The Cursed Extra: Twin Souls Against the World

After a long struggle, Xane finally managed to drag himself toward the hall gate.

He took his time to breathe as he turned to look back at his bed. He had barely walked 10–20 feet, and he was already out of breath.

Zayn complained in his head. [Man, this is really bad. I doubt whether we would be able to reach our room or not.]

Xane took a deep breath and smiled. <Oh, who was the one laughing just now? Didn't you just say standing back on our feet was the best thing?>

[Oh come on, Xane. It was one thing to be excited about something, but in front of reality, this excitement has no place. Ahhh, more than anything, I know you are going to force me to run and everything. It's like we are back at zero and have to start again.]

<Wait, so that was your concern. Haha, I never knew you could also joke, Zayn.>

Zayn continued to complain inside his head. [Hey, you psycho, it might be a joke to you, but the torture you made me go through was no joke to me.]

As Xane thought about the training, he stopped smiling as he remembered his theory.

Zayn sensed the mood shift and stopped complaining. He asked in confusion, [What happened?]

Xane thought for a bit, contemplating whether he should tell him.

It was not like he was sure of his doubts, but it was also not like he could observe further, as they were not in the same situation.

He slowly took one step at a time as he asked Zayn, <Hey Zayn, do you remember before the incident we stopped doing physical exercise. >

Zayn thought about it and mentally nodded. [Yeah, that was a mistake. I should have listened to you and focused more on physical exercise.]

<No, that's not my point. But can you tell me why we stopped exercising?>

Zayn said in confusion. [I mean, didn't we focus all of our energy on the projection plane? Oh yeah, Xane, I think I have a way that's going to help us with the projection plane.]

Xane paused for a bit as he remembered those grey dots and balls.

He remembered that they still had to climb that Everest. He asked in doubt, <What kind of method? Don't tell me it's just some other way to travel.>

Zayn said with pride. [Nope. It's more related to my practice of being one with the void. I think that method might work inside the projection plane.]

[I think the projection plane is a kind of similar to the void, except it is filled with different world projections. But if you think about it, even in the projection plane, our thoughts were the only thing that guided us.]

Xane raised his eyebrow. <Wait, if that's the case, will my method of multiplying work?>

[I don't know, man, but we should try this method as fast as possible.]

Just then, Xane paused for a bit as he looked at the empty hall with wide eyes. 'Wait, did I fall for it again?'

He bit his tongue to pull himself out of any illusion whatsoever.

Zayn cursed him. [Fck, Xane. You masochistic bastard, why did you bite your tongue?]

Xane didn't care about any of that as he looked around. But there was no one around him.

The entire secondary hall was empty. All he saw was the reception desk with a fat woman dozing there.

Zayn realized that something was amiss as he asked, [Hey dude, you're starting to make me tense. Tell me what's going on, man.]

Xane rubbed his head and said, <Shit, it's happening again.>

[What's happening again?]

Xane took a deep breath and asked, <Hey, let me ask again, why did we stop exercising?>

[Didn't I already tell you that it was because of the projection—]

Xane cut in and asked, <Hey, don't you think it's weird that from the moment we met our teacher, all we started to care about was the projection plane?>

[What do you mean? Obviously, we would care about the projection since that is the key for us to use our hex art.]

Xane said in a cold tone. <No, there's more to it, Zayn. Think about it. Before the selection of the hex master, you told me about other possibilities. Then there was that Liam group.>

<Also, do you remember the entire training theory that I explained to you?>

[The one about running in the forest.]

<Yup, I had planned this entire schedule regarding that, but how come the moment we met our teacher, both of us stopped caring about all that other stuff? From that moment, all we cared about was the projection plane.>

Zayn said in a low tone. [You think we are being manipulated? No, no, that makes no sense. If we are being manipulated, then why the hell didn't we just randomly choose any planet and move on?]

Xane sighed. <That's the thing. This is why I won't call it manipulation. It was more of… how do I say it? Yeah, it's like something has enhanced our curiosity about hex art to the point that learning hex art has taken over every other aspect of our lives.>

Zayn denied that. [Nah, you're thinking too much. Didn't we meet Samuel and Liam already? I think we just got carried away.]

Xane clapped. <Yeah, that's the talk. Zayn, think about it. It was you who told me that our survival mostly depended on the protagonist. We had this entire plan to be around Liam.>

Zayn cut him short. [But it was you who said we won't be wagging our tails to Liam.]

Xane said in realization. <Sure, that's what I still stick to. But what about you? Are you the kind of person who would leave this unknown factor alone? This is contrasting to the way you always think.>

As Xane mentioned, Zayn grew shy for a bit, as even Xane realized his overthinking problem. But then he froze. He thought about the meeting. After Samuel confronted them, what was his response?

It didn't take him long to remember that at that point in time, all he ever wanted to do was take a rest and go back to the lab to try the projection plane again.

Not only that, even after that, when the Soren guy successfully formed his bond, even then, all he cared about was what he was going to do in the projection plane.

Zayn said in shock, [Shit, I even thought about the projection plane in the void.]

Xane added. <I think in your case, it was a mixture of obsession and manipulation. I don't know if it was possible or not, but when it came to hex art, both of us sort of started ignoring everything.>

< It was like something was pushing us to just focus on the hex art and the hex art only. Kind of like the addition. Yeah, addition should be the correct description of our situation. >

Zayn heard that, and he thought of Xenor's wide smile as he felt a chill down his spine. [Fck, Xane, I think you're right. How did you even catch that?]

Xane thought for a bit and said, <I mean, I didn't notice on the first day, but on the second, after we met with Samuel, it was then I realized that I was way more agitated for some reason. Also, the way I reacted was completely abnormal.>

Zayn thought about the meeting and was about to say it was normal, but then he remembered Xane sitting before Xelami.

There was also him standing in the hall, and how he almost punched Hex Master Xenor.

Now that he thought about it, even he felt Xane was much more agitated that day. It was completely different from his casually cutting his finger and signing the contract.

But what about him? Zayn thought about how he reacted in the meeting, and it was normal. But he remembered how agitated he became when they failed to find any world.

Zayn said in a low tone. [I think you are right?]

Xane cursed internally as he did not even have to think much to understand why Xenor was using that. From the first day, he was clear that Xenor saw them as a lab rat.

The lab rat had with fixed low lifespan, so it was likely Xenor's way to manipulate him so that all he ever did was hex art in that way, Xenor would get more results out of him.

Xane just rubbed his forehead as he could feel himself trapped in this web, waiting for his end.

He asked Zayn. < Is there any way out of it?>

Zayn said in an uncertain tone. [Dude, remember I told you that chaos-filled hex energy protects us from the mental manipulation.]

<I don't think that's true, though. We are already being manipulated.>

[May only have happened because we can't use our hex energy.]

<Oh yeah, but then why did Xenor even bother to use this hex art in the first place?>

Zayn snapped, [I don't know, man. Like you said, the only thing we could trust is ourselves. We need information, and for that, we have to find a connection with a suitable planet.]

[Also, I don't think Xenor should be our biggest worry right one.]

Xane sighed. <Yeah, it's like we are thinking about how we can defeat in a race while we ourselves were not even part of the same race.>

[By the way, I am sick of these metaphors, but yeah, it's now or never.]

Both Xane and Zayn made up their mind as Xane finally reached the receptionist and collected his stuff.

It was not long before she opened the portal that teleported them back to the familiar hall within the black castle.

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Guys, I just wanted to ask, is the book bad? I just want to know does the book even feels interesting now, or is it feels like slop now?