It is the faithful day. The day he is finally going to graduate from College. It was certainly a bumpful journey. The only problem was now that he was a graduate Max didnt exactly know what he wanted to do with his life. I mean how is he going to find a job with his major. Being an English Literature graduate didnt exactly give him many options. Most likely he was going to be a teacher to some hormoned teachers in highschool but that isnt the life he wants.

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. Afterall he liked reading. It didnt 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 wouldnt really complain about what it was.

"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 and rushed downstairs. Currently he had to get to school. He left all the important decisions to his future self.

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 marry, that kind of stuff but Max was too preoccupied to pay attention to that.

He was looking at his phone and checking the forum Animeworld. He wasnt really an anime fan but there were a lot of people who read Light Novels there so it was nice to place to discuss the recent volumes with people. Still the most hot topic picked his attention. In the topic one of his friends Zelka09 was talking about how in all the anime episodes that was broadcasted that week there was a frame in which a weird picture was showing.

In the picture eight anime characters was 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 combined it would make the frameworks of a short video. They still couldnt find what the character on the throne was saying but Zelka09 believed that they were close to making progress.

Everyone was intrested in this topic. Afterall with all these signs they believed that it was some kind of alternative reality game 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.

The car stopped and Max saw that they were finally at the college. After getting off the car Max quickly left making an excuse about metting with is 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 up in Animeworld. They first met in a Light Novels enthusiast club inside the forum. They didnt 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 its 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 wouldnt expect him to be into anime. He had just finished his first year in college and weirdly enough he looked to be the oldest one in the group despite being the youngest.

"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 intrested in the ARG than talking about his graduation so he quickly changed the topic something they had in common.

"Sure did. I dont know what was that video but doesnt 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 didnt look as fragile as him.

"Good point but if you think about it that way doesnt 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 doesnt that mean they wouldnt be stingy with the rewards. Can you imagine what kinda money we would get?"

"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 restraunt and wanted to have dinner but Max made up some excuse about not feeling good.

As soon as they got back home Max locked himself up in his room and started to check the thread more throughly. He was going to crack this Mystery no matter what!