Darkness.
No light.
No sound.
No pain.
Nothing.
The darkness that had slowly swallowed Zeldryn's vision now filled his entire consciousness.
He had no idea how long he had been there.
One second.
One minute.
Or perhaps much longer.
Until suddenly...
RING!
RING!
RING!
A loud sound shattered the silence.
A hand emerged from beneath a blanket and blindly searched across the surface of the bed.
RING!
RING!
“So noisy...”
A man grumbled sleepily.
His hand finally found a phone.
He grabbed it and shut off the alarm that kept ringing.
The room became quiet again.
The man remained lying there for several seconds.
Then he slowly opened his eyes.
A white ceiling came into view.
No carvings.
No wooden beams.
No luxurious mansion ceiling.
Just the ordinary ceiling of a room he knew extremely well.
Reka Saputra blinked several times.
He raised both hands.
Clean.
No bruises.
No wounds.
No bandages.
No pain.
But Reka didn't find any of that strange.
Why would he?
Were his hands supposed to be injured?
Reka lowered them again.
He picked up his phone and checked the time.
His eyes immediately widened.
“Shit.”
Reka hurriedly jumped out of bed.
“I'm almost late.”
There was no Hera.
No Zeldryn Giorry.
No Giorry mansion.
No mana.
Even the novel Life Really Is Happy, Right? didn't exist anywhere in his mind.
Reka knew only one thing.
He had to go to work today.
Just like yesterday.
And just like every day before that.
He got up, grabbed a towel, and walked into the bathroom.
Water poured over his head.
Reka showered quickly.
Afterward, he put on his work clothes, grabbed his belongings, and left.
The day went exactly as usual.
The commute to the office.
Entering the building.
Sitting down.
Turning on his computer.
Working on reports.
Checking data.
Preparing several documents.
Helping with minor technical problems that weren't even supposed to be his main responsibility.
Nothing was different.
Everything felt normal.
Ordinary.
Exactly how it was supposed to be.
Until lunch break arrived.
Reka left the office and walked toward one of the places workers in the area often went to eat.
He ordered some food.
Then sat alone while playing with his phone.
A few minutes later, his food arrived.
Reka had only taken a few bites when a woman's voice came from nearby.
“Excuse me.”
Reka raised his head.
A woman was standing beside his table.
Beautiful.
Extremely beautiful.
Her hair was neatly arranged and her clothes were simple, yet she still easily drew attention.
Reka glanced behind himself.
No one.
He pointed at himself.
“Me?”
The woman smiled.
“Yes.”
Reka put down his spoon.
“What is it?”
The woman looked slightly embarrassed before finally speaking.
“Can I have your number?”
Reka froze.
“Huh?”
The woman let out a small laugh.
“Your phone number.”
Reka continued staring at her in disbelief.
For a moment, he even wondered whether she was doing some kind of challenge with her friends.
But after looking around, Reka couldn't find anyone who seemed to be watching them.
“Can I?” the woman asked again.
Reka finally snapped out of it.
“Sure.”
He answered almost too quickly.
Reka immediately gave her his phone number.
The woman saved it before smiling.
“Thanks.”
After saying that, she left.
Reka continued staring at her back for several moments.
Then his gaze returned to his food.
The corners of his lips slowly rose.
Maybe today wasn't going to be as bad as usual.
That night, a message arrived on Reka's phone.
It was her.
What began as a simple greeting gradually turned into a long conversation.
They talked about work.
Food.
Movies.
Music.
Small things.
Even pointless things that didn't really need to be discussed.
Yet somehow, all of it felt enjoyable.
One hour.
Two hours.
Before he realized it, the night had grown late.
Reka stared at his phone screen with a smile.
It had been a long time since talking to someone had felt this comfortable.
One week passed.
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The woman invited him to watch a movie.
Reka accepted.
They went together.
Ate together.
Walked around after the movie ended.
Then spent the rest of the night exchanging messages again.
Three weeks passed after their first meeting.
One night, the woman asked Reka to meet her.
They stood together somewhere relatively quiet.
The woman stared at Reka for a long moment.
Then she smiled.
“Reka, I like you.”
Reka fell silent.
The woman continued.
“Let's spend the rest of our lives together.”
Reka didn't answer immediately.
A memory of his old relationship briefly surfaced in his mind.
A relationship that had ended because of his own stupidity.
