What a beautiful morning. The sky was a clear blue with light puffy clouds drifting across, and the breeze was gentle, giving off the right amount for a good breath of fresh air.
So In-Su's day started like any other. He walked briskly through the bustling streets of Seoul, the morning air filled with the hum of traffic and the chatter of pedestrians. The scent of street food wafted through the air, tempting him as he passed by vendors selling tteokbokki and hotteok. With his backpack slung over one shoulder, he navigated his way towards the university building, glancing at his phone to check the latest messages from his friends.
At 187 cm tall with a muscular build, In-Su's presence was hard to miss. His fluffy curly brown hair bounced slightly with each step, and his striking green eyes drew attention from passersby. As he approached the school gate, a group of female students greeted him with bright smiles and enthusiastic waves.
"Good morning, In-Su!" they chorused.
In-Su nodded politely, offering a brief smile before continuing on his way. He was used to the attention, but he preferred to keep a low profile.
"Good morning, handsome boy~"
In-Su groaned slightly when he felt an arm wrap around his neck, pulling him down slightly. Looking to his side, In-Su's smile turned wider at the sight of his best friend.
"Si-Woo."
Lee Si-Woo was two inches shorter than In-Su, with long dark blue hair tied in a low ponytail and bright blue eyes that sparkled with mischief.
"Morning," In-Su replied, slipping his phone into his pocket. "You ready for your class?"
Si-Woo groaned dramatically, "Ugh, the first thing in the morning you ask me is class? You're such a nerd."
At Si-Woo's words, In-Su smirked teasingly, "How about your date then?"
As if being physically punched, Si-Woo moved away from his friend, holding his chest. "Shut up! You know how it ended, you were there!"
In-Su let out a small chuckle. "Right. She ended up talking about me all day, right?"
Si-Woo punched his friend in the shoulder as he glared at him. "Screw you and your face."
"Screw me yourself, coward."
Si-Woo sighed dramatically as he looked up at the sky. "Ahh, this world isn't fair. I mean, look at you. Eight pack, tall, handsome, and rich. Every girl wants to talk with you."
In-Su raised his eyebrows as he put his hand on his stomach, feeling his own muscles. "I mean, I work out every day..." In-Su stopped walking when he heard no complaint from Si-Woo.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Si-Woo blinked a few times as he stared at the sky. Hearing In-Su's voice, he looked at the male. "Huh? No... I thought I heard something..."
"Heard something?"
"Yeah... I heard a female voice saying something." Si-Woo furrowed his eyebrows. "Something about teleporting..."
"Tele-what?" In-Su looked at his friend weirdly before he started looking around, trying to hear what Si-Woo heard, but he only heard the chatter of students all around him.
"I don't hear anything."
"Hmm... did I hear things wrong?" Si-Woo scratched his head before he shrugged his shoulders. "Welp, I think we better go now. Don't want to be late for class."
"Huh? Hey, wait!"
In-Su blinked confusedly before he quickly rushed after his friend, missing the way the sky started glitching red for a second before turning back to the beautiful blue sky.
"New World Created. One Hour Before The Simulation Start."
In-Su leaned his head against his palm as he listened to the professor, fingers twirling around the pen between his fingers. The professor's voice droned on about differential equations, but In-Su's mind was elsewhere, thinking about their plans for the afternoon. Maybe he and Si-Woo could check out the newly opened shop or get some coffee—anything to pass the time.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed before his eyes, pulling him from his thoughts. A holographic screen hovered in front of him, displaying the words: "Will you accept your role?" Confused murmurs spread across the room as everyone else seemed to be seeing the same thing.
"What the...?" In-Su muttered under his breath, glancing around at his bewildered classmates. This wasn't a prank; it felt too real. His heart pounded in his chest, a mix of fear and curiosity swirling within him.
"R-role? What is this?"
"Did you see this too?"
"S-should we do something?"
"Huh? A-are you crazy?"
"H-hey, don't just touch it! It might be dangerous!"
In-Su stared at the screen before he saw something at the bottom of the hologram screen: "20 Seconds." The number seemed to be counting down, making In-Su wonder if something was going to happen when that number hit zero.
