Raon froze mid-step.
Something was wrong,Terribly, impossibly wrong.
A cold surge crawled up his spine, and a familiar, horrifying line surfaced in his thoughts:
「The manager. The first time he appeared, someone said so」
His heartbeat quickened.
His palms turned cold.
No… no, this can't… this scene…
Dark atmosphere, frozen people, the still air—
It was all exactly as he remembered.
The novel he read.
The novel that destroyed thousands of lives in its first "scenario."
The novel he reads to escape from the reality, is now becoming his own reality.
His breathing hitched. Reality and memory overlapped, forcing themselves into alignment like two layers of glass smashing together.
Why is this happening again? Why here?
This is the exact scene… the exact moment…
His head started ringing violently.
Then he saw it.
Something floated inside the fading light.
A small silhouette… round… furry… unnatural.
Raon's chest tightened.
When the light vanished, the creature revealed itself—Hovering weightlessly in mid-air.Two curved horns peeked out from its fluffy head.he was wearing miniature suit, perfectly pressed, clung to its body.
Its round black eyes watched the crowd with a serene expression that felt too peaceful… too deliberate… too wrong.
No heartbeat came from it.
No aura, no sound, no presence—Just a stillness that prickled the skin.
「It was too strange to call it a fairy, too evil to call it an angel, And too tranquil to call it a demon.Thus, they are called 'manager'.」
Raon knew what it would say next.
He knew every word of this encounter.
And then—
The creature opened its mouth.
「&아#@!&아#@! …」
A buzzing, glitch-like distortion ripped through the air.
The system itself seemed to glitch:
[&아#@!&아#@!…]
Raon staggered.
He wanted to scream.
Because this was not a coincidence.
Not a dream.
Not an illusion.
It was the same.
Exactly the same as the novel.
He was reliving a tragedy that had once been just words on a page.
Now hundreds of people reacted in fear and confusion:
"What is that thing?!"
"Is it a monster?"
"Maybe it's an angel—look how peaceful it looks!"
"Angel my ass! That thing is the devil!"
"This world has gone mad… what is happening to us?!"
"What if… what if this is a game? What if we are being watched?"
An elderly man's trembling voice cut through the murmurs:
"What if everything happening… is part of some game? A world controlled by someone else?"
The creature's peaceful smile widened—unnaturally wide.
"Ah… Game."
Its voice came out warm, almost amused.
"That's right."
A soft laugh bubbled from its throat.
A laugh that didn't match its face,or its shape,
or anything that should exist in this world.
"This is a game. A delightful little game for my audience."
The crowd recoiled.
Audience?
The creature floated higher, adjusting its tiny suit.
"Haha… I was running low on data. So I slipped in early—just in time for the second scenario."
Raon's blood ran cold.
Second scenario.
That was when everything Start Collapsing even further in the novel.
When survival rates plummeted.
When despair became the norm.
"Now, now."
The manager clapped its furry hands lightly, the sound echoing unnaturally loud through the dead air.
"All of you, please take your seats—"
Its smile sharpened, slicing through the atmosphere like a blade.
"—and listen carefully."
A ripple of invisible pressure washed across the city center, making several people fall to their knees.
The manager's eyes curved like crescent moons, glowing faintly.
"From now on, I will tell you something…
Very important."
Raon's heart hammered against his ribs.
His lungs struggled for air.
Because this was no longer fiction.
No longer someone else's tragedy.
This was the moment their world began to crumble.
And he was trapped inside the story he once only read.
The silence after the manager's words lasted only a moment.
Then—
"What are you?!"
"What the hell do you mean 'audience'?!"
"Why are you doing this?!"
"Are you a demon? Are you testing us?"
"Answer us!"
Dozens of questions fired at the floating creature like bullets.
The manager blinked slowly.
Once.
Twice.
Then, with a small sigh—
"…Noisy."
Its fluffy expression didn't change at all.
But its eyes twitched.
Just that tiny motion carried a suffocating chill.
A heartbeat later—
Kwaaaaaaak—!
Something invisible swept through the crowd.
A pressure wave.
Soundless.
Futureless.
People nearest to the creature didn't even scream.
They simply… burst.
Blood sprayed like thrown paint. Bodies were shredded mid-air, torn apart without a single physical strike.
Raon stumbled backward in shock, his breath catching in his throat.
People screamed.
"RUN!"
"MONSTER!"
"HE KILLED THEM! HE KILLED THEM WITH NOTHING!"
"STAY BACK!"
"HELP—HELP ME—!"
Panic exploded through the streets.
Men, women, children—everyone scattered like insects under light, trampling over one another, climbing broken cars, smashing into collapsed walls just to escape.
The manager brushed dust off its tiny suit as if nothing happened.
"Much better."
Its smile sharpened.
"I suppose it's time to begin the scenario."
Raon felt his heartbeat freeze.
Scenario.
The Second Scenario.
The exact words from the novel.
The creature clapped its hands once softly, innocently.
A blue ripple tore through the sky.
⟪ Second Scenario Initiated ⟫
Objective: Eliminate the Wyverns
Difficulty: B-GRADE
Time Limit: 3 Hours
Reward: 10,000 coins
A low rumble echoed from far away.
Then another.
And another.
The sky darkened as shadows flapped overhead.
Raon looked up his blood turned to ice.
Wyverns.
Not one.
Not ten.
Hundreds.
Their leathery wings stretched wide, blotting out what little sunlight filtered through the clouds. Their screeches pierced through steel and bone alike.
"WYVERNS! THEY'RE COMING!"
"GET INSIDE!"
"RUN—RUN—RUN!"
Some people fled into ruined houses.
Others hid under overturned buses.
Some armed survivors readied weapons guns, pipes, sharpened metal bars—but their hands trembled.
The first wyvern swooped down.
Its talons tore a man in half.
Another wyvern grabbed a woman off the street and hurled her into a building.
Her scream was cut short by the impact.
Chaos swallowed the city.
Blood.
Screams.
Fire.
Destruction.
Raon's legs refused to move.
It was exactly like the novel.
Exactly how thousands died.
Exactly the scene that marked the descent into true horror.
His vision blurred.
He was falling—
Drowning in déjà vu and terror—
"RAON!"
Han grabbed his collar and shook him.
"Snap out of it! We need to move!"
Raon gasped as if breaking the surface of water.
A small wyvern lunged toward them—
Han's shield smashed into its jaw, and Raon instinctively stabbed its neck with a broken pipe lying nearby.
Green blood splattered the asphalt.
More wyverns flew overhead.
"Move!" Han shouted. "We need to stay alive!"
They sprinted between collapsing buildings, dodging falling debris and the talons of swooping wyverns.
Gunshots rang out across the city.
Survivors with military-grade weapons—likely ex-police or army—were firing from rooftops.
Small wyverns died mid-air.
But for each one killed—three more descended.
The streets thinned.
Out of the hundreds earlier, only a few dozen people were still running outside now.
The rest…
Raon didn't want to think about it.
Then—
A familiar childish voice returned.
"Hm."
The manager reappeared above the central plaza, legs crossed mid-air like he was sitting on an invisible chair.
His voice was soft.
Almost bored.
"I think this scenario… is too easy."
Raon's heart dropped.
Han stopped beside him.