Chapter 0
"What happens after death?" is a common question that keeps humanity wondering. It is one of the biggest factors of fear because no deceased could tell the tale of the experience being dead. The living remains clueless, curious, and afraid... What does happen after death?
The fear of the Unknown is what scares a man the most, and the unknown after death is the scariest, that's why mankind created stories- stories that keep their mind at ease. They created their own cradle of emotional comfort. From Heaven, to Valhalla, to Elysium, or any type of luxurious paradise no man could ever imagine is what keeps mankind from fearing.
Those comforts kept the masses growing, to keep dreaming. It broadens the mind's imagination, to keep envisioning for their own perfect paradise that they could run to at the end of their marathon called life. They kept clinging onto their dreams; it can be even called desperation if you will- The desperation for comfort from the unknown.
But, can those dreams that you hold onto so desperately really save you?
Well, one man doesn't think so. A severely broken and tired man, once full of dreams but is now left accepting that his body will rot as time continues to progress- A man with no dreams.
Or does he?
Under the unforgiving summer, inside a blue and white-lined bus venturing through the peaceful concrete path of a bridge over the sparkling blue sea lays a man with dark unkempt hair with soulless ebony eyes and pale skin that seems to have not met the light of the sun for months. He wears a crinkled business suit with a poorly tied black tie and a dirty white shirt underneath together with unpolished shoes and a broken watch.
He looks dirty and poor, but he seems to not care- even if he is receiving judgmental stares from fellow commuters in the bus. Even though the bus is almost full, no one dared sit beside him, but he does not appear to care or worry, he just stared at the blue waters with lifeless and tired eyes that have visible dark bags of skin placed underneath. He seems to be in deep thought, but in reality he wasn't, even if he wants to he can't think of anything. He is just sitting and looking at the sun with no thought in mind, like an empty husk.
While in deep trance, he was then bothered with a vibration and a ringing sound of what seems to be a notification from his pocket. The man then pulled out a seemingly old and out-of-trend phone and opened it, he was then welcomed with a notification bar.
["The Woeful Dream of the Broken" has updated a chapter! "Chapter 2203: Fulfill your Dream" is out now!]
"The author really knows when to update whenever I am in a bad time." The man heaved a sigh of amusement and opened the chapter and starts to read it with immense focus. He held his phone tightly and read the words that narrate his hero's story, the Gleaming White Star within a Sword, Baek Chul.
Baek Chul is placed within a story of classic fantasy and magic where dragons, monsters and other known glorious fiction are placed. With the bombing trend of transmigration stories in the net, the author of course didn't miss the chance to join the bandwagon and made Baek Chul a transmigrator as well.
Baek Chul plays the hero and the main character of the novel called [The Woeful Dream of the Broken] where he started out as a normal young boy living in Korea not until he was placed within a body of someone that seems to have an identical face but different build in another world of a random book he has read. He was then promptly introduced to the cruel world of monster hunting where dungeons appear out of the ground and release unforgiving and savage monsters that threatens people's lives in every turn. This became a great challenge for Baek Chul but with his wit and determination to return to Korea he managed to move his way up to being the hero of the world... Well, that's what's supposed to happen.
It seems that his determination to go back to Korea greatly outweighs everything to the point where he sliced open time and space to create a portal back to earth and now created a great war between Earth and the Fantasy world because he cannot close the portal.
The part that the man is currently reading is where Baek Chul must choose which side he should fight with: His old home which he yearns for or his new found friends in another world?
Personally, the man found Baek Chul endearingly stupid for wanting to go back to Earth. This world gives nothing but pain and false hope, he deeply loathes this place. How can he choose such place over a place where he is the main character and everyone loves him? He just can't understand this character at all despite having all the narration focus on him, which is why he keeps reading. He wants to know why he is so desperate to come back in this god-forsaken world.
If he was given the chance to meet Baek Chul for one time, he would've seized it and laugh at his face on how silly Baek Chul's goal is.
While in the middle of immersive reading, the man was interrupted once again, but not with a vibration and ring from a phone but instead a sudden explosion underneath the bus and the sudden swerve of the bus towards the rails of the bridge. The impact of the rails and the bus greatly shaken and damaged the bus but it wasn't enough to stop the bus from falling.
The man could feel his heart dropping to his stomach. His ears ring from all the awful shrieks and cries of the passengers. He honestly wants to cry as much as the passenger does but he was so overwhelmed that all he could do is stare at the inevitable death that awaits him.
Desperately, he gripped the phone very tightly with his sweaty palm, he could've grabbed a steadier and fixed object but he instead chose to grip onto his phone that displayed the words of the current chapter.
The man started to laugh out of misery, 'No way... Don't tell me I actually believed he will come out of nowhere and save me? What am i? A kid? I'm 32 goddammit pull yourself together!' the man groaned in frustration as he clenched his teeth and braced himself.
He hopelessly closed his eyes; he would rather not see what will happen to him, what his final moments will be. His mind then started to wander off, 'If only I could... If only I could see the future... Just how many mistakes I could've avoided? Could've I avoided this? How... How many could I have saved... Like, like him... Haha...'
The man thought he was going insane, maybe he is, but it's a really bad to be one moments before death, it makes him look even more miserable.
