Chapter 4

"Kneel."

The fake captain tore off his mask of civility, his face twisting with rage as he screamed at me.

I stared down the two dark gun barrels and didn't move.

My mind was running at full speed — calculating distances, angles.

"I said, kneel!"

He stepped forward and raised his radio, swinging it down toward my head.

Now！

I ducked sharply, dodging the blow, and launched myself forward. I grabbed the wrist holding the radio and twisted hard.

Crack.

The sound of bone snapping was sharp and clean.

"AHHH—!"

The fake captain let out a blood-curdling shriek.

I swung his massive body in front of me, using him as a human shield.

Phff. Phff.

Two muffled shots. Both bullets hit the fake captain square in the chest. Blood bloomed instantly across his white uniform.

In the split second the two hitmen hesitated, I shoved his body aside, rolled into a tactical dive, and snatched a dinner knife off the floor.

It left my hand like a flash of lightning. The blade buried itself in the left hitman's throat.

He clutched at his neck as blood poured between his fingers, then dropped straight down.

The hitman on the right went pale. He barely started to swing his gun around before I was already on him — a vicious knee strike connecting hard with his jaw.

Thud.

He flew off his feet and slammed into the wall, out cold.

Five seconds. Start to finish.

This was muscle memory forged across ninety-nine deaths — beaten into me through countless beatings and killings.

I was breathing hard. I picked up the handgun from the floor, turned around, and pointed it straight at Victoria.

She stood completely still, staring at the blood and bodies scattered across the floor. Not a trace of fear on her face.

Instead, she smiled — a strange, unsettling smile, like someone who already knew exactly how this would end.

"Nice moves, Eleanor."

She even stepped forward, pressing her forehead directly against the barrel.

"Go ahead. Shoot me. Kill me."

Her eyes were full of challenge.

"You think I won't?" I kept my finger on the trigger. Rage burned in my chest.

"Oh, you would." Victoria's lips curved into a mocking smile. "But if you kill me, you won't make it out either."

A mocking smirk tugged at the corner of Victoria's mouth.

"Eleanor — doesn't it seem strange to you? Why do you always wake up again at eight o'clock every time you die?"

My pupils snapped tight.

She... how did she know about the loop?

I had never told a single person.

"Did you actually think this was God giving you a second chance?"

Victoria laughed — loud, raw, and cruel.

"Don't be naive. There is no such thing as a time loop."

"Everything you've been experiencing — this ship, this ocean, me — all of it is fake！"

She threw her arms wide, like she was unveiling a masterpiece.

"Welcome to the Abyss System, Eleanor."

"It's a virtual reality interrogation chamber hardwired directly into your brain."

"You're not at sea at all. Right now, you're lying in a stasis pod in Vance Group's underground lab, with electrodes planted all over your skull."

The words hit me like a wrecking ball.

Virtual reality？

Neural interrogation？

The room spun around me.

"That's... that's not possible..." My voice came out barely above a whisper. The gun trembled in my hands.

"Why not?"

Victoria pressed closer. "You're holding the highest-level master access codes for Vance Group. We're talking about wealth large enough to buy a small country."

"But your willpower is too strong. Standard truth serums and physical interrogation don't work on you."

"So they built this system."

"To put you through the most hopeless deaths imaginable, over and over, in a virtual world. Grinding down your mental defenses one loop at a time."

"Until you break completely — and hand over the codes."

She pointed to the clock on the wall.

"The ship sinking at midnight is the system's forced restart protocol. Every restart causes irreversible damage to your brain."

"Ninety-nine times, Eleanor. Your neural pathways are stretched to the breaking point — like a rubber band about to snap."

"This is the last loop. If you don't hand over the codes, your brain will flatline at midnight tonight. And in the real world, you will be a vegetable. Forever."