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I stared at my phone, visibly shocked at what was displayed on the screen.
[Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World] Author: tls123 3,136 chapters. Status: Ongoing. {Language: Korean} {Automatic translation available.}
"You got to be kidding me. 3,136 chapters?!"
'Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World', or 'Ways of Survival/WOS' for short, was my favourite web novel when I was younger, reading it was my way of escaping into a fantasy world detached from reality. It was always something special to me. Sadly, I lost sight of it due to a busy life. Friends, family, school, sports. All of that contributed to me not being able to keep up with the chapter updates.
Finally, after years of neglecting reading, I had time to open up the web novel platform again and read. But never would I have imagined that Ways of Survival had over three thousand chapters now. It has been, what, 5 years? But more than three thousand chapters were a bit much.
"Wow, this auto-translation technology really has come ways!"
The last time I read it, auto-translated sentences sometimes didn't make sense at all, and I had to figure out the meaning that fit into the context. It was like a little fun puzzle. This also motivated me to learn Korean, but it was hard to self-study an Asian language as a westerner, so my progress was way too slow.
I could somewhat recall the story being of a protagonist with the ability to restart whenever he died, it was called Regression as far as I could remember. Because of his many failures, he slowly became more and more depressed and distanced himself from human relationships.
His goal was to survive and end the disaster that fell upon his world, and of course take revenge.
The story did sound very generic, and it appeared as if it should become boring after some time, especially after thousands of chapters, but I felt nostalgic thinking about it.
The little number following 'hits' next to the chapters told me only one reader was remaining. I felt a bit sad but was also fascinated by both the reader's and author's seemingly never-ending dedication. It was almost as if the author wrote this story only for their story's single reader.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
I couldn't help but feel a little jealous.
"Maybe I can join the reader on their lonely journey through the story?"
"Maybe we can discuss chapters when I am caught up?"
I was so excited that for a moment I thought about texting them I was trying to catch up, but quickly came to the conclusion that it could be weird.
Rereading the novel from the beginning was something I needed to tackle first since my memory was too.
The tragic story of Yoo Joonghyuk was intriguing yet gut-wrenching. I could relate to Yoo Joonghyuk in various ways, this made reading way easier and thrilling if you will.
"Did it start from the third regression back then as well?"
Yoo Joonghyuk has already regressed three times at the start of the novel, meaning he had already gone through a lot. He had suffered through countless deaths of those closest to him. His decision to block out all emotions made perfect sense. I wouldn't have liked to suffer through this emotional trauma he had to. But his ability to regress was something that seemed so cool to my past and current self alike. Of course, I wouldn't change my past and fix my mistakes, they made me into who I am after all, but being able to turn back time by a specific amount to fix mistakes shortly after they were done? Yes, that's good.
I could create an ideal future for myself, or even for friends and family.
This almost forgotten story seemed to suck me in, I felt like a little kid again. It made my way to and back from university way more enjoyable. Instead of silently sitting in a crowded train with barely breathable air, trying to blend out all the noise, I was actually savouring the moment by reading chapter after chapter.
I was a bit curious about what other people thought of Ways of Survival, but, to my surprise, from what I could find in various forums, there was only hate surrounding it if it was even talked about at all. The only person trying to promote it was a person called 'Kim Dokja', I barely could read his comments since my Korean was still at a basics level, but I definitely could make out that he at the very least loved it as much as I did.
People called him an attention seeker and accused him of being the author self-promoting. They even threatened to report him. It made me angry.
I really hoped he wasn't banned, especially if he was the last reader of the newer chapters. I didn't understand how people didn't even give it a chance. They couldn't have had their own opinion on it, it was unlikely that they read it themselves. Collective hate for some media had become awful these days.
After some weeks of reading, I noticed to my confusion that the 'hits' next to the chapters rarely changed to a '2'. The number mostly stuck to the lonely '1'. I was convinced it had to be a bug, but it annoyed me.
No person other than 'Kim Dokja' commented under the chapters, so I posted my own comments as well.
At least this was a way to leave proof of my readership.