The alley behind the school was Kim Jaehyun's misery. He knew every crack on the pavement, every stained path of bricks. It was where he was taken to be reminded of his place and today's lesson was particularly brutal.
A fist, hard and practiced, drove into his solar plexus. The air left his lung not in a gasp but a silent, agonized wheeze. He folded, collapsing against the wall, the rough concrete tearing at his already–threadbare uniform.
"You think I didn't see you, you fucker." Park Ji hoon's voice was a low and venomous thing. He was a defacto enforcer for the Seonghwa high crew ruled the school's hallways with nothing but absolute cruelty.
"You looked at my girl, didn't you!" he shouted with an angrily twisted face. He looked like he had an upset stomach.
"You think a worm–like bastard like you gets to look at her?!" He continued.
Jaehyun tried to form words to actually dispute what Jihoon had said but all he could do was stammer.
"I-i d-didn't, I swear!!" His mouth was already bleeding from the punch earlier.
In such situations like these, the weak had to remember one rule, a rule that applied to animals.
'The weak are fodder for the strong.'
"Listen, Zero, tell me the truth before I bash your head in right now!!" Ji hoon bit his lower lip and blood trickled down in droplets.
Zero.
A name Jaehyun had been branded with since junior high—
a word spat at him, laughed at him, carved into the back of his mind until it felt more like a title than his own.
Zero, because that was what he was worth.
Zero strength.
Zero presence.
Zero chance.
If life were a game, and people were given stats… then Jaehyun's would be the kind that didn't even reach the bottom of the chart. The kind so low the system wouldn't bother displaying them.
A body with nothing in it.
A body so weak-looking teachers pitied him and bullies targeted him because pity never stopped fists.
"I–im s–sorry, Jihoon. It w–was never ma–my intention" Jaehyun said while crying and blood flowing down his mouth in drops.
My life has always been miserable.
I could guess some of the reasons… but some were wounds I never understood. Jaehyun thought.
First was my elder sister.
Too beautiful, too kind and too unreachable.
Guys chased her like moths to flame—and when they couldn't get close to her, they came for me instead.
Her little brother.
The easiest target.
She never knew.
Every time she asked, "Jaehyun, are you being bullied?"
I wanted to tell her.
I wanted to say, "Yes. And it's because of you."
But how could I?
How do you blame the only person who ever treated you gently?
Another reason…
I read webtoons.
Jaehyun let out a small, bitter laugh in his thoughts.
I loved them with everything I had.
Heroes, villains, systems, awakenings—
worlds that made sense when mine didn't.
I never cared if people called me an otaku. It was who I was.
But the worst part wasn't the bullies.
It was the so-called friends.
The ones who shared my interests.
The ones I thought would stand with me.
The moment they saw me getting beaten…
they looked away.
Left me behind and pretended they never knew me. Even among the nobodies, I was still the lowest.
"I wish I could awaken a system like in those webtoons…" Jaehyun muttered, staring at the incoming punch from Jihoon.
He clenched his ass cheeks—pure instinct—and shut his eyes tight.
But the pain never came.
When he slowly opened his eyes, the world around him looked weird
Time had stopped.
Jihoon's fist hung in the air, frozen inches from his face. Jihoon's lackeys laughing with their mouths wide open. Dust particles floated like they were suspended in glue. The whole atmosphere had turned into a dull blend of light brown and grey, as if someone had drained the colour out of reality.
"…What the hell?" Jaehyun whispered.
"Have… have I become omniscient and stopped time?" Jaehyun murmured, half‑terrified, half‑hopeful.
[DING.]!
The sound echoed through the alley like a phone notification played through stadium speakers.
Jaehyun jerked, spinning around, searching for the source—trash cans, jihoon's pockets, his own pockets and shadows—nothing.
Then a dark‑blue, translucent screen shimmered into existence right in front of his face, its edges glowing faintly as if carved from light itself. The frozen world around him reflected off it.
Jaehyun's breath hitched.
"…A screen?"
"Wait—don't tell me…" Jaehyun muttered, wiping the blood from his split lip with the back of his hand. His other hand brushed frantically at his dusty school uniform, as if being cleaner would somehow make this moment more real.
He stared at the floating window.
"…Is this… a system window?" he whispered.
Cautiously—like someone trying to touch a wild animal—Jaehyun raised his trembling hand and reached out toward the glowing blue screen. The light reflected in his eyes as his fingertips drifted closer, closer…
That's when the dark blue screen said.
[Webtoon system awakened.]!
[First Quest is being initiated.]!
[Quest#1: Save yourself from your foes.]!
[Rewards: One Black scroll.]!
[Two White Scrolls.]!
[Good luck.]!!
And then—
it vanished.
The blue screen blinked out like a dying spark, and in the same instant the world snapped back into motion.
FWISH!
Time unfroze.
Jaehyun's hair blew back from the force of Jihoon's fist slicing through the air… but it didn't hit him. It struck nothing—just empty space—because Jaehyun was no longer in front of him.
He was standing several steps away, on the opposite side of the alley, exactly where he shouldn't have been.
Jihoon stumbled forward from the momentum of his own missed punch, confusion flashing across his face.
Jaehyun blinked at his new position, heart hammering, breath caught in his throat.
"…What… what the hell?" he whispered.
As Jihoon and his crew froze in confusion, Jaehyun saw his chance.
He bolted.
Arms pumping, legs flying, heart hammering—he ran like a deranged fool, as if some wild dog was snapping at his heels.
The alley blurred past him, every step a desperate prayer that he wouldn't look back.
[Congratulations: Quest#1 Has Been Cleared]!!