Ajin stopped reading as he reached the final page, the one marked with the symbols of both the King and Queen chess pieces.
He closed the book slowly, murmuring, "King and Queen…?"
Turning toward the window, he watched the world outside. The trees lining the road drifted in the wind at an unnaturally slow pace. Cars crept along as if dragged through syrup. People on the sidewalk were frozen mid-stride, each movement stretched thin.
Noticing the sluggish world, Ajin whispered, "Strange."
A sudden instinct made him snap his gaze forward.
Inside the bus, Seth, sitting in the first seat, was inching toward him. Calling it walking felt generous; every two minutes, Seth managed a single step.
Ajin's pulse quickened. He lifted his wrist to check his watch.
The hour hand and minute hand were frozen. The second hand ticked forward, but at the speed of a normal minute hand, crawling around the dial.
While Ajin stared at the watch, the book in his lap jerked open. Its pages began flipping wildly, as if a storm wind were trapped inside it.
Ajin pulled his hand away, letting the pages turn on their own.
They slowed. Then stopped—once again on the last page.
The illustration of the king gleamed, glowing a dark, eerie blue.
Ajin reached out, trying to touch the image, but it peeled away from the paper. The picture curled, lifted, then floated upward. Like a strange glowing bird, it flapped into the air, weightless and alive.
Ajin stared, entranced, as the tiny king-shaped chess piece hovered before him.
A husky voice rose from deep in his chest. "You know what to do."
Ajin's breath caught. He reached forward and grabbed the floating piece.
The moment his fingers closed around it, the piece flared with blinding light.
As the glow faded, Ajin vanished.
The book slid from his empty lap, falling toward the bus floor—but before it could touch the ground, it too disappeared.
-----
Naked and breathless, Ajin woke in the similar white Room, standing before the two figures he had only just read about: The Great King and The Lady.
He did not panic. Instead, he simply looked around, as if confirming the room was exactly how the book had described it. Behind him stood the glass wall, and through it he could see the interior of his college bus. Seth was still mid-step, walking away so slowly it looked unnatural. Ajin's eyes drifted to the last seat where he had been sitting moments ago.
The Great King snapped his fingers.
The glass shimmered and turned back into a seamless white wall.
Ajin turned to face them again, but the King and Lady were gone. In their place stood two others, a handsome man Ajin recognized instantly, and a breathtaking woman with the graceful beauty of a goddess. Both were naked, and like the beings in the book, neither had genitals.
Ajin pointed before he could stop himself. "You're the one who saved me this morning!"
The man nodded once.
Ajin's gaze flicked to the woman. He flushed instantly and tore his eyes away from her curves, forcing himself to look at her face instead. "I… don't think I recognize you, miss?"
She smiled sweetly. "I am his other half."
Trying his best not to stare at her again, Ajin looked around the room instead. The endless white walls almost stung his eyes. "This place… it's exactly like the book described," he murmured. He turned back to the man. "Am I hallucinating?"
The woman asked softly, "What do you think?"
Ajin pinched the skin on his forearm. "Not dreaming, that's for sure." He glanced around again. "Too real to be virtual reality. Someone with intelligence far beyond I know might have invented something like this, but I doubt they'd test it on someone like me. So the only option that fits is that I'm hallucinating because of reading that weird book."
The man chuckled. "Then let's pretend you are hallucinating. In that case, tell me, what did you think of the book?"
Ajin shrugged. "I'm not into books, like I said. But I kind of liked it. The characters felt more realistic than I expected for a world like that. Some parts ran long, but stories need length to balance themselves."
"Good," the man said. "It is nice hearing that you liked them. After all, you will lead them soon."
Ajin blinked. "I'm… not sure I understand. What do you mean by that?"
The man smiled thinly. "Show me the true Ajin. I will explain everything, but only to him."
Ajin frowned. "You must have the wrong guy. I am Ajin, just a normal college student. I don't know any 'other' Ajin."
The man snapped his fingers.
A massive lion materialized before Ajin, landing on the white floor with a thudding weight. It was a Barbary lion, extinct in the real world, towering over Ajin, nearly four meters long. Muscles like coiled ropes bulged beneath its golden fur.
Ajin staggered back, trembling. But then he noticed the lion's eyes. They were lifeless, dull.
His fear slowed.
The woman plucked a translucent strand of hair from the back of her hand and let it float forward. It glowed as it drifted toward the beast and dissolved into its hide.
The lion's chest expanded.
It roared back to life.
Ajin jolted violently, hands shaking at the ear-splitting sound.
The man's voice carried calmly through the roar. "I am existence itself. She is the essence of life. Together, we are everything. In the phrase you humans created, 'One in all, all in one', we are that One."
The lion padded toward Ajin. Ajin backed away, heart pounding.
"Do you still think you are hallucinating?" the man asked.
Ajin didn't even hear him. His focus was locked on the beast closing in.
His back hit the wall.
The lion drew near, its breath hot and wild, its revived eyes locked on him.
The man's voice cut through the tension. "Let us end the lies and reach the truth, Ajin Asura."
The moment that name hit his ears, Ajin froze. His trembling stopped. His breath steadied.
Then he changed.
Darkness gathered around him like a returning cloak. His lips curled into a cold smirk. His once-frightened eyes sharpened, icy and cruel.
The lion sensed it. Its instincts screamed. It stepped back.
The man smiled.
The lion leapt, claws outstretched, but before its blow landed, its entire body flickered and vanished.
Ajin exhaled, his smirk widening. "So I'm not hallucinating after all." He walked toward them, calm and predatory. "If this were my imagination, I'd have pictured it running from me like a scared cat."
The woman chuckled softly. "Ajin Asura. It suits you better."
Ajin laughed under his breath. "Siri came up with that name."
Ignoring the remark, the man asked, "Everything in the book is real. So now tell me, Ajin, would you like to become the King?"
Ajin fell silent, lost in thought.
The man watched Ajin closely and said, "I know what you are thinking." He lifted his hand.
Nine crystal spheres, each the size of a child's marble, rose into the air above his palm. Not ten, as the book had described, instead only nine.
He plucked one sphere free and released it. The remaining eight vanished instantly.
The single sphere drifted forward, bobbing gently until it hovered near the far wall.
Ajin followed its path with his eyes, but halfway there he veered aside. He walked toward the wall on his right instead. With every step, his expression darkened. By the time he reached the surface, his face held a quiet ache.
He touched the wall lightly, his voice trembling. "Isn't this room smaller than it was in the book?"
The woman offered a gentle smile. "Maybe you imagined it wrong."
Ajin turned back toward them. "Maybe," he murmured. "What is on the other side?"