Chapter 001 – Wait till tomorrow?

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[Message]: “You have been invited to the [Training Tower] as part of a defense program which purpose is the creation, training, and support of Players, do you wish to [accept] or [refuse], please reply this message before the training period ends”.

[Cyan]: “…”

This thing has to be in all the news recently and it was in all the talks in his high school, and it was in his hands.

[Cyan]: “I should [refuse] no doubt” escaped Cyan lips.

Coming out from his dazed the teen boy decides finally to [refuse] as he started typing away into his phone. It has to be a whole week since he got the message at first he ignores it, but after watching the news for a week Cyan knew this wasn’t a normal “text message” but one that could make you disappear from the world.

Cyan had already confirmed it was the sender [unknown], as no matter from where you would a send a text message it still would show even 1 digit number as the sender, but this message as reported in the news has not visible sender it’s just a blank space.

[Unknown]: “Cyan”

But being to [accept] or [refuse] he didn’t have the courage to send either one, so he did what a normal person would do first and deleted it, however, no matter how many times he deleted the text message it would still show up again in his inbox, the only true options were to ignore it until the “training period ends” whenever that was, or to send a reply and [refuse] it but Cyan still felt he couldn’t do just that.

As he read through the message once again he couldn’t stop thinking about its contents, a message part of a defense program for creating players, like if taken from a fictional book, but defense against what.

[Unknown]: “Cyan”

Cyan felt like he was holding a ticking bomb in his hands, still, he could not muster the courage to send the reply and [refuse] it for good, even after typing it in, pressing send never seen have reached from his brain to his hands, it was like the signal was being blocked right in the middle.

[Unknown]: “Cyan”

Stuck in this crossroad of fate Cyan mind stopped noticing his surroundings as a hand tapped into his right shoulder scaring Cyan to death and making him jump up as he flapped his hands in the air trying to catch his phone that had come out flying from his hands and failing miserably at that.

[Cyan]: “Hyyyakk”

Cyan could only give a small scream that drawn the unwanted attention of the classroom to himself all this while he saw his phone hitting the floor face down in very slow motion.

He had been was too focused right now in the phone screen that he completely failed to notice the person standing beside him calling for his name several times already.

Immediately after Cyan picked up his phone from the ground and checked that nothing was broken and that the reply [refuse] he was planning to send haven’t been sent by accident and it was still there, waiting for him to send it, but then again… shouldn’t he be happy if such a thing were to had happened, even if just an accident?.

[Unknown]: “Cyan are you ok?”

The person that has tapped Cyan shoulder had also been scared and shirked back as she has not expected such explosive reaction coming out of a fellow student.

Cyan brushed the dirt off his phone as he regained enough composure to stand back again and reply back to the person in question.

[Cyan]: “Class President I am ok, I was just thinking about my plans after school, but I was too engrossed that I failed to notice you, so I really got a strong scare”

Cyan awkwardly laughed, as he was too nervous to give a proper reply and said whatever it comes to his mind as he tried to hide the phone that he was holding his hands.

The Class President give Cyan a wide look and focused her gazed on Cyan hands with a suspicious glare of “I am not buying it”, before then letting out a sigh and seriously looking Cyan to the eyes.

[Class President]: “You shouldn’t be playing with your phone in the school grounds you know that right? A total cellphone ban has been issued, and any and all students with a cellphone in the school ground would be detained and their phones confiscated and as the acting Class President…”

Cyan already knew this speech by the letter the Class President has had been giving this same exact speech to each and every student in their classroom at least twice. Before the Class President could continue her speech Cyan interrupt her with an apology.

[Cyan]: “I am sorry Class President it would not happen again”

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By this point the other students in the classroom had already diverted their attention to their own matters as soon the saw Class President starting to give her long lecture, not to mention the person receiving the speech, the other students around didn’t want anything to do it, prompting them to turn theirs gazed away to avoid looking at such unpleased scene.

Class President did not become angry for being interrupted instead she let out a sigh and put a worried face.

[Class President]: “Sigh, alright because this is your first offense I will let it sly… however… Cyan you really shouldn’t be even looking at that message you know”.

“Busted”

Unlike her rehearsed lecture about cellphones in schools grounds, this time a genuine care could be seen reflected in her eyes because to her Cyan was not just another fellow student of the classroom but her longtime neighbor and friend, even though they had started to grow separated since the last year, they still shared a lot of memories together.

Class President Alice hoped that this year this could be changed somehow and they could go back to be friends.