Someone had once genuinely loved him, and he had let her go for a reason that now seemed unbelievably stupid.
Since then, Reka had never really been in another relationship.
And now someone was standing right in front of him.
Beautiful.
Kind.
Easy to talk to.
And she liked him.
Reka smiled.
“Let's do it.”
Reka accepted her feelings.
From that day onward, his life began to change.
One month later, the woman bought him a lottery ticket.
At first, Reka didn't care much about it.
But when the winning numbers were announced...
He won.
The amount was large.
Large enough to change his life.
Reka used part of the money to buy a house.
It wasn't particularly big.
But it belonged to him.
No more cramped rented room.
No more worrying about rent.
Three months later, something he had wanted for a long time finally happened.
Reka was transferred to the IT division.
The work he had only been able to watch from a distance was finally his actual job.
It was difficult at first.
But Reka learned.
He worked seriously.
His skills gradually improved.
His salary increased along with them.
Four months later, his position at work became even better.
People began respecting him.
Coworkers who had barely acknowledged him before started approaching him.
Some even began trying to get on his good side.
Reka noticed the change.
And this time, he enjoyed it.
Five months later, the woman who had remained by his side asked him to marry her.
“Reka.”
The woman held both of his hands.
“Let's get married.”
Reka looked at her face.
There was no reason to refuse.
His life was going incredibly well.
And the woman standing before him was one of the biggest reasons everything felt so perfect.
Reka smiled.
“Okay.”
They got married.
Two years later, a small baby came into the world.
Reka held his child in both hands.
The tiny body felt so fragile that he was almost afraid to move.
The woman who was now his wife smiled from the bed.
Reka stared at the baby for a long time.
For the first time in his life, he felt that he truly had a family of his own.
Time continued to pass.
Ten years.
Twenty years.
Thirty years.
Reka was no longer an ordinary employee.
His career continued rising.
The amount of money he owned kept growing.
His investments succeeded.
Their house became larger.
His children grew up.
One by one, they found their own paths in life.
Some found jobs.
Some built businesses.
Some married and started families of their own.
Reka watched all of it.
By the time he reached seventy-three years old, his hair had almost completely turned white.
His body was no longer as strong as it had once been.
But his life remained peaceful.
The woman who had accompanied him since his youth was still beside him.
They were old now.
Wrinkles covered their faces.
Yet the woman still held his hand.
Their children were successful.
Their grandchildren often came to visit.
Money was no longer a problem.
Their home was always full of people.
What an easy life.
What a comfortable life.
What a happy life.
Wasn't it?
Time continued moving.
Reka reached the age of eighty-three.
His body had become extremely weak.
He lay in bed, breathing shallowly.
His wife sat beside him.
His children and grandchildren gathered inside the room.
Reka looked at them one by one.
No regrets.
No loneliness.
No failure.
He had almost everything he had ever wanted.
Reka smiled faintly.
Then slowly closed his eyes.
His final breath left his body.
And everything became dark again.
...
RING!
RING!
RING!
The alarm sounded.
A hand emerged from beneath the blanket.
“So noisy...”
Reka grabbed his phone and shut off the alarm.
He slowly opened his eyes.
A white ceiling.
The same room.
A young body.
Two hands without wrinkles.
Without wounds.
Without illness.
Reka got up.
He didn't find anything strange.
He didn't remember ever being married.
He didn't remember having children.
He didn't remember living until the age of eighty-three.
He knew only one thing.
He had to go to work today.
But...
This wasn't the second time.
It wasn't the third.
It wasn't the fifth.
The same life had already happened again and again.
The same day.
The same meeting.
The same woman.
The same lottery.
The same job.
The same marriage.
The same children.
The same old age.
The same death.
Then...
RING!
RING!
RING!
Back to the same morning.
Without realizing it, Reka had already lived that life forty times.
Nothing changed.
Nothing deviated.
Every time his life ended, all memories of the previous life disappeared.
Then everything began again.
Forty-one.
Forty-two.
Forty-three.
Time continued looping.
Fifty.
Sixty.
Reka never realized it.
Until finally...
The sixty-fifth loop.
That day began exactly like all the others.
Reka woke up.
Took a shower.
Went to work.
Finished his tasks.
Then went out to eat when lunch break arrived.
He sat at the same table.
Ordered almost the same food.
The woman should have arrived a few moments later.
