Forbidden Link

16. Pressed The Link

Two hours after Lakelynn had left himself in an apartment room, Alex was done showering, eating dinner, watching television and doing whatever else he wanted to do before doing his job. Now he was sitting cross-legged on the king size bed with his hand holding the remote to turn off the fifty inch television screen in front of him. Alex looked at the clothes Lakelynn had given him and was wearing at the time. The light blue pajama that looked more like a hospital patient's uniform. Besides being bad design, the pajama material was also not pleasant to wear.

Alex's annoyed look at the clothes he was wearing now shifted to a monitor located beside the bed. After being unconscious later, Alex's heart rate will be monitored via electrocardiograph machines by a nurse who will come at a certain time. Soon he would be on vegetate state and lying on the bed with a heart monitor. He would be just like his sister, Kaira, whom he saw that afternoon.

Near the electrocardiograph machine, there was a plate, a glass of mineral water and a capsule on a tray placed on the nightstand. He'd had dinner before his shower and now there was only dessert left to drink when needed: an antidepressant that could be used if he couldn't stand the pressure.

“They prepared this all. Amazing…"

The conversation between Alex and Lakelynn this afternoon had left Alex in an unfamiliar room where the Donati family prepared the participants to save Kaira. Alex was not the only participant who has agreed and signed the agreement as a participant who will press the forbidden link. Many people in the same apartment building had also signed the agreement also.

If the participant cannot return to the real world within a certain time, the participant's family will be given cash compensation equivalent to an SUV. But if they can get out and bring Kaira back to the real world, then they will be rewarded with a house in the most elite housing in Quintice City plus cash equivalent to the house. Of course, not all participants can be treated the same. Participants who do not pass the selection by the Donati family will not be rewarded if they cannot leave the forbidden link. However, prizes will still be given to whoever can bring back Kaira Donati whether he is a participant who has been recognized by the Donati family or not.

Alex took the simplest through Lakelynn. More precisely, it was Lakelynn who planned all the recruitment of the participants and arranged the trials carried out on the participants as in Alex at this time. And Alex was very relieved that he didn't have to deal with Charles Donati at all after knowing that everything related to the participants could go through Lakelynn alone.

“I have no other choice. Yes..." muttered Alex as he reassured himself of his own choice. He had made up his mind after hearing Lakelynn's deliberations this afternoon. Even though Alex has had to convince himself many times like this time and when he signed the agreement with the Donati family, he doesn't regret his decision to save Kaira.

Alex crawled on the blanket to the end of the bed which was near the nightstand. After tucked his body half into the blanket, he pulled out a tab holder that can be directed so that he can see the tab screen without the need to hold it constantly while leaning on the bed. A tab is already attached to the holder and it is only a matter of activating the screen using a button at the end of the tab.

According to the instructions given by Lakelynn, Alex entered the password to open the system in the tab in front of him. A simple UI is visible in tabs and immediately shows an eye-catching messenger icon to touch. Alex touched the icon and a message appeared at the top.

The line of links that had taken the world's attention was now calling out for Alex to be suppressed. The link is no different from the link that Alex used to see every day. A word opened by "h***:" and closed by "sss". But the link he saw was not a random link. That link has put his sister and many people in the world in a coma for no apparent medical reason. Even though it doesn't make sense, the link has made it difficult for many hospitals to add comatose patients to the point where the government prohibits and punishes those who click on the link. The impact strength of the link was what made everyone call the link a forbidden link.

The more banned, the more curious people will be. Not a few people tried to press the link after the government announced the ban. One of them was an employee of the Donati family who had been immediately rushed to the hospital this afternoon. Curious. Joking. Need money. Depression. All reasons can lead people to suppress forbidden links. And so it was for Alex after despised the information Mio gave before.

Then Alex decided to hit the forbidden link after he felt ready enough. It was about eight fifty minutes after midday.

If Alex was asked to remember what he felt when he clicked on the forbidden link, then Alex would say what people on social media said: it was as if he was pulled into the tablet screen in front of him. Alex had felt a nudge towards the tablet right after his finger touched the screen. And in a split second later he was in a very dark dimensionless room where he had to answer the question of what he wanted.

Many questions ran through Alex's mind after he moved from the dimensionless room to his high school. About creatures that appear but cannot be spoken to. Details of the school atmosphere which was very nostalgic. Until the class name was a bit foreign to him because he never spent his time as a tenth grade E student.

Before Alex had time to find answers to all the confusing things, the arrival of other people from the real world made Alex even more confused. The man named Marvin introduced himself and had the same confused look on his face as Alex. And finally the two people who could communicate with each other decided to go back into the classroom to discuss.

“So you just entered this world? How long?"

“About half an hour ago. There doesn't seem to be a clock moving in this world, right?”

Alex looked around and realized that the clock on the blackboard had not moved at all from eight for the short hand and twelve for the long. When Marvin said that he had been in this world for half an hour, Alex slightly calculated that the arrival between him and Marvin would be around twenty minutes. Alex just wanted to make sure that everyone who appeared into the world on this forbidden link had a different time.

“Did you emerge from your seat like those creatures?” asked Alex, pointing to a boy who had just moved from his seat to the classroom door.

"Yeah, I seem to be sleeping while sitting in one of the chairs."

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. In fact, he was not very interested in conversing with strangers at the beginning of his exploration. He preferred to just walk alone and saw the conditions around without having to bring other people. But on the other hand, Alex was curious about Marvin's condition before he entered the world in the forbidden link. And Alex didn't know whether he would find anyone else besides Marvin or not in this world.

"So what happened before you fell asleep in the chair?"

Marvin began to explain exactly what happened to Alex. Starting from pressing the link then moving into a dark room and a voice asking "What do you want?" and Marvin answered with “Looking for Kaira Donati.” The exact same answer when Alex was asked by Marvin. Of course without telling the other fifty questions he asked to elicit the identity of the strange voice like Alex had done.

“I want to help Kaira Donati, but it seems that I haven't qualified as a participant funded by the Donati family. So I hit the link at home.”

"And let your family take care of you?"

“Yeah… well… They will definitely take care of my body until I get out.”

Alex just smiled in response to the optimistic answer of the man in front of him. A smile that spontaneously comes out after repeatedly getting into trouble when responding to people's words with frontal words in the world of work. Even though Alex was wearing a high school uniform this time, his demeanor was much calmer than he was seven years ago.

There was no response whatsoever from Alex. He just smiled with an awkward face because he was trying to hide his disapproval of attitude from Marvin.

“You don't know how long you'll be lying in a coma in your own home. No one even knows that people who enter the forbidden link will leave someday. And… help Kaira Donati? Well well.. Although I really don't see the amount of money given because I am Kaira's brother, it seems that there is no crazy person who dares to sacrifice his life just to help others. You must want the prize, right? What's more, you said your family took care of you, not a nurse or a doctor."

Alex tried to hold back all his rambling thoughts about the person in front of him. The more Alex held back from speaking, the more strange his smile became that Marvin looked at Alex's face with a frown.

“Ah… indeed, people like Kaira Donati should be pitied,” said Alex in an imprecise sentence taken from a scene from a movie he watched.

“Yeah… right? Too bad for that girl. Even though he was only twenty-three years old.”

Unable to bear to hear sentence after sentence that did not match his thoughts, Alex got up from his seat and invited a glance from Marvin. Marvin seemed to have just said one syllable from the prefix of the sentence he was going to say next.

"How about we take a look around the surroundings?"