Hyun-woo didn't know how long he stood there.
The red glow pulsed, almost rhythmically, like a dying heart. But it wasn't just the glow that unnerved him—it was everything. The world was trembling as if the very air around him was cracking apart at the seams. The sky had a jagged line running through it, like a cracked mirror, and from the edges of the broken horizon, shapes began to slither out of the cracks.
[Scenario Alert: Fracture Progression: 0.7%]
The space-time continuum is distorting. Irregularities were detected in temporal alignment.
[Sub-Objective: Seek out the World's Edge.]
Time Remaining: 12 hours, 19 minutes.
Every instinct screamed at him to run. But where?
The train tracks stretched on, seemingly endless, into a dark void. The monoliths—those strange, towering black figures—stood like ancient sentinels, their forms shifting in and out of focus. The ground beneath him wasn't solid. It felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, where the earth no longer obeyed natural law.
What the hell is happening? Hyun-woo thought, his breath shallow. This isn't the world from the novel. This isn't fiction anymore.
He could hear the echoes of distant screams, the cries of people lost to the collapse. The world was breaking, pulling apart at the edges, and Hyun-woo was standing in the middle of it all.
I need to find the source. I need answers.
But where did he even start? The world was unraveling so quickly. The city outside the train station was a distorted reflection of its former self. Streets twisted in impossible angles, buildings melted into one another, and the sky—if it could still be called that—was a swirling mass of darkness and light.
He needed to leave the station, but he knew that would only get him closer to the epicenter of the chaos. The World's Edge, wherever that was, was his only hope.
Taking a deep breath, Hyun-woo moved toward the gaping maw of the tunnel that led into the unknown. The train platform was empty now, save for the remnants of the world that once existed. A flicker of movement caught his eye—a figure darting through the shadows, cloaked in a tattered coat.
[Warning: New Entity Detected.]
Entity Classification: Unknown.
[Tracking: Entity has high potential to interfere with objectives.]
Hyun-woo's grip on the fire axe tightened. He didn't have time for surprises, especially ones that felt like they could tear the world apart even further.
The figure turned toward him, and Hyun-woo froze.
A face—pale, gaunt, and smeared with dirt—peeked out from beneath the hood. The figure was human, or at least had been. The eyes, wide and unnervingly empty, stared back at him.
[Mental Instability: 97%]
[The entity is suffering from psychological degradation due to Ruin Echo.]
The figure's lips parted, and Hyun-woo could hear the softest of whispers.
"You... you're the one who was meant to die." The voice was broken as if the words themselves were decaying in the air. "You... shouldn't be here."
Hyun-woo's heart skipped a beat.
This wasn't just a survivor—it was someone who had read the same novel, someone who knew the rules, someone who had been lost in the collapse long before him.
But how?
"Who are you?" Hyun-woo asked, his voice hoarse. "What happened?"
The figure laughed, but it wasn't a sound of joy. It was hollow, dark, like a broken melody.
"I've... been here too long. Too long, trying to finish what wasn't meant to be finished."
The words sank in like cold stones. Something about the figure's presence gnawed at Hyun-woo, a sense of wrongness that couldn't be ignored. But before he could process further, the figure's hand shot up, pointing directly at him.
"It's you, isn't it?" The figure's voice cracked. "You're the Reader."
Hyun-woo's chest tightened.
The figure's eyes narrowed as it stumbled forward.
"You... have to stop the collapse. But you won't. None of us can. It's too late. All we can do now... is run."
The figure's warning cut through him like a blade. Without another word, it turned and vanished into the darkness, swallowed by the swirling chaos around them.
[Objective Updated: Stop the Collapse.]
Time Remaining: 12 hours, 5 minutes.
Hyun-woo stood frozen for a moment, trying to grasp what had just happened. His pulse pounded in his ears. The figure was gone now, leaving nothing but an unsettling silence behind.
Was this another character? Someone lost to the collapse like the others in the novel? Or was this something else?
His mind was racing, but the truth hit him like a sledgehammer.
The world was dying. The collapse was inevitable. And the only way out was to find the source—before it consumed everything.
Find the source.
Before it's too late.
With the fire axe still in hand, Hyun-woo set off again, stepping into the black void ahead. The ground beneath his feet quaked, and the sky seemed to rip further apart as he moved deeper into the unknown.
One thing was certain: he wasn't just a reader anymore.
He was part of the story.
And the final chapter was waiting for him.