The text on the screen flickers violently as it struggles to hold an image. Unreadable symbols fill the space, rapidly shifting until a message stabilizes:
[Stop Trying.]
It's taunting us—no, mocking us.
I take a step forward—or at least, I think I do. The room feels wrong. I keep seeing Gerald shift—left, then right—as if reality can't decide where he is. Books look tilted, then fallen, only to snap back to place.
The buzzing dominates the air. Then the computer displays:
[User Detected: Tiean.][User Detected: Gerald.][User Detected:——————][ERROR:UNKNOWN ENTITY]
I don't dare turn around.I can't.
Because if I do—if I even glance behind me—there's a chance I'll just die.
Gerald moves fast, dashing to the thick power cable plugged into the system. He grips it and pulls. I rush forward to help, both of us yanking hard.
The machine screams.
The cable tears free.BOOM.
A small explosion sends us flying. I crash into the pendulum clock. My ears ring. The screen glitches into pure nonsense.
And then—Silence.
The buzzing disappears.The presence disappears.Darkness.
I breathe hard, chest heaving. My hands tremble as I blink through the shadows.
"Gerald! Where are you!?"
A hand grabs my shoulder. I flinch, ready to strike, until:
"Calm down. It's me."
Relief floods me.Despite the chaos, it somehow feels safer.
I flip on my fission device, its blue hue cutting through the dark. Gerald follows suit. Our faces glow.
He scans his screen.
"To think it already affected this worldline this much…"
"You mean the afterimages?" I ask. I still feel that strange tearing sensation, like the world slipped under our feet.
He doesn't respond, just nods, focused.
"How many times have we already done this..? How many times did we leave the Pendulum Clock already..?"
"Enough," I mutter, moving toward the computer, clearing debris from the keys.
"Enough for it to access our system."
"Not perfectly," Gerald counters, eyes narrowing.
------------ System ------------
Reset: 3,142,202Timeline Branch: 0.018123
------------------------------------------------
His fission device glows."Two…" Gerald mumbles.
"The system probably blocked the first attempt… but the second? Why would he reset after getting inside?"
I don't answer. Maybe I never will.
I scan the screen's corrupted output with my fission device. Symbols, static—then I see it.
[User Detected: Tiean]
Something clicks.I chuckle, unnerved.
"Tien, is something wrong?" Gerald steps closer, concerned.
"It misspelled my name…" I say slowly. "It—made a mistake."
Gerald compares his device to the screen. His face darkens.
"If it resets every time it makes a mistake," he mutters, "then parts of ourselves from different timelines are feeding it—"
"—The wrong information," I finish.
He snaps his fingers. "That's how we win."
"It's seen everything," he continues. "Our names, our system—we can't hide from it. But if we can confuse it…" He grabs my shoulder. His voice turns sharp, urgent.
"Listen to me carefully, Tien. Once we leave this Pendulum Clock—if no one's there—you need to make yourself look impressionable."
"What?" I blink.
"Be the certainty in the anomaly's equation. Let it think you're the key. That you're easy to sway. Predictable."
His voice lowers, deadly serious.
"And while it thinks that… feed it every single bullshit lie you can."
My breath hitches."It already misspelled your name," he adds, nodding toward the screen. "It's working."
"And you? What'll you be?"
Gerald smirks, no humor behind it.
"I'll be the threat it can't control."
"Gerald, you're going too fast—what kind of plan is this?"
His smirk fades. "One we've already been executing."
He taps his device, sending a file to mine. It pings. My stomach knots.
I open it—and freeze.
A full log. Every conversation. Every decision. Every moment.
And at the bottom:The Plan.
Exactly how to execute it.
"What… the hell."
"I got this file from myself," Gerald says quietly. "A minute ago. Before the Pendulum Clock malfunctioned."
"Gerald… it says I have to die."
He doesn't flinch.
"Because the anomaly will test you.""It won't just watch. It'll experiment. Force choices. Reset again and again when it doesn't get what it wants."
I clench my fists. "How do you know that?"
He turns his device toward me.The reset count shouldn't exist.These are cycles we don't remember.
"Because it's already doing it."
A chill runs down my spine.
"But why me?" I whisper. "Why target me?"
He looks at me, firm.
"Because like I said… you're the certainty. The one it can extract information from. The one that shifts everything in every single timeline."
He pauses.
"Maybe it starts small. A word out of place. A bruise that wasn't there yesterday. A conversation looping—just a bit different."
I shudder.
"God… why me?"
He doesn't answer.
We both turn to the flickering screen one last time.
The letters twist and shift.
The anomaly is still watching.
And now—we make our move.