'What the actual fuck am I reading?'
The thought never came out of his mouth. But his thoughts somewhere in the corner of his mind, with a polite voice suggested he close the laptop, and yet he wanted to throw it out of his window.
Luckily, he didn't, because that would cost him more money to buy another one. He needed to be careful, as he was closer to being broke.
Lamenting the idiocy of the sentence structure, he scrolled back and reread it again.
"The hero glared heroically into the heroic sunset…?" he tentatively muttered aloud.
The man blinked a few times.
"What's with this 'heroic' redundancy? No, wait. What the heck is a heroic sunset supposed to mean?"
As he was giving the page for another look, he read another sentence, determined to make sure he didn't miss any crazy lines while reading the manuscript.
" His eyes were as deep blue like the bluest ocean—"
As he read took a deep breath, then he exhaled a long, suffering sigh.
Sigh~
"Cursed!!!"
"Alright then, So what's next? 'His sword was as sharp as a sharp sword'? Goddammit… This is… Ahh! I can feel it clogging my brain!"
'What was she thinking while writing this blasphemous sentence? I told her to keep it simple but not like this!?'
'Damn it. My head hurts. The story is good. But the writing is shit.'
Shaking his head, the man turned his head and stared at the far wall where a corkboard leaned.
It was covered in layers of paper clippings, screenshots, and segments of text printed out—dissected with obsessive care.
Red threads crisscrossed the corkboard, veins binding his obsession in place. It was his investigation into one specific criminal, whom he had managed to solve a few weeks ago.
'Solving a criminal case is more tolerable than proofreading this damnable novel.'
Ding!
His monitor lit up with a new notification.
[Chapter 1602 uploaded: The Hero Who Left the Academy – Beta Reading Access.]
[This will be the last chapter…]
'Another chapter? So, 8 Chapters for today? What kind of lunatic writes at that pace?'
"But huh? What did she mean by the last chapter? The novel isn't even finished yet…"
A dry chuckle escaped him.
"Don't tell me... she's dropping the story? Was I that harsh with the previous feedback?"
'Damn it. She'd better not drop the story!'
He lay back in his chair to relieve his stress .
As he let his spine protest for hours and he hunched over the desk as he looked away towards the monitor, which glow still lingered in his vision.
Outside of the window view, he can see the sluggish line of cars crawl along, their headlights crawling like tired beetles. Neon lights blinked in restless colour.
The stars hung clear for once, distant shiny points on a night. Meanwhile, in the sky the moon was swollen by dark clouds and he was watching over till presiding over it all.
'The moon is really beautiful tonight.'
In its pale light, a reflection waited for him in the glass. The same weary eyes, the same expressionless face.
But then… a devious smile grew wider.
'Maybe I'm the mad one,' he thought serenely, examining his own absurdity.
'She should've let me be the co-author at this point. I genuinely want to know more about the drafts.'
He could control his desire as his fingers instinctively found their way back to the keyboard.
"Alright, writing one more chapter and I'm done for tonight."
Click-clack.
After a long typing and while of editing as well as reviewing, then suddenly his gaze drifted to the bottom corner of the monitor.
[10:27 PM. April 1, 2029]
His hands had gone still, resting on the keyboard. This unknown text started to appear on the screen suddenly in swam, their once-sharp edges softening.
And then, only for a fraction of a second, he saw the written text for a brief moment.
Then a few letters seemed to slip out of the paragraphs with a rhythm, rearranging themselves into something else.
Y̷̢Sunny,̴̙̩
He blinked. "What the hell?"
̷̯Y̸͜͠O̷͚̰U̴̞͇
The second word lingered less than the first, dissolving before his mind could fully register it.
He leaned forward, searching the lines. But the text was normal again, utterly, stubbornly normal. As though it had never been anything else.
He sat back. 'Did I drink too much caffeine tonight?' That seemed like a reasonable excuse for him. This thought of doubting himself should have been amusing in normal time, but he wasn't sure whether to laugh or worry in this situation.
Because whatever it had been… it had felt real. And his body, at this hour, had far simpler priorities.
'I need to sleep.'
Then, his phone rang.
Ring ~
Ring ~
The sudden sound of the phone cut cleanly through the silence.
He was momentarily stunned for a second, as he pulled himself back from whatever odd hallucination he had been seeing now and his focus turned toward the noise of his phone.
As he peeked to see the caller ID of the caller in his phone.
[Daniel ]
'Shit. Him again…'
The phone is buzzing across the desk, its movement small but not allowing refusal. Sunny stared at his face, devoid of emotion.
He considered letting it ring itself into silence. That would have been easy. But he had his small petty habit that had long since become part of his personal life.
So, he waited until the third ring. Only then did he pick up the call. "Yes?"
"Sunny!" Daniel 's voice exploded through the speaker. Cheerful and far too loud for this hour.
