Tower of The Fated Star

[12:15 PM | Seoul Subway Line 3 | Car No. 3701 | Southbound from Daehwa Station]

There are names that make people do a double take.

Names that don't sound like real names at all.

"Dokja?"

They usually tilt their heads, laugh a little, then ask, "Really? That's your name?"

In Korean, "Dokja" means reader. Someone who reads alone. Or maybe, someone who is alone.

It's the kind of name that feels like a joke. Or a metaphor.

But for me, it wasn't either.

Nam Dokja.

That was the name my parents gave me. And like most things in my life, I never asked them why.

Maybe I didn't want to know the answer.

I don't have hobbies.

I don't have friends.

I don't go out after work, I don't play games, I don't drink soju on rooftops under the stars.

But there's one thing I do.

I read.

And for the last ten years, I've read exactly one thing.

Only one story. One single web novel.

The title?

"How to Survive on an Apocalyptic World."

Or if I tell in short it's "HSAW".

That was the name. And that was my world.

A failed story. A web novel so obscure and unpopular that even the author once hinted they might drop it. But I read it. All of it.

At first, there were hundreds of us.

374 readers at Chapter 10.213 readers at Chapter 20.112 readers at Chapter 30.34 at Chapter 50.

And when the story hit Chapter 100, there were only 14 of us left.

Then… just me.

Only I continued.

From Chapter 100 to Chapter 3479, I was the sole reader. The only one who continued turning those digital pages.

The only one who stayed with the story until the end.

Maybe it was the protagonist that kept me going.

Maybe it was because he was like me.

Alone.

Not at the start. No, at the start, he had companions. Friends. Even romance. But time... betrayal... failure... regression… they peeled all that away.

He was betrayed.

He died.

He came back.

Over and over and over again.

And each time, a piece of him chipped off, until he wasn't a person anymore—just a cold, calculating survivor.

By the end, he was nothing but a shell trying to save the world because he couldn't bear to watch it fall again.

And today, at exactly Chapter 3479, the author uploaded the final chapter.

I was on the subway when it happened. The fluorescent lights above buzzed faintly. I was seated near the end of the car. People sat around me, minding their business, scrolling, napping, pretending to be busy.

Then—ding.

A message appeared on my phone's notification bar.

[A message from the author.]

I stared at it.

"Huh? What?!"

It was the first time the author ever sent anything like this. They had always been reclusive, mysterious. Never answered comments, never revealed their real name, never posted selfies. They were like a ghost.

I tapped the message with a shaking thumb.

[Thank you for reading the story until the end. From today at 12:20 PM, this story will become a paid version. So I'll give you a gift for supporting me until the end. Please send me your email address.]

A gift?

I didn't know what to think. I'd spent ten years reading this story. Laughed through it. Cried through it. Failed exams because of it. Missed buses and meals because I was refreshing the site every morning, hoping for an update.

Now it was over.

I stared at my reflection in the black screen of the subway window.

"…What will I do now?"

I entered my email.

[email protected]

Send.

And just as I hit send—

"Hey.. Dokja. You're going home with subway!"

I looked up.

"Huh... Oh.. Miss Shin Ah!"

Shin Ah.

The office beauty.

A real, living person. Too beautiful to be real. She worked in the same building. I had only ever seen her from a distance.

She was standing in front of me.

"I always go home in subway. But you're...?"

"Today my bicycle got stolen. So I'm also going with subway."

"I see.."

She sat beside me.

I didn't know what to say.

My mind was still lost in the novel. Still clinging to it.

Still hitting refresh, again and again.

The final chapter was there, frozen like a gravestone.

[Chapter 3479 – The End]

What do people do when the only thing that kept them company disappears?

What do you do with all the silence?

"Hey Dokja.. What are you doing on your phone?"

"Huh... No It's nothing Miss Shin Ah!"

"Hey I also love to rea—"

Then it began.

[12:18 PM | Seoul Subway Line 3 | Car No. 3701]

It started with pressure.

Not physical. Not even emotional.

But… dimensional.

As if reality hiccupped.

The light in the car dimmed, like a shadow passed across the world. The air rippled, like heat waves rising from asphalt. Every passenger looked up.

Even Miss Shin Ah.

"Hey Dokja what's going on?"

A sound—wet and static—buzzed from the center of the subway car.

Then—

A rift opened in mid-air.

A tear in space. Like someone was peeling open the fabric of the world with invisible claws.

And from the other side… something stepped through.

Small. Floating. Draped in robes stitched with stardust and nonsense.

A creature with a mouth too wide and eyes too old.

A Dokkaebi.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen... Welcome... Welcome to the world of apocalypse... "

To be continue...