The train jolted.
Hyun-woo barely kept his footing as the world tilted. The ceiling light flickered once, then shattered into a thousand shards, raining down onto the cold, metallic floor. Dust and glass scattered like broken stars.
He didn't wait for the train to stop. He couldn't.
His eyes scanned the dimly lit hallway of the subway car, narrowing in on the far end. The sound of the creature—the Spawn—screeching echoed behind him, followed by the rhythmic pounding of its claws across the metal. It was close. Too close.
[Warning: Environmental Hazard – Spawn Proximity: 12 meters.]
[Recommended Action: Evade or Eliminate.]
No time to think.
Hyun-woo dashed to the car, the fire extinguisher still clutched in his hand. The escape hatch was near, but he couldn't afford to hesitate now. The only way forward was through.
As he neared the door, a gust of wind rushed past him. The sudden pressure shift—the same one he'd read about in the novel—wasn't something the passengers had been prepared for. The doors behind him creaked and buckled as if something larger than the train itself had just begun to push against it.
This is the beginning of the end.
The real game is just starting.
He swung the door open, heart pounding, and—
There it was.
A dark, foreboding tunnel stretched out in front of him. No exit in sight. The subway station he was used to wasn't there. The world outside the train had been replaced by a vast, unnerving chasm. A dim, unnatural red glow lit the distance, and what could only be described as shattered reality loomed far above.
The ground beneath his feet hummed with a low, ominous vibration. It was as if the very earth itself was breaking apart, collapsing into something other.
And then it happened.
The air warped, shimmering and cracking. From beyond the station, monstrous shapes—monoliths of shadow—emerged. Their outlines were too alien to be understood, but they were there, all around him.
His phone buzzed again. The screen glowed.
[Reader's Insight: New Information Unlocked.]
The Story World is fracturing. Boundaries are collapsing.
New Objective: Reach the World's Edge before the Collapse becomes irreversible.
Time Remaining: 12 hours, 34 minutes.
No. Hyun-woo's heart sank. I'm not supposed to do this. I was never supposed to survive. This wasn't part of the plan.
I can't escape the story. It's not just happening to me—it's happening to the whole world.
A deep tremor rippled through the ground. The world itself seemed to bend and stretch, its edges warping and distorting like the very fabric of reality was being torn apart. The monoliths—those towering shadows—shifted, their presence pulsing like the heartbeat of something ancient and powerful.
A deep hum vibrated through the floor, and for the first time since the chaos began, Hyun-woo felt the weight of the situation sink into his chest.
[Scenario Update: The World is Breaking.]
[The Unfinished Manuscript is tearing apart.]
[You are the last piece of a story that has already unraveled.]
His phone buzzed again.
[Sub-Objective Added: Find the Source of the Collapse.]
Time Remaining: 12 hours, 20 minutes.
A cold sweat broke out across Hyun-woo's back.
He didn't know what was real anymore.
The world had fractured. People were dying around him. And now, it seemed, the world of the novel wasn't just confined to the subway car—it was spreading. It was becoming the reality.
He stood frozen for a moment, staring at the distant horizon where the red glow flickered like a dying star.
What is this? he wondered, his voice shaking. How is this possible?
For once, his Reader's Insight failed him.
The story didn't give him the answers now. The world was changing too fast. Hyun-woo had thought he was just surviving a game—a set of rules written in the pages of a novel. But now? Now the world was rewriting itself, and the system that had guided him had no clue how to handle it.
The next task was clear, though.
Find the source of the collapse.
But how?
He needed information.
And with no other choice, Hyun-woo began his descent into the broken world outside the train.