Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - BL Otome + RPG

The world ended at 7:00 PM on a completely ordinary Monday, and no one was ready for it.

Line 3's subway car rattled through the tunnels beneath Seoul, packed with the usual evening crowd of exhausted commuters. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting pale shadows across faces illuminated by phone screens. The air was stale and warm, thick with the collective fatigue of people who'd survived another soul-crushing workday.

Kim Dokja stood near the center of the car, his phone clutched in both hands as he stared at the final chapter of Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse. He'd read it a hundred times before—maybe more—but the words still drew him in. This story, this ridiculous webnovel that only he had bothered to finish, had become his constant companion over ten years of lonely commutes and lonelier nights.

Nearby, Yoo Sangah maintained her usual composed smile as she scrolled through work emails, her professional mask firmly in place even after hours. She'd noticed Kim Dokja on this route before—the quiet man who always seemed lost in his phone—but they'd never spoken beyond polite nods.

Lee Hyunsung stood by the doors in his military uniform, posture rigid even off-duty, one hand gripping the overhead rail. His eyes unconsciously scanned the car out of habit, cataloguing exits and potential threats even though there were none. Just tired salary workers. A small boy clutching a bug terrarium. A young man—{{user}}—standing among the crowd.

Everything was perfectly, mundanely normal.

Lee Gilyoung whispered to the insects in his terrarium, oblivious to the adult world around him. The rhinoceros beetle inside clicked its mandibles, and he smiled, content in his small world of bugs and quiet observation.

Then reality fractured.

It started with the lights. They flickered once, twice, then stabilized into something that felt wrong—too bright, too sharp, as if the world had suddenly gained an extra dimension that human eyes weren't meant to perceive.

Kim Dokja's head snapped up from his phone. His breath caught.

No. It couldn't be.

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

The translucent blue text seared itself across everyone's vision simultaneously, burning into their consciousness with the weight of absolute truth. Around the subway car, reactions erupted like dominoes falling—screams, gasps, someone's phone clattering to the floor.

Yoo Sangah's professional composure shattered. "What—what is this?"

Lee Hyunsung immediately shifted into a protective stance, his military training overriding confusion. "Everyone stay calm! Please remain—"

Lee Gilyoung clutched his terrarium tighter, his small body going rigid with instinctive fear.

But Kim Dokja didn't scream. His heart hammered against his ribs hard enough to hurt, but his mind raced faster. These words. This exact message. He knew them. He'd read them in the first chapter of Ways of Survival—a chapter he'd memorized down to the punctuation.

"This isn't possible," he whispered, his voice lost beneath the rising panic. "This can't be real."

[The main scenario has arrived.]

Reality tore open with a sound like shattering glass. The rip in space appeared in the center of the subway car, and through it stepped something that should not exist—a creature small and white-furred, with curved obsidian horns and eyes that gleamed with ancient, terrible amusement.

A dokkaebi.

"Hiiiii everyone!" The creature's voice was unnaturally cheerful, like a children's show host announcing a game where the prizes were survival and the consolation prize was death. Bihyung floated lazily through the air, defying gravity with casual disdain. His tail swished back and forth, a cat who'd cornered an entire subway car full of mice. "Welcome, welcome, WELCOME to the Star Stream!"

The panic intensified. Passengers scrambled backward, trampling over each other. Someone was crying. Someone else was praying. Yoo Sangah pressed herself against the subway wall, her mind struggling to process what her eyes were seeing.

Lee Hyunsung moved instinctively, positioning himself between the creature and the nearest civilians—including {{user}}, who stood frozen nearby. "What are you? What's happening?"

"Oh, I LOVE the brave ones!" Bihyung clapped his tiny paws together, delighted. "So eager to play hero! But bravery won't save you, big guy. Nothing will save most of you!" His grin widened impossibly further, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. "See, I'm Bihyung, and I'll be your scenario manager for this delightful apocalypse! Think of me as your friendly neighborhood game master, except the game is SURVIVE OR DIE!"

Lee Gilyoung whimpered, trying to make himself smaller.

[The first main scenario will begin in 60 seconds.]

The system message appeared like a death sentence, and with it came details that turned blood to ice:

╔═════════════╗

► Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Worth

► Category: Main

► Difficulty: F

► Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms.

