Is It My Fault?

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I felt was that my limbs were shaking uncontrollably. The pain, the burning sensation, and the rising taste of iron in my tongue. Every sensation I felt earlier was still fresh in my senses.

My vision spun, fear and despair mixing into a cocktail of disaster, turning my stomach upside down as I emptied the contents of my stomach again.

No matter how many times I die, I'll never be able to get over this dreadful feeling...

Of course, to overcome such mental trauma, nothing works better than to sleep it off. However, even in my dreams, I was still haunted by the memories of my death. The pain was replayed over and over like a broken tape, letting me suffer an endless hell until I opened my eyes.

"..."

It's the same familiar ceiling, with a small hole on top. The light filtering through the drapes over the window told me it was already morning. I wiped the sweat covering my face before picking up my phone and confirming the date and time.

"... December 30, 11:43 a.m., huh?"

I wasn't out for long this time, barely 12 hours.

I dropped the phone on top of the bed as I walked toward the bathroom, taking a short, warm shower to refresh myself and to brush my teeth too, since the inside of my mouth tasted funny.

As soon as I was finished changing, almost by reflex, I started heading for my computer. But stopped after a few steps. I... I am lost on what to do.

Now that my head was clear, I started to replay the last loop inside my head. And I noticed one truth. "The timeline changed following the alterations to my actions."

This could mean that whenever I tried to change something to avoid a certain future, the following events could change completely. Or at least, the orders would get messed up.

"Butterfly effect," I muttered the word that the Major mentioned lightly before the mammoth's attack. "A seemingly small, unrelated action could cause a large change in events in faraway places."

I resumed my steps, moved to my PC, and turned it on. However, instead of opening the stream instantly, I first opened a notepad and listed down my actions during all the previous loops as accurately as I could recall.

By doing this, I could find the relationship between the events that happened and the events that I caused. However, it didn't go as well as I thought. "It's completely unrelated that it's hard to even guess!"

Almost all the possible avenues were closed instantly, leaving only one possibility. The monsters could feel my power and decided to hunt me down first. As the only one with above-level 10 power, I guess I did stand out too much to their senses.

"..."

Doesn't this mean that wherever I go, the monsters will follow?

"Shit..."

I cursed lightly, almost slamming my fist onto my keyboard. I remembered that it cost a total of $1,000, so I immediately held back. There's no point in destroying this thing since I still have a use for it.

After calming down, I started to think. With the monsters on my tail, there's no way I would stay where there are a lot of people who could get dragged into my misfortune. Does this mean I would need to wander around the place alone?

"That works too, I guess?"

Currently, my "view" of the world is too small, despite having died and repeated the same few days several times already... Was it seven times now? Anyway, I'm getting limited with too few choices right now, and I need to expand my horizons.

"First, let's look for a good spot to go to."

For that, what else is better to ask than my avid viewers?

I turned on the stream, and this time, I finally changed my usual go-to title to "Helping the Hero to Choose Which Place to Save!"

Since it sounds like a game stream, like what I usually do, I bet more viewers would jump in. After checking the camera, the mic, and the desktop, I finally went live.

As soon as I did, 10 viewers jumped in instantly. Among them were familiar names: xXSerenityXx, Garuda, KillMeBibi, and Heartu66. All four of the viewers I have seen before were already present. What luck.

After waiting for the number of viewers to jump to three digits, I finally started talking.

"Good noon, viewers! Unfortunately, today isn't a game stream, but rather a special event..."

Then, I started to explain my ability, like usual, before showing them the map of the two cities I'd been hanging around the entire time. On it were little markers, signifying the monsters' locations.

I did this for those at the shelter, hoping that either Selen or Garuda relayed the information to Major Lucas so that they could prepare.

After that, I went into the main topic for the day.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want to get your opinion. From the neighboring five cities, which one do you think I should visit first?"

I quickly brought up a poll where all the currently 7,000-plus viewers could vote. It was browser-based, so it didn't matter whether they were using phones or PCs to watch the stream.

In just a minute, the poll was over. After seeing it, there's quite a split between the cities. The five—let's call them City A to E—were directly neighboring this city. There are a lot of paths leading to them, but most exits are probably going to be filled with cars and other vehicles rushing to escape.

For the poll, the scores were split between City B and E, with both reaching 33.33% of votes. By the way, the city where the military camp was was City B, so that means that the vote was invalid.

"Salcrunt City, it is." I nodded my head, smiling.

With such a simple process, my next location was locked in.