Chapter 2 – The World That Shouldn’t Exist

11:35 PM – Seoul, South Korea

The city was a twisted reflection of what it once was. The air reeked of burnt metal, of smoldering flesh, of something foul and unnatural. Seoul, a beacon of modern civilization, had become an aberration—a battlefield where time itself had fractured.

Han Kyung-min ran.

His breath came in short, ragged bursts, his chest heaving with every desperate step. The streets beneath his feet were no longer the ones he had walked just hours before. Reality had crumbled, reshaping itself into a grotesque hybrid of past, present, and future. Modern skyscrapers fused unnaturally with crumbling gothic castles. Some buildings shimmered as if they belonged to an age yet to come, their surfaces smooth and metallic—others had decayed beyond recognition, hollowed-out husks left to rot in a time that should never have existed.

This was not his world. This was something else.

And the monsters—they were everywhere.

A Wendigo crouched in the shadows of an alley, its gaunt, skeletal frame twitching as it gnawed on the remnants of something that had once screamed. Its hollow eyes gleamed with unholy hunger as it ripped flesh from bone, a sickening wet crunch filling the air.

A Deathstalker—a scorpion-like horror the size of a truck—crawled over the wreckage of a shattered bus, its massive, venomous stinger lashing out at the few survivors who dared to fight back. The moment they failed to move fast enough, they died in a splatter of black blood.

Further down the road, a towering biomechanical abomination crushed cars beneath its malformed limbs, its rotting flesh fused with cold, unfeeling metal. A thing neither machine nor corpse, but something that defied all logic. Each step it took sent deep, echoing tremors through the streets, as if the world itself recoiled at its presence.

This wasn't just a dungeon break.

The city itself was changing.

Kyung-min gritted his teeth, forcing his burning legs to move faster. He risked a glance at the silver-haired girl running beside him, her movements effortless despite the chaos. He still didn't know her name, and she didn't seem inclined to share. But in this moment, it didn't matter.

What mattered was survival.

"What the hell is happening to the city?!" he shouted over the cacophony of death.

She didn't spare him a glance. Instead, she raised her gun in a single fluid motion—two shots, two kills. A Ghoul dropped lifelessly, its skull split open. A Night Fiend lurking on the edge of a rooftop let out a final gurgled hiss before it tumbled into the abyss below.

She reloaded in an instant, her voice calm, almost cold. "Safehouse. Three blocks down. We need to move."

Kyung-min's stomach twisted. "Safehouse?"

But before she could answer—

A shadow fell over them.

BOOM!

The ground shattered. The very air seemed to recoil as a monstrous force crashed into the street, sending a shockwave rippling outward. Windows exploded. Walls cracked. The ground split apart like old parchment.

The impact threw Kyung-min backward. He hit the pavement hard, vision swimming, ears ringing from the sheer force of the blast. Dust and debris rained down in thick, choking waves. He coughed violently, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes.

And then—he saw it.

Something was standing in the middle of the street.

No.

Not something.

Someone.

A man clad in blackened steel stood amidst the destruction, a nightmare given form. His armor was ancient, yet untouched by time, every plate etched with sigils of a forgotten age. A long, tattered cape hung from his shoulders, its fabric frayed, eaten by decay.

But it was his face that sent an unnatural chill through Kyung-min's bones.

The man had no right to still exist. His flesh had withered to an ashen gray, pulled tight over a gaunt, skeletal frame. His lips had long since rotted away, leaving only an empty grin of exposed bone. And yet, his eyes burned—hollow, soulless embers of cold, blue fire.

In his hands, he wielded a weapon too large for any human to bear—a halberd, massive and cruel, its blade still slick with fresh blood.

A low, inhuman whisper filled the air.

> [System Notice: Warning – Named Boss Detected.]

"Knight of the Final Dawn – Level ???"

"The last remnant of a fallen kingdom. Cursed to wander until all challengers are slain."

Kyung-min's breath caught in his throat.

This wasn't just a monster.

It was a Boss.

Not a dungeon minion. Not a random spawn. A boss-class entity.

And the worst part?

It wasn't alone.

Behind the Knight of the Final Dawn, more figures emerged from the abyss of the ruined cityscape.

A Crimson Executioner—headless, draped in bloodstained chains, dragging a colossal rusted axe behind it.

A Drowned Bishop—a rotting priest, his robes soaked in dark water, his lips moving in whispers that made the very air tremble.

A Phantom Huntsman—a figure wrapped in living shadow, its skeletal hounds prowling beside it, their hollow eye sockets leaking mist like unspoken curses.

The world froze.

Kyung-min's body refused to move, his muscles locked in pure, primal terror.

"…We're dead," he whispered.

The silver-haired girl didn't hesitate.

"No," she corrected.

Then she tackled him just as the halberd swung.

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The End of the Beginning

Kyung-min barely registered what happened next.

One moment, he was frozen. The next, he was slammed into the ground as the Knight's halberd passed through the space where his head had been moments before.

The shockwave alone was enough to send out a burst of raw force, carving a crater into the pavement. A dozen nearby buildings trembled under the impact.

The silver-haired girl moved fast—too fast. In one motion, she was pulling him up, dragging him behind the cover of a collapsed car.

Kyung-min gasped, barely able to process what just happened. His heart thundered in his chest, his mind screaming MOVE, SURVIVE, MOVE—

> [System Notice: You cannot defeat this entity.]

[Your class is non-combat. Escape is recommended.]

No. No kidding.

The Knight tilted its head, the cold embers of its eyes locking onto him once more.

It stepped forward.

One step.

Two steps.

The halberd rose.

Kyung-min braced himself—

And then—

"Come on," the girl whispered.

"If you want to live, stick with me."

She grabbed his wrist.

And they ran.

11:55 PM - Approaching Midnight

They made it to the safehouse just as the next phase of the disaster began. A chime echoed throughout the world.

[Cycle Termination Approaching.]

"The first reset is near."

Kyung-min collapsed against the cold concrete wall, his entire body trembling. He had survived. Barely. But he knew this wasn't over. Because this wasn't just a random apocalypse.

It was something worse. "... The world is changing," he muttered. "And I think it's going to keep changing."

The silver-haired girl didn't respond. Instead, she turned to the doorway, where a group of survivors had just arrived.

But, he didnt know...

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