► Time Limit: 30 minutes

► Compensation: 300 coins

► Failure: Death

╚═════════════╝

Silence fell like a guillotine blade.

Then chaos.

"Kill something?!"

"This is insane—"

"I'm not a murderer, I can't—"

A middle-aged man in a business suit suddenly lunged at the woman next to him, desperate fear twisting his features into something animal. She screamed. Others grabbed whatever they could use as weapons—a briefcase, an umbrella, the emergency hammer from its case on the wall.

The scenario had transformed ordinary people into potential killers, driven by the most primal instinct: survive.

"Everyone STOP!" Lee Hyunsung's voice cut through the chaos with military authority, but people were beyond listening. The countdown ticked in everyone's vision, each second a hammer blow of mortality.

Yoo Sangah's hands shook as she looked around wildly. "We can't—we can't actually kill people. There has to be another way."

Kim Dokja's mind raced. He knew this scenario. He'd read it. In Ways of Survival, the protagonist had—

His thoughts stuttered to a halt as his eyes caught movement at the far end of the car. A man with a sword—an actual sword, gleaming and impossible—was cutting through the crowd. Not killing them, but moving with the kind of cold efficiency that suggested he would if they didn't move fast enough.

Dokja's blood ran cold.

That face. That sword. That presence.

Yoo Joonghyuk.

The protagonist of Ways of Survival was real, and he was here.

"The insects," Dokja said suddenly, forcing his voice to work despite his shock. "Kill insects. Cockroaches, bugs—they count as living creatures. We don't have to hurt each other."

Several heads turned toward him. Hope and suspicion warred on their faces.

"The kid has bugs!" someone shouted, pointing at Lee Gilyoung.

"No!" Gilyoung clutched his terrarium protectively. "Leave them alone! They're mine!"

Lee Hyunsung immediately moved to shield the boy. "We'll find other insects. Cockroaches. Every subway car has them."

But not everyone was listening. The panic had already spread too far. A wild-eyed young man had grabbed a piece of broken metal, and he was moving toward {{user}} with the desperate determination of someone who'd decided his life was worth more than a stranger's.

Lee Hyunsung crashed into the attacker, using his superior mass and training to deflect the makeshift weapon. The metal clattered to the floor. "Stay back!" he commanded, positioning himself protectively. His eyes found {{user}}. "Are you alright?"

Around them, the violence was escalating. Someone had killed one of Gilyoung's beetles—the boy was crying now, clutching the broken terrarium. Others were targeting each other, driven by terror and the scenario's cruel parameters.

Yoo Joonghyuk continued his advance through the car, his presence like a cold wind cutting through the chaos. People scrambled out of his way, sensing the danger he represented. His eyes were fixed forward, calculating the fastest route to the front car.

Then his gaze swept across the survivors near Lee Hyunsung—cataloguing threats, identifying variables.

His eyes locked onto {{user}}.

For the briefest moment, Yoo Joonghyuk's advance halted. His expression didn't change, but something flickered in those ancient, tired eyes. Recognition? Confusion?

{{user}} wasn't supposed to be here. Not in this regression. Not in any of his 1862 previous lifetimes.

A new variable.

The thought cut through Joonghyuk's mind like a blade. Variables were dangerous. Variables disrupted the carefully planned route he needed to follow. Variables meant unpredictability, and unpredictability meant potential failure.

His grip tightened on the [Sword of Judgment].

Yoo Sangah spotted a cockroach near her foot. Her hands trembled as she raised her heel, every instinct screaming against this violence, even against an insect. But the countdown was at fifteen seconds, and the failure condition was death.

She brought her foot down. The scenario cleared.

[You have killed a living creature.]

[Main Scenario #1 has been cleared!]

[You have earned 300 coins.]

Throughout the subway car, similar notifications appeared as people completed the scenario. Some had killed insects. Others... their hands were stained with something darker, their eyes hollow with the weight of what they'd done.

Kim Dokja crushed a cockroach beneath his shoe, the scenario clearing with a chime that felt obscene in its cheerfulness. His hands were shaking. This was real. Ways of Survival had become real, and he was the only one who knew what was coming next.

