You made me think with this, and reminded me of something I remember reading some years ago when I was in college.
Back then, I remember stumbling across a short story in "Omni" magazine (
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) where a character was stuck in this kind of simulation to solve a mystery. I don't recall all of the details, but it was something along the lines of, the main character had been injured during a terrorist attack, and was thought to be the main witness to it. However, he was so badly injured that he couldn't tell the authorities what had happened. So, they placed him and the other survivors in a medically induced coma, and due to being so technologically advanced, they kept having him repeat the days leading up to the attack. In the hopes that over time they could watch the events that led up to the day of the attack, and from it determine who was responsible for it. It's a bit of a stretch here, but what if "something" happened at the school, which involved the students, faculty, and a few of the parents, on what we now recognize as the "reset day"? Something so horrible that the people involved in it have been placed in a similar coma like situation, in the hopes that repeating those events enough times will reveal what the cause was, and help those inside heal from the damage? Some characters that seem to break the 4th wall could be outside influences, such as technicians watching the events taking place, or they could be the subconscious of the Main Character trying to tell him that he's stuck in this simulation due to his injuries.
I know, dumb thought and it's pretty hard to follow. I blame the fact I just woke up and haven't had my coffee. Maybe I'll come back to this and expand on it when I'm more sensible.
