Chapter Text
There are three ways to survive the apocalypse. I’ve forgotten some of them by now as everything begins to fade. But one thing is for certain. If you are reading this, you will survive.
-The end.-
Kim Dokja stared down at his phone in slight disbelief. That couldn't be the real ending, could it? The old device struggled and lagged slightly as the man’s thumb scrolled up and down, once, twice, and again in an attempt to refresh the page on the web novel app.
“Really? That’s it?”
No matter how many times he checked, the final words at the end of the chapter stayed the exact same - ‘The End’.
A profound sense of dread and disappointment washed over the salaryman; he felt as though years of his life had suddenly gone to waste from reading this life-changing novel. Why did it end like that? The small body on his lap seemed to sense his silent distress, and tiny hands began tugging on his suit.
“Eomma¹,” the voice that spoke to him was edged with the throes of sleepiness, “why are you all sad? Don’t be sad…” Lips pouted, and tears began to well up in eyes that seemed to hold the night sky. Kim Dokja had always been weak to things like this, and his mind immediately focused on what was happening with his son.
Pale hand reaching up, Dokja gently wiped away a droplet that dared to leak from his boy, “It’s alright, Hoseok-ah, I’m fine, see? No need to be upset.” His scent of fresh ink and old paper enveloped his child; it was the scent of his pheromones that tended to soothe Hoseok. At that, the toddler sniffled profusely, though he was evidently calming down as he decided to bury his face in his mother’s chest and attempt to fall asleep once more.
The man sighed in relief before directing his gaze back to his smartphone.
Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse
Author: tls123
Number of Chapters: 3,149
Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse, TWSA for short, was a fantasy epic webnovel containing a whopping amount of 3,149 chapters. Kim Dokja has been reading it since the ninth grade, when school bullies straight out of a western film chose him as a daily punching bag.
A younger version of Dokja sits huddled in the corner of a library, bruises and scratches littering the milky skin of the teenager, his dark grey bag held protectively to his chest. There was no spark like the present Kim Dokja had in his eyes; there was only a bone-deep, aching tiredness that had stemmed deep. In his hand was a simple phone, the screen illuminating blue light that framed the teen's pale face.
He had read it when he flunked his entrance exams and ended up at a third-rate college.
Kim Dokja appeared older now, his face hidden by his hair as he continued to stare at his phone with an empty gaze. People happily chatted around him, though all ignored his existence in favour of their nearby friends; many were bragging about the scores they got while others complained half-heartedly. He was alone once more.
He had read it when his bad luck gave him the short straw during his military service, and he ended up stationed on the front lines.
The same tired man sits at a wooden desk, staring at the screen of a computer with the webnovel on display. Questionable ads popped up with each scroll. His hair had been buzzed shorter, his military uniform was clean and slightly rumpled as he slouched in the chair he sat upon.
He had read it when a certain alpha got into a life-threatening car crash.
Dokja directs his shaky gaze onto his phone. He feels his heart sink down to his toes the longer he stays seated in the waiting room of a hospital, hands trembling with each scroll and blink to remove tears. Only the sound of ringing in his ears accompanied him.
And now, as an unstable contract worker, he reads that same webnovel as he keeps going from job to job. Damn, his memories were very depressing.
Author’s note: Thank you for reading TWSA. I’ll be back with the epilogue.
With those two sentences, the omega no longer felt numb. “Oh, there’s still the epilogue. Then I guess the next chapter is the real ending?” This had been one hell of a journey; after all, it started when he was a child and then kept going ten years later when he was in his adulthood.
The hollowness from earlier started creeping back as Dokja realised that this world was truly ending, but a sense of satisfaction also struck him at finally being able to witness the world’s completion. His thumbs hovered over the small keyboard on his phone as he struggled to find the right words to comment on what would be the second-to-last chapter of TWSA.
|Kim Dokja: Thank you so much for everything. I’m looking forward to the epilogue.|
He truly meant those words. ‘TWSA was the novel of my life.’ ‘It may not be popular, but TWSA is my all-time favourite.’ There were many things he wanted to say, though he couldn’t bring himself to write them all down.
Average views: 1.9
Average comments: 1.08
If you looked at the popularity index of TWSA, you would call Kim Dokja a weirdo for loving it so much. At the start, the reader count was very decent for a new webnovel; the first chapter had gotten twelve hundred views alone. But by the time that it hit the Chapter 10 mark, the views had dropped to just one hundred and twenty. Then, by Chapter 50, only twelve people were still reading it. Since Chapter 100, only one person has been reading it all, and that person was Dokja himself.