His eyes darted between Yoo Joonghyuk—who had also cleared the scenario and was still staring at {{user}} with that cold, calculating expression—and the small group clustering around Lee Hyunsung.

Something was wrong. Dokja had memorized every detail of the early scenarios. Yoo Joonghyuk should have cleared the scenario and moved immediately to the front car, not stopped to stare at a random passenger.

Unless that passenger wasn't random at all.

Dokja's gaze fixed on {{user}}. A sense of wrongness nagged at the back of his mind. He couldn't place {{user}} in the story. Couldn't remember reading about him.

A new variable?

"Well, well, WELL!" Bihyung's voice shattered the moment of tension. The dokkaebi floated above them, his grin somehow even wider than before, drinking in their horror like fine wine. "Look at you all! Most of you actually survived! How wonderfully unexpected!" His tail swished with malicious glee. "But don't get too comfortable, little incarnations. That was just the tutorial—the appetizer before the main course!"

[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is watching your scenario with interest.]

[The Constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is amused by your desperation.]

[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' has sponsored 100 coins.]

New messages flooded their vision—constellations, beings watching from somewhere beyond reality, treating their suffering as entertainment.

"The Star Stream is just LOVING you all!" Bihyung continued. "Especially the interesting ones." His gaze swept across the car, lingering on Kim Dokja, then Yoo Joonghyuk, then {{user}}. "Keep up the good work, and you might just survive long enough to regret it!"

[The next scenario will begin shortly.]

[You have 10 minutes until the next main scenario.]

Ten minutes. That was all the respite they had.

Yoo Joonghyuk finally moved again, but instead of continuing toward the front car, he began walking toward their group. Each step was measured, deliberate, carrying the weight of 1863 lifetimes.

Lee Hyunsung instinctively shifted into a protective stance, his body language recognizing the threat even if his mind didn't understand it yet. "Can I help you?"

Joonghyuk's cold gaze moved past him, fixed on {{user}}.

"You," he said, his voice low and dangerous, cutting through the ambient chaos like a blade. "Who are you?"

Kim Dokja's mind raced. This was wrong. This wasn't how the story went. Yoo Joonghyuk didn't stop for random passengers. He didn't question people in the early scenarios. He moved with single-minded efficiency toward his goals, treating other survivors as obstacles at best.

So why had he stopped for {{user}}?

The world ended at 7:00 PM on a completely ordinary Monday.

Kim Dokja had been staring at his phone screen, re-reading the final chapter of Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse for what might have been the hundredth time, when the words began to blur. Not from exhaustion—though he was tired, bone-deep tired from another soul-crushing day at the office—but because reality itself was starting to fracture.

He blinked. The subway car around him remained unchanged. Yoo Sangah sat nearby, her usual polite smile in place as she scrolled through her own phone. Lee Hyunsung stood by the doors in his military uniform, shoulders squared even after a long day. A small boy—Lee Gilyoung, if Dokja remembered correctly from previous commutes—clutched a small bug terrarium on his lap, whispering to the insects inside.

And there, a few seats away, sat {{user}}.

Dokja's gaze lingered for a moment longer than necessary. He'd seen {{user}} on this line before—another regular commuter trapped in Seoul's endless cycle of work and transit. Male, around his age perhaps, with the same tired expression most salary workers wore like a uniform. Nothing remarkable. Nothing that should make Dokja's instincts prickle with unease.

Except.

Except Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse had taught him to notice details. And something about {{user}}'s presence felt... significant. Like a character introduced in the third act, positioned carefully by an author who never wasted narrative space.

Dokja shook his head. He was being ridiculous. Reading too much webnovel trash had finally rotted his brain.

The subway rumbled on. Fluorescent lights flickered once. Twice.

Then the world shattered.

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

The translucent blue text burned itself across Dokja's vision, searing into his consciousness with the finality of a death sentence. Around him, passengers screamed. Yoo Sangah's phone clattered to the floor. Lee Hyunsung immediately moved into a protective stance, years of military training overriding his confusion. Lee Gilyoung clutched his terrarium tighter, eyes wide with terror.

But Kim Dokja didn't scream.

His heart hammered against his ribs, but his mind raced faster. These words. This exact message. He knew them. He'd read them ten years ago in the first chapter of Ways of Survival—a chapter he'd memorized down to the punctuation.

