The World Falls [1]

The mother died instantly, but the baby still moved, only to grow abnormally.

Another pair of eyes formed on its forehead, and a horn grew on the left side of its head.

Its back became hunched over, and its leg was buried deep in the mother's womb.

Han raised his hands to his mouth to avoid shouting, but blood sprayed everywhere, far more than usual.

The passengers ran helter-skelter, fleeing from the mutated others, to find a way to escape.

He then saw the mutated baby tear off its mother's head and throw it into its mouth, crunching it like a peanut.

The father remained frozen to the ground, but he didn't make a sound, which was good because the mutated baby simply stepped past him, and moved to the other part of the train, where there were screams and frantic movement.

Han tried to push himself up, but his body wouldn't obey. Pain moved through his chest, but his legs were okay, just a little scrape when he fell

And then…

A new sound.

Slow, like a screech, but layered, a combination of crackling, cracking, and the shriek of metal grinding against metal.

Han wanted to believe he was just seeing things, but his fantasy-driven mind wouldn't let him think like a normal human.

Instead, it thought of the worst possible thing.

The flickering train lights barely illuminated the figure moving through the wreckage from another car.

It was tall.

Its skin was stretched too tight over its elongated limbs, patches of raw, pulsing muscle exposed beneath.

Its eyes, if they could even be called that, were hollow pits with an orange dot at the center.

It stepped over a headless body while its clawed fingers dragged along the torn metal walls, leaving deep gashes in them.

Han's pulse pounded in his ears.

"This is not real."

But it was.

The pain.

The notification.

Everything was real.

Then the creature turned its head toward him, and all rational thought fled.

Because Han recognized it all too well.

One of the creatures that had given him hell in the game.

An Aberrant Spawn, known as A Starved.

If he didn't know any better, he would have stayed still, imagining the creature would walk by if he didn't make a sound.

No.

A Starved was always hungry.

It had eyes everywhere and keen senses that made its prey easy to catch.

And with black drool escaping the corner of its jaws, the creature was very starved.

It ignored the dead passengers.

Instead, it headed straight for the first living being, the man whose wife had died when their child mutated.

The creature stretched its hand out to the perplexed man, raised him up to its face, and, if Han wasn't hallucinating, he could swear he saw the creature smile before clamping its jaws over the man's head.

There was no sound from the man.

Even when jagged, sharp teeth sank into his neck.

He had already accepted his fate.

After devouring the man completely, leaving nothing behind, its eyes met Han's.

He froze in place, he could feel his phone vibrating in his hands, but he dared not make a move.

Instead, he only flicked his gaze around from the corner of his eyes, searching for a way to escape.

The creature finally moved.

Too fast.

But not fast enough to reach Han instantly.

He managed to tear himself free from the wreckage before the creature's fist slammed into the spot he had just gotten up from, but metal bent into the shape of its fist.

Han's instincts screamed at him, no, in fact, they roared at him to move.

Years of experience from playing the game took over, even though he still couldn't comprehend what exactly was happening.

He ran, because he had nothing to fight with, or even knew if he was supposed to fught

Not toward the doors,they were blocked, but to the next train car.

He searched frantically for an opening in the empty carriage while the creature dragged itself slowly behind him.

Then his eyes darted upward. There was a hatch on the ceiling, and he was standing right beneath it.

Without hesitation, Han jumped as hard as he could, just as the creature lunged at him.

He caught the edge of the hatch, his fingers slipped against the metal, which seemed to have given him a cut, but he didn't care.

The moment his grip was steady, he dragged himself up, and The Starved's fist missed him by inches.

Below him, the creature screeched—a distorted, unnatural sound that vibrated in his bones. It almost sounded annoyed.

But Han didn't stop.

As soon as the cool Seoul air hit him, he picked to his heels, running in the direction the train had come from.

He sprinted across the wreckage, leaping from train car to train car. His heart pounded loudly in his ears, his side ached, but he pushed through.

His phone was still clenched tightly in his fist, its continuous vibration was infuriating him, he didn't have time to check it.

Just before he jumped off the train, his eyes caught a girl who made it out of the train too, being chased by Starved Spawns.

He wanted to turn back and help, only to watch in horror as her head exploded, blood splattering everywhere before her lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

Bt then spawns tore her body apart with wet ripping sounds and gobbled the parts down.

Han had never felt so annoyed and terrified at the same time. He wiped his glasses with the back of his palm and kept running.

Desperate to find help, or even a police at all, to help him.

He ran for nearly twenty minutes through the quiet slums before finally reaching the busy roads of Seoul's city.

Relief washed over him. At least the same thing hadn't happened here.

The moment he crossed the road and stepped into the city, he ignored the questioning gazes and murmurs around him, and took a turn through a football field toward the police station.

Only for the moon to suddenly turn a deep blood orange, casting a crimson glow over the entire city.

He froze.

Every single person in their homes stepped outside to witness the beautiful phenomenon.

Some were excited, others surprised, and many pulled out their phones to capture the moment.

But Han just stared with bloodshot eyes, and a racing heart. If only they knew what he did.

His blood ran cold, colder than before, while he scanned his surroundings.

Everything seemed normal.

Until.

A silver Voidborn Tales notification screen materialized before him.

His eyes widened in horror.

[Resource download complete.]

[Server override and update complete.]

[The Second Stage Will Now Begin.]

[Welcome, Player 1: Han Sol.]

Han's jaw, and his heart dropped.

"Why? This isn't possible..."

".....what on earth is going on?"