For the next few days, Cale was preparing for the apocalypse. He actually considered informing people about it, but he doesn't exactly want to be regarded as a crazy bastard. I mean, come on, who would believe that?

He stood on top of a building, looking down on the police station. He considered going back, the letter was stuffed in the pocket of his hoodie. No one would trust a paper filled with nonsense anyway, so what's the point of doing this?

Well... Let's just say Cale doesn't want to withhold something that would cost the lives of millions. His guilty conscience is practically screaming at him.

The water bunny looked at him and tilted its head, as if asking 'what's wrong?'

Cale pursed his lips into a thin line. He knew that Eliezer was standing by in front of a computer back in the mansion.

In 3 minutes, they'll publish the news of an apocalypse happening.

'This will probably change something in the story.'

He just wrote something about the monsters and the bloodshed that's bound to happen. Nothing about dokkaebis, constellations, nor scenarios were mentioned to prevent Kim Dokja from noticing.

That guy is the sole reader of Ways of Survival, Cale is one of the readers of Kim Dokja's story.

As much as the redhead doesn't care about the plot, he doesn't want Kim Dokja's journey to become more difficult, so straying not too far from the original story should be the best course of action.

However, Cale has no plan of doing that. He still doesn't know how the flow will go once he intervenes, but he'll help Kim Dokja from the shadows for a bit and after knowing everything seems okay and safe, he'll leave quietly.

Pulling the letter out of his pocket, he nodded and gave it to the water rabbit. "Go."

The rabbit took it and stealthily hopped down to the police station.

After confirming that the letter was safely delivered, Cale turned around and left with his wind, while the bunny's form changed into a flow of water and followed after him.

Soon enough, the whole of internet was in chaos.

There was a maid in the mansion who used to work with computers a lot when she was alive, so with Eliezer's signal, she easily spreads the ominous news.

The comments varied, starting from people's mockery, theories, to a whole cult supporting the statement.

("This is definitely a troll spreading fake news lmao"

"brooo this is kinda lit 🔥 i've always wanted an apocalypse to happen"

"How much it explains the details is kind of creepy though..."

"is it weird that i kind of believe this lol"

"Everyone is being so paranoid. What is this? A fictional world?")

Cale didn't care much. He already did his part by warning everyone and telling them to prepare an insect if they don't want to die for the first scenario.

However, he didn't expect for Kim Namwoon— one of the main characters of the said disaster— to mention it.

"Ahjussi! Have you read this thing? It's currently viral right now," The boy said, eyes glued to his phone.

Cale raised an eyebrow. "You mean the apocalypse thing?"

"Ah, so you know about it."

'Of course. I wrote it.'

He nodded.

"It sounds crazy," Namwoon commented, laughing heartily, "but it'd be nice for those stuff to happen. Seems fun as hell."

Cale suppressed a shudder. 'How vicious. Who in their right mind would look forward to an apocalypse?'

Both of them were currently walking through the city. Kim Namwoon had forcefully dragged Cale out to eat ice creams.

Yes, ice creams.

'No matter how you look at him in the novel or reality, he's actually still a kid who has an insane ability to adapt,' Cale thought, looking at the slightly shorter boy.

"You..." He called out, causing Namwoon to look at him curiously. "Come to my house in 5 days."

The white-haired male widened his eyes in disbelief. "Wait, no way... Ahjussi, you actually believe in this sh*t?"

Cale stared back with indifference. "Who said that? I just wanted to invite you to my house. It's boring with nothing to do."

'Kim Namwoon. You have to be there with me once the scenario starts. This will be the first step of securing my slacker life in this world.'

Namwoon had a skeptical look on his face, but accepted his invitation after hearing that his house is enormous.

Then Cale began thinking of the black haired man... Saving him wouldn't be a bad idea, but they hadn't gotten the chance to talk after the library encounter. After that, they simply saw each other to exchange greetings when he was walking through the city to buy stuff and the man going to or leaving work.

He can only hope that the other stays alive.

3 days until the apocalypse...

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" The energetic and frightened voice of a girl spoke.

It was normal to be scared, she had accidentally knocked off a coffee on a stunning foreigner. The teenage girl cursed herself on the inside.

'I just made a fool out of myself in front of a god-like man!' She cried internally.

However, Cale wasn't responding, too busy looking at the nameplate of the other.

Lee Jihye.

'No f*cking way. Did I seriously just meet one of the main characters?'

His face turned pale, which made Jihye panic even more.

"H-Hey, I'm sorry, Ahjussi! The coffee must be hot... Uhh, ah! Should I buy you a new one? Or a new shirt?" She started offering him stuff, not caring about the price— because damn it, the guy looks rich.

"No, it's fine," Cale quickly responded, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. "Just be careful on your way next time."

Before she could reply, he walked away.

Jihye had her hand reached out towards his back that was getting further away.

"Ah... No... Attractive Ahjussi, I'm sorry..." She sulked in self pity.

As Cale strolled through the streets, his heart was beating faster. An unexpected meeting with one of the important characters isn't doing any good for his health.

'No, I'm sure this won't change anything. Yeah, it won't. It was just a small accident, let's forget about it.'

He abruptly pushed his worries to the back of his head and soon arrived in the mansion.

Once he got to his room, he suddenly heard a cheerful voice from his left side.

"Young master-nim."