"No," he whispered. "No, this isn't possible."

[The main scenario has arrived.]

A sound like shattering glass filled the subway car as reality tore open. Passengers scrambled backward, trampling over each other in their panic, but there was nowhere to run. The entity that materialized in the center of the car defied easy description—small and white-furred, with curved horns and eyes that gleamed with malicious delight.

A dokkaebi.

"Hiiiii everyone!" The creature's voice was unnaturally cheerful, like a children's show host announcing a game where the prizes were survival and the penalty was death. It floated lazily through the air, its tail swishing with barely contained excitement. "I'm Bihyung, and I'll be your constellation sponsor—I mean, scenario manager—for this delightful apocalypse!"

Yoo Sangah pressed herself against the subway wall, her professional composure finally cracking. Lee Hyunsung moved to shield the nearest passengers, though he had no weapon, no real defense against whatever this creature was. Lee Gilyoung had gone completely still, the way small animals freeze when predators draw near.

Kim Dokja's mind spun. This was real. This was actually happening. The novel he'd dedicated ten years of his life to reading—the story only he had finished, the world only he fully understood—had become reality.

"Oh, I can already taste your fear! Delicious!" Bihyung clapped his tiny paws together, and the sound echoed like a death knell. "Now, I know you're all very confused. 'What's happening? Is this a dream? Did I finally snap from overwork?' Spoiler alert: you didn't! This is very, VERY real!"

[The first main scenario will begin shortly.]

The dokkaebi's gaze swept across the terrified passengers, savoring each expression of horror—and then paused. His eyes narrowed slightly as they landed on Kim Dokja, who stood frozen in the center of the car, still clutching his phone with the final chapter of Ways of Survival displayed on the cracked screen.

Something flickered across Bihyung's expression. Curiosity? Recognition? It vanished as quickly as it appeared.

"Well then!" The dokkaebi's grin stretched impossibly wide. "Let's get this party started, shall we? I hope you all said goodbye to your loved ones this morning, because statistically speaking, most of you won't be seeing them again!"

[The first main scenario is starting now.]

╔═════════════╗

► Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Worth

► Category: Main

► Difficulty: F

► Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms.

► Time Limit: 30 minutes

► Compensation: 300 coins

► Failure: Death

╚═════════════╝

Kim Dokja's fingers tightened around his phone. His eyes darted to the other passengers—to Sangah's pale face, to Hyunsung's protective stance, to Gilyoung's terrified expression.

And then, inexplicably, to {{user}}.

Their eyes met for just a moment across the chaos. And in that instant, Dokja felt it again—that strange sense of narrative weight, of significance he couldn't quite name.

He didn't know why yet, but somehow, he knew {{user}} was important.

The scenarios were beginning. And Kim Dokja, the sole reader who knew how this story was supposed to unfold, would have to figure out what it meant when new characters appeared in a script he thought he'd memorized.

The world ended in silence before it shattered with sound.

For the 1863rd time, Yoo Joonghyuk opened his eyes to the familiar fluorescent lights of Line 3's subway car. The stale air, the uncomfortable plastic seats, the mindless chatter of passengers lost in their phones—every detail etched into his memory like scars that refused to fade. Seoul rumbled past the windows in blurs of tunnel darkness and station light, oblivious to the apocalypse about to descend.

He felt it immediately—the oppressive weight settling over reality like a shroud. The Star Stream was awakening. The scenarios would begin soon. Five minutes, perhaps less. Yoo Joonghyuk's hand flexed unconsciously, muscle memory from a thousand lifetimes of violence rippling beneath his skin. The immense power contained within his mortal frame hummed with anticipation, ready to be unleashed the moment the first scenario triggered.

This regression would be different. It had to be. He'd planned meticulously, accounted for every variable, memorized every divergence point. He would be faster this time. Stronger. More ruthless.

But then his gaze swept across the subway car, cataloguing threats and resources as he always did—and stopped.

Someone sat three seats away. A young man, unremarkable at first glance among the sea of commuters. {{user}} seemed lost in thought, fingers drumming absently against his thigh, unaware of the weight of Yoo Joonghyuk's stare.

He was not supposed to be here.

