Forbidden Link

28. Who Want to Join?

Alex recalled the conversation between himself and the voice that said “What do you want?” didn't give any result. Even the NPCs in the first stage never replied Alex's words. So this time he did not force himself to ask further questions to the NPC who was in the middle of the basketball court.

Before Alex could go any further, he turned to the girl beside him. Bianca clenched her fists as she nodded enthusiastically. The two of them already understood each other that the arrival of the NPC was the right time to act. Just as Alex took his right foot, there was a scream from the grandstand.

"We're not going to play!"

"Yeah, just go you freak!"

The NPCs turned to the direction of the voice with an even gaze. Even though he had been insulted by many people, his expression didn't change at all. "Will the match be cancelled?"

"Not!" shouted Alex and ran towards the center of the field. "Me and my friends are going to play."

In the split second after Alex shouted something unprecedented happened: a silent silence on the basketball court. If previously there were still some people who were indifferent to the arrival of NPCs, this time almost everyone on the basketball court looked at Alex's direction. All eyes were on a man who was in the middle of the field and waiting for the NPC's respond.

The silence only lasted a few moments. Not long after, there were screams after screams against Alex's actions. Luckily in the forbidden link world, there weren't a lot of equipment around so Alex wasn't pelted by people sitting on the grandstand.

"You two just get lost!"

"There's no point in you guys being here!"

"Are you guys going to play basketball?"

Among the screams he received, Alex only responded to the words of the NCP with a "yes" answer. Meanwhile Bianca looked around with a frown on her face. She had imagined beforehand that being shouted at by this many people would frighten her. But this time Bianca felt fine. She was more afraid of Alex leaving him than being shouted at by many people.

"You must be five in total."

The NPC's words made Alex follow Bianca's movements. Alex was looking at hundreds people surrounded him and searching if there were people interested to join with him. It turned out that the match really would not take place if there are less than five people.

"We need three more to play," shouted Alex while scanning the audience which were quite far from him. There was no answer at all from his surroundings. Everyone was busy talking about Alex from a distance so Alex continued with calmer intonation, "If anyone wants to continue their life, please join us. You just turn your back and you don't have to watch us if you are affraid."

No one shouted Alex back but no one responded to Alex's invitation. The NPCs had said the same thing over and over about the five-person rule that had to be complied with like a broken robot. But Alex was not like NPCs who need to say things over and over again. He felt that it was enough to just say it once and just waited for everyone's response.

"No one seems to be answering, Al."

"Yeah, maybe we can't do it this time."

Alex was tutting because of the condition at that time. Everyone seemed to underestimate Alex and he increasingly wanted to prove to these people that he could pass this second stage. Just as Alex was about to talk back to the NPC, the corner of Alex's eyes caught the eyes of people who suddenly turned to one point. As Alex followed the gaze of the audience, two men walked from the edge of the field to where Alex was.

One of the men had short, almost bald black hair, was tall and had fairly muscular muscles. The other man had curly black hair and was thinner and taller than the man beside him. Both of them had serious faces and stern eyes. From the way they walk, it can be seen that they are quite confident in their abilities.

"My name is Ezequiel and this is my brother Zayden. We saw your calm during the fight earlier and your courage to be in the middle of this field. So we chose to join," said a person named Ezequiel who has shorter hair than his brother.

"I'm so glad you guys want to join us," said Alex, smiling with relief at the arrival of the two cast members and reaching out to the two of them. Ezequiel excitedly greeted Alex but Zayden just remained silent with a sharp look.

"But we still have to wait for one more player. Hopefully someone will be interested in joining as we are both progressing.”

Ezequiel's words didn't come true at that time. The tap of Alex's index finger on his arm -activity that replaced stopwatch function- had reached three hundred, indicating that the four people in the center of the field had been waiting for about five minutes. But no one came forward during those five minutes.

Alex took a deep breath and let it out from his mouth slowly. All the spectators who were sitting on the grandstand didn't care about what was happening in the middle of the field. Within five minutes they were chatting with each other as if nothing had happened.

"Looks like we have to back off this time," said Alex inviting nods from the three people around his position. Getting the same answer from three people, Alex walked towards the NPC to give confirmation. "We're not going to compete this time."

“Do you guys want to cancel the match?”

"Yes."

After the answer "Yes" from Alex, the NPC disappeared immediately. And one second later, the basketball court suddenly became very dark. This condition was not reasonable because even though the lights are turned off, the sunlight has coming from the window glass at the top of the building should still provide lighting. But Alex already knew why he had felt this unnatural condition. Once he has difficulty seeing, then he was in a transition period that occured between stages or when he failed to continue to the next stage.

The dark corridor that appeared at the beginning of stage two also reappeared. Alex stood in the middle of the corridor facing the open door that gave off light. This time Alex didn't spend his time scanning the surroundings. He immediately walked quickly towards the door which was the only way out at that time.

Unlike the previous conditions, this time Alex was among several people. The number of people which has been spawned around Alex increased over time from units, dozens, to tens. The originally deserted edge of the basketball court was now filled with dozens of people who had gathered as a result of all the players who failed to proceed to the next stage and were reset to the starting point of stage two.

Experiencing uncontrollably crowded conditions made Alex think he should have waited a while in the corridor so he wouldn't have to be so crammed into this. To avoid the crowds, Alex followed the stream of people walking towards the grandstand which was still not occupied by a single person. Some people immediately occupied the seats closest to the entrance and some walked on until a certain point. But Alex chose to stand beside the stairs and observe one by one the people spawning in an empty place like the NPCs in stage one. The direction of his eyes moved quickly and looked for three people who would accompany him to do the match.

The man who was about one hundred and eighty-five centimeters was enough to attract Alex's attention. The boy and Alex stared at each other. Even though he didn't make a sound at all, the man named Zayden walked over to Alex and stood up to wait as Alex did.

Not long after, a girl with pink hair appeared in the crowd. The girl looked confused by the overcrowded conditions and tried to find a familiar figure on the spot. Alex was about to follow the girl, but a big man with short black hair approached the girl first, telling Alex where he was and directing the road so as not to be carried away by the current.

After getting close enough, Bianca waved her hand at Alex with a cheerful face. Ezequiel who was beside Bianca just smiled with a straight face to Alex after seeing his brother there. The four people who were originally in the middle of the field had gathered again at the beginning of this second stage.