Prologue: The Shattered Beginning
The world was dying.
Yoo Jihwan could feel it—the quiet unraveling of everything he knew. The air was thick with an unsettling stillness, the kind that settles over a dying world. He stared at the pages of the book in his hands, a book that had come to an end. The last chapter. He had reached it, unknowingly crossing the threshold into something he couldn't return from.
[System Notification: Final chapter reached.]
He read the last word.
And everything shattered.
A blinding flash of light tore through his vision, consuming everything. The book slipped from his fingers, its pages disintegrating into ash as the world around him unraveled. Time fractured. Reality split. His body, his very essence, was torn apart, disintegrating into fragments that scattered across an infinite void.
[System Notification: World collapse detected. Reality fracture imminent.]
He was no longer in his world. No longer in his body.
The darkness around him was oppressive—an endless void where nothing existed. No time. No space. No sound. Just emptiness. A suffocating silence, deep and heavy, where even the faintest thought seemed to disappear. Yet, in that darkness, something stirred. A presence. A voice. Unseen but undeniable.
[System Notification: New entity detected. Awaiting confirmation.]
Then, the voice came.
Soft, yet it reverberated through the silence, impossible to ignore.
"The world has gained a new reader."
The words echoed within him, resonating through the void. Was it him? Was he the one the voice spoke of? The one who would become the next figure in this endless cycle? The one destined to read worlds into existence, to twist time and reality itself?
[System Notification: New Reader designation confirmed.]
But he knew better. This wasn't a gift.
This was a curse.
A curse he couldn't escape. A cycle that no one before him had broken. Each reader, consumed by the very role they took. Now, it was his turn.
[System Notification: Rebirth sequence initiated. Fragmentation detected.]
His shattered self began to piece together, slowly at first, as if each fragment of his existence was fighting against the pull of the rebirth. There was no way to stop it. No choice but to be reborn.
[System Notification: Rebirth complete. New body detected—infant form. No memories found.]
He opened his eyes, no longer the person he once was. He was a child now. His mind was blank. His past erased. All that remained was the unfamiliar world around him. A place where time stood still. Where everything was fragile, broken, like him.
[System Notification: New world detected. Status: Unstable. Timeline unverified.]
He was no longer in the world he knew. But where was he? What was this place?
As his mind tried to grasp his surroundings, he realized the truth. He wasn't alone.
[System Notification: Potential guide detected.]
A presence stirred in the distance, calling to him. A whisper, soft but unmistakable.
"You will become the next reader."
[System Notification: Next stage confirmed: Reader of the Beginning.]
His heart stopped. No. He didn't want this. He didn't want to be trapped in this endless cycle. But it was too late. The role had already been assigned. He had already stepped onto the path that would lead him to the Reader of the Climax.
The one who had transcended time. The one who would remain in this cycle forever.
Jihwan felt his breath catch in his chest. The weight of his fate pressed down on him.
[System Notification: Reader status confirmed. Next step: The Realm of the Climax.]
He couldn't escape this. Not now. Not ever. He was bound to follow the path set before him, like all the others who had come before him.
But perhaps... perhaps he could still resist.
[System Notification: Fate sealed. Path set.]
And with that, the path was set. The endless cycle began again.