Sunny was feeling a bit of regret now.
"Got a sec? I need your insight on a case."
As he sat back in his chair again, he just picked up the phone and brought it closer to his ear. 'Judging by the person who has been calling the phone, it is probably nothing urgent.'
"Go on," he said.
"You know the convenience store burglary last night? Security footage caught the guy on camera, but the mask makes ID'ing him a pain. We got nothing—no fingerprints, no distinct features. Just a black hoodie, dark jeans and gloves. The guy's careful."
Sunny listens as words otherside were over him, his eyes resting on the shadows of the stretching across the far wall.
'What? They haven't figured it out yet?'
"The footage," Sunny said finally, his voice impassive, "did you check the timestamp? When he entered."
"Yeah, around 2:13 AM."
"And when did he leave?"
"Uh… 2:18. Why?"
"Too fast."
"Huh?" Daniel 's voice wavered.
"The register was emptied. Shelves ransacked. Five minutes inside a store full of cameras, alarms, and things that make noise when they break. Do you really believe someone just strolled in and managed to speedrun the whole thing completely alone?"
The line went quiet for a moment. Then Daniel 's voice came back a little too loud.
"Wait… so you're saying he wasn't working ALONE?!!"
Sunny grimaced and pulled the phone away.
"Yes. He had an accomplice—someone on the inside," Sunny said, almost disinterested.
"Remember the rear camera? It conveniently went offline just before the break-in. The report said it was 'malfunctioning,' right?"
"Y-Yeah, but…" Daniel hesitated, his voice uncertain. "If someone tampered with the footage, why leave the thief visible on the front camera?"
Sunny sighed. "If you're staging a cover-up, you don't wipe everything."
"That's what amateurs do. No, what they did was smarter. They left just enough for everyone to chase… something messy, unplanned, believable. A distraction. Meanwhile, the real culprit was much closer than anyone realised."
The line stayed quiet for another moment.
"…Wait," Daniel said slowly.
"So the footage… wasn't a mistake?"
"Yes. It was a bait," Sunny replied.
"Which means the real variable here isn't the thief…"
Sunny let the words settle.
"It's whoever was working the counter."
"Check the shift schedule. If this was orchestrated from within, then the break-in was timed to the second. Someone made sure the right person was behind that register when it happened."
"Got it, I knew you'd figure it out in under a minute!"
Daniel burst out laughing, practically vibrating through the speaker.
"That old geezer said you're always freakishly lucky or something, but I know it's just that you're..." Daniel 's voice faltered.
An awkward throat-clear followed.
"Ahem! M-my bad. Sorry, Sunny-san. I forgot you don't like being praised."
Sunny blinked a few times. His head tilted slightly. Behind the calm mask, his mind stalled. He replayed the sentence in his head. And yet, the words remained nonsensical.
'Since when did I say I hated praise?'
'And… which old geezer?' Since no answer came to his mind. He didn't say anything.
"Anyway!" Daniel continued, recovering with enthusiasm.
"Thanks again. I owe you one, Sunny-san. We'll follow up on it from here."
"Don't bother." Sunny quickly replied.
"…Eh?"
People always wanted to believe in clean trades. The idea of favours for favours, kindness repaid with gratitude. But the universe didn't even keep receipts, so why should he?
So Sunny never asked for anything in return. He simply did what he did. He helped because it made sense and that was enough.
Without waiting for a reply, Sunny ended the call. Silence rushed back in, pressing on him the moment the call ended.
The screen still lit up to the homepage of his nightly ritual:
'Alright, time to send this to her.'
[The Hero Who Left the Academy.]
With a small click that barely made a sound, he saved the file, then opened Diskbox.
The thread was already there, second from the top.
[3 People] – marked as Online including himself, with a tiny green circle glowing quietly beside their name.
He didn't hesitate to type the words.
[@SpicySteroids]: Finished the chapter. Feedback attached.
Casually, he pressed the enter button. Then, a jolt. Very sudden, and uninvited, tore through his right hand like static given malice.
"Tch."
The laptop slipped off the desk with a dull thud and it fell on the carpet. Sunny just stared at the laptop, his fingers still twitching from the jolt, he was too sluggish to react.
He stared at his palm, then at the device on the floor. 'What was that?'
He bent down slowly to see how much damage the laptop had taken.
He saw that the laptop was broken and he stared at the black screen. On a broken display surface, his own distorted reflection stared back at him.
His face had a look of tiredness and slightly disgusted.
His finger moved to the power button and then he pressed the power button but the device did not respond.
Whether it was sure dead or only pretending, he couldn't tell… and honestly, he wasn't sure the difference mattered anymore.
Sunny let out a casual sigh. His mind felt heavier than usual. He was really tired and sleepy. The thought of repair drifted through his mind and settled quietly there.
