9:10 a.m. – Surveillance Office, Helix Tower
A security officer nad Ryle sat hunched over the monitor bank, eyes flicking across feed after feed—hallways, lobbies, rooftops. Nothing moved. Nothing ever changed.
But this morning, sothing did.
In Cara 3F, a woman in a gray coat entered a restricted stairwell. She passed by the biotric lock without swiping her badge.
Ryle blinked.
Rewound the footage.
Played it again.
Sa result.
He leaned forward, heart quickening. That door had three layers of security. No one—no one—walked through it unless they were pre-cleared.
But this woman? She moved with intention. Like she’d done it a hundred tis.
No. A thousand.
Ryle’s fingers trembled as he reached for the ergency channel.
Then stopped.
Because when he looked back at the footage—
The hallway was empty.
The woman was gone.
Like she’d never been there.
---
9:20 a.m. – Hidden Base, Underground
Eron and Talia hunched over the map, finalizing keystone movents. Every piece they placed, every human pawn they aligned, brought them closer to dismantling Helix from within.
But neither of them noticed the screen flicker behind them.
For a brief mont, their cara feed looped backward. And a third figure flashed across the fra—a silhouette standing behind them.
Watching.
Not acting.
Just... present.
By the ti Eron turned, the feed had corrected itself.
He narrowed his eyes. "Sothing’s wrong."
---
9:35 a.m. – East Plaza Café
Across the city, a barista spilled a cup of coffee and cursed.
A man at the corner table didn’t flinch. His eyes were locked on a small black notebook.
He flipped the pages—over and over.
Each page had one word written, scrawled thousands of tis:
> "Repeat."
He looked at the waitress as she passed. "Today’s special?"
She blinked. "Sa as yesterday."
He smiled.
"I know."
9:40 a.m. – Hidden Base, Underground
Talia tapped the surveillance console, rewinding the feed fra by fra.
"There," she said, freezing the screen.
Behind them—just for a flicker—stood a blurred figure. Black hoodie. No visible face. Impossible positioning. As if the system itself couldn’t decide whether he belonged there.
Eron stepped closer.
"I didn’t see him. Not even for a second."
"That’s because we weren’t ant to," Talia replied. "He’s hiding in the data itself. Not the room."
Eron muttered, "Another walker. But not like us."
She nodded grimly. "A ghost in the loop."
---
9:55 a.m. – East Plaza Café
The man in the hoodie stirred his coffee, watching the world move in slow, predictable rhythms.
He had tried dying.
Jumping.
Burning.
Sleeping.
Screaming.
Begging.
Nothing worked.
Then one day—he stopped trying. And that’s when it changed.
He began to observe.
Now, he wasn’t seeking a way out. He was seeking them—the others who rembered. The ones playing chess on a board where no one else even saw the pieces.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a photo.
Two faces. Blurred but familiar.
Eron. Talia.
The third loopwalker smiled faintly.
"Finally."
---
10:00 a.m. – Loop Reset Approaches
As the digital clock on Eron’s console ticked closer to zero, he jotted final notes.
Talia looked at him. "You’re not going to sleep today?"
Eron shook his head. "I need to test sothing."
She paused. "And if you die?"
"I’ll see you on the next try," he said with a smirk.
But even as the seconds counted down, he couldn’t shake the sensation that soone else was already watching tomorrow before it arrived.
10:03 a.m. – Rooftop of Helix Building
The wind was still.
Eron stood alone, eyes scanning the horizon, mind racing faster than the city beneath him. For 10,438 tries, this had been his loop. His battlefield. His domain.
But today, for the first ti, he wasn’t the only one who rembered.
A soft footstep echoed behind him.
He turned.
The man was already there—hooded, silent, calm.
No words.
No questions.
Just a nod.
Eron narrowed his eyes. "You’re not surprised to see ."
The hooded man finally spoke, voice low, like it hadn’t been used in years.
