The Reader of the Beginning and Climax

Chapter 2: Fractures in Reality

The world around him broke.

The moment he finished reading the final sentence, the air around him thickened, vibrating with a strange energy that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He blinked rapidly, confusion seizing him. The room, which had been so familiar only moments ago, was no longer his own. The walls stretched and warped. The floor rippled like a pool of water, the edges curling and then folding inward, as though reality itself was being twisted.

His hands shook as he looked down at the book in his hands. It was no longer solid. The pages turned to dust, slipping through his fingers like ash, scattering into the air. The book disintegrated, leaving nothing behind but the sensation that something irreversible had just occurred.

[System Notification: Reality fracture detected.]

Jihwan's heart skipped a beat. His breathing quickened as he stumbled backward, but his body was unsteady, as if the very ground he stood on had been replaced by something else entirely. He tried to speak, to shout, but his voice was drowned out by the overwhelming hum that seemed to vibrate through the fabric of existence itself.

[System Notification: Fragmentation detected. Temporal reset imminent.]

Something tugged at him, pulling him away from the room. His vision blurred as if someone had wiped a layer of dust from a window, revealing an entirely new world beyond. The edges of his sight darkened, his surroundings distorting, like a broken mirror. He felt weightless, caught between spaces, as though the very concept of time had shattered into a million fragments.

[System Notification: Transitioning to new entity. Reset complete.]

For a moment, everything went dark.

And then he woke.

The world was strange. He opened his eyes, but the scene before him didn't make sense. It was bright, but not like the sunlight he had known. It was too pure, too clean. The air was crisp, almost unreal, and the sounds were muffled, as though he were submerged underwater.

He blinked, rubbing his eyes. When he looked down, he saw something that sent a cold chill through his spine.

[System Notification: New body detected. Rebirth sequence complete.]

His hands—small, delicate, and unrecognizable—were not his own. He was no longer the young adult who had been reading a book in his dimly lit room. He was... a child.

A scream tore through his throat, but it never came. His mouth was dry, his body trembling. The world around him spun as he tried to make sense of his situation.

Where was he?

Who was he?

Suddenly, the answers didn't matter as much as the growing sense of unease that settled deep in his chest. The air itself felt... wrong. Not hostile, but strange. Foreign. This wasn't a place for him. It was a place where something darker, something otherworldly, had a presence.

[System Notification: Unstable connection detected. Rebirth process incomplete. New purpose assigned.]

A figure appeared before him—tall, cloaked in shimmering light that made it difficult to focus on. The person was ethereal, their form not entirely real. They looked at him with eyes that bore the weight of countless years.

"You are the one," they said, their voice like a distant whisper in a storm. "The Reader."

Jihwan opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. His body felt weak, as though it could not contain the flood of emotions, of confusion, that surged within him.

"Time is yours to read," the figure continued. "But beware—the story does not end as you expect. There are forces, ancient and strong, that will shape your fate."

[System Notification: System initiated. Fragmentary paths detected.]

The world around him twisted again. He felt a pull—a tug, like a thread being pulled taut. And in that moment, he knew that his life had been forever changed. This wasn't just some story.

This was his story.

And it was far from over.