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**"It's over."**
Jinwoo Kang muttered those words to himself as his weary eyes scanned the screen in front of him. The final chapter. The long-awaited conclusion of *The Chronicles of the Ruinous God*—a web novel he'd been reading for the past **ten years**. He was, to put it plainly, the last person alive who still cared about the story. At least, that's what he assumed, considering his friends had all long since dropped off.
But now… it was finally done.
The moment of victory! The page loaded. The author had posted the final chapter.
Jinwoo leaned back in his chair and stretched, feeling a mix of relief and strange emptiness. Wasn't this supposed to be satisfying? The end of the series that had kept him up late at night for a decade? Wasn't this supposed to feel… like **closure**?
He sighed, clicking away from the novel's webpage, trying to think of something else.
At that very moment, a glowing, blinding light exploded into existence outside his window.
"Wha—what is that?" he muttered.
A series of *click-clicks* echoed around his room, followed by a strange, disembodied voice.
**"Welcome to the *Great Scenario* of Fate."**
Jinwoo blinked rapidly, turning around to find no one there. But the words had been… *real*. Had he accidentally eaten something weird for dinner? Or maybe he'd gotten a little too excited over the last chapter?
Then, without warning, the ceiling above him split open like a wide, darkened screen of a movie theater.
*Whoooosh!*
Giant floating windows appeared before him.
**[Scenario 1: The World Will Crumble.]**
What?
No one had explained this to him. Was this part of the new *next-gen VR game*? Or some strange augmented reality thing that had activated? Jinwoo frowned and rubbed his eyes.
"Is this a prank?" he said, now standing up and walking around the room. There was no one around. There were no hidden cameras. **No producer in the corner yelling "Cut!"**
It was just him and the ominous floating windows—*and an even more ominous text below them.*
**"Please enter your answer."**
"Answer…?" Jinwoo thought, looking at the text with the sort of concern only a man who had read too many web novels could understand. *What kind of answer did it want?* He wasn't even sure what the question was.
Suddenly, something beeped.
**[Error. Please enter a response or the world will be destroyed.]**
Jinwoo paused.
"That's… oddly direct," he said aloud. "And… a little concerning."
Not to mention, there was no instruction manual. He had no idea what to do, but based on the ominous "world will be destroyed" message, it seemed like he had no choice but to choose an answer.
"Fine," he muttered. "I guess… I'm the only one here, so, uh…"
Jinwoo scratched his head. Without any clearer sense of the rules, he typed into the window.
**"The world will crumble because someone didn't put out the trash."**
A beat of silence.
The windows flickered. Then a mechanical voice reverberated in his room.
**"Incorrect. The trash is still on the curb. But we will accept your answer anyway."**
Jinwoo froze.
"What?"
**[Scenario 1: Trash Disaster.]**
The windows vanished, and in their place, another appeared.
**"You will now face your first trial."**
**Trial 1: *Clean the Trash Pile.***
A distant rumbling shook the ground beneath him.
"What… the hell?" Jinwoo whispered. He stumbled back in shock. Then, as if to answer him, something large and grotesque emerged from the ground with a terrifying *screech*—a massive pile of **giant, oversized trash bags**, crawling like a sentient beast. The bags were huge—some the size of cars—leaving a trail of spoiled food, broken electronics, and half-empty soda cans in their wake. The stench hit him immediately.
It was… the *world's largest trash monster*.
Jinwoo stared at it blankly. Then he glanced around, waiting for someone—anyone—to appear. *Was he supposed to fight it? Was this some kind of game?*
But there was no one else here.
"Alright, fine. If it's a trash monster," Jinwoo muttered, "then I'm going to fight this thing with the most dangerous weapon available—**my laziness**."
He pulled out a broom from the corner of his room and pointed it at the monster like a sword.
"I'm going to clean you up, buddy."
---
A few minutes later, after several attempts of sweeping trash and dodging rapidly multiplying trash bags, Jinwoo found himself on the ground, covered in smelly liquid. He groaned and wiped his face.
"Why me?" he moaned.
**"You have completed the trial."**
Jinwoo blinked in disbelief. "What?"
**[Scenario 1: You survived the Trash Beast.]**
**Reward: 100 Coins.**
"Well… that's... not what I expected." He looked at his hands, still covered in sludge, and sighed. "But hey, I'm the one who predicted it, right? I mean, the trash was a big clue."
---
At that exact moment, a floating golden window appeared before him.
**[Congratulations! You have gained the title of "The Prophet of Garbage."]**
Jinwoo stared at the screen for a long, awkward moment. Then, in a rare moment of clarity, he threw his hands up.
"What the hell kind of world is this?"
And as he asked that, a new window popped up.
**[Scenario 2: The Dog Who Will Devour the Moon.]**
Jinwoo's eyes widened. "Wait… is that… my prophecy? Is this a joke??"
The world around him continued to grow more bizarre, and he, as *the prophet*, had no idea what was coming next.
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# **End of Chapter 1**
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