"Oh, hehe. I wasn't talking to you, Participant Rayen."
Hearing the words, Rayen didn't feel any less afraid. He realized that he was actually looking at the wrong thing and instead eyed the man beside him.
This was the scarier one. The strange jukebox just said that this man was dead!
'A ghost!'
Hurriedly taking a step back, Rayen wanted to widen the space between the two of them.
The man laughed at him. "What? You scared? Aren't you also dead?"
"What dead?! I'm clearly alive and breathing, ah!"
But suddenly, Rayen's mouth stopped talking and recalled his dream. He seemed to hear a gunshot before waking up in this strange place.
A shiver ran down his spine.
That couldn't be!
'No, impossible!'
Just then, the distorted voice spoke again.
"Participant Rayen, you've already finished the assessment. Please kindly follow the arrows on the floor for the next segment~"
Its voice was now filled with ingratiation that the unknown dead man felt unease by the difference in its treatment with him and the scaredy-cat.
"What next segment? What's happening?"
Rayen was just about to open his mouth again when the distorted voice interjected his words.
"If you want to ask questions, please follow the arrows on the floor."
He closed his mouth with a hesitant gleam in his eyes. Having no idea with what's happening, he couldn't just keep on standing there, right?
'I'm sure this is just a prank.'
Thinking that way, he complied and followed the arrows on the floor. Yet in his mind, the gunshot sound kept repeating as if trying to convince him that his certainty of this being a prank wasn't real.
Gradually, his emotions took a plunge.
Following the arrows led him to a narrow corridor. The walls slowly transitioned into a dull grayish white from its retro style.
Before long, Rayen found himself standing in front of a modern steel door. At the top of the door was a red sign that read, "Interview Room".
Gradually, the door slid open, revealing a full white room. At the middle of the room was a stool and a coffee table with a simple vase on it, surrounded by unmanned cameras and a single black monitor.
Rayen walked towards the stool and slowly sat down. He scrutinized the coffee table in front of him. A dark brown book lay there, his name etched on the front cover glittered in gold.
Curious, he was just about to reach it with his hand when he heard a static noise coming from somewhere. He lifted his head and saw the black monitor flicker to life. He lowered his hand unconsciously and stared at the monitor, now filled with white noise.
Suddenly, a face appeared on it, accompanied by the same distorted voice from the jukebox earlier.
"Hi~"
'Beautiful... No, handsome?' Rayen thought.
The person on the screen had an androgynous face just like how the voice didn't sound like coming from a man or a woman.
'So, even his face was like that.'
Rayen couldn't find the proper words to describe the person's appearance. All he could think was that this person was strikingly pleasing to the eye—seemingly otherworldly. And because the face was extraordinarily beautiful and handsome, it was also unforgettable.
Rayen asked with a frown in his forehead, "We've met before, right?"
The person, whose gender was impossible to recognize, froze.
"Oh my ***!"
A sudden ringing sound filled the air, censoring the last words the person said. It felt odd hearing it. How could they even know when someone was about to utter a word that needed censoring live?
Rayen observed more, not saying anything. The person covered their mouth with his hands, eyes glazing over as if they were so deeply moved.
'What the hell? I didn't even hurt you! Why are you crying?'
"You remember me?" The weird person asked excitedly.
"Yeah, at a fan signing event..." Rayen answered truthfully.
The person screamed again.
"Oh my ***! My idol remembers me!!!"
It continued on for a while until the person finally realized his extensive reaction and apologized.
"Excuse me for being rude."
He shyly fixed his hair which had become slightly messy due to his excited jumping. But having ran out of patience, Rayen couldn't wait for the person to wholly calm down.
He asked, "Am I really dead?"
Staring at the strangely beautiful face on the screen, Rayen's eyes were laced with hope that he would receive a negative answer.
He was hoping that this creepy person acting like his devoted fan was just a kidnapper in disguise. After all, as someone who had been in the industry for years, he had his fair shares of experiences being stalked by weird fans too, so being kidnapped by some creepy person wasn't out of the question.
But his expectation wasn't met.
The person sighed and spoke, their voice no longer carried an ingratiating tone. "Do you see the book on the table in front of you?"
Rayen shifted his gaze toward the dark brown book. He felt the same strange sensation he'd felt before, as if the book was calling to him, urging him to open it and read the contents. Even his name seemed to be glowing.
"That's your Life Book. I'm the one who wrote it."
"What the hell is a Life Book?"
"It's something like your biography."
As if the answer wasn't enough, Rayen stared at the enigmatic person in front of him again. In return, the person only raised their hand and snapped their fingers.
Suddenly, the cover of the brown book on the table flipped open. The pages began to turn together with each snap, as if an invisible hand was flipping through them.
Rayen jumped in shock, knocking over the stool beneath him. Goosebumps spread all over his skin.
'What's happening?'
His eyes skimmed the contents written on the page. The goosebumps he had felt turned even more intense, he could even feel his scalp tingle in fear.
First, he met a ghost. Now, it's another ghost—just invisible!
But what's even more surprising is that the contents of the so-called Life Book on the table also recorded things that hadn't been disclosed to the public.
The strange person snapped one last time, and the remaining pages flipped directly to the end. Rayen's already wide pupils widened even more upon reading the last sentences on the book.
"As the gun's bang echoed in the room, Rayen's body slammed on the ground. Still wondering why, he drew his last breath."
Hearing another snapping sound, Rayen was brought back to reality.
In his vision, the strange person's visage appeared extremely spine-chilling as they declared something that seemed simple.
"But since I want to, you are hereby considered not dead!"
At the same time, the last page was ripped out of the book and floated in the air. As if an invisible person was holding onto the parchment in the air, it crumpled by itself, until poof—it disappeared.
Meanwhile, the mischievous smile of the strange person on the screen had already returned on their face.
"Hehe, aren't I amazing?"