"What do you mean?"
Rayen's hand, which held the knob, tightened.
'One of my bandmates killed me?'
His mind raced, his throat bobbed up and down. Unlike him, Adrian just casually leaned on the seat's back, seemingly unconcerned with Rayen's reaction.
"Who are you talking about?" Rayen asked again. "Who disappeared with me?"
"How would I know?" Adrian shrugged.
"You—!"
"Hmm?"
The nerves on Rayen's forehead throbbed, but he tried to keep himself calm by taking deep breaths. There's nothing to be gained if he keeps losing his composure over this guy.
Rayen opened the bedroom door and slammed it shut, leaving Adrian alone in the living room.
As he sat on one of the beds, Rayen pulled out his phone and unlocked it. His eyes lit up upon seeing that a reception had actually returned.
'I can just find it out myself instead of asking that guy!'
However, most of the apps and data in his phone were wiped out. Fortunately, the basic apps weren't uninstalled. Among them was the browser.
Since there was no app store at all, Rayen could only resort to accessing the internet through the browser.
After opening the browser, the first thing he did was search for his information.
[Rayen + Adrift]
Instantly, a list of articles appeared on the search results.
[Rising band members reportedly missing]
[ADRIFT members missing during the band's first overseas concert]
[Today's information about missing ADRIFT members]
Seeing these, Rayen's fingers stopped moving.
'It's true...'
Everything that guy said was actually true...
Sighing, Rayen steeled himself and tapped the topmost article.
[Error: Site unreachable.]
"....."
With pursed lips, Rayen pressed the back button before trying another site, but the same thing only happened. He tried it with a few more different articles until realization dawned on him.
"Useless browser!"
Not only was his phone wiped out, but the browser was completely broken. It must have been tinkered with.
'So, what's the use of even getting a reception?!'
He didn't even get any other information aside from what he gained from that scammer outside the room.
Out of frustration, Rayen threw his phone on the bed and lay down.
Sigh.
After what seemed like an eternity, he once again grabbed his phone.
'I'll just try another solution...'
Saying so, he typed in the URL for the social media he had frequented in his past life.
As Rayen pressed enter...
It loaded.
Rayen's eyes widened for a while, before a wide smile emerged on his lips.
"Haha. It actually connected!"
His fingers trembled in excitement as he tried to enter his account credentials, but just as he pressed the log-in button, he was hit by another punch in the gut.
[The username you entered isn't registered.]
"....."
Rayen took one more look at his username and confirmed it was his credentials before pressing the login button again. However, the same message appeared again.
The wide grin on his face gradually wore off, and an aggrieved expression replaced it as he tried to press the login button multiple times.
But the result was still the same.
[The username you entered isn't registered.]
[The username you entered isn't registered.]
[The username you entered isn't registered.]
'WHY CAN'T I LOG IN?!!!'
Rayen_dragon_breath.gif
For the nth time of pressing the log-in button out of frustration, Rayen's face had turned red. But then, something other than the hateful message peeked from the corner of his screen.
A 2D head.
"Hehe, what are you doing?" the head spoke.
"!!!"
Startled, Rayen flung his phone away from his hand. At the same time, a familiar distorted voice sounded from his phone speakers as soon as it landed on the soft cushion, face down.
"Whoops!"
'What was that?!'
Rayen's wide eyes stared at the black circular object.
"Participant Rayen, please always take care of your phone!" the phone called out with a distorted voice.
"What?" Rayen blurted out, looking around. "Who said that?"
"Who else? It's me~"
Rayen followed the direction of the voice and confirmed that it really was coming from his phone.
"....."
Reluctantly, Rayen grabbed his phone again and looked at the screen. There, a 2D character was floating, hands on its hips.
"Hello there~" it greeted, waving one of its hands.
"... H-Hello?"
The character tilted its head while wearing an eerie smile. It casually floated on the screen, acting like it was his home.
'What the hell is this creepy host doing here?'
"What were you trying to do, Participant Rayen?" the mini 2D Plotter asked.
'That's him, right?'
Even though the person on the screen was just a 2D character right now, Rayen couldn't be mistaken. This guy was definitely Plotter!
'Don't tell me I'm being stalked?!'
"Whatever you're thinking is an insult, right?" Mini 2D Plotter asked, still with a creepy smile. "You still haven't answered my question."
Rayen avoided his gaze. "W-Whatever are you talking about?"
"Well, even if you don't answer, I already know it."
'Then why do you even have to ask?'
"Let me introduce myself. I am Propagator 1.0, the manifestation of your system."
It pointed at the words written on its jumper, and just like what it said, the words "Propagator 1.0" were clearly written on it.
"....."
However, this Propagator-something definitely resembled that creepy host earlier—just a 2D version, though.
Rayen blinked, unable to comprehend what this character just said.
"So... You're not Plotter?"
"Plotter?" Mini 2D Plotter seemed to ponder for a while before smiling as something dawned on it. "Oh."
'What? You don't even know who Plotter is?'
Mini Plotter continued, "I am a creation of him, but I am not him."
"Then, why do you look like him?"
"Well, you have to ask him that."
'... Never mind then.'
Mini Plotter blinked as it stared at Rayen, waiting for more questions, but when it realized that Rayen had no more questions, it opened its mouth again.
"I saw you trying to access something forbidden on your phone, so I decided to interfere. Let me warn you about one thing."
Rayen avoided its gaze. "Wh-What is it?"
"I'm always watching you."
'A-Always?'
Beads of sweat formed on Rayen's forehead.
Suddenly, Mini Plotter giggled.
"So please, refrain from doing anything forbidden~"
"... What forbidden things are you talking about?"
"Ah, that! Well, let me compile and send it to you in a while. Anyways, even if you try to log in to your old account, you wouldn't be able to."
After saying that, Mini Plotter's figure disappeared from Rayen's screen.
It took a while before Rayen realized what it meant. He stared at the login page of the site he was on.
'I can't?'
Once more, Rayen sighed and closed the browser. He lay back down on his bed.
Ten minutes had passed without hearing anything from Mini Plotter again. It said that it would compile the rules.
'Did I just get ghosted?'
When fifteen minutes passed, the door to the bedroom opened. Rayen briefly glanced at Adrian who entered the room before ignoring him. At the same time, a ding sounded from both their phones.
Rayen peeked at Adrian from the corner of his eyes before looking at his own phone.
A notification had arrived. Rayen tapped on it.
[Participants' Do's and Don'ts
1. Contacting people from your former lives.
Note: If any of these rules have been found violated, existence will immediately be erased. Thank you~]
'... It's just one rule, and it took fifteen minutes to compile?'
Rayen glanced at the single rule once again and sighed.
Well, now it's impossible to know what happened to him.
'I guess, I just have to focus on this second life.'