Brother

What do you mean lure?

I will tell you later. You remember the game right? So you know who you are. The system is a little bit buggy at the moment, don't mind the … inconstancies and weirdness for a while. They will settle down, I promise.

But I didn't even like the main lead. He was too perfect it got annoying. I won't be able to fool anyone.

You need to not draw too much attention to yourself right now. You can do it, just act charismatic.

I am anything but charismatic.

"Good morning, Ace." The doctor said sitting down in front of him.

"Good morning doctor." he forced a smile on his face.

Just imagine that you are in the same parties your father would hold.

"How are you feeling? Your brother told me that you seem a little out of it." He said, looking at the man standing at the doorway.

"I feel a little out of it," he said, looking at the man. So he's my brother, right.

The doctor took out an instrument and waved it in front of the boy as some kind of translucent film came out of it and stopped right in front of him.

He began to type on the screen, nodding.

"What exactly happened, can you tell me, Ajax?" The doctor asked as the boy suddenly realised where he heard that name from.

Right, Ajax Reguiled. How could I forget about him?

In the game, Ajax was the jealous older brother of the main male lead, Ace Reguiled. I sympathized with him a lot more than the male lead though.

He worked so hard to get the approval of his father and the people around him, just to be killed by the two main leads at the end of the game.

It is so sad but every one of the characters has their own bad ends and … they are never pretty. Only the good ending is … well … good. But that does not mean every one of them had a good ending either.

What exactly am I supposed to be doing here though?

Ajax sighed as he pushed himself up from leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed and walked to the boy, putting his hand on his head.

"It was not intentional." He said, looking slightly guilty. "We were just playing around and … I may have been a little too hard on him. I am sorry."

"I don't remember what we did." The boy answered, putting on his best smile.

Ajax's eyes widened slightly before he chuckled, "You are a little too pure for this world, aren't you?"

Huh? What is he talking about? I said that to get him to tell me. What kind of idiot is this?

So it has begun. Another voice came into his mind and he turned to see the fox peeking its head out slightly at him.

What has begun?

I will tell you later on.

"There seem to be no problems with him." The doctor said as the screen disappeared. "He just has a little bit of a bump on his head."

"Will he be able to go to school tomorrow?"

"I don't see why not." the doctor said, walking out of the room as Ajax patted the boy's head and walked out with the doctor.

The boy waited and listened until he was sure that they are completely gone and breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one." The fox said, crawling out of the pillows. "I am glad that they did not suspect anything."

"What would happen if they suspected something?"

"The system could throw you out." The fox shivered saying this. "Throw you out means to eliminate you completely."

"So I could really die in this place?" he asked, frowning. "Great."

"Yes, that is why I would suggest that you stick to what the choices are presenting to you as. Until I tell you that it is ok."

"Please explain everything to me properly first. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing here and for how long?"

"Ok. Ok." The fox laid on his chest as he laid back down on the mountain of pillows behind him. "Let me explain.

"Three hundred and fifty-six years ago, to this day exactly, there was an incident that happened with the royal family.

"I said royal family but it was not just the royal family. There were some other noble families and also commoners that joined in on this fight.

"It was brutal and very, very bloody. Many people lost their lives and many more kingdoms were completely wiped out."

"What happened?"

"We don't really know. Everyone's memory of that day is still very fuzzy." The fox shook its little head, ears flopping everywhere. "But don't worry, it will come back to me as we go on with the game."

"So, what happened?"

"Because of the destruction that happened, there was only a handful of people left in this world.

"Even they would not survive for too long and the higher beings of this world could not take this human stupidity any longer.

"They still did want to help them, so what they did was combine all their magic and caused this world to develop a system before turning back time to a couple of years before that broke out.

"All the people in this world are now 'programmed' to act a certain way and do a certain thing. Remember all the different endings you got?"

"Yes?"

"That is because of this spell placed on this world."

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Let me get this right. So, the humans of this world destroyed each other to the point that the higher beings had to intervene.

"And the only thing they did was to put this world in a time loop in a game from my world?"

"Yes. Nicely summarized." The fox gave him a thumbs up but the boy was not amused at all.

"What does that have to do with me?"

"See, this is where you come in." The fox walked closer to his face and sat just at the base of his neck. "You are going to have to break out of this."

"How am I supposed to do that if the system will kill me for not acting as I should?" He asked, glaring at the fox.

"We are working on that right now. That is why I said to be patient."

"Why me? I am sure countless others have played this game before."

"Yes, but you were the one of the only ones that made it here alive."

"Excuse me?"

"Some of the ones we tried to bring here were able to be detected almost immediately and were taken care of." The fox shrugged. "I don't know how you made it here. Must be your averageness."

"My averageness is not going to help us here then. You really should ask someone else."

"We took your spirit. You agreed to this. There are not take backsies." The fox said as a ding sound suddenly came all around the room. "Ah, there it is."

"What? What is happening?"

"You are now connected to the game. The world will not see you as an outsider no matter what you do now." The fox said, licking its paws.

"So ... if I killed myself."

"The game will just reset, depending on WHEN you die. You need to remember that this is an entire world appearing to fit into a video game."

"So, there is no escape for me."

"You should have read the fine print." The fox laughed. "But you are here now and not dead yet. Isn't that great?"

"Just tell me what I should be doing? Is there someone I have to kill? Like my brother?" The boy asked, burying his face into the pillow.

"Why would you kill your brother? He is only behaving that way because he was programmed to. Poor Ajax, having to be killed all the time and coming back once again."

"So, what you are saying is that I need to change the genre of the game I am in?"

"Bingo. That won't be too hard, right?"

"I guess." He sat up, thinking. "This could be fun too. If I can keep coming back that is."

"It does get tiring though."

"So, I will just have to break out of this ... genre and that will be it, right?"

"Not entirely." The fox said sheepishly. "You will still need to lead this to a good end. But we can worry about that later. Yes, you have to first break the genre.

"There were some who were there before you and, well, they did not really make it through this one. Maybe you can watch the choices they made and learn from them?"

"Sure." The fox jumped up and turned into a screen once again and he looked as several videos pulled up.

They all look like they were taken at the angle of a CCTV camera or a street camera.

"They were collected by the system." The fox explained.

"Are you a part of the system?"

"Yes. We wish to break this spell on this world. It's been too long and we are ... tired."

The boy nodded as he watched the videos of every one of them in the same body he is in now doing all kinds of things.

"Where are they now?" He asked suddenly as the screen turned into a fox again and looked him dead in the eyes.

"It is best you don't know. Ok?"

He couldn't help but feel a chill run up his back as he looked into the empty eyes of the fox and nodded.

"Good." It said, smiling brightly at him. "Now, anything else you need?"

The boy stared suspiciously at the fox, "No. Nothing."

Suddenly a knock came on the door and Ajax popped his head back into the room.

"Ace. Can I speak to you?"