The Unending Experiment

 

This is the harrowing tale of an unrelenting killer, driven by an insatiable urge to take lives. The criminal was wondering how many times one must take a life to quench this dark thirst. Once? Twice? Daily? A hundred times? The answer eluded L., a soul adrift in a sea of uncertainty, and they were determined to unravel it. And so, they embarked on a chilling experiment. Each day found them perched atop a city rooftop, their sights set on an unwitting passerby. Each shot was taken from a different vantage point, but the outcome was always the same – the death of an innocent soul. After several days had elapsed, a new imitator emerged with alarming regularity. On day n, the murderer and the impersonator together claimed two lives. The toll climbed to three on day n+1, and four on day n+2, continuing this progression relentlessly.

 

It was on day n+m that the murderer finally grasped the answer they sought, though they remained ignorant to it. Another imitator, following in their sinister footsteps, ended their life with a fatal shot to the head, just before they could claim another victim. The criminal had unknowingly achieved their macabre goal – they had discovered the threshold at which they would cease to kill.

 

The grim truth was that the necessary number of victims to halt their murderous spree was the very number required to seal their own fate. In the end, the murderer's tenacious pursuit of an answer left them with the chilling revelation that the only way to stop killing was to become a victim themselves.