If the laptop were broken, he would deal with it tomorrow. Because honestly, it didn't feel urgent enough for him to care.
'Yeah, I just went to bed and call it a day'
So, I stopped thinking and went to the bathroom to clean himself up before he climbed into his bed. His still gaze wandered to the laptop which is lying on the floor, his thoughts lingering there without much concern.
'But, why would it suddenly snap like that?'
He stared at it longer than he meant to.
'Shit, I need to buy a new one. But I don't have enough money for that now…'
'Should I do a part-time job then? No. What am I thinking? That's some crazy thought.' His hand reached toward the switch beside the bed and turned off the light.
The room became dark. He pulled the blanket till it reached his shoulders and after a brief moment he shut down his eyes. Suddenly,his surroundings just began to fade at the edges but after some time something happened.
His attention shifted on the carpet, where moments before, the laptop sparked back to life, I mean there was no broken part or crack display as if it was new.
A violent bloom of garbled text, glitching and twitching across the monitor.
▓̴̛͍͇F̸̨̯̝̬I̵̟̦̮̪̪L̴̬̜͔͚E̵͎̺̖͠ ̶͙̤̯N̵̯͈̮͎A̷͚̠M̷̹̮E̷̡:̶̙ ̸̼̖"̸̺̳̮̱T̷̘̼̲̯̪h̴̖͉̻͈e̷̙̳̖ ̵͓̖̺H̴̹͙̜͖e̵̟͉̼ͅr̶̺͇̜̖̼o̶̡̠̖̝̘ ̵̥̠ͅW̴͍̬h̷͍̘̞͉̺ơ̶̝͔̳̱ ̸̰̼͚̬L̸͕̫̟̟e̴͎̹f̸̡̩̞̟t̸̳͘ ̴͎t̵͚̝͇̥h̶̠̳̤e̴͕̱ ̴̮̜A̴͇͙͓c̵͙̪͉a̸̬̯͉̜d̶̨̼̠̹͙e̵̢̮̳̟m̵̡̟̤y̷̢̘"̸̼̟͜
And then, below it, another line followed.
I̵̺̻͕̝̝T̸̢̳̥̯̩̙ ̸̪͕̺̮͓W̴̲͚̟̞̪̯A̵̼̯S̷̞̼̙ ̴̖̦̳N̷͇̖̼̤̹͠E̸͍̤̯̘̰̬V̶̢̼͉̳E̷͚͓R̴͓̰̱̦ ̵̲̠͖̳̩͜M̶͚̟̱̫ͅͅĘ̴̠͈̻̼A̷͓͕ͅN̶̤̫̬͖T̷͖̲̱̬ ̶̡̤̺̼̫T̷͚͈͎Ó̶̻ ̶͓̼̥̯̪̠E̷͉̘̘͎͉N̷͓̝̙͕͓D̵͔ ̷͙̯͉̯L̸̺̞̪͕I̵̟̪̠K̴̪̟̝̮̰̬Ę̸̯̥ ̴͇̟̻͕T̶̢͉͈H̸̢͔̥I̵͙̱̼͕S̶͔̬
In an instant, the screen blinked out and the light died. For a while, silence returned. But above the bed, in that thick, dark of his room…
A second figure was rising slowly. It had his shape. His face. His exact sleeping posture. It hovered weightless and translucent like a reflection peeling itself free from the glass.
And all around, the room began to fracture.
The edges of his desk wavered, bleeding into flickering pixels. Corners of the room peeled apart as if reality itself was corrupting.
And then, it wasn't the same world he knew anymore.
It entirely became something out of—
—a fictional story.
W̷͓̜͠R̴̝̱̞̝̳͈I̸͍T̶̺͇̜̮̜E̷̝̫̬̖ ̵͇̘̼̤A̸̢͓̤̝̮ ̸̺̙̫̦͓̮N̶̪̪̯̱̫̘E̵͚̪̘̘̼̲W̷͓̬͔̳̥ ̷̢͓̮̰̞͚̝E̴̺̟̖͕̙̞N̸͙͍̼̘̯D̸̼̝̪͖I̵͙̖̱͎̹̬N̶̞̤̼͜G̷̪…̸͉͎̦̪ ̶͓̠̘̟̲O̷̬͈̼̥̬̤R̴̘͕ ̸̹͎͎̱̤̱B̶̪͈͙̖̰̳E̷̥̥ ̸̘̬̞C̷̞̬O̶̼̹̝̠̺N̶̯̬̱̬͖̥S̶̹͉U̷͈̜̠̝̤M̶̮̦̮̳̯͇E̷̠̼D̸̖̠͜ ̴͈̘̮̯̮W̶͉̩I̶͙͎̝̖T̸̰͍H̸̢̲ ̴̯̲̼͖̟̥I̸̠̳̖T̴͚.̵̡̳̖
(To be Continue)