Dawn.
It came not with sunlight, but with red mist.
The sky beyond the shattered gym windows was no longer blue. Instead, it simmered in blood-orange haze, like the heavens themselves were bruised. Clouds hung low and unmoving. The sun didn't rise—it watched.
A thin fog slithered along the ground, brushing against sneakers, scattered debris, broken chairs, drying blood. Like smoke from some distant fire, or the breath of a slumbering beast that had just begun to stir.
No birds.
No wind.
No insects.
Just silence.
And one dead body.
---
Jaeho Kim's corpse still lay at the center of the gym, beneath the dim flicker of broken lights. His eyes were open, locked on the ceiling rafters as if still searching for the demon that had killed him.
His blood had soaked into the floorboards. It was dry now. Sticky and brown.
No one had dared move him.
No one had dared close his eyes.
Not even the system.
---
"Someone…" Arien Yue whispered. Her knees were pressed into the wooden floor beside him. "Someone say something. He died to save us."
She reached out, but stopped inches from his chest, trembling.
Silence.
Thirty-six of us stood in a circle. Tight. Breathing slow. No one cried. No one prayed. Even those who had believed in gods just yesterday were now quiet.
Because we understood something:
This wasn't a world that let you mourn.
The system didn't allow it.
Not when the next threat could come from anywhere, anytime.
---
> [Day 2 Begins]
Narrative Progression: Prologue Arc – City of Beginnings
Shared Trait Awakened: [Flicker of Flame]
Allows basic fire manipulation
Power Level: E-Rank
Solo Trait Unlocked: [Null Memory – Passive]
You remember every version of this story, even the ones that never got written.
---
A low hum coiled through my chest.
It wasn't power. Not like fire or lightning or some flashy fantasy gift. It was knowledge. The weight of unseen chains clinking into place. The gears of something vast and ancient grinding forward again after a long, forgotten pause.
Like I'd just been plugged back in.
I could feel it when I looked at them—the others. My classmates. My friends. Former friends.
The distance between us was growing.
I wasn't one of them anymore.
I had stepped outside the script. And this story? It knew.
---
Arien stood at last. Her new sword—born from the awakening—gleamed. The blade was thin and slightly curved, wrapped in a dancing ribbon of orange flame that matched the glow in her eyes.
She turned slowly, scanning the survivors.
"We can't stay here," she said. Calm. Clear. But her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword.
Then her gaze locked onto me.
She didn't say anything. She didn't have to.
Everyone had seen it.
I'd moved first. I'd broken the story. I'd saved Min Sera.
I'd provoked the system.
I was different now.
And in a world like this… different meant dangerous.
---
> [New Quest Triggered]: Escape the City of Beginnings
Objective: Reach the Tower Gate before Day 7
Location: Unknown
Threat Level Increase:
Monster Grade C+ entities entering city perimeter.
> Warning:
NPC Rewriter Activated.
A major character will now be altered based on your interference.
Target: Unknown.
---
My chest tightened.
That wasn't in the novel.
Not until Arc 3, when the real twists began.
These early days? They were supposed to be fixed. Like rails on a train. No forks. No changes.
But now, because I saved one girl — just one — the system was adapting. Rewriting the cast. Turning someone else into something they weren't meant to be.
A butterfly effect…with blades.
Who would it be?
Arien?
Sera?
Someone worse?
---
The others were scattered through the gym, testing their new abilities.
A boy with dyed hair snapped his fingers and made a flame the size of a match. He whooped in excitement before burning his sleeve and panicking.
A girl accidentally lit her shoes on fire.
Another threw fireballs at the basketball hoop until the backboard exploded and smoke filled the ceiling.
They were weak.
Clumsy.
Terrified.
And we were already two bodies down.
Only 36 remained.
---
I opened my interface for the first time.
> Name: [REDACTED]
Title: The Reader Who Shouldn't Exist
Level: 2
Trait: Null Memory (Passive)
Hidden Status: Demon Thread (Dormant)
Affinity: ???
Luck: —
Alignment: Inverted
> Note: You are not a protagonist. The world will resist you.
---
I stared at the words for a long time.
Inverted alignment?
Demon Thread?
Was that what the demon had infected me with? Or something else that had always been inside?
Even my name was redacted.
I was already less than a character.
Just a Reader.
The one who shouldn't be here.
---
That night, as the mist deepened, I sat by the shattered gym entrance. The fog outside pulsed with color, like veins of crimson running through a dying lung. Distant howls echoed—too high-pitched to be wolves. Too inhuman to be anything from Earth.
Inside, a few students huddled together. Some cried. Some laughed. A couple had already snapped. One girl was trying to "will" herself awake, slapping her cheeks and whispering, "It's a dream, it's a dream, it's a dream…"
It wasn't.
---
Somewhere out there was the Tower Gate.
The end of the Prologue Arc.
The beginning of the real story.
The kings.
The demons.
The angels.
The false gods.
The trials. The dungeons. The betrayals.
But before we got there, we had to survive five more days.
---
And deep down, I knew something else:
Someone among us...
Wouldn't make it past tomorrow.
And the system?
It was already watching me.
Waiting for the next deviation.
Waiting for the next death.