The corridor greeted them with the same retro style as the lounge. Its walls were painted with vibrant mix of red, orange and yellow.
On their left, rows of empty wall pots in various colors hung neatly, while the walls on their right had several doors labeled with their functions: Editing and Media room, Recording Studio, Control Room, etc.
Rayen marveled at the spaciousness of the building just by seeing this floor.
They proceeded to the end of the corridor, where the only glass door was located. It led to the Dance Practice Studio, but there was a piece of paper plastered on the wall beside the door: "Temp. Audition Room."
He tried to peer through the glass door, but it was too frosted. All he could discern was a faint glow from the lights inside.
They haven't even begun yet? After going through that shameful situation with the jukebox, it hadn't even crossed Rayen's mind that they still needed to audition for the show.
Then... did that mean not everyone in the lounge would make it into the survival show? Then what would happen to those who failed? Would they face the same fate as that man with anger issues?
The thought sent a chill down Rayen's spine. He definitely didn't want to disappear too!
'I was just enjoying the peak of my career, and now I'm gonna vanish? Whoever fired that gun that killed me must pay! Why kill someone out of nowhere? I didn't even do anything to you!'
A light tap on his shoulder snapped Rayen out of his spiraling thoughts. He glanced back at Adrian, who was pointing to a door on their right side. It had a similar piece of paper taped to it which was also written with something.
"Temp. Waiting Room. Kindly enter one by one. Please wait for ten seconds before the next person enters. Thank you."
Adrian turned to Rayen and offered. "Uh, do you want to go first?"
Rayen didn't respond with that, of course.
'Image, ah... I have to take care of my image. Image is important for a celebrity!'
As Rayen was taking too long pondering, Adrian wondered what this famous person must have been thinking. He decided not to wait for this person anymore and opened the door. Lazily smiling at Rayen, he proceeded to enter the room.
When the door closed behind Adrian, faint rumbling sounds echoed briefly before fading away.
Ten seconds later, Rayen opened the door. The room was small, with a couch and a squarish coffee table. Laying on the table was small rectangular black object—a familiar smartphone.
Simultaneously closing the door, he stepped in and immediately picked up his phone.
Despite looking left and right, Rayen wasn't able to find Adrian anywhere within the small confined space. The room was empty except for the furniture.
'So that's why we have to enter one by one... Maybe it was some kind of spatial magic?'
He sat on the soft leather couch, clutching the phone in his hand. Its coldness seemed to pierce his skin, reminding that he wasn't dead, although he wasn't sure if he was alive either.
'But why is my phone here?'
Pressing the power button, Rayen turned it on. As the logo appeared with its animation, he surveyed his surroundings again.
An odd digital clock caught his attention. The clock was purely black with bright red digits that read 7:00. There was no indication whether it was in the morning or evening. What was even more odd about it was that the numbers wouldn't change despite blinking every second. It was as if time was frozen.
The phone's startup tone rang, signaling Rayen that it had fully powered up.
Rayen turned his gaze on its screen and noticed the time displayed did not match the time in the digital clock on the wall.
Wednesday, November 2]
It must not be a clock, then. Maybe it was a timer, and it hasn't started yet. The number 7 on it could mean seven hours, or maybe seven minutes instead.
Rayen turned his attention towards his phone again. He unlocked it using the pattern he was familiar with and confirmed that it was really his after a single successful attempt. However, the phone didn't have the applications he had previously installed as if it had been factory reset. Instead, a lone flashy icon was left: Idol:Revive.
Even the app store was missing, so Rayen had no choice but to open it.
"Set-up initializing..." He suddenly heard the familiar distorted voice of Plotter.
Startled, he thought that the strange person with supernatural abilities will emerge from the door, but soon, he realized that the voice came from the phone in his hand.
Rayen sighed in relief. He didn't want to deal with that person again!
After the voice came a soft ding sound. The app's interface changed from a welcoming message into the dashboard.
At the center of the screen was an image of a flowerpot inside a circle. His name was written under the drawing that it looked like the pot was his display picture.
'Didn't I just wake up in a greenhouse? Am I overthinking things?'
Was the flowerpot really supposed to be a representation of himself? It couldn't be, right?
Rayen wanted to laugh at himself for connecting stupid things together. He thought his imagination must have been affected by the strange things that had happened earlier.
He was just about to dismiss his thoughts and further observe the app when a pop-up suddenly appeared on the screen.
[Do you want to start the tutorial?]
Two buttons were displayed below, with one for the Yes and another for the No.
'Tutorial? Of course, yes!'
Elated to finally learn the reality of his situation, Rayen immediately pressed the yes button
The pop-up vanished, and in the bottom corner of the screen, an anime character appeared, highly resembling Plotter.
The character waved cheerfully and greeted.