3 years...
3 years of rewrites, rejections, revisions...
3 years of turning a rough idea, scribbled down in a coffee-stained notebook, loved by no one but him into a sprawling fantasy saga that had consumed his every waking thought, loved by thousands of others.
Kang Jinhyuk sat hunched over his desk, his posture crooked from years of bad habits, his hands trembling from hours of continuous typing.
The dim yellow light of his apartment lamp deepened the shadows under his eyes, making him look as tired as the man in his story.
Outside, the city was wrapped in rain, the faint patter against the window mixing with the quiet hum of his computer fan.
He blinked at the blinking cursor, reading the final line he had typed.
The Regressor, Yoon Hyunseong, after countless regressions... faced the dawn with a smile, certain that this time, the world would not end.
The End.
Jinhyuk leaned back slowly.
His chair groaned under the shift of weight.
His eyes stung, but he didn't blink.
He just… stared at those words.
No rush of triumph. No sudden burst of relief. Just… stillness.
The Regressor Who Defied the End. His story. His grand masterpiece. It was finally done.
His readers would rage, cry, debate over the ending, but that wasn't his concern anymore.
He had given them his best, poured himself into every twist, every reveal, every betrayal.
The joy, the sadness, the rage, the pain, He felt it all. As he wrote his story, word by word, chapter by chapter.
And now, with the story finished, he felt... hollow.
He exhaled slowly, his shoulders loosening for the first time in months.
'3 years... over a thousand chapters... and 1,000 words each chapter... and it's finally... over...'
He pushed himself away from the desk, intending to get up, maybe make coffee, maybe finally eat something or just... Get some sleep-
The moment Jinhyuk stood, the world tilted. His vision blurred. The glow of the monitor wavered like a candle in the wind.
'...What the-'
The words on the screen flickered. For a second, just a second, the last line wasn't what he'd typed.
The Author, Kang Jinhyuk, after countless rewritten scenes... faced the dawn with a tired smile... certain... this time... he had reached it... The End.
His breath caught. His name…?
The cursor twitched. Lines he didn't write began appearing, each stroke tapping out in perfect rhythm, like keystrokes echoing from invisible hands.
'You... must stop the catastrophes...'
'The Regressor will no longer regress...'
'The companions of the regressor shall live...'
The lights in his apartment flickered.
Outside, the rain sounded different.
Heavier. Sharper. like hooves of a horse, pounding on wet earth.
His knees buckled. The carpet rushed up to meet him.
The last thing he saw was his monitor.
The End.
glowing faintly in the rain muted dark… until the words melted away.
And in the silence before unconsciousness took him, he swore he heard a voice.
a gentle voice, called him...
'Author. It's your turn. Let's write your story...'