Number of views: 1
Occasionally, there were a few twos mixed in with the ones, but those were mostly misclicks from randos. When he looked through the seemingly unending list of ones on the chapter list, Dokja felt something welling up inside his chest.
He was grateful.
Despite the story only having one singular reader, it had continued for over three thousand chapters and for over ten years. He felt it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the story was one made just for him.
Kim Dokja had tried many times to recommend this novel to others, but each time he only received criticism and scathing remarks about ‘how much of a loser he must be to continuously recommend a novel he authored’. Each time he tried to help get tls123 more readers, he only seemed to give them more of a bad reputation.
He had wanted to support the author with a donation, but Dokja knew that he didn’t earn enough money to do so, and if he used his money, well, he would receive the biggest lecture in his life.
‘If people just gave it a chance, they’d be in for a real treat.’
|tls123: Thank you.|
The message came out of nowhere. It took a good few seconds for the reader to process what just happened.
|Kim Dokja: Aren't you the author of TWSA?|
tls123. It was the author of TWSA.
|tls123: I was able to finish my story thanks to you. I even won a prize in a contest.|
TWSA won a prize? Kim Dokja couldn’t believe it.
|Kim Dokja: Congrats! May I ask what kind of contest it was in?|
|tls123: It’s not a very large or well-known one. You most likely wouldn’t have heard of it.|
They might have been lying to save some face, but Dokja hoped it was true. TWSA had been a flop on the website that the salaryman used, but it could have been a huge hit on another. A good story like this needed to get out there.
|tls123: I’d like to send you a special present as a token of my gratitude.|
|Kim Dokja: A present?|
|tls123: Yes. After all, you’re the reason this story could come out into the world.|
The writer then asked for his email, so he gave them the one he used the most.
|tls123: By the way, this novel will become paid content soon.|
|Kim Dokja: Wow, really? From when? To be honest, I should’ve been paying for this masterpiece since the beginning.|
He begins to think about how much he would have been spending. Considering the fact that a chapter was uploaded almost daily, then Dokja would have been paying 3,000 won a month. Which was enough for a packaged lunch in a convenience store.
|tls123: It’ll become paid content after today.|
|Kim Dokja: Does that include the epilogue that’s coming out tomorrow?|
|tls123: I’m sorry, but yes.|
|Kim Dokja: Of course you should charge for it! I’ll be sure to buy the chapter!|
Kim Dokja received no further reply from the author. This gave him the feeling that they logged out, causing the omega to feel a pang of disappointment.
‘So now that they’ve become successful, they won’t even reply to my messages, huh?’
His excitement got shoved to the side to make way for some petty jealousy; he didn’t know why he was so happy for the novel; it wasn’t like he wrote it. “They probably sent me a gift card or something. I hope it’s one that’s worth fifty thousand won…”
Dokja was being very naive right now, which was unlike him; he shouldn’t be poring over something so trivial. He was so clueless about what would happen the following day.
—---------------------
Kim Dokja hands his employee card over to a well-dressed man with a nervous grin, “I’m Dokja.”
That was how I introduced myself to others, and nine times out of ten, this misunderstanding would follow.
“Ah, so you’re an only child,” the man in a nicer suit replied, adjusting his glasses as he peered down at the small card in his hand.
The shorter man felt awkward as he decided to reply, his embarrassed smile only growing wider, “Well, yes… but that’s not what I meant.” He laughs slightly and scratches the back of his head.
With a frown, the nicely dressed man raises a brow, “Then what did you mean?” He was definitely judging Dokja.
“It’s my name,” the other person in question said, voice growing quieter, “Kim Dokja.”
My father gave me that name in hopes of me becoming a strong man, even if I was on my own. However, thanks to this curse of a name, I had spent most of my life unremarkable in my loneliness.
Well, all until him.
"Dokja," a voice called out, a man with a face sculpted by an artist who very clearly loved their muse was the one speaking. His hypnotizing eyes stared at the omega with a warm glint in them
In short, my life was summarised like this: Kim Dokja, 28, omega, father of one.
He sat on the subway train, Hoseok on his lap, and focus zeroed in on his phone screen. Kim Dokja’s hobby was reading serialised webnovels on his way home from work and after picking up his son from kindergarten. Today, however, was unlike any other normal day.
“My, at this rate you’ll fall into your phone and never get out.” A friendly laugh came from in front of Dokja, cutting through the noise of the subway carriage; he looked up to find curious eyes staring down at him.
‘Yoo Sangah from the HR Department?’
He suddenly remembered that he needed to greet the other omega, “Ah, hello,” he said quietly, trying to make sure he didn’t sound rude with his words.
“Are you heading home from work?”
“Y-yes, I am. What about you, Yoo Sangah-ssi?”
