"So the world resets to go back to the 'correct' timeline?" he asked.
"Yes," Shaan said. "And the three fixed deaths might be the 'correction points.'"
Ryan frowned. "Correction points?"
Shaan explained:
"Skye's death might be an important event that must happen.
My death might be connected to something else.
Your disappearance might be the final correction — removing the person who changed too much."
Ryan felt like Shaan's theory made too much sense.
"…So the world is basically deleting us because we're errors," Ryan said.
Shaan nodded. "Yeah. We're bugs in the system."
Ryan laughed a little, but there was no happiness in it.
"Great," he said. "We're bugs in reality."
The next day, something strange happened again.
Ryan was in the cafeteria when he noticed a timer suddenly appear above someone's head.
Not decrease.
Not change.
Appear.
Ryan stood up immediately.
It was above a girl sitting alone near the window.
05 days.
Ryan stared at it.
"That's new," he whispered.
Shaan followed his gaze. "New timer?"
Ryan nodded. "Yeah. She didn't have one before."
Demo arrived a few minutes later, and Ryan pointed at the girl.
Demo's expression changed immediately.
"…That's not good," she said.
"What does it mean?" Ryan asked.
Demo answered quietly.
"It means she just became part of the system."
Ryan frowned. "Why would someone suddenly become part of the system?"
Demo looked at Ryan.
"Because she got connected to one of the fixed deaths," she said.
Ryan's heart skipped a beat.
"Connected how?" he asked.
Demo didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she said, "Watch."
A few minutes later, Skye walked into the cafeteria.
The girl with the new timer looked up.
Their eyes met.
They smiled slightly at each other.
Then Skye walked over and sat in front of her.
"They know each other," Shaan said quietly.
Demo nodded slowly.
"Yes," she said. "And now that girl has only five days left."
Ryan felt anger rising inside him.
"So anyone who gets close to Skye… gets a timer?" he said.
Demo nodded.
"Yes," she said. "Skye is like the center of the fixed event. The closer you are to her fate… the more the system pulls you in."
Ryan looked at Skye, who was laughing and talking like she didn't have a countdown to disappearance.
Then he looked at the girl sitting in front of her.
04:23:11
Her timer was already moving.
Ryan clenched his fists.
"…Then we save her," he said.
Demo looked at him. "Ryan—"
"I know," Ryan interrupted. "Saving people speeds up the reset. I know Skye is a fixed death. I know I'm probably going to disappear too."
He looked at the red timer above the new girl's head.
"But she's not a fixed death," Ryan said.
He looked at Shaan.
"We can still save her."
Shaan stared at the timer for a few seconds.
Then he nodded.
"…Yeah," he said. "We save the ones we still can."
Demo looked at both of them and sighed.
"You two really are the same as the last ones," she said.
Ryan looked at her. "What do you mean?"
Demo gave a small, sad smile.
"In every timeline," she said, "the person who can see the timers says the same thing."
Ryan asked quietly, "What do they say?"
Demo looked at him.
"They say," she whispered,
'Even if the world ends… I still want to save the people in front of me.'