novelraw Chapter 1
Chapter 1
With a *ssshhh* sound, the red ember at the tip of the cigarette flickered and died out.
*Kwaaaaaaaang!*
With a deafening explosion, the flash of the Upsilon Satellite Fortress, humanity's last bastion, exploding filled his eyes with a tingling sensation.
The sight of the massive steel fortress, called a 'satellite', being shattered to pieces and turning into space debris was dumbfounding.
…The man, Baek Hwi-young, scoffed at himself.
“To think that piece of junk that can't even properly block a single Void Turtle is called a fortress.”
His voice was empty, tinged with a hint of laughter.
He didn't know for sure, but there must have been massive corruption during its construction.
If not, it made no sense for it to blow up without even lasting 10 minutes.
“...Beyond this death, I hope to see the end.”
He sat alone on the bridge of the warship, slowly falling to the ground, smoking his last cigarette.
The foretold future for humanity, no, for all the species that commanded the galaxy, was likely an endless escape.
The galaxy had fallen into the greedy maws of the space monsters, the Creatures, and in the end, he had failed to stop this foretold destruction once again.
“...If everyone had been alive, would it have been different?”
Was it remorse that tinged his bitter smile?
A final regret?
Or perhaps, an unresolved indignation?
…He couldn't find an answer until the very end.
And in his final moments, his vision was filled with nothing but the sight of the Creatures swarming as if to cover the entire universe, and the bridge, finally engulfed in flames.
*Kwaaaaaaaang!*
As his vision went black from an impact that not even a Superhuman could withstand, Baek Hwi-young once again opened his eyes in the Central Special Mission Military Academy of that day.
‘The galaxy has been destroyed.’
And Baek Hwi-young once again rose from his bed to stop the foretold destruction.
“The 6th, no, is this the 7th time?”
「Galactic Chronicles (END)
This is the author, TLS. I sincerely thank all the readers who have loved Galactic Chronicles until now.
...Omitted...」
“...Is this an April Fools' joke?”
He stared blankly at his phone, but nothing changed.
He reread it several times, wondering if he had missed a sentence or some important foreshadowing, but the only things that changed weren't the novel's content, but his heart rate and blood pressure.
“Heh, heh heh.”
He'd heard that you laugh when you get too angry, and experiencing it firsthand, he found it was true.
Laughing like a man half-mad, he clicked on the comments section, and just as he expected, it was a complete mess.
This kind of novel (lill****)
[BEST] Thank you so much for throwing my memories, time, and money into the trash can. I'd like to give you a gift to commemorate the ending, your address is...(Read more)
[Upvotes: 15,321][Downvotes: 1]
HaremPureLove (dbsl****)
[BEST] After all that suffering, a regression ending LOLOLOLOL Just the JOAT.
[Upvotes: 13,329][Downvotes: 1]
HeavenlyDemonIsActuallyAWoman (tsts****)
[BEST] lol What can I, a reader, do lol What can you guys who paid until the end do lol
[Upvotes: 9,921][Downvotes: 1]
LastNameFirstName (name****)
[BEST] The single downvote is hilarious. Author-nim, it's been fun, let's never see each other again. Well then, 20000.
[Upvotes: 8,944][Downvotes: 1]
The comments with many upvotes were at least free of curses, but the further he scrolled down, the more comments that seemed to risk a lawsuit ran rampant.
“So this is what 'a wasted 10 years' feels like.”
But he couldn't resist upvoting the countless profane comments. That's how shocking this ending was.
「Galactic Chronicles」
For a Web Novel title, it felt extremely ordinary, but its impact was beyond imagination.
The Sci-Fi genre is close to a niche in Korea.
However, this was a work praised for having overcome that limitation.
‘A world-building that was detailed if you delved deep, yet unraveled without complexity when you read it. The relationships of characters who felt alive and breathing. Even the narrative that hit a new high with every episode...’
Although it went on a long hiatus after passing 1,000 chapters, it was adapted into a webtoon, an animation, and even a drama series, and not just the readers, but also the new fans had no doubt that this series would be remembered as a masterpiece for ages to come.
Yes, unfortunately, that was all in the past tense.
Because the author made a grand exit, leaving behind an ending for the ages.
“I should have dropped it when everyone except the protagonist started dying.”
The main narrative, which had been a fierce war over galactic hegemony, suddenly changed.
After the protagonist, Baek Hwi-young, revealed that everything was actually to fight against the space monsters, the 'Creatures', the author began to go wild.
The protagonist's allies, heroines, enemies, and even supporting characters.
The author literally started killing off every character that could be killed.
Still, since the protagonist and Regressor, ‘Baek Hwi-young’, survived until the very end, the readers couldn't let go of their last hope...
“Haa.”
The author had always shown them more than they could ever imagine, but no matter how many novels fall apart in the latter half, isn't this a bit too much?
It's not like the readers were asking for much.
Was an ending like other novels, ‘and they lived happily ever after,’ so difficult?
“Is he crazy, for real?”
Whatever he muttered to himself, the number of comments on the work was already exceeding 10,000.
“...Haa, forget it.”
He thought of all the Galactic Chronicles merchandise he had collected and immediately went online to order a few cardboard boxes.
He planned to throw it all away.
‘Maybe someone will buy it?’
