Reka didn't answer immediately.
His eyes remained fixed on the hand extended toward him.
The hand was completely black.
No skin color.
No visible nails.
No lines across the palm.
It had the shape of a human hand, yet its entire surface seemed to be made from solid darkness.
The shadow woman kept her hand extended.
Waiting.
Reka slowly took one step backward.
Then his gaze moved upward.
For the first time since the woman's true form had been revealed, Reka tried to examine her properly.
Almost her entire body was black.
From the tips of her feet to her face, darkness covered nearly everything.
But not quite everything.
Her hair.
In the middle of that endless darkness, the woman's long hair could still be seen clearly.
Blue.
The color stood out sharply against the rest of her black body.
And so did her eyes.
Blue.
Sharp.
And staring directly at Reka without blinking.
Reka didn't recognize her.
At least, nothing in the memories he currently had made him recognize this figure.
But the woman's words still echoed inside his head.
Wasn't this the life you wanted?
Reka remained silent.
He wanted to deny it.
But...
He couldn't.
Because she was right.
At least according to everything Reka could still remember right now.
Before meeting this woman inside the loop, his life really had been empty.
Wake up.
Shower.
Work.
Go home.
Sleep.
Then the next day...
Wake up.
Shower.
Work.
Go home.
Sleep.
And repeat it again.
Day after day.
There had been nothing he truly looked forward to.
Nothing that made him want to hurry home.
No one waiting for him.
Even his job wasn't something he genuinely wanted.
He had simply continued living that way because it was the only life he had.
Then this woman appeared.
And everything changed.
There was someone who contacted him every night.
Someone who invited him out.
Someone who told him he was loved.
He got a house.
The job he had always wanted.
Money.
A family.
Children.
Grandchildren.
He grew old without ever having to feel lonely again.
It was fake.
Reka was beginning to understand that none of it had probably ever truly happened.
But the feelings he experienced during those lives...
Were those fake too?
Reka could still remember what it felt like to hold his child for the first time.
He could still remember the house being filled with people when he was old.
He could still remember the woman sitting beside him when both of their hair had turned white.
Decades.
Again and again.
Even though only part of those memories had returned, all of them felt real.
Far too real.
Reka stared at the black hand still reaching toward him.
The step he had taken backward slowly stopped.
The shadow woman lowered her head slightly.
“Come here, darling,” the woman said softly.
Her voice echoed from every direction.
“You don't need to think about any of this anymore.”
Reka didn't answer.
But his right foot moved.
One small step forward.
The shadow woman continued smiling even though her face barely had any features that could express it.
“Let's live happily together forever,” the woman said.
Reka stepped forward again.
Another step.
There was no reason to return to that empty life.
Wasn't the life she offered him much better?
No need to fail.
No need to regret anything.
No need to feel lonely.
All he had to do was accept her hand.
Then everything would return.
The house.
Money.
Family.
A long life without problems.
Reka's eyes slowly began to feel heavy.
His eyelids lowered slightly.
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The woman's voice became even softer.
“Yes... that's it, darling,” the woman said.
Reka walked closer again.
“Come here.”
The distance between them became shorter.
“Come back into my arms.”
Reka's eyelids lowered even further.
His vision began to blur.
A strange drowsiness slowly spread through his mind.
His body felt light.
His mind was beginning to lose the desire to question anything.
Why keep thinking?
Wasn't the answer already standing right in front of him?
“Yes...”
The woman's voice echoed again.
“Just a little more.”
Reka raised his right hand.
His hand moved toward hers.
Ten centimeters.
Eight.
Six.
Five.
Only around five centimeters remained.
Reka's eyes were almost completely closed.
His fingertips continued moving forward.
Then...
A novel title suddenly flashed through his mind.
Life Really Is Happy, Right?
Reka's hand stopped.
His eyes immediately opened.
!?
Reka quickly pulled his hand back.
His body retreated several steps as well.
His breathing suddenly felt heavy.
“Hah...”
Reka stared at his own hand.
Then at the woman standing before him.
The shadow no longer looked as calm as before.
For a brief moment, Reka noticed a subtle change in her blue eyes.
Annoyance.
But it disappeared almost immediately.
The woman extended her hand again.
“Come here, darling,” she said.
Reka didn't move.
That novel.
Why had he suddenly remembered its title?
Life Really Is Happy, Right?
Reka tried to remember what had happened in the bathroom earlier.
He had been about to read Chapter 1.
Right when the page was about to open...
This woman appeared.
Not at his table.
Not where she was supposed to be.
She had simply appeared inside the bathroom stall.
As though...
As though something didn't want him to read that novel.
Reka frowned.
“Why?”
Reka muttered to himself.
The woman continued speaking.
“There is nothing you need to think about, Reka,” the woman said.
