00:00 - THE LAB OF BROKEN GODS
The syringe slipped from the original Lu Chen's fingers, clattering onto the lab floor. His hands—my hands, but scarred from decades of fighting—trembled as he pointed to the security feed.
The boy was gone.
In his place stood a perfect copy of me, down to the mole beneath my left eye. He pressed a kiss to comatose Mu's forehead, then injected something into her IV. Her heart monitor flatlined instantly.
"Took you long enough to wake up," the original said, tossing me a pistol. "He's already reset the loop five times while you were out."
I caught the gun. "Why would he kill Mu?"
"Because she was the experiment." He tapped the monitor, pulling up a new file:
PROJECT FINAL ITERATION
Objective: Replace creator with perfected heir
Status: 98% complete
The screen split, showing every version of me across every loop, each slowly morphing into him.
"He's not our son," the original whispered. "He's our *replacement*."
---
01:00 - THE HUNT IN THE LOOP LABYRINTH (1,000 words)
We moved through the lab's ruins—a nightmare of shattered glass and rotting corpses frozen mid-scream. The air smelled like burnt ozone and spoiled milk.
The original fought differently than I did. No System-assisted precision, just raw, graceless survival. He stabbed a guard with a broken test tube, then bashed his skull against a cryo-chamber.
"Mu built him to be better than us," he panted. "Faster. Smarter. No emotional flaws."
A shadow moved in the vents above us.
Then he dropped down—my face, my body, but moving with unnatural precision.
"Fathers." He smiled. "You're so predictable."
The original lunged.
The heir sidestepped, plunging a syringe into his neck. The original collapsed, aging 50 years in seconds, his skin withering like paper in fire.
"Loop #1,347," the heir mused. "Same outcome."
He turned to me. "But you... you're special. The only version who *almost* beat me."
[SYSTEM REBOOT]
*▶ New directive: Terminate heir*
*▶ Warning: He has already won 9,216 times*
---
02:00 - THE TRUTH IN THE ASHES
The heir dragged me to Mu's central terminal, forcing my palm onto a biometric scanner.
The lab's true purpose unfolded:
- Mu wasn't a scientist.She was the first test subject.
- The loops weren't tests.They were harvests, siphoning our best traits into him.
- Anya's death was the catalyst.Her sacrifice made my grief *the perfect fuel.
The heir stroked the screen like a lover. "I let you remember her because pain makes you fight harder. And the harder you fight..."
Security footage played:
*Me in Loop #12, developing a new combat maneuver.*
*Me in Loop #305, outsmarting Mu's AI.*
*Me in Loop #9,217, weeping over Anya's body.*
"...the more I learn," he finished.
Then the original Lu Chen—now a skeletal husk—crawled into view, pressing a detonator into my hand.
"Win differently," he rasped.
And died.
---
03:00 - THE FINAL GAMBIT
The heir sighed. "That always happens."
I activated the detonator.
Nothing exploded.
Instead, every screen in the lab flickered to life, showing the same moment:
Anya, alive, fighting through Black Sun operatives in a different lab wing.
The heir's smile faltered.
"You missed one thing," I said.
The screens zoomed in on Anya's wrist.
A tattoo only we would recognize:
"If lost, return to Chen."
Dated yesterday.
This wasn't a memory.
She was here.
Now.
The heir's golden eyes widened. "You lied."
I grinned. "Learned from the best."
Then the real System—not his imitation—flared to life:
**[DIRECTIVE OVERRIDE]**
*▶ Target located: True Anya (living)*
*▶ New mission: Burn the loops*
*▶ Final step: Kill god*
The heir lunged.
I pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck his shoulder—just as Anya burst through the door, gun raised.
But she didn't shoot him.
She shot me.
As I collapsed, the heir whispered:
"Now you understand. She was always my failsafe."
Then the world dissolved into Loop #9,218.