Chapter 0
I'm a nureongi.
Ah, I don't literally mean I'm a dog.
You know how people in the countryside call any dog that eats whatever it finds a nureongi?
Just like that, I'm a human who gulps down every web novel there is, no matter the genre.
That was me.
Romance fantasy. Modern fantasy. Classic fantasy. Martial arts. SF. TS. And so on.
Genre?
I don't discriminate.
Even if it's some deranged work with a title like 「The SSS-Rank Regressed Goblin Turned Out to Be the Imperial Princess」, I click on it first.
If it isn't fun, I drop it while cursing it out.
If it is fun, I read it all night.
If I'm not a nureongi, who is?
Woof.
.
.
.
-Falling in love with you in the end—perhaps it was a fate decided from the very beginning.
Beneath a sunset dyed crimson.
Crown Prince Cedric kissed the back of the hand of Isabel, a girl with cherry-blossom-pink hair.
The trials and tribulations that had kept them apart had vanished without a trace.
The future before them held nothing but a radiant flower-strewn path.
-The End-
"…"
Ugh.
Ugh, that's so cringey.
I shuddered before I knew it.
Even for a romance fantasy, wasn't that line a bit much?
It was the kind of line that could only come from eating not one tub of butter, but ten.
"…Still, it's fun."
As expected, watching someone else's romance is the most fun.
"You're reading that again?"
I looked up at the familiar voice.
A hulking man, a good three heads taller than me, stood before me with a look of disapproval.
He was always nagging me about what was so fun about letters falling in love whenever he got the chance.
In today's slang, he was just a boomer.
"You don't understand my heart, sir."
"What? Sir?"
"I need to read stuff like this to keep myself in good shape."
"Do you seriously think that makes sense?"
"It does."
It really did.
Looking at peaceful everyday life cleared my head.
Some people might not understand, but it had been a familiar routine for me for a long time.
I didn't feel like explaining the whole reason in detail.
"If I had your face, I'd date in the real world instead of watching letters fall in love…”
"…boomer."
"You little punk?"
Here we go again.
Say one thing, get ten back.
That's such a boomer trait, isn't it?
"You two."
Fortunately, a voice of salvation reached us.
Our team's leader walked over.
"Break's over. Check your gear. This is the last one."
The air around us fell silent in an instant.
The team members who had been laughing and chatting rose from their spots one by one.
Some checked their swords; others loaded their guns.
Some quietly closed their eyes and prayed.
We were just below the top floor of the tower—the highest level humanity had ever reached.
A tower whose end had never been in sight.
A calamity that had toppled countless cities, killed hundreds of millions, and overturned the course of human history.
Now, its end was right before us.
"Everyone ready?"
Everyone nodded silently.
Even as heavy silence hung in the air, taut tension clung to the fingertips gripping their gear.
With his distinctive golden eyes, the leader slowly scrutinized each team member's face, as though trying to take a final memorial photograph.
“Some of us will make it back alive today, while others will meet their end here.
But there is only one reason we climbed this far.
Today, we will break the final wall that humanity could never breach.”
Breaking the unbearably heavy silence, the leader added.
“I won't waste time with some pointless call to die for the cause. So, everyone. Grit your teeth and survive, no matter what.”
Finally, the leader looked at me.
"Iro-un."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Put your phone away."
"Oh, right."
"This is the final floor."
"I know, I know."
Reluctantly, I put my smartphone into subspace.
It was a little disappointing that, after making it all the way to the ending, I still hadn't read even one side story.
Well.
I can save the world first, then pick it back up.
It probably won't run away.
…Just don't go on hiatus.
Then the big guy beside me asked casually.
"What are you going to do when this is over?"
I thought for a moment.
The tower appeared when I was fifteen.
School, friends, youth—all of it ended there.
So.
"This time, I want to live my own life."
"What kind of life?"
"Go to school. Go out with my friends."
The big guy looked at me without a word.
“At my age, aren’t people normally supposed to be college students, drinking and having fun?”
“……….”
"I want to go to festivals. Take exams. Join a club… Though I'd rather not do homework."
A small laugh escaped me.
"Anyway! I just want to live like a normal person! Like a student!"
The big guy laughed along.
"Yeah. A student ought to live like a student."
I nodded too.
That's right.
The tower would be over, and humanity would regain peace…….
Then I wouldn't have to fight anymore, either.
"Let's go."
The leader stood before the enormous gate.
Tower Floor 100.
The final battlefield humanity had reached after shedding blood countless times.
We couldn't know whether salvation or another hell awaited beyond that gate.
But having come this far, there was nowhere left to retreat.
We memorized one another's faces, perhaps for the last time.
‘Hmm…when I get home. I should read the side story first.'
I stood before the gate.
A red glow slowly wavered.
…Huh?
Was it always that red?
At that moment, an indescribable sense of wrongness brushed down my spine.
"Iro-un!!"
"Get back!!"
The leader and the big man's shouts rang out at the same time.
Then everything before my eyes flashed and was dyed in brilliant red light.
The world flipped, and my limbs were violently dragged into the air.
I staggered and stretched out my hand, trying somehow to hold on.
Someone far away desperately reached for my hand, but in the end, they couldn't reach it.
And then.
I,
fell into the most absurd place in the world.