Sighing, Rayen had no choice but to follow Adrian inside the room.
The place actually resembled an apartment unit rather than a dorm room. There was an entire living room inside, with a large circular couch and a wide-screen TV. However, there was just a single bedroom with two single-person beds inside.
Well, at least it wasn't a bunk bed and they didn't have to fight over who got the bottom one.
Still, they're pretty generous.
After checking out the bedroom, Rayen went back to the living room where Adrian had already claimed ownership of the couch.
Rayen ignored him and went to the bathroom. To his surprise, not only did it have a shower, but there was also a bathtub in the corner.
"Aah... I feel like I'm on a vacation," Adrian said from the living area.
His voice seemed deliberately made louder for Rayen to hear. With a scowl, Rayen shut the bathroom door and headed toward the bedroom to rest for the night.
It had been such a long tiring day.
But before he could even enter the room, Adrian spoke, "A month had already passed after I died? Then, I guess you've been dead for quite some time."
Immediately, Rayen stopped in his tracks.
"What did you say?" He looked back toward Adrian, whose lips were up in a lazy grin.
"You were listening?"
Rayen ignored his words and made his way toward him.
"You... Do you know how I died?" he asked, staring straight at Adrian.
But the latter only gave him a pretentious shrug.
"I didn't kill you. How would I know?"
The corners of Rayen's mouth twitched.
'This guy... He's trying to use this information to take advantage of me!'
Rayen tried to calm his expression to not reveal his annoyance, but Adrian's action of ignoring him and continuous browsing on his phone ticked him off.
Unable to bear it any longer, Rayen gave in with gritted teeth.
"Tch. What do you want?"
'I need to know how I died!'
Suddenly, Adrian flashed a grin. "Aww, you're so kind. Hmm... let's see what I want."
Upon saying that, Adrian actively scrolled his screen some more. Rayen silently clenched his fist as he waited.
'He's gotta be an anti-fan of mine, or else, why would he follow my moves?'
Thinking that way, Rayen prepared himself for Adrian's upcoming request.
After a while, Adrian finally seemed to make up his mind, showing Rayen the thing he was looking at on his screen.
Rayen's eyes darted toward it. The app's UI was definitely from that Idol:Revive app. It showed a list of book pages just like an online library. However, the titles of the books definitely weren't titles of books.
[- Revitalizing Drink
- Crunchy Potato Chips
- I'm A Bread
- Snacky Bar
- Curry Me]
"... What's that?" Rayen glanced at Adrian, confused.
'Why is he showing me this?'
"Buy me food."
"....."
Rayen could not process his words for a while, so Adrian repeated them.
"I'm hungry, don't you understand? Buy me food."
"....."
At last, Rayen understood. He took out his phone and unlocked his screen in a daze.
'He seriously just wanted food?'
From the corners of his eyes, he peeked at Adrian, but the latter only rubbed his belly, acting as though in pain.
Upon opening Idol:Revive, Rayen wasn't greeted by his status window but by something else.
[Congratulations on passing the audition. Tap to claim your rewards.]
'Now that I'm looking at it again, it just looks like I'm just playing a game.'
He pressed the button.
[You received a random common book page and 1000 MC.]
'What's this?'
Rayen was just about to inspect the rewards he received when Adrian suddenly exclaimed from the side.
"Ohh, I'm so hungry."
Rayen shifted his gaze from the screen toward him briefly before dismissing his reward window.
Tsk.
It didn't take him a while to find the shop.
But as soon as the shop opened, Rayen's eyes widened. He finally understood why the hell this manipulative anti-fan of his was requesting something as simple as food in exchange for valuable information.
'What the... It's all expensive.'
The first few items on the shelf were priced in thousands. Meanwhile, he only received 1,000 MC after passing the audition.
With gritted teeth, Rayen continued to scroll down the shop until he found some cheap book pages.
However, cheap was still somewhat expensive for Rayen, who only had a thousand to spend. Even bottled water costs 100 MC.
After casting one more glare at Adrian, Rayen begrudgingly bought the least expensive consumable item in the shop. Two parchments eventually appeared out of nowhere and landed on Rayen's hand which he quickly pushed toward Adrian.
The latter glanced at the items and their description.
[Revitalizing Drink: Plants need water. Don't forget to drink!
Effect: Stamina Recovery - instantly erases physical fatigue.
Type: Consumable (Regenerative Item)
Price: 100MC]
[Honey Croissant: From a faraway memory, she said, "Honey, here's a croissant."
Effect: Sadness Relief
Tier: Common
Type: Consumable (Regenerative Item)
Price: 100MC]
"Hmm... what a cheap stake," Adrian muttered.
The corners of Rayen's mouth twitched.
'Can't I at least receive a thank you?'
"Well, this would do," Adrian said.
He lazily scanned the green QR codes of the two items, it materialized in his hands. Once they entered Rayen's vision, his eyes gleamed in jealousy, especially when Adrian took a bite of the seemingly fluffy croissant and chugged on the refreshing iced cold watered bottle.
'These cost 200 MC!'
Gulp.
When Adrian finished it off with one final lick of his fingers, Rayen was still adamantly staring at him.
"You're done eating?" Rayen asked.
Adrian glanced at him with a satisfied smile. "Yeah. That was good. I'm really full of energy now, and I'm suddenly feeling happy."
"So, you also have the energy to tell me now?"
"Heh. Actually, I don't know how you died."
"... Beep! Beep!"
Rayen cursed, but unexpectedly, his words were magically censored.
'Argh! What the hell was that?!'
Once again, Rayen cursed to express his anger, but the same thing happened.
"Beep, beep!"
However, despite being censored, Adrian could see through his anger from his red face. It became even redder as Rayen couldn't express how mad he was.
"Hahaha. Chill, dude, chill."
"I spent my money on such useless information!"
'Yet you have the gall to tell me to chill?!'
"Well, I truly don't know. Except for the one who killed you, I don't think anyone else would even know."
Gradually, Rayen's anger subsided. Instead, a deep scowl replaced his earlier expression.
"... You."
"What?" Adrian raised one of his brows.
"You're not actually kidding when you said I was killed?"
"Haha."
Aside from that small laughter, Adrian said nothing more.
"Beep!"
This time, Rayen couldn't bear his attitude anymore and grabbed him by his collar.
"Tell me everything you know," Rayen said with clenched teeth.
"Heh, are you not afraid of ruining your image, Mr. Vocalist?" Adrian adjusted his glasses that had gone crooked due to Rayen's violent reaction.
"Who cares? We're all dead here, anyway."
"Haha. You're right."
Yet, even after saying that, Adrian remained composed.
'He and his attitude!'
Suddenly, as if growing tired of Adrian's reactions, Rayen let go of him and walked away toward the bedroom. However, the damn glasses guy actually said something proper this time.
"It's just my assumption. I don't really know if you were killed. But well, you've been missing for a week before I died. You're kinda high-profile, so if you died even in a small accident, you'd still end up in the news so fast."
Stopping in his tracks, Rayen turned around to face him. Adrian's glasses seemed to be glinting as he continued his words with a charming smile.
"I doubt no one will notice that you died. Unless your body was deliberately hidden. That just meant one thing, haha."
"....."
The corners of Rayen's mouth twitched.
'I'm done talking with this guy.'
How could he end up roommates with such a crazy guy? Rayen shook his head, determined not to talk with him again.
But Adrian still wasn't done speaking.
"Besides, one of your bandmates disappeared with you. So maybe they're the killer?"
Rayen stopped in his tracks, his hand on the knob of the door.