However Cyan could not bring himself to say anything about the message as a knot in his brain was form every time he thought about the matter, even after looking at the worried eyes of the Alice this knot would not go away, instead, he tried to steer the conversation away from this topic.

[Cyan]: “…Class President for what purpose you were calling me just now?”

Even if he was being a little too briskly, Cyan hope the Alice wouldn’t mind it too much about this.

Alice went “ah yes” and she was reminded as to why she had been calling for Cyan name just a short while ago as she started to take something out from the folder she was holding.

[Alice]: “It has been one week since the school has started but you still haven’t picked an extracurricular activity yet nor joined a club, so I recollected some flyers with information that can help you to make a decision into which one to pick”

The flyers that Alice took out were already readily available in Cyan phone and in each club webpage as a downloadable file as well as all around the school campus, Cyan thought that Alice actions had little to no meaning and were a little pointless but he soon notice these flyers were full of annotations with a full list of pros and cons of joining each club with a comparable table, and the experiences you could earn in each club or what he could do with his free time as to become a tutor for other students as his grades were already the top of the class next to Alice’s grades.

[Alice]: “…. If you become a tutor then you can also improve your social skill and this will help you in the future….”

These annotations may have been done in hasty but the calligraphy of the Alice was ever so neat and tidy, making it very easy to read, even if it was little girly as it was drawn in pink color, but it still carries a professional like format that will make you not to look it down upon only because it was in pink. Alice probably used this color as her favorite because it gave the best result when reading and without giving too much thought about it.

Cyan could only receive the flyers that the Alice was handing to him meanwhile she recites the contents of, still, he could not bring himself to retort at her, “If you are already telling the benefit of each club what is the purpose of handing me these flyers for?” as his eyes twitched.

[Alice]: “…Of course, if you want to join the track field you will have to work hard, and I am also the Captain in that club so we could…”

[Cyan]: “Class President I just remember I have something to do right now, but I will read the flyers later on for sure”.

[Alice]: “Ah! Right, right, you should go home and read them very carefully when you get home”

Alice believed she already had taken too much out of Cyan time, after all, she already had put all of this information into the flyers and notes she handed to Cyan so there was actually no point in telling him if he could just read it later on in a slower pace.

However, there was something else that had been bothering Alice this whole time during their conversation.

[Alice]: “…by the way Cyan didn’t I told you to call by my name already? You still can remember my name right?”

[Cyan]: “That… I need to go”

While ignoring the angry gazed of Alice Cyan walk pass her but he stopped a few steps after, he could still feel that gaze of Alice in the back of his head, Cyan turned around to ask something he feels the need to ask as he tried to untie the knot in his mind.

[Cyan]: “Class President… did you also receive the text message right?”

Almost everyone in the classroom had got the text message so the probability that Alice received too was very high.

The Class President nerves tighten at the sudden question, her emotional status and her mind have also been affected by this phenomenon as the constants emergency broadcast hits her news feed and as some of her friends are going missing one after the other, even now one week it, after all, started things are not getting better and if you look around the classroom area you will spot that quite a few students are missing and as the acting Class President she felt some responsibility for that as she didn’t warn her fellow students enough.

Alice only hope now was for all the missing student of her class to be found together with all the missing people as soon as possible but this was just wishful thinking from her part.

Affected by all of this she have come looking for Cyan using the flyers maybe as an excuse to distract her own preoccupied mind and reduce the stress in her mind, whatever it was the case she didn’t think that Cyan would ask her about the subject bringing all her anxiety rushing back as Cyan himself had been avoiding the subject like the plague.

However, she still answered the question with honesty.

[Alice]: “That… I did… received…”

Cyan looked at Alice as her hands tremble, even though it pained him to bring this subject up, there was something he needed to ask her no matter what.

[Cyan]: “Did you [refuse] it?”

Maybe if this was any other student of the classroom Alice would have said she already had sent her [refuse] because as the role model for her fellow students she could not say the message was still in her phone waiting for a reply, but if she couldn’t tell the truth to her friend then to whom she could?

[Alice]: “… I haven’t yet”

Her answer was an obvious clue that she would [refuse] the message very soon probably today she just has postponed until today.

[Cyan]: “…Don’t [refuse] it just yet… Alice, please wait till tomorrow”

After saying his piece Cyan stormed out of the classroom in a hurry not giving any chance for Alice to give any response, even though he knew he was being irresponsible for doing such.

Telling some to wait while he planned to [refuse] today.

Cyan could not hear as Alice said “you finally remembered my name” while letting out a sigh after he had left.