Forbidden Link

29. Fifth Player

Alex's optimism graph has dropped from its peak as many as he restart second stage regarding to NPCs that come in the middle of the court as the initiation of the basketball game. If the first attempt when Alex came to the center of the field gave a significant result, namely the addition of two players, the second and subsequent attempts were not so. After the tenth try, Alex's optimism was almost gone. Again and again Alex had to hear the words "Match is cancelled." from NPCs simply because there wasn't one more person willing to be the fifth player.

Not just standing still, after the match had been cancelled Alex and the three other players had been trying to recruit other players to become the fifth player. Even Bianca had been standing by the door to invite those who had just entered the basketball court for the first time. But Willow also had done his job of influencing new people not to join Bianca. The two people had argued whenever there was a new person. But in the end new people had tend to choose the safe option by following Willow's advice.

Bianca walked from one end of the basketball court to the other. The pink haired girl passed the people who were looking at her and shouted insults at her from the direction of the grandstand. Originally she tried to reply to the words of these people but after the tenth attempt, Bianca just walked in silence. She did not look to the right or left at all as she walked across the sidelines.

In the middle of the journey, Bianca looked up spontaneously when Alex had just descended the grandstand from the left of her position. Shaking his head, Alex tried to balance his footsteps with Bianca's. Then the two of them walked towards the edge of the field which was behind the basketball hoop where Ezequiel and Zayden had already sat there.

"It's useless to ask them one by one. If they really want to join us, they definitely don't have to wait this long,” said Ezequiel with an annoyed look on his face.

"Yes. Your words weren't wrong either."

Alex, who was originally the most optimistic of his three friends, now didn't care about other people's search results. The man leaned his body against the wall of the building and closed his eyes to calm himself. Nothing interfered with Alex's actions. Both Ezequiel and Bianca, who usually talk a lot, could now only remain silent looking at their surroundings.

“Hahaha… you guys are just trash who pretends to be brave when you're scared.”

Alex immediately opened his eyes when he heard a familiar voice approaching him. After all, Alex had chosen the seat farthest from the crowd so he could plan his tactics freely without being influenced by other people's pessimistic remarks. But when he looked up, Alex saw three people who had come to his seat just to insult him. One of the three was scratching his non-itchy nose. The broken nose bone of the man who spoke due to the punch from Alex has now returned to normal because the physique of all players has been reset back to normal.

"Congratulations on getting your nose back to the way it used to be," said Alex in a lazy tone as he closed his eyes again.

Feeling ignored, the man who was congratulated by Alex spat until his spit hit Alex's face. The three people who had been in Kaira's class laughed out loud seeing the condition of the person who was hit by the saliva. Meanwhile Alex wiped the liquid stuck to his cheek with his knuckle with a troubled look on his face. But compared to the person who was hit by the spit, Bianca was quicker to respond and almost stood up if Alex didn't hold her hand.

"Aum. Your pinkish bodyguard is so scary. Hahaha…. It seems that the person who hit me earlier was too embarrassed to confront me. He was embarrassed because he was screaming in the middle of the field and still didn't get a player until now so ordered his bodyguard to come forward."

Bianca was getting more and more annoyed with the insults given to Alex. But again Alex held Bianca's hand so she wouldn't stand up. Alex looked at Bianca flatly while shaking his head and it wasn't long before Alex closed his eyes again. Completely ignoring the arrival of the three people who had been causing trouble.

In accordance with Alex's expectations, the three people who were causing trouble left him while still mocking Alex along the way. When he opened his eyes again, Alex saw not only a question mark from Bianca but also from Ezequiel. After seeing Alex being able to hit someone else with a broken nose, Ezequiel was quite confused when he saw Alex standing still when he was humiliated like that.

"There's no point in dealing with them. Once served, they will continue to throw tantrums."

Alex's words didn't make Bianca happy. Bianca's face looked dissatisfied with her brows furrowed and her lower lip protruding. Instead of arguing with Alex as usual, Bianca pointed at Alex's cheek and then touched her own cheek. Giving a sign that there is something on Alex's face with a point position on the cheek.

