Raffa kept a tight grip on Luca's arm as he marched down the first-floor corridor at a brisk pace. Xavier trailed right behind them with a relaxed stroll, completely unbothered by the tense, possessive atmosphere radiating from the two brothers.
"Let go already, kid! My arm's gonna pop off!" Luca protested, trying to break free from his younger brother's grip. "I gotta get to class! The physics teacher is about to show up!"
Without warning, Raffa finally let go right in front of Luca and Hiro's classroom door.
"Just remember what I said, Bro. Stay away from that blue umbrella kid."
Luca let out a lazy huff, reaching for the door handle to head inside. But the exact moment Luca's fingers brushed against the metal handle...
CLICK! CLICK!
The sound of an electronic locking mechanism echoed simultaneously through the entire corridor. Luca tried turning the handle downward, but it didn't budge an inch. Locked tight.
"Huh? Why won't it open?" Luca frowned, attempting to shoulder the wooden door open. Absolute zero results. The door felt like it had fused into the wall.
Raffa and Xavier instinctively stepped closer. Raffa tried checking his own classroom door next to Luca's, and the result was the same: automatically locked dead from the outside.
BZZZZT... BZZZZT...
Suddenly, every single computer monitor inside the classrooms visible through the window panes—along with the announcement TVs lining the corridor—flickered in unison. The screens, which had been displaying study materials, abruptly flushed a deep blood-red.
Right in the middle of the blood-red screens, lines of white text began typing out automatically, accompanied by a digital countdown timer relentlessly ticking away.
[PROJECT: REUNION - PHASE 1]
All doors across the school premises have been absolutely locked via the central system. In 30 minutes, the ceiling exhaust valves will release a high concentration of neurotoxic gas. If you fail to solve this lock puzzle before time runs out, everyone in this building will die of poisoning.
[TIME REMAINING: 29:59]
The atmosphere in the hallway instantly plummeted into grim, suffocating terror. Luca stared at the announcement TV above his head with wide, frozen eyes as his breath suddenly caught in his throat. His money-minded soul vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by hyper-vigilant survival instincts.
"Are you freaking kidding me... what is this now, school terrorism?!" Luca panicked, whipping his head around to face his younger brother and fellow transmigrator buddy. "Xav, you're a former system! Don't tell me you can't hack back into this thing?!"
Xavier stepped toward the nearest monitor, his expressionless eyes rapidly scanning the lines of red code scrolling across the screen.
"Technical analysis: The encryption used on this system is highly unfamiliar and possesses a structure far superior to this world's technology. This is not the work of a normal human hacker. An external entity currently holds absolute control over this building."
Raffa clenched his fists tightly, his eyes gleaming sharply as he watched the countdown clock slice through their precious seconds.
"Whoever the mastermind behind this is... they're deliberately picking a fight with us. Luca-senpai, stay close to me."
Behind the dark, soundproof walls of the central system room, Albiru gazed at his monitor, which displayed a live feed of Luca, Raffa, and Xavier trapped in the corridor. The corners of his lips curved upward into a cold, enigmatic smile. His first game to reclaim his little brother... had officially begun.
Up in the hallway ceiling, a faint hiss began whispering from the air pipes, signaling that the toxic neurogas was ready to deploy at any second. The digital numbers on the TV monitor kept mercilessly dropping:
[TIME REMAINING: 27:14].
"Damn it, how are we supposed to find clues when we can't even kick the doors open?!" Raffa cursed in frustration after kicking his classroom door multiple times to no avail.
Just as the tension reached its peak, frantic running footsteps echoed from around the bend of the west corridor.
"L-Luca-senpai! Raffa-senpai! Help meeee!"
Luca instinctively turned his head. Hiro was sprinting toward them, his face deathly pale.
His light blue umbrella was nowhere to be seen, and his wide eyes were brimming with tears, holding back absolute terror. The moment he reached Luca, Hiro grabbed the edge of Luca's uniform, his whole body trembling violently.
"Luca-senpai... sob... what's going on? Why did all the monitors in class turn red, saying we're all gonna die?!" Hiro asked, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "I'm so scared, Senpai... are we trapped here forever?"
Seeing his angel-faced classmate breaking down in tears, Luca's protective instincts blew sky-high.
He immediately wrapped his arm around Hiro's shoulders, trying to soothe him.
"Calm down, Ro, calm down! I'm right here. You're safe with me, Raffa, and Xavier. We're definitely getting out of here, okay?"
Raffa, seeing Hiro clinging to his brother once again, clicked his tongue in disgust. His gaze sharpened, a strange sense of suspicion creeping in since Hiro always seemed to show up at the most crucial moments. But before Raffa could pull Hiro away from Luca, a brutal, wild banging suddenly exploded from the faculty bathroom at the end of the hall.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"HEYEEEYYY!!! ANYBODY OUT THERE, HELP MEEEEE!!! I'M LOCKED INSIDE THE TOILET, DANG IT!!!"
