---
title: "Chapter 1: The Final Chapter"
slug: "ch-1"
novel: "omniscient-readers-viewpoint"
number: 1
views: 2850000
likes: 198000
wordCount: 3600
createdAt: "2020-01-17"
---

The last chapter of "Three Ways to Survive in a Doomed World" arrived on Kim Dokja's phone like every other serialized passage—an ordinary notification in an extraordinary reality. He was sitting in his office cubicle, coffee growing cold beside his keyboard, when the phone buzzed.

At first, he didn't notice anything unusual. Reader comments below the latest chapter were typical—praise for plot developments, theories about upcoming events, complaints about pacing. But there was something different about this one. The chapter felt final. Conclusive. As if the author had written not just an ending, but *the* ending.

Dokja had read "Three Ways to Survive in a Doomed World" for ten years. Approximately 3,652 days of checking for updates, of analyzing every sentence for hidden meaning, of theorizing about plot threads and character arcs. In that decade, he'd memorized nearly every detail of the story—the apocalypse scenarios, the survivors, the hidden layer of meaning that only appeared if you read between the lines.

But the universe didn't follow the story.

The first sign was subtle. On his way home from work, Dokja noticed something shift in the air—a shimmer, like reality itself was glitching. He blinked, and the sensation passed. But it left him certain of one thing: something fundamental had changed.

That night, he reread the final chapter of "Three Ways to Survive." The prose was denser than usual, each sentence weighted with meaning. The protagonist—a character named Yoo Ryeo Han—was given a choice at chapter's end: accept the scenario of survival, or fight against the narrative itself.

At 11:47 PM, Dokja's world ended.

The apocalypse didn't come with fanfare. No dramatic meteor strike or divine judgment. Instead, reality simply... broke. Fissures of pure white light appeared in the sky above Seoul, spreading like cracks in glass. The people around him began to scream, but oddly, Dokja felt calm. He'd read this scenario before. Three Ways to Survive had described this exact moment.

*Quest Updated: Scenario - The Cracks in Reality*
*Objective: Survive the scenario using predetermined rules*
*Reward: Points, Items, Information*
*Penalty: Erasure from existence*

Dokja stared at the glowing text hovering in his vision. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating. But the sensation was too real, the letters too crisp. This was happening.

The scenario began. Monsters emerged from the cracks—creatures that matched descriptions from the novel, down to their behavioral patterns. Most people either froze in terror or ran blindly. Dokja did neither. Instead, he accessed the scenario menu, found the designated shelter location (marked clearly in his interface), and began navigating there with methodical precision.

Along the way, he encountered another survivor—a woman with sharp eyes and the bearing of someone used to giving orders. Her name was Yoo Sangah, and she was struggling to help an elderly man reach safety.

"Here," Dokja offered, supporting the old man's other side.

"You know where the shelter is?" Sangah asked, surprised.

"I have a good sense of direction," Dokja lied. Really, he was reading the quest markers in his interface, the same ones telling him that helping these two would eventually lead to better outcomes.

They reached the shelter just as the monster attack intensified. The doors sealed behind them moments before a creature's claws raked across the reinforced entrance, leaving deep gouges. For now, they were safe.

But Dokja understood the truth that most of the survivors didn't: this was just the first scenario. The world had fundamentally changed, and reality now followed narrative rules. Survival would require not just luck or strength, but knowledge.

Knowledge that only Kim Dokja possessed—ten years of meticulous reading about how the story was supposed to unfold.

As the night deepened and other survivors huddled together, Dokja stared at his interface, at the quest log already filling with side objectives and hidden main scenarios. He smiled slightly. For the first time in his life, being obsessed with a web novel wasn't a waste. It was his key to survival in this new world.

He was no longer just a reader. He had become a player in a story he knew better than anyone alive.
