Kim Hajoon hated Tuesdays.
Not because of the usual office grind, though that was bad enough.
He hated them because they always felt like the day the universe remembered he existed, just to remind him how little that mattered.
Another late night at the company, another rejected report, another silent subway ride back to his tiny one-room apartment in Seoul.
Tonight was no different.
He stepped out of the station at 11:47 PM, loosening his tie as the cool April air hit his face. The streets were quiet, more so than usual. Even the usual drunks were missing.
Then the sky tore open.
A blinding blue message burned across his vision like someone had poured molten text directly into his brain.
[The Apocalypse Scenario has begun.]
[All of humanity will now participate in the Main Scenario.]
[Survive. Entertain. Evolve.]
[Constellations from across time and worlds are watching.]
Screams erupted everywhere. People collapsed, convulsing as glowing windows appeared in front of them. Hajoon staggered, clutching his head.
[Awakening your Class and Sponsor...]
Light exploded around him.
For one brief second he thought he might catch a break. Something cool, maybe, a swordsman class or a hidden mage bloodline. He had read enough web novels to know how this was supposed to go.
The light died.
Nothing happened.
He was expecting to see some sort of messages but none of that happened. No class. No sponsor. No warm welcome message.
Then the pain hit.
It ripped through every cell in his body at once, so absolute that he couldn't even scream.
He dropped to his knees on the cold pavement. His skin bubbled and then his bones cracked and re-knit in wrong configurations.
Something cold and wet tore through the back of his shirt, a thick black tentacle, his tentacle, slapping against the concrete below him.
Passersby who had just received their shiny new classes screamed and scattered.
"Monster!"
"It's already mutating!"
"Kill it before it gets stronger!"
Hajoon tried to speak. What came out was a wet, broken sound. His jaw had split wider than it should, rows of needle teeth pushing up through his gums.
A young man with a glowing Warrior tag above his head raised a trembling sword.
Hajoon reached out desperately, palm open.
The sword came down anyway. He threw himself sideways and the blade sparked off concrete, catching his shoulder. Pain flared white and hot. A second tentacle burst from his back on reflex and smashed the warrior into a parked car with a sound like wet timber.
[You have killed a Player.]
[You have absorbed a small amount of Story.]
[Warning: You are classified as a Disabled Entity.]
[No Scenario assigned.]
[No Constellation sponsorship available.]
[You exist outside the Main Scenario.]
Hajoon stumbled into an alley, leaving a trail of black ichor behind him. His body kept changing whether he wanted it to or not.
Extra eyes bloomed open across his forearms. His left hand fused into a clawed mass. At the edges of his thoughts, something old and hungry was beginning to whisper.
He was a glitch. A bug the system had no plan for.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Gunfire cracked in short bursts. The first Scenario had already begun for everyone else, something generic like Survive the First Night, and blue barrier light glowed across the main streets. Hajoon could see people gathered safely inside them, laughing with relief while monsters howled outside the perimeter.
He approached one.
[Access Denied.]
[Disabled Entities may not enter Scenarios.]
A sound climbed out of his ruined throat, low and wet, the closest thing his new body could manage to a laugh. Of course. Even the apocalypse had a door policy.
Hours passed. He hid in the shell of a collapsed convenience store, eating dry instant ramen just to quiet the human part of him that still wanted it. His new body barely needed food anymore. He ate anyway.
That was when the first real monster found him.
A dog-sized thing with too many legs and a slack human face scuttled into the alley. It had probably been someone's pet once. Now it just wanted meat.
Hajoon backed against the wall. His tentacles moved before he decided to move them, one driving through the creature's chest, the other coiling around its neck and squeezing until something gave way. Black blood hit the wall and dripped down in long streaks.
[You have killed a Low-Grade Monster.]
[Minor Story absorbed.]
[Your mutation progresses.]
A surge of warmth flooded through him, gone almost as quickly as it came. One of the eyes on his forearm opened a little wider. He felt stronger and hungrier at the same time.
There was still no Scenario, he was still locked out.
He slumped against the wall, breathing through a mouth that wasn't fully his anymore, and that was when a voice cut through the dark.
"P-please... don't eat me..."
A young woman stood at the alley entrance, phone raised, flashlight on, hands shaking so badly the beam jittered across every wrong thing about him. She was recording.
Hajoon tried to tell her to run. What came out was a low, distorted sound somewhere between static and a scream.
She whimpered but didn't move. Behind her, the sky lit up in bursts of orange and white. She had nowhere left to go.
A new window appeared, blood-red and glitchy, nothing like the cold system messages from before.
[Horror Streaming System has detected an active Viewer.]
[First Streamer registered: The Rejected Eldritch.]
[Connecting to the Constellation Network...]
[Ancient beings are tuning in...]
A chat box flickered open at the edge of his vision, empty for a breath, then filling fast.
[??? has entered your stream.]
[??? has gifted 100 Coins.]
[??? has entered your stream.]
[The Pharaoh Who Feeds on Fear is watching.]
Suddenly the viewer count begun increasing with the notifications stacking over each other in a cascade he could barely track.
EgyptianPharaoh: What is this grotesque thing
OuterGod420: peak body horror already lmao
AztecHeartEater: Kill the girl. Do it slow.
ForgottenOne: Finally. Something genuinely new.
[Welcome, Streamer.]
[Entertain the Constellations.]
[Grow through Terror.]
[Become the nightmare they cannot look away from.]
Hajoon looked at the trembling girl, at the phone still pointed at him, at the hundreds of ancient things now watching through that tiny lens.
For the first time since the sky tore open, he smiled.
It was not a human smile.
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