[09:05 PM | Seoul Metro Line 2 | Subway Car 4]
The Predator howled.
Its body twisted unnaturally, mouth-eyes flaring open like torn muscles. The steel bar still lodged in its neck sizzled with dripping black fluid.
Kang Jae-hwan pressed himself against the shattered seat as the monster thrashed. His chest burned from the hit he took, and blood stained his sleeve from where the jagged upholstery had cut him.
"Move!" the man in the beige suit yelled, yanking him backward again. "It's not dead!"
"I know," Jae-hwan coughed. "It regenerates."
The system window still hovered beside him:
[HP: 170/200 → 175/200...]
[Regeneration active.]
A small crowd had gathered behind him, including the schoolgirl, now sobbing against the wall. Her phone was still gripped tightly in her trembling hands, its screen cracked and useless.
Jae-hwan stood up shakily.
He glanced at the timer.
[24:52 Remaining.]
Still too long.
He needed to stall it.
No — not just stall.
He needed a plan.
"Is this a terrorist attack?!" someone yelled behind him.
"Who are you people?! What kind of freak show—what's that thing?!"
"The doors won't open! My signal's gone!"
Chaos swirled again.
People began pounding on the windows. A man tried to smash one with a fire extinguisher to no effect. The girl kept sobbing. No one knew what to do.
Except Jae-hwan.
He remembered this part.
In the novel, the main character had bought time by enraging the Predator.
By baiting it.
Jae-hwan took a step forward again.
The suit man grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?! It almost killed you!"
"I'm keeping it busy," Jae-hwan muttered, eyes on the creature. "Get the others behind the rows. Stack up the bags. Anything that slows it down."
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm…"
His throat went dry.
"I'm the only one who read the script."
The man looked at him like he'd gone mad.
Jae-hwan didn't wait. He gripped the broken metal tighter, ripped it out of the Predator's neck with a wet shhk, and stepped back into the aisle.
The creature stopped convulsing.
Its heads turned toward him—slowly, like camera tripods locking onto a subject.
He raised the weapon. "You remember me, right?"
It charged.
And then—
A scream from behind.
Jae-hwan turned—
Too late.
One of the passengers had run. A middle-aged woman, maybe in her fifties, clutching a bag and pushing past everyone.
"No!" he shouted. "Get back!"
She bolted toward the other end of the train.
The Predator ignored Jae-hwan completely.
It turned—and leapt.
"No!" he screamed again.
The woman didn't even have time to react.
The creature's claw swiped.
She died instantly.
Blood sprayed like a fan of red silk. Her torso hit the wall. Her head hit the floor. The bag rolled under a seat, spilling medicine bottles across the ground.
Silence.
The car was dead silent.
The system message chimed again:
[A participant has died.]
[Coins distributed to the scenario controller.]
Jae-hwan's stomach turned.
He knew this scene.
But in the novel… the woman hadn't died. It had been a man. One of the side characters that lived to Chapter 8. He was sure of it.
So why did—
His thoughts stopped.
The creature was turning again.
[HP: 175/200]
[Aggro redirected: Highest Threat = Kang Jae-hwan]
[Passive: Predator's Hunger (Escalating Hostility with Each Kill)]
The system was evolving.
It wasn't following the original story beat for beat.
It was adapting.
"Shit…"
He backed up.
The passengers were panicking again. The girl was crying harder now, screaming, "Why didn't you save her?! You said you knew what to do!"
"I—" Jae-hwan stammered.
He had read the story a thousand times. But this wasn't just the story anymore.
It was something new.
The line came back to him:
Thank you for reading until the end.
This world now belongs to you.
He thought it had meant he could control the world.
But what if it meant something worse?
What if the moment he reached the end…
The story had started writing itself?
And now, the body count was his responsibility.
[You have earned the Title: "First Death Flag"]
Effect: +5% mental resistance when witnessing death.
Curse: You will always remember the faces of the first ten who die in your presence.
The woman's broken body was still slumped in the corner.
Jae-hwan looked away.
But the image had already burned into him.
And now the Predator was walking slowly toward him—one step at a time—like a monster savoring the chase.
The lights flickered again.
[23:31 Remaining.]
And Kang Jae-hwan realized something:
He wasn't the protagonist of this world.
He was just the only one who knew how the world ended.
And now…
He would have to survive long enough to change it.
To be continue...