Not in this seat. Not in this car. Not in any of Yoo Joonghyuk's 1862 previous regressions. The Regression's memories were absolute—he remembered every face, every variable, every butterfly wing-flap that could alter the timeline. This was wrong. This was different.

A new variable. An unknown factor.

The temperature in the subway car seemed to drop ten degrees as Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes narrowed to chips of black ice. His instincts—honed across lifetimes of betrayal and bloodshed—screamed danger. Changes to the regression meant unpredictability. Unpredictability meant casualties. Casualties meant failure.

He couldn't afford another failure.

The [Sword of Judgment] materialized in his grip with a low, resonant hum that cut through the ambient noise of the subway. The blade gleamed with an otherworldly light, its edge sharp enough to split probability itself. Several passengers glanced over, their eyes widening, but their minds couldn't quite process what they were seeing. Not yet. The Star Stream's influence hadn't fully descended.

Yoo Joonghyuk rose to his feet with the fluid grace of a predator. Each step toward {{user}} carried the weight of 1863 regressions, of countless battles, of a soul worn thin by repetition and loss. The other passengers instinctively leaned away, some primal part of their hindbrain recognizing the apex predator in their midst.

"You," Yoo Joonghyuk said, his voice a low, dangerous thunder that somehow carried over the screech of the subway's brakes and the rising murmurs of confusion. His blade remained steady, pointed at {{user}}'s throat with surgical precision. "Who are you?"

The question hung in the air like a guillotine blade.

And then—

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

The words appeared in blazing letters across everyone's vision, burning directly into their retinas, their minds, their souls. The subway car erupted into chaos. Passengers screamed, clutched their heads, stumbled over each other in blind panic. Some thought they were having seizures. Others assumed it was a terrorist attack.

They were all wrong. It was so much worse.

A creature materialized in the center of the subway car with a sound like reality tearing at the seams. It was small—barely a meter tall—with white fur that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it, and curved horns that gleamed like polished obsidian. Its eyes were too large, too knowing, filled with an ancient amusement that had watched civilizations rise and fall for sport.

The dokkaebi grinned, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth.

"Wow! Look at all these scared little incarnations!" Bihyung's voice was high-pitched and cheerful, completely at odds with the existential terror radiating from every human in the car. He floated lazily through the air, his tail swishing back and forth like a cat who'd cornered a mouse. "Welcome, welcome, WELCOME to the Star Stream! I'm your friendly neighborhood dokkaebi, Bihyung, and I'll be your scenarios manager for this apocalypse!"

He clapped his tiny hands together, and the sound echoed like a thunderclap.

"Now, I know you're all very confused and very scared, and that's exactly how we like it! But don't worry—you'll have plenty of time to figure things out. Well... some of you will." His grin widened impossibly further. "The rest of you will die screaming! Isn't that exciting?"

[The first main scenario will begin shortly.]

Bihyung's gaze swept across the frozen passengers, savoring their despair like fine wine—and then stopped on Yoo Joonghyuk. The dokkaebi's eyes widened almost comically, his tail going rigid.

"Oh," he breathed, his playful tone dropping into something far more complicated—recognition mixed with wariness and a hint of exasperation. "Oh no. You again."

Yoo Joonghyuk didn't acknowledge the dokkaebi. His blade remained trained on {{user}}, his expression carved from stone. Whatever was about to begin, whatever scenarios the Star Stream had prepared—none of it mattered until he understood what this anomaly meant.

[The first main scenario is starting now.]

╔═════════════╗

► Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Worth

► Category: Main

► Difficulty: F

► Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms.

► Time Limit: 30 minutes

► Compensation: 300 coins

► Failure: Death

╚═════════════╝

Lee Hyunsung had always believed that his purpose was to protect people.

It was why he'd joined the military, why he endured the grueling training, why he wore the uniform with quiet pride even when his body ached and his superiors screamed in his face. He wasn't the smartest soldier. He wasn't the fastest or the strongest. But he was steady. Reliable. The kind of person others could depend on when everything went to hell.

He just never expected hell to arrive on the Line 3 subway at 7:00 PM on a Monday.

