The name doesn't matter.
That's what I've always believed. Just another office worker, one among millions, living in the heart of a crowded city that didn't even notice when you breathed.
I was twenty-seven, single, and utterly forgettable. I wasn't ugly, but no one ever turned their head for me either. I wasn't smart enough to be a genius, nor dumb enough to fail. I was the kind of man who left no ripples when walking through a crowd.
And maybe… that was why I lived inside stories more than I lived in reality.
Manhwas, Webnovels. Murim tales of martial artists who could split mountains with their fists and demon lords who ruled the world with fear. They were my escape, my second life.
Especially the Demon Cult.
The Blood Cult. The Heavenly Demon Sect. The Divine Demon Temple. Whatever the name, the meaning was always the same: absolute pursuit of power. Worship of a god who stood above heaven and earth. A place where weakness had no place, and strength was the only truth.
Others feared such villains. I admired them.
No, if I'm being honest, I envied them.
The righteous sects, the clans, the heroes… they fought for others. But the Demon Cult? They lived for themselves, unshackled, absolute. They could take what they wanted and crush anyone who stood in their path.
They worshipped their Heavenly Demon like a god.
And in the quiet corners of my heart, I dreamed of being that god.
Of course, in reality, I was nothing. Just a cog in a company machine, stamping documents and answering emails until my wrists ached. A man whose mother constantly reminded him that he had wasted his life.
---
That day started like any other.
The office lights were too bright, the air conditioner too cold, and the smell of burnt coffee lingered in the break room. My coworkers chatted about the latest drama or complained about deadlines.
I, meanwhile, had a tab open on my phone under the desk.
"Come on, Nano Machine update…" I muttered quietly.
The loading bar spun. I refreshed. Nothing.
"Still not uploaded?" I groaned, glancing at the clock. Almost lunch.
I scrolled through fan forums instead, looking at posts debating the power levels of different Demon Cult leaders across various novels. The thought made me smile despite myself. The Heavenly Demon, how glorious would it be to have an entire sect kneeling, worshipping, chanting your name like you were divine?
"…Pathetic," I whispered at myself, clicking the screen off.
I returned to typing numbers into spreadsheets, but my mind was elsewhere, wandering Murim's rivers and mountains, imagining myself not as an office drone, but as a dark ruler cloaked in crimson robes.
That was when it happened.
The windows shook.
At first, I thought it was thunder. But no sound followed, only silence. The kind of silence that presses against your ears until your own heartbeat is deafening.
Slowly, people rose from their desks. I joined them, walking toward the tall windows that overlooked the city skyline.
And I saw it.
The sky was splitting.
Not like clouds parting, not like lightning cracking across the heavens. No… it was as if someone had taken a blade and cut the world itself.
A jagged black rift tore across the blue sky, stretching wider and wider until the light seemed swallowed. The sun dimmed, the city below bathed in a twilight gloom.
"Wh-What the hell…?" someone whispered.
"Is it… is it an eclipse?"
"No, look! The clouds, they're being sucked in!"
Gasps spread across the office. Phones came out, pictures snapped, videos recorded. Some people laughed nervously, others cursed.
And then came the rumors.
"It's the end! The end times!"
"No, no, this must be some experiment, Felon Dusk of the U.S. must have done something again. Didn't they say he was working on black hole research?"
Theories, panic, confusion.
Me? I just stared. My chest tightened.
That rift, it wasn't natural. It wasn't scientific. It was the kind of phenomenon I had only ever read about in novels. A heavenly omen. A divine descent.
And for one irrational heartbeat, I thought… Is this it? Has the Heavenly Demon descended?
But that thought vanished as my knees gave out.
"Hey! Are you okay?!"
The world tilted. My vision blurred. Cold sweat drenched my back. I tried to speak, but no sound left my lips.
I collapsed.
Voices echoed, distorted.
"Call an ambulance!"
"Is he breathing?!"
"Quick, start CPR!"
Hands pressed against my chest. Air forced into my lungs. But I couldn't feel it.
My consciousness was already slipping away, drowning in darkness.
---
I didn't want to die.
Not like this. Not on the office floor with strangers pressing on my ribs. Not while my phone still had Nano Machine unread.
Damn it.
Of all things to regret, my final thought was ridiculous. I hadn't finished the latest chapter.
And beneath that, a deeper wound throbbed in my heart.
"Son… I believe in you. Don't waste your life."
My mother's voice echoed in memory. All those years of her working herself to the bone just to raise me. All the sacrifices she made.
And what had I become?
An office drone who collapsed before thirty.
I wanted another chance. Just one.
I wanted to be
more than a nobody.
Please… if gods exist… let me live again.
Let me live as someone who can be worshipped.
The world went black.
And I died.