Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

He changed his tone and probed, "Do you remember what we did together yesterday?"

"Yesterday?" Mu Yuan blinked, looking completely bewildered. "We didn't even meet yesterday! What's wrong with you?"

"We got married!" Cheng Cheng reminded him. "Do you remember? Yesterday, we got married!"

"what?"

Mu Yuan pointed at herself in shock, then at Cheng Cheng: "You... and me?"

"correct."

"marry?"

"Yes, we were married!"

“Well… cough cough,” Mu Yuan coughed lightly, her tone tinged with sympathy, “Cheng Cheng, I know I’m very beautiful, and it’s normal for people to daydream about marrying me… but you’re still the first one who dared to say it to my face, you’re a brave man.”

hiss……

Her expression didn't seem fake, and she certainly wasn't the type to play pranks.

Has she forgotten what happened yesterday?

Or is it... a time loop?

Thinking about it this way, many things don't add up... For example, I clearly passed out and fell asleep fully clothed last night, but I still have to get dressed and wash up this morning...

Something just doesn't feel right.

A string of time loop stories flashed through Cheng Cheng's mind instantly. From Groundhog Day to Edge of Tomorrow, countless movies, TV series, games, and novels had similar settings. He himself had rewound countless times in games, loading saves, starting over, and experiencing time loops...

Could it be that reality is also a game, and I've rolled back in time?

I need to check what day it is today.

Damn it, how could college students on vacation possibly remember the date!

Cheng Cheng took out his phone and glanced at it. July 21st, an ordinary day.

He silently memorized this time.

"Don't you have anything you want to ask?" Mu Yuan asked curiously, looking at Cheng Cheng's unpredictable expression. "Like the Primal God Cult, the Fusion Warriors, and the demons..."

"Nothing."

Cheng Cheng leaned back in his chair and began to organize his thoughts.

If it really is a time loop, then there are a few questions:

First, why is he the only one who retains the memory?

Second, what is the trigger condition for the loop? Time? Death? Or something else?

Third, how do we get out?

“Um… since you don’t want to ask,” Mu Yuan said tentatively when she saw that he didn’t speak, “is there anything you want to do? If not, I have a suggestion.”

She reached into the drawer and pulled out a photograph: "Look, you're not getting any younger. I have a friend here, beautiful and kind-hearted..."

"I want to go on a blind date," Cheng Cheng blurted out.

He planned to go to the matchmaking event hosted by Wang Po to see if yesterday's incident would happen again.

Mu Yuan was slightly taken aback, then overjoyed: "We want to go together! Let's go see this Zhang Xiaomeng..."

"No, one person is too few, it's not fun."

"what?"

"Any group parties? I mean, I just downloaded the 'Many Children, Many Blessings' system, which rewards you for having children, so I'd like to go on blind dates with a lot of people at once."

"..." Mu Yuan was silent for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands: "Did you cooperate with Professor Li Wenya of the Human Alliance to install a surveillance device in my brain to control me?"

Cheng Cheng: "Huh???"

"Our ideas are so compatible today!" Mu Yuan's eyes lit up. "I was just thinking that if the blind date doesn't work out, I'll take you to a matchmaking show! I'll call and pre-order two tickets right now!"

She immediately asked the nurse to make the contact.

But a moment later, the nurse returned, puzzled: "The production team said that Granny Wang has mysteriously disappeared today, and they can't find her no matter how hard they look, so the show has been canceled."

Cheng Cheng: "..."

Granny Wang has disappeared? No, that's not right. It must be because I killed the demon, and its embers...

Cheng Cheng lowered his head, trying to sense the fire within him: burning at the stake, puppets, injustice, plane crash... marriage.

Trying to use the power of marriage, a warm feeling spread from his chest. He looked up at Mu Yuan and the nurse—red lines emerged from their bodies, dense and numerous, some extending to the door, some pointing to the ceiling, and some intertwined into a knot.

Yesterday, he used the power of the Fire Seed to kill the wedding demon, and Mu Yuan dragged the corpse away to study it. If time were reset, the demon and the Fire Seed should also be reset, but just like in the game, the Fire Seed obtained in the previous cycle has been retained until now.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between games and reality.

Could it be that... I am the only real player of "Earth Online", and even if I roll back, I can retain my previous memories and attributes?

Cheng Cheng originally disliked the game "Earth Online".

Player reviews are overwhelmingly negative, with even Kobe Bryant quitting the game because it lacks landing protection. More importantly, the game is sexist – despite having many skilled players, they are all concentrated among male players, while there are no skilled female players.

