1 The Mystery
It is the fateful day. The day that Max was finally going to graduate from college. It was certainly a bumpy journey. The only problem was now that he had graduated Max didn't exactly know what he wanted to do with his life. I mean how was he going to find a job with his major. Being an English Literature graduate didn't exactly give him many options. Most likely he was going to be a teacher somewhere to some horny teenagers in a high school but that wasn't the life he wanted.
He was already regretting his decision to major in this subject but he felt like he would have done the same if he was given the same choice. After all, he liked reading. It didn't even matter what kind of genre it was. Be it the Chinese xianxia or the Japanese light novel, as long as he had something to read, he wouldn't really complain about the subject.
"Sweetie, are you coming?"
"Yes, Mom! Just a minute," said Max. After that, he stopped thinking about this useless stuff and put on his gown while rushing downstairs. Currently, he had to get to school. Future Max would figure something out... hopefully.
After getting into the car with his family they started to head for the college. His parents were talking about his future, his girlfriend, when he was going to get married, that kind of stuff but Max was too preoccupied with his phone to pay attention to that.
He was checking the forum of Animeworld. He wasn't really an anime fan but there were a lot of people who read light novels there, so it was a nice place to discuss the recent volumes with people. Still, the hottest topic didn't escape his attention. In the topic, one of his friends Zelka09 was talking about how in all the recent anime episodes broadcasted that week, there was a frame in which a weird picture appeared. It passed by quickly, but since it was in literally every anime, it piqued the people's attention.
In the picture, eight anime characters were standing behind a throne and there was another one sitting on the throne like a king or maybe more like a leader? After the help of the whole community, they had pieced together all the pictures and found out that once they combined them it would make the frameworks of a short video. They still couldn't find what the character on the throne was saying but Zelka09 believed that they were close to making progress.
Everyone was interested in this topic. After all, with all these signs they believed that it was some kind of alternative reality game (ARG) to promote a new anime and they might get some kind of reward if they can solve it first. Seeing the silence of the broadcasting company most people were tending towards that idea.1
The car stopped and Max saw that they were finally at the college. After getting out of the car Max quickly left, making an excuse about meeting with his friends. It was not exactly an excuse considering he was really going to meet with his friends but whatever.
Max quickly meet up with his friends Brian and Carter. They had actually met in Animeworld. Their first meeting was in a light novel enthusiasts club inside the forum. They didn't have a very close relationship back then but when Animeworld added 'location' to the profiles they found out that they were living in the same city.
Once they found out about that they quickly held an IRL meet up and from then on they quickly hit it off.
"Look at who finally decided to show up. Dude, it's not even our graduation day but even we came earlier than you"
The one talking was Brian. He was a burly man. At first glance, you wouldn't expect him to be into watching anime. He had just finished his first year in college and weirdly enough he looked to be the oldest one in the group despite it being otherwise.
"You know I have the Barry Allen syndrome so why are you even trying to scold me? Anyways did you guys check Zelka's topic?" said Max while rolling his eyes. He was more interested in the ARG than talking about his graduation so he quickly changed the topic to something they all had in common.
"Sure did. I don't know what that video was about but doesn't it seem a little unnatural? I mean who would make such a costly ARG?" said Carter.
Carter seemed smaller compared to Brian but he was still more muscular than Max. Well, at least he didn't look as fragile as him.
"Good point, but if you think about it that way doesn't that mean the rewards we get will be much better? Think about it. If someone has that much money to make an ARG like that doesn't that also mean they wouldn't be stingy with the rewards? Can you imagine how much money we would get?" Max was only thinking about the money he would get if he could solve this mystery, so he wasn't exactly interested with who planned it or why. As long as he could earn some money to live without having to get a job it would be fantastic.
"If they reward money that is." reminded Carter.
"Killjoy!" said Brian and Max at the same time.
After some more small talk, Max went to talk with his teachers and eventually moved on to take his diploma but his mind was still on the ARG.
In order to congratulate his graduation, his family wanted to go to a restaurant and wanted to have dinner but Max made up some excuse about not feeling well.
As soon as they got back home Max locked himself up in his room and started to check the thread more thoroughly. He was going to crack this mystery and get that money no matter what.