“Come here.”
Reka tried to ignore her voice.
Why had the loop changed at the exact moment he tried to read that novel?
Hundreds of lives had followed the same pattern.
Then, during the one hundred and twenty-ninth loop, he found Life Really Is Happy, Right?
And for the first time...
Something truly broke.
The woman appeared somewhere she shouldn't have.
Her body couldn't be touched.
Reka's memories of the loops started returning.
Then the entire world collapsed.
“That wasn't a coincidence.”
Reka spoke quietly.
The woman's blue eyes narrowed.
“What did you say?” she asked.
Reka didn't answer.
He continued thinking.
That novel had to be connected to all of this.
The problem was...
How?
Reka hadn't managed to read it.
Chapter 1 hadn't even opened.
“Come here, Reka.”
The woman's voice echoed again.
“You don't need to search for answers.”
Reka grabbed his head.
Her voice felt heavier than before.
“Come back with me.”
Reka gritted his teeth.
“We can repeat everything again.”
Her voice seemed to grow closer even though her body hadn't moved at all.
“Forever.”
Reka began feeling sleepy again.
His eyelids slowly became heavier.
“Damn it...”
Reka shook his head.
But the drowsiness didn't disappear.
It only became stronger.
It felt as though every word coming from the woman was slowly pressing down on his mind.
Reka tried to move backward.
But his legs were beginning to weaken.
Then...
A light appeared.
Tiny.
But inside the darkness surrounding everything, even the smallest light immediately stood out.
Reka turned.
Near his right foot...
A phone was lying on the ground.
Its screen shone brightly.
Reka's eyes widened.
“My phone?”
Reka asked in confusion.
It looked identical.
Even the case was the same.
But Reka didn't remember dropping his phone there.
He bent down slightly.
The screen was displaying a page.
Reka froze.
Life Really Is Happy, Right?
The title of the novel was clearly visible at the top of the screen.
And directly beneath it...
There was a button.
READ
Reka stared at the button.
The woman in front of him saw it too.
For the first time...
The shadow woman looked genuinely panicked.
The hand she had been extending toward him moved slightly.
“Don't.”
Reka immediately looked at her.
That was different.
Her tone was different.
Not soft.
Not comforting.
There was pressure behind it.
Reka looked back at the phone.
The woman stepped forward.
Then stopped.
As though something invisible was blocking her.
She tried extending her hand toward the phone.
But her hand stopped in midair.
It couldn't go any farther.
Reka noticed.
The woman couldn't approach the phone.
Why?
“Reka.”
The woman's voice echoed again.
This time much louder.
“Come here.”
Reka covered both ears.
But the sound wasn't coming through them.
Her voice echoed directly inside his head.
“Come back.”
“Weren't you happy?”
“You had everything.”
“Money.”
“Family.”
“The job you wanted.”
“Children who loved you.”
“No more loneliness.”
“No more regret.”
Every sentence made Reka's body heavier.
His legs began losing strength.
Reka nearly collapsed onto his knees.
His eyes once again became unbearably heavy.
His gaze shifted between two things.
The woman's hand.
And the phone beneath him.
Go back.
Or...
READ.
Reka didn't know what would happen if he pressed that button.
Maybe everything would become worse.
Maybe he would die.
Maybe nothing would happen at all.
But if he accepted the woman's hand...
He already knew exactly what he would receive.
A perfect life.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Reka remained silent.
His body continued weakening.
The woman extended her hand once more.
“Come here, darling,” she said.
Reka almost raised his hand again.
But the light from the phone screen fell across his face.
His eyes shifted.
READ.
Something inside him seemed to push him toward the button.
Not a voice.
Not words.
Just a feeling.
Press it.
Reka gritted his teeth.
His body barely had any strength left.
But he forced himself to move.
One knee touched the dark surface beneath him.
His hand slowly moved toward the phone.
The woman immediately raised her voice.
“Reka!”
Reka kept moving.
“Don't!”
Her voice echoed even louder.
Reka felt as though his head was about to split apart.
The drowsiness kept trying to drag away his consciousness.
But his hand continued moving.
Little by little.
“Come back to me!”
Reka stopped for a moment.
His breathing was rough.
“Hah... hah...”
He stared at the READ button.
Then looked at the woman.
Reka clenched his teeth.
“No.”
He said it quietly.
The woman fell silent.
Reka took a breath.
“If I go back...”
His voice was still weak.
“All of it would just be fake.”
The woman's blue eyes narrowed even further.
Reka pressed one palm against the dark surface beneath him to keep himself from collapsing.
“I don't want to live like that.”
Reka raised his face.
“I want to face a real life using my own strength.”
The moment those words left his mouth...
BOOM!
Something exploded inside Reka's head.
“ARGH!”
Reka immediately grabbed his head.
