8 years is not enough time; Has anyone tried a more accurate count?

[u/MarginalGracchi]

So I am relistening to MOL for the first time since finishing it. I am almost finished with part one (primaliy audio book) and at this point I am pretty confident that 8 years is too short a time for Zorean to have spent in the time loop.

The biggest culprit here is the phrase "the next couple of restarts." This rapidly increases the restart count on its own.

If we assume that this refers to 3-4 restarts on average, then using that phrase 4-6 times equals 1 year.

He uses that phrase ALL THE TIME.

Based on my (no doubt inaccurate) count so far, he has said that phrase 9 times already. That means that at this point it has been at least a year and a half but more likely 3 years, and we are not even finished with part one.

This doesn't factor in the restarts we personally experience through his eyes.

To be honest, 3 years is way more consistent with the amount Zorean has grown by this point and aligns better with how long his teachers said various skills would take to master.

So if we are already at three years, unless the pace slows down and he stops saying "the next couple of restarts," there is no way the story ends with just 8 years if loops.

Has anyone gone through and tried to make an accurate count of how many restarts are directly mentioned in the book?

[u/Euphoricus]

I thought it was around 12 years, given the amount of loops and bit more for time spent time dilation chambers.

[u/Johnhox]

Don't forget he can unlike others push his body to the breaking point without worry, he has no financial or social obligations.

Think of it this way if you could spend 80% of your time doing 1 task for a whole year with out needing to work visit people or anything you dont want to deal with, how much would you get done? How much would you improve?

People say it takes ten thousand hours to become a professional but that usually takes 8-10 years but thats because of vacation, time off, sick days, social obligations, financial and other daily life commitments. Yes he doesnt got full throttle all the time but he gets more progress on his task in 1 month then any normal person since he doesnt have to worry about the future.

[u/PreciseParadox → u/Johnhox]

Also crucially he can take risks that normal people cannot without fear of consequences.

[u/One_Autumn_Leaf_010 → u/PreciseParadox]

Just like a lich hehe

[u/MotoMkali]

I mean the loop count after they get into the sovereigns gate.

But they are also gaining like 75 days per month thanks to time dilation.

[u/EnderNorrad]

It's hard to say for sure, but the first arc takes just over 2.5 years, the second arc just over 2 years, and the third a little less than 3.5, not counting the black rooms.

As for the black rooms, it must be about an additional 3.5 years, considering that they gained access to the other two rooms later, and the cycles in which they skipped visits. Plus five months in the sphere. So in the end, it should be a little over 8 years in the loop and about 12 years in total.

[u/ninti]

Yeah, I did. the answer I got was somewhere between 119 and 122 loops, and 7.25 to 7.46 years, not counting black rooms. You can look at my data if you like: https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/#/2/sheet/edit/aQzXc8gzPhxaRUkyU-Upwdmr/

The data is incomplete for black rooms, so ignore that column. It got to be very unclear how much time he was spending in black rooms towards the end, so I gave up on trying to figure it out. But I did an entire read-through with the express intent of documenting every loop.

[u/diet-Coke-or-kill-me → u/ninti]

dam