Forbidden Link

17. Infinite Loop Corridor

Not only in class, when he walked out of the class Marvin didn't stop talking. Starting from the news about the forbidden link that Alex had seen many times before meeting Lakelynn, until finally Alex knew that the middle-aged man beside him had quite a lot of debt. Alex wasn't surprised at all. Alex's initial impression of Marvin was that of a man who had given up his self-confidence and depended on others for his fate.

"Forget the words to help people in need when the person who needs help is himself," thought Alex.

And after Alex concluded that Marvin only wanted to talk about himself, Alex began to focus on looking for signs he could use to solve puzzles that still looked abstract. Alex was still walking in the school corridor and ignoring the words of the people beside him. The only words Alex heard were when Marvin showed him a class he had spawned in the forbidden link world. The class was exactly the same as the class where Alex spawned before. And when Alex looked at his class board, he saw the exact same number as what Alex had seen before. Ten E.

“Class ten E again. So all the classes I passed were classes from Kaira's past and not mine," said Alex to himself, looking at the class board in front of him.

“I thought I was the only one in this world. Until finally I saw someone standing in front of the class and finally I met you."

Without responding to Marvin's words, Alex immediately walked quickly to the classroom window where Marvin had spawned earlier. Alex noticed that the soccer field had not changed at all from the soccer field he had seen in the previous class. This gave a new fact that the view outside the building was just an illusion shown from inside the building. As if to show what was seen from inside the building, it became an experience for everyone who entered the forbidden link world.

"This class is the starting place. Just like when playing an RPG, everyone will appear from different places but have the exact same view."

Marvin did not understand at all what Alex was saying. If previously Marvin had not stopped talking, now Alex walked out of the classroom with his mouth moving continuously. But it seems that Alex was comfortable talking to himself without anyone listening to him.

"Looks like we all got into the forbidden link and acted out what Kaira saw," said Alex, pointing to one of the human beings who walked expressionlessly out of each classroom and towards the end of the corridor. "And these PC-NPCs seem to have had a certain role in what happened to Kaira. They're going somewhere..."

"Wait… I don't understand what you're saying. Was it an RPG? Was it an NPC?" asked Marvin, cutting Alex's words and showing a worried face if Alex left him alone in class.

Alex glanced at Marvin who was already looking confused. It seemed that the familiar words spoken while chatting with his best friend, Farrell, could not be understood by everyone. Alex began to think that he was too passionate about solving the puzzle he was currently experiencing that he forgot about his surroundings. Alex's face, which looked serious because he was constantly thinking, was now chuckling at his own behavior.

"Ah… I'm sorry. I feel like I'm back in the past when I often talk about games with my friends."

"No wonder you say the terms that are in the game. I don't understand at all."

"RPG is a role playing game. Just like the two of us right now, it's as if we are playing a role in a game. Meanwhile, NPCs are non-player characters. NPCs are characters created to add variety to a game. Usually NPCs will provide instructions for players. players like us."

Even though Alex said something very ordinary to himself, Marvin nodded enthusiastically when he heard the RPG and NPC explanations. The distance that was quite far between Marvin's knowledge and himself about a game, made Alex miss his high school days. Where he very often played games with Farrell and finished one by one game that required strategy and problem solving.

"So we should follow the NPCs first," said Alex, inviting a nod directly from Marvin.

Apart from knowing the fact that Kaira's class was the starting point for spawning people who enter the forbidden link, Alex also realized that all human beings who are eventually referred to as NPCs left each class and ran regularly to one point, namely the end of the corridor. At first Alex only felt that the school corridor was longer than usual, but after he walked down the corridor Alex could not even know how long he would stop walking.

“If they point to something, it means there should be another clue there. But if there is a clue that must be solved, can we return when we fail to solve it? Or will we get a different ending?"

Alex kept thinking the whole way through. He did not carelessly share his thoughts with others. It was not that he thought better than other people. But because he was too lazy to explain to people who just asked but didn't want to continue the discussion deeper.

Not only by strangers, even Leona and Mio found Alex's thoughts too difficult to understand. Leona once said that Alex's thoughts were like a puzzle scattered on the floor and could only be understood after everything was neatly arranged in its place. But Alex very rarely tidied up his thoughts. He prefered to discuss all the possibilities so that he can jump from part A directly to part Z and not to part B.

Alex and Marvin had been walking for five minutes, but the corridor didn't show its end at all. And just as Alex began to doubt his own footsteps, a girl who walked out of the class that Alex almost missed. It was only natural that Alex had missed something because all the sights he saw had not changed at all. Same corridor. Classes with the same nameplate. Even cracked the classroom window glass in the same place. Alex felt he was walking in an infinite loop simulation that had no end. But his doubts dropped when a girl approached him.

"Ah, it turns out you are not that strange creature."

A girl in front of Alex and Marvin has waist-length hair that has a striking color that was pink with white highlights in several parts, including the flat part of her bangs. With big eyes, a sweet smile and a high frequency voice, the girl in front of Alex gave off a cheerful and sweet impression. Enough to make Alex confused why there are such types of people in this forbidden link world.

"Did you guys come here together?" asked the girl innocently as she looked at the two men in front of her.

"No, we just met here."

"Ah. That means you can make a group of three people right?”

The frown on Alex's face made the girl give a pitiful face. With a raised lower lip and eyes that look like puss in boots, the girl tried to shake Alex's doubts. Alex was quite lazy when it came to girls who are younger than him and seemed very clingy. However, he wanted to quickly find Kaira and get out of this forbidden link world.

“It seems that the more people the better. It is not like that..?"

Marvin didn't see Alex's doubtful face at all so Marvin easily gave an answer before Alex decided on an answer. The girl immediately half screamed with joy without paying attention to Alex's heavy sigh.

"My name is Bianca. You can call me Bee. And I like honey."

"So you like bees?"

"No, I don't like insects."

“Then you can't just make bees and honey being equivalent. You don't like bees."

"But I like honey."

Like a gasoline being ignited, Alex immediately felt challenged to find fault with Bianca's words. The debate really went on for quite a while until Marvin finally coughed to break up the two people in front of him.

“Still that name doesn't suit you. I'll call you Bian," said Alex, who wanted to end the conversation because of Marvin's cough.

"Everyone calls me Bee with double e."

"You wouldn't know I called you b-e-e or b-i, they both sound like bee."

“Why do you sound like my father? It seems we are still the same age.”

Alex looked at the uniform worn by Bianca and showed a face and body shape that was very suitable for a junior high school student. Then Alex shook his head.

"You must be in middle school. You have to respect me because we are almost ten years apart in age.”

"Impossible. Your face looks like your age is same with me."

"Believe me, Bian. I'm much older than you."

"I told you to just call me Bee. I won't follow you if you don't call me Bee."

"OK. That's actually what I wanted and you granted it quickly. Marvin, let's go."

Marvin, who didn't understand the conversation of the two people who were much younger than him, just looked at Bianca in confusion while following Alex's footsteps. With a guilty face, Marvin tried to persuade Bianca by pointing at Alex's back which was getting further away. But Bianca folded her arms across her chest and shook her head in annoyance.

And a minute later, Bianca didn't want to leave herself alone so she ran to Alex and followed the two boys in front of her from behind their backs. With no other option.