Prologue: The World Has Ended
The world had ended. The government's quarantine had failed. Companies and stock markets alike had been obliterated, and every last cult was gearing up for the Rapture. We all knew it in our bones. Everything we'd lived for until now—our lives, our efforts, our so-called talents—meant absolutely nothing anymore. My little sister was no different.
“…Ah.”
The girl who had beamed with joy the day she got into the university of her dreams.
“Oppa.”
The girl who had desperately tried to love our parents even as they sold every scrap of their souls to that cult, tightening the noose around all of us. The girl who had spiraled into hysterical breakdowns under the crushing weight of exam stress.
And on the day the world ended, the girl who had sobbed at the university's closure notice, screamed until her voice gave out, and barricaded herself in her room.
That same sister was now sitting in a pool of our parents' blood.
“You awake?”
A kitchen knife soaked crimson in her hand.
Significant corruption detected.
Unlocking a new function.
Those strange, unidentified words hovered at the edge of my vision.