Chapter 3

Had I lost my mind and bought a VR rig?

For a moment I wondered if I was dreaming, but no—I had a knack for telling reality from dreams, and this wasn’t a dream.

Which left me with two options: either I’d finally developed delusions, or I was one of the half of modern people supposedly carrying some kind of mental disorder. Neither would surprise me.

Then the words floating on the translucent panel above my head changed.

'Prepare for the coming apocalypse!'

Prepare for the apocalypse? Maybe it was better to just pretend this was a dream.

But I couldn’t lie back down. Not when, in the next instant, a deafening boom ripped through the air and half my apartment disappeared.

KWAANG!

“...”

Fucking hell. First thing I saw in my pajamas was a bizarre game-like window, and the second was half my home gone.

The only small mercy was that the building didn’t collapse—the cut was so clean it looked like a cake slice had been taken out. At least for now it was still standing. Then again, calling that “lucky” felt like saying someone hit by lightning was lucky to survive.

All the while, the massive “prepare for the apocalypse” window floated overhead, refusing to vanish.

Everything I owned was in the missing half, so I grabbed only my phone and stepped toward the edge. Dust trickled down as the sheared floor began to crumble in places. I looked down—not just the height making my stomach lurch, but the absolute chaos below.

“...Huh.”

It was like there was a transparent wall right along my apartment’s edge, and beyond it, water was rapidly rising from the ground. The scene was so unreal that my mind actually went calm.

That’s when a loud voice came from above.

“Please step back!”

Rescue team? I looked up—there was a person flying in midair.

The woman hovered, waving people back, then shot straight into the floodwaters that were rising at an impossible speed.

...Sure. Half my home’s gone, and now there’s someone flying. Why not.

At this point, I felt no special emotion toward any of it. I just blinked and watched. A moment later, the water level seemed to drop, and rescuers began pulling people out through windows.

I was eventually lowered to the ground as well. The area was already swarming with rescue workers, medics, and onlookers.

“Are you alright?”

A large hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see a well-built, clean-cut man in uniform—looked like part of the rescue crew.

Am I alright? I’d ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) just woken up to find my home cut in half. And the damn translucent panel was still there—now pulsing with light.

“Do you see that?”

It was unlikely—this window had been following my gaze since the start—but I needed to confirm whether I was the only one seeing it.

“I’m sorry your home was destroyed by a Gate. That must have been a shock.”

“...Ah. Fuck.”

In one sentence, he’d dumped more information on me than I wanted. The fact that he answered about the collapsed building instead of the floating window told me he couldn’t see it. The fact that he didn’t explain what a Gate was meant he assumed I already knew.

Status window. Gate. Destroyed home. Superpowered responders.

It all sounded a lot like Lim Sungyeon’s web novel. Granted, in his book the protagonist, Kwon Taehan, had been eased into the new world from the very beginning, rather than being thrown straight into the deep end like this.

And this flashing panel? It shouldn’t be showing up for me—it should be appearing for Kwon Taehan. And the message should read “Save the world from destruction!” not “Prepare for the coming apocalypse!”

If I started acting clueless, it would only draw attention. I swallowed my irritation and asked what I really wanted to know.

“...Will the government compensate me for that?”

“Yes, you’ll be—”

His words trailed off. Which probably meant I would get compensation, but nowhere near enough to rebuild. Of course Lim Sungyeon had written 574 chapters of useless hunter crap but skipped the details about insurance payouts.

“I see. Got it.”

Even a cigarette I didn’t smoke would’ve been gone by now. I was pulling out my phone to double-check when—

FWIP!

Before I could react, the man yanked me behind him. A transparent barrier shot from his hand, clashing with a massive tentacle.

KWAANG!

Screams rang out all around. The man sprinted toward the tentacle, wrapping it in layers of shimmering air. My status window flickered and updated.

C-rank Gate.

Translating...

C-rank Gate (Into the Deep).