Filled with panic, In-Su raised his hand to press the button, hoping that it wasn't actually going to kill him instantly. As soon as his finger touched the "Yes" button, the screen disappeared before being replaced by a golden screen.
"Role Accepted: Healer."
"Congratulations. You are the chosen Healer."
"THE WORLD WILL NOW BE REPLACED."
"What?" In-Su blinked in confusion, but the feeling didn't last long when he felt a nauseous sensation as if the room was being flipped upside down.
No.
In-Su looked up to see that the ceiling was replaced with the floor. "Wha-" He gasped when gravity left his body and he started falling down. His body hit the floor with a harsh thud. He quickly covered his head when he saw the desks and chairs now falling along with him. He grunted at the painful impact, but luckily none of the heavy objects hit him on the head, only the books and bags.
"Aaah!!"
In-Su pushed the chair off him, breathing heavily as he sat up, looking around at his classmates to see them looking out the window with horrified expressions. In-Su slowly stood up, limping toward the window, and his eyes widened when he saw the outside.
What had once been the familiar skyline of Seoul was now a bizarre mix of the city and a fantasy world. Trees and vines grew out of buildings, and streets were replaced with cobblestone paths. The once-blue sky had now turned red with a crescent moon instead of the sun, and the moon was bleeding, adding to the creepy atmosphere. In the distance, In-Su could see a large and tall tower standing proudly. The tower was so tall it reached the dark clouds that seemed to be only around the tower area.
"....What the hell..." In-Su remembered that the place where the tower stood was once Lotte World Tower. Half of the city was replaced by a fantastical realm, as if another world had merged with Seoul.
"Kyaaah!!"
In-Su quickly turned around when he heard another scream and the sound of the lecture room door being smashed open. His eyes widened in shock when he saw a monster slither inside the room. The monster resembled a tadpole freshly out of the water, but it was too huge and hideous to be called one. It was as big as a basketball and had a dark purple color. It also had a huge mouth with sharp teeth and one long tongue.
"U-ugh... what is that?" One of In-Su's classmates looked at the monster in disgust. He tried to move away from the monster, but it seemed to alert the monster instead.
In one leap, the monster lunged at the male, mouth wide open. No one could even react when the monster bit the male's head off in one clean bite. Only when the body fell on the floor, splattering blood everywhere, did the panic break out.
"Aaahh!!"
"What the fuck is that?!"
Desks and chairs were overturned as everyone scrambled to find safety. In-Su breathed heavily as he stared at the monster, which was now chasing after the running students, biting anything it could find.
'What the fuck? What the fuck is that!?' In-Su thought in panic, not daring to move a muscle. 'Monster?! But how?!' He then remembered what had happened earlier.
'...The world being replaced...? Are you saying we're not in our world anymore?' He shakily looked outside the window. 'This isn't Seoul anymore...' He clenched his fists tightly. 'That role... it said I'm a healer... wait, a healer?' He looked at his hand. "Am I a side character?"
To In-Su, usually people with healing powers are the side characters, while the main characters receive ridiculous powers that somehow make them famous hunters. But that wasn't the main concern right now.
"Wait, why didn't I run?" In-Su asked himself as he slowly turned around to see the tadpole monster land in front of him. If his common sense were a human, it might punch him in the face for being an idiot and kiss him because he was safe, or not because common sense isn't a human. We never know.
Back to the main problem, In-Su stared at the monster with a panicked expression. He knew he should run right now, but he couldn't. He kept staring at the monster, its teeth stained with blood, and In-Su could see the remaining flesh of his classmate inside its mouth. His breath hitched slightly as he stood there, waiting for the monster to make a move. He saw it shift around slightly as if it was trying to find where In-Su was.
'Is... is that thing unable to see me?'
The sound of crashing caught their attention. In-Su saw his classmate trip over the table and start screaming. That seemed to be enough to catch the monster's attention as it lunged at the female.
"Aahh!" In-Su quickly grabbed the nearest chair and slammed it against the monster, causing it to fly across the room and slam into the wall. The sound of a disgustingly squelch filled the room as the monster stuck to the wall like slime before it slowly slid down, leaving behind green blood.
