The Worst Possible Ending
The saying goes that some lines should never be crossed. And that life is unpredictable—you never know what’s waiting just around the corner. How true that is. I never imagined my parents would leave me behind, forcing me to survive alone in this cold, heartless world. But there’s another saying I like even more: even if you step into a tiger’s den, if you keep your wits about you, you can survive. With enough willpower and effort, any hardship can be overcome. It’s an inspiring quote, especially for someone like me. It tells poor people like us that opportunities are still within reach. Yeah. That’s why I never gave up. With enough determination and hard work, anything should be possible. But… even so…
“This is just too much…”
The words that slipped from my small lips carried a delicate, beautiful voice I could hardly believe was my own.
The rich aroma of coffee tickled my nose, while soft classical music drifted through the air, gently stirring the emotions. This place was quiet yet full of life—the perfect spot to close your eyes and take a deep breath. And right in the middle of it, I was moving around busily.
“Order number 81! Your green tea latte and iced Americano are ready!”
One of our regulars, a woman who looked to be in her forties, approached the counter, took the tray, and smiled at me.
“Thank you, young man. Your drinks are always the best. Hehe.”
“Not at all. Please enjoy.”
“I can’t even go to other cafés anymore because of you. Anyway, I’ll enjoy these~”
She chatted cheerfully before returning to her seat. I gave a faint smile at the kind regular’s compliment and immediately started on the next order.
“Hey, I’m here.”
While I was rushing through the piled-up orders, the café owner—the person I was closest to—walked in with a nonchalant expression and greeted me.
“If you’re here, please help right away.”
“This kid really has no respect for his boss.”
He furrowed his wrinkled forehead dramatically, then disappeared into the staff room. In seconds, he emerged in his uniform. After glancing at the stack of orders on the counter, he patted my shoulder.
“You head out first. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Huh? But it’ll be tough for you.”
“You little— Look, you might make better drinks, but I’ve got way more experience, you brat. You look tired, so go rest already.”
“Aw, come on, hyung…”
Even as I said that, I was already grinning from ear to ear as I headed toward the staff room.
“Damn kid. If you’re gonna talk back, at least say it to my face…”
I heard him sigh and mutter behind me, but I ignored his grumbling, quickly changed clothes, stuffed my things into my bag, grabbed the drink I’d made earlier, and waved at him.
“Hyung, I’m heading out~! Have a good shift!”
“…You little shit. Got something urgent?”
“Hehe… That’s a secret.”
“Fine. Get some good rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I bowed politely to the gruff-looking man and left the café. Just before running home, I paused to look back at the place I’d grown attached to over the past three years. It was far more lively and packed with customers than when it first opened. I felt a bit awkward saying it, but I was pretty sure I deserved a lot of the credit for bringing in all those people.
‘Not much longer now.’
I turned on my phone and opened my banking app.
Ari Bank
Account Holder: Lee Sian
Account: 033-221-501230
Balance: 61,310,000 won
A satisfied smile crept across my face at the pleasant number. After scrimping on living expenses for a full five years, this was my precious nest egg. With this money, I was going to open my own café. Ever since I was little, I’d dreamed of creating all kinds of teas and coffees. I thought I had a real talent for it—customers always praised my drinks. Just imagining people relaxing with the recipes I created filled my chest with warmth.
“But there’s something even more important today.”
I closed the app and hurried home, practically running the whole way. September 26th. After spending every day obsessively saving money, this was my one and only hobby. My sanctuary. My life. My purpose. The long hiatus for my favorite romance-fantasy web novel was finally over.
‘Come on, they must have prepared at least a triple update, right?’
After two whole months off, it was only fair to give the waiting readers some proper compensation. I’d been dying for it the entire time. The story had cut off right at the climax—when the heroine and her male leads were about to fight the final boss, the Demon King. The author’s brutal cliffhanger had been pure torture. But now it was over. Finally, I’d get to read what happened next.