Fortunately, the North American server recently updated, and now there are also skilled female players.

But what if I told you I was the only real player in this game, the only real person, and everyone else was an NPC—

Then isn't this world my playground?

Cheng Cheng leaned back in his chair and began to seriously consider how to maximize his profits by utilizing the time loop.

Accumulate wealth?

The rollback only lasts one day. What's the point of accumulating a lot of money? It'll all be wiped out when you wake up.

Playing with women?

No, I have money. And with Mu Yuan backing me, if I want to play with women, I just say the word, and she'll happily bring a bunch of women to breed with...

crime?

To be honest, I did a lot of murder and arson in Fate/stay night, but I didn't find it thrilling, exciting, or fun.

Moreover, before confirming that one can rewind time after dying in reality, one must not waste a life that is only given to one person.

Cheng Cheng's mind went completely blank.

I finally encountered this satisfying plot point where the same thing keeps repeating itself on the same day, only to find that there's nothing to enjoy about it. I might as well go back and play a few rounds of "Yuan Shen".

But time has been looped, and even "Yuanshen" has stopped updating, so there's nothing to play!

No! I have to escape the time loop, otherwise I'll never get to play the next version of "Gen Shen" in my lifetime!

Mu Yuan complained, "I finally thought of a good place," "What's wrong with Granny Wang?" "Should we go to the bathhouse and order a few?" "Forget it, those kinds of people have such low IQs they can't produce good babies." She then turned to the stunned Cheng Cheng and asked, "What should we do? Should we still go on this blind date?"

Cheng Cheng did not answer.

He was thinking about another question—should he tell Mu Yuan about the cycle?

According to Occam's Razor—"entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily"—given the certainty of demonic existence in reality, we shouldn't add reasons like "reality is also a game" or other justifications. Therefore, the most likely explanation is...

A kind of extraordinary demonic disaster.

The Genshin Impact cult is the most professional organization in the real world for fighting demons, and having an organization to help is always better than trying to figure it out on your own.

Cheng Cheng looked at Mu Yuan, who was holding several photos of beautiful women, muttering, "This girl is really good-looking," and "Should we schedule another time?"

"Mu Yuan," Cheng Cheng said.

"Ok?"

"You might not believe what I'm about to say."

"You're not playing 'Yuanshen' anymore?" Mu Yuan exclaimed in surprise. "No way, that's really hard to believe."

"I'm stuck in a time loop."

The photo in Mu Yuan's hand fell onto the table.

Cheng Cheng began to speak.

He recounted everything that happened yesterday—his blind date with Zhang Xiaomeng, the horrific incident at the matchmaking event, and the demonic genes that Mu Yuan had acquired…

After listening, Mu Yuan remained silent for a long time.

She stared at Cheng Cheng, her eyes shifting constantly—doubt, confusion, contemplation, vigilance, before finally settling into calm.

"Are you obsessed with online novels?" she asked. "And how did you find out about my genes?"

"I was serious."

"Seriously..."

Mu Yuan stood up and paced back and forth in the laboratory, the hem of her white coat swaying gently with her steps.

“This makes things even more complicated.” She stopped and looked at Cheng Cheng. “Why are you the only one who remembers the events from the previous loop? What makes you special?”

She racked her brains trying to figure it out.

"And someone capable of resetting demonic events across the entire world must be at least a demon lord... Who could it be?"

The leader divided demons into lower, higher, demon lords, and primordial demons. There were countless lower and higher demons, but only twenty-two lords. The leader informed all members of the church of their names and authority.

The only one who holds the relevant authority is—

"The Wheel of Fortune, the demon of reincarnation."

Mu Yuan took a deep breath, walked quickly to the table, and pressed the intercom button: "Have someone notify the council members that a major demonic incident has been discovered and a meeting is needed to discuss it immediately."

After saying that, she looked at Cheng Cheng and said, "You play on your phone for a while and don't go out. I'm going to a meeting."

…………

Three hours later, Mu Yuan returned.

Her complexion was even worse than in the morning.

"It's confirmed." She plopped down in a chair, her voice a little hoarse. "It's Witch's Night."

"Witch's Night?"

"This naming is related to a witch from the Witch's Guild. Simply put, it refers to a large-scale demonic event—usually manifested as a massive influx of demons into reality simultaneously, led by at least one demon lord." Mu Yuan rubbed her temples. "It's confirmed that there have been demonic events of unprecedented scale across the world today. And the leading demon lord is very likely the 'Wheel of Fate' reincarnation demon."