"There's still something wet, Al. Ouch… how disgusting.”

Alex casually brushed back his cheek with a knuckle. But there was still some spit in Bianca's eyes so the girl couldn't wait and moved Alex's hand in the right direction. Of course Bianca was too disgusted to hold it directly.

While Alex and Bianca looked close to each other in cleaning Alex's face, Ezequiel and Zayden's gazes turned to the crowd that was unfolding a few dozen meters in front of them. A scream was heard which was followed by the appearance of a figure approaching Alex and his three friends. As the footsteps drew closer, the figure stared at the four people who were sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor. The sight of the figure made Ezequiel and Zayden look up in confusion. And when Alex realized someone was coming, he looked up and his eyes widened.

"So it's true that you just keep quiet when someone spit on you?" asked a woman with short blonde hair who looked at Alex with a sharp gaze.

Alex was still speechless in shock. Both Alex who was sitting cross-legged and the woman who was standing looked at each other for a while. Until finally the standing girl looked at Bianca who was sitting with her back to her. Without saying a word to Bianca, the blonde girl tugged the back of Bianca's T-shirt until Bianca was suffocating with her own clothes. Bianca spontaneously stood up and turned around to see the perpetrator who had pulled her shirt. And when Bianca stood up, the blonde haired girl immediately took Bianca's seat.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Bianca's screams were ignored by the woman who was still looking at Alex with sharp eyes. Bianca's position, originally sitting quite close to Alex, was now replaced by another woman. And Alex was staying still when saw a familiar face in the real world was now only less than fifty centimeters away.

"Alexandre! Aren't you embarrassed when a woman takes revenge on someone who spat at you and you don't do anything about it?”

"That guy should be the one embarrassed that you managed to make him bleed like that, Lakelynn. So I don't need to be embarrassed because of you," said Alex as he looked up at the crowd where a man was looking up because his nose was constantly bleeding.

Ezequiel and Zayden who had been watching the crowd created by Lakelynn could only stare at the blonde haired girl in confusion. It turned out that the crowd was created by Laklynn when she hit someone's nose until it bled. Meanwhile, Bianca looked annoyed because she didn't understand what Alex and Lakelynn were talking about. So she tried to take an empty seat beside Alex because her seat was already taken.

"Hey! You…"

Before Bianca could speak, Lakelynn had covered Bianca's mouth with her left hand and placed her right index finger in front of her mouth as a sign not to make a sound. Unbearable when Bianca was treated arbitrarily by Lakelynn, Alex held Lakelynn's left hand so that Bianca's mouth could be freed from the silence.

"What about my mother?" asked Alex, suddenly turning serious.

"I've arranged it, Al. Take it easy."

"And why did you have to come in here too?"

"Because I want to accompany you."

"I didn't know how to respond when I found out you were here."

Lakelynn smiled. Despite his rather impulsive actions and arbitrary words, Lakelynn's smile did make the woman even more beautiful. Still with a confused face, Ezequiel tried to understand what happened between the two people who never took their eyes off each other. But Ezequiel's face looked quite shocked when he saw Lakelynn showed an unexpected femininity.

"Of course you should be happy. Moreover, I heard that someone needed a fifth person for this basketball game. I'm pretty sure from the strangeness going on inside this basketball building, you're the one they're talking about. Because you are used to being considered strange by many people.”

"It's up to you how you associate it. But yes, we do need a fifth person as a basketball player."

"Then seduce me so I will."

"Even without being seduced I'm sure you will join."

"Then I'll just seduce you."

Still not understanding the arrival of a girl who was strangling her indirectly and the confusing conversation, Bianca suddenly felt annoyed when Lakelynn approached Alex slowly until Alex's and Lakelynn's faces almost touched. So Bianca tugged on Lakelynn's back collar in revenge.

"You, witch! You can't approach Alex like that!"

While Lakelynn was annoyed by Bianca's actions, Alex motioned for the two men sitting beside him to be prepared. Alex didn't really pay attention to the bickering of the two girls in front of him. While doing some light stretching, Alex smiled to himself.

"OK. Let's start."