On that off chance, he checked the Galactic Chronicles community forum, but that place was already the very picture of the apocalypse, as if the Antichrist had arrived.
*Geudeudeuk-.*
Was it said that anger is contagious?
He tried to hold it in, but he just couldn't.
As if possessed, he searched the publisher's blog, found the author's email, and, recalling the numerous cover letters and the letters of grievance he had read during his military service, began to type furiously.
[Author-nim, this is really too much.]
To put it bluntly, it's not like we readers asked for much, so is it that hard to write a single happy ending like other authors? No matter how hard serialization is, isn't this just a lack of basic courtesy towards your readers? In the first place, if you had just killed off Instructor Jin Crow early at the Military Academy...(Read more)
“Hoo.”
I never thought I'd end up writing the rumored 5,700 characters.
Still, I felt relieved.
“That's enough. What's the point of getting so worked up?”
It was then, as he sighed and stood up to smoke a cigarette.
*Tiring-.*
Just as he was straightening his back, he turned his head.
Realizing belatedly that it was an alarm sound from his computer speakers, he looked up and couldn't help but be surprised.
The email he had just sent had come back with 'Re:' attached.
“...Huh?”
It was a reply from the mysterious author who had never responded to any interviews or emails before.
The man was so elusive that even his editor claimed to have never seen his face, so he couldn't help but be excited by the fact that he had replied.
Letting the cigarette that was just in his mouth fall out, he sat down and hurriedly clicked on his inbox.
And soon, the monitor glowed brightly as the contents of the email began to stream in.
[Re: Author-nim, this is really too much.]
Hello, dear reader. This is TLS, the author of Galactic Chronicles.
It seems you were not pleased with the ending. Unfortunately, the end of a world that has already been written cannot be changed.
However, as you are a reader who has loved my story so much, I shall give you a special opportunity...
When he clicked on the email, the emotion he felt was excitement, along with a faint sense of anticipation.
The dream-like possibility that, moved by his heartfelt plea, the author might completely remake the latter half, or perhaps apologize for disappointing such a loyal reader and offer to buy him a meal.
‘Wait a minute. This...’
But soon, his anticipation and excitement turned into fear and anxiety.
The more he read the email, the more cold sweat dripped down his back.
And for good reason—wasn't this a development that any Web Novel reader would find chilling?
A primal sense of dread washed over him.
So, this... isn't this the classic cliché of getting 'that' done to you?
“Ah, no! I don't want to! Don't do it!”
His survival instincts moved his mouth on their own, but at that moment, the monitor flashed with a light brighter than he had ever seen.
[If you have a problem with it, you know the drill, right? lol]
Seeing the last sentence before his vision turned black, he could only be certain.
‘That son of a bitch author, he deliberately messed up the ending to get me possessed.’
That was his last memory before losing consciousness.
***
He opened his eyes, clutching his throbbing head.
Soon after, he looked in the mirror and couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
“Heh.”
Disheveled black hair, dull black eyes that lacked focus.
A face so white it was pale, dark circles under his eyes, and a black military uniform that looked like it had been thrown on carelessly.
Just in case, he pinched his cheek and closed and opened his eyes several times, but he had already instinctively recognized the situation.
How long did he stare at the mirror with vacant eyes?
Before long, he unconsciously muttered his name.
“...Jin Crow.”
One of the many characters in Galactic Chronicles, and an instructor at the Central Special Mission Military Academy of the United Human Star Nation, the country that served as the main setting.
‘Of all people, of all characters.’
Any reader who enjoyed Galactic Chronicles would know.
They would know what kind of bastard Jin Crow was.
To put it simply, he's a one-dimensional, grim villain character who's part of a misunderstanding plot.
‘He became a wreck due to injuries from the 3rd Galactic War, but everyone around him still thinks he's strong.’
If only that were all, how great would it be.
Whether it was because of PTSD, or his personality became twisted from his long military life, or if his inherent nature was just rotten, he didn't know, but Jin Crow's reputation was also terrible.
In the end, doesn't he get killed by the protagonist, ‘Baek Hwi-young’?
‘Let's calm down.’
He roughly swept back his hair that kept falling and poking his eyes, and continued his thoughts.
He tried to calm his splitting headache.
Then, he began to briefly summarize his current situation.
-First, I have been possessed into Galactic Chronicles.
-Second, of all people, the character I've possessed is Jin Crow, a morally bankrupt character whose death is predestined.
Without realizing it, the corner of his mouth twitched.
Hmm, no matter how I think about it, I'm fucked.
“...Heh. Haha.”
Was it said that laughing when things are tough is what the best do?
He, no, Jin Crow, marveled at the fact that he was first-class and looked around.
‘An instructor's quarters?’
Since Jin Crow was an instructor, this was probably it.
Thinking so, he threw himself onto a nearby sofa, and soon spotted a black cigarette pack lying plainly on the table and reached for it.
Only after lighting it up did he notice the glass and bottle of liquor at the edge of the table.
“A hidden camera prank... no way.”
He considered the last possibility just in case, but what kind of hidden camera prank in the world would go as far as to change a person's face?
In the end, he stared with vacant eyes as the hazy cigarette smoke scattered into the air, and then muttered unconsciously.
“I should have just left a comment. A mistake.”
Only then did he feel one more sense of incongruity.
“...”
What's with this way of talking?