The air was thick with tension, like the final page of a book that refused to be turned. Hyun-woo took slow, measured steps, every breath reminding him that this world—the one he had once viewed from behind a screen—was now terrifyingly tangible.
Streetlamps flickered despite the daylight. The glass windows of familiar stores reflected not just his image but the faintest distortion, like water ripples across a still pond. The world had become an uncanny reflection of itself, not broken, but rewritten.
The first rule of the system echoed in his mind.
Explore your surroundings. The world is shifting. Observe carefully.
It sounded harmless. Basic. A tutorial-level objective for players just beginning their descent into madness. But Hyun-woo knew better.
He turned a corner and paused.
A crack had formed across the sky—thin, silvery, like a scar carved into the heavens. It hadn't been there minutes ago. It pulsed gently, as if acknowledging him.
[Reader's Insight Activated]
A faint glimmer coated the fissure, followed by translucent words only he could see.
[Dimensional Instability Detected: Reality Fracture - Zone 001]
Estimated Collapse: 96 hours.
Warning: Entities may manifest near rift zones.
Hyun-woo's breath caught in his throat.
Zone 001. That meant there would be more.
He scanned the street again. Trash bins overturned. A dog barking wildly before sprinting into an alley. A delivery truck abandoned in the middle of the road with the driver's door still ajar. Everything screamed wrong.
But what truly made his skin crawl was the silence.
The people weren't just quiet anymore.
They were gone.
"Where is everyone...?" he whispered.
He hadn't noticed until now—there wasn't a single soul in sight. Just moments ago, he passed pedestrians stuck in a daze. Now, the street looked like a still frame after the end credits.
A soft mechanical ding interrupted his thoughts.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: New Objective Unlocked]
You have entered a Critical Zone.
Main Quest Initiated: "Trace the First Rift."
Objective: Investigate the origin of the fracture. Survive the anomaly.
Time Limit: 2 hours
"Two hours?" Hyun-woo's eyes widened. "That's way faster than in the novel..."
In The Final Apocalypse Chronicles, the collapse of Zone 001 wasn't supposed to happen until Day 3. Yet here it was—accelerated, unpredictable. The script had already changed.
Which meant...
He couldn't rely on the timeline anymore.
He looked up again. The sky crack pulsed with growing intensity, and this time, something else happened.
The ground trembled beneath his feet.
Hyun-woo stumbled backward as chunks of the sidewalk cracked apart, a low hum vibrating through the soles of his shoes. Light seeped from the rift above, and the air shimmered as if the very laws of physics were being rewritten.
Then came the sound—like paper tearing across dimensions.
[WARNING: Dimensional Instability Escalating]
[Collapse Risk Level: 73%]
[Seek shelter immediately.]
His phone buzzed violently in his hand.
He didn't know what was coming.
But he knew it wasn't human