She let out a sigh and sat down next to Kim Dokja as soon as the seat was free. “I was lucky; my team manager went on a business trip today.” Her pheromones gently leaked out in her joy. Oranges and cinnamon, they smelt nice together, but her presence growing closer caused him to flinch and grow nervous.
The male omega began to wonder if he’d ever seen her before and just didn’t recognise his coworker, which prompted him to ask, “Do you usually go home by taking the subway?”
“That…” Sangah’s cheerful expression fell slightly. Starting from Personnel Manager Kang to Finance Manager Han… There were many rumors that Yoo Sangah had different men from the company drive her home every workday. But words that contradicted Dokja’s belief came from the woman's mouth, “Someone stole my bicycle…”
‘Bicycle?’
“You commute to work by bike?”
She let out a small sigh as he looked at her lap, “Yes. I've been working a lot of overtime as of late, so I thought that I could use the exercise… I do have some personal reasons for it as well."
‘Ah, that's why…’
Yoo Sangah looked over at him and smiled brightly, and Dokja could see why many alphas and even some betas were completely head over heels for the woman. But everyone's life had a predetermined genre, his and Sangah’s were different by default, therefore something like this would never happen again.
Once the awkward conversation ended, the salaryman gently grabbed his son’s hand with his free one and directed his focus back onto the new webnovel he was reading previously before Sangah started… whatever this was.
“¿Puede prestarme dinero?”
Kim Dokja looked at the lady next to him in confusion, “huh?”
“It's Spanish!” She replied brightly, scent flaring once more, making Hoseok stir on his lap.
“I see… what does it mean?”
“It means ‘please give me some money’!” Yoo Sangah seemed very proud of herself as Dokja could only wonder what kind of breed she was that made her study Spanish on the subway of all places. He couldn't think of a single place where she would actually use that phrase.
The reader offered a confused praise, which Sangah took as a chance to ask him some questions, starting with one about the boy on his lap.
Swallowing nervously, Dokja hesitates whilst answering the question, no one at work even knew he had a child, and he didn't want rumors to spread, even if he knew that the woman next to him would never do such a thing. “He's my son…” he gently nudged Hoseok awake until the boy stared at him with a scowl that perfectly matched his father’s.
“Can you say hello to Sangah-ssi, Hoseok-ah?” The salaryman supposed he could be friendly since the person he was talking to was being friendly. With a tired yawn, the four-year-old mumbled out a greeting before complaining he was still sleepy.
Without another word, the toddler decided he wanted to nap once more.
“He's very cute,” Yoo Sangah complimented, she then noticed the web novel open on Kim Dokja’s phone. “By the way, what is Dokja-ssi looking at?”
The man in question froze. In the moment it took him to think ‘Oh, shoot’, Yoo Sangah had leaned across to get a proper view of the LCD screen on his smartphone. She made sure not to accidentally bump Hoseok whilst doing so, which made Dokja feel less nervous.
“Is it a novel?” She asked, face brightening once more.
“Ah, it is… I guess you could say that I'm studying Korean,” he laughed nervously, polite smile tightening.
"Wow, I also like novels. I haven't been able to read lately because I don't have time…" It was surprising. Yoo Sangah liked reading novels…? "Novels like Murakami Haruki, Raymond Carver, Han Kang…”
That made more sense to Dokja.
Yoo Sangah continued her spewed out questions, “Dokja-ssi, what authors do you like?”
“You probably won't recognise them even if I say their names.”
The woman was even more stubborn than Kim Dokja himself, “I've read lots of novels. Who's the author?” She kept persisting.
At this time, it was really hard for Dokja to just admit he read webnovels as a hobby. His gaze drifted down to the screen displaying his current read. He quickly looked back up at the woman and internally declared he could never tell her what he was truly reading.
To save face, he declared that it was like Lord of the Rings, and thankfully Yoo Sangah bought the blatant lie. Silence followed. Yoo Sangah was still looking in his direction and seemed to be waiting for the male omega to say something. It was getting awkward. So, Dokja decided to change the topic. "It's already been one year since we joined the company, hasn't it? It was around this time last year, I think. Time really flies, huh?”
Both omegas started ‘bonding’ over that topic right up until Dokja fucked it up and mentioned the fact that their contracts with the company would be ending soon enough. He had forgotten that Yoo Sangah was promoted to a full-time employee after getting credit for a foreign buyer.
Said woman in question gained a pitying expression and Kim Dokja wanted to die.
“Oh that's right, you were promoted. A late congratulations is in order, sorry for not saying it sooner,” he let out a small laugh, “Perhaps I should have studied a foreign language as well and worked as hard as you do.”
