[novel] Literature Piece for ORV

The image is an assignment I had to do for an academic course and I wanted to share what I wrote, and hear y'all thoughts. The hardest part was finding an effective way to integrate Yoo Joonghyuk into the conversation without it seeming out of character. FYI this is supposed to be during the First Murim arc.

Introduction

“Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint” is a Korean webnovel authored by the husband-and-wife duo Sing Shong. The story follows Kim Dokja, the sole reader of the obscure novel “Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World”. Upon finishing the epilogue, his reality plunges into an apocalypse akin to the one described in the novel. Armed with the knowledge from those pages, Kim Dokja strives to alter the original story and achieve the ending he desires. He meets and allies himself with Yoo Joonghyuk, the protagonist from the novel, whose goal is to destroy the Star Stream, a system that uses suffering as entertainment for powerful beings known as Constellations. Meet Jin Ha-jun, a former administrative civil servant of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, who navigates this new world recording the Scenarios of the Star Stream.

Scene

Crash! My muscles scream as I sat up with a groan amongst the rubble that was once my hiding spot. My body shivered uncontrollably as a terrifying feeling stifled me. It was Yoo Joonghyuk’s glare, his blade pressed against my throat.

“I mean no harm! I was merely curious what the Supreme King and the Demon King of Salvation were doing in First Murim”, I blurted out, my hands raised as I glanced at the hazy face of Kim Dokja pleadingly.

His gaze, however, was on the dimly lit words on my makeshift phone. A pang of indescribable fear rang through me and I instinctively scrambled to grab the phone. Crack! I groaned as my vision blurred before going black.

Sometime later, I groggily opened my eyes and rubbed the throbbing spot of my head as I sat up on the wooden floor and Kim Dokja sat opposite me, his eyes gleaming over the dimly lit words with an unreadable expression.

“What is this?”

“Um, uh… it’s my journal of everything that I’ve observed since the Scenarios began”, my voice came out small as I fidgeted with the lapels of my jacket as I gazed desperately at the phone.

I can’t lose it. I need my phone back. I need to continue.

“Why though?”, his gaze shone with a glimmer of curiosity.

My gaze met his for a moment as my lips parted. I hadn’t expected him to ask that.

I shifted my eyes to outside the ancient and worn dojo to Yoo Joonghyuk swinging his blade as the clouds wept in awe.

“It keeps me going through this hell that is our world now. A-And one day when I’m no longer here, maybe someone will find it and read it. They’ll know I existed. They’ll know the true history. Not what those damn Dokkaebi or Constellations frame it as.”

The leaves rustled as Yoo Joonghyuk paused as if sensing my gaze and glared with a ferocity that sent shivers through me that had nothing to do with the temperature.

“He’s terrifying”, I whispered averting my gaze.

“That he is”, he laughed dryly as he handed me the phone.

I snatched the phone and held it close as relief washed over me as a low rumble escaped Yoo Joonghyuk’s mouth – his gaze pointed at Kim Dokja, drenching that relief with a tremor.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you!”