006 NA12M25

“How would you know if I’m Alice or not?” Figured out the puzzle real answer, Meph retorts calmly.

The game is never about finding Alice. It’s about finding out that she died. But the Queen wanted Alice alive, so the hero needs to take her place. No matter what happens when they meet the Queen, this is the only way out of the current situation.

Somehow, the rabbit’s skeleton face manages to deliver “frustration” without a shred of flesh left, at Meph childishly twisting facts.

“You don’t look like her!” The dead rabbit is now showing human emotions, cornered by Meph’s  ridiculous logic, pointing one of his skeleton finger at the posters.

Human emotions is Meph’s specialty.

Born an emotionless monster, Meph has spent his whole life learning what “normal human experience” is. You laugh when you are happy, and cry when you are sad. Such common knowledge that come natural to all kids, is hard for Meph to grasp more than any subjects in the school. He understands what insult is, but he can’t feel anger to give the right reaction. He understands what being friendly is, but he couldn’t time a smile right to return the favor.

Until he recorded all possible human expressions in his mind as much as he could, and could fake emotions better than the most human human.

Human emotions are good. Better than rules. Rules doesn’t bend, but emotion? Emotion is the easiest to manipulate.

Curving his lips into a smirk, Meph put a shade of tease in his eyes, just the perfect amount to push the rabbit a little more to the frantic side, but not enough to trigger any attack: “You mean the posters? Those are just paintings based on how people described me. It’s not my fault that your royal painter was not good at their job.”

If the rabbit still has his lungs, he would be huffing angrily by now.

“You are not a girl!” The rabbit hops.

“Why? Just because I’m in jeans?” With a leading question, Meph tilts his head to lure the rabbit to look at the corner of the Hollow Log, “That’s mine.”

The rabbit’s head turns over slowly, and Meph joins him, looking at the cute, red little hoodie lying on the floor, obviously too small for Meph’s figure.

“I bit the cake.” Meph gives a harmless smile.

Feeling his intelligence insulted, the rabbit wheels on Meph angrily, his shoulder hunched and his head lowered, assuming strike stance.

Meph suddenly changes his smirk into a perfectly friendly smile, his hands up in the air to surrender: “Before you lose your temper, maybe you should answer a question of mine, so that I can save YOUR life.”

The dark fog  lunges at Meph like an invisible monster, the wind it carries blows Meph’s hair right up. But Meph doesn’t move. He is betting. Betting on that a creature with “emotions”, would be more reasonable than a sociopath like himself.

He won.

The fog gulped Meph, but the lethal weight is not there. The rabbit is trying to scare him, not to kill him…yet.

Meph decides to not push the psycho rabbit too much: “The Queen sent you to take Alice back from whoever the Queen sent for Alice, no? You know the consequence if you fail.”

He had to twist the mission to pull the rabbit into the same loop his neck is in, but it worked.

The familiar question raises fear in the rabbit, and Meph could taste every ounce of it. He smirks. If he were to be beheaded for failing his mission the Queen give, then so would the rabbit. The rabbit might be a skeleton, but the fear of the Queen is branded not on his flesh, but on his soul.

“You failed the mission! YOU did!” The rabbit hops around, pointing his shaking fingers at Meph, “I shall take your head back to the Queen! I shall!”

He shouts frantically, repeating his plan as if to convince himself. But Meph is not sharing his fear: “What if I AM Alice? Who are you to decide my fate when the Queen asked for me alive?”

The rabbit suddenly stops, staring at Meph, as if weighing his options.

“You are not Alice…” The rabbit repeats, but this time with hesitation in his voice, as if confused, “You are not Alice…”

“The Queen would recognize me,” Meph cuts off the rabbit’s mumble with a stern voice, “You asked for Alice, and I have delivered. You have to take me to the Queen, or you are disobeying her!”

“No! I’m loyal to the Queen!” The rabbit shakes his head at that accusation frantically.

“On the other hand…” Meph curves his lips with a mischievous smile, “If you complete your mission of taking Alice back, then it’s not your fault whether the Queen could recognize me as Alice or not.”

The rabbit stares at Meph as if at the devil himself. Meph feels like so, too, so he smirks.

Like he said, manipulation is his specialty.

Both of them know perfectly well that he is not Alice, but neither of them has a choice. If Meph tells the White Rabbit that Alice is dead, then he is failing his mission. If the White Rabbit admits that he knew Alice was dead, then he, too, is admitting that his own mission failed.

In fact, Meph thinks that the only reason why the White Rabbit is urging him on delivering Alice, is to save his own ass. Meph always presume the worst of people. Being a people observer, he has seen more than his share of the dark side of the humanity.

“If you kill me here...” Meph smirks evilly, drawling, “...then the Red Queen has only you to blame for Alice’s death, because I, AM, her.”

The White Rabbit hops a step back, scared. Not at Meph’s threat, but when Meph mentioned “Alice’s death”.

Meph is more certain that the White Rabbit knew of Alice’s death. Not just that, it seems that it’s some taboo to mention it. Or, the White Rabbit is reluctant facing that fact.

Interesting.

Meph doesn’t know, that his words created a shock wave on the screens--

[Alice my ass!!! Are you kidding me??? Did he seriously just bullshit his way through?! What the hell is the system doing? There is no way the game would determine such an obvious lie!]

[But the rabbit is not skinning him...]

[He is not bull shitting, he found the game’s loop hole. Alice’s death is the taboo in the trial.] Audience HD25LL2 suddenly type. He was the one who has been camping at the death zone of Alice.

His bullet comment is the easiest to catch because he has the VIP bubble that’s glowing red.

HD25LL2: [He is forcing the rabbit to admit to Alice’s death, but the rabbit can’t speak of their taboo, hence forced to allow his obvious lie! I have never seen anyone able to pull this off, let alone a newbie!]

[Hey y’all, stop it and look at the hoodie!]

--- Bullet Comments with spoiler will be screened out for the hero ---

The hoodie lying on the ground is growing, literally. With a visible speed, it stretches into obviously Meph’s size. At the mean time, Meph’s snake tattoo glow, too. He raises his wrist, and on the game panel, Meph’s name changes from originally “NA12M25” to:

[Alice (who ate the cake)]

The game legitmized his lie.