Closed Loop World and Flowing World

Rebecca calmed down.

For some reason, when she heard Oliver's sinister laughter and his last words, she didn't feel even more terrified. Instead, a long-lost sense of peace welled up from the depths of her soul.

Was Oliver mocking her? No, she felt that Oliver was more likely pitying himself.

Even if she stays here carrying the truth from today onwards, it cannot change the fact that Oliver has endured so much pain alone for so long.

Compared to others, she was already very lucky. While she was alive, she wasn't the one who was bullied. After she died... at least from the moment she started to remember, she was two people. No matter how much pain she was in, she knew that she had someone like her.

But Oliver, Oliver was all alone in the past, and who could know the pain he suffered in the cycle of reincarnation? He didn't even have the right to speak of it.

"That's fine too."

Rebecca couldn't believe she could smile at this moment, but her smile appeared at the perfect time, flowing naturally with a sudden sense of relief. "So what if you're pitiful? I'll stay with you from now on, consider it atonement."

Oliver abruptly lowered his head, habitually using his hair to conceal his expression, but Yu Xing could see clearly that Oliver's hands, placed under the table, were clasped tightly together, so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, drawing blood.

"That's surprising." The white-haired girl's presence was sometimes very faint, sometimes even fainter; even when she was seated, many people might not be able to see her.

"Rebecca, your attitude is really strange." She tilted her head and looked Rebecca up and down. "You're the foolish one, the arrogant one, the righteous one, and the humble one. You once followed the rumors and were prejudiced against Oliver, but now you accept your fate so easily, and even begin to understand Oliver without any instruction. I don't understand this kind of human nature."

"I don't understand it myself." Rebecca sat down in the nearest seat, her already blood-stained dress now stained crimson. "I just feel that the mistakes of the past can't be undone, and the future is destined to be painful, but it's okay, this is already good enough."

"If I could choose again, I would still think this is better. Rather than blindly repeating foolishness and mistakes, being self-righteous and revealing that ugly side, it's better to be clear-headed and let the pain seep into my bones."

"At least this way, I can feel like I'm real."

Yu Xing applauded enthusiastically, saying, "I must say, you are indeed very clear-headed. I have to thank you for not letting me witness a clichéd drama that gradually became boring amidst fear and resentment."

Zhao Mou coughed twice. "Actually, the trope of lying down and accepting one's fate after regaining one's memories isn't very novel."

Wen Qinghuai: "..." He really doesn't act like an outsider in front of NPCs.

"That's different. In my experience, if we enter the cycle again, Rebecca will be able to stand up for Oliver when he's being bullied, right?" Qu Xuanqing suddenly asked, her question directed at the white-haired girl. "Since nightmares exist and still possess the precious ability to forgive, then this shouldn't be a repeat of the same mistakes."

"Wow, it seems your experience is indeed very valuable." The white-haired girl cheerfully clapped along with Yu Xing, mimicking Qu Xuanqing. "That's right, since Rebecca is no longer bound by reincarnation, she can certainly choose what she wants to do."

As she spoke, her gaze fixed on the stunned Rebecca: "Whether you continue playing your original role, a bystander who allows violence to repeat itself, or whether you become the one to break down the pretense when Oliver is being bullied, the decision is in your hands."

"Of course, objectively speaking, I don't think you have enough power to stop this. There's a greater chance that you'll become everyone's next target for bullying because you spoke up for Oliver. Everything Oliver went through might be repeated in your life."

Rebecca shook her head.

The white-haired girl laughed and said, "Ah, it's understandable not to stick your neck out. Things have already come to this point. Actually, this punishment is already a bit too harsh on you. You can choose for yourself—"

"What I mean is, it's okay, it's okay to be bullied by everyone." A fleeting glint appeared in Rebecca's eyes. "I will."

"I don't need this unnecessary drama." Before Rebecca could offer any more firm promises, Oliver scoffed, adopting a stance of refusal. "Since we'll always start over, what difference does it make what we do? Just to satisfy your own urge to apologize?"