[You Received 5 Silver For Defeating Traads.]
[Traads slime sent to your inventory.]
"....What kind of lame name is that?" In-Su breathed heavily as he stared at the screen in front of his face. "Five... only five silver?" He couldn't help but complain. He didn't know about this world's currency, but five silver for that monster told him that he just killed a really low-level monster.
'...No, forget about that... This screen and notification remind me of a game...' In-Su let the chair go, causing it to clatter on the floor. 'Why do I feel like I've already read ten novels with a similar plot?' In-Su wiped the sweat from his chin. 'Like that guy who's leveling solo... or those two men being shipped by so many girls...' In-Su suddenly remembered Si-Woo. '....I'm the top for sure.'
In-Su snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his professor's voice. "E-everyone calm down!!" The professor tried to calm his students down despite himself shaking like a leaf, his face turning pale. He kept his eyes on the front, trying so hard to ignore his student's headless corpse behind him.
"H-hey, there's no internet connection!"
"I-i can't call the police!"
In-Su quickly took out his phone. The screen started glitching for a moment before he saw his home screen, and true to what they said, there was no connection at all. "In-Su...." The professor looked at the male with a pleading expression. To him, In-Su seemed to know what had happened here. "What happened here?"
The brown-haired male swallowed nervously before he averted his gaze outside the window. "I don't know... but I think we're not in Seoul... No, I don't think we're on Earth anymore..."
"What?!"
"T-that's not possible!"
"Ugh, come on! Look outside! Do you think that's normal?!" In-Su pointed at the monster and the corpses. "This is not possible?! Face it! We're in some kind of sick world!"
"S-so you mean... w-we actually need those roles the screen gave us?"
"A-aah... I-i didn't press the button..."
"W-who here accepted the role?!"
In-Su slowly raised his hand. "I got Healer..." He covered his left ear with his palm when the class started screaming at him for getting such a weak role, his eyebrow twitching slightly because he knew half of them were the same people who admired him in the past because of his looks and intelligence.
'That's it... I won't heal any of you even when you beg me...' In-Su thought darkly as he imagined his classmates kneeling in front of him, all beaten up and crying. 'That'll show you guys to look down on healers...'
Suddenly, dozens of Traads slithered inside the classroom, making all of them except In-Su scream. They all started running out of the classroom through the back door, but they all rushed in one go, causing people to shove each other to escape.
"Get out of my way!"
"Move, bitch!!"
"Aaah, it hurts!!"
In-Su watched the chaos uncomfortably. He knew that in the face of death, people would do anything, but seeing it in front of him made him wonder if humanity could survive like this.
'These guys are fast, but one hit and they're dead...' In-Su looked at the Traads. He then noticed that the monsters seemed to chase the humans who were running instead of him who was standing still. He wondered if they hunted through vibration.
His green eyes flickered toward the Traads that landed in front of him. Nervously, he kicked the monster away, watching it squirm around for a moment before going still.
[You Received 5 Silver For Defeating Traads.]
[Traads slime sent to your inventory.]
'I'm right... they are weak...' In-Su quickly grabbed the chair and started smashing the monsters one by one. When he finished, the floor of the classroom was covered with green blood and monster remains.
[You Received 50 Silver For Defeating 10 Traads.]
[17 Traads slime sent to your inventory.]
Breathing heavily, In-Su threw the chair that was coated with blood and flesh away. He looked around and noticed that he was alone in the classroom. 'They all left me behind...' The male wiped the blood that had managed to splatter on his face. 'Whatever... they probably died out there.'
In-Su blinked in confusion at his own dark thought. He shook his head, trying to shake the darkness growing inside him. 'What the fuck is wrong with me...? Ugh... I'd better find Si-Woo.'
With that, In-Su walked out of the classroom. His eyes wandered around the hallway to see that the walls were coated with moss and vines, windows shattered, and flesh on the walls and floor, probably belonging to both humans and monsters.
Stepping over the puddle of blood, In-Su walked down the hallway, determined to find his best friend and anyone who was still alive. He prayed they at least had common sense.