His name was Jiwoon K.
No one knew him.
Not even me.
And that terrified me more than anything.
Because I'd read every chapter of Tower of the End. Every single one. Mainline, side arcs, hidden endings, broken paths, cancelled DLC notes, character sheets, debug logs scraped from forums — everything. I knew what the fans knew. What the author hinted at. What the system didn't want you to find.
And Jiwoon K?
He wasn't in any of it.
Not even in the margins.
---
The gym was a graveyard of noise and silence.
Arien was inside, tending to the injured. No one had spoken since Sera's scream was swallowed by those black ink-chains. She hadn't woken since. Good. I didn't know if I could look at her yet.
So I sat outside by the cracked stone steps, by a half-dead campfire that someone had tried to light with aura and failed.
That's when he joined me.
No footsteps. No system ping. He just was, like an edit made mid-paragraph.
Jiwoon K.
Hoodie too big for his frame. Skinny, pale. Eyes sunken like he hadn't slept since the last timeline. He sat cross-legged, opposite the dying fire. And smiled.
"You're the Reader, right?" he said, like we were old classmates.
"…Yeah," I said after a moment.
He nodded.
"I'm the Beta Tester."
---
> [System Confirmed: Parallel Thread Detected]
> Identity: Jiwoon K
Title: [Leftover from the Other Rewrite]
Trait: Memory Override (Active)
Description: A Reader from a different version of the story.
Alignment: Unstable
---
"Different version?" I asked slowly. "There was… another draft?"
He chuckled. "Boss must've hit save too early."
"What?"
"I mean the author. Whatever you want to call it. God. AI. System. That thing behind the curtain. It doesn't matter." He drew something in the ash with his finger — a circle with a crack running through it. "There was a version before yours. And before that, one before mine."
"So you're from… what? Version Zero?"
Jiwoon smiled again, sad this time. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm just what's left after that version crashed."
---
We sat there for a long time. No birds. No wind. Just the strange tension of a story quietly rearranging itself around us.
"I've seen what happens if you don't kill Sera," he said finally.
I didn't respond.
"She becomes the second Demon God," he continued. "Worse than the first. Not because of power. Because of intimacy. She remembers you. All of you. It twists her differently."
Still, I stayed quiet.
"But if you do kill her…"
"…The story ends," I said.
Jiwoon's grin sharpened. "Exactly."
---
> [New Variable Introduced: Reader vs Reader]
> Your existence is now mirrored.
Choose to: Cooperate | Compete | Eliminate
---
"I don't want to fight you," I said honestly.
He tilted his head, curious. "That's what the last me said too."
"…What?"
He didn't answer right away. Just stood, brushing ash from his knees.
"You think you're the first Reader to resist the plot?" he asked, voice almost gentle.
I didn't like how he said Reader — like it was a curse.
Then he leaned in.
"You're the third version of me I've met."
---
> [Hidden Dialogue Triggered]
> "The first version tried to save everyone."
"The second rewrote the story so only he lived."
"What will you do?"
---
He turned, walking back into the mist — but before he vanished:
"One more thing," he called over his shoulder. "There's a girl named Yuna Seo in your class. Don't let her enter the Tower."
"Why?"
"Because she's not from your version either."
Then he was gone.
---
I sat there alone for a while. Watching the mist crawl like it was breathing. My hands were shaking.
Not because of what he said.
But because of what he didn't say.
If there were others like him — like me — how many had the system erased?
How many Readers had been folded back into the story?
How long until I was just another corrupted NPC?
---
The next morning, the fog receded slightly. The sun didn't rise — not here — but something like light spilled across the cracked skyline.
Then the sound came.
Gong.
A heavy bell. Deep, metallic. Not church-like — mechanical. Alive.
The Tower Gate.
It had opened.
Too early.
Far, far too early.
---
> [Quest Update: World Shift Triggered]
[The Tower Gate has recognized MULTIPLE READERS.]
[System Balance Protocol Activated.]
Current Survivor Count: 34
Gate Threshold: 7
The Gate will close once the limit is reached.
Next Arc: The Tower's First Floor – Devourer's Trial
Time Limit: 72 Hours
Warning: Non-Participants will be eliminated at random to maintain balance.
---
Thirty-four of us.
Seven would pass.
Twenty-seven would die — either outside or inside.
It wasn't just a climb anymore.
It was a culling.
I looked at the students slowly waking inside the gym. Some still groggy. Some sharpening weapons. Arien wiping Sera's fevered brow. Han Woojin's empty spot already cleaned like he never existed.
The Tower had made its decision.
We weren't classmates anymore.
We were contestants.
---
To be continued…