His fingernails dug deeper and deeper into his flesh, drawing more and more blood, but he seemed to feel no pain—perhaps he had gotten used to it.

"You think being bullied with me is compensation for me? And then what? You get bullied, and the cycle repeats itself, but they won't remember ever bullying you! Only you ridiculously think you've done something great. Wake up, the cycle has no end. What you're doing is just making hope fade away faster."

Oliver's voice was hoarse and sharp, his sarcasm laid bare. It was the first time he had ever spoken so succinctly, but the deducers listening in looked on with strange expressions.

Isn't this just a roundabout way of preventing Rebecca from getting involved and experiencing what it's like to be isolated and bullied by the entire class?

He meant well, but he had to say it so harshly. I didn't expect Oliver to be such a tsundere at that level.

Rebecca seemed startled and returned to silence.

Oliver remained silent, his face grim. The white-haired girl seemed to want to say something but then shut her mouth. The two remaining red-armband-wearing students seemed to have completely ignored the conversation, silently reading and doing their homework, as if isolated by a mysterious force—they were already corrupted by St. Johnis Middle School, unaffected by the nightmares' killings, and not considered part of the cycle of reincarnation. Therefore, when the class's own cycle of reincarnation was mentioned, they couldn't hear it.

The atmosphere froze for a moment.

"By the way, does anyone remember how long the class monitor was in the office?" Wen Qinghuai suddenly remembered.

This class monitor is really strange.

As a member of the Red Armband, he wasn't completely detached from the affairs of Class Four, but he wasn't as apathetic as most Red Armband students; at least he retained a shred of humanity.

And now it's gone forever.

Yu Xing wanted to go out and take a look; he could always bring a teacher over to see the results himself. However, the white-haired girl stopped him, saying there was no need.

"Now is the point of reincarnation. Because the nightmare killed them all, the reincarnation has been brought forward." The white-haired girl rested her chin on her hand. "At this point, after you leave, you won't be able to find this class anymore. Everyone in this class will reappear tomorrow morning when class starts."

Since she had plenty of free time and seemed to be in a good mood, she decided to explain to the transfer students her understanding of the school and its relationship with Class 4.

The timelines of all the students in Class 4, Grade 3, and St. Johnis Middle School are two intersecting straight lines with only one point of intersection. It is this intersection, existing in the past, that allowed the class, which originally belonged to another world, to merge into this school and become one of its tasks.

So the paradox does exist. Time at St. Johnis Middle School keeps moving forward. Every year they have a new first grade, a new second grade, and a new third grade, but Class 3-4 is forever Class 3-4. Their time is an endless circle.

Qu Xuanqing raised her slender eyebrows. From the very beginning until now, the most terrifying type of deduction she had encountered was the kind that unknowingly altered the deducer's perception. But what she found most troublesome was always the disordered timeline. "Flowing time and static time cannot move forward simultaneously. If every transfer student encounters this Class 4 of Grade 3, and then becomes history in the eyes of later generations, then time here will be completely disordered."

"It's not that exaggerated. From what I can remember, in order to allow the school's flowing timeline and this class's static timeline to coexist, the Principal formulated a school rule." The white-haired girl was visibly trying hard to recall. "Hmm, quite a balancing act! The Principal only used a very simple rule to manipulate the laws of time. I wonder if it can give you any Spiritual Sense."

Wen Qinghuai said, "I think I've already guessed it."

Zhao Mou: "Indeed."

Yu Xing: "If it were me..."

They looked at Zhao Yijiu.

Zhao Yijiu: "..." He really wanted to beat all three of them up.

His tone was shrouded in gloom, as he spoke eerily, like a ghost. "Keep Class 4 for the third year. Once Class 4 of the second year moves up, the students will be reassigned to other classes."

In this way, the students in Class 4 of Grade 3 will always stay in this undisturbed class, while the other students will experience normal advancement, graduation, and death. Class 4 of Grade 3 will only find that every year, the students in their grade will be replaced by a new batch. But the problem is that every year they will be reincarnated and will not remember what the students in other classes looked like in the last reincarnation.

