Anon''s brain exploded and he lost consciousness.


    He opened his bloodred eyes and observed his situation. A moment later.


    Anon''s brain exploded once again.


    Again.


    Again.


    Again.


    Anon knew this wouldn''t accomplish anything. He was simply venting the rage that had started to build up. Perhaps in the past. He had wanted what he called the ''protagonist halo''.


    He had experienced a time loop in the past. But the main difference between then and now was that he was the creator of that time loop and it relied on energy.


    This time loop seemed to be far more consistent. It not only didn''t use energy. But it seemed he truly had infinite attempts. He was trapped.


    Both physically and mentally!


    He was trapped in a mortal body.


    What was the difference between this and his sealed state?


    Anon considered himself a little ''crazy''. But he felt he had never felt so much anger. The target for resurrection wasn''t even him! Why was he bound to this body!


    Why couldn''t he escape!


    After a few hours of dying repeatedly. He calmed down.


    He sighed and used all his wit. All his determination.


    His thinking was flexible. But there was a limit to his brain. He went through all possible scenarios.


    "I lack the tools to dig."


    "I would likely just end up buried underground."


    Anon took a deep breath and hit one of the walls in the ritual room. His wrist broke as his arm turned into a paste. He used all the potential of the human body in his attempt to cause a ruckus.


    But all that left him with was a disfigured arm that was barely attached. He focused on the pain to clear his thoughts.


    His brain exploded as he went back to the start.


    "Any progress I make is almost meaningless. I will just reset."


    "I need to take a different approach..."


    Anon thought this was like a bottleneck.


    A literal barrier trapping his state.


    What does one need to do when they encounter any sort of bottleneck?


    "Enlightenment!"


    "The harder I try to escape. The more I allow my emotions to run wild. The less likely I am to escape. Think about it clearly... I have infinite time..."


    "Infinite possibilities!"


    Maybe Anon was just hyping himself up. But from this moment on. He no longer tried to escape. He embraced his short lives of living in darkness underground.


    Anon spent years wandering the same tunnels he had memorized. He was looking for a sign. Even just a slight change would be welcome!


    But it never happened.


    He wasn''t discouraged however. He continued to live life to the fullest. He tried to find the joy in the small things. He tried being a cannibal and even managed to extend the time before death.


    By consuming the corpses of the five sacrifices. He lived longer.


    Decades passed.


    But Anon wasn''t new to waiting long periods of time.


    Centuries passed.


    Anon grew numb. He entered a special ''state''. When he appeared back in the ritual spot. He would collapse to the ground in a instant and arrange himself into the most ''comfortable'' state.


    He lay on the ground in the center of the ritual.


    At first. He would go through his past memories. Looking for hints and clues that could help him. He wasn''t trying to escape anymore.


    He was just bored.


    Anon had memories of idleness of centillions of years. But the cycle of life and death was sort of like trying to enter a state of flow, but right when you are about to do so. Someone stabs you in the eye.


    It was unbelievably obnoxious and annoying.


    Anon eventually developed a set of excercises that did nothing at all. He had run out of ideas and was tired of living in the past or looking forward to the future.


    <hr>


    A thousand years later...


    In a cave underground. In the center of a ritual. A man with eyes closed remained in a perfect position. The remnants of a cult had attempted a resurrection ritual for their god.


    They sacrificed themselves as the body in the center shook.


    But this body seemed to be ''dead''.


    It reacted like a corpse. Retaining its position perfectly.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    4 days later.


    This seemingly ''dead'' body actually died.


    Anon restarted as usual. But he smiled.


    Anon had tried grasping his hand in the process of dying. Anon realized that what he was experiencing was a dead end unless he got creative.


    He developed tens of thousands of theories and plans that he tested throughout this millenium. But everything had failed. Anon thought he had something called the ''protagonist halo''. How could he fail?


    What was the point of his struggle!?


    With each death. He didn''t simply grow numb. It was like he was sharpening his axe before chopping the tree. His personality and values were becoming more and more consistent.


    He was developing a plan


    In the last century. He decided to ''log'' each loop. The logs were incredibly simple as he no longer explored the underground chamber. The secrets of its rune shape were never uncovered.


    Anon spoke to himself.


    "Loop #9125..."


    "In loop #9124. I survived for 93 hours."


    Anon started to think to himself.


    The root of all suffering is being a mortal.


    Being trapped!


    Liberation was ''removing'' this weakness. Anon''s thinking slowly started to become mechanical. He spent all his time counting. Just like he had once done for centillions of years.


    Now, he was just doing so with a mortal body.


    He planned to do so for eternity.


    He had only decided to take this route in the last century. He had truthfully experienced many times more loops then his current iteration.


    But a century ago. He started with ''Loop #1''.


    So why did he smile? Anon had noticed something crazy. Something that any normal person might''ve missed. But in this century he spent counting. He didn''t move his body at all!


    Yet. When he restarted.


    He noticed the position of his body had changed!


    It looked as if nothing changed. But he noticed that his finger when regaining consciousness had moved a centimeter! Anon felt a burst of dormant emotions almost surface in his mind.


    But he kept his calm and the smile on his face disappeared.


    200 years later...


    "Loop #27381..."


    Anon noticed that his pinky pinger had moved a few centimeters.


