I Want to Die, But I Am Immortal

Anderson's two male friends came forward with a roll of silver duct tape. They bound Adam's hands and feet to the chair securing him tightly.

Lily stood in front of him a dirty cloth in her hand.

"Open your mouth," she said her voice filled with a venomous hatred.

Adam just stared at her his expression unreadable. He would not give her the satisfaction.

James was watching from the back of the room a silent observer a puppet master pulling the strings.

Anderson stepped forward and grabbed Adam by the hair yanking his head back with a cruel laugh.

"Do as she says," he hissed his face just inches from Adam's. "Or you know what we'll do. You know what will happen to your precious Sophia."

Adam opened his mouth. Not to accept the dirty gag Lily was holding but to ask a question. He knew they would answer. They felt secure now with him bound and helpless in the chair.

He could see it in their arrogant body language their smug self-satisfied expressions. They were enjoying this. They were reveling in their power.

"How can I trust that you even have what you say you do?" he asked his voice a low calm challenge that cut through their triumphant atmosphere.

Lily smiled a cruel triumphant smile. She took out her phone and with a flick of her thumb brought up a few pictures. She held the screen in front of Adam's face.

Adam's eyes widened in disbelief and his blood boiled with a cold murderous rage. The images were a violation a desecration of something pure and innocent.

"Now do you believe me?" Lily asked her voice dripping with a malicious glee.

Adam turned his gaze from the phone to Anderson.

"And as for my bounty," he said his voice a low dangerous growl "even if you post it most people will just think it's a rumor a stupid internet prank. And as for these photos I'll pressure your father into making your lives so miserable that you'll wish you were never born."

But before he could finish his sentence Anderson lunged forward and punched him in the face. It was a hard powerful blow meant to silence him meant to put him in his place.

But Adam's stats were so high that he barely felt it. It was like being hit with a soft pillow. Anderson on the other hand felt like he had just punched a solid brick wall. He stumbled back shaking his hand in agony a look of shocked disbelief on his face.

"We didn't know how useful this boy was," Anderson said looking at Philips with a newfound respect.

James stepped forward a smug smile on his face. "Philips has three main qualities," he said as if he were a ringmaster introducing his star attraction. "He's very rich he's an internet genius and..."

Everyone in the room started to laugh a cruel heartless sound that echoed in the small storeroom. They all looked at Philips who was staring at the floor his face a mask of shame and humiliation.

Anderson walked over to Philips and put his arm around his shoulder a gesture that was more of a mockery than a sign of friendship. "Philips has a big secret," he said his voice a low conspiratorial whisper.

"A secret that our dear teacher James accidentally discovered. And ever since then Philips has been doing everything James tells him to do. He's been our loyal little puppet. And because of our teacher we know his secret too." The threat was clear. Philips was their slave their tool. And now Adam was their prisoner.

Adam's gaze fell on Philips. He remembered from the first loop that Philips had not wanted to kill him. James had forced him. That was the only reason Adam had spared him in every subsequent loop. He had seen the fear the regret in his eyes.

"Philips pushed one of his friends off a cliff and killed him," Anderson said a cruel triumphant smile on his face. "And our dear teacher James saw the whole thing with his own two eyes."

Philips started to tremble his eyes fixed on the floor as if he could will himself to disappear.

I thought it might be something like that, Adam thought a cold understanding settling in his gut. James was not just a greedy teacher. He was a master manipulator a blackmailer.

"Now is not the time for this," James said impatiently. "We have to get to work."

"No not so easily," Anderson said his eyes burning with a childish rage. "I want to make him regret the day he was born. I want to make him suffer."

Lily who had been glaring at Adam with a venomous hatred stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face. She cried out in pain clutching her hand. It was like hitting a solid brick wall.

Anderson rushed to her side his concern for her momentarily overriding his own desire for revenge. He gently took her hand checking it for any damage.

Adam's eyes lit up. He smiled a small subtle smile that no one but him understood.

"Anderson do you remember what he did to us in the cafeteria?" one of his friends shouted his voice a mixture of fear and a desperate bravado. "Don't underestimate him! We have other ways!"

He walked over to a pile of scrap metal in the corner of the storeroom and picked up a long steel rod. He handed them out to Anderson Lily and their other friends. James took one as well.

James handed a steel rod to Philips as well. Anderson then stepped forward and struck Adam in the chest with his own rod. Adam felt a dull thud but the blow was not heavy. It felt like nothing more than a light tap. His Iron Skin absorbed the impact completely.

Then Lily struck him from behind her steel rod connecting with the back of his head. The impact sent his head snapping forward and he felt a brief flash of pain.