Memories.
So many memories flooded into him almost simultaneously.
The day he lost his job.
His rented room.
Three months of unemployment.
The novel with 5,296 chapters.
Life Really Is Happy, Right?
The question at the end of the final chapter.
His comment.
The earthquake.
Darkness.
Then...
“Lord Zeldryn!”
Reka's eyes widened.
Hera.
The mansion.
A body covered in wounds.
Zeldryn Giorry.
Henry.
Aeglo.
Mana.
All of those memories returned.
Reka gasped for air.
“Hah... hah... hah...”
His hand was still gripping his head.
Now he remembered.
Everything.
He wasn't living his normal life.
He had already lost his job.
He had already finished reading that novel.
And after that...
He had awakened as Zeldryn Giorry.
But along with all of those memories, something much older resurfaced.
A face.
A woman.
Not the shadow standing in front of him.
Another woman.
Someone from Reka's real life.
Someone who had once loved him.
And someone he had abandoned because of his own stupidity.
Reka froze.
The memory he had always tried to avoid became clearer.
Their breakup.
Her tears.
His regret.
Then the news he had never wanted to receive.
The woman had taken her own life.
Before she left, she had left a message for Reka.
A message saying that her feelings would never change.
That even though they would be separated, she still loved him.
Reka lowered his head.
His hand clenched into a fist.
“Yes.”
Reka spoke quietly.
“I really was a loser.”
The shadow woman remained silent.
Reka closed his eyes for a moment.
“I really was a bastard.”
His jaw tightened.
“I'm sorry, A****.”
Reka's voice trembled slightly.
“I'm sorry.”
He swallowed before continuing.
“Because of me... you ended up doing that.”
Both of his hands trembled.
The guilt he had buried for so long pressed against his chest again.
But this time, Reka didn't try to run away from it.
He didn't search for excuses.
He didn't blame anyone else.
He simply accepted that he had made a terrible mistake.
Reka slowly raised his face.
“But...”
His eyes opened.
“I can't spend the rest of my life trapped inside that regret.”
Reka gritted his teeth.
“I can't keep living under your shadow.”
The black woman's voice suddenly became much louder.
“REKA!”
Reka turned toward her.
The woman no longer looked calm.
Her blue eyes were wide open.
The darkness surrounding her body moved chaotically.
“Don't listen to that!”
Her voice echoed from every direction.
Reka didn't care.
Now he understood what he needed to do.
The phone.
The READ button.
That was the only thing in this place that made the woman panic.
And the only thing she seemed incapable of touching.
Reka reached out.
His finger moved toward the screen.
The woman immediately changed.
The harshness in her voice disappeared.
“No...”
Reka continued moving his finger closer.
“Reka...”
For the first time, her voice sounded pleading.
“Please.”
The distance between Reka's fingertip and the screen continued shrinking.
Five centimeters.
Four.
“Please, don't.”
Reka didn't stop.
“I don't want to share you with those women again.”
Reka's movement slowed slightly.
What?
But he immediately ignored it.
Three centimeters.
“I've waited for this moment for so long.”
The woman's voice began trembling.
“I don't even know how many years I've spent waiting for you inside this darkness.”
Two centimeters.
Reka kept his eyes fixed on the READ button.
The woman became increasingly desperate.
“Everything I did was for you!”
One centimeter.
“I refuse to share you with those women!”
Reka didn't care.
As far as he was concerned, everything she said was simply another attempt to stop him.
His finger moved closer.
The woman screamed.
“I even came back from the futu...”
Tap.
Reka's fingertip touched the READ button.
BOOM!
A small light burst from the phone screen.
The woman immediately screamed.
“ARRRGGGHHHHHH!”
Reka covered part of his face with one hand as the light became brighter.
At first, it was only as large as the phone screen.
Then it spread.
Little by little.
The darkness beneath Reka's feet began disappearing.
The light expanded in every direction.
Larger.
Brighter.
The woman stepped backward.
Her black body began to be swallowed by the light.
“REKAAAAA!”
Her scream echoed throughout the entire space.
Reka didn't answer.
He simply stood there and watched.
The light continued expanding.
Swallowing the ground.
Swallowing the darkness around him.
Swallowing the shadow woman's body.
Until finally...
There was no black left.
No empty space.
No woman.
Everything was white.
Far too bright.
Reka narrowed his eyes.
He tried to see what was beyond the light.
But the longer he looked, the heavier his eyelids became.
“Huh...?”
Reka tried to remain conscious.
He couldn't.
Sleepiness came naturally.
Different from the drowsiness the woman's voice had forced on him earlier.
This time, it felt as though his own body was asking him to sleep.
Reka's eyes slowly closed.
The white light filling his entire vision became narrower.
Little by little.
Until finally...
Darkness.