It was both a coincidence and an inevitable information gap.

"I knew you'd figure it out. You're definitely much better than the Principal of this world, aren't you?" Zhao Mou pushed up his glasses and grinned like a fox.

"You're really clever. It seems you didn't need my reminder at all," the white-haired girl pouted.

"So this is how we're constantly reincarnating," Rebecca murmured thoughtfully after listening to the entire discussion. "I really do need to stop their atrocities within this cycle of reincarnation."

"Didn't you understand what I just said?" Oliver's tone was very unfriendly.

Rebecca took a deep breath and said to Oliver, who was standing like a hedgehog with all his quills raised, "How will you know if you don't try? The endless cycle is the same process, the same result. What if I could change the process?"

Clearly, after hearing more of the truth, she gradually accepted the chaotic memories that surfaced in her mind, and she quickly found a point that could be considered a loophole.

"As long as we can change this trajectory, the possibilities will increase. As long as there's even the slightest chance they'll realize their mistakes, then..." Her pupils dilated, "Keep trying, and eventually there will be people like me, who will stop reincarnating and instead regain their memories, gradually recalling everything from countless reincarnations."

"In that case! Although it will take a very long time, as long as more and more people are forgiven by nightmares, just six or seven will be enough! As long as six or seven people stand up for you when you are bullied, you will not be isolated and helpless. A class can isolate one or two people, but it cannot isolate a group. As long as those who want to bully you know that their bullying will not have any effect, they will give up on you, then..."

Rebecca's speech quickened, and her words caused Oliver to gradually loosen his grip on her hands, startled.

"If the conditions for being bullied are gone, then the meaning of reincarnation is also gone."

"If a cycle is a year, and we nip any signs of you being bullied in the bud on the first day each time, then the whole year will be normal... at least in this respect. Then the cycle will no longer be so scary. The worst outcome would just be that we live in the same year forever, but that's much better than the darkness we have now, isn't it?"

Rebecca's eyes lit up as she looked at the white-haired girl with a glimmer of hope. "Is this feasible?"

White-haired girl. "..."

The person in charge of overseeing the mission remained silent.

Because what Rebecca said was entirely achievable.

But in all those years before, no one had ever raised this possibility, and Oliver, in his despair, gave up resisting time and time again, numbly using nightmares to justify his revenge.

This is unavoidable; every previous cycle was exactly the same, a dead end. The reason Rebecca was able to break free from the past endings this time was because a transfer student provided a breakthrough.

Many transfer students have come before, but those transfer students may not necessarily meet Rebecca in the cafeteria on their first day, learn about the whole school from Rebecca, and thus establish a connection with Rebecca, making Rebecca pay more attention to the transfer students.

No transfer student would be like Yu Xing, who not only sat next to Oliver but also conspicuously threw herself into the center of the storm when Oliver was being bullied, causing Rebecca, who was an outsider, to subconsciously get involved as well.

If even one point were missing, Rebecca might not feel enough remorse to be forgiven by the nightmare.

This one unexpected success was the culmination of countless possibilities.

But all it takes is this one unexpected event. With someone who can actively change the course of events, why fear that the outcome cannot be changed?

The outcome may change time and time again, but time is long, and in the unseen, distant future, there will always be a possibility of someone being forgiven again. As long as those forgiven form a small group to protect Oliver, bullying will not be able to occur.

This is a task; without bullying, the task wouldn't exist.

If the mission doesn't exist, then the cycle of reincarnation... also ceases to exist.

The white-haired girl discovered that if they really succeeded, the ending would be even better than Rebecca had said. The cycle of reincarnation would completely disappear, their time rings would merge into the timeline of St. Johnis Middle School, and then the students of Class 4, Grade 3 could follow this timeline, graduate, and step into a new world that existed only in their false memories.

Although it is destined to take a long time.

Although graduating from this school is extremely difficult.

Although this new world is dirty, chaotic, and twisted.

But it is a vibrant, dynamic, and not a closed loop world.