But this time...
Something was different.
While waiting for his food, Reka opened a web novel platform on his phone.
He scrolled through the homepage without looking for anything in particular.
Several titles passed by.
Until his finger stopped.
One novel caught his attention.
The Life I Refuse to Waste.
Reka read the title.
“Hm?”
He opened the novel's page.
Its rating was average.
Not bad.
Not incredible.
The number of chapters made Reka raise an eyebrow slightly.
It was already completed.
More than ten thousand chapters.
“That's ridiculously long.”
Reka muttered while putting another spoonful of food into his mouth.
He read the description.
A story about a young man who transmigrated into a novel.
It didn't sound particularly special.
Judging from several reviews he read, the novel also seemed to have extremely slow pacing.
Some readers loved it.
Others hated it.
Several said the story took far too long just to explain minor details.
Others praised how alive the world inside the novel felt.
Its characters were introduced gradually.
Its locations were properly explored.
Even the characters' everyday lives received considerable attention.
Reka kept reading the comments.
“Looks pretty normal.”
Reka muttered.
He scrolled a little farther down.
Several comments discussed the ending.
Some shamelessly posted spoilers.
Reka stopped when he read one of them.
The protagonist ended up with more than ten women.
Reka immediately frowned.
“More than ten?”
Reka spoke to himself.
“That's insane. Way too many.”
He almost laughed.
But his curiosity remained.
Ten thousand chapters wasn't a small number.
If the novel had managed to survive that long and actually reach an ending, there had to be something that kept people reading it.
Reka pressed Chapter 1.
The page began loading.
But before he could read even a single sentence...
“Excuse me.”
Reka raised his head.
The woman was already standing beside his table.
Everything returned to the same path as before.
Phone number.
Late-night conversations.
Dates.
Confession.
Lottery.
House.
Career.
Marriage.
Children.
Wealth.
Old age.
Death.
Then...
RING!
RING!
RING!
The next loop began.
During the sixty-sixth loop, the novel never appeared.
There was no The Life I Refuse to Waste.
Reka simply lived his life as usual again.
The same happened in the following loops.
Sixty-seven.
Sixty-eight.
Seventy.
Eighty.
One hundred.
Everything returned to normal.
Until finally...
The one hundred and twenty-ninth loop.
Reka was once again sitting at the same place during his lunch break.
The woman hadn't arrived yet.
For some reason, his hand once again opened the web novel platform he had used dozens of loops ago.
He scrolled through the page.
And a title appeared.
Reka stopped.
Life Really Is Happy, Right?
Reka stared at the title.
Something about it caught his attention.
He didn't know why.
The title even sounded a little strange.
Yet his finger still pressed it.
The novel's page opened.
Reka looked at the chapter count.
A lot.
A ridiculous amount.
He read the short description.
Then his finger moved toward Chapter 1.
But right before he pressed it...
Reka's stomach suddenly cramped.
His expression immediately changed.
“Fuck... now?”
Reka complained quietly.
He left money for his food and stood up.
His phone remained in his hand.
Reka quickly walked toward the restaurant's restroom.
A short while later, he was sitting inside one of the stalls.
“That was close.”
Reka sighed in relief.
With nothing else to do, he looked at his phone again.
The page for Life Really Is Happy, Right? was still open.
Reka pressed Chapter 1 again.
The page began changing.
But before the first line appeared...
“Excuse me.”
Reka froze.
What?
A woman's voice came from directly in front of him.
Slowly...
Reka raised his head.
The woman was standing inside the bathroom stall.
The woman who was supposed to meet him at his table.
The woman who should only now be asking him for his phone number.
She smiled with exactly the same expression.
As if there were absolutely nothing strange about this situation.
“Can I have your number?” the woman asked.
Reka stared at her with wide eyes.
Several seconds passed.
His brain seemed to refuse to understand what he was seeing.
“WHAT?!”
Reka's scream filled the restroom.
“What the hell is this?! Who are you?!”
Reka instinctively reached out to push the woman away.
His hand struck her chest.
No.
His hand didn't hit anything.
Reka's arm passed straight through the woman's body.
He immediately froze.
His eyes dropped toward his arm.
His hand was now behind the woman's body.
No blood.
No wound.
No resistance.
As though the woman were nothing more than a shadow.
Reka hurriedly pulled his arm back.
“What...?”