Soon, he could feel the harsh crash of the bus, the sound of the waters, and the sound of people screaming, the sound of glass breaking... Then silence.
Silence, deafening silence, he could only wonder if he had finally died and what he's experiencing is the afterlife. He feels so light and he feels like flying. It feels so calm and serene as if he's a child being cradled in a mother's loving arms. He is starting to like the calmness; he finally found his euphoria, his paradise.
Sadly, the sensation didn't lasted long as he felt a rough and prickly sensation on his back; his senses also came back as he could hear the rustling of trees, chirping of birds, and even the breeze of the wind.
As he opened his eyes to see, he immediately jumped and screamed his lungs out, "AH- AAAAAHHHH!!!!" he looks around him and sees an unfamiliar place that definitely isn't Korea. He is in the middle of a forest when he's supposed to be underwater where the bus fell off.
He hugged himself with his shaking palms as he looks around and stands up from the grass. Even standing up is a struggle for him after experiencing such chain of events. After looking around he then looks at himself and his skin turned paper-white.
He's dry. Why is he dry? Didn't he die in the water? What happened to him? Where is he? How many days has it been? There's so many questions clouding his mind, but the world is truly unforgiving as it gave him no time to process anything at all, it even gave him more problems to think of.
[The man is quivering to the Uddnowd without knowing his dream is fulfilled right before him.]
"W-what the hell is this thing?" The man questioned in fear as he tried to touch a blue notification screen floating in front of him but his hand just went through it as if it's air. He then stared at the screen with cold feet; he doesn't know if he has gone crazy that he is starting to hallucinate. He then tried to examine the screen further but he jolted in surprise when the screen changed its text.
[The man is about to face his death.]
"N-now what the hell..." He blurted to himself in disbelief. He then jumped when he heard a rustle behind him and immediately did a turn which almost made him trip off –balance. As soon as he faced what's behind him he was then greeted with a sharp end of a sword pointed at his face and could hear men shouting all over with weird language.
"Imposter!!! Lol you gay!"
"Invader! who are you?! depressed yarn!!!"
While being constantly overwhelmed the screen decides to pop up again in front of his nose.
[Would you like to accept "Reader's Privilege" in order to be fully immersed in the experience? YES/NO?]
'What is this...?' The man is deeply confused but then looked at the men shouting bizarre words towards him while pointing their weapons. He has a vague idea of what might the Reader's Privilege do so he tried to gamble on it and tapped [YES]. It's crazy that he is trying to take in everything at once as fast as he can just so that he can figure out what's going on, even going as far as treating the blue screen real.
As soon as he tapped the button he then felt electricity tickling through his every nerve from his foot up to his brain. His eyes then widened as if enlightened and breathe rapidly as he could not believe that the blue screen is actually real.
And just as he thought, the Reader's Privilege is really what he expected.
"Who are you?!"
"You dare trespass the property of the prince!!!"
It made him understand their languange.
He was about to open his mouth to explain but then the screen pops up once again.
["Quiet, I'll handle the talking. Now tell me, invader, who are you? Which kingdom are you from?" The Prince of Lunaiv inquired coldly as he examines the man that is covered in dirt from head to toe.]
Shortly after that, a dazzling man emerged from the crowd of men. He looks rich and part of royalty, "Quiet, I'll handle the talking. Now tell me, invader, who are you? Which kingdom are you from?" The man of long golden hair and jewel blue eyes asked him in a demanding tone while scrutinizing him from head to toe.
The man's brows raised in surprised, he then looks at the blue screen and the dazzling man as if he's discovering something phenomenal. He stared at the so-called Prince of Lunaiv and then his brain suddenly tickled him with a thought, 'Where have I... Did I meet this guy before? He feels so... Familiar.'
Before he could process anything he saw another man coming out of the crowd and picking up a rectangular flat item lying on the grass. The man then gasped when he realized it's his work ID, he didn't even noticed that it was with him.
[The Hero read through the familiar texts as if refreshing an old memory. He then slowly runs his thumb over the face of the man within the plastic card. The Hero took a while to process what he's holding before he opened his mouth to speak, "Han gg-gggg, working at an automobile company in Seoul, 32-years-old..."]
A fine looking gentleman with ridiculously flawless hair and perfect face looks at the man's ID, as if founding a valuable treasure. He then spoke out loud the contents within the ID, "Han Si-woon, Working at an automobile company in Seoul, 32-years-old..."
Everything that the handsome man has did and spoken is what the screen indicated beforehand in front of Han Si-woon, the owner of the ID- but except of his name which is suspiciously blurred, but even if Han Si-woon would like to figure out why, he was more awestruck by the man reading his ID. Han Si-woon's eyes are widened, his jaw dropped, his heart beating incredibly fast, and his fingers turned cold from disbelief.
Han Si-woon then watched the guy holding his ID look at him with equal disbelief and shock. He looks like he has seen a ghost. The handsome man then opened his lips and spoke while not breaking eye contact with Han Si-woon.
["You're from home..." Baek Chul said in both shock and relief.]
Han Si-woon then looks at the screen and deadlocked his sight into the name. He never thought that this day will come. He never even thought that this will happen to him.
"I... you... This can't be..." Han Si-woon stuttered as he is at lost for words. His heart felt heavy and his throat is clogged. He then just internally laughed.
'Did I just got fucking isekai'd?'