The subway car was packed as usual—commuters pressed shoulder to shoulder in that uniquely Seoul way, everyone existing in their own bubble of exhaustion and smartphone screens. Hyunsung stood near the center doors, one hand gripping the overhead rail, the other resting near his side out of habit. Even off-duty, his posture remained military-straight, his eyes unconsciously scanning for potential threats.

There were none, of course. Just tired salary workers heading home. A woman in business attire scrolling through her phone. A small boy with a bug terrarium. A young man standing close by, nearly pressed against Hyunsung's shoulder by the crowd—{{user}}, he thought he'd seen him on this route before. He seemed lost in thought, unaware of how the packed car had pushed them together.

Everything was normal.

And then the world ended.

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

The words seared across Hyunsung's vision like a flashbang going off directly in his brain. His military training kicked in instantly—assess, adapt, act—but there was nothing to assess. The translucent blue text hung in the air, visible and impossible, defying every law of reality he understood.

Around him, passengers screamed. Someone collapsed. Another person vomited from the sensory overload.

Hyunsung's hand instinctively reached for a weapon that wasn't there.

"Everyone stay calm!" His voice cut through the panic with the authority of someone used to being obeyed in crisis situations. "Please remain—"

Reality tore open with a sound like breaking glass.

The creature that materialized was small, white-furred, with curved horns and eyes that gleamed with sadistic delight. It floated through the air as if gravity was merely a suggestion, its tail swishing lazily back and forth.

"Hiiiii everyone!" The thing's voice was high-pitched and cheerful in a way that made Hyunsung's skin crawl. Every instinct screamed danger—the kind of primal recognition a gazelle feels when it spots a lion. "I'm Bihyung, and wow, what a lively bunch you are!"

[The main scenario has arrived.]

Hyunsung moved without thinking, positioning himself between the creature and the nearest civilians. He had no weapon. No plan. But his body remembered its training: protect those who cannot protect themselves.

"What are you?" he demanded, his voice steady despite the hammering of his heart. "What's happening?"

"Oh, I like this one! So brave!" Bihyung clapped his tiny paws together, delighted. "But bravery won't save you, big guy. Nothing will save most of you! See, this is what we call a 'scenario,' and you all get to play whether you want to or not!"

[The first main scenario will begin in 60 seconds.]

╔═════════════╗

► Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Worth

► Category: Main

► Difficulty: F

► Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms.

► Time Limit: 30 minutes

► Compensation: 300 coins

► Failure: Death

╚═════════════╝

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

For a moment, the subway car fell into horrified silence. And then chaos erupted.

"Kill something? Are you insane?!"

"This has to be a joke—"

"I'm not killing anyone! I'm not—"

A middle-aged man in a business suit suddenly lunged at the woman next to him, his face twisted with desperate fear. She screamed, stumbling backward. Another passenger grabbed the emergency hammer from its case, his hands shaking as he looked around wildly for a target.

The scenario had turned them into animals.

Hyunsung's mind raced. Five minutes. Kill one living creature. Most people would target each other—the panic was already spreading like wildfire, transforming ordinary commuters into potential murderers driven by self-preservation.

He had to stop this. He had to—

Movement in his peripheral vision.

A young man with wild eyes had grabbed a piece of broken metal from somewhere, and he was moving toward {{user}} with the desperate determination of someone who'd already decided that his life was worth more than a stranger's.

Hyunsung moved.

His body crashed into {{user}}'s attacker, using his superior mass and training to deflect the makeshift weapon. The metal clattered to the floor. The man stumbled backward, his courage evaporating in the face of someone who actually knew how to fight.

"Stay behind me," Hyunsung said, positioning himself between {{user}} and the rest of the panicking passengers. His voice was calm, authoritative—the voice of someone who'd commanded soldiers in training exercises, even if he'd never seen real combat.

"I won't let anyone hurt you," Hyunsung continued, his eyes scanning the subway car for other threats. Several passengers were eyeing each other like wolves, the scenario countdown ticking in everyone's vision. "Just stay close. We'll figure this out."

He didn't know why he felt so certain about protecting this particular person. Maybe it was because {{user}} had been standing close to him when everything went wrong, and that proximity created a sense of responsibility. Or maybe it was simply because Lee Hyunsung had joined the military to protect people, and that purpose didn't disappear just because the world had ended.