Cale instinctively shot a thunderbolt, followed by a yelp, a movement of a figure, and the sound of a breaking vase.

Eliezer was crouching, holding his head in case his liege accidentally send it flying. "Young master-nim, the God-nim gave you another gift," He said casually, as if nothing happened.

'This little punk should really stop doing that.'

Cale sighed, seeing the butler stand up. "What is it?"

A necklace was shoved to his face, and he looked at it with confusion and surprise.

He was sure of it. The necklace contains mana. For Cale (who has little to no mana) to sense something could only mean that the amount of mana is extremely massive.

"That bastard sent this?" He asked in disbelief, grabbing the necklace with hesitation.

"Mhm, along with a letter!"

This time, a letter was shoved in his face, and he immediately opened it to read the fancy elegant writing.

[ Hello, my child.

Take this necklace. It will help you. I know you can more or less calculate how much mana it contains.

You don't have mana, nor can you control it, but as long as you're in possession of this, all of the mana within it is under your control.

For example, you can easily change your appearance and sense the mana in your surroundings. You can figure out the rest, you're an intelligent child, after all.

Don't worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Only you can use it.

Stay safe. ]

Bastard. He's supposed to figure out how to use it on his own?! He knew by words how mana works, but he never directly used it!

With a glare and much consideration, he finally put it on and felt a rush of warmth going through his veins.

The necklace was a simple golden string with a small ruby pendant. It wasn't very eye-catching, it's just pretty. Cale liked it a lot more this way.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he thought about the fact that it can change his appearance. But how is he supposed to do that? Should he just imagine his hair to be black and—

Oh.

From the root to the tip of his hair, they gradually turned black. Smooth and silky strands of shoulder-length black hair adorned his delicate face, causing him to gave off a mysterious aura, but it was better than having striking unique red hair. His eyes also turned into plain brown, completely void of their usual reddishness.

"This is better."

Eliezer watched with his jaw dropped.

1 day until the apocalypse...

Bzz! Bzz!

A certain man groggily sat up on his bed. Unfortunately, he was a light sleeper, so the vibrate from his voice woke him up. He glanced at the clock, showing the time.

11 P.M.

He grumbled as he reached out for his phone and bit his tongue from cursing the person at the contact shown.

Cheeky Little Bastard is calling...

It was the foreigner (who always covered his head for some reason) with the everyday stoic look on his face.

What is he calling so late for?

The man answered it with a sigh, bringing the phone to his ear. "What do you want?"

"Ahjussi."

At the serious tone, his sleepiness was nearly thrown out the window as something uncomfortable swirled in his chest. Worry immediately built up. "Hey, what's up?"

A short pause.

"Ahjussi. Stay safe, will you?"

"What?" He asked back with a frown. What the hell is this weird guy talking about?

"Goodnight, Ahjussi."

Beep.

The line was dead, causing him to fall into silence.

A few hours until the apocalypse...

"Ahjussi, is it really okay for me to skip school?" Namwoon questioned. No one could blame him though. It's normal to be bewildered considering Cale was the one who taught him a lesson so he could behave like a good student for at least a few days.

So far, it was tolerable.

The troublemaking student was oddly obedient because he doesn't want to be dropped out and end up homeless.

Even the teacher was surprised by his pleasant behavior. Though his attitude could still use some work, Namwoon didn't miss a single class.

However, today, Cale dragged him away from school. Since the morning, he was taking the boy to anywhere he wanted to go, starting from high-class restaurants to a shooting range, buying him anything he glanced at through the day.

Namwoon wasn't sure if it was okay to spend that much money, but decided it's fine since it's Cale who paid for all of it. But he's confused.

Why is he doing this?

It's not like he doesn't trust him, but Cale acting like this is very out of character. He's a bit concerned. But the older man said to trust him, so he did.

At the end of the day, both of them finally arrived at Cale's mansion, and Namwoon stared with wide eyes and mouth wide agape.

"You're this rich?!"

"I told you. I have a lot of money."

It was currently 6:55 P.M, they sat on a bench in the front garden of the mansion.

Namwoon is eating his pocky, watching the leaves fluttering gently, completely unaware of the fact that Cale is looking at him.

'At this hour, Namwoon should've been in the subway with Kim Dokja. Then when the scenario starts, this crazy guy would start beating up an old lady. In the Ways of Survival, he would live. In Omniscient Reader, he would die. Since the latter takes place in this universe, Namwoon should undoubtedly die.'

The gears in his brain moved.

'There are two scenarios that can happen if I take Namwoon out of the scene. First, people would start killing each other in the train like the others from fear or stay still until time runs out. Second, Kim Dokja would take control of the situation like usual. I have no doubt that everything will go like the second scenario since Kim Dokja is the main character...'

Cale pondered about it further.

'Until Episode 60, Kim Namwoon won't matter much, but he takes a major role in Gigantomachia arc. Without him, Kim Dokja wouldn't be able to win...'

He frowned.

'It doesn't matter. I'll help him only at that time to lighten the burden since I basically stole Kim Namwoon away. Then I'll live quietly as a dead rat.'

Just then, Namwoon stopped eating as the ground violently shook. He thought it was an earthquake so he held on tightly to the silver luxurious carved bench.

Cale smirked slightly, then both of them heard a voice:

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

[The main scenario has started.]

———

a/n: wow, a double chapter