I clutched the phone in my pocket tightly, trying to calm my racing heart. The long-awaited notification had appeared on the web novel site. With trembling excitement, I tapped to open the new chapter—completely unaware of what was waiting for me.
*
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I stared blankly at the uploaded text and muttered.
Thank you to all the readers who have loved Please Watch Over the Saintess’s Private Life. I will return with a better work next time.
“Bullshit!”
I hurled my phone onto the bed. Even in my rage, I hated how I instinctively worried about cracking the screen. My hands were shaking like I was having an earthquake. I couldn’t accept this reality.
“After an ending like this… it’s over?”
Triple update? Forget it. After two months of hiatus, the author came back not with a gift, but with a giant middle finger. Right before the heroine and her male leads teamed up to defeat the final boss—the Demon King—every reader had been certain they’d win and get a happy ending. But instead of a happy ending, or even a bad ending, the author delivered a complete trainwreck of an ending. Out of nowhere, a new character appeared, and the Demon King, the heroine, and all her male leads were helplessly defeated. Then the newcomer just left like some mysterious mastermind.
‘What kind of development is this…?’
The third party’s identity was the Grand Duchess of the North, who had been living alone in a castle on a snowy mountain. She suddenly showed up, crushed both the protagonists and the boss, then leisurely disappeared like a final boss herself. If the author had planned to make her the true final boss of a second part, I could have understood—even if it was a bit of a stretch. But the novel just ended right there. How could I not lose my mind?
The Northern Grand Duchess wasn’t even a main character. She wasn’t even a significant supporting character—just someone who appeared briefly in the early chapters. She was only mentioned as a monstrous, foul-tempered being who slaughtered countless Beasts in the snow-covered North. To readers who weren’t paying close attention, she was probably a forgettable side character. I remembered her because I’d read so carefully… but I never expected her to reappear. And now she turned out to be the real final boss? On top of that, she only had one arm. She’d lost it in an assassination attempt when she was young. Yet in that condition, she single-handedly defeated the heroine and all the powerful male leads surrounding her? Even if they were exhausted from fighting the Demon King, it made no sense.
“This is so ridiculous I can’t even stay angry anymore.”
It was the ultimate example of a story that started strong and crashed spectacularly. I felt nothing but regret for wasting my time on such garbage.
“Sigh. Time to make some money instead.”
I scratched my head roughly, trying to suppress my irritation. It was fine. This novel had only been a hobby anyway. There were plenty of other popular stories on this platform. I had my own dream—opening a café on a lively street. Watching people enjoy my drinks while listening to beautiful music. That was my real goal. I should just forget about this piece of crap novel.
“Still… I can’t let it go.”
If I didn’t say something to the author who’d given me such a massive slap in the face, the anger would fester inside me. Honestly, even the author probably didn’t expect praise after dropping an ending like that. I smirked as countless curses ran through my mind. I opened the comment section and typed out a message filled with my intense feelings.
I was about to post it when a sudden thought made me delete everything.
“Even so, I probably shouldn’t go that far with the mom jokes.”
No matter how much I’d been corrupted by this hellish internet where people casually asked about each other’s parents over the smallest things, there were still lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Yeah. Even big dramas and movies these days often end with terrible conclusions. Web novels were probably no different. The author probably didn’t want to get flamed either. They just didn’t have the skill to write a proper ending.
‘At this rate, am I going to get isekai’d?’
I let out a small chuckle and deleted the entire comment. There were plenty of stories where people got transmigrated after writing furious 5,800-character hate comments. Of course, it wouldn’t actually happen like in the novels… but somehow the thought still crossed my mind.
‘Yeah. I’ll just let it go.’
It’s not that I’m scared of shit—it’s that it’s dirty. I just had to stop reading this author’s work. With a short sigh, I put down my phone and got up from the bed. I was heading to the bathroom to wash away the filth in my heart when my phone started ringing.
“…Unknown caller?”
What era were we in that someone was calling with their number hidden? For some reason, I felt a bad premonition and immediately hung up.