    His mind started to calculate. What was the cause of this change? Anon didn''t focus on this change at all. He instead focused on the quality of his meditation.


    He focused on counting.


    He had finally done it. He had entered a perfect state of ''flow''. But this was on another level then what a normal human would experience.


    In this state. He was no longer ''interrupted'' in death.


    Anon felt as if he had grasped enlightenment.


    The years passed in seconds from his perspective. Up until this point. His perception of time was still within the realm of the ordinary. While time passed relatively fast thanks to the amount of time he had lived.


    The mortal brain he had had refreshed in a sense his perspective of time.


    But now...


    He had truly returned!


    He was still trapped. But something amazing was happening.


    5000 years later...


    "456250..."


    Anon had even stopped counting seconds. He stopped even mentioning the loop. He took a shortcut and only counted each new life.


    "1368750..."


    Anon stopped thinking in hours or days. He even stopped measuring time in years. He instead focused on the change in each new life.


    It was like fast forwarding in a movie.


    "27375111..."


    It was like he was a living timelapse. His body would snap back into its position. But every thousand years. His body would ''move'' a few centimeters.


    He controlled his impulse.


    "91255444..."


    Anon''s current reality was the result of his ''true death'' and his existence was etched on it. Each time he died. The multiverse seemingly died with him.


    "456259111..."


    His eyes started to glow. But this wasn''t from anything he ''did''. It was the glow from the ritual. Anon had fast-forwarded through his life at an insane pace.


    It was something impossible to notice in just a few thousand deaths.


    But once it reached millions.


    He noticed.


    He was going back further in time!


    That was why the position of his finger changed.


    It was just such a small change


    "821251111..."


    His perspective of time become like that of a supreme being. No. It surpassed it! He looked at the river of time like a something that could be controlled.


    Eons passed.


    Anon watched emotionlessly as the ritual was done in reverse. He then felt his consciousness leave the body. This was the moment he stopped counting.


    Anon had done it! He had gone far enough back in time to before the ritual even took place. Although eons had passed. Billions of years.


    He had only gone back in time a few minutes.


    But something crazy happened. His consciousness was floating above the body he had grown all so familiar with. He observed as the cultist started the ritual.


    Anon was familiar with his current state.


    "My axiom state!"


    It very much reminded him of this state. He was like a ghost. He looked down at his hands and they matched that of the body he had been forced into.


    Anon frowned.


    "It seems my experiences have shaped my spiritual body..."


    "But I am free!"


    Anon laughed to himself. The people around him didn''t react at all. It was clear they couldn''t see him.


    Anon enjoyed this brief moment of freedom. But he then did something that made no sense.


    He possessed the body of the target. He fought for control over the body. His will had been tempered in a mortal body for billions of years.


    Taking control and integrating this body was seamless.


    Anon then looked at the five people around him. They raised the knifes in their hands about to start the ritual. But Anon charged at one of them and tackled them.


    Everyone became confused.


    Anon started to laugh madly as he punched the person on the ground repeatedly. Their head exploded like a watermelon.


    "My revenge!"


    Anon had thought he had transcended such emotions. But his constant deaths and being trapped in that loop had sharpened his inner self.


    So he had an uncontrollable desire for revenge.


    "Aeon! What are you doing!"


    The others screamed at him as they tried to pull him off the already dead cultist. But he was like a mountain. His seemingly weak body contained impossible power.


    Anon burned the potential of his body as he resisted subconsciously.


    The next second. The two people holding him back held their throats. Anon had slashed them using one of the knifes.


    They gurgled blood as they looked at Anon in shock. He had always been so weak! He had no powers or abilities! Why did he suddenly go insane?


    "Two left..."


    Anon looked over his shoulder at the two remaining cultist.


    "Aeon! You have ruined the ritual! How will be bring Mundais into our world!?"


    "You traitor! You were secretly one of them..."


    Anon charged at the person speaking with a furry. But right as their neck was burst open from his knife. Their body faded and disappeared.


    Behind him. They held their neck in fear as they started to draw symbols into the air.


    Anon lost his sight.


    "A curse?"


    Anon smirked.


    Anon had once had a seal called ''true vision''. He had once covered his sight with a blindfold. He lacked the back-up of the seal at this moment. He no longer had ''true vision''.


    But he had memorized every inch of this underground cavern.


    His mind wasn''t as restricted as a normal human. He still had human limits. But he had become a genius. He created a simulation in his mind and a mental map.


    There was a huge difference between him in the past and his self now. In the past. He was bound to this body and trapped. Now...


    He had ''stolen'' the body in his axiom state.


    His old trick of visualizing massive mental objects would no longer work. His consciousness had regained a certain special property.


    He had done the impossible!


    As he charged at the person despite his blindness. He suddenly felt paralyzed. He was then blasted with some sort of attack. He couldn''t see it with his own eyes.


    But he knew it was powerful. His ordinary body couldn''t withstand it.


    Half of his body was destroyed in an instant.


    Anon coughed up blood.


    "Supernatural power..."


    He fell to the ground and murmured to himself.


    The last two remaining people looked at Anon with regret. Their sect had spent so many resources to construct this underground chamber.


    They were so close to completing the ritual.


    But the target of the ritual went insane at a critical moment.


    The intelligence in Anon''s eyes disappeared.


    But his spiritual body slowly floated above the corpse.


    "How interesting..."