* * *
Yohan had wanted to Awaken and prove himself—to shove it in the faces of the family who'd always treated him like garbage. He wanted to become independent, to make something of himself. So he took the risk and signed up for a rift that had a high Awakening success rate. Park Seungmin claimed to know some people, so he introduced Yohan to a mercenary team that specialized in what was known as an “Awakening party”—a group that, for a price, would guide someone through a rift in hopes they’d Awaken.
To Yohan, they all seemed fairly normal. Decent people. The rift itself didn’t appear all that contaminated either. The monsters they encountered were weak.
Everything was going smoothly—until the Abyss opened.
It happened on the second evening after they entered. They were all relaxing, eating dinner, when Yohan felt a strange chill crawl up his spine. That creeping sensation made him scan the surroundings—and that’s when he saw it.
It looked like the lip of a giant being’s mouth. Or rather, the creased wrinkle between the lips of something enormous. But it was nothing like a rift. It was far off, but the instant he laid eyes on it, his body understood instinctively.
It’s about to open.
And just as the thought hit, he screamed:
“It’s the Abyss!”
Rifts were bad enough—terrifying, unstable, world-threatening—but compared to the Abyss, they were nothing.
In rifts, civilians still had a chance of survival.
But the Abyss?
Even Awakened couldn't survive it.
Once it opened, the area around it would be devoured—erased within minutes. There was only one option: run.
Even someone as powerful as Lee Hyunmook and his elite team had gone missing in the Abyss. And a disappearance in the Abyss? That was no different than death.
“What the hell?!”
Before the scream even finished leaving someone’s mouth, the Abyss began to open. The thin, wrinkled line across the ground expanded into a full-blown black surface. It spread fast. And from beyond that blackness, grotesque shapes began to surge.
They tossed their meals and bolted.
But the Abyss was spreading fast—absurdly fast.
Still, if they ran with everything they had, they might just escape the rift. Yohan was running, every ounce of energy pouring out of him, when he heard Park Seungmin yell behind him.
“Just throw someone in! If we don’t, we’re all dead! What if it speeds up again?!”
Yohan’s eyes went wide.
The Abyss didn’t expand infinitely. It slowed down once it had “eaten” enough—especially if what it consumed was alive.
Like a person.
As soon as Park Seungmin shouted that, all the mercenaries turned to look back—at Park Seungmin and Yohan. The only non-Awakened among them.
Yohan froze as a wave of hostile stares hit him like a wall.
And then—Park Seungmin shoved him.
A full-force push. The kind only a long-time friend could deliver without hesitation.
They’d been friends for ten years, since middle school.
Caught off guard, Yohan toppled hard to the ground. The pain of twisting his ankle was nothing compared to the shock and betrayal.
You? You’re the one doing this?
He looked up—and saw Seungmin smiling.
Smiling like he was overjoyed to see Yohan disappear forever.
The pain of that betrayal cut deeper than anything else.
Even as the mercenary team leader rushed in to tie him down, even as the others just stood by and watched, Yohan couldn’t believe what was happening. His eyes filled with tears, and his voice trembled with rage.
But he didn’t beg. He screamed instead.
“You call yourselves human?!”
It was the kind of reaction they expected, so they ignored him. He flailed, twisted, and screamed at the team leader tying him down.
“Let me go! I said let me go, you shiitake-mushroom-looking fucker!”
“...Shiitake what?”
Kim Hyunwoo—the team leader—paused, stunned. That insult was so random, it broke through even the urgency of the moment.
“Shiitake cap...” he muttered to himself, face turning red a second later.
“This little bastard—”
He took a few steps as if ready to turn around and beat Yohan to a pulp, but another mercenary grabbed him.
“Don’t! He needs to be intact for it to work!”
“Yeah, just go already! This isn’t your first time doing this, is it? The Abyss is already almost here!”
“You lucky piece of shit. If it weren’t for the Abyss, I’d...”
Yohan stared in disbelief. What do you mean 'lucky'? I’m going to die!
The black wave of the Abyss had almost reached him.