Whatever she said next, Dokja didn't listen to it. He had to admit that his fellow omega was really cool, she had always put extra effort into things where he would have only done what was required. That's why Sangah was promoted and he wasn't. While he read webnovels on the internet, she studied diligently.
It was no doubt that if this world were a novel, the protagonist would be someone like Yoo Sangah. It was only inevitable that Kim Dokja’s contract would be terminated whilst the woman became a full-time employee.
“Um… Dokja-ssi?”
“Yes?”
“If you don't mind… I can let you know the name of the app I'm using,” all of a sudden, her voice sounded very distant.
Kim Dokja felt like he was getting infinitely further away from the world he blankly lived in, to rein his mind back and not feel like he was about to drift away, he forced his eyes open and his gaze landed on a boy sitting across from him.
He looked happy as he stared up at who could only be his mother or another female relative, a bug net was in his hand and a plastic container holding bugs inside was sitting delicately on his lap. He was about a little over ten years old.
‘If my life was one of fiction and not realism… could I have been the protagonist?’
“It's okay, Yoo Sangah-ssi.”
“Pardon?”
‘Who knows. But if there was something I'm sure about, it would be that my life was stuck in realism.’
“It doesn't matter if you tell me the name of the app, it won't be of any use to me. It's because I have a Dokja’s life, you see.”
“Huh? What do you…?”
“Some people are just like that.”
‘In the genre of realism, I'm no protagonist, I'm just merely a reader.’
With a grave expression on her face, Yoo Sangah repeated some of his words in confusion. Dokja panicked and waved his hand to let her know he was perfectly fine. But since she was from HR, it was most likely that she had seen his work performance before.
“Dokja-ssi truly says great things…”
Now it was Kim Dokja’s turn to be confused.
“Then, I suppose I have my own life to live as well. A Sangah’s life!” She sounded so confident that the man next to her didn't want to say anything else about it.
The woman seemed to have decided something as she went back to studying her Spanish on whatever app she used. Kim Dokja gazed at her for a good few seconds before turning his attention back to his own cellular device. At that same time, he received a notification. He had one new mail.
It was from tls123. Dokja hurriedly clicked on the notification that popped up.
|Reader-nim, my novel will become paid content from 7 PM. This will be helpful. Good luck|
|[1 attachment.]|
‘The author said that they would give me a gift? What was the gift?’
Just like his name suggested, Kim Dokja was a reader by nature, so he was extremely excited to receive mail. He checked what the time was, 6:55 PM, which meant five more minutes until TWSA became monetized and he could finally read the epilogue he had waited over ten years for.
He then clicked on the webnovel app he used frequently. Since he was the only reader, it felt right to comment some words of encouragement to the author and give them some strength through his unending support. But he soon felt only a sense of disappointment
-This work does not exist.
Kim Dokja tried again, he even typed ‘Ways to Survive’ multiple times in the search box, only to find the same outcome. TWSA had disappeared without a trace. He didn't know if there had ever been a case where a novel was removed and deleted without previous notice once it became paid content.
The subway lights went out and the inside of the train turned uncomfortably dark.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK! The subway train shook violently and let out an ear-splitting metallic sound. All of the commotion made Yoo Sangah scream and grab tightly onto his arm, it also made Hoseok wake up with a startle and let out a scared whimper whilst trying to bury himself further into Kim Dokja’s chest.
Sangah was gripping his arm so tightly that he paid more attention to the pain in his arm rather than the sudden stop that took a dozen seconds to finish.
Kim Dokja wrapped his arms around his son in a comforting embrace as confused voices began to sound out from all around him.
“Uh, what?”
“The fuck is going on?”
“W-what is this?”
In the dark, one or two lights from smartphones turned on. Hoseok looked up at him and sniffled, “Eomma…” the boy sounded scared, and that caused Dokja's chest to tighten uncomfortably as he pressed a gentle kiss to his toddler’s forehead.
He pretended he wasn't scared, “It's alright, Hoseok-ah, nothing to be scared of. Don't worry, we'll go home to your Appa² and Gomo³ soon, okay?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a voice crackled in from the intercoms overhead. The engineer spoke with a strained voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. P-please evacuate! Evacuate…!”
‘What?’
The speech was followed by a loud beep and the temporary calm that had started inside the train quickly evaporated.
“Dokja-ssi, w-what is happening!?”
A bright light flashed from the front of the subway train. There was a loud drumming sound followed by a pop. Something was heading this way in the darkness. It was just a coincidence that the male omega saw the time on the clock at this exact moment.
7 PM.
It felt as though the world was ending, and then Dokja heard a voice.
[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]
[The main scenario has started.]
This was the moment the genre of my life changed.