He stared at his palm.
Then looked at the woman again.
“What is happening?”
Reka asked as his breathing began to become uneven.
The woman continued smiling.
Not a single thing about her expression changed.
“Reka, I like you,” the woman said.
Reka became even more confused.
The woman continued in exactly the same voice.
“Let's spend the rest of our lives together.”
Click.
Something felt as though it had suddenly connected inside Reka's head.
His eyes widened slightly.
Those words...
He had heard them before.
Reka grabbed his head.
“No...”
An image appeared.
The same woman.
A different place.
The woman telling him that she liked him.
Then...
Marriage.
A house.
Children.
Reka gasped.
“Hah... hah...”
His hand gripped the side of his head.
“I've...”
Another memory appeared.
The woman again.
The same words.
The same marriage.
The same children.
Then another life.
And another.
Reka shook his head violently.
“No.”
Not once.
Not twice.
Not three times.
The memories began piling on top of one another.
The same woman's face.
The same house.
The same children.
The same old age.
The same death.
Then the alarm.
RING!
RING!
RING!
Reka's eyes opened wide.
“What the hell...?”
Cold sweat began covering his forehead.
He looked at the woman in fear.
“I've experienced this before.”
Reka held his head even tighter.
“Not once.”
Image after image continued appearing.
“Not three times.”
His breathing grew rougher.
“Not five times...”
His eyes trembled.
“How many times has this happened?”
Reka didn't know.
Dozens?
More?
Why was he only remembering it now?
Reka stared at both of his hands.
“This is like... False Awakening?”
Reka spoke the term with a trembling voice.
Like someone suddenly realizing that they were dreaming.
Except this wasn't a dream that lasted for a single night.
He had lived entire lives.
Decades.
Again and again.
Getting married.
Having children.
Growing old.
Dying.
Then everything was erased.
And he repeated it all again.
But there was still an enormous gap in his memories.
Reka didn't remember Hera.
He didn't remember the Giorry mansion.
He didn't remember Zeldryn.
He didn't remember ever losing his job.
He didn't even remember previously reading Life Really Is Happy, Right?
The only memories that had returned were from the lives inside the loop.
And that alone was enough to nearly destroy his mind.
Reka stared at the woman in front of him.
“This has happened over and over again?”
Reka asked with a trembling voice.
The woman didn't answer.
“What is happening?!”
Reka shouted.
The woman continued smiling.
“Answer me!”
There was no response.
Then...
Something changed.
The bathroom wall behind the woman slowly became dark.
Reka immediately fell silent.
The white color of the wall seemed to be swallowed by something.
It wasn't turning black.
It was disappearing.
As though the room itself were slowly being erased.
The darkness spread across the floor.
Onto the ceiling.
Across the wall beside Reka.
“What...”
Reka looked around in every direction.
The restroom disappeared piece by piece.
There were no longer any sounds from outside.
No people eating.
No vehicles.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
Reka struggled to stand.
He didn't even have time to think about his pants.
His attention was completely fixed on the woman in front of him.
Her body began to change.
Her skin slowly lost its color.
Her clothing dissolved with it.
Her hair turned pitch-black.
Within seconds, the normal human figure that had previously stood there was gone.
What stood before Reka now was a shadow.
Black.
Her entire body seemed to be formed from the same darkness surrounding them.
She had two arms.
Two legs.
A humanoid body.
From the shape of her figure, the entity still resembled a woman.
But there was no human face.
No nose.
No lips.
No skin.
Only a pair of sharp blue eyes stared directly at Reka.
Reka took one step backward.
“Are you...?”
Reka couldn't finish the question.
The shadow tilted her head slightly.
Then a voice came.
The same woman's voice.
But now it seemed to come from every direction at once.
“Isn't this a beautiful life?”
Reka froze.
The shadow raised one hand.
Her palm opened toward Reka.
“Isn't this the life you wanted?”
Reka stared at the extended hand.
Fragments of memories flashed through his mind again.
A house.
Money.
The job he wanted.
A beautiful and loyal wife.
Children.
Grandchildren.
No failure.
No loneliness.
No regret.
A perfect life.
The shadow extended her hand a little farther.
Her blue eyes never left Reka.
“Come back with me, my beloved Reka.”
The woman's voice was soft.
Almost soothing.
“We'll be together forever inside the life you've always dreamed of.”