Chapter 0
Chapter 0
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue: Countdown
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I'm lying flat on the floor of my room, staring at the message window floating in front of my eyes.
Just a moment ago, it read 60.
Three seconds passed, and now it's down to 57.
Ah, now it's 56.
The first time I realized this was showing time was around when I was ten years old.
Because that's when I learned how to read a clock.
Some kids my age figured it out before me, but whatever.
That's when I learned.
That's the number I saw back then.
131,306 hours.
It was only around age ten, after I'd learned about time, that I realized these numbers represented time—and that they were counting down.
A psychiatrist once asked me when I'd started seeing it. Age seven? Eight?
I told him it had probably been there since I was born, and he gave me some pills.
Pills that made my head all fucking hazy.
I hated taking them, so I lied and said it wasn't showing up anymore. My parents were thrilled, my grandparents too, and the doctor looked pleased.
After that, I never told anyone about seeing the message windows.
Did dragging me to shrinks from childhood just because of the message windows only bring misery?
Not really.
Because it wasn't just counting down time.
Sometimes at school, when some prankster asshole tried shoving me from behind or tripping me, a new message window would pop up right in front of my eyes.
All I had to do was see it and slip out of the way.
That's why they called me Ninja.
Thanks to the message windows, I never lost a fight even when the rowdy punks at school came looking for one, but fighting was never my thing.
Winning just meant the message told me so—it wasn't like I was actually good at it. Win or lose, it always left a bad taste, and fights just weren't my vibe for a bunch of reasons.
I'd rather play games, read comics or novels, and just chill like that.
Hmm...
Was it middle school? Or sixth grade elementary?
I once calculated when this countdown had started and when it would end.
Since it had been floating in front of my eyes as far back as I could remember, I figured it started at birth.
219,000 hours from birth.
It was perfectly timed to hit zero right when I turned twenty-five.
High school graduation, retaking entrance exams, starting college, getting discharged from the military—twenty-five kept creeping closer.
The less time remained, the more it gnawed at me.
So last month, I quit the part-time gig I'd been doing while waiting to reenroll.
What happens when it hits zero?
Maybe... it's my lifespan?
Am I... gonna die?
No way I could keep slinging coffee with thoughts like that.
That's why I'm sprawled on the bed in the goshiwon room I snagged near campus, just watching the message.
Six seconds left.
What'll happen at zero?
Am I dying?
Three seconds left.
If I'm dying...
I hope it doesn't hurt.
Two seconds.
One second.
The countdown is over.
The time window vanished.
And then, a new message appeared.
...
Chosen One?
Yeah. The message faded away.
A new one popped up.
......What?
......Apocalypse?!