Chapter 1

[Commencing the

Destiny of Return

, the first and final destiny of the Mirror World.]

[Setting the name of this destiny as

The Destiny of Cheon Seong-Hwi

.]

“What’s that noise?” the drowsy Seong-Hwi mumbled. “Since when did the Akasha Messages start writing generic returner novels? Or am I going insane?”

Seong-Hwi was, in fact, insane, but so was this world and everyone in it. Hence, everyone was sane.

In any case... I’m so sleepy. I’ll just... get a bit of rest. It’ll be fine

, he thought as his consciousness slowly faded amidst screams, cheers, white noise, radio static, and complete silence.

***

A flashback commenced—too short to call a reflection of one’s life, but too long for one’s life to be flashing before one’s eyes. Snapshots of the vivid moments of Seong-Hwi’s life appeared.

It was a cold winter day. Seong-Hwi, five years old, walked with his mother while holding hands under the first snow along the empty street in the middle of the night. They arrived at their destination while he was too focused on his steps because he was entertained by the crackling of snow under his shoes. The sign in front of them read: Calasanz Home for Children.

“■■, wait for me right here. Mommy... Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what,” the black silhouette said hesitantly, her voice heavy.

However, she never returned. Seong-Hwi, too young to know what happened, simply found the world in white beautiful. He did not remember his mother’s face, but he clearly remembered the snow-covered world.

So that’s why I felt so cold whenever I thought about my mom.

Waiting for someone who would never return was like waiting for a ghost train at a station where trains did not arrive, in the cold winter.

***

The Calasanz Home for Children was a small children’s home managed by the Calasanz Convent. It was maintained through government subsidies and donations to the convent. The home’s director was an elderly nun, whom the children addressed as

Mother Maria

, who had given Seong-Hwi his name.

“All you remember is your surname,

Cheon

? I see... this isn’t uncommon for children in your situation. Okay. From now on, your name is Seong-Hwi, meaning

brilliant splendor

. Become someone who shines as brightly as your name.”

Hence began Seong-Hwi’s life of ironies—such a name for a child whose destiny could never allow him to shine brightly.

***

Life at a children’s home was not so different from life at a family home. They were both places where one would experience fun and sad times. Rather, Seong-Hwi experienced pain only when he was away from the children’s home.

He felt especially miserable during his school’s open classes when parents could watch their children perform. He would rather volunteer to help during the boring church masses. His close friends naturally drifted away when they realized he had no parents.

Time sped to the sixth-grade open class when Seong-Hwi hoped never to experience these classes again once he entered middle school. An old woman entered the classroom through the rear door—it was Mother Maria, surprisingly not wearing her nun’s habits like usual.

Seong-Hwi felt embarrassed and inexplicably conflicted as the director, wearing a flower-pattern dress, stood behind him. Thinking back on it now... no, he still couldn’t describe it.

He walked along the sports field with the director after class. He had so much he wanted to ask, such as why she was here or what she was wearing, but suppressed his questions.

As they were about to pass the jungle gym, the director suddenly placed her hand on Seong-Hwi’s head and prayed, “Destiny is weak to the brave and strong to the cowardly. Become someone who grabs hold of his destiny.”

And what destiny is that?

Seong-Hwi wanted to ask.

The destiny to be born to a single mother? To be abandoned by her?

He said coldly, “Destiny is predetermined for everyone. That’s what God said. Are you defying the word of God, Mother Maria? I thought you believed in Him.”

Seong-Hwi attended mass each week but did not believe in God. His words were intended to trouble the director, but her answer shocked him. Her face wrinkled beautifully—she smiled as beautifully as always.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t believe in God. I believe in the beautiful and desperate feelings of those who believe in Him.”

Seong-Hwi couldn’t believe a nun did not believe in God.

The director patted the dumbfounded Seong-Hwi’s head again and said firmly, “Seong-Hwi, my kind and brave child. Become someone who takes hold of his destiny.”

That day, the word

destiny

was imprinted into his mind.

***

Time sped again so quickly that the snapshots of his life felt like an old movie projector. The director passed away in 2021 when Seong-Hwi was seventeen years old. The children’s home no longer felt like home; it made him realize it was not where he was, but who he was with that was important. Hence, 2021 was an unforgettable year for Seong-Hwi and for the world.

The

pestilitas

disease, a global pandemic, was almost eradicated via the commercialization of a vaccine. However, a new variant,

pestilitas β

, far more contagious than the established

pestilitas α

and unaffected by the vaccine, appeared.

That was not the end of the misfortune. Climate change, which had been warned of by meteorologists worldwide for decades, accelerated. The global temperature rose so high that Earth would not be compatible with life if it went up by another 1.5°C. However, the trash crisis and usage of fossil fuels for economics, development, and war did not stop.

People thought such an end would never come, like over-optimistic gamblers about their fortune and future. That optimism turned to bite them in the ass. Natural disaster occurrences skyrocketed. There were typhoons, droughts, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even chains of volcanic eruptions. Humans were powerless before such massive disasters.

The biggest problem was the flora and fauna that failed to adapt to the sudden climate change. The statistics predicted a gloomy prospect. There was only one ecosystem, and humans were but a part of it. The Bible stated that man was the lord of all creation, but it was a load of bullshit.

However, a mystical event occurred as a dark shadow loomed over humanity. Unidentifiable metal pillars sprouted worldwide—in America, Romania, England, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan, and the like. They varied in size and shape; one was a fifty-centimeter cylinder, while another was a four-meter cube.

People made many hypotheses about the pillars, such as it being the act of aliens or tricks pulled by travel agencies to revive the stagnated tourist industry due to the

pestilitas

virus.

The metal pillars vanished as abruptly as they appeared, but the problem was that they were not the only things that vanished. Once the pillars disappeared, incidents of people worldwide vanishing simultaneously took place. At the time, no one knew this phenomenon would be known as

Lost

, which would continue for over a decade and eradicate half of mankind.

***

Seong-Hwi finished his military service and passed his university entrance exam. Although he was eligible to be exempted from the service, he volunteered because he did not like to owe favors. Whether it was the destiny of his country or his, he had no reason not to go because he was no different from anyone else.

Seong-Hwi studied hard to enter university during his military service. He spent all of his free time in the evenings and weekends studying. Thanks to that, he passed the exam to enter the Department of Library and Information Science of the prestigious Korea University in Seoul.

The Department of Library and Information Science was an integration of departments, known for its association with the

Database System

, an information system. However, Seong-Hwi had entered the department for more traditional reasons.

He dreamed of becoming a librarian and spending his life reading and managing books, sparked by Mother Maria’s words about destiny. He had read many books regarding destiny in various genres such as religion, mythology, and philosophy. Destiny surrounded the characters of every book, and its interpretations via tarot cards, physiognomy, and karma were so interesting that he wanted to read about their destinies forever.

However, the world continued to be destroyed with each passing day. The virus continuously evolved, and the air was like poison gas. Not only that, but tens of thousands of people continued to go missing, and terrible events like war, depletion of food, and the skyrocketing of radioactivity continued.

It was no longer safe simply to wear a mask outside. They needed to wear oxygen tanks like backpacks and hazmat suits. Anyone could see the world was heading toward extinction; the governments of some countries had already fallen apart, leaving the country to become lawless.

Is there a point to a librarian in such a world?

Seong-Hwi wondered.

No one knew. One could think a library was useless, but it was also priceless. Time flowed irrespective of his thoughts, and Seong-Hwi completed his final semester. However, he would soon face an incident that would completely change his destiny.