One last time, he looked at Park Seungmin—already sprinting far, far away.
“Park Seungmin! I swear to God, one day I’ll—!”
He didn’t even get to finish.
The Abyss swallowed him whole.
And the moment it did, the blackened zone vanished.
Yohan felt pressure and spin, like he was being sucked into a massive vacuum cleaner. He screamed, but even his scream was muffled and drowned by the overwhelming dark.
Then came impact—
CRASH!
Debris exploded around him. By some miracle, the force of the fall loosened the restraints. Yohan curled up into a trembling ball, arms over his head.
An instant, or maybe an eternity passed.
But his body just kept falling, deeper and deeper—
Endlessly, endlessly...
“—Hah!”
The jolt of hitting the ground snapped him awake.
His whole body was soaked with cold sweat. He was curled up, breathing heavily, eyelids sticking together from dried tears. He groaned, rubbed at his face—
And screamed.
“AAAH!”
Two bloodshot eyes were staring straight into his from terrifyingly close range.
Before he could even finish his scream, a large hand clamped down on his mouth.
“Shhh...”
The intent was clear: be quiet.
Yohan let out a stifled squeak and shut his mouth, trembling. Fresh tears formed again. The reality of his situation came crashing back, and he was terrified.
The creature looked at him—at his tears—as if studying something strange.
Then it spoke.
“If you make too much noise... the monsters will come.”
Yohan’s {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} eyes widened.
That voice—
It was deep and smooth, almost pleasant to the ears.
Familiar, even.
Where have I heard that before...?
No—focus. What matters is... he’s human.
Yohan had been sure he was the only one here. The relief hit like a wave. If someone else was alive, that meant there might be a way to survive here after all.
Once it was clear Yohan wouldn’t scream again, the figure loosened his grip. But instead of pulling his hand away, he gently cupped Yohan’s cheek, like savoring the warmth of another living being. His red eyes narrowed.
Messy white hair covered half his face, making it impossible to read his expression.
“Thank you for saving me,” Yohan stammered. “M-my name is Yang Yohan.”
It came out awkwardly, but the words were genuine. He wanted to communicate, to connect, to show gratitude to the first intelligent life he’d seen in the Abyss.
The man tilted his head slowly and murmured back.
“Tha...nk... you... for... sa...ving... me...”
Yohan’s blood ran cold.
The slow, broken mimicry sounded anything but normal. Something was deeply wrong.
And then he remembered—
After crushing the eyeball monster, the way this man had acted was pure lunacy. That eerie smile. That wild energy. His hope vanished in an instant, replaced by dread.
“Say more.”
The man pressed Yohan’s cheek—hard.
“Go on.”
“W-what... what should I say...?”
His voice barely crawled out of his throat.
This man had torn a monster apart with his bare hands—he could do the same to Yohan, effortlessly.
The man slapped his cheek—not hard, but to Yohan, it felt like a jolt.
“When... did you... come here? I... I only just fell in... two days ago. I was hiding in a building, and then... I went out to look for food, and there was this... eyeball thing, and then—huh? Wait...?”
As he rambled on to appease the lunatic, something clicked in Yohan’s mind.
Now that he was up close—
The voice. The face.
He recognized them.
“...Lee Hyunmook?!”
Yohan pointed without meaning to.
The wild man—disheveled white hair, tattered clothes, red eyes—looked exactly like him.
Lee Hyunmook.
The first Awakened in Korea.
A rare upper-tier Awakened.
A national hero, both powerful and admired for his looks and personality.
He’d gone missing during a rescue mission—swallowed by the Abyss. His loss had devastated the country. There was even a memorial where people still brought flowers.
But here he was.
Alive.
Or... something like alive.
“Mr. Lee Hyunmook, you’re alive?!”
“...Aaah...”
The man made a vague sound of affirmation. His blood-red eyes narrowed.
Then he grinned. Slowly.
Crookedly.
“That’s right. I’m Lee Hyunmook. I... used to be Lee Hyunmook.
...Ah, yeah. I’m Lee Hyunmook.”