"I’ve watched you break the world a thousand different ways. This is the first ti you’ve noticed ."
Eron’s instincts flared. "Who are you?"
"I’m Try One."
---
10:05 a.m. – Helix Security Archives, Basent Level
Talia accessed Helix’s oldest server logs, diving past firewalls with practiced grace.
She traced a familiar glitch—data that reset every day, except one sequence. One string of code that had existed long before Eron’s loop began.
> [TRY 1 – CYCLE 0]
Status: ABANDONED
User: [REDACTED]
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
"This guy’s loop didn’t start with us."
She leaned back, goosebumps rising.
Soone had been trapped long before Eron ever took his first leap.
---
10:07 a.m. – Rooftop, Helix Building
"Why haven’t you approached before?" Eron asked, folding his arms.
"Because I learned the hard way," the hooded man said, "that if you touch the loop wrong, it touches you back."
He stepped forward, eyes finally visible—tired, hollow, ancient.
"I burned through 30,000 tries before I realized escape wasn’t the goal. Control was."
Eron’s eyes flickered with recognition.
"I tried to end it," the man continued. "You tried to win it. But maybe... maybe together, we break it."
10:10 a.m. – Rooftop, Helix Building
Eron kept his voice calm, but his mind was racing.
"You want to team up?" he asked. "After spying on for thousands of loops?"
Try One gave a dry smile. "I wasn’t spying. I was asuring. Watching you manipulate an entire organization, rewrite alliances, and evolve faster than I thought possible."
Eron didn’t flinch. "So you’ve been a shadow this whole ti."
"I was learning how you beat the loop," Try One said. "Because my way? Just caused collapse. Reset. Insanity."
Eron’s eyes narrowed. "What’s your angle?"
Try One paused.
"There’s sothing coming. The loop isn’t stable anymore. You feel it, don’t you? The repeats are... twitching. Glitches. People rembering slivers. So events not resetting cleanly."
Eron clenched his jaw. He had noticed. A waiter who rembered his face. A cara that kept footage for an extra second. Talia dreaming of things that hadn’t happened yet.
"Then what do you propose?"
Try One stepped close.
"A rger. Your manipulation. My knowledge of the loop’s roots. Together, we don’t escape it—we control it. We overwrite the rules."
---
10:15 a.m. – Central Control Room
Talia’s voice ca through Eron’s earpiece. "You’re not alone on that rooftop, are you?"
Eron turned slightly. "You saw him?"
"Not clearly. But the caras glitched—hard. I think he’s tied into the foundation of the loop."
Try One gave a half-smile. "She’s smart. Keep her close."
Talia continued, her voice low. "Eron... if you’re about to make a deal, be careful. Anyone who survives that long in the loop knows how to play a deeper ga than we’ve seen."
Eron muted the mic. "One condition," he said to Try One. "You give full access to your mory logs. Every failed try. Every cause of reset."
Try One hesitated.
"That’s dangerous," he said. "So truths break minds."
Eron’s eyes glead. "Good. I’m done playing small."
---
10:17 a.m. – Loop Pulse Detected
Below them, ti itself seed to shudder.
People paused in mid-step. Birds froze mid-air. A wave of distortion rippled through the skyline.
Try One turned toward it.
"It’s starting. We triggered sothing."
Eron checked his watch. The numbers were lting.
"Whatever’s coming," he said, "we face it as players—not pieces."
They shook hands.
The alliance was made.
To be continue...
🌟 Author’s Note 🌟
Hey dear readers! 😊
First of all, thank you so much for sticking with The 100,000th Try. Your support ans the world to , and it’s because of you that this story keeps growing one Chapter at a ti.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings about the story so far! What do you think of Kaen’s journey? Any favorite monts or characters? Your feedback helps improve and keeps inspired to write more for you.
Drop a comnt, leave a review, or even just say hi—every word from you motivates like crazy!
Stay aweso,
– Ani Mastermind ✍️💫
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