That shrill, hysterically high-pitched voice instantly made Luca, Raffa, and Xavier turn in unison. It was Ms. Hasna, their guidance counselor—and the author creator of this world, who was suffering an utterly miserable fate today.
"Wait... is that Ms. Hasna's voice?" Luca gasped, stunned. "What is she doing banging inside the toilet during a toxic gas threat?!"
Xavier stepped closer to the faculty bathroom door, which had also been electronically locked by the system. He pressed his ear against the thick wooden surface.
"Voice confirmation: Affirmative. It is Subject Hasna. Based on acoustic analysis and door vibrations, it appears she was trapped inside before this absolute lockdown system was activated."
Inside the stuffy toilet stall, Hasna was practically crying tears of blood while hammering the door with a toilet plunger. Her author soul was writhing in ultimate shame and god-tier frustration.
"God damn it!!! I just rushed in here to use the bathroom, so why am I stuck inside a toilet during a toxic gas terror attack?! What kind of messed-up world is this, damn it!!! I don't wanna die an embarrassing death in a human waste dump!!! Luca! Raffa! Xavier! SAVE MEEEEE!!!" Hasna screamed hysterically from inside until her voice turned raspy.
Luca slapped his own forehead, feeling equal parts pity and a desperate urge to laugh at his teacher's absurd suffering.
"Man, out of all times, she gets stuck in the loo! Ma'am, if you can hold in your poop, surely you can hold your breath against toxic gas, right?! Wait, Xav, hurry up and find the first clue on the screen! We gotta free Ms. Hasna and save all our lives!"
Xavier looked back at the blood-red monitor, which was now displaying a new riddle right beneath the countdown timer.
[PUZZLE 1: FIND THE KEY THAT HAS NO HOLE, AT THE PLACE WHERE THE PAST AND FUTURE MEET. IF YOU ENTER THE WRONG CODE, TIME WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE DEDUCTED BY 5 MINUTES.]
"A-A puzzle...?" Hiro muttered beside Luca, his face a picture of innocent confusion.
"A key with no hole... where the past and the future meet..." Luca repeated the sentence on the screen, his brow furrowed deep. "What does that even mean? The past is an ex, the future is marriage. Where do they meet? The wedding altar?!"
"Don't be an idiot in a crisis, Bro," Raffa cut in sharply, his eyes shifting toward the hallway, which was starting to fill with a thin haze. The hissing of the neurogas from the ceiling pipes was becoming dangerously real.
"Xav, if it's a place where the past and future meet... could it be the school archives room? There are tons of old student records there, along with new student files?"
Xavier shook his head slightly. "The probability is only 15%, Luca. The archives room only stores static past data; it does not functionally represent the future."
Raffa, who had been watching Hiro's every move, suddenly spoke up in a harsh tone. "What about the library? History books are the past, sci-fi or prophecy books are the future. But what's the key without a hole?"
Beside Luca, Hiro secretly let out a tiny, hidden smirk beneath his bangs.
The boy then quickly put back his innocent, terrified expression, gently tugging at Luca's shirt.
"L-Luca-senpai... if you ask me... wouldn't the place where the past and future meet... be the Guidance Counselor's Office?"
Luca, Raffa, and Xavier instinctively turned to look at Hiro at the same time.
"Why the Guidance office, Ro?" Luca asked, puzzled.
Hiro blinked innocently, as if making a random guess. "Well... if students get into trouble because of past mistakes, they get called to the Counseling office. But in that same room, they also get guidance for a better future... like college or career counseling... Hehe, sorry if I guessed wrong..."
"HOLY CRAP MAN?! HOW IS THAT KID SO FREAKING SMART?!" Hasna's voice suddenly boomed frantically from inside the toilet, the banging of her plunger resuming at full volume. "Luca! Xavier! Raffa! Hiro is right! It's the Guidance office! On my desk, there's a loose keyboard key—that's a key without a hole! Hurry up and get to the counseling office right now before we all turn into permanent school ghosts!!!"
Luca snapped his fingers excitedly.
"Dude, you're a genius, Ro! A computer keyboard key! That literally doesn't have a hole! And the main counseling computer is in there to punch in the code!"
Raffa narrowed his eyes, staring at Hiro with a gaze packed with deep suspicion.
This kid... how did his guess hit the bullseye so accurately in a moment like this? Raffa thought grimly, his possessive-yandere radar going off with red-alert danger signals pointing straight at Hiro.
"Xav, Fa, Ro! Let's sprint to the Guidance office right now!" Luca cheered enthusiastically, taking the lead as they dashed down the hallway toward the counseling office on the second floor.
"HEYEEEYYY!!! DON'T LEAVE ME ALL ALONE IN THE TOILET TO DIE, YOU CRAZY KIDS!!! LUCAAAA!!! RAFFAAAA!!!" Hasna shrieked, weeping over her tragic fate as she was left behind in the faculty bathroom.