Forbidden Link

01. Beginning

"What do you want?"

Alex immediately opened his eyes when he heard a baritone voice with a flat intonation. Dark. It was as if his eyes had not opened at all because the only sight he saw was endless darkness. But Alex managed to scan something visible between his eyes. He could see a faint part of the nose as he focused his vision downwards. And as soon as his head lowered, Alex could see the hands, clothes and other accessories that were worn before he was in this strange place. It was as if his body gave off its own light so that it could be seen from behind in the darkness.

"What do you want?"

The same voice sounded again. Alex tried to look around but couldn't see anything. Then Alex tried to move his feet. Right. Left. Front. Behind. Uphill and uphill. Until he didn't know whether his feet were on a flat base or uphill continuously. He continued until he spined one hundred and eighty degrees without feeling dizzy because the force of gravity seemed to always be on the same line as the movement of the body.

"What…"

"How can I answer you when I don't know where the sound is coming from?"

"What do you want?"

"Are you a robot?"

"What do you…"

"Why should I answer your question?"

"What do…"

“Are you the creator of forbidden links?”

The voice that was continuously echoing in Alex's head suddenly stopped. With a chuckle, Alex put on a triumphant face at being able to make all the difference in a system that told him to answer a single question. Or it was only his hasty conclusion.

"What do you want?"

"Argh..."

"What do…."

“Okay… well… I'll answer…. What do you want?" Alex tried to ask the same question as the voice's own question.

"What do you want?"

But even Alex's mimicking question didn't change anything.

“How many wishes can I get?”

The similar reply that irritated Alex was heard again. But Alex did not give up by directly answering questions. He still didn't want to do all the things that ordinary people might do.

Questions should be answered by answers. The rules were so easy to understand by logic that Alex was trying hard to find another possible answer without having to answer the question. No less than fifty questions had been asked back by Alex from the questions asked of him. And after fifteen minutes, Alex seemed so annoyed and almost gave up on that same question all the time.

"Even his voice hasn't changed at all."

“Please state your wish more clearly.”

Alex patted his head. In this dimensionless room, a mumbling sound could be heard by the strange voice. Alex looked up, though he didn't know whether the voice was coming from where his eyes were looking or not. But in the movie, a voice of unknown origin usually comes from above, so Alex tried to follow the movement of the film.

"Okay. Okay. I've pressed the link and don't want to just go back.”

“Do you want to go back? Answer with one word, yes or no.”

"Not."

"What do you want?"

Alex sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He had made a big decision to leave his mother in real life and chose to press a strange link called the forbidden link, which now left him lying in bed in a coma. The decision was taken with full confidence and Alex could only walk forward at that point. After feeling ready to answer the question, Alex opened his eyes.

“I want to meet Kaira Donati.”

“Would you like to meet Kaira Donati? Answer with one word, yes or no.”

"Yes."

The darkness in front of Alex turned into a bright light that was so blinding that it was impossible for anyone to open their eyes. In a split second later, Alex felt his back being bent, the nerves in his ass could feel a hard pad, and his head was pressing against his left arm which was extended perpendicular to his body. Alex slowly opened his eyes and then moved the fingers of his left hand to feel a hard texture that became the base of his arm.

A wooden table. Alex was sitting on a chair and leaning on his arm which was placed on the wooden table. After his eyes opened wide, Alex straightened his bent body while in a sleeping position. Then his eyes scanned the surroundings that seemed familiar to him.

A classroom from his previous school. Dozens of tables were neatly arranged and formed four columns and five rows. Some of the seats looked empty, but some seemed to be filled with a bag. There was only one other person besides Alex and the girl was a few tables behind Alex's position. The girl wore a white shirt inside a dark gray blazer and a matching mini skirt. Alex saw the girl intensely but the girl immediately walked away from Alex towards the open classroom door without seeing Alex at all.

Not understanding what happened to the girl, Alex was surprised because suddenly there was a man sitting in front of him. With a sitting position that was too upright for a normal human being, the man in front of Alex got up from his seat and followed the direction of the previous girl with the exact same movement. Both showed no emotion in their faces and walked like robots.

“I was at school… and they weren't human?”

After seeing the two creatures that had left him in the classroom, Alex checked his own clothes. No more pajamas he wore before hitting the forbidden link. Now his clothes were exactly the same as the group of creatures who had just left him. A white shirt with a long dark gray blazer and trousers of the same color. And Alex had just realized that those clothes were the clothes he wore for three years in senior high school.

“I went back to being a senior high school student.”

Alex continued to mutter after learning one by one the things that happened to him. And when he turned to the window, he saw a familiar sight too. A football field stretched out beside the school building and at the far right end of the soccer field there was a separate building from the main school building. It was an indoor basketball court and was one of Alex's favorite places during high school.

This time a girl appeared from the seat beside Alex. Already used to the appearance of strange creatures that do not respond to anything when viewed intensely, Alex immediately got up from his seat and stood right in front of the girl to block the way. But the girl found another way and passed Alex with a straight look and didn't change her expression at all.

"Huh.. they're like monsters that respawn every few minutes while playing an RPG."

Still trying to adjust to a different world from the real world he left fifteen minutes ago, Alex tried to examine his own body. Apart from the different clothes, it seemed that Alex's body was still following his last body condition. There was no fat on his stomach, unlike when he had been in high school and enjoyed all the food in front of him. His hands were also not as fit as they used to be when he still participated in various sports activities at school every day.

While Alex was watching one by one the creatures that appeared in each seat randomly, Alex suddenly found his aha moment. If he was in high school, then he should have been able to find Kaira, who was only two years away from him. He just needed to verify the class he was in right now, so he immediately ran out of the room to see the sign plastered above the door. In his mind, Alex only thought the possibility was twelfth A's, which was his class before he graduated. But the letter on the class board was tenth E's.

Still pensive while looking at the classroom's board, Alex saw someone approaching him. A man who was dressed the same as Alex but seemed quite old. Even though Alex hadn't even seen his own face, whether it was still appropriate to say that he was a teenage high school student or not, the person in front of him had a face that was too old to be a high school student. In fact, that person was more suited to be the principal of a school who was nearly fifty years old.

"Did you hit that link too?" asked a man with a mustache and black hair in a high school uniform.

"Ah...yes..."

"I also pressed the link and answered the question at the beginning to find Kaira Donati."

Alex looked at the man in front of him with a frown on his face. He knew that he wasn't the only one looking for a girl named Kaira Donati. He knew that there were many people in the real world who wanted the money that would be given if they found Kaira Donati in the forbidden link world. But the fact that everyone looking for Kaira would be met in the same place was new information in Alex's dictionary. So he tried to think about possibility after possibility of what else would happen and let the person in front of him impatiently wait for Alex to daydream.

"Cough...cough... sorry I haven't introduced myself. My name is Marvin."

The sound of coughing and an invitation for a handshake from the person named Marvin made Alex wake up from his daydream. Alex raised his hand slowly then accepted the handshake that was pointing in front of his chest.

"Alexandre. You can call me Alex."