Dungeon type: Deep-sea simulation.

Dungeon Boss: Kraken.

Additional monsters: [More info]

Would you like to view Kraken details?

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

I’d been able to tell dreams from reality since I was a kid, and this was real. No question.

Sungyeon really did have a knack for timing. I finish his piece-of-shit novel, and this happens the very next day.

“This bastard really paid me back like this?”

I laughed out loud.

What had he said? Revelation? This day would come? The cultist wasn’t kidding.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on blaming him. No matter how much of an asshole I thought he was, I couldn’t afford to stand here like an idiot.

It was painfully clear: I was inside Lim Sungyeon’s novel. Whether the world had turned into the novel, or I’d been pulled into it, was still up for debate, but the latter seemed more likely—no one around me looked like this was their first monster attack.

What I did have was knowledge of the plot, and one more tool: the status window. Useful enough, though not ideal for standing around comparing details.

The one silver lining was that I didn’t have to suffer the rookie mistakes Kwon Taehan had at the start.

As for Kraken info? No need. I could see it right there in 4D—whipping its tentacles to smash people. No wonder the water had risen; the Gate must’ve opened on the seafloor where it lived.

If my status window worked the same way as Taehan’s, then... maybe it could do this.

“Status window.”

It was loud enough here that no one would think twice about me muttering to myself.

“View character info.”

I looked at the man who’d spoken to me earlier. Letters filled the panel.

Name: Ryu Taeyoung

Age: 27

Rank: B

Title: –

Main Skills: Air Compression (B), Wind Generation (B)

Growth Limit: A

I knew the name. Not a main character, but a recurring government hunter with a tragic end.

Seeing the window confirmed it: name, age, rank, empty title slot, main skills, growth limit... this was Sungyeon’s shitty novel.

Name: Bae Sunhwa

Age: 32

Rank: B

Title: –

Main Skills: Plant Growth (B), Plant Affinity (B), Flight (C)

Growth Limit: A

Name: Kim Jungwoo

Age: 26

Rank: C

Title: –

Main Skills: Flight (B), Restraint (C)

Growth Limit: C

I checked the other two as well before closing the window. It seemed I could open and close it just by willing it.

All three were in matching tactical gear—government hunters, then. They worked together smoothly, taking the Kraken down quickly.

It writhed, shrieking, before finally collapsing.

And then—

SHRRK! The restraining binds bit too deep, severing a tentacle. It must’ve thrashed too much for the binder to control the pressure. The creature was dead, but its nerves still fired, and the huge limb lashed out toward me.

“No!”

Ryu Taeyoung shouted, reaching for me.

'Like you’ll make it in time.'

I raised my arms to shield my face.

Air compressed around me, and just like Ryu had done earlier, a transparent barrier materialized and deflected the blow.

THWACK. The severed tentacle hit the asphalt and twitched.

Ah.

Looking down at it, still writhing, I recalled the most important detail—if this really was Sungyeon’s novel, I existed in it.

And the Seo Jehyun in that story...

“Are you awakened?”

Ryu’s voice cut into my thoughts. He was watching me intently.

Awakened. In Sungyeon’s worldbuilding, Gates had started spawning monsters, and to balance the scales, some humans went through “awakening,” gaining supernatural abilities. Their power was quantified into ranks.

Instead of answering, I opened the status window again—this time for myself.

Name: Seo Jehyun

Age: 24

Rank: (–) → F

Titles: Transcender of Time and Space / Seed of the Great Apocalypse / The One Who ■■ the ■■

Main Skills: ■■ ■■ (EX), Mental Strength (S), Mimic (S), Agitation (A)

Growth Limit: EX

“What a garbage way to give information.”

Ignoring the blacked-out text, my status window was nothing like the others. For someone ranked F, my skills and growth limit were absurdly high.

And there were multiple titles—none of which anyone else had—and they made it painfully obvious.

I was the villain of this world.