Vrrrr—
Not even a second later, my phone started ringing again. But this time, before I could hang up, the screen moved on its own and answered the call.
“W-what the…?”
“Don’t you think so too, dear reader? That it made no sense?”
While I was panicking at the sudden situation, a neutral voice—impossible to tell if it belonged to a man or woman—came from the phone.
“But that was too much. I didn’t even want to write it that way… and yet you cursed at me like that.”
I blinked blankly for a moment, staring at my phone.
What the hell is going on right now?
“Dear reader?”
The voice calling me snapped me out of my daze. I slowly assessed the situation. A suspicious call right after I wrote an angry comment. My phone answering on its own—an obviously supernatural phenomenon. And most importantly, the mysterious voice had called me “dear reader.”
“You… you’re the author, aren’t you?”
“Oh! As expected of the reader I had my eye on. Your situational awareness is excellent!”
My guess had been correct. Another hypothesis rose in my mind, and it wasn’t a pleasant one at all.
I forced a laugh and spoke into the phone.
“Haha, thank you for your hard work, author. It’s a shame that a novel I enjoyed for years has ended.”
“Hmm…? The atmosphere is quite different from the comment you were writing earlier.”
They saw it even though I didn’t post it?
“Ah, that… that was nothing. I have anger management issues… so I wasn’t thinking straight, haha…!”
Of course I didn’t have any such condition. But this author was clearly no ordinary being—they could cause supernatural phenomena. If I didn’t play along, something bad might happen. So I tried to smooth things over.
“Well. I feel really bad about it too. I never expected such a tragic ending.”
What kind of nonsense was this? You wrote it yourself and you’re saying you didn’t expect it? With the brain that produced that garbage, do you also have amnesia? The words almost burst out of me, but I swallowed the scream deep in my throat.
“A child who inherited the power of God losing so miserably… I’ve never seen such a monster before.”
“A-author? What are you even saying…”
“Anyway. That’s that. I still need to punish the rude reader, don’t I?”
A chill ran down my spine. Having read countless transmigration novels, I could easily guess what was coming next. My current situation was far too similar to the beginning of those stories.
“Author? I think there’s been some misunderstanding…”
“Still, throwing you in without any preparation would be too cruel. So I’ll give you a small gift.”
“A-author? Let’s talk about this calmly like civilized peop—”
Before I could finish, the space beneath my feet began to twist.
No way… For real…? Was this really what I thought it was?
“Once you finish the story, you can come back… so don’t worry too much~”
“W-wait a second!!! There are tons of people who left hate comments, so why me?!”
“But you’re the only one who wrote about my mother, aren’t you?”
At the author’s icy words, I swallowed dryly. I hadn’t even posted it and immediately edited it out… Had they seen even the part where I mentioned their mother?
“Ah, but since you don’t have parents, you don’t need to worry about a tearful farewell! That’s convenient.”
They say what goes around comes around. I never thought I’d get hit with a mom joke from the author themselves. But since it was true, it didn’t hurt me much.
“A-author, actually I have an important dream I need to fulfill—”
“Well then. I wish you the best on your journey, dear reader. We probably won’t meet again.”
The author’s stubborn tone made my head spin. No matter what I said, it seemed they had no intention of letting me off.
Flash—!
Suddenly, something beneath my feet glowed brightly and began pulling my body downward. I struggled desperately, twisting my body in every direction, but my feet felt as if they were rooted deep into the ground and wouldn’t budge.
“You… you son of a bitch!! What the hell is so bad about a stupid mom joke?! In this day and age, it’s just a common insult!!”
“What a wonderful world that must be~”
My body was slowly sinking into the ground. At the very least, I didn’t want to be transmigrated unfairly. With that single thought, I tried to scream at the author in this desperate moment—but countless rays of bright light wrapped around my body and sealed my mouth shut.
“Mmph…!! Mmmph!!”
In a situation where I couldn’t scream or struggle at all, along with the heavy sensation of my body sinking, I lost consciousness.